Chapter 105 - "Life's Hard Disk"

Once Traveler and Bai Zhi clambered up the hole, Iron Blood, who had been standing by with more containers of gasoline, poured the flammable liquid onto the creatures below. It was the best they could do, but the firewall could only stall those creatures for so long.

As could be expected, the rooftop of the orphanage's main building was a flat, open space, and the Players easily spotted what they were looking for. While Iron Blood was guarding the hole, the other Players had gathered at the northeast corner.

There, by the wall, were two figures, curled up and weak from exhaustion.

"Lin XiaoYi?? Err..."

Bai Zhi balked when he recognized one of the survivors.

After reading the bloody diary, he had been prepared to find two survivors, judging by the reference to the "two newcomers" mentioned in the final entry, but the last thing he expected was for them to be people he knew.

...What the heck are the campus belle and her friend doing here, of all places?

"Phew, they don't look injured, just fainted from prolonged hunger and thirst. They'll recover with proper care." Temperance Gentleheart sighed with relief after inspecting the two unconscious figures.

"They really were on the roof, after all... Now, how are we going to get them down?" said Traveler, frowning as he turned his head toward Iron Blood, and the hole in the floor.

They had quite literally burned their bridges to get to the roof, effectively cutting off the most obvious escape route. However, the quest objective did not simply require them to find the survivors, but also guide them safely out of the building.

As he watched the flames leaping up through the hole, Traveler racked his brains to think of a way they could make it back the way they came, but reached the grim conclusion that it was impossible.

"We have one minute!" said Iron Blood.

"Obviously we're going to jump. What other way is there?" said Bai Zhi, as he took out a coil of climbing rope from his Inventory. After finding a place to anchor it, he turned to Temperance Gentleheart.

"Now, hand me the water."

[ Item Name: Bucket of Water ]

[ Type: Utility ]

[ Class: Normal ]

[ Use: Drink it, or pour it out ]

[ Effect: Drinking this can relieve thirst, while pouring it out will form a Puddle that lasts three minutes. Landing within the Puddle negates all fall damage from any height. ]

[ Requirements: None ]

[ Note: This is just a regular bucket of water, not a magical bucket of infinite water. May drop as loot when killing monsters in Minecraft. ]

Indeed, Temperance Gentleheart had been extremely lucky to get this item, which was incredibly useful under the right conditions. It was one of two pieces of loot that had dropped when she defeated the two neutral creeps that had appeared in her room, in the form of chickens.

Bai Zhi arranged the climbing rope such that it hung over the edge of the roof in a perfectly straight line. After giving it a tug, he poured out the water in the bucket, following the path of the rope.

"Remember, use the rope to stay on course. It wouldn't do to land right next to the puddle. It's the seventh floor, after all," he reminded the Players.

It was up to Viridescent and Temperance Gentleheart to carry the campus belle and Xia Wen, respectively, on their backs as Daoloth was out of the question—the injury to her arm was far too severe to be healed in mere hours.

While the girls seemed to take things in stride, Traveler paled as he looked down at the ground, roughly 20 meters away, and the puddle of water which looked no bigger than a bowl at this distance.

"What's the matter?" said Bai Zhi, surprised to find Traveler acting squeamish. "You're up next. Hurry up, Iron Blood can't hold the monsters back much longer."

Traveler looked to Bai Zhi with wide, fearful eyes.

"I'm afraid I have acrophobia—I'm afraid of heights... Could you piggyback me?"

"Ah, no can do," said the impassive Bai Zhi.

A moment later, Traveler's shrieks of terror filled the air as he made the jump, leaving Bai Zhi and Iron Blood alone on the rooftop.

"So, who is it?"

The unprompted question had come from Iron Blood, who had backed carefully away from the hole to join Bai Zhi.

Bai Zhi shook his head. "If I had my memories from the last reload, I might have figured it out, but I've been trying to crack the problem all day with no success. We're out of time now, anyway.

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, so what we can do now is finish the quest before the traitor starts eliminating us and triggering another reload. That's a one-way trip to mutually assured destruction."

Iron Blood said nothing, but his mouth tightened into a grim line.

Several seconds later, Bai Zhi and Iron Blood landed safely in the Puddle, and the six surviving Players, along with the two survivors, made a beeline for the orphanage compound gates.

Bai Zhi was the last one to leave, and as he did, he turned to look back at the main building.

The sun had set, and night was upon them, but under the moonless sky, the imposing, six-story building seemed shrouded in a deathly-still atmosphere.

Suddenly, a light came on in a window on the sixth floor. By squinting through the gloom, Bai Zhi was able to make a figure that looked like a wizened old man standing there.

That was all he could see, however, as the second his feet finally cleared the threshold of the orphanage gates, he was plunged into total darkness.

[ Quest completed. Calculating rewards... ]

A notification from the System chimed in each Player's mind.

When Bai Zhi opened his eyes, he found himself back in the toilet stall he had entered the quest from. Without even checking the details of the notification, Bai Zhi rushed out of the stall and strode toward the ticket counter, while checking his phone, which had regained connectivity.

He had been transported into the quest at around 10 a.m. on a Sunday, and guessed that he had spent about three days inside. However, the time on his phone showed that it was Sunday, 1 p.m., meaning that only three hours had passed in real time.

He soon bought a new ticket, and while waiting for the bus, he searched the web for the latest news on that orphanage. Apparently, the entire building had collapsed last night at 7 p.m. due to causes related to a persistent lack of maintenance, but the exact point of failure was yet to be determined.

The incident had caused massive casualties, but thanks to the tireless efforts of emergency services over an entire night and day, two survivors had been rescued...