Chapter 4 The Last Person in the Team

  A dark shadow swooped in, Xiao Xuan's eyes condensed instantly, one hand grasped the rope, and the other hand clenched empty air. A flame burst forth from Xiao Xuan's palm, illuminating the originally dark pit. The black shadows dispersed due to the flames, and a "whooshing" sound of flapping wings was heard. It turned out that a group of bats had been dwelling in the pit.

  The danger was lifted, and Xiao Xuan flipped his hand over, extinguishing the flames in his palm. He continued to slowly lower the rope, descending another twenty or so meters until his feet finally touched solid ground. The pit was pitch black, but due to the reflection of the water at the bottom and the glow of the limestone, there was some visibility, allowing Xiao Xuan to make out his surroundings.

  The people standing at the edge of the pit above saw a sudden flash of light in the pit below, and Sarah immediately asked:

  "What's going on?"

  "It must be a strong flashlight on the helmet or a light stick." Beth guessed.

  Sarah nodded upon hearing this, but only Juno's eyes showed a hint of puzzlement. Everyone's adventure equipment was her responsibility to prepare, but those light sticks were only equipped by herself, and the others' backpacks didn't have any. Moreover, the earlier brightness wasn't the direct beam of a flashlight, it was a diffused light source. What exactly was Xiao Xuan doing?

  However, this doubt only flashed by, and when Xiao Xuan below raised his flashlight to signal that it was safe to come down after three flashes, the people above also began to control the rope one by one to lower themselves.

  Sarah and June were the fastest, with Beth close behind. These three girls were all seasoned adventurers, so they had a lot of experience and control over the ropes, while Zhao Jian and Su Mo Ran were far inferior in comparison.

  Zhao Jian originally wanted to slowly lower himself down, but because his hands were gripping too tightly and his body was too tense, everyone else had already reached the bottom of the pit by the time he had only slid down less than five meters. At this point, Zhao Jian's heart was clearly getting anxious, and with a sudden loosening of his hand, he wanted to let out a bit more rope at once, but instead let out too much rope all at once, causing him to fall directly from the top of the pit.

  "Ahhhhhhhh!!!"

  Zhao Jian let out a cry of surprise, and his whole body was like falling straight down, the pit was at least thirty meters deep. If he really fell like that, he would definitely die. Sarah and the others covered their mouths in shock, they never expected that Zhao Jian, who had always accompanied them on adventure games, would make such a low-level mistake this time, and this mistake might cost him his life!

  Among the crowd, Xiao Xuan's reaction was clearly the quickest. Qin Li being killed by Xiao Xuan with one shot was because Xiao Xuan wanted to kill a chicken to scare the monkey, and also because Xiao Xuan felt that bringing along a woman like Qin Li would only become a burden in completing the task, so it was better for her to just die cleanly. However, Zhao Jian was different, this man's physical quality was still not bad, when they really arrived at the bottom of the cave, encountered the Man-Eating Demon, Zhao Jian still had quite some fighting strength.

  In the movie "Darkness Invasion 1", women like Sarah can hold wrenches and fight against cannibals, killing a few of them. Not to mention Zhao Jian, a robust man with a strong physique. Therefore, Xiao Xuan does not want Zhao Jian to die, or more precisely, he does not want him to die in such a worthless way.

  He sprinted a few steps and arrived at the lower end of Zhao Jian's rope, where Xiao Xuan stretched out his arm to tie the end of the rope around his own arm. He then turned around and ran in the opposite direction, pulling the lower part of the rope upwards. As he fell, Zhao Jian slid along the rope for a certain distance due to Xiao Xuan's pull, which saved his life. The potential energy from his fall was mostly converted into horizontal kinetic energy and friction with the rope during this low-angle slide. Even after Xiao Xuan released the rope and Zhao Jian landed, he only rolled over several times, scraping some skin off his body, but otherwise unharmed.

  "Jian, you scared us to death! What's wrong with you? How could you make such a low-level mistake?" Ruo Nu was the leader of this activity. If anyone had an accident during this activity, her responsibility would be the greatest. So when she saw Zhao Jian stand up, she immediately walked forward and scolded him.

  "Me..." Zhao Jian was momentarily at a loss for words, he couldn't very well say it was his first time using this kind of rope.

