The Eerie Townsfolk
"Also, don't forget, the mission also mentioned that the residents of Chishui Town are all infected by demonic energy. So, what exactly is this 'demonic energy'? Will it affect us, and will it infect us?"
At this An Hei, everyone realized that this S-rank mission was definitely not something that could be easily accomplished. In the past, even A-rank missions could cause many reincarnators to perish, and this unprecedented S-rank difficulty would undoubtedly be a bloody and arduous journey.
"In short, from now until the end of the mission, we cannot afford to be complacent. Here, apart from our companions, we cannot trust anyone in the mission world. Remember, even those who seem harmless should be treated with caution; danger may be lurking nearby!"
By now, it was completely dark, and the town remained eerily deserted, with the other reincarnators scattered throughout. Ultimately, they still didn't trust the other teams.
"As before, during missions, we can't wait passively; it's best to take the initiative. We'll split up to gather intelligence, with the 12 of us divided into groups of four. Me, Yu Tong, Fatty, and Piaopiao will be in one group; Green Conch, An Hei, Blood Wolf, and Amakusa will be in another; and Nina, Xue Yan, Zhang Sanfeng, and Dongfang Bubai in yet another. This way, we can maintain a relatively even distribution of strength. Remember, if you encounter danger, send a signal. Don't be reckless, and don't stray from your assigned group..."
Li Wei handed several signal flares to everyone. These things were sold in Shadow Street; all you had to do was pull a lever to release a signal flare that could be seen from dozens of miles away.
After the assignments were completed, the three groups dispersed and began exploring the town.
The town wasn't big, but after walking around for a while, turning east and west, he could no longer sense the presence of other reincarnators. Li Wei walked around a corner and was pleasantly surprised to see a house ahead with its lights on.
To be honest, Chishui Town is indeed suitable for filming some horror movies. After dark, not a single house here has any lights on. If you didn't know better, you would think it was a ghost town. So when Li Wei saw the light shining on the paper window of the house across the street, he quickly walked over.
It was a low, wooden-brick house with some corn hanging under the door and windows. Li Wei approached and listened carefully, and heard faint sounds of conversation.
It was a man and a woman; judging from their voices, they were older.
Man: "Honey! Are you crazy? Don't you know you can't leave lights on at night? Blow them out right now..."
Woman: "Of course I know, but the child is quite ill. He keeps saying he's afraid of the dark. You know, we can't go out at night, and we can't even turn on a light to make him feel at ease."
Hearing this, Li Wei understood that there was a good mother in the house, but why couldn't the lamp be lit?
Inside the room, the man's voice sounded angry.
"You stupid woman, do you want to die? Last month, Old Wang's family in the west of town got into trouble because they lit up their lamps... If you won't brag, I will!"
After that sound, Li Wei heard a blowing sound, and then the lights in the room went out!
Then, the sounds of a woman crying, a man cursing, and a child crying came from inside the house.
Upon hearing the crying, Li Wei felt a sudden tightness in his heart for no apparent reason.
It felt like someone was scraping glass with their fingernails right next to my ear; the sound made my teeth ache, and it was extremely uncomfortable.
The fat man behind Li Wei quickly covered his ears with his two fat hands, but to his surprise, he could still hear the sound.
"Damn it, this brat is too noisy. I have to go and tell this family that they shouldn't disturb the neighbors in the middle of the night!" With that, the fat man angrily tried to push the door open, but Li Wei pulled him back.
"If you don't want to die, then charge in!"
Upon hearing this, the fat man, still unsure why, suddenly realized that the sounds of the man and woman in the room had completely disappeared, leaving only the child's whimpering and the faint sound of chewing.
The sound was extremely eerie, especially in the middle of the night.
Liu Piaopiao shrank behind Zheng Yutong, but whispered, "This voice sounds so familiar."
Zheng Yutong nodded repeatedly, and upon listening closely, she could distinguish that it was the sound of teeth tearing at some kind of meat, and she could also hear the sound of some tendons being bitten off.
The fat man chuckled, "Hehe, I understand now. Someone in this house is gnawing on a pig's trotter... I reckon the owner got fed up with the little brat's crying, so he gave him a pig's trotter. Listen, the crying has stopped!"
Sure enough, the crying continued for a while before being replaced by the chewing sound.
Gnawing on pig's trotters?
Li Wei glared at the fat man. How could he have come up with such a thing? The house looked dilapidated, and outside were piles of coarse grains. There wasn't a single shop selling pig's trotters. Where did the pig's trotters come from? And who would be so bored and idle as to gnaw on pig's trotters in the dead of night?
