Translator: Cinder Translations
--------
Jiang Cheng followed her gaze and indeed saw the cliff she mentioned.
It was so steep that it looked as if it had been split open by a giant axe.
"Do you want to leave from here?" Jiang Cheng retracted his gaze and suddenly asked.
Whether it was the woman climbing up the cliff or the previous mention of crossing the forest, cutting down trees to make a boat, it all indicated they were planning to leave.
Not just leaving the nightmare, but leaving their birthplace.
"Yes," someone replied.
Jiang Cheng tilted his head to look at her. "Why?"
Jiang Cheng couldn't understand. They had just arrived here and hadn't even explored the terrain, yet they were in a hurry to leave. Had they discovered some danger, or what?
At this moment, everyone turned their attention to the woman on the far right, as if the idea of leaving came from her.
The woman seemed to be in her early fifties, wearing a string of pearls, her hair curled into small, wool-like ringlets, dressed plainly.
Despite her simple appearance and clothing, her sharp eyes exerted considerable pressure. These were eyes as keen as an eagle's, clearly not someone easy to get along with.
However, Jiang Cheng's eyes were calm as he stared back.
The next second, the woman opened her mouth and gave Jiang Cheng an answer he had never expected.
"I've been here before," she said.
She seemed uninterested in Jiang Cheng's strange gaze and continued to speak. The young man behind Jiang Cheng also showed great interest.
"Our ship encountered a storm at sea. After the ship capsized, we drifted at sea in a lifeboat for an entire night. By the next morning, we found land."
"Here?"
"Yes," the woman nodded. "We brought the lifeboat ashore."
After saying this, the woman seemed to recall something, and suddenly stopped talking.
"What happened next?" the Fatty couldn't help but ask.
"We sent a SOS signal with the equipment we carried, and then we were rescued by a passing ship," she continued. "Anyway, let's find a way out quickly."
Was it really that simple?
Everyone present wasn't a fool. If it were that simple, why would the woman keep urging them to find a way out?
It was as if they had encountered something supernatural here.
"When did this happen?"
"Twenty years ago," the woman answered clearly.
"Twenty years ago?" The young man dressed as a rich boy smiled gently. "You had equipment that could send satellite signals back then?"
"Even after the shipwreck?"
The woman looked up, her gaze assessing the young man in front of her, then she glanced at Jiang Cheng. She suddenly felt that their eyes were somewhat similar.
"Perhaps it wasn't an ordinary shipwreck," the young man shrugged.
"You young man," the woman rasped, and the moment she spoke, the imposing aura she revealed made Jiang Cheng's suspicions solidify. "I advise you to focus your energy on how to escape here, rather than asking about things you shouldn't know."
"Otherwise, even if you manage to leave here alive, someone will come looking for you once you're outside."
At this point, everyone had a rough judgment. If what the woman said was true, her background was definitely not ordinary, and she was probably part of a government task.
What they had encountered was most likely not a shipwreck, but some kind of secret mission gone wrong, and whatever happened here was something they couldn't comprehend.
It seemed that her team had suffered significant losses, and this woman might be the only survivor.
"That's a story for later," the young man dressed as a rich boy said, focusing on her eyes. "Right now, I just want to know what happened and how we can leave."
The woman glanced at the young man, then at Jiang Cheng, and finally at the other people who were slowly closing in around her.
The situation was now clear. If she didn't reveal the story, it would be hard for her to get away.
This place was not the world they came from. There, laws existed, and the organization the woman worked for had absolute authority.
Here, only rules mattered.
The consequences of offending all your teammates were obvious.
"You'll regret this," the woman was struggling in her last attempt.
"I'll pass that message to you," another woman, wearing a leather jacket, shook her shoulders and spoke. "If you don't speak."
Her leather jacket was covered in studs, and she wore knee-high black boots, with long, slender, and fair legs.
Her looks were ordinary, but she gave off a strong motorcycle-punk vibe.
"Stop threatening me," the woman replied calmly. "I may be old, but I've seen it all. There are still two bullets lodged in my shoulder that haven't been removed."
"What will you do if I don't talk? Kill me?" she said, tightening her face.
The woman wasn't lying. Jiang Cheng, the young man, and the others could feel the killing intent coming from her. She didn't seem to value her life much.
She wasn't afraid of death.
To her, these people were just a group of kids who hadn't even grown a beard.
"No one wants to do anything to you," Jiang Cheng said. "We just want to survive. Put yourself in our shoes. If one of us had similar information and didn't share it, how would you feel?"
"We're not interested in secrets," Jiang Cheng continued. "We just want to survive, because..." His eyes suddenly filled with tears, and his voice grew hoarse.
The woman, the Fatty, and everyone else looked at him with strange expressions.
He didn't look like a newcomer, so how did he have such strong emotional control?
Jiang Cheng grabbed the woman's hand, forcing back tears in his eyes, "Honestly, whether I live or die doesn't matter, but I have a paralyzed mother at home. My father passed away early, and she raised me by herself, enduring hardship..."
The Fatty: "..."
Jiang Cheng's performance was rather abrupt. Although his acting was on point, the other people around his age found it a bit too exaggerated.
While the Fatty was sweating for Jiang Cheng, the latter actually succeeded.
The woman, unsure whether she was moved or just pitying the kids, revealed the details of the mission, keeping only some specifics and the outcome confidential.
"We received an urgent mission back then," the woman slowly entered a recollection, "A passenger ship of ours had encountered a shipwreck somewhere."
"We gathered urgently that night, and after preparing the rescue supplies, we immediately headed to the disaster area."
"My main job was to check the supplies on the ship. Normally, we would inspect everything before departure, but this mission was strange. Everyone was rushing, and the supplies were packed in deep green containers instead of the usual waterproof fabric wrapping."
(End of the Chapter)
---
Read (NS) ahead on (pa treon . com / CinderTL) – Chapter 260.
Early access starts at $1. Your support keeps this going!
$1 for this novel, or two novels for just $5, RDC/FF/MF Tiers. ;)
Translated 4 Series, 1.5K+ Chapters and 1.78M+ Words.