The attrition rate was a little alarming.
Without a sound, the last person in the group disappeared.
Faced with this classic horror-movie scenario, Fu Qian sighed inwardly but didn't rush to speak.
A professional team should allow someone who had already made their due contribution a reasonable opportunity to slack off.
"Wait."
Ess was clearly a fan of keeping the team's spirits up. They hadn't gone much farther when she was the first to notice something was wrong.
"We're one person short."
After everyone stopped at her words, Ess remained relatively calm as she pointed coldly toward the rear of the group.
How was that possible?!
Charlotte, who had been second from the back, turned around at the words and swept her light around the area. Her expression darkened instantly.
"So you didn't notice anything?"
Scrooge looked just as grim, but he wasn't about to pass up the chance to needle her.
The remark hit hard. Charlotte gritted her teeth and said nothing.
"It wasn't just Charlotte. None of us noticed anything."
Ess immediately stopped Scrooge from indulging in his mean streak.
"We weren't far apart, but nobody heard a thing. Left Hand, did you notice anything?"
"The only thing I noticed was that someone was gone."
Fu Qian shook his head and answered honestly.
"So what's happening is that, in this passage with almost no branching paths, one of our people was taken out without even a struggle—and there isn't even a body left behind?"
Apparently pleased with Charlotte's reaction, Scrooge gave an infuriating grin and continued analyzing the situation based on Ess's observation.
"If that's really what happened, then it looks like we can't move forward until we figure out why."
It wasn't hard to understand. If one person could vanish without a sound, there was no