The Grim Reaper Can't Be Tricked

Chapter 2: Snake-man Figurine

“Sihai Cave’s bizarre incident was found in 1981 and designated as a category 4 high-risk forbidden area in 1982. So far, it has not lost control while under monitoring.”

Shi Shahai stood up and said, “Sihai Cave is indeed your examination center today.”

The freshmen glanced at the stout middle-aged man in the middle of the crowd. He was thick-looking, with a bald head and straw sandals, wearing a red loose linen suit and a tantric monk’s robe over it. He was clearly a 1Tibetan buddhism practitioner.

“I am the test’s examiner. You’ll get to know me better the day you start school,” said Shi Shahai with a genuine grin. “You are all good, promising young children. MU values ​​the potential of new students. We are very much looking forward to your performance. Family members, children, don’t be afraid to take the first step into the unknown, and don’t be afraid to face danger, because you have your instructors behind you, and your instructors are your solid backing…”

Bits of kind and caring words already warmed the sentimental freshmen.

Except For Cen Jin.

Cen Jin felt that Shi Shahai very much resembled the e-money promotion organization boss he had worked for last summer vacation. He also had an honest face and a kind smile, and his mouth was full of “family members”. Later, he was sent to prison because he was engaged in a 2 pyramid scheme.

That year, he also received an enthusiastic citizen pennant and 1,500 yuan report bonus, which solved half a semester’s living expenses.

Cen Jin looked around the scene. For such a large organization, the minimum should be five thousand.

“Now I’ll be distributing a GPS watch to you. If you encounter any danger that can’t be solved, press the small black button on the watch and we will immediately rescue you.”

Two armed soldiers moved out a large box and asked the freshmen to line up to receive the GPS watches.

“I’d like to wish you all a triumphant return–and one thing to add, although the answer time is consistent, early submission is encouraged. The cleanliness of the paper,  the speed with which questions are answered, the responses… All of them are scoring criteria.”

The observer’s lips quivered. Director, be a person ba.

However, the flame of competition already burned, and the freshmen were almost convinced with these words.

Shi Shahai said in a loud voice, “I declare the start of the test!”

As soon as his voice faded, several students quickly dashed into the enigmatic and deep forest, transforming into a few afterimages. Others who were a step slower sprung into action, running in separate directions after passing through the yellow sign barring access into the forest in groups.

Only Cen Jin didn’t team up, and stayed on the spot alone. He noticed the surprised gaze cast by Shi Shahai and others. With an embarrassed smile, he turned and walked into the forest.

Before he had gone far, Cen Jin heard the buzzing sound behind him. When he looked back, he saw that it was an unmanned aerial drone ‘rain’ that was the size of his palm. It flew overhead, fanned out, and then vanished into the dark forest, leaving no trace.

Hundreds of small aerial drones, priced at tens of thousands of yuan, were actually all invested in this freshmen entrance test?

Cen Jin was surprised. Wasn’t this an MLM organization?

He wondered as he examined his GPS watch. Was it really necessary to send armed troops and helicopters to a freshmen’s admission exam for a third-rate technical school? Is it necessary to spend hundreds of thousands on aerial cameras?

Which school had ever set up a test for freshmen in a restricted area?

Which school test was so weird?

Why didn’t everyone else find it weird? Is it because they all have already taken the entrance exam and the interview assessment that they know the truth one step earlier?

The vermillion-leather jacket dude just now said that there had been a strange incident in the Sihai Cave in the unmanned restricted area, but the school set up this place as an examination room and even added real-time aerial cameras. Are you sure you can protect freshmen who had no idea about what’s happening?

It wasn’t a new type of live broadcast show that’s actually abducting young people to seek their deaths under the guise of a wizard school, was it?

Since the unusual incidents transpired one after the other, numerous online celebrities, both domestic and international, have committed suicide in order to draw attention to their live broadcast. There have been other strange occurrences, but the authorities have always cracked down on the forgeries.

However, it was rumored that more than half of the 200 passengers who perished and were decapitated on the ‘shoreline of death’ event were anchors who signed a life-and-death contract before the voyage. Prior to the disaster, the whole show was live-streamed, with over 100 million views on the dark web.

