IWBL: Chapter 160

The gorillas struck the back of their hands in an awkward manner and the sound made was duller than the palm contact. It was like hitting a drum. The sound spread across the vast space and formed a funeral song.

Fu Guangbo stepped back while holding the flashlight. He made a solemn expression and said, “Clapping the back of the hands… I have heard of this.”

Ye Zeqing inquired, “What?”

“There is a rumour in my family that only the dead use the back of their hands to clap. It is because the palm of the hand produces yang energy and the dead can’t connect with yang energy. They only had yin energy. So when they want to clap, they will use the back of their hands.”

Xiao Li asked, “The dead people on your side clap?”

What type of haunted family was this?

Gao Yao, “…..”

If it wasn’t for the occasion, he might’ve laughed.

Fu Guangbo answered, “……No, this is just what I heard. I mean, these gorillas are either very gloomy or they are dead. Otherwise, it won’t explain why they are clapping the back of their hands.”

Ye Zeqing opened his mouth. “There is ghost energy but it isn’t strong. They definitely aren’t ordinary gorillas.”

“Nonsense.” Zheng Yi told him. “Ordinary gorillas won’t appear here.”

“In the end… are they gorillas or humans?” Chen Jinghan murmured. “These faces… ghost faces on the body?! But how can it be safe during the day?”

They didn’t behave like ordinary people who would panic the first time they encountered ghosts. This surprised Gao Yao and the other security guard. They felt that the new security guards had good psychological quality.

Gao Yao repeatedly hypnotized himself. “Don’t be nervous, don’t be nervous. They are just some mutant gorillas. They are just changes caused by genetic mutations.”

It seemed he had been using this reason to persuade himself.

The gorillas were still clapping the back of their hands but they were also trying to get close to the railing.

“Let’s go.” Xiao Li wasn’t holding a flashlight. At this time, the outside moonlight was still very bright. In addition, there was almost one teammate around him and he didn’t need the light ghost to appear. He nodded and continued to move forward.

“Eh? Eh—” Zheng Yi quickly caught up with him. “Hercule, you’re just leaving like this?”

“Then do you want to stand here and play clapping games with gorillas?” Xiao Li wondered. “Didn’t it say that the patrol just had to pass here?”

Zheng Yi muttered, “Y-Yes…”

He took the lead to leave. The others hesitated for a moment before following. The gorillas were left behind by everyone. In the gradually quiet theme park, their eyes were always in the direction the reincarnators had left in.

After the gorillas, the reincarnators passed by many exhibition halls. All the ‘animals’ inside opened their eyes and watched them leave. The night of the theme park was different from the usual instance world. There were  no dark clouds obstructing the moonlight and the moonlight was unimpeded.

Tan Li was in a trance in Xiao Li’s pocket. They soon arrived at Hall X, the first hall they were asked to enter.

In the dark night, the aquarium was like a strangely shaped coffin. The stone X at the front was like an epitaph on a tombstone. The rest instinctively paused but Xiao Li pushed open the door and walked in.

There were no lights or windows in the aquarium and the moonlight couldn’t reach here. Only a few flashlights shone on the left and right sides. Once inside, everything outside was cut off. Even the air seemed to no longer circulate. The door closed because there was no one to watch it. It was as if everyone had been completely shut in a sealed place.

“This aquarium… why do we need to patrol here?” Chen Jinghan couldn’t stand the silence and took the initiative to break it. “Why do we have to come in?”

Fu Guangbo added, “Let’s think in a different direction. If we don’t come in then what would happen to us?”

The reincarnators didn’t know the answer but they didn’t dare arbitrarily disobey the rules. They had to follow the rules, even if this required them to take risks.

Gao Yao replied, “I don’t know. I haven’t tried it.”

Fu Guangbo hadn’t expected to get an answer from Gao Yao. He just wanted to distract himself or he suspected his tight nerves would kill him before the ghost came. He spoke to himself, “Animals that mutate at night… is this instance a high-tech world? However, the gorillas seemed to be possessed by ghosts.”

