Mother of Insects

Chapter Forty-Five

Thinking about it afterwards, Lin Xi suspected that he and the rest of the exploration team might've been hypnotized by some mysterious force.

Yeah, that was it— Jerry's voice was so calm, so confident, like they were walking on some tourist road filled with countless signs instead of a dark, narrow tunnel without any light.

The strange thing was that everyone believed Jerry.

They believe that it's because of the darkness that the road felt so long. They believe that before long they'll reach the cave where they first rolled down.

The entrance to the cave might've been blocked by some gravel and dirt, but that doesn't matter. Since the bugs can find their way out, they can naturally do the same.

But things gradually became worse, the air became wetter and the temperature grew colder.

Every few steps, Lin Xi needed to wipe condensation off his mask.

At the beginning, some people still raised questions to Jerry, and occasionally some will talk about irrelevant things on the public communications channel.

But now, both the private and the public channel were very quiet— only the sound of people breathing more and more heavily could be heard.

Lin Xi began to realize that something was wrong when he saw something soft in the cracks of some rocks, like a large group of sea anemones crowded in there. Lin Xi initially thought it was something unique to this planet, alike lichen or moss, but soon he discovered that it was a tongue of some kind of giant worm sticking out. When Lin Xi and others crossed them, they were frightened. There was probably a nest of worms twisting their bodies and drilling into deeper and narrower rock gaps. These movement caused caused a small earthquake, and a lot of gravel fell from the ceiling.

Thank God, the tunnels didn't collapse, but Lin Xi was hit on the shoulder and forehead by a few rocks.

A distinctly sweet smell emerged from his mask.

"Damn..."

Lin Xi muttered, realizing that he was bleeding.

It was at this moment that Lin Xi suddenly came back to his senses from his dazed state.

He stopped suddenly.

Walker, who had been following him, bumped into him, followed by Lina, Eugene, Schroderres...

"Hey, what are you doing!"

Walker was so big he almost caused Lin Xi to fall, but Lin Xi stood still.

After a pause of probably a few seconds, he heard Walker's familiar rude yelling.

Lin Xi didn't want to admit that hearing this guy's curses actually made him feel more at ease.

"Something's not right..." Is what he said to Walker.

"Jerry! Where the hell are you taking us?"

This is what he said to Jerry.

"..."

Jerry was silent.

"Jerry! Stop!"

Lin Xi shouted, raising his voice.

"We're almost there."

After a while, Jerry responded.

"Don't worry, we didn't go the wrong way, we followed the signs."

He emphasized word for word.

But Lin Xi's face tensed up.

He didn't trust Jerry's assurance. The reason is simple, if he were the responsible and good-tempered man he knew, Jerry would still stop.