Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 1522: Chapter 249: What Came Out

Mr. Otto suddenly fell, and strange cracks appeared on his body—it’s called strange because there were cracks on a human body, but no blood came out, which made it appear particularly eerie.

At this moment, looking at Aria crawling on the ground in panic, and the dark passage behind the opened massive stone gate, the atmosphere of fear suddenly heightened.

Claudia suddenly came back to her senses, then shivered… Actually, the most correct decision now would be to immediately leave this mysterious oasis relic—in the depths of the desert, such a lively oasis was already extremely anomalous.

She had already secretly decided to retreat, but seeing the new classmate was silent, seemingly contemplating something, she couldn’t help but say: “Otto has become so strange… maybe it’s some kind of virus. But even if it’s a virus, a human body splitting should have blood flowing out… There’s definitely something in here, which makes everything seem so incredible. How about… we just don’t go in.”

——Oh! That’s a good woman!! She’s right! Don’t go in! Don’t go in!

The voice of the Red Lamp Spirit was both urgent and fast… Awhile back, the Red Lamp Spirit was still scolding the woman every way possible, but now shamelessly screamed—the guy who lost his dignity naturally didn’t care much about face.

“Ah—!”

At this moment, Aria suddenly screamed, only to see him collapse to the ground, trembling all over, face horrified… His extended fingers shivering, pointing at a pile of sand in front.

At the location of the sand… Mr. Otto should have been lying there.

“I don’t know… It wasn’t me… Mr. Otto, he, his body suddenly split, split open and then turned into… sand, sand!”

“Aria… Your, your body?!” Claudia suddenly widened her eyes.

“My… my body?” Aria was startled, instinctively lowered his head to look at his hands—when he discovered his hands also had cracks similar to what appeared on Mr. Otto earlier, he stopped breathing in shock, “Why am I like this? What have I become? What is happening to me?”

Aria’s face then also appeared with cracks… He fearfully touched them but couldn’t accept becoming this intentional appearance, “No! No! No, no!! No—!!”

“I don’t want to become this… I don’t want—!”

Excessive fear caused Aria’s sanity to collapse completely, he scrambled up, turned around and rushed into the dense grass behind, wanting to escape this place.

But he hadn’t gone far before his body suddenly shattered—like a sand sculpture being pushed over.

Right in front of Boss Luo and Claudia, he ended up as a pile of sand on the ground… Claudia swallowed hard, instinctively stepped back.

Her legs seem drained of power, her foot weakened, causing her whole body to collapse to the ground, completely unable to think.

Boss Luo secretly frowned—at this moment in his view, Mr. Otto and Aria, who had shattered and turned into sand… actually didn’t release any souls.

But they had souls—Aria had a False Soul, Mr. Otto had a True Soul, this from the initial contact, Boss Luo’s view could easily distinguish.

He couldn’t help but turn his gaze to the gigantic temple in front… Luo Qiu walked to the massive stone gate, pondered for a moment then reached out to touch it.

Unexpectedly Claudia suddenly rushed over, grabbing Boss Luo’s arm, “Don’t! Otto touched this large stone before, his body turned into this form! There might be something on this big stone… maybe mutated fungus… virus is also unknown!”

“But Aria didn’t touch this gate.” Luo Qiu said casually.

Claudia said seriously: “But he touched Otto’s body, so it’s very likely he got infected!”

Boss Luo at this moment said: “Assuming your father really explored this temple with Otto half a year ago, do you think your father might have also touched this stone?”

Claudia froze, instinctively said: “You’re saying… my father didn’t disappear, but became like Otto and Aria, turned… turned into a pile of sand?!

Boss Luo looked at Claudia for a moment, suddenly said: “Didn’t you say your father disappeared, out of nowhere, can’t be found?”

“This… this…”

Claudia opened her mouth, seemingly unable to accept such a fantastic speculation, or perhaps unwilling to easily accept the speculation that her father had died and turned into a pile of sand, “Impossible! My father came back afterwards… only then he disappeared! Look at Otto, look at Aria! How much time did they spend touching the stone gate… So, it’s impossible!”

“But just from the known situation so far, this is the most likely explanation approaching the truth… right?”

“Could it… really be like this?” Claudia immediately looked as if her soul had been emptied, becoming desolate, staring blankly at the already opened passage, mumbling: “Dad, he… turned into sand…”

She probably needs some time to digest some things… Boss Luo casually glanced at Claudia, then walked to where Mr. Otto had turned into the pile of sand.

Only the primitive body turned into sand, the clothing and equipment did not disappear… Boss Luo found the bag containing the Magic Lamp among the sand, immediately heard the grumbling voice of the Red Lamp Spirit.

Boss Luo snapped his fingers, and the world instantly became much quieter… only inside the Magic Lamp, the Red Lamp Spirit couldn’t help but howl wildly, it didn’t understand why the flames inside the Magic Lamp suddenly became more intense—these times while being the Magic Lamp Genie, never had it encountered such fierce flame burning except when crazily attacking the Magic Lamp’s limits.

Boss Luo naturally couldn’t hear the wild cries within the Magic Lamp world, he casually placed the bag containing the Magic Lamp aside, then crouched down, reached out to brush away the sand on the ground… and found a necklace.

The pendant seemed to be some ancient jade, emerald green, carved into the shape of an eye… Boss Luo held this eye-shaped pendant in his palm, looked carefully: Eye of Horus.

Regarding the Eye of Horus item, besides this pendant, Boss Luo previously had encountered another one—Ring of Horus, a ring causing mutual exchange among identical entities in multiple Sub-worlds.

