The door panels were groaning.
The sharp scraping sound was like fingernails frantically scratching a chalkboard, making one's scalp tingle.
Elias stared at the wooden door, which was already starting to crack, his grip on the revolver slick with sweat.
"Edmond, how do I kill this thing?"
"Go for the head? The heart?"
"Or maybe a heavy blow to the crotch?"
However, the Edmond in his head did not provide tactical guidance like a proper tutorial NPC.
Instead, the old man who had been dead for fifty years suddenly asked a completely unrelated question.
"Wait, think for a moment. Around what time did the hallucinations start affecting your perception of time?"
"?"
"Big brother, the thing outside is about to tear down the door and have a buffet, and you're chatting about this now?"
"How should I know?!"
"This is important! It relates to our next course of action!"
Edmond's voice was urgent and serious.
"Just tell me what you did after reading the Watchman's Code!"
"What did I do? I went to the top of the tower!"
"I went to check the main light's operation and wind up the damn rotating platform!"
"Did you check the log?"
Edmond pressed further.
"When was the last time the oil was refilled?"
This question was like a bolt of lightning clearing the fog in Elias's mind.
He froze.
Images of memory rewound rapidly in his head.
The spiral staircase, the massive lens, the complex gear structure, the hand-drawn map...
Everything was there, except for the log.
Only now did Elias realize that in the original owner's memory, there was a thick lighthouse log kept on the wooden table at the top of the tower.
It was the 'black box' used by successive watchmen to record weather, maintenance, and abnormal events.
But when he stood at the top of the tower this afternoon, the table had been empty, with only the map marking the buoy range lying there alone.
And at that time, he had actually felt it was perfectly reasonable, without even a hint of suspicion.
'Fuck...'
Elias felt a chill run down his back.
This chill even eclipsed the threat of the monster outside the door.
He finally began to face the horror of the transcendent creatures of this world.
In other words, the dream demon had used fragments of the original owner's memory to fabricate a seamless memory of going up the tower.
It had allowed him to spend an entire afternoon in a hallucination without him noticing a thing.
If Edmond hadn't reminded him, he would still be in the dark.
Crack—
A large hole appeared in the door panel, and a sharp claw covered in pale white shell reached in, clawing blindly at the air.
Reality gave him no more time to dwell on his fear.
"Which means you didn't check the log, and you don't know when the oil was last refilled."
Edmond's voice sounded even more desperate than before.
"Fuck!" Elias cursed.
"So what do we do now? This crappy door can only hold for another half minute at most!"
"Hide. Wait for dawn."
"Dawn is coming soon."
"..."
Elias laughed out of sheer frustration.
"Do nothing?"
"Are you hoping I'll just let it gorge itself on me?"
"You can't beat that thing outside,"
Edmond analyzed calmly.
"Although I've never seen that gun you're holding, I know the carapace husk well."
"Unless you can accurately send a bullet into the ganglion in the gaps of its shell."
"Is there no weakness?!"
"There is. Intense light."
Edmond spoke rapidly.
"The carapace husk is a deep-sea creature that lives in the aphotic zone year-round; their light-sensing organs are extremely sensitive."
"They are photophobic, so they mostly only come ashore at night."
"But as of now, you don't have that kind of ability, nor do you have any transcendent items—"
"Oh?"
"You should have said so earlier!"
To Edmond's surprise, Elias, who had been incredibly tense, actually relaxed upon hearing those two words.
He even holstered his gun.
"That's not necessarily true."
A mischievous smirk tugged at the corner of Elias's mouth.
"Edmond, did you forget how I handled that clump of tentacles earlier?"
Edmond was stunned.
"Whale oil? Good, are you sure there's still some in your oil jug?"
"Is this stuff whale oil?"
As Elias spoke, he reached for the fireplace.
The oil jug he had used to deal with the tentacles this afternoon was sitting there quietly, with a small half-jug of liquid still inside.
"Can you stop interrupting?"
Edmond couldn't help but complain.
"Your thought process is too jumpy, you little brat!"
"If that's the case, find a way to create intense light to drive the carapace husk away, then run out immediately!"
"To where? Jump into the sea?"
"You jump, I jump?"
"Go to the lighthouse! Check if the main light is out!" Edmond roared.
"I was just joking!"
Elias spoke, but his movements didn't stop.
"So you're saying this damn thing was attracted because the main light went out?"
He fished an empty glass bottle out of a pile of junk—a low-quality rum bottle the original owner had kept to ward off the cold.
"Not necessarily."
Edmond's voice carried deep concern.
