“Should we continue forward?” Bai’er huddled behind Shen Ling, peeking his head out with a mix of fear and curiosity.
Shen Ling slapped away the hand tugging at his clothes, lifted the lantern he found in Kane’s room, and gazed into the distance. With a determined stride, he walked ahead.
“Hey!” Behind him, the others hesitated and were somewhat scared. Seeing Yan Xiu following Shen Ling closely, they couldn’t resist the fear of lingering in this eerie place at midnight and hurriedly caught up with Shen Ling’s steps.
Not long after, the lights became brighter. As they approached, they realized that the two ominous-looking things were lamps standing between the trees, covered with translucent oiled paper. The one on the right had a wooden sign hanging on top, which read: Moonset Village.
Shen Ling: “…”
Is this it?
Surrounded by desolation, not even the chirping of night insects could be heard.
“Just this?” Bai’er shouted, looking around with tree shadows all around, “This is Moonset Village?”
Shen Ling felt certain it wasn’t, but he couldn’t figure out the purpose of these two lamp posts standing here pretending to be ghosts in the middle of the night.
Meanwhile, Yan Xiu had walked a dozen steps away. He seemed to have discovered something, parted the branches with intertwining branches, and turned back to say, “Over there, there’s a town.”
“A town?” Everyone rushed over, breaking through the obstructing branches. When they looked in the direction Yan Xiu pointed, they were immediately shocked, “What the hell, is it real?”
“How could there be a town here?”
“Not that kind of town, right…”
“What kind…”
“Have you seen Silent Hill?”
“No, but I’ve seen a horror movie. A group of young people accidentally arrived in a small town. The residents there were very hospitable, but several people died one after another in the ‘hospitality.’ Some were dismembered, some were tricked into inhaling cigarettes with sulfuric acid and corroded to death, some were killed by a falling clock, and some were pierced by sharp objects from the anus to the throat. Guess what happened in the end?”
“Stop, I’m scared.”
“They were all turned into…” He lifted the kerosene lamp and shone the light from the chin up.
Shen Ling kicked Bai’er’s butt, causing him to stagger. Holding onto a tree trunk, he looked at Shen Ling with a complaining glance, “Good brother, don’t do this.”
Shen Ling: “Shut up, you disgust me.”
Bai’er: “Wuwu.”
“That should be a road sign,” Nana, the observant one, picked up a small piece of almost rotten wood on the ground, trying to match it with the wooden board hanging on the lamp post. Indeed, they pieced together an arrow pointing in that direction. “It’s pointing over there; that’s Moonset Village.”
“If it’s a real town, it would explain how Kane’s daily supplies came in.”
The small town was in a low-lying area of the isolated island, surrounded by dense forests. In the dim and unclear light, they couldn’t see the town’s structure clearly. They could only vaguely feel the silhouette of the town, which seemed no different from ordinary houses at night. Behind the town, there was a relatively tall building, seemingly a church. As everyone stared, it happened to emit a heavy toll of the bell.
Beyond that, there was a sparkling white light, possibly a lake.
“Should we go?” Freud asked cautiously, “We don’t know what kind of town it is. Isn’t it a bit reckless to just walk in?”
Bai’er: “More than a bit reckless, probably a freebie.”
Shen Ling thought for a moment and said, “Let’s do a sneak peek first. The one who succeeds in sneaking will go to the town to investigate.”
“Great idea!” Freud praised with a clap.
One by one, they tried to sneak in, but unfortunately, the success rate was extremely low this time. Freud and the skilled Bai’er both failed, and Nana, who was good at sneaking, also unfortunately rolled a major failure.
Nana was helpless, “What happens with a major failure in sneaking?”
Bai’er was amazed, “I don’t know… sneak into another dimension and never come back?”
Freud smacked him, “Stop talking nonsense.”
“Sorry, sorry!”
“I’ll think about it…” KP’s voice rang out, “That’s it…”
As soon as he finished speaking, Nana suddenly whispered, slipping on a slope on the side. Everyone was caught off guard, but fortunately, Yan Xiu was quick to react, grabbing Nana’s wrist and pulling her back.
“Are you okay?!” Everyone was startled and gathered to check Nana’s condition.
Shen Ling shone the light, seeing a small, swollen area on Nana’s ankle.
“The price of a major failure is unavoidable,” KP said, “Now you lose 1d3 (roll a three-sided die, with numbers 1, 2, 3) health points.”
Nana rolled the dice, and it showed a 3.
“I’m fine,” Nana sat on a tree root, looking disheveled but determined. She looked up at the others and said, “Just a minor failure. Hopefully, it won’t delay the progress of the game. You haven’t finished sneaking, and the town is our hope to go back.”
“I trust Olok, but I don’t know about Felton.”
Yan Xiu remained silent.
“Give more encouragement to autistic children,” Freud compared Yan Xiu with a thumbs-up, “I believe you can… right?”
