Chapter 155.2 The Horror Club
The mysterious moon hung high. Wen Shi, who had been following from a distance, was momentarily blinded by a gleaming light.
A seasoned thief would usually bend down and stick their head in to observe. The thief had already half of his body inside when he suddenly felt a chilling breeze. As he looked up, a pair of pitch-black, rigid eyeballs were staring directly at him. Behind the door stood a man holding a large knife, much taller than him, wielding the blade with an air of superiority.
The smile on the thief’s face froze, and he subconsciously opened his mouth wide, letting out a piercing scream before a crimson stream of blood cut through the darkness.
A head fell from the sky, while the thief’s torso remained standing at the door, maintaining an upright posture. It took a few seconds before he collapsed.
Wen Shi almost let out a “F—ck” and quickly retreated.
Before long, the door was completely opened from the inside. Wen Shi held his breath, not daring to make a sound.
In the moonlight’s brief glimpse, it was a pale, sickly face. After the person appeared, they immediately removed their mask, revealing a lower face almost entirely covered in purplish-red patches.
“Corpse spots,” Wen Shi was inwardly shocked.
From the revealed outlines and figure, it could be deduced that this person was the City Lord. This was the first time he had seen him without a mask.
Wen Shi had long suspected that the City Lord was not a living person, but he hadn’t expected that they were ice-cold, with corpse spots even appearing.
Faced with the blood-soaked ground, the City Lord’s expression remained quite indifferent.
Standing calmly in front of the thief’s corpse, the City Lord used the tip of the knife to slice open the thief’s abdomen and proceeded to remove the organs, a movement more skilled than the thief’s lock-picking.
Wen Shi no longer peeked, realizing that having acute hearing was also a problem. The squishy sound when the organs were removed was something he could vividly imagine even without seeing it.
Pressed against the rough tree bark, he wondered if it was an illusion, but there were subtle differences between this City Lord and the one he had encountered before. The City Lord he had encountered, even though the bodyguards hadn’t cared much about his well-being, was generally more affable. It was hard to connect him with the executioner currently disemboweling someone.
At the sound of approaching footsteps, Wen Shi felt a bit nervous. His skills and items were currently sealed, so getting caught would be troublesome.
Fortunately, the footsteps were moving away and not coming toward him.
Upon realizing the corpse was still in place, Wen Shi pondered for a moment. Instead of immediately rushing out to check, he chose to continue standing in the same spot.
This was a relatively wise decision. The City Lord soon left and returned, bringing a thick, red candle.
Wen Shi cautiously peeked out again, seeing beneath the red candle a few inconspicuous black straws stuck together.
After lighting the candle himself, the courtyard became slightly brighter. The flickering candlelight in the night resembled ghostly apparitions. When the body was glued to the red candle with wax, the City Lord walked to the other side.
Wen Shi pressed himself tighter against the tree. The distance between them was now less than two meters.
He could control his breathing but not the intense pounding of his heart. He had to press his chest to keep from making any noise.
The City Lord faintly sensed something, looked up, and saw the tree branches swaying in the wind. Without thinking much, the City Lord picked up the head and reassembled a complete body.
Four people holding candles.
Wen Shi understood the game the City Lord was playing.
In the House of Mirrors, Qian Laiye had once mentioned this story to him, but now it was one person holding a candle. Hollowing out a person and sticking them onto a candle allowed the dying to borrow life through this method.
The City Lord, with corpse spots, was clearly forcibly extending his life, albeit with slightly less effectiveness.
As the candle burned quickly, Wen Shi contemplated what he needed to do next.
From what he could see, it seemed that the City Lord had completed the task. The City Lord’s secret was that as an undead, he had been extending life by luring thieves with the promise of a sweet deal. Occasionally, they let some thieves taste success and let them go, only to deceive more thieves into coming.
His own identity might also be that of a thief who had witnessed this terrifying event. According to normal reasoning, he should be looking for an opportunity to escape. Once he was out of the City Lord’s residence, he would have completed his role-play for the night.
