Heading out a second time, Wu Shuang was even more cautious. He stood before the windowsill for quite a while to observe before carefully climbing up.
Having learned his lesson this time, he no longer focused most of his attention on his feet, turning his gaze instead to the mist-shrouded streets.
Unsure if it was because night was approaching, the town's mist had thickened again. Although it had been misty all day, there hadn't been a single moment when it truly cleared up.
He crouched and walked forward. After taking only a few steps, he heard an unusual noise—it sounded like a beast feeding, tearing and swallowing something, accompanied by faint gasps and low growls issuing from its throat.
Wu Shuang lowered his body, nearly pressing himself flat against the eaves as he crept forward. Reaching the corner of the eaves, he peeked half his head out to look down.
Before his eyes was an appalling, stomach-churning scene.
Eight living corpse-ified villagers were gnawing on the corpse of that "goblin." Judging by their behavior, they were complete beasts devoid of any intelligence.
They were prostrate on the ground, chewing with their mouths and tearing with their hands, savagely ripping apart chunks of flesh and internal organs before shoving them down their throats, chewing repeatedly as their bellies bulged like starved ghosts.
Among them... were even three small living corpses barely over a meter tall, gathered around a female living corpse with a swollen belly.
This living corpse was also a special type, possessing long, slender limbs and standing over two meters tall, with two shorter arms reaching out from inside its belly to help grab flesh and feed.
Watching this scene unfold, Wu Shuang felt a sudden wave of physical revulsion—not just disgust, but a deep sympathy for these people's plight.
After all, coming from a civilized society, he couldn't bear to see fellow human beings meet such a tragic, pitiful end.
This was simply...
Wu Shuang held his breath, unable to describe his feelings.
If that kind Doctor Zeng were here, she would probably cry.
He watched for a few seconds and judged that these villagers wouldn't leave anytime soon, and their numbers might even increase; he had no reason to take the risk.
Although he really wanted to pick up those two light spheres, going down would undoubtedly just make him an extra meal for them.
He looked toward Argus resting on the grass. The gun lay right there, alongside the anchor thrust into the mud, as well as the scattered percussion caps and paper cartridges—coated in mud, leaving him unsure if their functionality was affected.
But he couldn't retrieve them, as they were too close to the living corpses, and he wasn't confident he could escape back in time.
"...I can only wait until they finish eating. Let's hope the living corpses don't take an interest in the gun."
Wu Shuang thought to himself, cast Appraisal Spell on that special individual, and then prepared to head back.
Yet at that very moment, the sky suddenly turned pitch-black—just like flipping a light switch, it plummeted straight into darkness.
And it wasn't an ordinary dark; it was the absolute pitch-blackness only found in areas lacking streetlights on a night with bad weather and no moonlight, making it almost impossible to see anything.
The only eye-catching thing was those few living corpses gnawing on the goblin's body; their eye sockets all lit up, emitting an eerie red glow in the dark, indicating they likely possessed darkvision.
"It's not even eight o'clock yet. How did it turn dark?"
Wu Shuang cursed inwardly, as this undoubtedly increased the risk of his return. But almost immediately, he had no time to ponder it, because muttering whispers reached his ears—disappearing when he listened carefully, yet sounding again like hallucinations the moment he lost focus.
Something seemed to lurk within the darkness—not those living corpses gorging themselves on the body in front of him, but something else entirely.
【Warning: Your Humanity is draining...】
Wu Shuang's eyes widened in alarm. He felt something inside his body being pulled away—he could even see blue particles, or rather, Humanity, slowly rising from the top of his head and dissipating into the darkness.
"Fuck, what the hell is this!"
Wu Shuang panicked internally.
And it wasn't just above his head; those living corpses had it too, though much dimmer, murky, and chaotic in color, consisting of barely a few specks before extinguishing almost instantly...
Something was stripping away the Humanity inside him!
Wu Shuang realized the cause—this might be why these people turned into living corpses in the first place!
