Chapter 53: A clear conscience

Although Ren Xiaosu had been venturing into the wilderness for many years, he had not heard of face bugs before, let alone seen them.

Ren Xiaosu was still calm and composed when he faced ants and termites. That was because if he did not have any bloody scent on him, the large ants nowadays would not show any special interest in him.

But these face bugs were terrifying. It was obvious they wanted to eat people!

As the canyon was really windy most of the time, nobody knew where these face bugs usually hid. Now that they’d spotted their prey, they were turning out in full force.

Was this what the wolves were afraid of? If Ren Xiaosu had known that there were so many of these face bugs in the canyon, he would not have come in no matter what. This time, he didn’t even bother taking the rat.

He had thought of climbing the cliff, but he was really glad that he didn’t move faster earlier on. Otherwise, he would have died if he encountered these things midway up the climb!

“Get into the vehicles!” Xu Xianchu shouted to everyone.

Ren Xiaosu slashed at two of the face bugs in succession. The two face bugs already had their mandibles open in midair as they lunged at him. Although their claws were not sharp, their mandibles were like hooks that could easily take a person’s life.

Ren Xiaosu did not run for it this time because he knew it would be safest to stay inside a vehicle. While everyone was still panicking, he got into one. Not only that, he even hoisted a driver in with him.

As Ren Xiaosu did not know how to drive, he could not escape if he did not drag a driver around with him.

He threw the driver into the driver’s seat and shouted, “Drive, hurry up and drive!”

The driver looked at him innocently. “This is not the vehicle I was driving. I don’t have the key for it.”

Damn… Ren Xiaosu felt that he was in a really disadvantageous position for not having driven a vehicle before. He did not even have the common sense they had in the stronghold to know that each vehicle needed separate keys to operate!

But without any hesitation, he dragged the driver out of the vehicle. Ren Xiaosu bellowed, “Which one did you drive?”

The driver was in a state of confusion from being dragged around by Ren Xiaosu. Amid the chaotic group of people, he pointed at a vehicle and said, “That one!”

Ren Xiaosu dragged the driver over to that vehicle. At this moment, all the others were running madly for their lives. Some of them fled to the vehicles, some of them ran further into the canyon without getting into the vehicles, and some of them even ran towards the wolves.

At this critical moment of life and death, the band members who were untrained and had never experienced such a situation before had lost their ability to think properly.

It was at this time that the voice from the palace in Ren Xiaosu’s mind intoned, “Quest: Help at least ten people escape from the canyon.”

‘Help? Your sister!’ Ren Xiaosu continued running to the vehicle while dragging the driver by his arm. Since he wouldn’t be punished for not completing the quest, he couldn’t care less about it. His own life was the priority!

All of a sudden, he realized that someone was following him.

When he turned around to look, he was surprised to see the Perfect Firearms Proficiency marksman, Yang Xiaojin, following him. She looked like she was holding something in her hand, but Ren Xiaosu was too busy to see what it was.

This girl must have been unwavering in her determination to escape with Ren Xiaosu. It looked like she felt that only by following Ren Xiaosu would she have a chance of survival!

Ren Xiaosu didn’t care. When he came to the vehicle and opened its door, he found a soldier inside shivering in fright in the driver’s seat. Ren Xiaosu pulled him out in anger. ‘What are you doing here if you don’t have the key?! Are you waiting to die?’

At this moment, two face bugs attempted to crawl into Ren Xiaosu’s pants. However, they were blasted to pieces by Yang Xiaojin with two shots as soon as they approached Ren Xiaosu.

Ren Xiaosu jumped into the backseats of the off-road vehicle with Yang Xiaojin following him. Ren Xiaosu shouted at the driver who was in a daze, “Start driving! What are you waiting for!”

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The driver had fallen into a stupor and was behaving mechanically. When Ren Xiaosu shouted at him, he hurriedly inserted the key and turned over the engine. He stepped on the gas but the vehicle did not move forward. When the driver realized that the hand brake was still on, he hurriedly released it and drove forward.

Ren Xiaosu could finally heave a sigh of relief. Although the vehicles could not outrun the wolves, it could outrun the face bugs. There were already two vehicles driving in the distance ahead of them, and several people had been overwhelmed by the face bugs behind them. The swarm of black bugs engulfed their victims’ bodies as they struggled in vain to break free by twisting and turning their bodies.

Chewing sounds came from the black swarm of bugs as they gnawed on the blood and flesh, turning it into minced meat with their sharp mandibles.

Ren Xiaosu fell silent. So this was the real wilderness?

This was the world that humans would have to face in the future?!

The strange face bugs got attracted by the scent of flesh and blood and no longer went after the vehicles. Ren Xiaosu slumped in his seat and panted. As he had expended a lot of energy just now, he was a little exhausted.

Even for him, it wasn’t easy to drag an adult around while running around.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Yang Xiaojin and saw her sitting calmly in the vehicle. She said, “You’ve got quite the strength.”

Ren Xiaosu ignored her and looked at the driver. He asked, “There aren’t any more bugs chasing us, right?”

“No more,” the driver said as he slowly recovered from surviving disaster. He snapped out of his stupor and regained some awareness. He kept muttering in the driver’s seat, “Thank you, I might not have lived if it weren’t for you.”

“Gratitude received from Sun Junzheng, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu thought about how his gratitude tokens had finally reached 74 and how he had not dragged a person around for nothing. He gave it some thought and said, “Don’t be so grateful to me. I only needed you to drive the vehicle.”

“It’s alright. Whatever the reason, I still have to thank you. I’m sorry for what we did. You can rest assured that I’ll repay you,” Sun Junzheng said.

“Gratitude received from Sun Junzheng, +1!”

Ren Xiaosu was startled for a moment. He could actually receive more than one gratitude token for a single event? This was probably due to it being a life-saving grace, and Sun Junzheng was still in a state of shock. So all of his thanks were sincere.

Ren Xiaosu tested him by saying, “Let me hear you thank me another time.”

Sun Junzheng was speechless for some time as his emotions turned unstable!

Yang Xiaojin gave Ren Xiaosu a strange look. This young man was too calm as they were not clear of the danger yet.

After waiting for a long time, his 76th gratitude token still did not come. He felt that he might have gotten a little too enthusiastic about this.

If he had remained patient for a little longer, he might have gotten a few more of them. But one shouldn’t be too greedy, so that would be the end of it.

Ren Xiaosu noticed the puzzled expression on Yang Xiaojin’s face. He cleared his throat and said, “I was just kidding. Let’s get out of the canyon quickly and meet up with the others ahead of us before those face bugs catch up to us.”

All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu thought of the quest that was assigned by the palace. He didn’t feel bad about it at all. Under such circumstances, he would never have given up his own life to save the others.

Just as he had said to Yan Liuyuan before, “If we ever feel a pang in our conscience, we must convince ourselves that it isn’t so!”

Furthermore, his conscience was clear on this matter.

But then, Ren Xiaosu heard the voice from his mind palace say, “Quest complete. Awarded 1.0 Strength.”

What was with this? Did it mean that as long as he had acted to save those people and as long as ten or more people in the team survived, the quest would be considered complete?

This palace’s judgment was way too random.