Yarra’s Adventure Notes

Chapter 68 - 68 56 Welcome to Join Nellie's Adventure Team_1

?68: Chapter 56: Welcome to Join Nellie’s Adventure Team_1 68: Chapter 56: Welcome to Join Nellie’s Adventure Team_1 “That’s not right.” Catherine, caught in her sorrow, suddenly paused, seeming to remember something.

She gently bit her lip and said, “Vivian, can you please make the light brighter?

I think something’s wrong here.”

Vivian adjusted the crystal energy lamp to its brightest setting, perplexed, she asked, “What’s wrong, sis?”

Without answering, Catherine quickly glanced around the room, threw down her backpack and sat on it, then raised her voice and said, “Pannis, I know you’re not dead.

I don’t know how you did it, but earlier in the cold storage room, you used your so-called tricks to escape from the sealed room and appear outside directly.

Why can’t you do the same here?

Or did you think we are so gullible and would be easily fooled again and again?”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Lina and Vivian exchanged a glance and nodded, “If that’s the case, we can’t let this deceiving and heart-breaking figure off.”

“Both of you shut up.” Catherine glanced back at them, then continued, “I knew you would disappear discreetly.

I guessed it when you were uncharacteristically explaining various exploration techniques all the way.

And I know why you did this.

Haha, you’re scared, aren’t you?”

“You’ve been slowly accepting us.

You miss spending time with others.

You enjoy the feeling of being cared for and trusted.

But these are exactly what you want to resist.

That’s why you put on that indifferent face and push them away with hurtful remarks.

So, when you realized you were gradually being softened, you abruptly disappeared, planning to sneak away.

So, was I right?”

“Sure, I can guess the reason you want to play dead and hide, but I still need to tell you here, you are a coward and a wimp.”

“Haha, what’s the matter, too scared to come out and argue with me?

Alright then, I’m going to tell you why you’re a coward.”

“I don’t know what happened to you before or why you always call yourself a sinner.

Regardless, whatever has happened to you, you have been a coward all these years because you don’t even have the courage to face your past.

You think these years were a form of self-punishment?

You’re wrong.

Your actions constitute avoidance.

You simply don’t dare to face everything you’ve been through, or to use your words, you don’t have the courage to face your sins.”

“You think you’re atoning for your sins by living in a daze every day?

You think that isolating yourself from the world is atoning for your sins?

Please, cut the crap.

You don’t even have the bravery to face your past, let alone the courage to atone for your sins.

Do you know why you wake up from nightmares every day?

It’s because when you’re awake, you’re avoiding reality and your past, but when you’re asleep, your true self cannot resist facing the truth.

Fool, idiot.

The more you run away, the more pain you accumulate.”

“You build a shell around your heart, fearing to break it.

But you know what your behavior resembles?

You’re like a child shivering under a blanket because he’s afraid of the dark, fearing that the blanket might tear open.

Just think about how stupid that is.”

“The most outrageous part is, not only do you not have the courage to face your past, but it has gotten to the point where you don’t even have the guts to reject us in person, resorting to playing dead and hiding instead.

Is it that hard to say no to us in person?

You don’t even dare to do that?

Coward!”

“Phew, I’ve been wanting to give you a good scolding like this for a while now.

It’s the only way to wake you up.

What’s the matter?

Come out and refute me.

Have you lost all courage to defend yourself?”

“You’re still not coming out?

I know your profession allows you to learn a bit of everything, and you must know Shadow Stealth too.

If you’ve decided to hide, we absolutely won’t be able to see you.

But don’t forget, there are five of us here and the path is rather narrow.

If we all link hands from where we entered and search all the way to where we are now, do you think you can still run away?”

“Even if you can run away, none of the five of us knows the way.

Are you okay with leaving us wandering around in the lower caves?

Aren’t you worried that we might face life-threatening dangers because you fled the scene?”

“And most importantly,” Catherine stood up, hands on her hips, with a burst of radiant energy, she shouted, “You bastard, don’t forget that the mission item is still in your bag.

Come out and hand over the hundred thousand gold coins, no no, hand over the Life Force Potion to me!”

After Catherine closed her mouth, no one else spoke.

The silence was deafening, broken only by Catherine’s slightly labored breathing due to all her talking clearly audible in the corridor.

She didn’t seem anxious at all and continued to stand still with her hands on her hips.

A sound of an object cutting through the air broke the almost minute-long awkward silence.

An item came out slowly from the shadow by the wall and followed an arc through the air towards Catherine’s head.

Catherine heard it and squinted without even taking a look, sidestepping deftly to avoid the falling object.

“Hey, don’t dodge.

Catch it,” Pannis’ familiar voice, filled with surprise and concern, came from within the shadows.

“What?” Catherine seemed rather slow to react, not understanding Pannis’ words at first.

