The dilapidated state of the house exceeded the players' expectations. Just seconds after [ Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger ] climbed the rotten stairs to the second floor, he broke the wooden floor and fell back to the first floor.
There were no treasure chests, monsters, or NPCs inside the house, making it seem like the development team cut corners here.
Two players helped [ Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger ] up and used vines to quickly repair the hole in the floor to prevent the entire second-floor slab from Shattered.
The architectural style here is quite unique. Although it's called a second floor, it's more like a "duplex" house in reality, obviously because an additional floor was forcibly partitioned off after the entire exterior wall was built.
The players used vines to grip the sturdier brick walls and quickly completed their exploration of the second floor.
The result was, unsurprisingly, nothing was gained.
Although they had expected this, they were still somewhat disappointed after confirming that there was nothing of value in the house.
[ Howling Pothos ] led the team through the exploration and then pulled the house back to the roadside, where the other two teams quickly joined them.
"So, did you find anything?"
[ Howling Pothos ] asked the other two.
There's not a single hair on it.
[ Elderly and Children Fly First ] were somewhat dissatisfied with this, and [ The Retreat Drum Player ] thought for a moment and said:
"We found some skeletons, does that count as a find?"
Everyone fell silent upon hearing this. [ Howling Pothos ] thought for a moment and said:
"I don't think so. We should still respect the deceased..."
"But the items don't count, the information does. Can you figure out how they died?"
[ The Retreat Drum Player ] shook his head:
"It was already skeletal, and now it's covered with a thick layer of sediment; the two are almost fused together, and you can't see anything at all."
Having gained nothing, the group moved forward in silence. Their confidence remained unshaken, as it had been less than half an hour since they entered the dungeon.
Upon reaching the initial corner in their field of vision, the group discovered a wooden sign on the ground that was not yet completely rotten, bearing the words "[ Oak Street ]" written in the Kingdom's language.
"Well, the only good thing is that at least we know what this street is called."
The [ Retreat Drum Player ] recorded the information in the player system. Just as everyone was about to continue forward, they suddenly heard a stomping sound.
At this moment, the players were all observing the intersection of Oak Street, and no one was moving around, so the sound could not possibly have come from them.
In an instant, all twelve people went on alert. They moved forward cautiously and finally spotted a blood corpse a few dozen meters away—no, half a Blood Corpse.
The Blood Corpse was now lying prostrate on the ground, facing directly at the players.
Its arms stretched forward, trying to grab something, but the part below its chest cavity had disappeared, and strange, half-rotten organs were scattered all over the ground.
The rustling sounds continued, but the Blood Corpse did not make any move.
No, it's not that!
The players looked towards a slightly farther distance and saw a black Shadow flash by in the shadows, along with the rustling sound, which also faded into the distance.
After waiting for two minutes and confirming that the thing wouldn't come back, the players went forward to examine it more closely.
[ Howling Pothos ] first saw a vertically downward-facing hole. The hole was roughly circular, with a diameter large enough to fit a small, thin human—the kind of size that would get stuck in a cave.
The sound just now disappeared from here.
The others, however, looked at the Blood Corpse, which was almost dead.
Although it lost its lower body, the Blood Corpse did not die because its brain was still intact; it simply entered a state of weakness.
Sensing the faint presence of players, it seemed to become slightly more active, but before it could even bare its fangs and claws, it was quickly taken down by the players.
The group clearly had no interest in where the Blood Corpse's rear end had gone, since they hadn't seen a single tree in the dungeon yet.
Focusing their attention on the cross-section of the Blood Corpse's chest and abdomen, the players saw a scene they had never seen before.
In the past, there were only two types of cross-sections: one was a smooth cross-section produced by pure cutting with a sharp tool, and the other was a jagged cross-section caused by tearing.
The cross-section of this Blood Corpse's waist and abdomen differed somewhat from the other two; to be precise, it was somewhere between smooth and uneven, as if some creature had torn it apart and then ground it up...
[ Elderly and Children Fly First ] He lowered his head to examine the object carefully, but his brows furrowed the moment his hand touched the ground.
He felt the tremor; a tiny vibration was coming from beneath the ground.
He pressed his entire palm to the ground, feeling the vibration that he hadn't felt even when wearing shoes gradually intensify.
Recalling the fleeting shadow he had seen earlier, his mind quickly came to an answer after a brief moment of thought.
[ Elderly and Children Fly First ] he suddenly hissed:
"Everyone, disperse! Disperse!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the ground tremors intensified to a level that could be felt without any warning.
The players, like startled birds, scattered and retreated, taking cover in place.
The vibrations gradually intensified, and the sound of the stones hitting the ground also gradually increased.
[ Zhongde ] felt his heart beating a little fast. He bent down and placed his hands on the ground, feeling the intense vibration that was almost like that of a chainsaw.
As the sound reached its limit, he suddenly pushed off the ground and jumped backward to clear the way.
The next moment, the ground beneath his feet exploded with a "bang," and a monster as thick as a man shot straight out of the ground like a stone pillar.
With just this one leap, it soared to a height more than a person's height, and players could even see the serrated fangs around its head that were rotating and vibrating.
Everyone immediately understood why the Blood Corpse looked like this, and they also found similar cut marks in reality.
Those are clearly the marks left after being cut by a cutting machine!
The players shuddered as they stared at the completely black monster and the ring-shaped structures on its surface.
The serrated fangs spun and cut for a while, then, realizing that it hadn't eaten anything, it slowly stopped spinning.
Its straight body turned at an angle, turning its head, composed of dozens of rows of stacked teeth, toward the crowd.
Although they couldn't see where the eyes were, the players knew they were now locked onto by the enemy.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
A piercing scraping sound came from the monster's mouth. Although the sound wasn't particularly sharp, it was like a worm that could bite into eardrums and crawl into everyone's ears.
The players' status bars instantly displayed the "[ Temporary Deafness ]" debuff. The players exchanged glances, not seeing any effect from the debuff, and began mocking the insect monster in front of them in the communication channel.