Unclean, Eat Without Illness

"Creak, creak."

Inside the abandoned house by the roadside, a strange creaking sound echoed.

It sounded like someone stepping on floorboards that had long since fallen into disrepair.

In the dim, yellowish light, a silhouette swayed within the room.

"Let me see, what kind of harvest do I have today?"

The self-muttering voice drifted out through the doorway that no longer had a door.

The sparse chirping of insects in the surrounding area vanished instantly.

This was the house K had broken into earlier that evening.

However, the scene on the first floor was completely different from what K had seen.

It was indeed devoid of furniture.

But the walls, the ceiling, and even the corners were all plastered with corpses!

Half of each body was embedded within the wall, while the other half protruded outward!

Black mushrooms were growing out of the corpses.

Under the illumination of the light, they reflected iridescent colors.

A colorful, vibrant black!

Some corpses had only two or three mushrooms the size of an infant's fist, while others were covered in mushrooms the size of an adult's palm.

One could see a layer of spores shrouding the mushrooms.

They floated up and down in mid-air.

The slightest movement of air would cause them to drift.

At first glance, they looked just like dust.

"Did they run outside?"

The person inside the house scanned his surroundings casually, not seeing the corpses that should have been there.

He was a pale-faced man, his complexion as white as if he had been soaked in water for three days and nights, and he carried a kerosene lamp.

He walked toward the outside.

It didn't matter if they had run outside; he had left a few little things out there as well.

Anyone who stepped out of the house wouldn't even be able to reach the concrete road less than ten meters away before collapsing.

"Hm?"

However, the situation exceeded his expectations.

Outside the house, there was no one.

There were no corpses lying where he had imagined they would be.

The pale-faced man walked over quickly, looking at the junction where the yellow mud met the road.

Hidden beneath this soft soil were landmines.

Anyone carrying the spores who approached would trigger a chain reaction.

The special Corpse Mushroom buried underground would release a lethal toxic mist, ending the carrier's life instantly.

That was how the script was supposed to go!

It had never gone wrong in all these years.

But this time...

The pale-faced man crouched down and touched the ground with his hand.

What he felt was not soft soil, but a ground that was incredibly solid.

Looking closely, one would notice that this section—the part where he had buried his traps—was a notch lower than the surrounding area.

It was as if it had been ruthlessly flattened by a steamroller!

Never mind releasing toxic mist.

The Corpse Mushrooms inside, along with the "petri dishes," had likely all been crushed into a puddle of mush!

A heavy loss!

"Who is it!"

A low, guttural roar escaped through his clenched teeth.

"Master."

Li Shufen stood behind Tang Luo, one hand still holding a blood-stained broom, her powerful arm clamped around K's arm to keep him from collapsing in his weakened state.

"Hm?" Tang Luo, who had simply stepped on the ground while passing by to right a wrong, did not turn his head.

"Are we staying here for the night?" Li Shufen asked.

A bus filled with dead bodies sat right beside them.

Just thinking about it made her skin crawl.

"Mm, it's a mission, after all," Tang Luo said in a relaxed tone, walking toward the gate.

Mi Ke scurried along behind him.

"Go over there and close that door," Tang Luo said, pointing to the other side.

"Huh?"

Mi Ke was stunned. Why close the door?

She wasn't Chris.

"If there's danger outside, closing the door can block it a little," Tang Luo explained.

"What if there's danger inside?" Mi Ke couldn't help but ask.

There was a whole busload of corpses, plus some sort of corpse-driver.

What if they turned into zombies?

What if a Jiangshi appeared?

"Our mission is to stay here for the night," Tang Luo said. "Since we've arrived, we definitely can't leave, otherwise there's a high probability the mission will fail."

"We've worked so hard to get here; it would be a real shame to fail the mission."

"In life, sometimes you have to be a bit ruthless with yourself. Only by cutting off your retreat can you forge ahead."

"Got it, got it."

Mi Ke stuck out her tongue and ran to the other side, pushing the door with all her might.

The iron gate was lighter than she had imagined.

With a few clanking sounds, the terminal gate was shut and the bolt was slid into place.

As for locking it, she decided to forget it.

It was enough that nothing could push its way in from the outside.

If the danger really came from inside the terminal, they would still have to run when the time came.

How could a living person let a mission be the death of them?

After closing the door, Tang Luo carried Omen toward the small room nearby.

Once Omen was taken out in a mission world, it could not be put back.

The door to the small room wasn't locked. After turning on the light, they could see an old bunk bed, the kind used in dormitories.

The bottom bunk had wooden boards lined with newspapers and a quilt.

The top bunk didn't even have boards.

There were two chairs.

A table was positioned so that sitting behind it allowed one to face the window.

They could see the iron gate.

There was an electric fan, an electric kettle for boiling water, and a few disposable cups.

It was a typical guard room or duty station.

A clock hung on the wall.

It wasn't broken; it was still ticking.

The time displayed was 7:13.

There were 10 hours and 47 minutes left until 6:00 AM, when the mission would be completed.

A few nails were driven into the wall below the clock, with vehicle keys hanging from them.

Auntie Shufen helped K onto the bed.

She took a disposable cup and drew some water from the tap outside the door.

"Come, come, have a drink of water."

She held the cup to K's lips.

K instinctively took it and drank two mouthfuls before suddenly stopping. "Where did this water come from?"

