NOVPUBImpossible! How could this happen?!
Wes stared at the empty living room, hastily darting into the bathroom before quickly checking both bedrooms.
Not a soul was to be found, and the main door remained firmly shut. Where did the person go?
"Thud… Thud… Thud…"
At that moment, the footsteps sounded once more.
Discerning the direction of the noise, Wes rushed upstairs.
Yet, what met him were not the rafters of the house, but Daniel and the others. 𝓷ℴ𝓿𝓹𝓾𝓫.𝓬ℴ𝓶
Wes’s face darkened immensely, his already demonic visage becoming even more horrifying.
"What’s happening?"
"How could this be, the footsteps were clearly there."
Wes’s frantic demeanor allowed Daniel to instantly grasp the situation.
He had been lured downstairs by the footsteps, only to be drawn back up by their steps.
It was a repetition of the scene from the crossroads the previous night.
"Wes, calm down!" Daniel commanded sternly.
With the firm reprimand, the tension in Wes snapped, the demonic expression gradually fading from his face.
"I get it now," he said, suddenly enlightened. "The creature is deliberately toying with us."
Maintaining a composed demeanor, Daniel speculated, "Perhaps, this is its method of attack — to keep our nerves constantly strained. Whoever breaks down first, dies first."
Fury surged in Wes as he struck the staircase railing with his fist. "Fuck, I almost fell for the monster’s trick."
Raising his head to scan the group, he suddenly noticed something amiss. "Where is Liam?"
Liam?
Everyone turned around but found no trace of Liam.
In the urgency of checking the windows upstairs and then rushing out at the sound of footsteps, they hadn’t noticed Liam’s absence.
Only now did they realize, Liam was gone!
There was no sign of Liam anywhere in the rooms on the second floor.
Julia and Mike couldn’t help but shudder uncontrollably.
Despite the close proximity and the presence of someone as powerful as Alex, they hadn’t noticed someone disappearing so suddenly.
Wes and Alex also recognized the gravity of the situation.
If one could argue that Stanley’s earlier demise was due to their separation, and thus didn’t attest to the monster’s strength, Liam’s disappearance now sounded a definite alarm for them.
The tentacle monster was indeed formidable!
Unable to contain himself any longer, Wes’s face darkened once again, taking on a demonic appearance: "Search for him! We must find Liam, even if we have to dig three feet into the ground!"
He had brought out just two people, both of whom were Evolvers on good terms with him.
And yet, as the second day had barely begun, they were all dead.
But at this moment, the already dim lighting in the first-floor living room went out suddenly.
The outside world was enveloped in a dense fog, and the atmosphere within the house plunged into a depressive darkness, darker than ever before.
In this ominous darkness, they could only discern each other’s shadows, unable to make out any faces.
No one noticed the eerie transformation occurring in the expression of the man in the photograph placed behind the coffin on the table — it now bore a chilling resemblance to Liam.
...
The sudden onset of darkness rendered the already anxious group completely uneasy.
Wes became increasingly restless, vocally insisting on finding Liam, wanting to see him alive or at least find his body.
Both Daniel and Alex were painfully aware that Liam had most likely met with a tragic fate.
They tried to soothe Wes, offering words of reassurance before moving back to the living room once again.
The coffin remained undamaged, situated as it was before.
However, there appeared to be a new shadow cast in front of it, a form leaning against the coffin as it lay on the ground.
Daniel shifted the beam of his flashlight towards it, revealing a stomach-churning sight.
A corpse was there, twisted almost beyond recognition, like a rope wrung of countless circles, one end resting against the coffin and the other lying on the ground, forming an ’L’ shape.
The blood had been completely wrung from the body, flowing across the floor and staining the entire living room red.
Although hardly recognizable, they could tell from the hue of the clothes who it was.
It was Liam.
Wes spoke, his voice trembling slightly, "He’s... dead, just like that!"
His breath was rapid, struggling to come to terms with the sight.
It wasn’t the fact of Liam’s death that was unbearable, but the cruel manner in which he met his end.
Julia and Mike involuntarily moved closer to Alex.
The sight was simply too horrific to bear.
The house wasn’t large; they were at most only about ten meters apart from each other at any given time.
Yet Liam, a level 2 Evolver, had been so easily snatched away and brutally killed by the monster, his body left in such a gruesome state.
