Doomsday Cruise

Chapter 5: Misty Track (5)

     Mo Xiaoyao and Yue Yin were both stunned!

    They watched helplessly as the little monsters who seemed to be invincible and entangled to death just now were hit by the wind blade and let out a whimper of "woohoo".

    Blue blood burst from their bodies, dripping on the track, corroding small pits one by one. Only then did they know that the first spit to them was not saliva at all, but their own blood.

    Poisonous!

    For a second, the thoughts of the three were almost in sync.

    In Jiang Yan's terrifying sonic attack of "injuring one thousand enemies, lose eight hundred", the small stage was like it just took drugs, shivering while continuing to fire wind blades in all directions.

*injuring one thousand enemies, lose eight hundred. A Chinese proverb meaning that you win to kill a thousand enemies by sacrificing eight hundred soldiers.

    In other words, this was actually a sonic blade, right?

    Under the full firepower of the small stage, the three little monsters obviously couldn't stand it. They didn't seem to have the option of retreating in their minds. While whining, they continued to attack them.

    From the large and small wounds cut by the wind blade, blue blood continued to flow out, sliding across the metallic skin of their bodies, drop by drop, following the rhythm of their bodies running—then, they shook their bodies at a certain time. At that time, like a sharp arrow, the blood shot at the three people standing on the small stage.

    Fortunately, Mo Xiaoyao knew the meaning of "the trapped beasts still fight", and she didn't dare to relax at all, for fear that the boat would capsize in the gutter and they'd die from the last bullet.

*困兽犹斗, trapped beasts still fights. The original meaning of this idiom is that a beast under siege will struggle and fight to the end since they are in a desperate situation and have nothing to lose.

阴沟里翻船死, Chinese folk sayings that "the ship capsized in the gutter", which metaphors that something went wrong in the most sure place, and it is a mistake that shouldn't have been made at all.

    Under the control of Mo Xiaoyao, the small stage showed agility that was completely inconsistent with its figure, dodging left and right, and flying up.

    Yue Yin tapped the drum with one hand, and grabbed the fence behind him with the other. He couldn't help complaining: "Sister Xiaoyao, be steady, I'm about to vomit."

    Mo Xiaoyao replied indifferently: "You spit it out. Can it be as powerful as what they spit out?"

    Yue Yin shook his head: "I'm a human, not a monster."

    Mo Xiaoyao: "If you don't want those things to smear your face, just hold back and don't vomit. The speed is just faster for a while."

    Yue Yin: Okay, at this time, people with motion sickness have no human rights.

    Fortunately, Jiang Yan was very powerful. Under his terrifying sonic attack, colorful wind blades shot out one after another. No matter which corner the little monster jumped to, or even when they stretched their claws into the fog again, the wind blades were all shot. The attack could cut them accurately and made them bleed blue blood again.

    As the blood on their bodies gradually became less and less, the movements of the little monsters also slowed down, as if it was not only blood, but also energy similar to gasoline. They didn't run as fast anymore, and even if their claws grab the edge of the stage again, they couldn't do the same damage as before.

    Occasionally, a few drops of blood splattered on the floor of the small stage, and the damage caused was only a shallow layer. It still had a corrosive effect, but at least it was not fatal.

    When Jiang Yan sang "Shoot when it's time to shoot-" for the fifth time, the last little monster reluctantly fell under the attack of the wind blade, whining and fell down. The three of them got rid of this seemingly endless pursuit, and they all heaved a sigh of relief.

    "Then what, let's slow down first." The first one who couldn't hold anymore was Yue Yin. His position was always behind everyone, and he was the one closest to the danger. He admired himself for being able to shout out without gaffe along the way. Coupled with motion sickness, he now wants to throw his drumsticks and sit on the ground to take a good rest.

    "You rest first, and I'll replace you for a minute." Jiang Yan agreed with his suggestion. It was good to have a good degree of relaxation.

    Of course, the most important thing was that in addition to the two damaged cars before, the other cars within his sight are still struggling to deal with those little monsters. Therefore, they only had to concentrate on driving and overtaking happily.

    Yue Yin sat down, panting heavily, holding two drumsticks in his left hand and with his right hand, he fanned himself with his collar. It was obviously winter and he wore so little, but he was sweating profusely. It was so hot that he couldn't stand it.

    Mo Xiaoyao's pressure was suddenly relieved by not having to always avoid the surprise attacks of the little monsters behind her, but she couldn't rest yet and had to continue to focus on the track ahead.

    Then, she wanted to swear.

    Bypassing a flying carpet that had been dyed red with blood, Mo Xiaoyao didn't even look at the people who were fighting to the death with the little monster, and turned to ask her two teammates.

    "Do you like roller coasters?"

    "Huh?" Yue Yin who was sitting on the ground looked up blankly. He couldn't see anything because the drum set blocked his view.

    Jiang Yan calmly raised his toes and tapped the drum kit: "It's been a minute, get up, change shifts." He saw it too, but he couldn't hide, so what else could he do?

    "Oh, wait for me to get up." Yue Yin didn't count the time, and felt that he could still sit down, but he didn't have the heart to stay still at this critical moment of life and death. With both hands on the floor behind him, Yue Yin's legs changed slightly from a sitting position to a squatting position, and slowly stood up.

    Then, he fulfilled Mo Xiaoyao's wish to spout a foul language: "Fuck!"

    For the three of them who had gradually adapted to high-speed driving, continuous S-shaped sharp turns are nothing. Those cars that are fighting against the little monsters that cause them to drive in a twisted way are nothing - but what about the single width huge roundabout that was visible to the naked eye?

    "Is this what you mean by roller coaster?" Yue Yin's voice changed, trembling. It was so thin that it seemed like a special creature that came out of a certain place.

