'Old Ed, what the hell is going on?!'
The biting sea breeze lashed against his face—a wretched sensation that certainly wasn't an illusion.
Elias roared frantically in his mind while instinctively reaching for his lower back.
As his fingertips brushed against that familiar wooden grip, the heart that had been stuck in his throat dropped just an inch.
Thank goodness.
At least it wasn't in his luggage.
'What’s your situation?'
Old Ed's voice sounded even more bewildered than his.
'You left the hotel after dinner and walked to this desolate beach without saying a word!'
'I thought you were being controlled by something!'
'What dinner? What hotel?'
Elias felt as if something had exploded in his brain; a chaotic buzzing made his head spin.
'The problem is, you're not a corpse. Who could possibly control you?'
'Stop analyzing for a second!'
Elias cut him off sharply.
There wasn't much time to think.
Before Elias could even process why he was here, his body had already reacted.
The moment the two dark figures in front were about to touch his clothes, Elias ducked low like a slippery loach, clumsily but effectively sliding through the gap between them.
'Wasn't I on a ship?'
He replied quickly in his mind, his legs pumping to widen the distance.
'And what the hell are these things?!'
Elias raised his right hand, the spirituality he had long since mastered surging instantly.
A soft, cool silver glow climbed onto the revolver in his hand.
Along with the bullets in the cylinder, the weapon was covered in a layer of intricate and divine silver patterns.
【Moonlight Enchantment】.
In the dark night, this silver light was exceptionally piercing.
Bang!
Without any hesitation, Elias turned and fired.
The muzzle didn't spit common flames, but a burst of silver fire carrying a divine aura.
The enchanted bullet drew a straight silver line through the air, drilling precisely into the nearest dark figure.
It seemed his recent practice shooting floating debris on the island had yielded significant results.
Squelch.
A dull sound echoed, like a red-hot iron rod being shoved into rotting leather.
The figure's body stiffened; it didn't scream, but instead began to disintegrate from the wound, with large amounts of black debris clattering to the ground.
'Do you have amnesia?' Edmond asked in surprise.
'Hard to say, but close enough!'
Elias replied through gritted teeth, his hands staying busy.
He slid to the side and rear again, firing a shot at another figure trying to ambush him from behind.
Bang!
The shot hit the center of its face—if that mass of darkness could even be called a face.
The same dull thud followed, with the same black debris splashing everywhere.
'Forget it, let's talk after I'm done. This damn dream demon is going to be the death of me!'
Elias felt as if his mind had short-circuited; his memory had a massive gap.
It had jumped directly from the conversation on the ship to this beachside slaughter, the middle part like a reel of film that had been cut out.
He couldn't think of any culprit for this cognitive dissonance other than that lingering dream demon curse.
'Why did you call it "old"?'
Edmond managed to catch that strange detail even in the heat of the moment.
'Because it's as persistent as a menopausal auntie!'
'I can't explain it to you right now!'
Although the two dark figures that were shot had begun to disintegrate, they didn't fall.
Instead, as the black debris fell away, an indescribable stench of rot began to permeate the air.
"Stop polluting the seawater!" Elias grumbled.
But this clearly wasn't the time for an environmental speech.
The other two figures that hadn't been hit didn't stop because of their companions' setback; they continued to move toward him in a pincer formation with stiff strides.
Why call it moving?
Because the movements of these four unknown creatures were truly bizarre.
They were like the zombies Elias had seen in horror movies in his previous life.
Stiff joints, twisted limbs—every step looked like they were about to fall apart.
That uncanny, human-yet-not-human appearance pushed the uncanny valley effect to its limit.
What he needed now was to keep his distance.
At this range, his enchanted revolver was the absolute truth.
Thus, he retreated while steadying his breath, raising his hand once more.
Bang! Bang!
Two more crisp gunshots rang out.
The bullets accurately struck the knee joints of the other two dark figures.
The massive kinetic energy, combined with the burning effect of the enchantment, instantly shattered their support points.
These two figures also went rigid, freezing in place like puppets with their strings cut.
'They don't seem like particularly difficult creatures.'
Elias breathed a small sigh of relief.
Although they looked terrifying, their defense seemed low and their movements were slow; as long as he wasn't surrounded, they were just a few bullets away from being handled.
But Elias didn't dare be careless.
The dream demon curse always had a way of delivering a solid elbow strike just when he found a sliver of security.
Just as the four figures froze and Elias prepared to reload and finish them off, a gap suddenly opened in the thick clouds overhead.
Cool moonlight instantly flooded the desolate beach.
Hum—
The moment he was bathed in moonlight, Elias felt a wave of warmth.
