Strange People from Yanbian
Several burly men nearby charged in as well. Shen Cheng was gone, but they stepped up in his place!
A middle-aged man repeatedly smashed the metal base of a chalkboard eraser against the back of the Faceling's head, while another stabbed its side with an iron bar torn from a desk!
The sounds from the Faceling's mouth went from whispers to screams, then from screams to muffled whimpers!
But it was incredibly strong. The men's combined efforts only forced it back two steps!
For a moment, the two sides were locked in a stalemate. The Faceling couldn't get through, and the people couldn't get close.
Lin Yang quickly retrieved a sharpened spear from the storage room!
It was a mop handle. A few days ago, he had whittled one end to a point with a knife and held it over the fire until the wood at the tip was hard and black. It could just about serve as a short spear!
Gripping the crude spear, he charged straight at the Faceling!
Pfft! He thrust it forward!
The Faceling was using both arms to block the fat man's stick and the middle-aged man's iron bar, leaving its chest exposed.
Lin Yang put all his weight behind the sharpened mop handle and drove it into the Faceling's chest!
The sound of the spear tip cutting into flesh rang out! Crunch, crunch!
It passed through skin and muscle and struck the breastbone! Then it shifted slightly and slipped between the ribs!
The Faceling let out an extraordinarily piercing shriek that made even the flames of the fire jump!
Its body began to convulse violently, its arms flailing wildly as its nails scratched black marks into the wall.
It struggled nonstop, forcing Lin Yang and the fat man back two steps!
Lin Yang braced himself against the shaft and pushed with all his might, driving the Faceling toward the corner one step at a time!
It was too strong. He couldn't push it any farther! The fat man rushed in again, and the two of them pushed together! Several more people joined them and pinned it against the corner!
"Everyone there, get it!!" Lin Yang roared.
Several people nearby came to their senses, raised their table legs, and struck the Faceling's head again!
Then came a middle-aged man, followed by several others. Sticks, wrenches, knives, iron bars-everything they could use to strike came crashing down at once!
The Faceling's shrieks went from piercing to muffled, then to indistinct gurgles, and finally to the hiss of air escaping its chest!
Its body went limp and slid down into the corner.
It stopped moving.
The firelight flickered across its vertical pupils, still open in death, turning its eyes into two patches of dark red on the verge of going out.
The broadcast sounded.
"Current survivors: 26. Current Facelings: 3."
Another one down. The number of Facelings had dropped from four to three!
The classroom was quiet for a long while.
People's breathing rose and fell around the room. The fat man's table leg was covered in black blood, and his hands were shaking, but his face had completely relaxed.
Liu Jialiang sat on the floor against the wall, pressing a hand to his side. His wound was still bleeding, but Jiang Yu'an was already crouched beside him, tearing the lining from her outdoor jacket to make a temporary bandage.
"It's finally dead..."
"Why did that thing suddenly go crazy?!"
"That man was talking with me just a few days ago. I never thought he was a Faceling!"
"..."
The Faceling's body was dragged to the end of the corridor and piled together with the other Faceling corpses.
The black blood had already dried into a hard crust on the concrete floor, crackling faintly when stepped on.
The fat man rubbed his bloodstained table leg against the corner, scraping off a layer of wood chips and dried blood, then carried the stick back to the fire and sat down.
He gave his shoulder a quick bandaging.
Red marks from the impacts of beating the Faceling still covered his hands, and the skin between his thumb and forefinger had been rubbed raw. He blew on it and thought nothing of it.
Liu Jialiang leaned against the wall with a strip of torn clothing tied around his side. Jiang Yu'an crouched beside him and rinsed his wound again with the remaining Almond Water.
He gritted his teeth, a fine layer of cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.
Once everyone had recovered from the fright, they were no longer sleepy and began going over what had happened.
"Why did that thing attack outright?" Liu Jialiang asked hoarsely.
"Before, they killed people secretly at night. That Faceling just charged straight at us without even pretending anymore."
Lin Yang leaned against the wall on the other side of the fire, whittling the blunted tip of the mop handle. After some thought, he said,
"Obviously, they couldn't afford to wait any longer."
"They've been dying one after another. From Li Wei to the bald one, then the one just now, three Facelings have died.
"Their numbers are dwindling, while more and more of us are keeping watch, the fire's lit, and fewer people are going off alone. We've gradually reduced their chances to attack to zero. Of course they had to make a move."
The fat man thumped his table leg against the floor.
"Doesn't that mean we're about to win? Every Faceling we kill leaves one fewer. There are three left now. Kill three more, and this damned place will finally be peaceful!"
