Plague Doctor

Chapter 225: Trap

“It is really me, just come here and take a look...” The yellow spiral triangle started to spin as the figure urged in Gu Jun’s voice.

‘You are not!’ Wu Siyu finally calmed herself. She tasted no saltiness on her lips. ‘No matter who you are, you are definitely not that kangaroo, you’re not even a rat.’ She stopped replying and sat down on the floor. ‘Waste your time if you wish, I am not going to respond anymore.’

“I do not have much time left...” The voice appeared to know that it had failed so it stopped calling her to get closer, instead it said, “I can gain contact with the rest of you but the method is very complicated so this might be the last chance I can do so... Only by building a dimensional portal between Dreamlands and earth that I will be able to return...” The voice became intermittent but the content could still be heard clearly, “Tonight, all you need to do is to arrange yourself in the pattern of this seal while facing the direction of hostel number 5, and activate the power of the Seven Cryptical Book of Hsan. Sense it and make the connection... allow the dimensions to overlap... I need your help, the more of you the better because we only have one chance... I will be waiting for you... tonight...”

‘Tonight?’ Wu Siyu now could confirm that this had to be a fake Dirty-minded Jun. She had already promised to meet up with the real Dirty-minded Jun in the sweet dream tonight so this voice could not have belonged to him. All of the sudden, her eyes flew open. The room was still very quiet. She looked at the people in the dreaming room and her heart chilled. Without that kangaroo, she would have fallen into the abyss already...’Who is behind that voice? Are they still inside the dreaming room?’

By then, the rest slowly woke up. Most of them should have heard the voice, Siyu could see that from the excitement on their faces. But based on the rules, the group was not allowed to exchange information immediately, instead they were ushered into separate rooms next to the dreaming room and worked with Phecda members to record down everything that they had experienced in their dream. After some consideration, Wu Siyu decided to be honest about her discovery. Regarding the question, ‘do you believe the voice belongs to Gu Jun’, she responded with a resounding ‘no’, and the reason was, ‘It was just a feeling, I could feel that it was not him.’

After that, the group sat around the waiting area. Finally they could communicate with each other.

“Ah Jun looked so much thinner.” Cai Zixuan sighed, “The food there must disagree with him, there’s not even someone to cook some soup for him.”

“Considering what we’re facing,” Lou Xiaoning shrugged. “No matter whether it’s true or not, we still need to go and rescue him. After all there is no way of telling if it is him or not.” The others nodded silently. The real choice that was placed before them was actually whether they were willing to take this risk or not, if yes, they might save Gu Jun or they might be in trouble; if no, then definitely Gu Jun would be lost to them. Wu Siyu knew that was the case, if not for the appearance of the kangaroo, in spite of how suspicious the voice was, she would have made the choice to take the risk. The traitorous force was probably banking on that, they did not give them much time to consider and rash decisions always led to an awful outcome...

The more Siyu thought about it, the more unsettled she felt. She took out her phone to call a number, the emergency number given to her by the kangaroo, she was only supposed to call it during an emergency, Siyu felt like this was urgent enough, but the call... would not go through... the number was out of service...

Soon, Elder Tong and Prof Shen walked out with the announcement, “Of the 32 people, 27 heard the voice and the content they heard collaborated with each other.”

“I still did not hear anything.” Elder Tong’s face was lined with helplessness. “Regardless, there is an ambiguity about this whole thing. If we are to follow normal protocol, we won’t have enough time but if we follow the voice’s instruction, that will put us in an unknown position and risk. What do you guys think?”

“I am willing to take that risk.” Wang Ruoxiang said seriously, “What if... that is the real Gu Jun? I can’t just ignore that possibility.” Cai Zixuan nodded. Others who were familiar with Gu Jun all agreed to take the risk.

“We all know spells now.” Xue Ba added, “The voice wished for us to use the power of the tome which we are familiar with. Nothing has come to harm so far, so why should it now?”

“Other than that, we can do this outside.” Lou Xiaoning suggested, “And set up an artillery perimeter around it. If anything strange happens, just unload the fireworks. That should lower the risk that we might face.” This could turn into a suicide mission was what she was saying. They were all prepared to sacrifice for the sake of Gu Jun. Their loss would not hinder Phecda either because the Spell Department now already had a mature cultivation system, yes, it would be a regret to lose them but it was not a loss that could not be replaced. Elder Tong, Prof Shen and Prof Jiang had taken that into consideration. Just as the plan appeared to go through, Wu Siyu suddenly piped up to say, “I am against this mission!”