But there were two things that didn’t make sense.
Why did the City Lord participate in Boss Mei’s gamble and help delay the game?
Stepping outside the scope of the quest and looking at it from a boss’ perspective, if the quest difficulty was only at this level, there was no reason for the straw demon to keep acting silly.
The dawn came early in the Golden City, with one overly bright morning star already faintly visible. Li Nan received the notification of quest failure when it was nearly dawn. Wen Shi half-closed his eyes, feeling somewhat indecisive.
The live chat was buzzing with discussion:
“The Fear Bar is rising! I haven’t seen this storyline before, but I have a sixth sense that the protagonist is in trouble, hahaha.”
“He’s using his life to let us see the behind-the-scenes story. No wonder there’s a Soul-Locking Array in the front yard. Undead need to constantly nourish themselves with Yin energy.”
“It’s not a dead end yet, but I agree with the comment above. The straw demon wouldn’t present such a simple puzzle. I feel like the protagonist has been idle for too long. Sooner or later, he’s in for trouble.”
Monsters were exchanging words, and the audience behind the Ghost Gate was happiest when they saw Wen Shi in a dilemma.
Wen Shi’s lips moved suddenly, murmuring almost silently, “Tools.”
Regardless of what he came here to do, he shouldn’t be empty-handed. Wen Shi had already carefully checked his pockets and trouser pockets, but there was nothing.
Reflecting on all the words of the straw demon, one sentence didn’t quite add up.
Upon arriving in the Golden City, he had to think from the perspective of the city’s residents. Wen Shi had no shortage of a capitalist mindset. He shifted his thinking, no longer speculating about the unknown character’s psychology, and started thinking about how, if it were him, he could maximize his benefits.
In no time, he lowered his eyelashes even further, and a thought so crazy that words couldn’t describe it began to take root.
A previously unseen seriousness crossed Wen Shi’s expression. He knew that once he attempted this, it would either succeed or result in reincarnation.
Leaning out a bit more, as he saw the candles in the courtyard burning low, Wen Shi raised his eyes again, his gaze suddenly becoming resolute.
He concentrated, trying to lock onto an identity in his mind.
“The matched character identity is… an assassin.”
【Do you confirm the character card’s identity as an assassin?】
【Yes.】
After answering, Wen Shi immediately checked the items he was carrying once again.
His pockets were empty, but during the inspection, his fingers touched something sharp and ice-cold. Wen Shi paused, then followed the sensation up to find a small pendant around his neck.
The pendant was as blurry as his face, but judging from the touch, it felt like a scale.
As Wen Shi’s fingertip grazed the center of the scale, he suddenly felt a sensation, as if he were on the brink of evolving into a wild beast. His muscles tightened, and his inner strength surged. This time, Wen Shi didn’t hesitate. Seizing the moment of heightened strength, he leaped out like a cheetah!
The City Lord sensed a rush of air and was about to turn with his knife. He had temporarily set aside the large blade when dealing with the candles, not far away, but Wen Shi was faster.
Faced with the approaching shadow, the City Lord sneered and turned his five fingers into claws, fiercely swiping backward.
The shadow vanished, along with the City Lord’s composure.
“How could this…”
The next second, the shadow appeared behind him again, grabbing the City Lord’s neck. The scale in its hand was more formidable than a terrifying blade.
【Little White Cord: What’s going on! Is he crazy? Trying to kill the City Lord.】
【Patient 109: You’re overestimating the madman. Even madmen have a survival instinct. Changing the past so blatantly in the old times is essentially suicide.】
【Patient 233: @Frank Hospital’s Schizophrenic Patient @Organic Mental Disorder, wake up. Roll over here and watch someone act recklessly.】
“You…” On nights meant for murder, the City Lord rarely kept many people in the courtyard. The strained voice that escaped his throat didn’t attract the guards patrolling the inner courtyard, who came by only every now and then.
