Rip Open!

Chapter 3: Disembowelment!

A chilling wind blew, fierce and sudden, causing the dark clouds to unnaturally shroud the moon before blowing them away again shortly after.

"Look, there's a church over there." As visibility improved significantly, someone pointed toward a building not far away.

In the night, its silhouette was barely discernible.

It was a Gothic-style spire.

The task required everyone to find Jack the Ripper.

He was a very famous serial killer who had brutally murdered at least five prostitutes, "active" in the Whitechapel district of London in 1888.

Jack the Ripper was his alias; as for his true identity, there were many different opinions.

Even Churchill's father had been suspected—at least in folklore.

There was also the claim that the true culprit was finally identified as Aaron Kosminski, who was one of the major suspects confirmed by the police at the time.

Of course, no one could guarantee the ultimate truth one hundred percent.

The true identity of the Ripper had become an eternal, unsolvable mystery in history.

Since this was a story set in 1888 London.

Then, everyone naturally assumed the place they were currently in was London as well.

They had emerged from a tomb, and the spire nearby was most likely a church.

The combination of a graveyard near a church was not uncommon.

Some churches even had large burial grounds beneath them.

"Let's go take a look."

Zhou Zhenguo spoke.

In the middle of the night, they needed to find a place to stay first.

Even if they had to find Jack the Ripper, there was no need to be overly eager on such a gloomy, eerie night.

Besides, they hadn't even figured out the basic situation; where would they go to find him?

The church doors were shut tight, but not locked.

Pushing the doors open, the group filed inside.

The interior of the church was empty, with a few candles still burning.

Rows of pews for prayer were placed neatly in order.

Zhou Zhenguo scouted the surroundings, seeing no sign of priests or nuns.

"Shall we rest here and start the mission tomorrow morning?"

Zhou Zhenguo asked.

Although it was a question, it was effectively a decision already made.

"Agreed."

The others had no objections and sat down on the wooden pews without hesitation.

"Resting" didn't mean sleeping right away; it meant relaxing their tense nerves and chatting about themselves and this God and Demon Game.

Tang Luo had been pulled in during the afternoon.

The others were the same.

Their biological clocks were still ticking, and despite it being night here, no one felt any sleepiness.

Having exchanged "aliases" earlier, everyone now began to share some of their "backgrounds."

The youngest among them was a student in his second year of high school.

He had been dozing off during a self-study session, and when he woke up, he was already in the carriage.

Xiao Chu, the one with glasses, was similar; a college student lying in his dorm playing on his phone, perfectly awake, when he suddenly found himself in a new environment.

The others were much the same.

The man who called himself Xiao Li, an unemployed youth who had just graduated and was looking for work, had been pulled in just like that.

The two women were friends, sophomores in college, who had been out shopping when they tripped and found themselves sitting on the carriage seats.

Zhou Zhenguo was different.

As a player who had already experienced several missions, he had received the information a day in advance.

He had rested well, sitting upright and waiting.

As for Tang Luo, he had gone from one carriage to another.

There were no "life is meaningless" prompts, no "YES-OR-NO" selection boxes, and no "resurrect the dead, be used by me" offers.

The God and Demon Game pulled people in with brutal force, giving no choice whatsoever.

Without any warning, they were forced to join the ranks.

After completing a mission, one does not return to some special space.

Instead, one simply returns to where they came from.

If one feels a mission is too dangerous and is unwilling to complete it, one can also choose to lay low.

And wait for the mission to fail.

Whether it takes a short time of two or three months or a long time of half a year, one will eventually return.

The flow of time in the mission world and the real world is not the same.

The time spent in the mission world is, for the real world, basically just a fleeting moment.

However, Zhou Zhenguo had heard of some special cases.

He did not know the specific details.

To Xiao Chu and the others, Zhou Zhenguo was indeed a powerful backer.

But in reality, he was just a miserable middle-aged uncle who had experienced five missions and only succeeded in two.

He had merely scraped through his novice period.

"Uncle Zhou, what exactly is that skill thing?"

After chatting for a while, Xiao Chu couldn't help but ask.

The others also pricked up their ears, looking very curious.

"It's just a skill, similar to those in games," Zhou Zhenguo said concisely. "It consumes stamina and energy, has a cooldown time, and proficiency can be continuously improved through use."

"Oh."

Everyone nodded in realization; no one asked Zhou Zhenguo to demonstrate it.

Their relationship had not reached that level of closeness.

One shouldn't push their luck just because someone is easy to talk to.

"The term 'player' feels a bit like a joke..." Xiao Chu muttered softly.

"You can also call it God and Demon Walker," Zhou Zhenguo said. "Player is actually a form of self-deprecation; more people prefer to call themselves God and Demon Walkers."

"That's better!" the pale-green-haired Gao Er seemed a bit excited.

The expressions on his face shifted constantly, at times angry, at times gleeful; he was clearly lost in his own fantasy world.

Becoming a God and Demon Walker, standing up to school bullies, wooing the school beauty.

Just thinking about it felt wonderful.

"Snap out of it."

Zhou Zhenguo clapped his hands in front of the pale-green-haired youth and reminded him quite solemnly, "As a player, a God and Demon Walker, you cannot act recklessly in the real world."

"Huh?"

"It's not that you can't use the benefits brought by the God and Demon Game to profit or do certain things, but there is a boundary. If you cross that boundary, the outcome..." Zhou Zhenguo did not continue.

But his grave expression made everyone suddenly understand.

Yes, if a group of players, of God and Demon Walkers, could act recklessly in the real world.

Wouldn't the real world have been overrun by chaos long ago?

