"Am I still alive?" The searing pain in Zhang Zhiqiang's leg confirmed that he was.
The puppets hadn't killed him. He didn't know whether to count himself lucky or unlucky.
A drill had pierced his leg, leaving him unable to stand, and blood loss had made him terribly weak.
In such a dangerous place, he had no hope of surviving with injuries this severe.
"What should I do now?"
However he looked at it, only death awaited him.
"I should hide first. All I can do now is pray those three finish the mission. If they succeed, I can make it back alive too."
At this point, his only option was to let them carry him to victory.
He dug his hands into the ground and dragged himself forward.
He was a level seven player, after all, with a physique far superior to an ordinary person's. He crawled quite fast.
A pair of legs appeared in front of him. Zhang Zhiqiang was startled and hurriedly looked up to see a little girl grinning at him.
He recognized her as one of the puppets that had attacked them.
A chill ran down Zhang Zhiqiang's spine, but his leg was practically crippled. He couldn't even stand, so how could he escape?
Fear swept through his entire body.
He had only just escaped death, yet now he had to face it again.
He couldn't accept it, but he also felt utterly hopeless.
The puppet approached him, and Zhang Zhiqiang could only keep backing away.
Although he had been through many instances, this was the first time he had faced such a hopeless situation, with no chance of survival.
At that moment, he felt a fear unlike any he had ever known.
"Please spare me! I'm begging you!"
He knew it was useless, but he kept pleading with the puppet in front of him.
He had no other options. He was utterly desperate.
But the cold puppet paid no attention to his pleas and slowly walked up to him.
"Stay away! Stay away!"
Zhang Zhiqiang roared. Usually a bold man, he now acted like a madman who had lost his mind, faced with certain death.
People were afraid of dying, after all.
The puppet stepped on his hand, and Zhang Zhiqiang screamed, his voice filled with pain, despair, and fear.
As he screamed, a mysterious force burrowed into his brain, and he suddenly realized he had broken one of the instance's taboos.
Never scream.
But with certain death before him, how could he possibly stop himself from screaming?
A moment later, he felt his consciousness overwhelmed by a powerful force. He knew he had been possessed.
But he could do nothing and lost consciousness once more.
Having taken control of Zhang Zhiqiang's body, Shen Hao stood up.
This wasn't his body, so he felt no pain. Even though Zhang Zhiqiang was badly injured, he could still make the body walk.
He headed toward the school. Now that he was possessing Zhang Zhiqiang, he should be able to enter it.
Once he dealt with whatever was in the school, he would truly be invincible in this instance.
Led by a resident, Cheng Xu and the other two entered the school's administrative building again. They were taken to a room on the second floor with a battered sign that read "Principal's office."
As soon as they entered, they saw a man in his forties. He was the town's mayor.
"Hello, Mayor," Cheng Xu said, studying the man in front of him.
"Hello, outsiders. You shouldn't have come here. No one who enters this place can leave."
Cheng Xu said, "We came here by accident. We didn't want to come either."
Indeed, they really hadn't wanted to come to this place.
"I've seen many outsiders like you. They're all dead."
"Mayor, what happened here? Why did it become like this?" Jiang Yue asked.
The mayor suddenly became agitated, fear and anger on his face. "It's all that monster's fault! He imprisoned us and won't let us leave."
The mayor calmed himself and began to tell his story.
"That man's name was Xu Jing. He was skilled at making puppets and usually seemed easy to get along with, but he was actually a hypocritical madman.
"To make his puppets more like humans, he killed many of the town's children. When I found out, I led the townspeople to capture him.
"But the parents who had lost their children were too angry. They lost their minds, tied Xu Jing to a tree, and burned him along with his puppets."
"What we didn't expect was for Xu Jing to become a malicious ghost. His puppets became monsters too, trapping us here so we could never leave."
Jiang Yue naturally knew the background story of this instance, and the other two knew it very well too.
What they wanted wasn't the story, but more details, and an explanation of how the townspeople had survived until now.
The mayor continued, "After he became a malicious ghost, he tormented us relentlessly. Every night, he and his puppet monsters would appear and kill people everywhere.
"Fortunately, he and his monsters only appeared at night and couldn't enter this school. That's how we've managed to hold out until now."
"Those monsters are appearing during the day now too," Cheng Xu said.
"Yes, I just heard about that. It seems his power is growing."
Jiang Yue asked, "Is there something special about this school? Why can't the monsters enter it?"
"It's because of a person. He's the reason those monsters can't get in here."
"Who is he? Can we meet him?" Jiang Yue asked quickly.
The mayor thought for a moment. "Yes. He probably won't refuse."
A trace of joy appeared on all three of their faces. They had a vague feeling that the person was the key to the problem.
The mayor led them out of the administrative building. After walking through the school for a while, they saw several single-story buildings that looked like school storerooms.
"Does that person live here?" Jiang Yue asked.
"Yes, he lives here," the mayor said. "This used to be a storeroom, but we later converted it into a bedroom."
The mayor looked at the thoroughly boarded-up windows and added, "He doesn't like light, so we blocked up all the windows."
The three suspected nothing and followed the mayor to the door. He said,
"Go on in. I won't join you. He doesn't like being disturbed by too many people."
Cheng Xu pushed open the door. It was pitch-black inside, so dark that he couldn't see his hand in front of his face.
The three entered cautiously, but the sound of the door closing suddenly came from behind them. The door had been shut, leaving the room even darker.
"What's going on?" Sensing trouble, Zhao Yuqing rushed over and pushed at the door, only to find it locked from the outside.
"What is the meaning of this?" Cheng Xu shouted to the people outside.
"Sorry," came the mayor's voice from outside. "We have no choice. People have to eat, and there's less and less food now, so we had to..."
"You're treating us as food?" Jiang Yue said angrily.
Cheng Xu kicked the door, but it didn't budge. It was specially made and very sturdy.
All three were angry. They had never imagined these people would treat them as food.
Their mission was to save the residents here. They had thought these people were good, so they had let their guard down.
Cheng Xu cursed. "Open this door, now! Or when I get out, I'll make you pay!"
The mayor said, "I'm truly sorry. I don't want to do this either, but we have to survive."
"Move!" Cheng Xu said to Zhao Yuqing beside him.
With that, he took the Demon Blade from his inventory and slashed the door, easily cutting a gash into it.
He slashed the door a few more times, easily cutting a large hole in it.
Cheng Xu rushed out at once. He had never expected to be tricked by an NPC and was furious. All he wanted now was to grab the mayor and beat him soundly.
But when he saw what was outside, his anger was instantly suppressed.
At some point, sixty or seventy people had gathered outside, all carrying weapons.
Some had kitchen knives and other blades, some carried farm tools as weapons, and others held wooden clubs.
Their faces were filled with madness. Hunger and fear had made them disregard everything else.
Jiang Yue and Zhao Yuqing drew sharp breaths at the sight of the people outside.
There were too many of them, and only three players. Even though they were much stronger than ordinary people, they were still no match for them.
"Get out of here first!" Cheng Xu roared.
The three hurriedly fled into the distance.