Ordinary Chapter 8: Ceramic Man

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

The little paper man was blown up directly in place, pieces of paper floating in all directions, but Jiang Yi saw those broken pieces of paper still move a little. Whether it was fire or explosion it couldn’t finish off this little paper man, it was a monster!

After Shen Si caught up to and ran with Jiang Yi to another place, he was slightly relieved, “Let’s take a break for now.”

“Thank you, Mr. Shen!” Jiang Yi hurriedly took advantage of the moment to say thanks, “If it wasn’t for you, I would have been burned to death just now!”

“That’s no need to thank me.” Shen Si looked around, “But there’s no exit here either, what the hell is this place?”

“It’s a playfield of the unlimited flow world!” Jiang Yi carefully sat down, “At the rest point I received a prompt announcement from the forum, it said that the monsters in that world appeared in reality, and those terrible playfields came through along with the Survivors who were playing!”

Shen Si leaned against the wall with his eyes slightly downcast. He remembered the Survivor who fell from the sky after the earthquake, and if he remembered correctly, didn’t he hear the sound of breaking ceramics before the earthquake?

Was that the paperman?

“What else did that announcement say besides that?”

“I didn’t finish reading, service on the mountain isn’t good and I was in a hurry to find the toilet, but I took a screenshot of that announcement, Mr. Shen take a look!” Jiang Yi fumbled around looking for her phone and finally pulled it out of her pants pocket. She handed it to Shen Si and there was a screenshot of the announcement.

【It had now been proven that after the collapse of the unlimited flow world, not only the Survivors came through, but the horrifying monsters existing in the unlimited flow world had also appeared in reality.】

【The location of the monsters and the playfields is uncertain, most of them are being brought over by the participating Survivor in the game, the officials are re-investigating whether this was caused by the Survivor returning while being in a playfield. However, because the number of Survivors is too large, the playfield opening times are uncertain, so the dangerous areas can only be announced after the statistics are verified.】

Shen Si handed the phone back to Jiang Yi, “Survivors are omnipotent, they should have noticed the movement here.”

“Mmh!” Jiang Yi nodded, “If what the announcement says is true, and the places where Survivors return are likely to have monsters and playfields, then this must be one. After all, this place has been advertised by your travel company before for having a Survivor drop down here.”

Jiang Yi buried her head in her knees, “It’s all my fault, I should have gone to the toilet before going up the mountain. Not to mention I shouldn’t have chugged the whole bottle of juice then come out by myself. If it wasn’t for the sudden appearance of Mr. Shen, I probably would have been scared to death under the table.”

Earlier, Jiang Yi only thought about finding a place to go to the toilet. She left from the back of the resting point in order to avoid the three guides. It was very windy outside, and only when she finished peeing did she realize that she couldn’t find the direction back. Her cell phone signal was bad and the GPS was not accurate, in the end she could only choose a direction to head in, and ended up seeing a wall after a while.

She, of course, thought that this was a resting point wall, so Jiang Yi had directly run over. The next instant, the wind stopped, and the environment in front of her changed.

How was this a resting point, it was clearly the lair of the devil!

“Don’t blame yourself, none of us knew in advance that this would happen.” Shen Si leaned against the wall with a slight sigh of relief, “Besides, maybe you’ll be able to gain superpowers when you get out.”

“What?” Jiang Yi froze slightly.

“Survivors are graded by the number of times they enter a playfield, the highest being S-Rank the lowest being D-Rank, but it’s undeniable that every Survivor has some rather magical abilities.” Shen Si’s voice was flat, “If those abilities are granted by the playfield, then you can probably gain them after we get out of here.”

Jiang Yi was surprised by Shen Si’s theory, and a moment later she looked at her arm that had turned into ceramic with a bitter smile, “If I could choose, I wouldn’t want any strange abilities at all.”

“You don’t want it, but supposedly someone else does?” Shen Si looked up at the ceiling above them, which was also porcelain white ceramic, glowing with luster.

“Is there anyone who would want to come to a hellhole like this for a power that might not exist?”

“Of course there is.” Shen Si nodded, his voice calm, and though it wasn’t especially cold, it filled with an overwhelming iciness, “Why would you sign up to climb a mountain? For the gimmick of the Survivor landing at the top of the mountain or for the possibility that I might be a big shot? Young people’s curiosity about Survivors will always get them riled up.”

Jiang Yi opened her mouth, looked at Shen Si somewhat blankly, before slowly retracting, “In other words, after the first time this will keep happening, and even if people mark out the danger zones, it is useless, because there will be some people who will try every possible way to avoid the administrator to jump in, is that right?”

“After all, there is a chance to get powers in there.” 

“But that’s just a hypothetical…” Jiang Yi cried, “Survivors have strange abilities only because they were in that world, right?”

Shen Si nodded, “You can also think so. Well, it is impossible to confirm anything.”

“But when you say that, Mr. Shen, I don’t think it’s anything good.”

“Why?”

“Because you are a very powerful person.” Jiang Yi wrapped her arms around her knees, with frustration in her voice, “I heard them mention your name before. To be able to be together with the three S-Rank Survivors means that you must have abilities no less than theirs, so when you think about it, there must be a deeper meaning to what you just said.”