She paused for a beat before reaching out to catch the object, but unfortunately, it was too late.

A small box brushed past her hand and fell onto the ground.

“Ah!!!!!” Vivian, covering her eyes with both hands, let out a despairing scream.

“What’s going on?” Lina, who had recently finished treating her leg, looked at Vivian who was screeching, then at Pannis who had suddenly appeared, then at the dumbstruck Catherine, and finally at the box that had fallen on the ground.

After muttering something along the lines of “Figures he’s not dead, bastard,” under her breath, she turned away completely uninterested, and continued treating Nicole.

“Hehe, hehe, hehe.” Looking at the box on the floor, Catherine stared at the spot from where the box had been thrown out with a somewhat dangerous gaze.

Even though her voice was gentle, it held an oppressive force, “Dear Pannis, could you tell me what is in this rather familiar-looking box?

I hope you’re not going to tell me that there’s a hundred thousand gold coins in it, no no, a Life Force Potion.”

“Uh.” Pannis awkwardly chuckled, then began to scratch his head as he walked in a direction opposite from Catherine’s gaze, “I wish it weren’t true too.

But Vivian did mention that the box contained a Shock-absorbing Array, so it might not have shattered.”

“Did you forget the part where I said it can’t withstand heavy impact?” Vivian shook her head vehemently, disclaiming responsibility.

Catherine crouched down and carefully picked up the box.

Inside, a crystal bottle lay quietly nestled within the wooden confines, now broken into three pieces.

The beautiful red and green liquid that once filled the bottle had long since leaked out, seeping into the grain of the wood, leaving only a shallow layer at the bottom.

Catherine gazed at the broken bottle, her eyes filled with complexity.

After a while, she did not rage as Pannis had anticipated.

Instead, she sighed softly, “There goes the hundred thousand gold coins we had just acquired.”

“Oh, my metal analyzer, my poor metal analyzer.”

“Oh, my big bed, my large bookshelf, oh no, my poor partners, you’ll have to cram yourselves onto the small shelf now.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to…” Pannis began, but as he met the sorrowful gazes of the three girls, he found himself unable to continue.

Resigned, he lowered his head, “Okay, I will compensate you.”

“No, you were right, it’s not your responsibility,” Catherine sighed in sadness, “I should have caught it, it was my fault.”

“It’s not your fault,” Pannis lifted his head, “You were right to scold me earlier, I shouldn’t shirk my responsibility.

This truly is my mistake, I will definitely compensate you all.”

“That’s a hundred thousand gold coins,” Catherine shook her head, “You don’t have that kind of money.

How are you going to pay us back?”

“How about this,” Lina flipped a few pages in her book as if she were reading the lines from it, “You join our Nellie Adventure Team and work for us.

The compensation you owe will be deducted from your salary.

During this time, you can’t leave the team until you’ve paid us back in full.

What do you think?”

“That’s a good idea,” Vivian was the first to start clapping in agreement, “In this way, you can compensate us for our losses, and we can supervise your work at all times.

This way we’ll prevent you from wasting money as you did before.

That’s a good plan.”

“Uh, this…” Pannis considered the trap the girls had so cleverly laid out for him, feeling hesitant.

“Or were you just saying that you’d compensate us to make us feel better?” The determined knight girl revealed a sense of weakness and sorrow, speaking softly, “If that’s the case…that’s okay too.It was just a figure of speech after all.

You led us in here, and just now, you saved all of us… We shouldn’t have brought up the subject of compensation.”

“No, I promised,” Pannis looked at Catherine on the verge of tears, then at Lina and Vivian, their eyes filled with anticipation.

He gritted his teeth, knowing full well he was walking straight into their trap, but he jumped in anyway, “I’ll join.”

“Really?” Catherine’s eyes, which had been rather vacant, regained a spark, “You’re really going to join the Nellie Adventure Team?”

“Yes, I’m in,” Pannis sighed, his expression complex, “Until I’ve paid off my debt to you all.”

“Yay!” Surprisingly, the three girls, who’d just been in a state of melancholy, all simultaneously cheered.

Their hands met in a triumphant high-five mid-air, “Success!”

“I should’ve expected that,” Pannis groaned, rubbing his forehead, “I just knew it.”

Catherine walked over to Pannis with a joyous smile on her face, her previous melancholy nowhere to be seen, “Welcome to the team, Pannis.

Please take care of us in the future.”

“Huh, thanks,” Pannis looked skyward, seemingly lost in thought, “I hope I haven’t made a mistake.”

“You won’t regret this, I promise,” Catherine confidently patted Pannis’ shoulder, then apologetically added, “But I’m sorry about berating you earlier.”

“It’s okay,” Pannis replied with a bitter smile, “And besides, you were right in your scolding.

You woke me up.

I hated my old self, but it turns out my current self isn’t any different from my old one – still a coward.

Nothing’s changed.”