The missing second half of the footage was leaked after the disaster, generating tens of millions of dollars of revenue.

As soon as the news came out, various horror adventure live shows sprung up one after another.

Surely, the freshmen exam at this third-rate technical school wasn’t a ruse to lure young kids to their deaths? It’s a little tough to ensure.

Cen Jin recounted going to a run-down hotel last week for an interview with the enrollment ad. The interviewer inquired about his name and age before asking him to sign the contract. He only dared to sign it after he was sure that the contract was okay.

He was certain that there was no trap of selling life and property upon reviewing the contract contents. Cen Jin momentarily set aside his reservations and opted to seek refuge close to a water source for two hours.

He walked deep into the dense forest unknowingly, surrounded by old trees soaring into the skies, the canopy of the trees covering the sky and the sun, and the depths of the pine vegetation were gloomy. The four fields were deafeningly quiet, with no insects or birds to be heard. The grass was as dead as a vast tomb, with no wind blowing and no movement of the grass.

Sihai Cave was a forbidden zone. There must be many unknown dangers.

Cen Jin had limited knowledge about Sihai Cave. To avoid areas where wild animals and venomous snakes were likely to appear, he could only depend on intuition and the guidance of the knowledge he had gained in textbooks.

He was unarmed. He could only wait to die if he ever faced a beast.

If the so-called overtime test was really a weird scam of a live exploration broadcast, it meant that there’s probably an underground reservoir of human remains in the Sihai Cave, as the vermillion-leather jacket had said.

If it really was a scam, then the so-called ‘guarantee of safety of instructors’ was completely untrustworthy.

Cen Jin had been wandering for about 30 minutes when he heard the sound of rushing water. He accelerated his pace and bypassed a large tree. He observed a swift torrent falling from top to bottom as the clouds parted and the moon emerged, but it did not enter the mountain stream. The source appeared to be on the mountain’s peak.

The river was a little turbid. The river surface was densely covered with withered and black branches, but not even a single leaf had fallen.

Cen Jin squatted down and stared at the river. He thought of the test question–picking up pollutants in the river, it didn’t mean the black branches floating on the river, right?

He caught a glimpse of a branch moving out of the corner of his eye. He cocked his head to look around. The river was still calm and strewn with black branches. Perhaps there was a fish swimming beneath it just now?

But why did he feel that this dead branch was particularly bent?

It’s almost bent into a circle, so flexible….

“Classmate?”

Cen Jin turned his head, but what he saw was a girl in a white shirt appear behind the bushes by the river. She smiled at him and asked him gently, “Are you one of those people who came to pick up the river’s trash?”

The girl was dressed in a long-sleeved white shirt with a high collar, with the neckline tucked under her chin to conceal her slender neck. Her complexion was so pale that it would be hard to distinguish the difference between her skin tone and the color of her dress if it weren’t for a finger-thick black line at the edge of the neckline.

Cen Jin, “You are…?”

The female student smiled. “I’m Lin Xiao, a forest ranger in Sihai Cave. Today is my duty day.  I just saw a bunch of young individuals heading in the direction of the river, all sporting the same watch as you. Are you friends?”

“No.”

Isn’t this a restricted area? Where did this ranger come from?

Lin Xiao, “I have to clean up the garbage on the river today. Can you help me?”

“Can’t.”

“…” Lin Xiao’s sweet smile stiffened instantly. “Why?”

She was puzzled. “Why?”

Cen Jin didn’t feel right.

Lin Xiao’s expression was still frozen in the arc of a smile. Something seemed to push both sides of her lips high, producing a V-shape, but the real Lin Xiao wasn’t smiling. Black cracks appeared on her face, but she didn’t know it. She still asked sharply, “Why?” Why won’t you help me? Whywhy!!”

Her voice became harsh and violent, like a chisel hammering into the ear and prying open the skull, showing the throbbing grey brain within and then tossing it around madly. Cen Jin had a splitting headache, but he was used to it and this pain was within his tolerance.

‘All that trash in the river! I pick it up every day! No matter how I clean it, I still can’t keep it clean! Why didn’t someone help me?”