  "It's alright, as long as no one is hurt. Just be more careful next time. Zhao Jian probably just made a careless mistake this time." Xiao Xuan stepped forward to smooth things over.

  Sarah and Beth started to take some cotton balls and alcohol to disinfect Zhao Jian's small wound. Later, everyone would need to crawl through the cave, which would definitely involve frequent physical contact with the surrounding sand, and if the wound was not disinfected and treated beforehand, it would be easy to get infected.

  Su Mo Ran also slowly lowered herself down with the rope, her speed was slow, but more stable than Zhao Jian, and she landed steadily.

  "Wow, this is beautiful." After Beth helped Zhao Jian treat his wound, she started filming with her DV. Indeed, there was flowing water and glittering limestone inside the cave. The light from the headlights on everyone's helmets reflected off the sparkling stones, making it very pretty.

  "Hmm, it's indeed very beautiful. By the way, Juno, where is the cave we're going to explore next?" Sarah asked Juno.

  "Follow me." Zhūnō beckoned to the crowd as he walked into a corner, where there was a very narrow and deep cave entrance. "This is the entrance of the cave, our expedition this time will start from here."

  "What are we waiting for? Let's go in." Beth was already impatiently waiting aside.

  "Alright, I'll go first, you guys follow up, everyone be careful not to fall behind." Zeno was also a strong-willed woman with a decisive and efficient personality. She stuffed her own adventure pack into the cave entrance, then crouched down and crawled in herself.

  The entrance to the cave is very narrow, and even a slender woman like Ruo Nu may not find it easy to crawl in. Fortunately, this time the Chinese team, whether it's Xiao Xuan, Su Mo Ran or Zhao Jian, all have relatively slim figures, if the main god were to bring in some new people who are fat, they would not be able to crawl into the cave at all, but it seems that the main god should have considered this point long ago.

  Ruo Nu went in first, followed closely by Beth, then Sarah. At this time, Su Mu, who had been standing beside Xiao Xuan, asked Xiao Xuan, "We... also need to go in?"

  Xiao Xuan nodded and said, "We haven't received the main god's prompt for completing our [Main Quest 1], which means we still have a distance to go before meeting the requirements. If we don't follow them down now, when the time comes, it will be a direct deletion by the main god; deletion, do you understand what that means? It's like clicking on a file on your computer, right-clicking and deleting, simple yet decisive, leaving no room for resistance. I'll go first, you guys follow behind me, stay close."

  Xiao Xuan also entered the cave, and he deliberately went in front of Su Mo Ran and Zhao Jian because Xiao Xuan thought of a scene from the original movie "Darkness Invasion 1". The female protagonists crawled into this cave together and encountered a very narrow place. They climbed up one by one with difficulty, and when it was the last person's turn, the cave suddenly collapsed. The last woman barely escaped with her companions' help; if she had been any slower, she would have been buried alive. This collapse also blocked Sarah's original path back, so they could only continue to wander in this underground world, searching for a way out. And it was because of this that they entered the lair of the man-eating monster.

  This process, or the details of this original movie, should reappear in this task world. At least, Xiao Xuan is 90% sure about this, because if the main god announces the completion of "Main Task 1" as soon as everyone enters the cave, then the reincarnators can think of ways to prevent Sarah and others from entering the cave. If not, they can take other more cunning methods. In short, the reincarnators will definitely be able to reduce the difficulty of the next task by doing so. On the other hand, if the main god does not announce the completion of "Main Task 1" and does not release the next [Main Task], then as a reincarnator, they can only continue to follow these women into the cave, wait until the cave collapses and completely blocks the retreat, and then release the next [Main Task] which is in line with the situation.

  So, the question arises, if the main god really arranged it this way, then the person at the back of the team must be the most dangerous. According to Xiao Xuan's speculation, the main god would not directly let the entire cave collapse and bury Sara and the others along with the reincarnated ones collectively. That wouldn't conform to the main god's "aesthetics". Therefore, the danger naturally appears on the last person.

  Now, the last one in the team should be Zhao Jian. Previously, it was Xiao Xuan who saved him, not because Xiao Xuan was kind, but because he thought that if he had to die, he should die with value, for example, by being the last one in the team...