With that thought in mind, he no longer cared about remaining hidden. He immediately pulled out the handbook to light up his surroundings and beat a hasty retreat.
The handbook's faint glow offered no improvement to the situation, prompting him to move even faster. He swung himself into the corridor and ran nonstop toward the attic.
It wasn't until a warm oil lamp flared to life, dispelling the darkness in the attic, that Wu Shuang felt things improve. The sensation of something being pulled from inside him vanished, and the whispers mostly faded away.
"Whew... Good thing I came prepared."
Wu Shuang muttered to himself. Glancing at the time, seeing it was clearly only 7:42, anger immediately surged within him, and he intended to question the chat room about what was going on.
But when he switched to the chat interface, he was surprised to find that the chat had already closed, even though it wasn't 8 o'clock yet.
"This..."
Something about this seemed unusual. This sun extinguishing seemed like an accident, and it was tied to the system's functions—otherwise, the chat room wouldn't have closed the moment the sun went out, with the chat logs inside frozen right at the exact second darkness fell.
Luckily, he had bought the matches in advance; otherwise, he wouldn't have known what to do.
"Darkness strips... and devours Humanity."
He thought in shock. Instead of resting, he seized the time to use cloth and the nails he brought back to cover up the window, even adding a second layer using the bedsheet dyed black.
Then, using the existing latch on the attic trapdoor, he hung the newly bought brass lock, pulled out the key, and placed it on the table.
Only after completing this step did he relax slightly—he was finally out of danger.
Wu Shuang began preparing dinner, which was still dark bread slices with salted fish. His current food and fresh water supply could easily last three or four days, and he could spend some money to stock up a bit more tomorrow. Over the next few days, he needed to let his injuries heal and then try to complete the graveyard-digging side quest.
As he ate, he browsed the results provided by Appraisal Spell moments ago.
【Villager: Ansu Gill】
【Description: A teacher at the Gulf Town orphanage. She was kind, but very strict when it came to education, so the children in the orphanage both respected and feared her.
Recently, however, children in the orphanage began disappearing frequently, and things in town turned abnormal. Ansu ordered everyone to stay indoors, but as food grew increasingly scarce, Ansu had no choice but to go out in search of food—for everyone's sake, and for her unborn child.】
...
"This fucking..."
Wu Shuang felt his appetite instantly vanish.
This so-called Appraisal Spell seemed to yield information about the subject's past when they were alive.
What a fucked-up world.
After a few seconds, Wu Shuang picked up the dark bread and kept gnawing on it, filling his stomach.
Next, he moved the oil lamp to the bedside and changed to the new bedsheets he had brought back, which felt much fresher.
As for the Hero predecessor, Wu Shuang didn't toss the remains around carelessly; instead, he moved the bed slightly and piled them neatly against the wall into a stack of white bones.
At any rate, it didn't smell, as the body had decomposed completely long ago. Next time he went toward the church, he could bring the bones along and dig a hole to bury them, giving the predecessor a proper burial—after all, the person had provided him with such a fantastic hiding spot.
"Hss..."
His back still hurt a bit, forcing Wu Shuang to lie on his side without putting pressure on his right arm. It was very uncomfortable, and lacking even a proper pillow, he had to use his damaged knapsack as a cushion.
"I lost some Humanity; 122 left. Luckily, the loss isn't too fast."
"Could this be the reason why this world collapsed?"
"And what on earth is that sun..."
Wu Shuang began reflecting on the events of today, feeling that everything was shrouded in mystery. However, darkness was likely the primary reason the villagers turned into wandering corpses.
"No wonder fuel, matches, and other fire-starting lighting tools aren't cheap—they're essential survival supplies."
【Warning: Your Humanity is draining...】
Wu Shuang's eyes widened in disbelief. Looking around the room and at the lit kerosene lamp, he hurriedly summoned the handbook to check.
Rate on N.U.
