Chapter 47: Half-Cigarette Chief Examiner, Give Me a Smoke.

Just like being sealed into a coffin that time, this monster’s capture of people made just as little sense.

In the blink of an eye, the scene before them changed, leaving no time for anyone to react.

At least the crew members had the process of being tested and dragged by the monster, allowing them to struggle a bit during that time. For the examinees, the “capture”

process was skipped entirely—they opened their eyes to find themselves no longer in the stone cave.

Out of the corner of his eye, the surrounding environment was completely different. He didn’t have time to figure out exactly where he was just then, because he was staring directly into a monster’s mouth…

It should have been a mouth.

In any case, the hole was huge, and a foul-smelling “sea breeze”

blasted him head-on.

You Huo: “…”

His feet were dangling in the air, something tightened around his body, and that massive, flesh-white hole was wriggling closer and closer, about to swallow him in an instant.

He was completely disgusted.

It goes to show that the system would stoop to any low to punish people.

At the moment of being enveloped, You Huo heard Qin Jiu curse the system under his breath.

“Top student, fight—”

He hadn’t even finished his sentence before a click was heard.

The lid of the lighter snapped open between You Huo’s fingers, and a flame ignited.

They were indeed enveloped within the creature’s body, as all around them was a slippery, viscous whiteness, and their feet sank into a soft, fleshy texture… But this wasn’t the true mouth cavity.

The true mouth cavity was just a few steps away, lined with rows of fine, sharp teeth and exuding an even fouler stench.

Yōu Huò said with a face ashen, “There’s a pack of cigarettes in this pocket.”

His upper arms were bound tightly. Although his elbows could move, the angle made it impossible to reach his coat pocket, so he could only try to turn sideways.

He watched helplessly as the barrel was pushed closer and closer.

A hand reached into his pocket.

You Huo: “…”

At this moment, the big shot was starting to regret his suggestion.

Because the feeling of someone else’s hand rummaging in his pocket was really strange…

Thankfully, Qin Jiu was quick.

He had already pulled his hand out before he could be urged.

Rip——

A delicate rustling sound of paper could be heard beside him.

You Huo: “…You actually have the fucking time to unwrap the packaging???”

That muzzle was practically pressing against his face.

It was rare for him to use such a tone, and Qin Jiu actually laughed.

But the sound of tearing the package stopped immediately.

You Huo tilted his lighter, and Qin Jiu held a handful of cigarettes to meet it…

The pointed tips of the teeth opened slightly, like fine blades brushing against the skin—cold, damp, and fragrant enough to waft for miles.

Fuck.

You Huo turned his face away, holding his breath.

……

The flesh-colored monster limbs wrapped into a ball, covering the freshly devoured food, like a toothless old woman’s mouth.

It felt as if the space had frozen solid.

Every second felt like a year.

After about a dozen years, the toothless old lady started letting smoke seep out.

It wriggled a couple of times, holding it in.

After another dozen years or so…

The old woman couldn’t hold it in anymore.

It sounded as if it had tuberculosis, huffing and puffing several times in a row…

And then it threw up with a “whomp.”

……

When he landed, You Huo instinctively put out a hand to brace himself.

His hand ended up pressing down on a pile of strange objects.

It was as if a chaotic heap of hard items had been piled together, scattering messily when he pushed against them.

His palm was even cut by some sharp corner.

But he didn’t have time to think about it.

He quickly fumbled his way to some cover, signaled Qin Jiu, and they ducked behind it.

He flicked the lighter three times, and the flame finally came back to life, but much weaker than before.

You Huo raised the small flame to sweep around and discovered that the thing they had taken cover behind was actually a cabinet.

The cabinet was so badly rusted that the lock and door had fused together, making it impossible to pry apart, though the faint traces of a pattern could still be seen on its surface.

The pattern was very familiar—the style was exactly the same as that of the coxswain’s watch cover.

Then they saw the wooden floors, cabinets, and crates half-covered in green algae, the collapsed staircase… and even a misty, circular porthole right before their eyes.

This must have been an abandoned ship, but they hadn’t yet figured out where it was anchored.

You Huo leaned over to take a glance and saw two vertical stone pillars inside the cabin, piercing through both the ceiling and the floor.

From these two stone pillars, one could imagine that the ship might have encountered huge waves, which lifted it high before capsizing it, then drove it straight down onto the sharp, upward-pointing stone blades.

On the ground beside the stone pillars, a pile of yellow-white human bones lay heaped, resembling a collapsed small hill.

Many skulls tilted within it, their dark eye sockets silently facing the two of them from various angles.

This was what they had just landed on and propped themselves up against.

As You Huo craned his neck to get a closer look, his right hand supported him on the ground.

At some point, a small puddle of water had accumulated beneath the iron cabinet, and he happened to press his palm right into it, the cold piercing straight to the bone.

The chill shot up to the top of his head, and in that moment, he suddenly felt a sense of… déjà vu.

The tilted cabin, the sharp stone pillars, including the scattering of white, bone-like fragments strewn across the floor.

Even this suffocating scent seems to have been smelled somewhere before.

As if at some moment in the past, at the same time and place, he had leaned out and seen the exact same scene.

The water was a bit colder back then, and there were monster splatters in the cabin, exuding a smell of decay mixed with rust—exactly the same as now, perhaps even stronger…

It was so thick you could practically taste it if you opened your mouth.

He pressed his lips tightly, with his knuckles resting against the tip of his nose, reluctant to take even a single breath.

Then someone patted his shoulder and said, “Chief Examiner, pass me a cigarette.”

……

“What?”

You Huo snapped back to reality and instinctively turned around.

Qin Jiu was standing behind him, wiping the porthole glass with his hand and leaving three finger marks.

Qin Jiu rubbed his fingertips and froze for a moment: “What what?”

“What did you just say?” You Huo asked.

“Me?” Qin Jiu said,

“I didn’t speak.”

A frown flashed across You Huo’s brow, but it quickly disappeared, replaced by his usual expressionless demeanor.

“Why? Is the smell too strong? Did it cause you to hallucinate?” Qin Jiu chuckled.

“Mm.”

You Huo withdrew his gaze and leaned forward to look into the cabin again.

He changed his posture and was about to brush off that sentence when his fingers brushed against something.

A very short segment, lying in the gap under the iron cabinet.

Frowning, You Huo pried the object out and examined it under the flame’s light.

He examined it carefully for a moment and realized that it was actually a half-burnt cigarette.

……

A few days ago? Or was it more than ten days ago?

At that exam candidate rest stop at the foot of the mountain, that spicy-tempered boss named Chu Yue had mentioned that some exam arenas weren’t thoroughly cleaned—perhaps traces left by someone from years ago could still be found there…

……

Not far away, the monster choked with a mouthful of smoke was hiding behind the stone pillar—enormous and massive, impossible to see its full form.

It’ll soon recover and launch an attack here.

You Huo knew he should concentrate and seize the right moment to fight back…

But somehow, he found himself staring at that half-smoked, long-rotten cigarette, lost in thought for quite a while.

Trying to recall the words just spoken, he realized he could no longer remember them fully.

He neither heard all of it clearly, nor recognized the voice.

He had no idea who had spoken it, but the moment it faded away and at the sight of that half-smoked cigarette, he felt inexplicably… deeply sorrowful.