Wen Shi’s attack was ruthless. The scale had a separate cutting edge function, and not just the City Lord, but even Wen Shi himself was momentarily taken aback.
Grasping this advantage tightly, the moment Wen Shi successfully locked the City Lord’s throat, he angled the sharp end of the scale downwards, forcefully pressing it against the icy-cold neck.
There were many taboos when it comes to time travel, and killing the City Lord was undoubtedly an act of reckless self-destruction.
The straw demon had explicitly warned against attempting to alter history. However, it was precisely this warning that had raised doubts in Wen Shi’s mind. All the other words were just explanations of the game’s rules. The straw demon wouldn’t be so kind as to worry about them breaking taboos.
The more it discouraged certain actions, the more carefully they needed to be considered.
The City Lord’s blood was black, as if it had been wrapped in cloth for a long time, turning the flesh into spoiled liquid when exposed.
The smell was nauseating. Wen Shi fought back the urge to vomit, fearing that if the City Lord didn’t die, he would make another incision.
The rigid body quivered violently, blood pouring from the fresh wound. Wen Shi used his arm to firmly restrain the City Lord. The scale in his hand seemed like it was meant to be a weapon, and his strength at that moment was unparalleled.
Wen Shi waited silently for the City Lord’s final breath.
The entire process lasted for several minutes. The City Lord’s physical condition was unlike that of an ordinary person. Only when the struggling hands grew weak and fell did Wen Shi drag the body to one side and begin to clean up the scene.
After a brief silence, the comment section erupted:
“He killed the City Lord, why isn’t he dead!”
“He killed the City Lord, why isn’t he dead!”
The same message seemed to be copied and pasted by other creatures, flooding the screen with almost no room for other comments. Some monsters even openly mentioned the Mirror God in extreme confusion, while that ominous star, no monster dared to mention.
Using a large knife as a shovel, Wen Shi, who was digging a hole, unexpectedly engaged with the comments.
“The City Lord is just a character in the story. What’s wrong with killing him?” A sinister smile curved up his lips. “Going back in time, killing the City Lord, and then taking on his role, doing what the City Lord would do, and the story continues.”
There was an important line in the instance background: the plot could deviate within reasonable bounds.
The City Lord’s daily focus was on extending his life and enforcing entrapment operation. If he shadowed him for a while beforehand, he could imitate the role even more meticulously.
The body decayed rapidly. Wen Shi hadn’t dug the pit very deep, and it had almost dissolved into a puddle of muck, which saved him a lot of trouble.
“Inheriting the City Lord’s wealth, taking over his territory…”
Wen Shi sighed, realizing that his intuition was still quite accurate. Even when his physical form disappeared just after being transported here, he had an impulse to patrol the territory with his raised tail.
He didn’t reveal the part of the speculated information in the live stream.
The rules hadn’t erased him yet, confirming that the assassin card’s speculation was absolutely correct. In the old timeline, the City Lord had already been murdered, and the current City Lord in Golden City was the assassin in disguise.
As for the scale functioning as a separate spatial divider, Wen Shi was very familiar with this feature.
In the previous instance, Jian Qingrong’s shadow took a scale from the Merfolk King at the bottom of the lake. That scale happened to have the same use.
Will we meet again?
Very soon.
The conversation from that night when they parted ways appeared in his mind. Wen Shi closed his eyes, completely blocking out all external information.
After taking the scale, the shadow used the time-travel mechanism through the straw demon, going back in time to kill the City Lord, and then continuously playing the role of the City Lord, waiting for his arrival.
His temple gently throbbed. The demon in the shrine probably knew the true identity of the City Lord. Wen Shi even suspected that the demon might be Jian Qingrong or mini octopus.
This was because when he became the bodyguard, the demon had freely advised him to become an assassin. A demon with a thousand eyes never wasted words.
Connecting tonight’s role card identity, this was practically a clever way to reveal the puzzle!
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