“Luo… Luo? Look… look ahead…” Claudia’s voice was intermittent, seeming extremely terrified.

Boss Luo turned around, and saw from the dark passage behind the massive stone gate, there came faint footsteps, as if something was slowly walking out… The shadow, was two human figures.

…

Their appearance gradually became clearer… clear enough to feel like an illusion… they were even conversing.

They were clearly Aria and… Mr. Otto.

“Mr. Otto, we finally got out of this godforsaken place! What on earth is this hellhole? No matter how much money you give me next time, I will never come to such a place again!”

“You… do you remember if we saw anything in there?”

“In… inside? It seems… it seems… huh, there are people outside! Mr. Otto, look! Who are you?”

Aria, wearing a different set of clothes, was now full of vigilance… As for Mr. Otto, also in different attire, he frowned slightly, as if contemplating something.

Claudia… she could only stare in shock at this moment, her mind seemingly having come to a complete stop. Listening to their conversation, she suddenly had a ridiculous feeling that these two who had emerged from the Temple were the Aria and Mr. Otto from half a year ago.

Boss Luo blinked… In his view, they both possessed souls — the souls of Aria and Otto.

“Speak quickly! Who exactly are you people? Why are you here!” Aria in front, however, suddenly raised a handgun, pointing at Claudia and Boss Luo outside the huge Stone Gate, “Why… why are you following us?”

“More importantly, did anyone else besides you come out?” Boss Luo calmly questioned.

The new Aria and Mr. Otto both frowned… Claudia quietly opened her mouth but didn’t make a sound. Instead, she chose to cooperate silently — she quickly calmed herself down, save for quietly grasping her clothes’ hem tighter and moving closer to Luo Qiu.

“What are you trying to say?” Mr. Otto thought for a moment and then asked.

Boss Luo replied solemnly, “A teacher from our school also participated in this archaeological expedition… This is the teacher’s daughter, and I am her classmate. We followed the clues left by the teacher to get here… Well, then we saw you two.”

“Your teacher?” Aria couldn’t help but ponder, seemingly weighing the words’ veracity.

Mr. Otto, however, asked indifferently, “The name?”

“Xie Jiatu.” Boss Luo mentioned Claudia’s father’s name.

Aria was startled, then widened her eyes, looking at Claudia in astonishment, “Huh, little white girl, are you Mr. Xie Jiatu’s daughter?”

Whether this Aria is real or fake doesn’t matter, but… equally annoying! Claudia frowned but still nodded, “You know my father’s name? Don’t you always use code names to communicate… Mr. Golden Eyes!”

Aria, however, put down the gun, looked at Mr. Otto, and said, “It seems to be true, he called out your unpleasant nickname, Mr. Otto!”

Mr. Otto said nothing, just shook his head, then walked over to the side, staring at the gigantic Temple, lost in thought — Aria, who didn’t know what was going on with this Mr. Otto, shrugged, then stepped forward a few steps to stand before Boss Luo and Claudia.

“Hey, relax a bit, I won’t harm you.” Aria said with a smile, “I am good friends with your father Mr. Xie Jiatu! He gave me a lot of British goods, I really like him! Haha!”

Claudia nodded noncommittally, glanced at Luo Qiu, and then asked curiously, “Aren’t you supposed to communicate using code names only? Why, when I mentioned my father’s name, you… you all knew?”

Aria was taken aback, then curiously asked, “Huh… Xie Jiatu must be a real name, not a code name? So to say, Mr. Xie Jiatu is truly an honest man… Hmm, a good guy, I like him even more!”

Claudia shook her head and immediately asked, “Where is my father?”

Aria pointed to the huge Stone Gate behind and said, “Just now we were inside together… But I don’t know how, we came out, and they… hmm, they should be out soon, right?”

“What did you encounter inside?” Claudia pressed for answers.

Aria crossed her arms in thought… After pondering for a long time, eventually shook her head, “I don’t remember… Otto just asked me this question too, but I can’t think of anything? It’s as if I’ve seen a ghost! I really can’t remember!”

Claudia swallowed and suddenly wrapped her clothes around her hand, then reached out to grab Aria’s arm… squeezing it.

“Little girl, what are you trying to do? Even if you’re Brother Xie Jiatu’s daughter, I won’t show mercy, you know!”

Claudia acted as if she hadn’t heard, immediately withdrew her arm, and quickly walked over to Boss Luo, whispering, “He’s real… I can feel his pulse…”

“Indeed he is.” Boss Luo nodded and then smiled, “The things inside the Temple are quite interesting… I want to take a look.”

“Don’t… what if you end up like them…” Claudia suddenly panicked.

Boss Luo suddenly said, “If indeed another me can come out… would you be able to tell the difference, Claudia?”

“This joke… isn’t funny at all!” Claudia immediately stomped her foot.

Just then, Mr. Otto suddenly took action, directly looking at Aria, he loudly said, “Aria, I plan to go in again… If they come out later, you tell them about this. As for these two young people, stay with them first.”

With that, Mr. Otto without further thought, directly walked into the passage behind the Stone Gate, but his figure disappeared in an instant.

Aria scratched his head, then shrugged helplessly, finally sitting on the ground, then smilingly looked at Claudia and said, “Little girl, I’m hungry, do you have anything to eat?”

“Aren’t there lots of fruit growing outside? Can’t you pick them yourself?” Claudia said irritably.

Aria said, “Hmm? Since when? I didn’t see any this morning when I arrived?”

Claudia opened her mouth… Even though the Aria before her was a living person, the more she talked to him, the more she thought, the more terrifying she felt.

Aria… had just turned into sand!