It was a comfort that radiated from his marrow; his muscles, tight from tension and the rain, relaxed instantly, and his consumed spirituality began to recover at a perceptible rate.
【Moonlight Blessing】.
This was the true value of a passive skill!
However, before he could finish marveling at the Moon Lord's grace, he finally saw the true faces of the four "dark figures" by the clear moonlight.
In that instant, Elias's scalp felt like it was about to explode.
Those weren't just dark figures!
They were four human-shaped objects bloated from being soaked in seawater!
And on the surface of these swollen bodies were dense clusters of tiny crabs!
'Old Ed, what the hell is this?'
'Carrion crabs. A very common type of crab. Haven't you seen them before?'
Elias didn't respond, thinking to himself that he certainly hadn't.
Right now, tens of thousands of black sea crabs the size of fingernails were acting like a layer of living armor, clinging tightly to the corpses, waving tiny claws, and constantly wriggling and crawling.
The debris knocked off by his bullets earlier was actually nothing but crushed crabs and rotten meat!
Elias almost couldn't hold it back.
It was common knowledge that crabs were scavengers.
Since these things were called carrion crabs, they were likely even worse.
What it meant for them to be gathered here went without saying.
Following Elias's shots with the enchanted bullets—especially the holy moonlight burn—these creatures, which naturally sought profit and avoided harm, seemed to feel fear.
Clatter...
With a sound of grinding that made one's teeth ache, the tiny crabs covering the corpses began to retreat like a tide, falling into the sea.
Losing the support of this "exoskeleton," the four corpses, which had long since rotted beyond recognition, collapsed into the water like they had no bones, kicking up a spray of murky waves.
Immediately following that, a towering stench of death erupted in an instant.
"Ugh!!"
Elias quickly turned away, covering his nose and mouth tightly with both hands.
But even so, the physiological rejection made him lose his composure instantly.
"Blegh!"
He bent over, unable to control his dry heaving, tears stinging his eyes.
This was a hundred times more disgusting than the first time he handled carapace husk tentacles!
'Old Ed, can these things control corpses?'
'I'm afraid it's not those things doing the controlling.'
Old Ed's tone implied something else.
The danger had not ended with the collapse of the corpses.
Suddenly, he felt a gaze like needles on his back.
Elias endured the nausea and jerked his head up.
By the moonlight, a figure had appeared on the beach at some point.
A man.
His clothes weren't grand, but rather ordinary, and he wore a soft felt hat.
He just stood there silently watching Elias, his face incredibly stiff.
"Who are you?!"
Elias raised his gun and shouted, his voice hoarse from the dry heaving.
The other party didn't respond.
Only on that stiff face, the muscles of his cheeks began to twitch unnaturally.
He was smiling.
It was an eerie smile; the corners of his mouth pulled upward in an exaggerated arc, but his eyes were wide open and his eyeballs didn't move an inch.
'It should be dream lotus powder.'
Edmond spoke up suddenly, as if he had realized something.
'Dream lotus?'
'We saw that man in the hotel lobby,' Old Ed analyzed with a certain tone.
'I really have no impression of that.'
Elias tried hard to remember, but his mind only held that slurry-like memory gap.
'Of course you don't.'
Edmond explained: 'Dream lotus is a special plant.'
'Its powder is colorless and odorless, but it has a specific effect.'
'It enhances a person's connection to the spirit world.'
'In common terms, it allows one to enter dreams.'
'And as for you...'
Edmond paused, his tone becoming heavy.
'This guy seems to know you're cursed by a dream demon.'
'And at some point, he made you inhale dream lotus powder.'
'This powder acted as a powerful catalyst, causing the dream demon curse to be far more effective than usual when it triggered.'
'Wait... there's a tactic like that?!'
Elias was shocked.
Didn't this make the lotus powder to him what Kryptonite was to Superman?
Not that he was invincible or as strong as Superman...
Wait, that wasn't the point!
The point was that this stuff was a massive hidden danger!
'Fortunately, the effect has passed for now.'
Edmond let out a long sigh of relief, seemingly shaken by the narrow escape.
'So, I'm a law-abiding citizen. Why is he coming after me?'
'Because you talk too much? Because your talent is too good?' Edmond answered bluntly.
'I guess I'll have to ask him after I settle this.'
Elias narrowed his eyes, killing intent rising.
No matter who the other party was, since they wanted him dead, there was no need to be polite.
He gripped the revolver tightly again, feeling its cold touch.
'Also,' Elias asked.
'What was Captain Crowley's request?'
Old Ed gave a chuckle.
'Isn't it a coincidence?'
'He also wants you to go to Hope County to retrieve something.'
'Huh?'
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