Chapter 12: Night Roamers 1
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The five people in the Underground Well huddled together shoulder-to-shoulder, staring intently at the metal mesh where the sounds were coming from. They defensively retreated back.
Until they hit the wall.
From within the pipes beyond the mesh, the uninvited guest finally revealed itself.
An abnormal snake as thick as a bowl, covered in purple scales, flicking its tongue, slowly slithered along the pipe towards the metal mesh.
“Didn’t you guys say this place was absolutely safe?” Zheng Luozhu knew one couldn’t trust robbers.
Torn T-shirt was exasperated: “I swear, I’ve lived in this well so long without seeing a single snake, let alone a mouse…”
The snake’s head had already reached the metal mesh, its serpentine eyes like yellow gemstones in the black night, pupils contracted into dark vertical slits.
“It shouldn’t be…able to get through, right…” Zheng Luozhu asked without much confidence, looking at the metal mesh holes clearly smaller than the snake’s body diameter.
“It…it should not…” Torn T-shirt was even less confident.
“Hiss—”
The snake head pushed against the metal mesh, slowly squeezing its flicking tongue through the hole. When it reached the middle of its head, it got stuck.
Just as Zheng Luozhu was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he saw the abnormal snake had not stopped, still grinding forward stubbornly.
Under its relentless force, the metal mesh eye began slowly deforming, stretching.
The five watched dumbfounded as its entire head squeezed through, followed by its body…
“Snap!”
The metal wires were actually scraped apart by its scales, breaking completely.
Tang Lin’s face was cold as he reached back to his waist, where Fan Peiyang had left him a dagger for self-defense.
“Ah whatever, if I die then I die—” Torn T-shirt suddenly yelled out, as if making some momentous decision.
In an instant, countless short knives and swords appeared in the air above the metal mesh.
It was Torn T-shirt’s [Swords are Blind].
The snake crawled down the wall, with just the tip of its tail still outside the metal mesh.
Torn T-shirt stared fixedly at it, fully focused.
The knives and swords rained down fiercely, two-thirds blocked by the sturdy scales, but one-third still stabbed shallowly and deeply into the abnormal snake’s body.
The snake thrashed about madly, its tail banging the metal mesh loudly.
Zheng Luozhu quickly used [One Iron Plate] to shield them, but his current control could only make a barrier three men wide.
The people behind the plate squeezed together even tighter. Torn T-shirt regulated his breathing, then drove the stationery with his mind again.
The second rain of blades descended, greater in number and force than before.
The snake was thoroughly stabbed into a porcupine, several blades piercing right through its body and pinning it to the wall.
Its thrashing gradually grew weaker, until finally, it moved no more.
Torn T-shirt plopped down on the ground, drenched in sweat.
Old man’s shirt and Chubby immediately swarmed over, jumping for joy as if they’d passed a challenge level—
“Big bro, you’re amazing!”
“Big bro, I knew you could do it!”
“Big bro, teach me how to control it sometime, when I make thorns and there’s too many vines, I definitely get confused…”
Zheng Luozhu dispelled the iron plate and walked over, shoving aside the rainbow butt-kissers and squatting down in front of Torn T-shirt in annoyance: “Why didn’t you make a move earlier?”
He wasn’t nitpicking. Earlier Torn T-shirt was so frightened, he thought the guy was useless, who knew he’d reveal his heroic qualities after. What was with that pacing? Dramatic effect for himself?
“I had to think about it too,” Torn T-shirt wiped his sweat, “I’ve never fought snakes before, who knows how strong it was. If the stationery couldn’t kill it, I’d be the one suffering.”
Zheng Luozhu wanted to roll his eyes out of his skull: “If you didn’t make a move, it would have let you off?”
“No,” Torn T-shirt crossed his legs, sighing weakly, really wanting to write a “Beginner’s Guide to the Underground City” for these newbies, “These creatures and Night Roamers, if they’re not hurt, they attack anyone. But once injured, they ignore others and solely focus their retaliation on who injured them. Understand?”