    "Otherwise?" Mo Xiaoyao glanced at him calmly and helplessly, "Don't stop, we have to speed up, or we won't be able to go - have you ever played a mini 4WD? When the battery and the motor didn't work, they just fell out of the air."

*迷你四驱车, mini 4WD, the mini wheels racing car toy

    Yue Yin nodded, and hurriedly prepared to start work. After hitting the first note, he gave a surprised "Huh".

    Jiang Yan just took the opportunity to rest for a while. "Let's Swing the Oars" temporarily disappeared from the ears of the three of them, and the small stage moved forward by inertia. And because the previous speed was very fast, even if it was coasting, it didn't slow down much, and it still maintained a speed of about 120 miles per hour.

    But according to Mo Xiaoyao's previous 20 seconds experience, there were only a few seconds left before a complete stop.

    Seeing that Yue Yin had started to play the drums, Jiang Yan was not in a hurry to start his performance. He crossed his hands and slowly turned his wrists, moving his fingers that were stiff due to long and high-intensity playing.

    "What's wrong?" Jiang Yan stood up and approached Yue Yin. He didn't see any clues. The drum kit was still the same drum kit, but the drummer's expression changed a bit.

    Also the rhythm of hitting was different.

    "I've entered a song game here!" Music Yin's voice was full of ecstasy. Wasn't it great? He had been wanting to change the song after playing "Let's Swing the Oars" on loop for a long time.

    "We can't see it here, you can describe it." Jiang Yan was still very calm, and he circled around Yue Yin's drum, and soon found out that although he was the only one hitting, the small stage's speed was the same as when the two of them played together before.

    Yue Yin kept his hands and didn't even look at Jiang Yan. His eyes were condensed about 15 cm above the drum set, as if there was an invisible screen there, constantly refreshing the notes and positions he wanted to hit.

    "It's just a song-playing game." Yue Yin's drumsticks beat continuously on the drum kit, hitting a very emotional rhythm, "A cursor will come along the track, and the cursors on different tracks represent different drums. After that, as long as you hit the beat accurately, people who don’t understand music can also play well.”

    Jiang Yan raised his eyebrows and seemed to understand. He had seen something similar to the description on his little nephew’s mobile phone. Without wasting any more time, the man slowly* walked back to his position, put his hands on the keys, and pressed a note at will.

*Original text is 施施然, shi shi ran=go slowly; be immensely proud. This describes a person who walks slowly and calmly or complacently.

    Then, in front of him, appeared a light screen similar to what Yue Yin said. Compared with his description that lacked logic and beauty, he still felt that this intuitive display was better.

    Trying to press the keys according to the colored note given by the light screen, Jiang Yan's eyes narrowed, and he immediately felt a completely different feeling than when he played before. After the first few notes were missed because he was unfamiliar with the game, his movements became more and more proficient, his techniques became lighter and lighter, and the speed of the small stage took another step.

    Under the control of Mo Xiaoyao, the small stage successfully turned the last S-curve. In front of it was a straight and smooth road with a length of 500 meters. At the end of the road, it was the entrance of the big roundabout.

    Obviously, these 500 meters road was where they could speed up.

    "You two, find a place to fix yourselves, we're almost the entrance." Among the three, only Mo Xiaoyao did get any light screen to play a song game. She guessed that it was because she was the helmsman. The light screen, speed, and road could not be completely synchronized.

    "There are two groups of people in front, all of them are not followed by monsters, and the speed is very fast." Mo Xiaoyao took a few steps to the front of the railing, grabbed it tightly, and let the dark bass on her chest swayed back and forth, "I guess your light screen is related to monsters. If you can't kill it or get rid of it, you can only keep it as it is, and you can't accelerate it."

    "What you think is quite reasonable." Jiang Yan agreed with this speculation, "My song here is nearing the end, and it can be finished before entering the track. I estimated that it will depend on the current forward inertia and our gravitational acceleration."

    Mo Xiaoyao nodded and didn't speak, the knuckles of her hand clutching the railing had turned white. God knows, she had always stayed away from the entertainment of roller coasters. When she was dragged by friends, she only acted as a luggage watcher below, and would never go up by herself.

    Who would have thought that for the first time in her life, she would risk her own life on a roller coaster?

    "End!" Yue Yin finished his song a second before the small stage was about to reach the entrance, then he dropped his drumsticks and quickly sat down facing the railing on the ground.

    Extending his arms to the railing in front of him, he inserted his hands into the horizontal railing in a pull-up position, and then held onto it tightly. The two legs also protruded from the gap, hanging vertically below the small stage in mid-air.

    If Yue Yin was not at the back of the small stage, in the position he was now, it was okay to be a bulbous bow* on a ship.

*I honestly have no clue, because the original text is 八爪鱼船首像 and machine translation said it's a "octopus head bow" but that doesn't make sense. The closest thing I can found is a bulb shape on the bow of a ship, known as bulbous bow. I mean... It kinda looks like an octopus head?

    Jiang Yan had fixed himself on a position a long time ago. He went to the other side of the railing where no one was there, and looked forward with deep eyes. He had already done everything he could, and so did his companions. Destiny was now left to the small stage under their feet.

    Life, or death, was just a matter of ten seconds in the future.

    With a "click", the small stage maintained the previous speed and inertia, entered the orbit of the big roundabout, and rushed to the top of the highest point along the established trajectory, shouldering the fate of the three people.

Bonus pic:

I personally never went on a roller coaster. Look at that thing. Why would anyone, any sane, normal humans, would want to go on that thing and challenge death? (Just kidding. Go ride the roller coaster if you want to, you thrill-seekers. But still, damn, that's heart-stopping.)