"The main light only reduces the number of these things that come ashore; it's a deterrent."
"What I'm worried about is that if the main light really is out, you'll be facing more than just one of these things."
"It could be two, three, or even a whole pack."
Elias's scalp tingled as he listened.
Just one of them scratching at the door was already putting on maximum pressure.
If a pack came, he would definitely have to settle his accounts here today and become the freshest pile of organic fertilizer on these rocks.
There was no time to lose.
Elias unscrewed the oil jug and poured the remaining thick, fishy-smelling whale oil into the glass bottle.
Next, he tore a clump of dry tinder from the supplies, twisted it into a fuse, and stuffed it into the bottle's neck, letting the whale oil soak through it.
A makeshift, crude Molotov cocktail was complete.
Bang!
The wooden door made a heavy sound as it finally gave way, the entire panel being violently torn open, hanging half-off its hinges.
A foul, fishy sea breeze blew in.
Elias couldn't afford to wait any longer; he used his flint and steel to ignite the oil-soaked fuse.
A small cluster of bright fire instantly illuminated the dim room, also reflecting Elias's pale face, which was now filled with madness.
He moved along the wall to the doorway and kicked open the remaining half of the ruined door.
The monster-like thing came into view.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself, and even though he had been talking tough just now, when Elias actually saw this creature, he was still stunned by fear and felt a physiological wave of nausea.
It was a humanoid giant isopod.
It was a full 2.2 meters tall, nearly filling the entire door frame.
Its body structure was slender and distorted, covered from head to toe in a hard, pale white shell that gleamed with a deathly luster.
It walked upright like a human, its posture stiff and eerie, its joints bending at anti-human angles, making a brittle sound of bone grinding against bone with every movement.
The most disgusting part was its head.
There were no obvious facial features; instead, it was covered by a single piece of smooth, thick head-armor like a helmet.
In the position where a face should have been, there were only two clusters of dense compound eyes arranged regularly on the shell, flickering with a cold, ghostly light.
Below the head, its mouthparts consisted of four pairs of sharp mandibles that constantly opened and closed, dripping with slime and making a continuous 'click-clack' sound.
The carapace husk was clearly startled by the sudden opening of the door and the cluster of fire.
Its compound eyes spun violently, and its mouthparts opened, letting out a sharp hiss.
"Son of a beach!"
Elias blurted out.
"You are really damn ugly!"
With that, he didn't hesitate for a second. His arm exerted force, and he slammed the burning glass bottle hard against the monster's chest.
The glass bottle shattered on impact.
The whale oil inside instantly splashed onto the carapace husk's pale shell, and tongues of fire immediately climbed along the oil, enveloping the deep-sea monster in brilliant white flames.
Boom—!
The unique burning characteristics of whale oil were displayed to their fullest at this moment.
A piercing light, nearly pure white, illuminated the entire area in front of the small hut, and even the air seemed to warp from the heat.
"Hiss—!"
The carapace husk let out a shrill scream, frantically waving its arms covered in sharp bone spurs as it tried to bat at the flames on its body, but the intense light clearly caused it even greater harm.
It staggered back as if it had drunk bad liquor, its compound eyes losing focus in the blinding light.
"Now's your chance!"
Edmond roared in his mind.
Already prepared, Elias shielded his eyes from the glare and immediately rushed out of the hut past the monster's side.
"Stop nagging!"
He didn't forget to respond, but his feet were moving fast.
Behind him, the monster was still screaming and rolling, but this wouldn't buy him much time.
The sea wind howled, and his heart pounded.
Elias had never felt like this path of only a few dozen meters was so long.
"Fast! Fast! You have to get there before it recovers!"
Edmond was still muttering.
"Shut up! I'm running!"
Elias rushed to a position where he could see the tower light, his heart drumming in his chest.
If the light was out, it would be a huge problem.
If the light was out, it meant there would be more than just one tonight.
Then, he froze.
Looking up high, that tower light was emitting a brilliant radiance.
Driven by the gears, it was rotating steadily, quietly, and extremely responsibly.
That bright, white beam of light pierced through the darkness like a sword, sweeping across the sea and illuminating the distant waves clearly.
The light was magnificent.
It was as bright as day.
The air suddenly fell silent.
Only by the wooden hut, the unlucky carapace husk was still letting out a gradually weakening wail in the flames.
Elias maintained that head-up posture for a full five seconds.
"Explain this, you damn old bastard!"
He pointed at the blindingly bright bulb at the top of the tower, his hand shaking with rage.
"Uh..."
Rate on N.U.
