"Humanity is at 122—it went down a bit. Does turning on the light not completely stop the loss of Humanity, or..."
Wu Shuang frowned, looking toward the window. He sat on the bed for quite a while before finally getting up and walking over with the oil lamp in hand.
The whispers were still there. Lighting the lamp had merely driven them back, but if he listened closely, he could still hear them, sounding as if they were right outside the wall.
The more Wu Shuang thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. He walked over and, without opening the window, pressed himself against the wall to listen.
The sounds grew much louder, as if he were wearing headphones. A chorus of rustling whispers seeped through the wall directly into Wu Shuang's ears.
There were snickers, roars, screams, and all sorts of meaningless syllables layered over one another, sounding like a crowd of invisible people arguing.
Mixed in was a strange noise—like some sloshing substance rubbing against the wall, creeping closer and scaling its way up toward Wu Shuang.
"What is..."
Wu Shuang felt a shiver run down his spine. He immediately pulled away from the wall and stared intently at the window.
Just then, he saw darkness seeping through the cracks of the window in fine threads.
The window wasn't sealed tight, and the darkness poured in like a tangible substance—resembling flowing liquid asphalt—dripping down the wall onto the floorboards, where it turned into black smoke and slowly dissipated.
Wu Shuang scrambled backward immediately.
For it wasn't just the window; darkness was also infiltrating through cracks in the walls, the trapdoor, and the wooden floorboards. Under the light's illumination, it slowly dissolved, while the whispering voices grew louder and more clamorous.
In an instant, Wu Shuang felt completely surrounded by darkness. It was deafeningly noisy; the entire room was invaded by liquid darkness—on the walls, the table, and the floor, it was everywhere.
He was forced back to the edge of the bed.
In the entire room, only the space beneath his feet was free of darkness, thanks to the oil lamp in his hands.
【Warning: Your Humanity is draining...】
"Fuck! The darkness in this world isn't normal—it has physical form!"
Wu Shuang exclaimed in alarm, his eyes wide. He sat curled up for a moment before suddenly remembering something. Hurriedly carrying the lamp, he ran over to the Hero's Cabinet, pulled out the kerosene and matches, and returned to sit by the bed.
What followed was a long, agonizing ordeal. Wu Shuang sat frozen on the bed, not daring to move a muscle, much less close his eyes to sleep, terrified he might never wake up again if he drifted off.
However, exhaustion soon washed over him. After all, he had been busy all day, and enduring such a clamorous environment was pure torture. Becoming somewhat dazed, he nearly fell asleep several times. Each time he snapped awake, he immediately refilled the lamp with oil, for the room had dimmed slightly further—the lamp oil seemed to burn exceptionally fast...
Meanwhile, at the main entrance of Raymont Manor.
The silver-armored knight still stood before the main door, his body engulfed by the darkness. Red particles could be seen spilling out from inside his armor from time to time, and his helmet intermittently flashed with a red glow, just like those wandering corpses—though it was sporadic, like a loose electrical connection, flickering between wandering corpse and human.
Suddenly, his grip on his lance tightened. The red particles issuing from his body increased in number, and the friction between the shaft of his lance and his metal gauntlets produced a grating, nerve-wracking screech.
Far in the distance, in a sky of unknown height and expanse, a massive shadow seemed visible, gradually encroaching to envelop the entire kingdom.
...
"!!"
Wu Shuang jolted awake from the bed, his eyes widening. He reflexively looked toward the oil lamp, and upon noticing it had gone out, a surge of indescribable fear flared up—though thankfully, it lasted only a split second.
For he saw light filtering in through the cracks of the window, indicating that dawn had broken; it was now daytime.
Wu Shuang had never been so grateful for light in his entire life.
He sat still for two seconds before moving, his joints cracking. Having slept curled up all night, his whole body ached now, especially the back of his head, as if he had been struck.
He checked his Humanity—112 remaining. Fortunately, a loss of this scale was entirely acceptable.
However, he definitely needed to swap to a larger oil lamp. This tiny lamp was absurdly unreliable—burning fast with a low capacity, making him afraid to close his eyes at all.
Wu Shuang turned over and got out of bed. Sensing something unusual, he looked down at his right arm and found that the Blessed's Shedding wrapping his elbow joint had cracked. Like a dried leaf, it crumbled into dust at the slightest touch.
"Did its energy run out?"
He mused. Feeling his right hand and checking his Health, he saw it had recovered to 88%, which surprised him somewhat.
If nothing else, the healing items in this world were remarkably effective, even surpassing 21st-century Earth in terms of results.
"Is this the power of Humanity?"
He muttered to himself, tearing off the piece of Shedding on his back as well. It felt as though that layer of skin had adhered to his body; peeling it off felt akin to shedding dead skin. The injury on his back had healed by eighty percent, feeling no pain at all when pressed.
This meant he wouldn't need to waste time recovering from injuries. He would just need to keep an eye on his right elbow joint.
He summoned the handbook to check the chat room. As expected, it was filled with discussions about last night. Nobody had anticipated the sky turning pitch-black so quickly. It was highly unusual, as even that old veteran who had survived for two years claimed it was their first time encountering it.
The headcount had even dropped by several people, leaving only 187 remaining.
Last night's darkness was glaringly abnormal, infiltrating rooms in a way that had never happened before. Many suffered from insomnia all night, and once daylight broke, they cursed furiously to vent their emotions, only now daring to catch some sleep.
It seemed to be an omen; some were saying the apocalypse was drawing near.
Yet Wu Shuang felt that this world was already apocalyptic enough—it was just that the moment of complete destruction... seemed a step closer.
He browsed the chat room for a while without joining the conversation. He sent a private message to Doctor Zeng, but she didn't reply, likely asleep.
Wu Shuang didn't mind—after all, her avatar was still lit up. He then recalled another matter: the gun and light spheres left outside had yet to be retrieved.
He took two bites of dark bread, gulped down some water, and hurriedly headed out.
His body had recovered decently, so picking up some items shouldn't pose any difficulty.
Reaching the windowsill leading to the eaves, he observed the surroundings for a while before climbing out and treading forward.
The mist persisted. Unsure if it was due to proximity to the sea, Wu Shuang had a feeling this mist might become a permanent fixture.
Making his way to the northern side of the estate, Wu Shuang crouched down to look. This time, there was no sound of chewing; the goblin's corpse had been picked completely clean, leaving barely a damaged skeleton behind.
He spotted no living corpses.
The light spheres floated in their original spots.
However...
"Where's the gun?"
Wu Shuang searched across the lawn, finding only the marks where he had fallen and the anchor thrust beside them, but there was no sign of the gun anywhere. What was more, the percussion caps and paper cartridges on the ground were missing as well.
Had someone taken his gun?
Wu Shuang flattened himself against the ground, keeping low out of fear of being ambushed by a lurking shooter, while pondering what to do.
Because the fence had been destroyed and its protection lost, the yard was now covered in living corpse footprints everywhere.
Trying to figure out who stole the gun through footprints was virtually impossible.
Wu Shuang hesitated for a few seconds before slowly retreating. When he reappeared, he had already equipped his weapons and gear, holding the step ladder in hand, ready to head down.
Because regardless of who took the gun, he couldn't stay holed up at home forever; going outside was inevitable.
Rather than cowering in fear, it was better to take the initiative and retrieve the light spheres first.
As for the gun's whereabouts, he could look into that later, though he had to remain wary of potential gunfire and keep an eye out for any gun-toting living corpses—after all, a gun was far more dangerous than a bow.
Rate on N.U.