There must be restrictions.

"However, I have also heard that the restrictions seem to have loosened. Have you heard of any unusual news events lately? I feel like all sorts of messy things have increased a lot."

Zhou Zhenguo said.

These words piqued everyone's interest.

Except for Tang Luo, they all began recounting unusual events their "friends" had experienced.

What was originally just idle talk now, upon closer reflection, seemed to be true?

They chatted for about an hour, but the sky outside showed no signs of brightening.

Not knowing the time and being in a dim environment, they inevitably felt sleepy.

One by one, they fell into a deep sleep.

Zhou Zhenguo didn't say anything, consciously taking on the duty of keeping watch.

Whether he was a good backer or not was unknown, but he was undoubtedly a good person.

Tang Luo opened his eyes to glance at Zhou Zhenguo, then closed them again to regulate his breathing.

The primordial energy here was denser than on Earth, which was more or less helpful for recovering from his injuries.

Only when his injuries recovered could he vigorously smash the dog heads of those demons and monsters—no, he meant, only then could he save people and accumulate merit.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but some of the candles in the church had burned out.

Outside, it was still night.

Zhou Zhenguo also seemed tired; his eyes were closed, his head slightly bowed, as if he had already fallen asleep.

That Little Li stirred twice, climbed up from the bench, and hurried toward the outside of the church.

Little Li's real name was Li Liang; this name sounded rather unfortunate.

It had also brought him some difficulties in finding a job after graduation, leaving him hitting walls everywhere.

At least, that was what Li Liang himself believed—everything was the fault of his name.

Otherwise, how could a dignified university graduate fail to find a job?

Not to mention, he had even served as an officer in the student union back at school.

Before being dragged into this God and Demon Game, Li Liang had been thinking about changing his name.

But now, he had dismissed that notion.

Finding a job? That was out of the question.

From now on, he was going to reach the pinnacle of his life.

Walking out of the church, Li Liang headed toward the small square building nearby; that was the restroom.

He needed to relieve himself.

"Did they have electric lights and flush toilets in the 19th century?"

Walking into the restroom, Li Liang was very puzzled.

His relevant historical knowledge had already been returned to his teachers after the college entrance exams.

He wasn't quite sure if London in 1888 had these two things.

He had even prepared himself for something unbearable, hoping to finish quickly.

As it turned out, he actually found an electric light switch on the wall, and after turning it on, he saw a rather clean restroom, complete with a flush toilet.

This restroom was very modern.

With a hint of confusion, Li Liang unzipped his pants, his body gave a shudder, he felt a comfortable chill, and he closed his eyes to begin.

The sound of trickling water reached his ears.

Li Liang felt his limbs starting to go limp, and at the same time, his body felt inexplicably cold; why was this shudder lasting so long?

"Can you even get a feeling like this from peeing?"

Even though he was almost finished, the sound of the water grew louder; Li Liang felt as if his body had been hollowed out, and he was actually struggling to stand steady.

He opened his eyes, looked down, and his expression, which had been slightly puzzled, turned into boundless terror.

The liquid flowing into the toilet was red.

At some point, his chest had been torn open, creating a terrifying wound, and a large amount of red blood was gushing out.

Yet, Li Liang felt no pain at all, as if the person whose chest had been torn open wasn't him.

He only felt his body growing cold and weak.

A teeth-grinding friction sound emerged.

It was the sound of some kind of metal substance rubbing against bone.

An icy cold breath attacked from behind, blowing onto Li Liang's neck.

There was someone behind him?!

A blood-stained knife extended from his chest cavity, retracted, and then extended once more.

It was widening the wound bit by bit.

Disembowelment!

A disembowelment that pierced through the entire body from behind!

Terror, despair, helplessness.

Li Liang's eyes began to lose focus; let alone struggling, he couldn't even make a sound.

Darkness surged in like a tide, swallowing all of his consciousness.

Zhou Zhenguo opened his eyes and looked around.

Everyone else was sleeping in disarray, except for that guy with the dharma name Xuanzang.

That person sat cross-legged, as if in meditation, still giving off a sense of tranquility and peace.

The sky outside had already begun to brighten.

"Little Li hasn't come back?"

Zhou Zhenguo stood up and walked toward the outside.

Zhou Zhenguo had actually known when Li Liang went out, and he had guessed that he might have gone to the restroom.

He hadn't stopped him.

Even in the God and Demon Game, it wasn't as if one was thrown into a life-or-death struggle the moment they arrived, where a single misstep meant death.

If that were the case, the situation where one could abandon the mission and survive by hiding wouldn't exist.

Zhou Zhenguo did not think that simply going out to use the restroom would lead to any danger.

After all, this was a mission for a group of newcomers, with only him, Zhou Zhenguo, as a pseudo-veteran.

The difficulty should not be that high.

However, he estimated that at least an hour had passed.

The sky had already begun to brighten, yet Li Liang had still not returned.

This caused Zhou Zhenguo's heart to sink bit by bit.

A moment later, he pushed open the restroom door, as if he were pushing open a sealed slaughterhouse.

A pungent stench of blood and fresh gore permeated the air.

A pool of blood lay beneath his feet.

Li Liang's corpse lay askew, his chest sliced open by a horrific wound.

The interior had also been ravaged into a complete mess.

It simply reminded Zhou Zhenguo of the scene where a Xenomorph bursts out of a body.

"Jack the Ripper!"

Zhou Zhenguo's expression turned incomparably ugly in an instant.

He turned and walked quickly toward the church, leaving behind a trail of red footprints.

This mission seemed far more difficult than he had ever imagined!