The kid coughed and said, “Comrades, I’ve brought you trouble. It seems we’re going to meet Marx. I’ve never been afraid of anything in my life, but I really didn’t expect to die like this.” He was wearing a black rat suit, so his figure was hard to discern in the dark. Upon closer inspection, he was indeed a chubby guy. I couldn’t believe someone so fat could be a tomb raider.

Panzi cursed loudly, “You fat bastard, where the hell did you come from? I really want to beat you to death!” I looked at the fire starter, which was almost out, and I was nearly in tears. I said, “You guys need to think of a way, or it won’t matter who hits who; we’ll all be at the mercy of the bugs!”

Panzi glanced around, handed his short gun to the fat guy, and then passed the fire starter to me. He said, “Originally, we could have burned our clothes to buy some time, but this fire starter is too weak. It might not even light before we’re done for. I’ll count to three. I’ll attract those bugs, and you all run to the wall and form a human ladder to climb up. We definitely have enough time. I’ll move quickly. Once you guys are up, I’ll come over. We can’t waste a second!”

Before I could refuse, Panzi suddenly jumped and dove into the pile of corpses. Immediately, the tide of corpses surged up, and a path opened up in front of us. I shouted, wanting to save him, but the fat guy grabbed me and said, “Get up there!”

He pulled me along, and after a few steps, I used his momentum to climb up. I then reached back to pull him up as well. When I looked down, Panzi was covered in corpses, rolling on the ground in pain. I was almost in tears. The fat guy shouted, “Get up! It’s just a few steps! Hurry!” But there was no way Panzi could get up anymore; corpses were already starting to crawl into his mouth. He tried to stand a few times but was knocked down repeatedly. I really didn’t expect the bugs to be this aggressive. Panzi curled up, watching us from above, and shook his head in despair.

In the end, his face was completely covered by the corpses. I saw him extend his hand and make a gun gesture, his hand already full of wounds. I knew he wanted us to put him out of his misery. The fat guy couldn’t bear to watch any longer. Gritting his teeth, he shouted, “Brother, forgive me!”

Just then, a mechanism sounded from above, and another person jumped down. Note that this person jumped down, not fell, so he landed steadily, but the impact was heavy. He bent his body to cushion the fall, braced himself with one hand on the ground, and took a breath. The corpses were momentarily stunned, and then suddenly, as if going crazy, they started scattering everywhere, desperately trying to get away from this person. The large bugs that had originally surged forward now retreated like a tide, disappearing into the depths of the crevices in the wall.

Upon taking a closer look, I couldn’t help but feel overjoyed. Isn’t this person the Silent Oil Bottle? The fat man also exclaimed, “Oh my God, this guy is actually alive!” However, as I focused again, I felt a sense of foreboding. His shirt was completely torn, and he was covered in blood, looking like he had sustained some serious injuries. The Silent Oil Bottle caught sight of the barely breathing Panzi on the ground and hurriedly picked him up. We saw that there was hope and quickly reached down—one of us grabbed Panzi, and the other grabbed the Silent Oil Bottle, pulling them up.

What a transformation! From a situation where survival seemed impossible, we suddenly found ourselves in a reversal of fortune. We wanted to check Panzi’s injuries, but the Silent Oil Bottle waved his hand and said, “We need to go; it’s coming after us.”

Although I hadn’t fully grasped the meaning of his words, the fat man had already jumped up, looking very empathetic. He picked up Panzi on his back. I grabbed Panzi’s miner’s lamp to lead the way, and the four of us ran deeper into the stone path.

I don’t know how long we ran; I had lost track of how many turns we had taken. The Silent Oil Bottle stopped the fat man and said, “Alright, this stone path has a strange design; it shouldn’t be able to catch up with us for a while.” We stopped and realized we were drenched in sweat. I hurriedly asked what that thing was they were talking about, but the Silent Oil Bottle sighed and didn’t answer me. Instead, he laid Panzi flat on the ground. I thought to myself that the most important thing now was to check on Panzi’s injuries.

Panzi was indeed seriously injured, with wounds all over his body. Even if we had enough bandages to wrap him up, he would end up looking like a mummy. I looked closely and, fortunately, most of the wounds weren’t deep, but he had a few on his neck and abdomen that were almost fatal. It seemed these bugs were very adept at attacking soft parts of the body. I recalled the corpse I had touched earlier, which also had severe bites on the abdomen.

The Silent Oil Bottle pressed on his abdomen, drew out the black gold ancient knife from his waist, and said, “Help me hold him down.”

I was startled, a sense of ominous foreboding washing over me. I quickly asked, “What are you going to do?”

He stared at Panzi’s belly, like a butcher sizing up his sacrifice. He moved his long fingers near the wound while saying to me, “Something has burrowed into his stomach.”

“No way,” I said, looking at him with doubt, then glancing at the fat man, who had already pinned Panzi’s feet down. “From your reactions, I believe him a bit more.”

I had no choice but to hold Panzi’s hands down. The Silent Oil Bottle made a quick incision on his abdomen, then, with lightning speed, inserted his fingers into the wound, probing, hooking, and pulling out a green corpse bug. These actions were incredibly fast, but Panzi still curled up in pain; he was very strong, and I could barely hold him down.

“This one suffocated inside him,” the Silent Oil Bottle tossed the bug aside. “The wound is too deep; if it isn’t disinfected, it could get infected, which would be very troublesome.”

The fat man took out a bullet from his gun and said, “How about we learn from the advanced experience of the American people and use this bullet where it’s truly needed? We can unscrew the bullet head and use gunpowder to cauterize his wound?”

Panzi grabbed the fat guy’s foot and, in pain, gritted his teeth and cursed, “I’m not shot! Do you want me to burn my intestines or something?” He took out a bundle of bandages from his pants pocket, which had bloodstains on it, apparently from the wound on his head, and said, “Luckily, I didn’t throw this away. Tie it up for me, tight! This little injury is nothing!”

The fat guy said, “These days, personal heroism isn’t in vogue anymore, comrade. I’ve seen your intestines, so just stop pretending.” He was about to take action when I and the silent oil bottle quickly stopped him. I said, “Don’t be reckless; if the bullet hits his internal organs, it’s all over. Let’s wrap it up first.”

The fat guy thought for a moment and agreed. We hurriedly helped Panzi bandage his wound, then tore off a few pieces of cloth from my shirt to wrap another layer around it. Panzi was in so much pain he was nearly fainting. I saw him leaning against the wall, gasping for breath, and couldn’t help but feel very moved. If I hadn’t dropped that fire starter, maybe he wouldn’t have ended up like this.

At that moment, I remembered something and asked the fat guy, “By the way, who the hell are you?”

Just as the fat guy was about to speak, the silent oil bottle made a gesture for silence. I immediately heard a chilling, eerie cackling sound coming from one side of the corridor.