The tail of the rattlesnake swayed, and Irene knew the rattlesnake was reminding her, ‘Hey, pay attention. One wrong move and I’ll bite you to death.’
Zong Yuan maintained his posture, his lips moving slightly. “Irene, don’t move.”
The rattlesnake’s body slowly coiled up, surprisingly large, with diamond-shaped patterns covering its entire yellow-green body. The snake didn’t close its eyes or blink. Sweat dripped from Irene’s forehead, itching as it touched her hair, but she dared not even wipe it away.
Being bitten by a rattlesnake, and surviving for six hours, was considered extremely lucky.
People around also noticed the large snake. Those who wanted to scream were promptly silenced by those around them, afraid of triggering the snake’s sudden outburst.
Zong Yuan’s eyes were fixed on the rattlesnake. Taking advantage of the snake’s attention on Irene, one of his hands had already reached for the gun pouch she had placed on him.
He took a tentative step to the left, and the rattlesnake showed no reaction. Zong Yuan slowly retreated behind the snake, his right hand already holding the gun.
Larry looked at him in panic.
Zong Yuan loaded the gun efficiently. The crisp sound caught the rattlesnake’s attention. The snake turned its head slowly, its black pupils reflecting Zong Yuan’s figure. Zong Yuan aimed at its head and pulled the trigger—
A loud “bang” echoed as the bullet hit the sand.
A sand rat shot out from the sand, knocking Zong Yuan’s gun to the ground!
“Damn it!” Zong Yuan’s face darkened. He rolled on the ground to retrieve the gun, but the sturdy snake tail swung over, smashing his gun into pieces.
“…” Zong Yuan and the rattlesnake locked eyes, strangely perceiving a sense of mockery. ‘Damn, how are you supposed to play this now?’
The rattlesnake crawled over, its long tongue flickering. Only now did Zong Yuan see that only the tip of the tongue was red; the rest of the snake was red to black.
Zong Yuan dared not act recklessly; getting bitten like this, the whole damn world would be screwed!
The snake’s tail entwined around the human’s wrist. Zong Yuan felt the slippery touch, his face turning more than just a bit ugly.
The tongue extended, and the snake head approached Zong Yuan’s right hand. The long tongue licked his hand’s back, then slid into the gaps between his fingers.
Moist and cold, the gaps between the five fingers were greedily licked over and over. The snake’s body swayed slightly, and Zong Yuan’s right hand was immobilized. In his mind, inexplicably, four words surfaced: Snakes are inherently lascivious.
…
Lascivious my ass!
Zong Yuan’s goosebumps erupted, and his five fingers clenched tightly. His left hand aimed at the snake’s head, and the rattlesnake’s body suddenly sank, burying itself entirely in the sand in an instant.
No snake, no rat, not even a corpse remained.
The whole desert seemed as if nothing had happened.
Zong Yuan forcefully took an iron rod from a nearby brother and stabbed fiercely into the sand below—found nothing.
Damn, can snakes burrow underground?
Zong Yuan smirked, pulling out the iron rod. “Sooner or later, I’ll chop it into three pieces.”
Even though it seemed like the rattlesnake had fled, nobody dared to linger in this area. Larry, without hesitation, poured some water and dampened a towel to wipe Zong Yuan’s hands.
People walking near Zong Yuan looked at him with words on the tip of their tongues, their expressions mixed with gratitude and pity, giving Zong Yuan the feeling as if he had sold himself to save someone.
… Disgusting.
Irene, shaken, trembled behind Larry for over an hour before gradually calming down. Wiping away tears, she looked at Zong Yuan. “Zong, I’m so grateful to you. You really, really moved me. I don’t know how to thank you.”
Zong Yuan walked with deliberate steps, each step on the sand seemed vengeful, as if the sand had wronged him. His expression cracked before he replied, “Irene, Larry and you saved my life too. I’ve just repaid the favor.”
The recent rattlesnake incident was truly a stain on Zong Yuan’s life.
A stain that couldn’t get any dirtier.
In the town of Ramaghi, there were leaders leading the way. They moved in the direction where the sun rose. Without a clear sense of time, the days passed quickly. They didn’t know how far they had traveled, and the sky had slowly darkened.
The temperature difference between day and night in the desert was well known. Just as the signs of dusk appeared, the crowd began to set up camp. Zong Yuan naturally hitched a spot in Larry’s tent.
Larry is a good person, genuinely warm-hearted. Zong Yuan had few friends of this type, and theoretically, he should have been happy to befriend Larry. However, the reality was that Zong Yuan was absent-minded.
What he felt was an inexplicable, extreme loneliness.
It seemed like he was missing something or had lost a precious treasure.
0046 said, “You even forgot about him?”
“Who is he?” Zong Yuan frowned. A series of incidents left him with no time to investigate some matters. “What did I forget? Why did I forget?”
0046 ignored his first question, checked the inbox, and said, “I don’t know; headquarters hasn’t replied to us.”
Zong Yuan disdainfully commented, “Damn headquarters.”
