Come on, You're So Weak

It was a dark, windy night.

(Kasis) "Shen Yu, this is very disrespectful to the dead," Quirrel reminded him, watching Shen Yu turn the Meat Cleaver into a shovel.

"Quirrel," Shen Yu said, looking back.

"We're doing this to keep others from getting hurt and find the killer. I'm sure they'll forgive us. Here."

Shen Yu turned the Flintlock in his other hand into a shovel and handed it over.

(Luo La) "All right." Quirrel nodded, took the shovel, and began digging.

Little Red Riding Hood had gone home first because she was worried about her grandmother. Given her unusual circumstances, Shen Yu had sent Little Knight along with her.

Before long, they dug through the freshly laid earth, exposing the broken bones beneath.

Seeing this, Shen Yu turned his shovel back into the Meat Cleaver, picked up a piece of bone to examine it, then asked Quirrel:

"Quirrel, what do you think?"

(Kasi) "I think that if Wolf really were the enormous monster they described, the breaks in these bones wouldn't look like this. They look more like someone deliberately smashed them with a blunt weapon."

"Heh." Shen Yu chuckled. "I've figured it all out."

Earlier, when Little Knight had struck Hunter with the Dream Nail, the dream words he had read from Hunter's mind were meat, more meat.

Cannibalism wasn't all that uncommon during a famine. Then there were the wolf pelt in Hunter's house and that piece of meat without any skin or fur.

Most likely, Hunter had disguised himself as Wolf to kill people, then eaten their flesh.

But in that case, where was the real Wolf? And what were those two apparitions they had seen earlier?

Forget it. Let's go back and question the woman who said her child was eaten. Just as Shen Yu was about to leave, something crunched beneath his foot.

When he lifted his foot, he discovered a tiny piece of leg bone.

As they walked, Shen Yu suddenly asked Quirrel:

"Quirrel, what's the name of that move you used to slash through Uumuu's shell? That shell was supposed to be immune to every Nail and spell."

(Saduoyi, Kasa) "Did our little friend tell you about that? I thought they couldn't speak. That move is just called Slash. All you have to do is concentrate your strength in your Nail. It's very simple."

"Oh, all right. Remember to teach me when you have time."

Afterward, Shen Yu and Quirrel returned to the village. After asking around, they headed farther out.

But when they arrived, the door had already been smashed open, and the furniture inside lay overturned across the floor.

Just then, Shen Yu spotted a dark figure in the distance. He signaled to Quirrel, and they moved in from opposite sides to surround it.

Thanks to the enhancements from E.G.O. and Godhome, Shen Yu caught up easily and shattered the figure's right leg with a shot from the Flintlock.

With the increase in power from his life tier, Shen Yu no longer injured himself with the Flintlock's recoil as he had before. He could now fire repeatedly, just like Little Red Riding Hooded Mercenary.

The dark figure staggered, then collapsed. Gray fur, white claws, and thick black eyebrows. Yet its entire face looked like a mask, and its legs were curled up rather than bent backward at the joints.

When Shen Yu raised the Flintlock, it actually spoke:

"Wait, don't kill me! Hunter forced me to do it! He... he has a gun!"

I knew it. Shen Yu stepped forward and kicked the figure to the ground. "So you were the ones who ate those people?"

Just then, alarm shot through Shen Yu, and he sprang backward.

A gunshot cracked, and a flash of fire streaked through the woods, leaving a bullet hole in the tree beside Shen Yu.

"No, Wolf ate them." Hunter approached slowly with his gun raised, aiming at Shen Yu.

"Sir, there's no quarrel between us. Why make things unpleasant? You should just leave."

"All right. If there's no Wolf, there's no reason for me to stay. Quirrel, let's go." Shen Yu spread his hands and turned to leave.

Suddenly, a pitchfork thrust out of the bushes. At the same instant, Hunter pulled the trigger, sending a fiery shot into the middle of Shen Yu's back.

"Idiot! Some mercenary you are. That Flintlock's wasted on you. Why turn down meat that delivers itself to our door?" Hunter laughed, clutching his stomach. But when he realized the figure was still standing, he snapped at the person holding the pitchfork:

"Pull that pitchfork out already!"

A sudden night breeze swept through, and the full moon slowly emerged from the clouds, illuminating the scene below.

One hand held the pitchfork's steel tines in an iron grip. A smile curled at the corner of Shen Yu's mouth as he said slowly:

"Come on, you're so weak."

With a twitch of Shen Yu's fingers, the steel tines snapped. He rubbed them between his fingers, crushing them into powder like dry noodles, their fragments glinting in the moonlight.

Hunter's face instantly went deathly pale. An icy chill spread across his back, his pupils dilated with terror, and a few words escaped his trembling mouth.

"Y-you... what kind of monster are you?!"

Shen Yu chuckled. "Friend, have you ever heard of E.G.O.?"

"Are you mute?"

Little Red Riding Hood looked at Little Knight, who was sitting on a stool, and tugged at their cloak. But Little Knight remained silent, watching the dilapidated door.

Little Red Riding Hood sighed, turned away, and ground up the herbs drying on the windowsill. She poured them into a bowl, mixed them, then handed it to her grandmother.

After drinking the medicine, Old Lady reached out with her withered hand and stroked Little Red Riding Hood's face. When she touched those deeply sunken cheeks, she trembled as though shocked by electricity and sighed.

"Grandma, did they abandon us?" Little Red Riding Hood buried her head in her grandmother's lap and spoke softly.

"Silly child." Old Lady stroked her head. "What parents would abandon their child?"

"Then why haven't they ever come back? Is it because we're a burden? Never mind. As long as I have you, Grandma, that's enough."

Old Lady's hand stilled at those words. Her lips parted, but nothing came out.

Then Old Lady felt her throat convulse. She immediately covered her mouth, struggling to suppress it, and wiped the thick blood off inside her sleeve.

She pressed both hands against the rocking chair and stared at the floor with her cloudy eyes, her thoughts unreadable. After sitting silently for a while, she said:

"Little Red Riding Hood, call Hunter over tomorrow. I asked him earlier to take me away to see a doctor. I might not come back for a long time. Take good care of the house."

"Why can't I go?"

"Silly child, what if they come back and there's no one here? Look, we were swallowed by Wolf and still got rescued. What miracle couldn't happen?"

"Okay." Little Red Riding Hood nodded and shifted a little higher.

Then Old Lady stroked her head and softly hummed an old nursery rhyme. Little Red Riding Hood gradually drifted to sleep.

But just as the song was about to end, Little Knight, who had been dozing with their head tilted, suddenly sat upright, leaped off the stool, and drew their Nail toward the battered door.

Amid a creaking sound, the lock clicked. Then a long claw reached through the crooked gap and lifted the latch.

All at once, a fierce gust swept in. The cottage's windows and door began shaking violently, rattling and clattering.

With a creak, a white claw reached through the gap in the door.