Ordinary Chapter 22: Cages

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

With the subway station as the border, the black fog spread rapidly and the scene in front of them blurred. The silver glowing iron cage swayed in the air, creepy metal sounds rang out with a clang. The people still in the park stood up in bewilderment, looking around with fear in their eyes.

“What’s going on? This is clearly not a danger zone!” The fortune-teller lifted the corner of his robe and fished his cell phone out of his pants, “This is not what the Special Unit said! Ah! I got it! It must have been your great omen of misfortune that dragged me down with it!”

Shen Si didn’t agree, so he retorted, “Feudal superstition is not allowed.”

“You’re a funny person, saying that feudal superstition is not allowed, but asking me to tell your luck.” The fortune-teller pointed at Shen Si and muttered, “I knew why the fortune-telling before I went to the stall today was so strange, it turned out it was to prevent me from coming out.”

“Then you still came to set up your stall?”

“You think I want to? It’s all because there’s no money!” The fortune-teller looked at Shen Si with a desperate face, “I have no family, no friends or relatives, only the art of fortune-telling. The city’s crackdown on feudal superstition is strict, I didn’t save money before I disappeared, and I have no money to spend after I returned.”

Shen Si: … 

Truly a worker that was hit miserably.

Shen Si did not continue to pay attention to the howling fortune teller. Shen Si looked around, black fog around the perimeters, he could clearly see a circle. The good thing was that this was a park and the surrounding area was empty. The subway station was not encircled and the number of people trapped should also be limited.

However, it seemed that these things were not moving.

Shen Si moved his body to look at the iron cages overhead, those cages floating by themselves in thin air, like props in a game, but their shape was more like a flashy birdcage. Was this a playfield?

“I didn’t think I’d be able to come back to a playfield after I returned, it doesn’t look like I’ve had much luck.” The fortune teller grumbled as he sat on the edge of the flower bed looking at his surroundings with bewilderment in his eyes, “What kind of playfield is this? How come I’ve never heard of it.”

“You, a Survivor, don’t know either?”

“I don’t know.” The fortune teller shook his head, “I’ve never heard of any well-known playfields where all the cages are iron.”

Shen Si looked at his palm, then to the fortune teller. He took out a small bottle of alcohol from his pocket, then spilled the alcohol in his own hand. The fortune teller looked dumbfounded at the alcohol in his hand, “You go out with alcohol?!”

“I can’t?”

“It’s not that you can’t.” The fortune-teller frowned, “That is, isn’t it a little strange for a person to go out and bring alcohol with him? Are you a doctor?”

“No.” Shen Si again fished out a few band-aids from his pocket, then unrolled the band-aids, covering his palm with them. Shen Si answered plainly, “Recently, my luck hasn’t been good, and it’s also been very chaotic outside, so I went to the drugstore to get a batch of first-aid medicine.”

The fortune teller blinked, “Your family’s emergency medicine is a box of band-aids plus a small bottle of alcohol?”

“Because I’m not the only one who had this idea, many others do too, and the drugs are in limited supply.” Shen Si stared at the band-aid that had been unwrapped, “I ran to three pharmacies, but only got a bottle of alcohol plus a box of band-aids.”

Fortune Teller: … 

“So that’s how it is?” The fortune teller nodded in understanding, “By the way, let’s introduce each other! Although we don’t know what this playfield is, we’re all trapped inside, so we can be considered companions for the moment! Getting to know each other is conducive to our cooperation!”

The fortune teller took the lead in introducing himself, “My name is Zeng Ren! I am a B-Rank Survivor, but my ability is only fortune-telling, and I don’t have much combat power. At best, I can calculate luck and judge the direction.” Zeng Ren scratched his head, “So far I survived the playfields all relying on luck and fortune telling to the end, I thought I would never encounter a playfield again.”

Shen Si looked at him, a moment later he spoke, “Shen Si, an ordinary person.”

“…That’s it?”

“Mn.” Shen Si nodded seriously, “I’m a tour guide, no, I just went to sign my exit contract, so I should be jobless now, yes, an ordinary jobless person.”

Zeng Ren scratched his hair, “So, strengths or specialties or something?”

“None.”

Zeng Ren: … 

Lying on his back in the flower bed, Zeng Ren’s dead fish eyes were staring at the sky with despair, probably considering whether to abandon Shen Si to find a new companion.

“Forget it, just believe in the power of my divine calculation!” Zeng Ren sat up violently, he put the eight trigrams plate in his hand on the ground, closed his eyes and recited the words. Shen Si did not pay attention to him, but fished out the phone from his pocket to try to contact the outside world, but like before, the playfield was completely cut off from the outside.

Thinking about what Jian Nian told him earlier, Shen Si opened the picture he had saved earlier, which showed the danger zones released by the Special Unit.

The return of too many Survivors led to a lot of dangerous areas, the Inspection Unit tried to determine whether there would be any playfields that would return, and determined the level of danger. In mildly dangerous places, people could still live. If more than five Survivors returned to one location, it would be classified as extremely dangerous and was also the first place the teams would cut off.

Due to the lack of manpower coupled with the technical level, not all the locations could be fully determined yet.

“Found it!”

Shen Si was taken aback and looked to the side, when Zeng Ren who was telling fortunes next to him had already jumped up. He happily put away the fortune telling tray, then pulled Shen Si’s sleeve and pointed to the side, “Quick, let’s go this way!”

“Why?”

“This is what the trigrams tell me!” Zeng Ren nodded in mock seriousness, “I can do anything in the playfield by telling fortunes! Every time a monster attacked, I was able to dodge it! I’ve survived every monster attack until now, and believe me, this time we can also wait for help in a safe place.”

Shen Si looked at him and after a moment he pulled his sleeve out of Zeng Ren’s hand, “We just met today, right? Why do you need to take me with you?”

“Ah, well… ” Zeng Ren scratched his hair with some embarrassment, “How can I put it? As I said before, I don’t have any friends or family, I’ve always been on my own, no one even bothered to call the police after my disappearance, and when I went to the Special Unit to report my intention to revoke my disappearance after I returned from the unlimited flow world, they told me that there was no report of my disappearance at all… That feeling is quite scary.” Zeng Ren’s hand trembled for a moment, “Just the kind where it’s obvious that you’re still alive, but it’s like you’ve been dead for a long time, so, it’s hard to come out of the unlimited flow world. I hope I can make a few more friends, at the very least, someone will find out when I’m alive or dead. Can you be my friend?”

“I’m not very good at making friends.” Shen Si was unimpressed, “Not really into making friends either.”

“Huh?” Zeng Ren froze, then looked at Shen Si blankly, “Why?”

“Probably because friendships can easily deteriorate.”

Zeng Ren continued to look at Shen Si blankly, “Easily… deteriorate?”

For example, he and Jian Nian, were originally just friends, but because of Jian Nian’s confession of love they became lovers. But only after a short month it deteriorated to the current level. Since then Shen Si didn’t make friends, was not enthusiastic and refused, often considered cold.

“Let’s not talk about that! Come with me!” Zeng Ren pulled Shen Si outside, “In the past, the trigrams would always lead me in one direction, and I was able to avoid disasters perfectly every time, this time must be the same!”

Shen Si followed him, “Is it really such a lucky thing?”

“Of course! I’ve always believed so!” Zeng Ren smiled brightly, “The fact that I got out alive and became a B-Rank Survivor is proof of that!”

As they walked towards the center of the park, a glowing white light appeared in front of them, shining down from the sky, contrasting with the black fog around them. Things were not what they seemed, and Shen Si didn’t feel this was any kind of safe place.

“As much as I’d like to say it’s safe here, it looks strange.” Zeng Ren murmured vaguely, “Ahem, don’t worry, let me do another fortune telling!”

Zeng Ren sat on the ground and put down his trigram tray, then began to roll the trigrams for the second time. As he glanced at the unreadable trigrams, Shen Si didn’t continue to look. He walked two steps around the halo. The halo looked to be the center of the playfield, pure to the extreme, as if it was a pathetic little thing surrounded by the black fog.

But would there be something non-dangerous in the playfield of an unlimited flow world?

Shen Si took out his phone to take a few pictures of that halo. If there was a chance to leave, when the time came, he could provide information to the Special Unit. The Special Unit was charging a high price for playfield information, especially a playfield that had been opened at present. If he were to provide these photos, he may also be able to get a sum of money, to extend his salty life for a few days.

Snap.

Shen Si looked at his phone for a full ten seconds, but there was no white glow at all in his photos, not even black fog and iron cages. Why did it look like it was a photo of an ordinary park?

That’s how it is? It’s a shame I can’t get any extra income.

At that moment, the halo squirmed a little, and a figure came out slowly from the halo. Shen Si stepped back. The next moment, he felt something pull his feet, before Shen Si could call out, a strong force lifted him up. The force directly dragged him into the air, and with a thud, Shen Si’s consciousness blurred for a second or two.

When he regained consciousness, he felt as if he was leaning against a very thin pillar. It was cold underneath him, and he could barely open his eyes, blood slid down his forehead into his right eye. Shen Si reached out to cover his forehead, opened his eyes to look around, and realized he was dragged into a metal cage.

The door of the iron cage was closed and the cage had no visible connection at all while floating in the air.

“Ah! I got it!” Zeng Ren, who was still telling trigrams on the ground, looked up in surprise, “I know what the trigrams mean! The trigrams mean that the most dangerous place is the safest, these cages look dangerous, but in fact they are the safest place, we just need to go into the cages and stay there to get through this playfield safely!”

“Uh, where’s Shen Si?” Zeng Ren looked around blankly, “Where is everyone?”

Shen Si covered his forehead and thought, Is this person serious?