The Trembling World
chapter-207

TL: xDh20, LifeisaJourney

“Elder Liu is right. This sound can only be heard when sound is kept to minimum like when we hold our breath. So we should be able to hear it, if it was actually quiet. Tonight’s a thunderstorm so the surrounding area makes it hard to hear. Plus, we didn’t pay attention to it. If Little Han tells us to listen carefully next time, we can all try our best to detect the sound. I’m confident that we will be able to hear that sound the next time.” Zhang ShengLi drew up a plan immediately.

“When Qian An told me about hearing the noise, I didn’t believe him. Didn’t believe that there was whistle-like noise. So I didn’t report it to Elder Liu, since I thought it might interrupt his sleep schedule. It’s all my fault. If I had reported the issue earlier then Little LuChen wouldn’t have died!” Han GuangMing said with an ashamed expression.

“No need to overly blame yourself, just pay attention next time.” Liu Gan shook his head. The events tonight were very strange, so the blame shouldn’t rest on Han GuangMing.

“Thank You Elder Liu!” Han GuangMing was still ashamed since this situation occurred on his watch. No matter what, shifting blame is difficult.

“Elder Liu, what should we do to face this?” Zhang ShengLi asked.

“We can follow the plan of centralized sleeping. We can’t let the presence of this threat ruin our sleep schedule just to worry about it. We would never recover our strength and that would make us weak. If we get weak enough, the Variant might attack us at that point,” Liu Gan told Zhang ShengLi.

“Should we continue to monitor the noise? If we hear the sound, should we report to you?” Zhang ShengLi asked.

“You can monitor it! If you hear anything, just wake me up. I really like to know what type of Variant this is! Able to kill my teammate! I won’t let it live!” Liu Gan replied.

“Then, Little Han and Little Qian, I thank you for your trouble. Let’s have you continue to keep guard and monitor the noise. Since you two are the ones who can absolutely hear it, you have to wake us up when you hear it.” Zhang ShengLi said to Han GuangMing.

“Good, this time I definitely won’t commit the same mistake!” Han GuangMing promised Zhang ShengLi. Even if Zhang ShengLi didn’t request for Han GuangMing to stay up to actively monitor for the sound, Han GuangMing would do it out of guilt.

“Living within The Trembling World, anything is possible. If you face off with the unknown next time, remaining calm is the highest priority. If you are done with your tasks, then don’t be too nervous and rest up. Be prepared for tomorrow!” Liu Gan said to everyone there, before dissolving the meeting.

After the meeting was over, other team members felt safer being able to sleep with more people around. Liu Gan felt safe with Yin He keeping watch, so he wasn’t concerned about the Variant Zombie attacking him. Thus, Liu Gan kept sleeping in a single room, but this time, he moved it down to the second floor so he could have a faster response rate.

“This Variant Zombie is too tricky! It was able to avoid my detection! I must kill it!” Yin He exclaimed after returning back to the room. She was so sure she had felt its presence before the thunderstorm, but she didn’t have any luck in her search for it. She couldn’t believe that even after searching several hundred meters within the vicinity something like that was able to slip by her.

“This is a game. Everything is factored into the game design, even things that we can’t expect. This Variant Zombie is possibly cold-blooded with the ability to camouflage to the surroundings. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that you weren’t able to find it. I don’t blame you, so don’t be too hard on yourself,” Liu Gan explained to Yin He.

Yin He didn’t continue speaking. She only maintained her concentration and listened to the noises coming from outside of the room. Yin He wanted to see if she was able to hear that faint whistling-noise Han GuangMing had described. After a long while of hearing nothing, she grew bored.

Liu Gan also tried to listen for a long while, but slowly he drifted off to sleep.

...

Even Liu Gan didn’t know for sure how long he had fallen asleep. While he slept, he had a dream. It was a vivid dream of him scaling the ice-capped snow mountain. However, Liu Gan was rudely wakened from his dream by a knock on the door. Liu Gan immediately sat up on his bed. The sky was still dark outside, the thunderstorm not yet stopping. The rain had slowed down considerably from before he had slept though.

Upon opening the door, Zhang ShengLi and a lot more players were standing outside. Zhang ShengLi immediately gave a brief update to Liu Gan. He said that Han GuangMing was able to notice the faint sound again.

As everyone calmed down, Liu Gan focused in on the noise. Even with rain falling outside, there was a faint noise. Not a continuous noise. It was a segmented and uneven noise, and the source was near the rear courtyard. It could be that the noise was far away from their current location.

“Zhang ShengLi, you and Zhang Hua keep guard here. DeCheng and Han GuangMing will come with me to the rear courtyard to look around. Let’s see what the situation is with this Variant!” Liu Gan had lost a member already so many of the team members weren’t able to sleep soundly. Now that they had been woken twice in one night, this Variant made many people angry. Only with the Variant’s death could the anger be dissipated.

“I’m on guard duty? Wouldn’t it be best if I went and let DeCheng stand guard?” Zhang ShengLi felt unwilling.

“Guard duty is the greater responsibility. I’m afraid that, when I am out searching for the source of the noise, something might happen here at camp while I’m gone. If you stay here, I’ll feel a lot better.” Liu Gan patted Zhang ShengLi on the shoulder.

“Okay” Zhang ShengLi said, after hearing that from Liu Gan. Shouldering the responsibility of holding up the fort, while Liu Gan was gone, gave Zhang ShengLi a new sense of pride in himself.

Liu Gan led Yin He, Wang DeCheng, and Han GuangMing down to the first floor. Then they opened up the backdoor and carefully listened to the noise. The faint whistle-like sound momentarily appeared in between droplets of rain. Only those who had extremely sensitive hearing could distinguish the sound.

Liu Gan, Wang DeCheng, Han GuangMing were able to hear it, but Yin He wasn’t able to. This made Yin He very gloomy. As Liu Gan had speculated, Yin He must be on a different range of detection so she couldn’t hear the sound frequency, like the humans.

Wang DeCheng found several umbrellas and each person carried one in the rain. They walked around the rear courtyard searching for the source of the noise. The first stop was a check on the three vehicles, which weren’t the source of the problem. This meant the problem was elsewhere in the courtyard. Once again, everyone had to quiet down before it was possible to track the noise. It sounded further back in the rear courtyard.

Farther back in the courtyard was a small forest. The muddy ground made treading through the forest quite difficult. After the small group hiked one after the other through the forest for several hundred meters, they reached a hillside.

Now that the group stood on the hillside, the noise was much louder. Even Yin He was able to hear it.