"Not necessarily."
Jiang Yu'an stood up and turned to look at Liu Jialiang.
"That Faceling's target was him."
She pointed at Liu Jialiang.
"It charged straight over to kill him, even at the cost of its own life. There's only one reason they'd be this desperate: they're extremely wary of his identity as the gunman.
"They're so afraid of him that they'd rather expose one of their own than let him live! Of course, it's also possible that killing him would benefit them."
Lin Yang nodded. That did make sense.
He gave his instructions.
"From now on, everyone's priority is to protect Liu Jialiang. At least one person keeping watch must sit beside him. Wherever he goes, there must be at least three people with him!"
No one objected. The fat man was the first to get up and set his table leg on the floor beside Liu Jialiang.
"Then I'm sleeping right here tonight!"
Liu Jialiang looked up at him. "Thanks."
Once everyone had dispersed and sat back down, Lin Yang went over to Liu Jialiang and crouched beside him.
The firelight flickered between them, casting their shadows on the wall, one higher than the other.
Lin Yang lowered his voice and asked,
"Why didn't you fire just now?"
He was silent for a few seconds, then raised one finger.
"I only have one bullet left. If I'd fired last night, I wouldn't have any left now."
He lowered his finger, put the gun back in his pocket, and looked up at Lin Yang.
"This bullet has to be saved."
Lin Yang said nothing.
He nodded, stood up, and walked back to his place against the wall to sit down.
Liu Jialiang had only one card left to play. He had to use it at the most crucial moment and couldn't play it unless he had no other choice.
Lin Yang didn't sleep.
There was still something in his mind that he hadn't used: today's inspection!
The system had already refreshed, but he didn't rush to use it. Instead, he used the firelight to scan the faces of everyone present, one by one.
The fat man didn't need to be checked for now.
From the first day until now, he had called for fighting and killing. If he were a Faceling, he wouldn't have been at the front of the charge on the day Li Wei died.
Jiang Yu'an didn't need to be checked.
She had helped Lin Yang analyze the bloodstains and bandaged Liu Jialiang's wounds three times. Her judgment just now that "the gunman makes the Facelings wary" was exactly the same as his own reasoning. A Faceling couldn't possibly do so much to help the humans.
Liu Jialiang was the gunman.
Shen Yue didn't need to be checked.
Shen Cheng's younger sister was a high school student who had been crying for two whole days, ever since the hunt for the tentacle.
If she were a Faceling, her acting was good enough to make everyone in the classroom a Faceling.
There were also two burly men who charged to the front every time there was a fight. Both had gotten Faceling blood on them, so they could be set aside for now.
After ruling those people out, Lin Yang continued narrowing down the remaining dozen or so.
His criterion was simple: over the past few days, who had contributed at critical moments?
Who had never made a mistake while keeping watch? Who had stood on his side when he was being questioned?
The people who had done these things for him were most likely not Facelings. After ruling them out, only five names remained on his list.
Zhao Yao.
The woman who huddled in a corner and reacted to nothing.
Chen Yu. The short man talked a lot and liked to ask questions about everything. On the first day, he had asked, "Are you the prophet?" On the second day, he had asked, "Where exactly is the prophet?" And last night, he had still been asking, "How are we supposed to find the Facelings without the prophet?"
He asked too many questions. An ordinary person in such extreme circumstances would be concerned about food, keeping watch, and whether they could survive until tomorrow.
Someone who kept asking "Who is the prophet?" was either the prophet or a Faceling fishing for information!
The other two were middle-aged men.
They were probably in their early forties, with faces roughened by exposure to wind and sun. They spoke with northern Yanbian accents, making no distinction between retroflex and non-retroflex consonants.
Lin Yang had been watching them for several days.
They had stayed together the whole time, sitting together at meals, keeping watch in the same group, and even going to fetch water from the pond one behind the other.
But they only spoke to each other. They were quiet around everyone else, like two invisible men.
The fat man had tried to get friendly with them before, asking what they did and how they had gotten here, but they had only waved him off without saying a word.
When people questioned them to their faces, they lowered their heads and stared at the floor, as if it could answer for them.
They were exactly like Zhao Yao, indifferent to the people and events around them, as though the Faceling game had nothing to do with them.
Lin Yang decided to use today's inspection.
Choosing one out of five, he picked one of the two middle-aged men with Yanbian accents-the slightly taller one, with prominent cheekbones and a thick callus between his thumb and forefinger!
Inspect this person's identity.
The system fell silent for a second, and then a line of text appeared before his eyes.
[Inspection successful. This person's identity is...]