“Oh——” Zheng Luozhu drew out the tone, patting Torn T-shirt apologetically on the shoulder.
No wonder he struck so decisively, like a martyr.
With the fighting spirit receded, Torn T-shirt felt the lingering fear—if [Swords are Blind] truly couldn’t handle that snake, his outcome would have been bleak.
After patting his shoulder, Zheng Luozhu inadvertently noticed Tang Lin already standing at the metal mesh, closely observing the snake corpse. He gave a start, about to call out for him to stay back, but Tang Lin had already taken the initiative to retreat to a safe distance. He turned and asked Torn T-shirt: “Didn’t you say no snakes had ever appeared here before?
“Not just snakes,” Torn T-shirt emphasized, “No dangerous creatures come here at all.”
Old man’s shirt and Chubby vigorously nodded.
“It’s absolutely safe here.”
“We couldn’t have lived here so long otherwise.”
Tang Lin turned back to look at the snake corpse again: “But it became unsafe as soon as we moved in.”
Zheng Luozhu heard the implication: “President Tang, do you suspect…”
Torn T-shirt wasn’t stupid either, immediately realizing but not believing: “Aren’t you overthinking? It could just be a coincidence, the moment you guys arrive, a snake happens to slip into the well…”
Old man’s shirt belatedly chimed in: “Right, you’ve only been in the Underground City a short time, you’re not even familiar with the Stationery Tree yet. Why would anyone deliberately harm you?”
The five of them were all facing the snake corpse as they spoke. No one noticed that at the graffiti wall side of the mesh, wisps of black fog were soundlessly seeping in through the bottom grid.
The fog slid down the wall to the ground, its path very similar to the snake’s earlier, except the metal mesh was no barrier at all.
In just seconds, the black fog had completely sunk to the floor, a thin layer flush against the tiles, nearly blending into the ground. It crept forward stealthily like a specter, quickly finding the nearest Chubby.
Chubby was anxious to cut in but couldn’t find a chance to join the discussion. Suddenly, a chill rushed up from under his feet. He instinctively looked down to see his feet already immersed in the black fog.
Chubby let out a shriek, his round body shooting three feet into the air. The powerful will to survive made him demonstrate unprecedented agility.
At this instant, the black fog also condensed into a physical form, the hazy fog becoming a solid shadow that violently launched upwards at Chubby.
Wolf.
Everyone could see clearly, the shadow formed from the black fog was a wolf.
“F*ck! It’s a Night Roamer—!”
Torn T-shirt and Old man’s shirt faces changed color simultaneously.
The black shadow bit down on Chubby’s right ankle as he fell to the ground. His agonized screams blended with the heavy thud.
“Old Three——”
[Swords are Blind] and [Capture] activated simultaneously, rushing at the wolf shadow.
The wolf shadow instantly dispersed into black fog.
The swords stabbed empty air and fell to the ground, the black ropes lost their target.
But at least Chubby was saved.
Seizing the moment before the Night Roamer re-formed, Torn T-shirt raced over to open the metal mesh: “I believe you guys now, someone’s definitely playing dirty tricks from behind!”
Chubbys right pant leg was bitten through, revealing a bloody, mangled ankle with deep fang marks.
Old man’s shirt went to support his brother while Tang Lin swiftly tore a strip from the bedsheet to bandage and stem the bleeding.
Zheng Luozhu used the Iron Plate to shield them.
The scattered black fog re-gathered, like a loose, wispy cloud.
Tang Lin didn’t even lift his head, solely focused on bandaging as fast as possible.
Zheng Luozhu, Chubby, and Old man’s shirt stood at the ready, hearts about to leap from their throats.
The drifting black fog approached in a flash like lightning, shifting into the wolf shadow to pounce at the four!
Zheng Luozhu maneuvered the Iron Plate to meet it head-on.
“Bang—!”
The wolf shadow heavily collided with the barrier, directly imprinting a wolf-shaped dent and knocking Zheng Luozhu, Tang Lin, Chubby and Old man’s shirt flying with the huge impact.
