Card Room

Lu Jiuchuan woke up and found he was lying on a sofa. Tang Ci was next to him and hadn't woken up yet. Tang Ci's face was pale, his brows were furrowed tightly and he was constantly sweating. He seemed to be caught in a terrible nightmare.

Were the scenes that flashed through his mind just now dreams or his memory?

Lu Jiuchuan propped himself up, gently held Tang Ci's hand and whispered, "Xiao Tang, wake up."

Tang Ci was trapped in the nightmare when he heard a familiar voice calling to him. He struggled to wake up from the nightmare and meet Lu Jiuchuan's deep eyes.

After seeing him open his eyes, Lu Jiuchuan helped him sit up and handed him a glass of water. "Drink some water."

Tang Ci was covered in a cold sweat. The sweat had soaked through his shirt and even his hair was damp. The bloody scenes in his dream made him tremble uncontrollably. His fingers shook as he took the water cup and took a few sips in a hurry.

The warm water slid down his throat and his body gradually warmed up. Tang Ci finally recovered his mind. He looked at Lu Jiuchuan and his voice was a bit hoarse from just waking up, "Brother Jiu, I had a nightmare just now."

"Me too."

They looked at each other and Tang Ci quickly reacted. "If the content of our dream is the same, is it proof that it isn't a dream but forgotten memories?"

After all, they were scenes that flashed through the minds when they were unconscious. It might just be a dream. Then what if the two people's dreams were the same? It would prove that everything in the dream was a real event they had experienced together.

Lu Jiuchuan spoke in a deep voice, "On February 17th, 3000, my direct supervisor General Lin summoned me to destroy low level bugs on a black planet in the Hilt No Man's Land. He wanted us to occupy the precious resource star."

Tang Ci continued, "You went back to the Arrow Corps in the afternoon and told me to get ready to leave for the Hilt No Man's Land on the 19th. I asked what the task was and you said it was to go and kill some bugs."

Yu Hanjiang heard up to here and spoke to Lu Jiuchuan, "Brother, do you remember that we met on February 18th? You said you were going on a mission and wouldn't come back for a long time. I asked you about the mission. Since the special task of the military headquarters had to be kept a secret, you didn't tell me… the timing of this event is just right."

The task was accepted on the 17th, he said goodbye to Yu Hanjiang on the 18th and they left on the 19th.

It seemed that these fragmented images were really forgotten memories.

Xiao Lou walked to Yu Hanjiang's side. "Brother Jiu and Mr Tang haven't experienced the 8 of Spades we did and had never seen these bugs before. So you underestimated the enemy and encountered an accident while performing a mission in the Hilt No Man's Land?"

Lu Jiuchuan spoke calmly, "General Lin told us that the planet was full of small bugs and there were no intelligent creatures. At the beginning, we didn't pay attention to the bugs. After we arrived, we set off a lot of gunpowder on the planet to burn them. This just lead to the escalation of their fusion."

Tang Ci recalled these experiences and his face turned pale. “I remember the bugs evolving their ability to fly and all the vanguard troops we sent out were destroyed. The bugs might be afraid of fire but the number of them was too large. They directly covered us with a sea of bugs and penetrated our armors with sharp wings. They even penetrated the shield of the starship!”

Lu Jiuchuan added, "Many people died and I was helpless. I had to send an urgent distress call to the military."

Tang Ci said, "Later, a female voice warned us that she wanted to bury us with her children… she should be the queen of the bugs? The voice we just heard is the same as the female voice in my memory."

Yu Hanjiang frowned. "What happened later? How did you escape from so many bugs?"

Lu Jiuchuan pressed hard against his temple for a moment. "Someone should've saved us. The situation was extremely dangerous. The bug army had broken through our starship's shield and even destroyed the balance system. The starship couldn't take any more. More and more bugs were entering the starship to start a fierce battle with our soldiers. Xiao Tang's legs…"

He suddenly fell silent.

In his memory, he watched Tang Ci's legs being cut off by the sharp claws of the bugs.

The ground was covered with blood.

Tang Ci had fainted from the pain. Lu Jiuchuan was filled with anger and rushed to hug Tang Ci tightly…

In fact, Tang Ci's legs had been cut off in the Nightmare room of J of Clubs. Only Tang Ci knew what had happened at that time and Lu Jiuchuan hadn't witnessed it. Then the keeper modified the plot in this secret room. Tang Ci's legs were fine at first before they were cut off by the bugs in front of Lu Jiuchuan.

Lu Jiuchuan simply didn't want to recall that scene.

The unprecedented headache was still clearly in his mind. He watched Tang Ci fall into a pool of blood while the legs that had been cut off below the knees were thrown away by the bugs. His heart felt like it had been crushed and it was hard to breathe.

He went crazy and picked up a submachine gun to fire ferociously at the bugs!

