Hidden Region

Rustle, rustle.

The downpour showed no signs of stopping and would continue until the event concluded.

On the muddy mountain path.

A woman in red with disheveled black hair walked towards a dilapidated tile house, completely ignoring the lashing rain.

Upon reaching the house's entrance…

Whoosh! A cleaver was grasped in her hand as she cautiously entered the room, fully on guard.

Her pupils seemed to possess a degree of night vision, allowing her to see everything within the pitch-black tile house.

She carefully searched every corner of the house, ready to split any enemies in her path with the cleaver.

After completing a thorough search and confirming there was no danger.

She returned to the main hall, crouched beside Han Dong, whose neck had been severed, and whispered into his ear with her red lips:

"It's gone."

As soon as she finished speaking.

A large amount of mycelium grew from Han Dong's neck, reconnecting with his body.

[Head-Body Separation Experiment]

On the first night of arriving at the event location, Han Dong had secretly conducted this 'experiment' in his room – using a sharp knife he had bought to make a small cut into his neck.

The mycelium (tentacles) that the Faceless One's Head could rapidly grow would connect to the wound and heal it at extreme speed.

Of course, such wound connection was limited only to the head and body; it was not possible for other parts.

This was precisely because Han Dong's true core was merely this Faceless One's Head, which occupied 100 load-bearing points.

As for Valen Nicholas's weak physical body, it was merely borrowed temporarily.

As long as the head was unharmed and the cell cluster remained intact, Han Dong would not die.

Leveraging this characteristic, combined with the collected information and the unexpectedly triggered 'side event'.

On the third day, Han Dong, without leaving his room, poured immense effort into setting up an extremely complex setup.

This setup required a large number of 'gears' to maintain.

Should even a single 'gear' be missing, loose, or fail to turn at the appropriate moment, the entire grand scheme would be compromised.

Among these, the most crucial 'gear' was the Possessed Chen Li.

Furthermore, what Han Dong hadn't anticipated was that Chen Li, this gear, was even more special than he had imagined. Chen Li's uniqueness made the grand scheme even more stable.

Then, the most critical part of this plan had also been successfully realized just now.

After Han Dong had definitively confirmed that Akaman was an Evil Spirit, he immediately had Chen Li take action.

Chen Li, disguised as an Evil Spirit, actively pursued Edward and Monica.

This made Edward mistakenly believe that the Evil Spirit was after him.

Edward, who was very familiar with the rules of 'hiding', would definitely kill the blonde woman to buy himself time. Even if Edward didn't kill her, Chen Li would personally do it.

The reason for doing this was to ensure that the death of the blonde woman, Monica, coincided precisely with Han Dong's 'suicide'.

Han Dong had already obtained the 'killing restriction' information from Akaman. As long as someone in the team died, Akaman would receive corresponding information.

Therefore, the Evil Spirit would absolutely not suspect Han Dong's suicide.

His head was reconnected to his body.

Han Dong let out a slow sigh, revealing a rare smile:

"We've finally reached this point!

My guess was correct; the Evil Spirit is indeed restricted. And it's a fundamental, hard time restriction.

However, this restriction will continuously weaken in the final few hours, possibly even making it unrestrained.

Let's leave it at that. Let's hurry back to the cabin."

Han Dong got up slowly, leaning against the wall.

He intended to take advantage of the period when the Evil Spirit couldn't harm anyone to safely return to the cabin and collaborate with the event characters to launch the final plan.

Unexpectedly, Chen Li was standing at the bedroom entrance of the current tile house, her arm extended, pointing to a certain spot.

It seemed that while she was searching the room earlier to confirm the Evil Spirit's presence, she had accidentally discovered something.

"An underground passage!?"

Moving aside the worn-out wooden bed Chen Li pointed to and lifting the carpet underneath.

A dark and deep underground passage was revealed.

"There are still seven and a half hours left until the event ends. Only Edward and I are left as survivors."

The Evil Spirit's "harm interval" shouldn't be too short, at least over three hours.

"Chen Li, let's go down and take a look."

Instinct.

"There might be unexpected gains down here... If there's nothing, we can return to the bungalow immediately."

If time permits.

Han Dong stepped on the damp stairs, guided by the flashlight beam, heading towards the mysterious cellar he had unexpectedly discovered.

"Let me go first."

As they descended, Chen Li, holding a kitchen knife, took the lead, just in case there was any danger in the cellar... giving him a feeling of being protected.

Moss, rats, insects, and the stench of decay.

As Han Dong stepped onto the last stair, a familiar system voice chimed in:

"Discovered Hidden Area - [Corrupt Cellar]"

"Please search for clues in this area to trigger the corresponding event... Time limit: 15 minutes."

"Another unexpected gain!"

Han Dong's lips curled into an excited smile.

The first time he had activated a 'side event' through conversation with an event character, and this time it was discovering a hidden area. He would have to find clues to see what gains awaited him.

It took about ten minutes to thoroughly explore the cellar.

In a corner of the ground that showed signs of disturbed soil, he dug up a notebook.

It was written in messy Kyushu script, detailing the events of 'a plague that ravaged the area, forcing the mandatory relocation of the local tourist attractions, turning the [Wangzigang] region into desolate wilderness.'

"The scenic spots were relocated, all the farmhouses were abandoned, and even the villages and farmhouses were left deserted... So, a plague incident happened here?"

Chen Li, standing beside him, said, "My brother and I aren't residents of Wangzigang. We only knew that a plague had broken out in this area, making it uninhabited. We specifically found an abandoned farmhouse, pretended to live there, and lured Granny Wang and her husband over."

"Mm..."

Han Dong continued reading the diary.

Further on, it chronicled the internal events of a family of five – their slow descent into death after being infected by the plague. As he finished reading, a family photo fell out.

"Hidden Event Activated - [Plague Family]"

Requirement: Eliminate 5 Plague Living Bodies

Reward: One Destiny Item (matching host's level).

As soon as the system prompt ended... the soil in the cellar area began to loosen over a large area. Ulcerated arms covered in small holes stretched out from the soil, slowly crawling onto the ground.

Five Plague Living Bodies emerged from the ground, perfectly matching the five people in the family photo.

They had been dead for a long time, reappearing through the power of the plague and the 'Destiny Space.' They were no longer human, merely mindless life forms driven by fungal bodies.

"Han Dong... leave these guys to me."

"Okay."

Han Dong's current physical condition wasn't suitable for fighting these plague entities. Not to mention the risk of being killed, getting infected would be a huge hassle.

Of course, Han Dong wouldn't just stand by and watch the entire time.

In his backpack, he had the 'special items' he had purchased in the countryside before the event began.

Two bottles of cheap, low-quality liquor with extremely high alcohol content, and several cheap plastic lighters.