Larry moved the tent parts from under the camel, and Zong Yuan stood up to help. They busily set up two tents. Just as Zong Yuan zipped up the tent, three deep pits appeared beside him with thuds.
Larry jumped in fright, “Meteorites?!”
Zong Yuan glanced, “Rattlesnake.”
Because Zong Yuan said he would chop the snake into three pieces, it became three pieces.
Thoughtful, right?
Larry recognized the snake they had encountered before. “What happened to it?! How was it killed? Who threw it here?!”
“Larry,” Zong Yuan asked inexplicably, “do you know what ‘death’ is?”
Larry blurted out, “Anubis!”
As soon as he finished speaking, a strong wind swept three grains of sand toward Larry, leaving three long scars on his face.
Zong Yuan looked at the scars on his face, devoid of any traces of blood, and his expression turned cold. “Clearly, he’s not.”
The three-meter-long rattlesnake was cleanly divided into three sections, the cut was neat, and the snake’s head was already removed, not a drop of blood left.
Larry touched his face in a daze; he had only just started to feel the pain. “What’s going on?”
Zong Yuan stepped on a snake segment, unsure if it had any effect. “Who are you?”
An entire minute passed without anything happening.
Nervously, Larry walked to Zong Yuan’s side and whispered, “Zong, did you hear anything?”
Zong Yuan nodded. “I heard.”
From small to gradually increasing, the sound got closer. The sand began to tremble slightly, and Zong Yuan’s keen eyes allowed him to see the sand grains bouncing into the air.
Something was rushing towards them in large numbers.
Zong Yuan recalled the appearance of the rattlesnake; his face changed, and he swiftly retreated with Larry.
In the next second, after they stepped back, countless black poisonous spiders emerged from the ground. They pressed layer upon layer, emerging from the sand pits.
“…,” Zong Yuan retreated to the tent, at a loss for words. “0046, was my first world this challenging?”
0046 earnestly refuted, “But Zong Yuan, this is your ninth world.”
Zong Yuan muttered, “…damn.”
Each poisonous spider was not large individually, but when tens of thousands of spiders appeared in formation, it made everyone’s scalp tingle, and thoughts of preferring death over life emerged.
This group of spiders circled around the snake in an orderly manner, not approaching Zong Yuan and Larry by half a step. They obediently arranged themselves in a formation.
Zong Yuan cursed and asked sternly, “Who are you?”
The spiders quickly moved again, dark words arranged on the yellow sand. Several letters revealed endless evil and darkness, “The mummy.”
Shriveled, ugly, dark mummies.
Dead body mummies.
The spiders remained motionless, their pairs of tiny eyes watching every subtle reaction of Zong Yuan. It was as if the mummy, through their eyes, greedily observed all of Zong Yuan’s movements.
Zong Yuan’s eyelid twitched, and Larry tugged at his coat, pointing to the three sections of the snake placed together. “Zong, what shape is that?”
The spider moved and arranged the rattlesnake’s corpse. Zong Yuan couldn’t make it out, but he vaguely felt something familiar. “What is this thing?”
Larry looked for a while, “!!! It looks like a heart!!! A love heart!!!”
…
If even a heart could be drawn in this bear-like manner, impressive. Larry could recognize what was drawn; he was a talent.
Zong Yuan had no intention of figuring out why this mummy wanted to draw a heart. He expressionlessly ignored this pile of toxins and roughly shoved Larry into the tent. “Sleep!”
Behind him came the sound of rustling again. Zong Yuan turned to look, and the spiders had new movements, forming a tent-like structure with one spider pressing against another.
There were spiders unable to climb up, sliding down the spider chain formed, and one could fully imagine how many spiders would unexpectedly fall on someone or into their mouth if they dared to sleep in the center of this spider tent group.
Zong Yuan knew the mummy’s intention, but he had no obligation to comply. He followed Larry into the open tent, giving the middle finger to the spider group before zipping it up.
Roll!
The spiders received the latest command. They surrounded the tent, and as long as Zong Yuan or Larry inside the tent made even the slightest contact, they would crawl on the tent, caressing it.
Fortunately, everyone around them had already entered the tents to rest. They were among the last group, as they had to set up the tent for Irene first.
Zong Yuan originally wanted to take off his coat, but as soon as his hand lifted, he felt swarms of spiders staring at him through the gaps, their eyes emitting a green glow. “Damn…”
He obediently put his hand down and went to sleep fully dressed in several layers of clothes.
Larry obediently curled up in a corner, maintaining a considerable distance from Zong Yuan. Zong Yuan should have felt repulsion or disgust towards this intense control, but he fell asleep calmly under the watchful eyes of thousands of spiders. He even had a sense of sleeping more soundly.
The moon in the desert was large and round, shining brightly, reflecting white light on the sand.
The snake’s body, arranged in the shape of a heart, lay abandoned on the yellow sand.
A white cloth emerged from the ground, refining the shape of the heart.
Humans are truly hard to please.
The author has something to say:
Mummy: While my soul is attached to the snake, I’ve done quite a bit!
Zong Yuan: … So fast?