Shen Si looked at Jiang Yi in amazement, “…No, there isn’t.”

“I have actually always been curious about the Survivors, thinking they are simply gods, until I entered the playfield myself and realized that this is hell… I am really too naive.”

“…True.”

“Only the Survivors can stop that monster, right? Like just now when you used your strange explosion ability, it was really powerful.”

Shen Si looked at her blankly, “But that was just a lighter explosion.”

“So it was a lighter explosion.” Said Jiang Yi smiled, only this smile looked a little bitter, “I understand, I will stop talking nonsense.”

She obviously didn’t believe him.

Shen Si, “I didn’t… forget it.”

He sighed faintly, feeling that after the earthquake he was getting farther and farther away from an ordinary person’s life.

“Mr. Shen, when can we get out?” Jiang Yi asked Shen Si in a whisper, “Will they really find out that a playfield has appeared here?”

“They will.” Shen Si responded, “They know you were missing and I came looking for you, more than an hour has passed since I left, so my colleagues probably long ago realized something had happened and called the police. Don’t worry, it’s not just me, my colleagues are also very concerned about your safety.”

Jiang Yi’s face turned a fierce red, “Thank you all! Sure enough everyone’s great!”

“No need to keep saying thank you, it’s a part of our job.” Shen Si looked at the things in his bag, he only brought a few compressed cookies this time and two bottles of water.

That should be enough while they were waiting for the Survivors to find them.

…… 

At this moment, the government was calculating the number of Survivors as well as their initial missing points. Ning Yangze was so busy, his scalp was numb. Ning Yang Ze was also a Survivor. Before his disappearance, he was a detective who had solved numerous big cases. After his disappearance, he was classified as a victim, until the unlimited flow world collapsed and Ning Yang Ze was finally able to return. But just as he returned, he was entrusted with an important task.

In order to deal with the current situation of the Survivors, the government set up a new organization dedicated to this “special group”, and Ning Yangze, as a former chief of police as well as a current A-Rank Survivor, was found to be particularly suitable for the management of this organization.

Being a Survivors wasn’t anything good, and being the special group leader wasn’t a thankful job, especially now, when Survivors and ordinary people converged together. Numerous conflicts were waiting to happen, before Ning Yangze could deal with this matter, and suddenly, even the unlimited flow world’s playfields had been added to the pile.

Ning Yangze had been so busy that he had not closed his eyes for the past two days and two nights.

Knock knock.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and Ning Yangze looked up. A man wearing a small white suit with black-framed glasses ran in with documents in his hand and slapped them on Ning Yangze’s table.

“What’s this?”

“Zhongjia Mountain, the guide there called the police through the phone number we left on the forum, saying that a tourist plus a guide were missing from the tour group.” The man panted, “I went to research that place and there’s a Survivor who landed there. He must have returned from a game, because he was injured and was in serious condition. He was treated in the hospital for a week afterwards.”

Ning Yangze jerked to his feet, “A playfield is open? And two ordinary people were swallowed in?!”

“That’s right!”

It’s over.

The playfield brought back by the Survivors could not be verified, and the one who went in was just an ordinary person. In the unlimited flow world, the playfield would take special care of newcomers, and even have a special playfield exclusively for them. But now there was no such thing. Who knew what playfields would appear? Even an advanced playfield above fifth layer opening was not impossible.

After all, even the three S-Rank big guys were back.

Moreover, once an ordinary person died on the playfield, the public’s emotions would be easily swayed under the panic, and as long as they believed it was the Survivors’ fault, the relationship between Survivors and ordinary people would soon be out of balance, and may end up leading to more calamities.

“Where is the Survivor?”

“Right outside, I brought him along with me.” The man hurriedly led Ning Yangze out of the office. The Survivor who landed on the top of the mountain was sitting there, a little fidgety, and only when he saw someone coming did he calm down a little.

Ning Yangze hurriedly walked over, “You are the Survivor who vanished in Zhongjia Mountain? Were you going through a game when you came back?”

“…Yes. The world collapsed just before I was about to be killed.” The man’s voice was a bit small, “Originally I thought I was fortunate, but it looks like I wasn’t actually that lucky… I saw the announcement on the forum, did I bring that playfield back?”

“So now you need to provide the information of the playfield!” Ning Yangze looked at him, “Tell us, and we will immediately send special people to rescue them. Their life and death now all depend on you.”

The man looked at Ning Yangze, then started explaining, “That is a ceramic playfield, the monster in the playfield is a paper man. It will ask for your help to make pottery, but those who help it do so will turn into ceramics, and if they escape mid-way, they may ceramize part of their bodies. Other than that, the paper man will not launch an attack.”

“The paper man that will not launch an attack?” Ning Yangze frowned slightly, “But I remember you came out of it covered in wounds, and just now you also said that the world collapsed when you were about to be killed.”

“Once attacked, the paper man will become something that attacks. If burned with fire, it will become a fire man, if water’s used, a water man. That’s when it becomes increasingly aggressive, but will still not attack people until it’s attacked five times…” The man continued, as he trembled a little. Even after so long, he was still affected, “After being attacked five times, the paper man will turn into a ceramic man.”

Ning Yangze looked at him, “Ceramic man?”

“The ceramic man will ignore all strikes and take out everyone present.”