The room silenced immediately. The person who supposedly would support this rescue mission the most... was against it?

“I have a feeling that was not Gu Jun.” Only Wu Siyu knew how dire the situation was. She needed to persuade the group to believe her without revealing the kangaroo’s existence. She thought back to the voice and argued, “The voice used the terms ‘Dreamlands and earth’! Dreamlands, Gu Jun would not have known that term in the first place.” She had no idea Gu Jun had already familiarized himself with that terms from the land’s travellers and Atal but that was beside the point.

‘What?’ The group looked at each other.

“I heard him say ‘dream world’ and not ‘Dreamlands’,” Wang Ruoxiang said with a frown. She was supported by Lou Xiaoning and Xue Ba who also heard ‘dream world’.

“Siyu probably heard a slightly different message than the rest of us did.” Prof Jiang offered. Wu Siyu frowned with apprehension, ‘I’ve been trapped...?’ The voice knew that she did not believe him so they purposely laid down this trap, it appeared like she was the only one who heard the term Dreamlands being used.

“Probably Sister Siyu did not catch it that clearly?” Zheng Jialiang said and scratched his head while explaining, “The voice was quite blurry after all and Sister Siyu has synesthesia. With her unique background, it is not impossible for her to mishear the voice, right?” Hearing that, most people turned from confusion to understanding.

Wu Siyu’s heart twitched. She looked at Zheng Jialiang’s harmless and youthful face, thinking, ‘What is this guy up to...?’

Everyone wanted the message to be true because they wanted to rescue Gu Jun. Zheng Jialiang’s seemingly kind words were meant to undermine her power of persuasion. Due to their eagerness, the rest was willing to buy into his words and believed that Siyu had most likely misheard the voice.

“That is possible.” Prof Jiang added, “From what we gathered, those who have lesser training of the tome gleaned less information and blurrier messages.” Wang Ruoxiang, Gao Yi, and Zhang Zuodong, all three of them heard dream world; so did the members who reached chapter 3 and 4, they all heard dream world; instead it was those, whose study only reached chapter two, who could not be certain, their testimonials ranged from ‘island’, ‘Dreamlands’ to ‘Dream World’...

For example, Cai Zixuan had trouble recalling the message despite his close relationship with Gu Jun, so it was not unlikely that Wu Siyu had misheard, this was not an issue regarding the bond of relationship but their level of training with the tome.

“No, I did not mishear anything...” Wu Siyu knew that she was cornered. She looked at the faces around her and for a moment, they all looked unfamiliar to her, “I know that Gu Jun is still alive but that was not his voice, it was trying to trick us.”

“Sister Siyu has been under great pressure.” Zheng Jialiang added with kindness, “What happened today must have impacted her greatly.”

“I’m fine! Just shut up!” Wu Siyu was not one to lose her temper but this kid had been getting under her skin. His implication was that Siyu’s S Value had probably collapsed from this interaction with the voice, so no matter what she said, it should not be taken into consideration. Even if Siyu told the truth now, that Dirty-minded Jun was in Australia and she had just communicated with him that morning, it would only make her look even crazier. People might even think that since she had been living in a dream over the past year, she had lost the ability to believe in the existence of the real Gu Jun. No matter what she said now, it would carry no weight.

“I’m sorry.” Zheng Jialiang closed his mouth and looked perfectly like a penitent junior.

“Aiz.” Wu Siyu knew that the more she argued, the more unhinged she would appear. Unfortunately, cunning words and mind tricks were really not her forte. She looked pleadingly at her friends but they looked blankly back at her. “Guys, this is a trap, I am sure of it!”

The group did not know how to respond. Ultimately, it was Wang Ruoxiang who said, “Siyu, I want to take this risk, we can’t just give up on this chance because we are afraid...”

Yes, this might be a trap but this might be their only hope to save Gu Jun.

“Let’s start the preparation for now.” Elder Tong said darkly, “We’ll decide later whether we should commit to the mission or not.”