Encounter

Standing where he was, Arthur thought quietly for a long time.

After a while, when he still couldn't think of anything, he simply gave up and walked forward, ready to search the room thoroughly.

The room looked as though no one had visited in a long time. Dust covered the floor, suggesting it had been left untouched for several years.

Arthur found some bookshelves here, lined with many books and labels written in an unfamiliar script.

He casually took down a book, brushed off the dust, and opened it.

"Chip, establish a task: analyze the written language of this world," he ordered the Chip in his mind.

"Ding! Task One established," the mechanical voice announced.

As Arthur quickly leafed through the book in his hands, the Chip in his mind rapidly scanned its contents, recording all the text in the book into its database for analysis and comparison.

With enough data, the Chip's processing power could eventually decipher this world's written language through extensive textual comparisons and paragraph analysis.

This place seemed to have once been a library.

Arthur stayed here for a long time before finally leaving.

"Estimated time to complete Task One: thirty-seven days and eight hours..." After recording the data, the Chip's notification sounded, accompanied by a countdown.

"Thirty-seven days. Looks like it won't be of any use for now."

Hearing the Chip's notification, Arthur frowned and thought.

Still, he wasn't too concerned. He shook his head and went straight up to the second floor.

Compared to the first floor, which was littered with corpses, the second floor was much cleaner. There were still bodies, but far fewer.

There were many rooms here as well. Arthur went forward and carefully opened one.

The room was quiet. Instead of books, it held various things that looked like medicines.

A strange smell drifted out, making Arthur pause in surprise.

He went inside and saw a forearm, already beginning to turn pale, on a shelf.

It was small, apparently belonging to a young woman. Something had severed it cleanly, and it seemed to have been washed, with no trace of blood—only a pale color.

Most importantly, the arm was fresh.

"It was severed only about three or four days ago."

Looking at the pale forearm, Arthur made a calm assessment.

He surveyed the various medicines and medical supplies in the room, pondering.

This room was probably used to store medical supplies. Someone had been here a few days ago and left the severed arm behind.

That also meant there were survivors nearby, probably not too far away.

With that in mind, Arthur looked toward the other rooms, intending to inspect them one by one in case he found anything else.

He opened several rooms and made a few new discoveries.

There were small insects in some of them. Arthur tried killing them, but gained none of the power he had received before. Under the Chip's constant monitoring, his body showed no changes at all.

The situation puzzled him. Did I have to kill a specific kind of living creature to gain that power?

Still wondering, he walked to the next room.

Its door was made of steel and secured with several locks. It was unusual, as if someone feared that whatever was inside might escape.

The door was covered with dents and scratches. It looked as though something inside the room had struck it, battering the steel door into its current state.

Standing silently at the entrance and studying the marks, Arthur instinctively sensed something was wrong.

A gloomy presence seeped from within, and a sense of danger rose in him.

After taking a long look, Arthur chose not to open the door. He didn't even go to the next room—he left the area at once.

Something unknown and dangerous was here, and there were no signs that survivors had been living nearby.

He left without hesitation and looked up at the sky. It had grown much darker than before.

Night was drawing near. Arthur looked into the distance and could clearly sense the area around him beginning to stir.

The surroundings were no longer completely quiet. Insects chirped now and then, joined by low, terrifying howls.

The place seemed to have become dangerous in an instant, and as time passed, it might grow even more terrifying.

At that thought, Arthur stopped just as he was about to leave.

Night was almost upon him, and the area was clearly becoming more dangerous. Leaving might not be the best choice.

He stepped away and went into a nearby room that looked reasonably sturdy, intending to spend the night there.

He shut the steel door, braced it with some heavy objects, then sat quietly in a corner without making another sound.

The world at night was very different from the world by day.

With his keen senses, Arthur could clearly hear sounds coming from far away. Terrifying insect calls and low, beastlike growls echoed outside without pause.

He could imagine what it was like out there. It was undoubtedly much more dangerous than during the day.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and stood up from the corner.

A woman's anguished cry had come from the distance, accompanied by faint footsteps.

Someone's nearby! The thought flashed through Arthur's mind as he slowly placed his right hand on the longsword at his waist.

He hesitated for a while, but eventually pushed the door open and stepped out.

It was already very dark, though some light remained—enough to see by.

Three figures were running toward him from the distance, seemingly fleeing from something that was chasing them.

"Run!!!" A desperate shout came from afar.

The three people running toward him looked ahead and spotted the figure outside the building. They were startled at first, but relaxed once they saw Arthur clearly, then hurriedly shouted to him.

They meant to warn him, but their efforts were in vain.

Arthur couldn't understand the language of this world, so he had no idea what they were shouting.

But from their panicked expressions, he could roughly guess what they meant.

He didn't try to run. Instead, he silently drew his longsword with his right hand and fixed his deep-set eyes on the thing behind them.

It was a giant insect beast, resembling a beetle with a black shell covering its body. Its claws and mouthparts, however, were terrifying enough to make anyone's blood run cold.