"No, something's wrong!" Li Wei suddenly remembered that it wasn't the sound of gnawing on a pig's trotter. He had often heard that sound during the 'Resident Evil' mission.
"That wasn't the sound of gnawing on a pig's trotter, it was the sound of screaming over human flesh!"
With that, Li Wei kicked open the wooden door and rushed inside first, followed by Zheng Yutong, who also realized what was happening. Fatty and Liu Piaopiao exchanged glances before realizing what was going on and followed him in.
The room was dark, but you could still make out the furnishings.
There was a hut, a set of low wooden stools and chairs, and on the earthen bed, a person was crawling there eating something, ignoring Li Wei and his group who had intruded.
"Fatty, go and light those lights over there!" Li Wei said coldly.
Despite his large size, the fat man was bold and daring. He walked over in a few steps and used the fire-starting tools to light the oil lamp.
As the flames leaped up, the scene inside the house came into view for the four of them.
With just one glance, the fat man screamed in fright and took a step back. Zheng Yutong and Liu Piaopiao were also pale. For the three of them who had experienced many missions, it was rare to see a scene that could frighten them so much.
The only one who remained calm was Li Wei.
On the earthen bed lay the corpses of a man and a woman. Their heads and stomachs had been bitten open, a bloody mess, with brains and intestines smeared everywhere. A child who looked to be eleven or twelve years old was climbing on top of them, happily eating.
"My God, they really are eating living people!" the fat man blurted out, trembling, but he was about to go and make a move.
"Don't move! Look, there's a child's shadow!" Li Wei stopped the fat man and said in a deep voice.
The fat man nearly collapsed in fright when he saw it.
Under the oil lamp, the child's shadow was not a human shadow at all, but rather resembled a huge monster with horns on its head and a massive body, somewhat like a four-legged animal, but without a head.
"How so?"
"It seems the child isn't paying attention to us; he's just focused on eating..." Liu Piaopiao suddenly felt nauseous and started dry heaving.
You can't blame her, after all, the scene was indeed quite appetizing.
Li Wei understood without a doubt that the little brat on the earthen bed was this family's child, and that after he overheard the couple's conversation, the little brat killed his parents and then devoured their bodies.
Strangely, he hadn't noticed anything at all.
And what's with the little brat's shadow?
Suddenly, Li Wei turned to look at the oil lamp, a chill running down his spine. He wondered if this misfortune was because the family had lit a lamp at night.
Fortunately, this little brat seemed to have an excessive fondness for human flesh and didn't show much concern for the intrusion of the four of them.
Li Wei Eye of Perception over and made a discovery.
"Township residents infected by demonic energy, combat strength B1 level."
Seeing this, Li Wei finally understood what the so-called 'demonic energy infection' meant; clearly, the little brat in front of him was one of them.
By this time, the infected child had already swallowed most of his parents' bodies. His abdomen was swollen like a hammer, but he showed no signs of being full and continued to eat, like a starving ghost that had escaped from hell.
"Why is it still eating!" Liu Piaopiao gagged again and ran outside to vomit violently.
"I can't stand it anymore!" Zheng Yutong flipped her hand, took out her bow and arrow, and nocked the arrow in one smooth motion. She was about to shoot when Li Wei stopped her.
"Yu Tong, have you forgotten what our mission is?" Li Wei said with a somewhat gloomy expression. At this point, he roughly understood the purpose of the mission.
The real focus of this mission is not the extermination of Yu Wentuo, but the prevention of death among the townspeople infected by the demonic energy. Clearly, this child is the one that the reincarnators must protect during the mission.
"Damn it, how could this happen? According to the mission requirements, not only can we not kill these mutated townspeople, but we also have to protect them from being killed by Yu Wentuo. It's simply..." Zheng Yutong picked up her Longbow in frustration, but she was helpless.
After all, if the number of townspeople is reduced by half, they will have failed.
The consequence was the complete annihilation of everyone.
"But if this monster kills other townspeople, won't our mission be considered a failure?"
"Then cut off its limbs and gag it. As long as it doesn't die, it's fine!"
At this point, Li Wei and Zheng Yutong attacked together. One was S1 level and the other was A2 level. Dealing with a B1 level monster was effortless for them. Soon, the child's limbs were cut off, and his mouth was tied up with thick hemp rope.
At that moment, the child infected by the demonic energy let out a strange cry, and his body suddenly mutated.
From its four severed limbs, four bloody goat hooves suddenly emerged. Instantly, it transformed into a monster with a human body and goat hooves. Not only that, but a pair of eyes also grew from its armpits, its head began to grow, and its mouth split open to its ears, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth.