Chapter 330: A Strange Journey
Ron snatched the boomerang and threw it at the bikers behind him. He had played with boomerangs before, and when his hand touched it, a lot of related knowledge inexplicably appeared in his mind. So this was the ability of a weapons master.
Ron understood. So this was the power of a weapons specialist?
After leaving his hand, the boomerang spun rapidly, following a strange arc, slicing past a biker's head and scoring a "MISS." Just as Sheldon thought Ron had missed and was about to laugh at him, the boomerang, which was thought to have missed, spun twice more behind the biker's head and flew back, embedding itself in the biker's back. Just when everyone thought that was the end of it, another unexpected event occurred.
"BOOM!" The boomerang embedded in the biker's back exploded.
Centered on the biker gang member who had been hit, five motorcycles nearby were blown to bits. Ron and the four young nerds stared in disbelief. Ron looked at his own hands incredulously. "You call this a melee weapon?"
"It's a really useful thing. Give me another one!" Ron reached out to Leonard again, but his hand paused in mid-air for a second without catching anything. Ron turned around, and Leonard smiled awkwardly: "No more, only that one."
By this time, the motorcycles had caught up and were about to overtake them. Ron panicked: "Give me any weapon! As long as it's a melee weapon."
Leonard quickly reached into his backpack, rummaged around for a while, and only pulled out a pair of nunchucks: "Want to try this?"
"Do you think this is a Bruce Lee kung fu movie?" Ron complained as the motorcycle pulled up in front of them. He could even see the biker's unkempt nose hairs.
Time was running out, so Ron could only shove Leonard behind him, grab the nunchucks, and swing them in a wide arc, striking the biker on the head.
The force sent the biker flying, but Ron didn't have time to check on him. He quickly pulled Leonard up and hoisted him onto Sheldon's back like a sack of potatoes.
"Run! Run into the woods!"
"That's a brilliant idea. Speaking of which, here's an interesting tidbit: in ancient times, infantrymen would also choose to..." With the temporary crisis averted, Sheldon resumed his incessant lecturing. Ron, exasperated, kicked Sheldon in the butt: "Go!"
Meanwhile, Howard and Rajesh, without needing any instruction, started running, their hands clasped together as they ran. In real life, this scene would definitely look gay, but here it was just practical.
Sheldon was right. Like ancient cavalry, the motorcycles slowed down as soon as they entered the woods, not even as fast as they could run on foot. But the woods had an end, and soon they were out of the trees.
"Ron, there's a cliff ahead! What should we do?" Howard shouted in alarm, and this time, he and Rajesh were huddled together again, his hand even grabbing Rajesh's chest.
"Hey! I'm a girl now!"
"But you weren't originally a girl, you were a boy!"
"That's no excuse for touching me like that." Rajesh slapped Howard's hand away, saying demurely. Of course, this explanation would have been more convincing if she hadn't grabbed him again herself.
"So what? Rajesh? Aren't we best buddies? Remember our agreement? What if one of us turns into a woman?"
"Let the brother have his fun first, of course." Rajesh suddenly understood, lowering his hands from his chest and puffing out his chest: "Come on, but go easy on me, I'm very sensitive~"
Ron couldn't stand it anymore and smacked them both on the head: "Be serious! We're running from pursuers!"
These two! What kind of time is this, still playing around?
Behind them, Sheldon, carrying Leonard, arrived late and brought pursuers with him: "There's no way out! Ron, what should we do?!"
Ron looked up and glanced around: "If we're sure there's no other way out, the only remaining option, no matter how impossible it seems, is the right choice."
"What are you talking about?"
"I mean..." Ron had already moved closer to Sheldon. This time, learning from his previous experience, he gave Sheldon a hard shove: "Jump!"
"I'm telling Mom!" A long scream came from below the waterfall. Ron then turned his attention to the remaining two: "Are you two going to let me push you or jump yourselves?"
"We'll jump ourselves!" The two looked at each other and said in unison. As they spoke, they walked shakily to the edge of the cliff, glanced down, and felt dizzy and weak in the knees.
"Why don't you give us a push?"
"Jump!" Ron pushed two more people down. By this time, the pursuers were very close. Ron didn't hesitate any longer, spread his arms, and jumped down, imitating Arthur's usual water-entry technique.
"Difficulty level 5.0, perfect execution. Subtracting the lowest and highest scores, the final score is: perfect ten!" Ron mentally commented and scored his entry into the water.
When his head emerged, the four newbies were still flailing in the water, including Sheldon, who had the strongest physique.
"Ron, come save me!" Upon seeing Ron, Sheldon clung to him like a drowning man grasping at a life preserver, as did the other three.
"The water isn't deep here, you can just stand up." Ron sighed, grabbing Sheldon by the collar to pull him out of the water. He felt he'd probably never escape this game.
It wasn't that he lacked confidence in himself, but these four guys were just too useless!
Ron dragged the four drenched men out of the water one by one. "Listen, guys, we can let it slide this time, but from this point on, we can't do this anymore, especially you, Sheldon!"
"Me? What about me? My performance was impeccable!" Sheldon shouted indignantly. "I even carried Leonard out of the woods! If it weren't for me, he'd be dead by now! Don't mention it, Leonard, it's what I should do based on our friendship agreement."
