As Zuo Lin'an drew closer, he quickly realized that the three of them had actually fallen asleep, huddled together.
He didn't know if they were sleeping so soundly because Lin Deyou and the others were nearby.
In truth, what Zuo Lin'an didn't know was that as commoners at the very bottom of society—essentially human livestock exploited by merchants and officials—these three had no concept of rest.
During the day, they either worked in the fields or did odd jobs, never stopping from morning till night. As for the women, they also had to manage household chores and serve their parents-in-law, along with the other elders of the family.
Most of the money they earned went toward paying all sorts of miscellaneous taxes.
And the dungeon had opened at midnight.
This hour was a rare time of rest for commoners like them; people at the bottom of society had no such thing as a nightlife.
Their earlier panic had only been because they were terrified. Now that they had settled down a bit, their eyelids had grown heavy long ago, so it was only natural for them to fall asleep.
Of course, regardless of the reason, it certainly made things convenient for Zuo Lin'an to act.
His specter aura enveloped the three of them soundlessly, cutting off all external perception.
During this time, he also observed Lin Deyou and Bai Liu by the campfire not far away. After all, they were both Second-Rate martial artists and might sense the changes here.
But after watching them for a while, he realized they had no reaction whatsoever.
It seemed that one would need to be at the level of a First-Rate martial artist to notice.
Zuo Lin'an kept track of the time, randomly selected one of the men, and quietly waited.
Five... four... three... two... one!
Execute!
A few minutes later, Zuo Lin'an glanced at his masterpiece with moderate satisfaction. After quickly setting the scene, he quietly withdrew his specter aura, then slipped away and hid.
He hadn't gone far before Lin Deyou and the others noticed something was wrong.
“The scent of blood!”
They all stood up, warily looking toward where the three commoners were.
What they saw startled them!
Of the original three, only two remained.
The other was already dead!
His manner of death and deathly state were identical to the first victim.
The peeled-off skin was laid out flat on the ground nearby, while the bones, flesh, and internal organs were scattered all over.
The distance between this spot and their campfire was absolutely no more than ten meters!
Yet, no one had noticed the specter approaching, appearing, or killing. Even the other two commoners sleeping right next to him hadn't been woken up.
Staring at the bloody scene before them, they couldn't tell if this was a provocation from the specter.
“This is a One-Star difficulty dungeon, right? Is a specter of this difficulty really just a brainless monster that can't think?”
Zhuang He looked at the scene, his expression somewhat dazed, as he involuntarily asked this question.
Princess Jinyang replied, “During class before, the instructor said that specters act on instinct, and they will use schemes to a certain extent to kill us.”
“But that only starts from Two-Star difficulty dungeons. A One-Star dungeon like this is supposed to have a very, very low overall difficulty, basically designed to weed out the most useless trash.”
“Logically speaking, this shouldn't be happening...”
She was also astonished. She had already cleared One-Star dungeons three times before, so she no longer had her novice benefits.
But because of that, she was quite familiar with One-Star dungeons. This time, however, things were completely outside her expectations.
She shook her head as she pondered.
“Something is wrong.”
“Something is really wrong. Generally speaking, it's impossible for two people to die in a One-Star dungeon less than a shichen after it starts. Even in a Two-Star dungeon, this death rate would be extremely exaggerated.”
By now, Lin Deyou had also realized the abnormality of this dungeon.
Zi Yao slowly leaned closer, her voice soft and plaintive, her expression pitiful.
“Third Young Master Lin?”
She was worried, fearing that Lin Deyou would grow to resent her because of this.
After all, if it weren't to help her, Lin Deyou wouldn't have entered this obviously strange dungeon. One had to know that he hadn't let his family find out about him carrying Zi Yao through a dungeon.
If they really died here, the consequences...
Right then, Bai Liu suddenly spoke.
“Half a shichen.”
The others froze for a moment before realizing that the "half a shichen" he referred to was the time difference between the deaths of the two commoners killed by the specter.
The first one died at midnight.
And now, only half a shichen had passed, and another was dead.
In other words, Lin Deyou's previous analysis of the specter's rule was correct, but not entirely.
Lin Deyou frowned. “Could it be that this specter doesn't strike once every shichen, but once every half-shichen?”
A sudden chill ran down his spine.
“Then... in a single day, wouldn't this specter be able to strike twenty-four times?”
Lin Deyou's expression was grim, his face solemn.
None of them spoke further. The atmosphere grew tense and stagnant.
Perhaps because everyone was gathered here, the two commoners who had been fast asleep moments ago slowly woke up.
They found it strange to see everyone gathered, but they quickly noticed something was amiss.
Only two of them were left. There had been another person sleeping with them, so where was he?
The two instinctively looked back, and the scene behind them was laid bare.
Illuminated by the nearby campfire, they saw the human skin laid out on the ground, the bones clinging to bits of flesh at their feet, and...
The woman couldn't catch her breath, rolled her eyes back, and fainted on the spot.
As for the other one.
“Ahhh!!!”
Unable to even stand, he scrambled backward on his hands and feet, screaming and wailing as he tried to flee.
“No!”
“Help! Help me!”
He was clearly frightened out of his wits.
Displeasure flashed in Lin Deyou's eyes. He casually kicked a pebble on the ground, sending it flying straight into the man's knee.
A faint crack of bone shattering echoed.
“Argh!”
The man shrieked, clutching his knee as he rolled on the ground, wailing in pain.
Lin Deyou withdrew his gaze, his expression solemn.
“Everyone, we have already lost two people, yet we haven't even seen the specter's face. I doubt any of us will be able to sleep for the rest of the night.”
“We might as well stay awake. Let's use these two as test subjects and leave them to the side to see if the specter appears again in another half-shichen. What do you think?”
Since their own lives were at stake, they naturally had no objections.
As for these two commoners?
To them, these people were fellow villagers when they were useful.
When they weren't, they were just unruly peasants, lowly slaves, consumables—or even food.
From a distance, Zuo Lin'an watched them drag the fainted woman and the man with the shattered knee closer to the campfire.
From their original ten meters away, they were now placed only five meters from the fire.
Furthermore, these two commoners were placed separately on the left and right sides.
Rate on N.U.