"There's a tap outside; I drew it," Auntie Shufen said. "It's fine for a big guy like you to drink some tap water. A little dirt never hurt anyone."

K violently threw the cup in his hand away and roared, "Are you sick?!"

Drinking a little tap water under normal circumstances was indeed fine.

But where were they? This was a mission world!

God only knew if there was something wrong with the water here.

What if I drink myself to death?

After roaring, K lay powerlessly on the bed, staring up at the mottled ceiling.

I, a dignified veteran, feel like I'm going to be done in by a middle-aged rookie.

"If you don't want to drink, then don't. Young people these days have such big tempers," Auntie Shufen muttered, then looked at Tang Luo ingratiatingly. "Master, I'm not talking about you."

Tang Luo casually placed Omen on the table, sat in a chair, and nodded slightly, unbothered.

Auntie Shufen plopped herself down right beside K's legs.

The wooden bed frame let out a creak.

K reluctantly scooted inward, unwilling to have any further contact with the woman.

What he needed most right now was rest.

Only after resting for an hour or so would he have a chance to recover.

Mi Ke had originally intended to get some water to rinse her mouth and get rid of the uncomfortable sensation, but seeing K's intense reaction, she abandoned the idea, pulled up a chair, and sat down cautiously near Tang Luo.

Clearly, she viewed him as her only pillar of support.

As for the other veteran... let's not even mention him.

Tick, tock.

Only the sound of the second hand moving remained.

Time slipped away, second by second.

Soon, it was midnight.

K had already slept through one cycle and woken up; although he still felt a bit weak and his limbs were shaky, he was at least not in the state he was in before, where even standing was a struggle.

His skills had long since finished cooling down, and he was once again ready for battle.

Mi Ke had fallen asleep at the table.

Her makeup could not hide the weariness on her face.

Auntie Shufen, on the other hand, was full of energy, looking left and right, occasionally getting up to move around.

Tang Luo sat with his eyes closed, as still as an old monk in meditation.

The vital energy in this mission world was more abundant than in the previous World of the Dead.

It had reached the standard required for Tang Luo to regulate his breathing and heal his injuries.

"Thump, thump, thump!"

A dull knocking sound came from outside the iron door.

K jumped up abruptly, standing in the middle of the room.

Mi Ke was sleeping very soundly and was not startled awake.

Auntie Shufen gripped her broom, standing her ground like a warrior, missing only the line, "Come up and meet your death!"

"Thump, thump, thump!"

"Thump, thump, thump!"

The knocking was persistent, occurring exactly once every second.

Tang Luo finally opened his eyes, picked up Omen from the table, and walked straight toward the door.

"What are you doing?" K asked.

"Going to see who it is," Tang Luo replied.

If it were a villain, he could punish evil and promote good to gain merit.

So, how does one judge if someone is a villain?

It was simple: anyone who attacked Master Xuanzang was definitely a villain.

"We need to stall for time," K said.

In truth, there was nothing to see.

Whoever was knocking outside was either a common villager or a dangerous enemy.

The former could be ignored.

The latter should naturally be stalled as long as possible—ideally for another six hours, until six in the morning, when everyone would be happy.

"It's still worth a look."

Tang Luo walked past K.

"Damn it," K cursed under his breath, walking to the window to watch Tang Luo approach the iron door.

He opened the small sliding window at the top.

As previously mentioned, this iron gate was like the entrance to a fortress, featuring a small window that allowed someone inside to peek out or open it.

It was designed to clearly see the situation outside.

"Bang!"

The sound of the impact became clearly audible.

Tang Luo saw a face wedged right in the small window, its mouth opening and closing as it lunged forward frantically.

It was as if it were trying to shove itself entirely through the small window, or perhaps, force its way into the terminal through it.

There were no pupils, just completely white eyes.

The livid, cyan-colored face was covered in the marks of post-mortem lividity.

Its manic posture was like that of a rabid dog.

Tang Luo could even hear the sound of its fingernails scraping against the iron gate.

It was enough to make anyone's skin crawl.

"Another corpse; there must be a Corpse Driver nearby!"

The distance was short and the moonlight was bright, so K, who was inside the room, also saw the face that had appeared at the small window.

At the same time, he also saw something else.

That Xuanzang took two steps back, raised the black revolver in his hand, and aimed it at the corpse's head.

Under the moonlight, the monk, dressed in magnificent, predominantly white robes, held a firearm as exquisite as a work of art.

He was aiming it at a person's head.

It gave off a strange, discordant feeling where displacement and harmony coexisted.

"You—"

"Bang!"

The gunshot cut K's words short.

The head vanished from the small window, but the corpse did not fall; it continued to claw at the iron gate.

A hand even reached in through the small window.

"What are you doing!"

K ran out.

A gunshot, in such a silent night.

It was practically like a signal flare, announcing their presence to the entire village.

And as for what dangers this Fengmen Village held, no one had any idea.

"If the Corpse Driver doesn't die, the corpse likely won't stop moving," Tang Luo said. "So, headshots are ineffective; you can break their limbs to stop them from getting closer."

"Them?"

Aunt Shufen and Mi Ke, who had also run out, did not understand what Tang Luo meant by "them."

"That's them."

Tang Luo said.

"Thump, thump, thump!"

A massive amount of banging against the door suddenly erupted.

A head replaced the hand that had reached through the small window, letting out a silent roar toward Tang Luo and the others.