What was even more terrifying was that amidst such a horrifying death, none of them had heard Liam scream, not even once.
It only highlighted the gaping chasm in power between them and the creature.
Daniel frowned again, speculating, "Perhaps, it happened the moment we all ran into the corridor, leaving Liam isolated."
He continued, "Stanley too died after getting separated from you all." He pondered aloud, "Does this mean one becomes a target the moment they’re alone?"
Alex calmly suggested, "A case of killing to leave no witnesses, perhaps? Anyone who has seen it ends up dead, ensuring its methods remain secret. But there’s something I can’t figure out: if the creature only strikes when someone is alone, why would it make sounds to attract us?"
At this moment, Daniel was lost in thought, revisiting all that had transpired from the initial attack on himself. Suddenly, a realization struck him.
"No, we might have been misled," he uttered, as a complex web of realization started to untangle in his mind.
Everyone turned their puzzled gaze towards Daniel.
Daniel reasoned, "After the tentacle monster attacked me last night, the three of you, Alex, Julia, Mike, came out to help me. At that moment, despite it being brief, the monster engaged with all of us, not just me who was isolated."
He continued, "This suggests that the tentacle monster doesn’t exclusively target individuals who are alone. It’s possible that neither Stanley nor Liam were killed by the tentacle monster."
In Isaac town, there were only two ghosts known; apart from the tentacle monster, there was the Blood-eye, which no living person had reportedly seen.
Therefore, it could only be the dangerous rank S entity, Blood-eye, that was behind Stanley and Liam’s deaths. Daniel’s words led everyone to this dreadful conclusion.
The group could not help but draw a collective sharp breath, the chilling realization settling over them.
A rank S entity operating invisibly was not at all surprising. It all made a terrible kind of sense.
Looking at Liam’s body on the ground, Wes gritted his teeth, saying, "We should leave." He headed to the door, unlocking it.
Daniel queried, uncertain, "What are you doing?"
Wes turned around, "Liam just died, which means the Blood-eye is nearby, possibly watching us from somewhere in this house."
He asserted, "The situation is very clear now; facing the Blood-eye would mean certain death for us. However, since it targets individuals who are isolated, as long as we stay together, we will not be attacked. It’s not impossible to leave this place."
Daniel shook his head, "Perhaps we can get out of Isaac, but all it would do is lure it away. It would follow us wherever we go, increasing the count of innocent victims."
Wes understood this, yet the idea of remaining even a minute longer in this place was unbearable; he felt as though he was on the brink of losing control, "So, we are just supposed to wait here to die?"
Daniel replied, "Of course not. We just need to find out where the Blood-eye’s main body is and understand its methods of attack, then we have a chance to kill it."
Wes frowned, "We all know that, but it’s practically impossible. Gathering together means the Blood-eye will not appear; being alone guarantees death."
Daniel said, "That’s why we need a bait."
Everyone froze, staring at Daniel with strange, startled expressions. They were all intelligent individuals, understanding instantly what Daniel was proposing.
The bait would involve someone being alone, luring the Blood-eye out. Naturally, this bait would then see the Blood-eye’s physical form and perhaps discern its method of attack, transmitting this vital information via radio or mobile phone.
The plan was feasible, yet it condemned the bait to certain death.
Who would be willing to undertake such a suicide mission?
Wes was not willing.
Julia and Mike exchanged a heavy, decisive glance, seemingly reaching a difficult decision together.
At this moment, Alex stepped forward, declaring, "I’ll go."
Mike immediately countered, "No, you are the strongest among us. We will need you to kill the Blood-eye once we have the information." He continued, insisting, "I’m the weakest in combat among us, it makes the most sense for me to go."
Alex shook his head, his voice cold and stern, "The attack method of the Blood-eye only reveals itself in the moment it strikes. Being the strongest, I have the highest chance of surviving an encounter with it. It is most appropriate for me to go."
However, Julia spoke up again, "Alex holds the greatest combat power among us, and after the confrontation, we will still need Mike’s skills to ensure everyone’s mobility. So, it should be me who goes."
Wes stood silently on the side, not uttering a word, while Daniel observed everything, his mind seemingly void of any thought.
He held no hopes for anyone from the Rebirth Corporation.
As the impasse among the three continued, Daniel broke their argument. "You all don’t need to argue anymore, I will go."