Cen Jin’s pupils dilated. He stared helplessly as ‘Lin Xiao’ went from rage to sobbing, but the corners of her lips enlarged even further, and there were more and more black cracks on her face and body. The black and white stripe-like thing dropped off and hung on the bushes with a crunch.

When he examined it, he saw that it was a long white worm with black markings and a fist-sized tumor at the end. When Cen Jin glanced up, he felt chilly all over, and a coldness that made his hands and feet rigid rushed up from his tail vertebrae to his forehead, instantly leaving his thoughts blank.

But he noticed the heavy black mark on Lin Xiao’s neck go away, revealing her skin and clothing that were nearly identical. The black cracks on her face became larger and more active, breaking up to expose black, bean-sized eyes.

Her whole face was like a honeycomb briquette, and dozens of bean-sized black eyes, inlaid on the pale human skin, swiveled round and round in unison, staring at the only living thing.

Cen Jin’s scalp tingled, and goosebumps sprang all over him. He couldn’t help but shrink his neck to keep the chill at bay.

Lin Xiao’s high-hanging V-shaped mouth let out a wail and wept, “Why can’t the garbage be cleaned? Because of you guys! You guys throw garbage everywhere. You’re all trash! Clean. Clean. Clean–!! Trash–!!”

‘Lin Xiao’ shrieked and screamed angrily, and her V-shaped mouth ripped wide, displaying moist flesh and sharp shark fangs inside. Black fissures emerged on her face and torso, accompanied by a tiny cracking sound, as if blisters were popping open. The black gaps opened to reveal black eyeballs, and the white sections of her body wriggled slowly.

On closer inspection, it turned out that there were countless long white worms hooked to a portion of human flesh, and three pairs of black eyes on the back of these long worms, which were around the size of a fist-sized tumor.

Swarms of weird long insects attached to the human body of ‘Lin Xiao’, forming alternative human skin figurines.

Cen Jin repressed the vomit in his stomach. His arms were covered with little bumps and even his calves were trembling.

At this moment, ‘Lin Xiao’ violently rose up, revealing a three-meter high lower body of a scorched black python tail, and rushed down condescendingly with the intent to kill.

Cen Jin turned his head and ran away without saying a word.

The humanoid figurine was hot on his tail. Cen Jin purposefully escaped into an area riddled with obstacles,  only to hear the wind and large objects being torn behind him. He caught a glimpse of Lin Xiao’s face out of the corner of his eye, which made him want to hack it to pieces, near at hand, just against his shoulder. The tongue that slid out smelled moist and fishy that made others want to vomit. It splashed sticky saliva.

Cen Jin skirted around a large tree, and the next thing he knew, the tree was ripped apart, with splashes of wood and a trail of blood running down his cheek.

He jumped on the hurdle, while the humanoid figurine smacked right into it!

It’s weird that it could run at such a high speed!

Cen Jin didn’t know how long he’d been running, but he felt suffocated, and his quick breathing was causing a severe ache in his lungs. His strides gradually became heavier, and his forehead was drenched in cold sweat; His breathing grew increasingly labored, his left lower abdomen throbbed painfully, and his temples leapt as though it was about to explode.

He wanted to stop, but the humanoid figurine behind him wouldn’t give him a chance.

Even if he turned around now and said he cared about the environment, he’d still be eliminated like trash.

Calm down, calm down. There has to be a method to get away from the humanoid figurine’s pursuit.

He remembered ‘Lin Xiao’ referring to him as ‘classmate.’ He didn’t wear a school uniform nor did he carry a schoolbag. Most individuals would not refer to strangers as ‘classmates,’ unless ‘Lin Xiao’ had already met the other freshmen, overheard their discussions, and analyzed their identities.

However, there was no sign of a fight at the scene. ‘Lin Xiao’ did not appear to have attacked them.

Why didn’t it attack them?

Because they were in a group? Or was there something about the students that frightened her?

Anyway, just head to the river’s upper banks!

Cen Jin gnashed his teeth, feeling the sticky, foul-smelling spit on his cheek and the piercing cold firmly gripping his back. He tapped the button on his GPS watch to request assistance, only to hear a ding sound twice before a mechanical male voice came out.

The quiz began in less than 40 minutes. Your test results will be abandoned if you want assistance now. Do you seek assistance?”

