Chapter 13 Countdown

Before I had time to think about it, I immediately found that these bugs were all crawling towards the watch. It seemed that the light attracted them.

There was no way to turn off the light, so all I could do was lay there as I felt the bugs crawling up my wrist. They didn’t attack me or anything, just surrounded the watch.

I didn’t dare move either as I waited for the light to go out. At this time, I estimated that there was only about a minute left on the countdown.

I no longer felt depressed, and quickly let go of all the frustration in my heart. After laying there quietly for a while, my physical strength recovered and my pain receded a little bit, so I began writhing all over in an attempt to at least try and get myself unstuck.

But the pressure of the rocks keeping me stuck here was so strong that it caused me to break down again, and I didn’t even move an inch.

I closed my eyes and said myself, feel. Feel with your skin. You can only survive now if you’re absolutely calm. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting your energy.

I began to focus on all of my senses, feeling the gaps around me and the places where my skin fit little by little. The first thing I found was that my hand was stuck in one of the gaps and seemed to be very swollen due to poor blood circulation. But it seemed that after I started sweating, the perspiration was able to act as a lubricant to reduce the friction between me and the rocks here.

I started to twist my arm but found that there was a tattered piece of the costume between it and the rock. This piece was very thick and created a lot of friction, so I was completely stuck. The situation was basically equivalent to stuffing a very thick towel into a door crack.

After sweating so much, the part of my arm that was pressed up against the rock was slick, but the part pressed up against the robe was very much stuck.

The key was sweat. I needed to dehydrate my body a little bit.

Although I couldn’t move, I started to use all of my muscles to tense up and then shook my body.

I was already feeling very nervous so I soon began sweating all over. The watch suddenly started beeping at this time, signaling that the countdown was over, but this was also the exact moment that my hand suddenly slipped.

It was just a little bit, but I knew that my sweat was starting to work so I began twisting my hand more vigorously. Amidst the clamorous beeping sound of the watch’s countdown timer, I drew my hand back bit by bit until it finally reached my side.

My hand was covered in mucus, but those bugs were nowhere to be found now. The watch was flashing a bunch of zeros since the countdown had ended, but I couldn’t move my head or lower it, so I had to blindly press the reminder button.

Now came my other hand. Not only was it wedged tightly between the rocks, but it seemed to be fractured and didn’t have any strength at all.

But now that I had one hand by my side, I was able to feel around my body and find that there was still a little space around me, at least enough for one hand to move around.

I grabbed my dagger first and started cutting the clothes on my body bit by bit until I was sure that they would no longer hinder my actions.

Then I used the dagger to cut the sleeve that was wrapped around my trapped hand. Both the sleeve and my hand were wedged so tightly in the gap that I not only had to cut the sleeve of the costume but also the sleeve of my jacket.

Then I pulled my bare hand out of the two sleeves and found that it was just a muscle injury.

Both hands were free; now it was time to work on my feet and head.

I started by using both hands to feel my neck and found that it was loose and not stuck at all. Now I was certain that the upper part of my skull was caught between two rocks.

I took a few deep breaths, knowing that I only needed the slightest bit of space to pull my head free.

The easiest way was to cut off a piece of my scalp with my dagger.

Of course, I would never do this since I couldn’t live long without my scalp, but I needed something to use as lubricant. I touched my body and found that the most lubricated area was near my watch, where those bugs had been crawling just now.

Should I use the watch’s light to attract those bugs and get lubricant?

<Chapter 12><Table of Contents><Chapter 14>

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