"That's not what I meant. It's that you should take on more responsibility, instead of me putting him on your back and then you carrying him. Frankly speaking, your character should be the strongest among us. Look at all those muscles you have."
"And you! Rajesh, you two stop right there, stop groping him." Ron saw the perverted duo touching Rajesh's character with incredibly inappropriate gestures and quickly called for them to stop.
"I think the name 'Man Killer' refers not only to her hot body, but more to how good she is at fighting." Ron stared at Rajesh: "The character description says that she is a master of martial arts."
"You mean we can fight people now? Like in GTA?" Rajesh tried throwing a punch, barely concealing the excitement in his eyes.
"Yes, just like I said, I need you guys to take on more responsibility. Since we're sucked into this game, I think beating it is the best option. Guys, if you don't want to stay here forever, you have to show your most authentic and brutal side from gaming, and let those NPC killers see how the heroes who are famous throughout Azeroth conquer Jumanji!"
Ron's speech invigorated the four young nerds. He pressed his advantage: "Howard, where should we go next?"
"There's a bazaar not far ahead. I guess we should go there to find the missing part of the map." The map the NPC had given them was incomplete.
"Hey, do you guys have any money? I'm hungry, I want something to eat." At the bazaar, Rajesh was immediately drawn in by the enticing aromas as soon as they entered the town.
"Here." Ron casually grabbed a piece of bread from a stall and tossed it to Rajesh.
"Shouldn't we give this poor vendor money?"
"Have you ever seen anyone ask for money for food in a game? Don't worry, if he asks for it, I'll definitely give it to him," Ron said, looking at the vendor who continued to hawk his wares without any interest. "I bet you can eat whatever you want on this street, except Leonard, you."
"Why?"
"Because you're allergic to cake. For safety, I suggest avoiding any baked goods." Ron remembered the scene in the movie where this character ate only one bite of bread and was instantly blown up into pieces.
Since they'd figured out how to view the character panel on the way, Ron clearly saw the same warning written in Leonard's character description.
"Just eat this." Ron picked up another piece of grilled meat from a stall and tossed it over.
"Is it really okay for us to just eat like this and not bother looking for the missing parts of the map?"
"Trust me, if the plot brought us to this place, then a related NPC will definitely pop up and tell us what to do next. For now, we should eat well and conserve our energy."
While everyone was enjoying their meal, a child wearing a small hat suddenly darted out from the crowd, his big eyes making Sheldon uneasy: "Go away, I hate kids."
However, the child wasn't scared away by Sheldon's rudeness; instead, he excitedly said, "Dr. Bravestone, you're finally here! We've been waiting for you."
"See, I told you so?" Ron shrugged, expressing his foresight.
"Kid, this is for you. Do you know where we should go now?" Howard bent down and shoved the half-eaten bread into the boy's hand, but the boy didn't even bother to take it.
"I bet Sheldon will have to ask him to get an answer."
Sheldon's face immediately fell, and he covered his nose in disgust. "Kid, do you know where the missing part of the map is?"
"Follow me," the kid nodded, leading them to a pavilion and muttering mysteriously, "What you need is in the basket. One wrong step and you're dead. Trust each other, and don't blink. The missing piece isn't what you think."
"Okay."
"Good luck, great hero!"
"Hey, I'm starting to like you." Sheldon beamed at the compliment.
But before he could say anything more to the kid, the kid had already run off.
"I take back what I said earlier. Sure enough, none of those brats are nice."
"Never mind that kid," Ron glanced at the basket, "We need to send someone to get what's in the basket... It's you, Rajesh, you go."
"Why me?"
"Because I guess there's a snake or some other animal in there. Look at this setting, doesn't it feel very exotic?"
Rajesh nodded in agreement. "Well, there's a little bit of stereotyping, but I guess that's how they see rural India. But we middle-class folks don't usually deal with snakes."
Rajesh took a few steps forward, lifted the basket slightly, and immediately closed it again. "It really is a snake, a black mamba! Ron, what should I do now? Reach in and get the note?"
"No," Ron shook his head. "Remember what that kid said? 'Don't blink.' I guess it's some kind of staring contest, yeah, that's it."
"Rajesh, look into the snake's eyes, then reach in and take the thing out."
For someone playing a character who apparently deals with dangerous animals, this was manageable. Rajesh did as instructed and retrieved the crumpled object in less than a minute.
"This is way too easy. If all the levels were this easy, we'd still have time to get home for dinner."
But Ron wasn't so optimistic: "I don't think that's very likely. It's just that the game didn't expect someone with Rajesh's character to be playing. Howard, check what we got!"
"This isn't a map at all." Howard showed Ron what he was holding: "It's just an elephant sculpture."
"Hey, this is getting more and more exotic."
"An elephant?" Ron couldn't quite remember this part because it had been so long: "Isn't there anything else?"
"Also, there's a sentence on the piece of paper: 'When you see me, start climbing.' What does that mean?" Howard asked, puzzled: "Are we going to find an elephant now?"
"No, or we can wait for someone to take us to an elephant." Ron heard an ominous engine sound, turned around, and sure enough, saw the bikers following them to the bazaar entrance again. A mischievous smile appeared on Ron's lips: "Guys, do you want to try fighting them? With this opportunity to enter the game, wouldn't it be a waste not to have a good brawl?"
(End of Chapter)
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