Isaac paused, stunned. Glen, the Ghoul Cult member he had been in contact with, was dead?
In his memory, Glen still seemed to think he had the situation under control, constantly referring to himself as an "immortal" and a "short-lived species."
After one night, only his head remained relatively intact; he died so hastily.
And—to die in this nursing home?
Why did he come to this nursing home? Isaac for a moment and then he had a clue. "When Glen parted ways with me last night, he said he needed to discuss it with his superiors. Could it be that after I left, he was worried that the Joint Investigation Bureau would target his old location, so he decided to move and chose this nursing home as his new base? After all, this is the Cult's territory."
"After they arrived at the nursing home, they should have gone into that room—to settle Halperin?"
Since so many people are gathered together, rather than scattered, it's easy to imagine what they were originally doing together.
Then they encountered that demon?
Isaac paused, then realized something and pressed, "Boss, was Halperin in the body? If he knew what was in that room, or could sense the demon's presence, could it be that Halperin had the demon do it?"
" The Joint Investigation Bureau has only received fresh chunks of meat from the bodies so far, no ribs. But if it really was a lich, its body might have turned to ash after death," Carlo said. "I brought you here to check if there was anything unusual in this nursing home, and now we see it—a demon."
"Furthermore, if the Ghoul Cult knew that those guys who brought Halperin died here, it would be hard for them not to pay attention to this place."
Isaac breathed a sigh of relief. No wonder Carlo had asked him to come. The most important reason was to let the Cult see him and prevent his connection with the Cult from being severed because of Glen's death. They would come to him on their own, and he wouldn't need to search for the Cult anymore.
Therefore, the gaze sensed outside earlier was more likely someone from the Cult monitoring this place than a demon.
It could even be Halperin himself, who "came back from the dead."
Isaac put the pamphlets he had just looked at back in their place. "Where to next, that workshop downstairs?"
"Since you asked, why don't we go down and take a look?"
Isaac walked to the door, made sure there was no sound, and went down the stairs.
When he reached the corner on the second floor, he slowed down, and heard voices coming from below the stairs.
Thank you for your cooperation.
"You can take over. To be honest, even our people were a little intimidated by the scene on the third floor."
"That's normal. Our people came to check this morning, and you haven't touched anything since, have you?"
"No, no, we just set up a cordon."
"Let's go check out the basement first."
Isaac stopped in his tracks, realizing that the Joint Investigation Bureau had arrived and were likely there to officially take over the scene.
He peeked out and saw two figures in the Joint Investigation Bureau uniforms. He vaguely recognized one of them as Grayson, the introverted, muscular man.
Carlo's voice rang out. "Looks like someone's here. Let's forget about the basement area and get out of here. It wouldn't be very dignified to run into them in the hallway."
Isaac waited a few moments, then quickly went downstairs and headed towards the hallway leading to the kitchen.
"Whether Isaac Lessing went unnoticed by Andrew Grayson, check value 50, Dexterity bonus 12, final value 62"
" Carlo's voice rang out."
The illusory image of the dice appeared for a moment: 47. Check successful.
Isaac paused, quickening his pace. It seemed he had been seen after all, and by someone he knew. Fortunately, he had passed the check; the other person had seen him, but hadn't "noticed" him.
He went into the kitchen, opened the window, climbed over the windowsill, landed, turned around, closed the window a crack, squatted down, and listened for a moment, but there was no unusual sound.
He breathed a sigh of relief, "Boss, is that demon still following me?"
"Never leaving or forsaking them."
Isaac sighed. This trip had yielded quite a haul, with the attention of an unknown member of the Ghoul Cult and a demon follower.
"What's next? Glen's dead, Halperin's fate is unknown, am I just supposed to wait for them to come looking for me?"
"Let's leave here first. It's really inconsiderate of us to be squatting in someone's corner discussing our next move."
Isaac got up and walked out, but as soon as he reached the alley entrance, the feeling of being watched resurfaced.
And this time it felt like it was right in front of me.
Isaac paused, and a phantom appeared before him, first as an outline, then as color, gradually solidifying into a gaunt human form.
"----Mr Halperin?" Isaac recognized him, or rather, in his memory, only Halperin looked like this.
However, the Halperin before him was completely different from the old man who couldn't even speak last night. Although he still had the appearance of a skin and bones, he was now able to stand up and was wearing a cloak that fit the stereotype of a mysterious person.
This transformation from near death to standing gave him a more intuitive understanding of the weight of the word "lich".
Halperin spoke, his voice hoarse. "We meet again."
You look like you're recovering well.
"Thanks to you, although you didn't do anything, at least—"
Before he could finish speaking, Halperin's body suddenly twisted to one side, as if he had been lashed out by an invisible tentacle, and he was sent flying, crashing into the wall.
Isaac: "----?"
What's going on?
A few seconds later, Halperin regained his balance and looked at Isaac with scrutiny. "Looks like you've brought out something extraordinary."
Before Isaac could respond, Halperin's body twisted again, this time more violently, his upper body arching backward as if something had pierced his body, tearing him apart from the inside out, scattering into a cloud of light.
Isaac:
Could this be the demon attacking Halperin?
The light mist gathered again, Halperin reappeared, looking at Isaac, remaining silent for a moment. "What deal did you make with it?"
"You don't need to know, do you?" Isaac, pretending not to know the situation.
Just as Halperin was about to speak, his body twisted for the third time. This time, it was as if he was folded from the waist, his upper body bent backward at an acute angle, and then shattered.
A sense of absurdity washed over Isaac. A Ghoul Cult elder who had lived for countless years, a self-proclaimed lich, was being repeatedly interrupted in front of him by a demon.
However, he also gained a direct understanding of the lich's survivability and made a judgment about the unseen demon beside him. This thing was much more aggressive than he had imagined, and it seemed to harbor clear hostility towards Halperin.
This elder of the Cult reformed even faster than before, regaining his human form within moments, but his withered face displayed an expression somewhere between anger and helplessness. "Making a deal with the devil really is—"
Then it was torn to shreds.