The bugs saw the cluster of flames emerging from the barrel and were frightened. Harsh screams rang out through the starship. The bugs coming from behind attacked Lu Jiuchuan more madly.

A large hole was poked in Lu Jiuchuan's shoulder by the bugs. Blood flowed like water but he felt no pain at all. He just wanted to kill the bugs and die with them!

Unfortunately, he couldn't handle so many bugs by himself.

It wasn't long before he fell to the ground because he lost too much blood.

Lu Jiuchuan felt his consciousness gradually becoming blurred. He crawled hard and held tightly to the unconscious Tang Ci, choking out the words, "Xiao Tang… I hurt you… but it is nice that I can die with you."

Before losing consciousness completely, he heard a clear song in his ears.

The sound seemed to come from the distant sky above like it was the sound of Heaven…

Lu Jiuchuan closed his eyes. He drove away the bloody images in his mind and suddenly turned around to hug Tang Ci tightly.

The team members saw his movement and looked puzzled.

Tang Ci was the only one who knew why Brother Jiu suddenly hugged himself. He remembered that the moment his legs were cut off and he was about to faint from the pain, a man had rushed over like a crazy beast to hug him. The man growling with pain was the last scene in his memory.

Lu Jiuchuan must've been devastated. It was normal to be emotional when thinking back on that scene.

Tang Ci reached out to gently touch Lu Jiuchuan's back and comforted him in a soft voice. "It's fine. Aren't I standing here well? My legs have been healed. You don't need to feel sorry for me."

Lu Jiuchuan wasn't sorry. He just had a heartache.

He suddenly thought about how difficult it must've been for Tang Ci to survive after losing his legs in the Nightmare Room of J of Clubs. At that time, he wasn't with Tang Ci… it was the greatest regret of his life that he left Tang Ci to face the pain and fear of losing his legs alone.

Perhaps the keeper deliberately re-played the scene of Tang Ci losing his legs in order torture Lu Jiuchuan and let him know what a terrible nightmare he had experienced.

He would rather have his own legs cut off than let Tang Ci suffer that pain again.

Lu Jiuchuan's arms tightened as he held Tang Ci hard. The body temperature of the person in his arms made him feel at ease. It was good that Tang Ci was still around and his legs had recovered. He secretly vowed that even if he fought for his life, he would never let Tang Ci get hurt again.

Lu Jiuchuan took a deep breath to calm himself down. Then he released Tang Ci and turned to his teammates. "After Xiao Tang fainted, I was hurt fighting the bugs. I lost too much blood and my consciousness gradually blurred. Before I fell unconscious, I heard a strange song. I was dying at the time and thought I was hearing a song from Heaven. Now it seems that song should be real. "

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged looks. Singing?

Yu Hanjiang wondered, "Did it come from the people who saved you?"

Lu Jiuchuan didn't know that the bugs were highly intelligent creatures and set fire to many of them. The queen was so angry that she wanted them to die as well. It was impossible for her to let them go that easily.

The people who showed up at the key moment and saved them were the focus.

Xiao Lou sorted out the time sequence. "Brother Jiu sent a distress signal to the military headquarters. The nearest army couldn't have arrived within minutes. Therefore, it isn't the imperial army who saved you."

Lu Jiuchuan nodded. "The military's statement was that we were attacked by alien creatures in the Hilt No Man's Land and received heavy casualties. Passing allies saved us but that definitely isn't what happened."

Who saved Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci?

Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci could only recall these things. They had no memory of what happened after they fell unconscious so Xiao Lou naturally couldn't know.

Chu Huaying stood next to the window and looked at the black planet underneath. "I've been wandering among the stars since I was a child. I heard from my parents that there are bugs in the Hilt No Man's Land. This shows that it isn't the first time humans have landed on the bug planet. Do you remember the queen's warning just now?"

She repeated it. "Invading the home of the bugs and slaughtering my children. Haven't you humans done enough evil over the years?"

Shao Qingge frowned slightly. "The evil done over the years… it seems there were humans who slaughtered the bugs before Brother Jiu? During the conversation with the queen just now, I could clearly feel her anger. Her hatred for human beings is very strong. Will the invasion of human cities in 8 of Spades also have something to do with this?"

They had experienced 8 of Spades first but the time flow in the Card World could be adjusted. Perhaps the slaughter of bugs by humans led to the bugs retaliating?

In 8 of Spades, an entire city fell and apart from the dozens of surviving challengers, tens of millions of humans were infected by bugs and became their puppets.

If 8 of Spades had a logical connection with this secret room then it was likely a retaliatory invasion?

Xiao Lou's heart became colder the more he thought about it. "Sister Huaying, your starship was made according to the appearance of the bugs. The predecessors on this starship must've landed on the bug planet. Why don't we start the investigation with the other star thieves?"

Chu Huaying simply nodded. "Okay, I will call them all over for an interrogation."

Proofreader: Paranoid Kitten & Fictional Reality