Gao Yao didn’t have the curiosity of reincarnators. He took a deep breath and told them, “Go quickly. Sweep around as soon as possible and then leave.”

Xiao Li looked at the water above his head. It occasionally made waves like a distant fish was approaching here. Due to the light, the water was no longer clear. It was a dark blue like the deep sea.

“I-I have a small deep sea phobia.” Zheng Yi whispered.

He took two steps and followed Xiao Li. In this cold and heartless instance world, only the big man could give him a bit of warmth. The group of people walked deep into the aquarium. They were moving forward when Xiao Li suddenly stopped.

“What’s going on?” Zheng Yi poked out his head behind Xiao Li.

Xiao Li turned toward the glass on the right. “Something is coming towards us.”

The bubbles were increasing and the invisible water flow was affected by something, creating one vortex after another. A fish was approaching them but the light was too dark to see clearly. Xiao Li moved his fingers and the light ghost emerged from the little yellow book. It moved close to the glass wall and illuminated the depths of the water better than the flashlight.

“F*k, what is this thing?!”

The light ghost came out. Zheng Yi and the others were fine but the rest of the reincarnators were startled. The light ghost flashed to himself with dissatisfaction. “Please show respect. I’m not a thing.”

“—A special item.” Xiao Li explained.

The light ghost, “……”

Forget it. Hercule said it and it didn’t hear anything.

The reincarnators heard it was an item and relaxed. However, the two plot characters, the security guards couldn’t understand it.

Zhao Yiyan acted like he had seen an alien. “This light bulb…? W-Who are you?!”

…It was time for the disguise to pass through the instance world. Zheng Yi used the pretext of ‘special investigators’ to fool the security guards.

“Shh.” Gao Yao was still confirming their identities with Zheng Yi when Xiao Li pulled at Zheng Yi’s shoulder. “Listen.”

Zheng Yi obediently fell quiet. Over everyone’s breathing, the sound of bubbles in the water was getting closer accompanied by a low roar. The sound was like a fierce beast roaring in the water. It was faint but couldn’t be ignored.

Layers of black images surrounding them from all directions. The light ghost illuminated them. It was a group of fish, just like during the day. However, after night fell, there were more than just fish.

Each fish was long, equivalent to half a person’s height. They were more like crocodiles. The layers of scales were reflected by the light ghost. The serrated mouth had teeth as long as human fingers and a thick liquid dripped from the teeth into the water.

Zheng Yi exclaimed, “What in the world? F*k, piranhas are coming?!”

Xiao Li frowned. “They want to…”

He couldn’t finish his sentence because the leading piranha started to dive. It hit the glass sideways, making a violent banging sound. There was this demonstration and the other piranhas also started to hit the glass at the same time.

The reincarnators could see countless fish tails. Their efforts meant the sealed glass soon started to vibrate. Tiny cracks that were almost invisible appeared on the glass. Once inside, the doors of this aquarium were sealed quite tightly. In other words, if the glass broke, the fate that awaited them was drowning or being swallowed by the piranhas in the water.

Just then, a broadcast rang through the aquarium. The voice was strangely stiff like it was reading something. “The glass has started to shatter and the water is rising. The fish are staring at you covetously. Outsiders, what will you do?”

Zheng Yi wondered, “…Who is talking?”

“Get out! It doesn’t matter who it is! We have to leave here immediately!” Fu Guangbo screamed.

“It’s too late.” Xiao Li stared at the path ahead. “It will take at least five minutes to exit but the glass won’t last for three minutes. Run deeper inside!”

Fu Guangbo: ???

He exclaimed, “Brother, I’m calling you brother but you’re crazy—”

Xiao Li was already running along the corridor. The direction wasn’t towards the door but towards the depth of the corridor.

“Hercule?” Ye Zeqing shouted at him but there was no response. He glanced around at the piranha and gritted his teeth before following.

Zheng Yi almost blindly followed Xiao Li so he was already running without hesitation.

