Things in the Dark

The doctor's home was somewhat remote, situated on a high slope and surrounded by woods on three sides. After following the bluestone road for some distance, Lu Yuan's view suddenly opened up.

The terrain before him descended in terraces, layer upon layer, all the way down to the sea.

All manner of Gothic buildings with rounded domes and pointed roofs stood scattered about, cascading downward in orderly layers according to some pattern.

Streetlamps stood along both sides of the bluestone road. A ring of gray grime stained each lampshade, though thankfully, the light inside remained fairly steady.

The lamps stood very close together, and their light covered practically every part of the bluestone road.

The sight left Lu Yuan somewhat puzzled.

"Aren't the streetlamps here a little too densely packed?"

A thought suddenly surfaced in Lu Yuan's mind.

"Could there be something in the darkness of this world?"

"Probably?"

Lu Yuan somewhat wanted to turn back, but the smell given off by that fish, along with that so-called "Strange Dream," stirred a deep discomfort within him.

Looking up, he saw no one on the street, and there seemed to be only a few scattered buildings nearby.

"No one around?"

Lu Yuan looked around, made up his mind, and tried to move as quickly as possible.

He returned to the small building, pushed out the Small Bed, and headed down the bluestone road toward the sea.

Although Lu Yuan had already torn up the bedsheets and wrapped them around the rusty iron wheels, the Small Bed still made dull rumbling sounds as it rolled over the gaps between the bluestone slabs.

"Rumble... rumble..."

In the silent night, the sound was deafening.

Lu Yuan could only hope his luck held out as he quickened his pace.

Fortunately, there truly was no one on this road, sparing Lu Yuan most of the trouble.

But as he rounded a street corner, the light ahead noticeably dimmed.

The glass shade of a streetlamp on the left side of the road had somehow cracked. Its filament flickered between bright and dim, barely casting a small circle of yellow light.

Beyond that lay an entire stretch of darkness.

Lu Yuan stopped.

Because he heard something moving in the darkness.

It sounded like something was moving through the dark at an extremely slow pace, accompanied by wet, sticky slapping noises. It smelled as though it had been soaked in seawater, carrying a thick fishy stench even more pungent than the "doctor" on Lu Yuan's Small Bed.

Lu Yuan followed the sound with his gaze. The area was not completely dark, yet he could not make out anything at all. The darkness seemed to have come alive, lying in wait beyond the reach of the lamps and eyeing Lu Yuan within the light.

Watching the seemingly writhing darkness, Lu Yuan fell silent for a moment.

Because within that darkness, a line of twisted small text slowly emerged at the edge of his vision:

[Abyssal Kin·?]

[Abyssal Kin·?]

There were not many words, yet every character rippled like surging seawater.

The two or three lines of text continued drifting back and forth through the darkness, like sharks in the Deep Sea that had caught the scent of prey, preparing to close in for the kill.

Lu Yuan did not know what Abyssal Kin were, but they definitely could not be anything good.

Suppressing the unease in his heart, Lu Yuan edged a few steps toward the streetlamp behind him. Right now, only the light could give him even the slightest sense of safety.

But the things lurking in the darkness seemed to have noticed something.

The next moment, a pair of ghostly green eyes appeared out of nowhere in the dark.

Lu Yuan met their gaze.

A string of strange syllables suddenly squeezed out of the darkness, like someone choking on water and about to drown, forcing words from their throat.

"...See... see..."

Lu Yuan could not tell whether those strange syllables were language or the unconscious roars of the Abyssal Kin.

Yet at that moment, a sentence inexplicably formed in his mind:

"You can see us?"

Lu Yuan was not sure whether the things in the dark were asking him, but somehow, he understood.

And Lu Yuan did not need to answer, because the next moment, one pair of green-glowing eyes after another lit up, turning the darkness before him into a sickly starry sky.

Lu Yuan could barely make out a few outlines. Those twisted figures seemed as if something had kneaded them into lumps, their bodies hunched over.

Their surfaces were covered in faintly glowing scales, and those green eyes were embedded all over their bodies, blinking as they watched him.

Lu Yuan stared at the nearly unbroken green starry sky before him, not knowing what was happening.

The world before his eyes seemed to twist. The air around him became unbearably hot, and the oxygen in it seemed to be constantly draining away.

"Water! I need water!"

Lu Yuan muttered as he struggled.

But the next moment—

Clang—

Clang—

Clang—

Three long, heavy chimes rang out from the distant Bell Tower.

At that moment, Lu Yuan's consciousness was violently jolted awake. He shuddered, like a diver on the verge of drowning, and gulped in fresh air.

At the same time, a small gray-white box popped up in the corner of Lu Yuan's vision. It flickered several times, its numbers constantly shifting before finally settling.

[Forbidden Studies—Peeper: 5/10]

"..."

None of what had just happened had been an illusion.

The things hidden in the surrounding darkness were still drawing closer, but to be precise, they were coming for the doctor on the bed.

Lu Yuan sensed the intentions of those Abyssal Kin.

"Want it? Then have it."

Without hesitation, Lu Yuan quickly untied the rope securing the corpse. He braced both hands against the head of the bed and, using the downward slope, shoved hard!

"Off you go!"

The Small Bed carrying the corpse shot into the thick darkness like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Bang!

Riiip!

A crisp tearing sound of cloth and the chewing sounds of some wet, slippery flesh came from the darkness.

The Small Bed suddenly became much lighter and nearly tipped over. Lu Yuan swiftly grabbed the foot of the bed, forcibly yanking the empty iron frame back from the edge of the darkness and into the light.

Only the corpse had vanished into the dark.

After a long while, the street was once again left with only the faint electrical hum of the lamps.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lu Yuan saw that the darkness around him was no longer twisting. Places he had instinctively been unable to see gradually revealed their outlines within the dark.

They were nothing more than ordinary flowers, grass, and a few scattered trees standing on the ground.

The text [Abyssal Kin·?] no longer appeared either.

Lu Yuan was still pressed against the lamp post, his fingers stiff and his palms drenched in sweat.

He stared at that stretch of darkness for a long time. Only after confirming there was nothing else abnormal did he finally relax his tensed muscles.

At the same time, the fourth dull chime from the Bell Tower rang out in the distance.

Along with the bell came a line of small text and a notification in his vision.

[Sanity II: +10... 1/50 (Experience)]

[Sanity: You are gazing into The Abyss, and The Abyss is gazing back at you. Raising Sanity increases mental resistance, allowing you to survive a little longer in this mad world.]

Lu Yuan was now certain that in the span of a single day, he seemed to have acquired quite a few skills.

"Survive a great disaster, and good fortune will follow..."

He gave a faint, self-mocking laugh.