Fortunately Tang Lin finished bandaging in the last second before being hit.
On the other side, Torn T-shirt finally got the metal mesh open: “Hurry over—!”
He was the first to crawl into the pipe, followed by Zheng Luozhu and Old man’s shirt supporting Chubby, then Old man’s shirt , Tang Lin, and Zheng Luozhu bringing up the rear.
The pitch-black, cramped, damp pipe forced them to crawl ahead at top speed.
Zheng Luozhu frequently looked back while anxiously asking: “How much longer until we reach the surface?”
“The surface?” Torn T-shirt’s voice came from ahead, “More Night Roamers are above ground!”
Zheng Luozhu: “Then where are we going?”
Torn T-shirt: “Nowhere, just keep crawling in the pipes to shake off the Night Roamer, we’re done when we lose them.”
Zheng Luozhu: “……”
Not a shred of light at the end of the tunnel.
Up ahead was another space connecting the pipes, and they jumped down one by one. It was smaller than their dwelling, with only two pipes connected.
At least they could finally stand straight and stretch their limbs.
But no one dared linger. Torn T-shirt practically leapt down and went straight to the other pipe opening to crawl in.
Just as Old man’s shirt was about to help Chubby up, Torn T-shirt suddenly came scrambling back out.
“What’s wrong?” Tang Lin had a bad feeling.
Torn T-shirt didn’t even get the chance to speak before beastly howls came from inside the pipe he’d just exited, still some distance away but clearly headed this way.
“You can’t be serious…” Old man’s shirt and Chubby’s faces were the picture of despair.
Beast ahead and Night Roamer behind, they were determined not to let them live.
The howling kept drawing nearer while the black fog slowly drifted out of the pipe they’d come from.
Zheng Luozhu swiftly summoned the Iron Plate to shield them.
Tang Lin gripped the dagger from his waist tightly.
The black fog fully drifted out of the pipe.
But this time it didn’t gather together, instead forming a long fog band that leisurely wound around the four, lazily floating.
Tang Lin held his breath, gaze fixed unwaveringly on the fog band, judging which direction it would condense and attack from.
The drifting fog band suddenly halted.
Tang Lin’s eyes flashed.
In a flash the fog band condensed into the wolf shadow.
Tang Lin didn’t wait for its pounce, stabbing out faster with his dagger.
The wolf shadow instantly dispersed back into black fog.
Tang Lin’s heart sank. Indeed like Torn T-shirt said, they’re completely untouchable. Their stationery tree couldn’t injure the Night Roamers, and they had no better one-time stationery to fight with either.
The air quieted, only the beastly howls from the other pipe, gradually drawing nearer.
No.
Not the wrong opponent, his three “allies” were too quiet, though they’d been clamoring earlier.
Tang Lin discreetly looked from the corner of his eye.
Torn T-shirt was sneakily eyeing his arm, seeming conflicted about something.
Chubby and Old man’s shirt made no attempt to disguise, gazes boring into their boss’s arm as if screaming “Boss has an ace up his sleeve!”
“If you have a killer move, use it now,” Tang Lin coolly reminded, “Don’t wait until we’re bones in a coffin before crying in the Underworld.”
Torn T-shirt was shocked that he saw through it, but the “bones in a coffin” and “Underworld” were too much: “Could you say something more auspicious…”
“You have at most ten seconds left to decide.” Tang Lin watched the black fog ring flowing slower and slower. His thoughts raced as he said, “If it’s rare stationery you’re reluctant to use, sell it to me. Name your price, I can pay in food or money.”
Torn T-shirt turned pale, cold sweat streaming down. He had steeled himself to go all out, but faltered at the critical moment, agonizing back and forth nearly driving him mad.
It really was rare stationery, but with lives at stake, rarity meant nothing. What mattered was: “I’m not even certain this stationery will work! If it hurts the Night Roamer but I can’t control it, it’ll come straight for me—then I’m truly done for!”
“Give it to me. I’ll do it.” Tang Lin’s eyes were filled with determination.
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