“Yes! Right now! Immediately—!” Cen Jin yelled, his lungs about to burst.

“Sending a support request immediately, 3, 2,…”

Cen Jin focused half of his concentration on the GPS watch. The relief of being saved was just halfway up but he caught a glimpse of a long white worm flying over out of the corner of his eye, and he reflexively lifted his hand to intercept it, and it popped in the center of the satellite positioning watch, inflicting intense agony as if he had fractured a wrist bone.

“….Zzt. The request was withdrawn successfully. Wishing the freshmen a pleasant exam.”

Zzt. Your mom’s a zzt.

“Continue to request assistance–” Cen Jin tapped the little button obsessively.

“There is only one opportunity to request assistance. You missed it. I wish you a pleasant exam.”

“…”

Cen Jin fled like an abandoned puppy, crying against the wind.

Just as he was ready to collapse, he noticed the backs of several people walking in front of him, who he now viewed as very nice and loveable.

Cen Jin wept with joy. “Family members!”

The examiner, who was leisurely looking for pretty freshmen in front of him, heard his yell, turned around, and was immediately stimulated by the cheerful Cen Jin and the three-metre-high half-human and half-snake nonentity edged up behind him.

Outside the restricted zone, the panels in the SUV were divided into thirty-seven little displays, each of which broadcasted live feed from the distributed drones.

However, in the feed, the tiny group of students were mostly scattered, acting alone or with 2 – 3 other individuals, terrified and dejected. Some of them encountered strange monsters in the Sihai Cave, while others were terrified by the planned traps set up by the examiners to intimidate them.

Shi Shahai shook his head. “The whole army was completely wiped out ah.”

Observer, “A few youngsters are doing well and have already guessed that they should go to the underground river.”

Shi Shahai, “Notify the examiner to go over and enhance the difficulty. Be careful not to let them go deep into the underground reservoirs. ”

Observers should be prepared to contact the examiners mixed in with the freshmen and zoom in on the aerial footage of the examiners.

“A couple of examiners just got together, let them pass–“

Before he could finish, they heard an ecstatic ‘family members’. The voice came from one of the controlled aerial drones, which happened to record the depressed-looking yellow-haired man urgently sprinting and the hideous humanoid figure behind him.

“….”

Shi Shahai calmed himself. “What is that?”

“Freshman Cen Jin–”

“I meant the foreign creature.”

“Forest ranger: Lin Xiao. Born in 1981, served as a forest ranger in the Sihai Cave in 2004. In July of the same year, she was dispatched to clean up trash dumped in the river by travellers who had just sneaked into the dense forest to explore. She fell into the water, but didn’t know how to swim. In a panic, she grabbed dead branches and struggled, inadvertently uprooting a gigantic snake nest near the river… Her corpse had already become a snake’s den by the time she was discovered.

“She was contaminated by the Sihai Cave’s underground river after dying tragically as a result of the Chaipen punishment. A parasitic-parasitic connection developed between the corpse and the strange snake.

Classification: Class 1 pestilent nonentity. Humanoid foreign creature.

Growth potential: Intermediate

Nickname: 3Forest Ranger. Snake-man Figurine.”

The author has something to say:

Chaipen: 4Thousand snakes pit 

The Chaipen Punishment: The torture of ten thousand snakes to death

Translator’s Footnotes

Tibetan Buddhism, branch of Vajrayana (Tantric, or Esoteric) Buddhism that evolved from the 7th century ce in TibetHis clothes were like this  .¹

Multilevel marketing (MLM) is a strategy that sells products and services through a non-salaried workforce in a pyramid-shaped commission system. A pyramid scheme is an unsustainable, illegal business model where investment returns are typically from principles of investments or membership fees instead from the underlying investment gains. It is often marketed as a foolproof way to turn a small amount of money into big returns.²

Hu Linyuan (护林员)³

from the 16-th century chinese novel 封神演義. It’s a punishment from the Shang Dynasty where poisonous spiders and exceedingly venomous snakes were put into the pit. Once this pit was finally constructed, seventy-two unfortunate maidens, with their hair shaved and clothes stripped, were tied and thrown into the pit to feed the snakes. Read more here. ⁴