Freud became more and more unsure as he spoke.
Shen Ling rolled for sneaking, achieving a very handsome success.
Nana asked with concern, “If Felton doesn’t make it, does that mean Olok has to go to the town alone?”
“No ‘if,’ pah pah, don’t say pessimistic things.”
Yan Xiu’s lips tightened, and a complex expression appeared on his handsome face.
With a smile, KP said, “Sorry, it’s a failure.”
Everyone: “…” No surprise, as there was no unexpected turn of events.
Shen Ling paused and said, “It’s okay, I’ll go take a look first. One person is enough.”
“How about we wait on the outskirts, so there’s someone to watch over you?”
“Or we can go together? It’s better than going in alone recklessly.”
“I promise not to act recklessly…” Shen Ling was about to say more, but Freud interrupted, “What’s up ahead, none of us knows. You say you have the ability to handle any unexpected situations, and I believe that. But we all came here together. Now, we are teammates. Let us wait for you to go on an adventure ahead safely. I can’t do that.”
“I can’t either,” Bai’er said.
“I can still walk,” Nana insisted, trying to stand up, “Let’s go together.”
“No need. I’ll go with him,” Yan Xiu said, “You guys find a safe place and wait for us.”
“You failed in sneaking. How do you plan to go? Force your way in?” Shen Ling disagreed.
“Assistance,” Yan Xiu glanced at Shen Ling, his gaze clear and cold, seemingly devoid of warmth but making Shen Ling inexplicably reassured, “I can do anything you need.”
Shen Ling froze. He remembered what happened on the train. This person could say life-threatening things with a face that lacked warmth and vitality. Shen Ling hesitated to refuse.
“Okay…” After a while, Shen Ling managed to utter a response. After agreeing on a meeting point with the others, he cautiously descended the slope.
Fortunately, there was a relatively flat road by his feet – perhaps the route Kane often took to the town. They smoothly reached the outskirts of the small town.
A gate stood at the entrance of the town, and by the dim light, they could see the words written on top: Moonset Village.
They had arrived.
As the night grew darker, there were hardly any people on the streets. They encountered a few patrolling guards and easily evaded them.
The small town was unusually calm, not much different from an ordinary town. The only difference was the lack of an electrical system; the lighting in the town was provided by kerosene lamps hanging high, with two lamps illuminating one.
Row after row of brick houses stood on both sides of the main street, and as they walked deeper, they reached a central square. There seemed to be some activity recently – petals scattered all over the square, and a huge banner was unfurled, reading “Harvest Festival.”
Very ordinary.
However, as they walked deeper, the streets became dirty and chaotic. In the shadows, several disheveled people sat on the ground, almost rotten all over, intermittently emitting low moans.
There were pairs of fierce eyes in the darkness.
Yan Xiu magically produced a hat from somewhere and threw it to Shen Ling. “Put it on.”
Shen Ling’s head was pressed down by the hat’s brim. He adjusted it and asked, “What’s going on?”
Yan Xiu’s gaze swept coldly around, “I don’t like the way they look at you.”
Shen Ling: “…”
“That’s the gaze of a beast,” Yan Xiu’s expression was serious and cold. He said in a deep voice, “They want to plunder something from you.”
Shen Ling held his breath and moved closer to Yan Xiu.
They cautiously passed through the dirty and messy alley and entered a cleaner and neater path.
Not far away, there was a noisy sound. The light from kerosene lamps spilled out of the windows. At the end of the path, a very lively tavern appeared.
The tavern was built with wood, a huge wine barrel covering the upper-left side of the tavern. The barrel was wrapped in black oiled paper, and red characters were written on top. Due to the summer heat, an awning was set up outside the tavern, with several wooden tables and chairs spread out.
Men and women were sitting in the awning, drinking and laughing.
Not far away, a young girl with golden hair wrapped in a blue curtain was loudly shouting, “Selling flowers, selling flowers, sir, buy a flower for this beautiful lady.”
“Fresh lilies, just picked, only one copper coin, sir, want to buy a flower?”
“Haha!” A man who was drinking laughed and said, “Lisa, stop selling flowers. Come over and have a drink with me! I’ll give you five copper coins!”
“So stingy! Is our beautiful Lisa only worth five copper coins? I’ll bid one silver coin! Lisa, come here! Sit down! Drink this, and you’ll earn a silver coin!”
“Thank you for your invitation, but I don’t drink,” the flower-selling girl named Lisa sweetly smiled, politely refusing the man and continuing to sell her flowers.
Shen Ling carefully observed these people. They all had ordinary looks, and their clothing was not strange at all. Some were even simple farmers, with their pants rolled up to their ankles, revealing ankles smeared with uncleaned mud.
He made a gesture to Yan Xiu, indicating for him to hide first. Taking advantage of the benefits of sneaking, Shen Ling stealthily entered the tavern.
