It was no wonder Gu Xiang Kai and the others had stopped. There was simply no place left to step.
The cave, large enough to hold a hundred people, looked spacious, but the floor and walls were covered in a dense carpet of eyeballs. It was unclear how they were fixed in place, but not a single gap remained in the entire cavern.
Those eyeballs varied in size, yet none had shriveled. They looked as if they had just been gouged out, creating the unsettling illusion that they might look back at any moment.
Everyone’s expression was grim. The scene before them was as bizarre as it was terrifying. Even the most experienced scavengers felt a wave of nausea.
"These..."
There were no child ghosts in the cave. In fact, they had disappeared halfway through the tunnel, as if they feared this place. Not a single child ghost had entered.
"These are all the children who have died over the years."
"Help..."
Nan Yue ignored Lu Jiao’s muttering. She tilted her head to listen and then looked at Gu Xiang Kai.
Gu Xiang Kai, his scruffy face turning pale, nodded. "It sounds like Pu Yuan."
It was a very faint cry for help, but she was definitely still alive.
To get to her, they would have to walk across this floor paved with eyeballs.
Steeling their nerves, Nan Yue and the others stepped forward.
The sensation of stepping on eyeballs was strange—slippery yet elastic. Because their weight was distributed, none of the eyes burst underfoot.
Yet the eyeballs looked so fresh, and everyone knew exactly where they had come from. An overwhelming sense of revulsion and distress rose within them.
As she walked, Nan Yue realized why those child ghosts could see at night.
They likely returned to this cave at night to reclaim their eyes.
Or perhaps they weren't even their own. They simply grabbed whatever eyes they found, regardless of whether they fit.
But there were far more than a hundred pairs of eyes in this cave. There was no telling how many children had died in this town.
Following the sound, they found a small gap. Without Pu Yuan’s voice as a guide, it would have been impossible to locate.
It was a small, man-made compartment. There were no eyeballs inside. It was like a different world.
Candles burned within, lighting the space brightly. As Nan Yue stepped inside, she saw several cages holding dozens of women.
The women were emaciated, their breaths shallow and weak. They reeked of filth, and there was no telling how long they had been imprisoned.
What was truly chilling was that infants less than a hundred days old were locked in with them. Each woman held her child, either nursing or quietly cooing, creating a scene out of a living hell.
Pu Yuan was locked in one of the cages, her face covered in grime. Her eyes lit up when she saw them.
"Save me! I'm here!"
Lu Jiao rushed forward to open Pu Yuan’s cage. Upon questioning her, they learned that Pu Yuan had followed Xu Youci into the kitchen that day and was immediately knocked unconscious. By the time she woke up, she had been moved here.
The other women here were either kidnapped from nearby areas or were scholars who, like them, had been invited to the town for research and field studies.
The men were all dead. The surviving women were brought here and forced to give birth.
"They all gave birth around the same time. Today marks exactly forty-nine days for all of them."
Lu Jiao had once completed a mission involving human trafficking. She felt nothing but a desire to slaughter everyone in this subhuman town.
"No wonder we could hear babies crying. It must have been these children."
"Why hide them underground?"
By now, Nan Yue had mostly pieced together the background of the mission. She said coldly, "These are this year's sacrifices. Naturally, they're afraid they'll run away."
At the thought of what would happen to these children once midnight passed, everyone’s expression soured.
"Let's get them out of here first."
Lu Jiao was a woman of action. She moved to rescue them but was stopped by Dongfang Yuelai.
"How? It’s night outside. The slightest noise will invite death. Not only are they physically incapable of moving quickly, but these children are so small that noise is inevitable on the way out."
Lu Jiao snapped, "Then what should we do?"
Dongfang Yuelai remained silent. Her stance made it clear that she believed they couldn't be saved.
This was just a mission. There was no need to throw their lives away for NPCs.
Lu Jiao’s eyes reddened. She remembered everything she had experienced in a previous mission. If a high-level expert hadn't cleared the game at the last moment, the fate all female scavengers would have faced was something she didn't dare imagine.
"We have to try."
Lu Jiao disagreed with Dongfang Yuelai and opened all the cages. Some children woke up and began to cry, but after waiting for a moment, they found that no child ghosts entered.
"Look! The child ghosts won't attack the children. Let's get them out first."
At this stage of the mission, everyone had their own ideas. Lu Jiao felt they should save these women and children, and Pu Yuan agreed with her.
But the others didn't move. Firstly, it was unrealistic. Secondly, they felt the key to breaking the situation wasn't rescue, but revenge.
As Dongfang Yuelai had said, saving these women was impractical and completely violated the existing rules.
But that was the nature of missions. There would always be disagreements. Lu Jiao had always followed Dongfang Yuelai, but now she had her own ideas.
She and Pu Yuan led the dozen or so tortured women toward the exit. No one called out to stop them. Curiously, the children made no sound along the way, and the group walked out in silence.
If they returned to the location specified by the minibus driver within the allotted time, they could leave.
Nan Yue ignored the two who had parted ways with them. She wandered around the cave and found Chang'an sitting amidst the piles of eyeballs.
There was no telling how long he had been there. He made no sound, looking as if he were dead. If Nan Yue hadn't been looking closely, she wouldn't have noticed him at all.
Seeing that he had been found, Chang'an gave a gentle smile and nodded politely.
What a weirdo, Nan Yue thought.
There was no more sound from Pu Yuan’s group. It seemed they had made it out safely. Perhaps their idea wasn't wrong, but Nan Yue felt it wouldn't be that easy.
Night had already fallen. The remaining group members sat or stood in the cave to rest, trying their best not to make eye contact with the overwhelming presence of the eyeballs.
Nan Yue closed her eyes and thought. A cave full of eyeballs, child ghosts who were blind during the day and could only see at night by reclaiming their eyes...
If they were discovered at the same time as the townspeople, which side would the child ghosts attack?
As she focused her thoughts, she heard movement outside.
Though the sound was faint, Nan Yue opened her eyes. Someone was coming.
And there were quite a few of them.
With so many people, noise was inevitable. Eventually, several screams echoed from outside the cave, followed by the sound of others running desperately.
The newcomers carried torches. Upon bursting into the cave, they found themselves face-to-face with Nan Yue and the other intruders.
They were all residents of the town. They were more or less stained with blood and looked extremely disheveled. Their eyes held fear, but more so a chilling greed.
A clamor broke out among the crowd upon seeing Nan Yue and the others. Since the child ghosts couldn't enter this place, the townspeople were free to speak.
"How can they be here?"
"Why haven't they been eaten!"
"Kill! Kill them!"
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