Fu Guangbo quickly looked back in the direction they came from. His sense of reason told him to run to the door but there was a subtle intuition that told him to follow Xiao Li.

Bang. There was another heavy impact. The piranha making the noise didn’t swim away. It stayed in place and stared at the reincarnators. In this way, Fu Guangbo discovered the strangeness of the monster. It had a pair of human eyes. There were no eyelashes but the shape of the pupils was completely human. However, it was a piranha.

“Damn!” Chen Jinghan screamed. She felt that she had lost her ability to think and instinctively followed the big troops moving forward. In this way, Fu Guangbo and the others had to keep up.

Xiao Li ran all the way forward. The light ghost flew by itself at first and then simply stayed on Xiao Li’s shoulder.

“Where are we going? I don’t want to be eaten by piranhas.” The light ghost muttered. “They shouldn’t eat light bulbs?”

Xiao Li grasped it in his hand. The glass cracks were getting bigger and small streams of water were flowing from above their heads.

Xiao Li finally found the passage he wanted. It was locked but Tan Li’s hair had already penetrated into it and opened the lock. Behind the door was a ladder that headed upward. He climbed up the ladder and saw that he was above the glass. It was the area used to change the water.

The piranha seemed to sense the position of the reincarnators and swam up the way up to the surface of the water, sticking out their heads. The human eyes blinked and they opened their mouths wide.

The broadcast was from the control centre above the glass. A silicone dummy was the one making the broadcast.

It was the silicone dummy that often appeared in shopping malls. The face only had a simple shape but the model was the colour of flesh. A wide open mouth was drawn on the face. The eye section was hollowed out but a string of tears was painted under the eyes.

The words of the broadcast came from the dummy. “Hercule, you are my favourite outsider.

“Even so, you can’t escape the attack of the piranhas. You might think you have escaped the danger but I want to tell you something. Unfortunately, they have evolved and can leave the water for up to five minutes.

The piranha that came here first jumped up to try and desperately hit the top lid. It could be seen from above that the fins of the piranha were gradually fading and being replaced by four frog-like legs.

Zheng Yi fell to his knees in fright and pressed down on the edge of the lid with the others. However, the power of the piranhas was so strong that it almost knocked them down to the ground.

“What will you choose? Will you feel the same fear before you die?

“Hercule, I advise you—”

It hadn’t finished the sentence when Xiao Li moved.

Xiao Li impatiently pulled the silicone dummy, went around it, pulled out the wire and turned on the power switch. Then he covered the silicone and motioned for Zheng Yi and the others to make way. Before the piranha jumped up, he quickly inserted the two double-ended electric wires into the water.

The silicone dummy, “…….”

The silicone dummy: ????

There was a nearly invisible electric light and the impact on the glass subsided. Fish showing white bellies were floating on the water. One after another, their eyes turned white. They had lost consciousness.

The scene was spectacular.

Xiao Li turned to look at the silicone dummy. The original sentence of the dummy hadn’t finished yet. At this moment, it was startled by Xiao Li’s eyes and unknowingly finished the sentence, “…kind.”

Linked up, it said: Hercule, I advise you to be kind.

Xiao Li, “……”

What was this? The dummy was obviously the villain. How could the roles be reversed?

The author has something to say:

@Tell it to Hercule bot, no anonymous submission.

[I announce that the annual golden sentence has appeared Hercule, I also advise you to be kind!]

Comment 1: No, I think the golden orange should be:  “……”

2: Golden orange, what golden orange? I’m hungry.

3: And: ???

4: I vote for ‘ahhhhh!’

……

32: I think ‘you look like a little yellow book’ is the golden sentence. Rounding up, it is a confession.

……

48: I seem to know who the 32nd comment is from… shivers.

rainbowmushroom

Any support on Patreon will be appreciated and you will also get access to advance chapters.
https://www.patreon.com/rainbowturtle

If you just want to support or buy me a coffee, you can consider Ko-fi:
https://ko-fi.com/rainbowturtle