The Trembling World

Chapter 7: Escape

At the epicenter of the corpse tide stood a billboard, which displayed “Welcome to the The Trembling World” in large, bright red characters – which seemed almost as if it were dripping down like blood. Underneath these large letters was a lucky survivor, exhausted and at the brink of losing hope.

Liu Gan saw that the plaza was covered with zombies and let out a long sigh. The most disappointing thing in life was a year ago when he had to amputate his arms and legs. Finally, he was able to use his limbs again, yet now his time was limited because of his dire situation.

God opened a window of opportunity, but at the same time closed a door on him.

So tired, so thirsty…..

Will it finally rain? Liu Gan pondered as he stared up at the sky. At the far edge of horizon, the lightning came closer and closer into view, and the lightning quickly followed in succession. The torrential downpour could provide a source of drinking water. This would definitely resolve Liu Gan’s thirst situation.

Liu Gan quickly dismissed the idea. Even if downpours could provide a source of water, it would also bring lightning with it. Liu Gan was sitting atop of an iron pillar, which also served as a lightning rod. The iron pillar stood isolated from every other building in the vicinity, so it was highly possible that the lightning would strike on the pillar.

If that was to happen, you can imagine what would happen to Liu Gan who was sitting on top of it.

In addition, what happens if it rains blood red rain? In the beginning of the game, Liu Gan recalled the origin of the Trembling World had something relating to the red rain.

If he took a sip from the red rain, would he turn into one of them, losing rationality and cognitive ability?

Every uncertainty seemed dangerous, it was hard to find hope in this situation.

The Trembling World – the name suited the game. Liu Gan had already experienced feeling numerous moments of trembling.

Liu Gan thought to himself about the future choices he would have to make; If he wanted to survive, he would have to search for clean water and food. But to do all that, he needed to think of an escape plan from this plaza. Since all the zombies within the surrounding streets were lured to the center of the plaza, that must mean there were very few on the streets. Those streets should be relatively safe.

The real question was, now that every corner of the plaza was filled with zombies, what would he do about thousands of zombies below the billboard. What could he do to escape to those streets.

Without extra assistance from an outside source, nothing he can do right now had a chance.

Liu Gan tried his best to calm himself. While allowing his stamina to return, his brain functions started working twice as hard. If he wanted to survive, he must believe that “good things come to those who wait” – he would definitely find a way to leave the plaza.

Recalling on everything that had happened ever since he entered the game, Liu Gan realized that the game had given an ample time to the players. It’s just that the players didn’t take the chance. From the moment the players appeared on the plaza, there were only a few zombies nearby. They could’ve easily left the plaza quietly, then found a safe place to hide.

Even if they lost the chance for that time frame, the first zombie that they encountered was a single female zombie.

If the players didn’t play around with the female zombie, they could have easily ganged up and killed her. At least seven to eight minutes had passed before the players encountered the next wave of zombie attack. They could’ve chosen to escape, but instead they chose to sit around idly and wasted precious time.

Even after killing the three zombies which charged at them, the players had time to escape. The players just kept wasting precious time, it was only when the colossal zombie appeared, and the noises created from the explosion of the grenades and the shouting, that had lead to the corpse tide – leading to the eventual annihilation of the ten players and Liu Gan getting trapped on top of the iron pillar.

In fact, even if the colossal zombie appeared, the players had a chance. Only if they hadn’t all split up to escape, but to attack it all at once, then the Colossal zombie would’ve been left half dead. Before the eruption of corpse tide, they would have all escaped through the sewer.

[TN: remember the person who yell spread out to escape was green-skinned player and not Liu Gan.]

It was wrong to say the game never gave the players any chance, because time and time again, the players threw that chance away by not choosing the right thing to do. They were traumatized and instead of regaining control, they allowed the fear to overcome them. Once again, losing out on the chance to escape, leading to the current condition entire team getting wiped out.

Liu Gan felt that he must absorb the moral of the lessons, and for future missions, he had to calm down. Especially since he was trapped on the billboard – he must not freak out and think carefully. He would definitely find a way to escape.

He needed to work hard in order to survive this!

Losing the use of his hands, a year ago was the lowest point of his life as a quadruple amputee. Liu Gan had finally gotten to enjoy the experience of a normal person’s happiness with their intact limbs.

Liu Gan kept touching his own hands and legs. Even to the extent of taking off his shirt to investigate his arms. The attachment to the prosthetics were missing, it’s been replaced by completely good hands, arms, and legs. It’s a perfect body – his perfect body.

After losing his body parts, Liu Gan had countless dreams where he was able to regrow his limbs. In his dream, he was able to freely use his hands. He can’t even remember how many times he begged to god: if his limbs were able to regrow, he would be willing to sacrifice anything.

[TN: I chose to use god, but author wrote heaven. He was praying to a higher power for help.]

Right now, everything he has ever dreamed of came true. If the price was to pay for the reattachment of his limbs, was to get trapped in Trembling World… Liu Gan could accept this, at least he was alive and had his body back.

In real life, Liu Gan was a rich second generation, so he had no stress in living conditions and he had a lot of favorite hobbies. He could do whatever he wished to do, with a means of funding it. Liu Gan’s favorite activity was parkour. A little more than a year earlier he joined China Central Television’s (CCTV) show “Challenging the Impossible”. Through parkour, he broke a few top world records that no one else had been able to topple.

At the same time, he was also a fan of mountain climbing. Last year Liu Gan and his brother were hiking up Mt. Everest, and just before they were about to reach peak was when the weather suddenly changed. It was a blizzard and his sleeping bag got lost in the confusion. Feeling trapped and tired, he took a short nap, and upon waking up, his legs and arms had lost all feeling.

After the storm cleared, a helicopter was called in to Mt. Everest to evacuate Liu Gan. It was there where Liu Gan had to get the amputations done. His left and right arms, and both legs had to be cut off. Luckily, his family was rich, and they were able to install the latest machine-operated, alloy-made artificial limbs. Today’s technology with prosthetics was acceptable, but Liu Gan spent a really long time only barely managing to operating the limbs.