novelbin 16: Something exploded!
16: Something exploded!
Looking at the tightly closed door in front of him, Su Chen frowned.
Are there really people who are reborn?
If she is, then what exactly is she planning?
As Su Chen pondered this, he followed the last member of the crowd outwards.
As he left the building, he intended to go straight home, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed seven or eight people standing by the notice board. They were huddled together, whispering amongst themselves, each with a serious expression.
problem occurs?
Su Chen walked over to the notice board.
As he approached, the previously chattering crowd suddenly fell silent. Su Chen's gaze fell directly on the notice board.
The information about the mysterious village on the sign had vanished without a trace, leaving it unclear whether the exploration had been successful or failed. What troubled Su Chen even more was that the total number of residents in the community had changed: from 2486 to 2481.
Five people are suddenly gone!
Su Chen couldn't help but gasp.
If only one or two people die, it's understandable—for example, someone like the second son of the Zhang family who is seriously ill, or an elderly person who is already bedridden and could pass away at any time.
But now that five are gone... things are probably not that simple.
Which family of good people made a pact to die of illness together? And five of them at that?
"Did someone go on an adventure as a team, only to be wiped out in the gray fog?"
"If that's the case, maybe it's a good ending..."
"I'm afraid that these five people didn't die at the hands of the monster, but were murdered by someone else."
Thinking of this, Su Chen subconsciously looked up at the six tall buildings surrounding the small square. There were surveillance cameras... but if the crime was committed in a blind spot of the surveillance cameras, it would probably be impossible to find out.
Anyone who has lived in a commercial residential area knows that there are no surveillance cameras to find the person who scratches your car, let alone a murderer.
Anyone who has lived in a modern residential community knows that sometimes you can't even find out who scratched your car, let alone commit a murder in such a situation.
After all, many neighbors don't know each other well at all. The older women might like to visit each other, but many young people don't even know who lives across the hall.
It's really hard to notice if a few households are missing in a short period of time.
……
Su Chen turned around, walked into the building entrance, and took the elevator to the eighteenth floor.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, he saw a woman wearing red-soled black high heels and a silk nightgown, her face flushed with drunkenness. She was swaying and carrying a half-empty bottle of wine, arm in arm with a man, walking affectionately toward room 1801 across the hall.
"Isn't this Xu Ermazi's wife? He's only been a few days with her, and he's already found a new love?" Su Chen muttered to himself.
Xu Ermazi's flirtatious wife didn't rush to open the door and go in. Instead, she leaned against the door, grabbed the man's tie with one hand, tilted her head slightly, and gently took a slender cigarette that the man offered into her mouth with her alluring red lips. Then she took an elegant puff.
The smoke swirled between her lips and teeth, its color fading slightly. She parted her red lips slightly and slowly exhaled the smoke onto the man's face, teasing him until his breathing became heavier.
"Brother, tell me... do you want to go in?" The woman leaning against the door had a soft, sticky voice, like freshly made syrup that could be stretched into long strands when you took a bite.
"My darling! I miss you so much!" The man was so impatient that he cupped the woman's face and kissed her.
Then, he quickly pulled out the "reward" he had prepared beforehand from his coat pocket—compressed biscuits, beef jerky, and bars of chocolate… and stuffed them all into the neckline of the woman's pajamas.
The woman giggled softly, then the man swept her up in his arms, used his shoulder to push open the door, and carried her inside.
Immediately afterwards, an undisguised commotion came from inside the door.
Su Chen secretly shook his head:
"Sure enough, some inherited professions are quick ways to make money."
……
Drop drop drop-
A death knell-like alarm clock rang from the bedside table. Su Chen stretched and turned it off.
"Get up! Eat!"
I quickly cooked a packet of instant noodles to make do, and before I even finished washing the bowl, I heard a loud, deep, and powerful engine roaring outside.
Su Chen frowned. Where did this car come from?
He glanced out the window, then took his Nepalese kukri and pistol with him and went downstairs.
When we arrived at the small square, quite a few people had already gathered around a powerful Hummer SUV, marveling at it.
Su Chen glanced at the car and found that it had been modified in a rather outrageous way:
The front of the vehicle was fitted with triangular steel, and each of the sharp corners was polished, gleaming coldly, just like the fangs of a wild beast. Rows of triangular steel were also welded to the sides and rear of the vehicle, but they were not sharpened, and looked more like armor plates welded side by side, covering the entire vehicle tightly, and its defensive capabilities looked amazing.
At that moment, the Hummer owner stood on the roof, proudly shouting, "Brothers, after two days and two nights of hard work, my dream vehicle is finally finished! With this outfit, I don't care what kind of human-faced owl it is, I'll smash them all to pieces!"
"Wait for my good news! I'm going out right now to get everyone several hundred kilograms of beef and mutton!"
Hearing this, Su Chen raised an eyebrow.
Beef and mutton?
There are things like this in the gray fog world?
Has the bulletin board been updated again, showing new resource locations?
He went to the bulletin board.
After reading it, I found a new line of small, scarlet text: "Starting from the north gate of the community, proceed northeast for 3,600 meters to reach a dark forest. There are many kinds of animals in the forest, but they are not the only ones."
"Is this the hunting location that man mentioned? But... can a Hummer drive in the forest?"
As Su Chen was pondering this, a roar of an engine sounded.
The adventurous driver, amidst cheers and stares from the crowd, sped out of the North Gate and vanished into the thick gray fog in the blink of an eye.
His actions were like a spark falling into a haystack, instantly igniting the curiosity of many residents present.
The car owner's friends, in particular, stared longingly towards the north gate, their faces filled with envy.
"When Li Laoliu comes back, he'll definitely show off his prey to us!" said a man with a buzz cut holding a watermelon knife.
"Let's go too! We can't let him steal the limelight!" A bald man with a dragon tattoo over his shoulder chimed in.
As soon as he said this, several other men with similarly strong streetwise vibes chimed in.
Suddenly, a series of clanging metal sounds echoed across the small square—they were inspecting the knives and clubs in their hands.
Su Chen glanced at them.
Most of these people had tattoos and were carrying machetes, cleavers, or daggers; they were clearly gangsters.
"Those monsters are nothing special! Last time, five of us went out, and we all came back unscathed, didn't we? That proves they're no match for us!" a blond-haired thug said arrogantly.
"Exactly! Let's take them down!"
It's been so many days, how come there are still people who can't see reality? Do they have to wait until an owl with a human face cuts open your stomach before they believe the world has really changed?
Su Chen shook his head and turned to leave the small square.
He doesn't plan to go to that so-called Black Forest.
Three thousand six hundred meters—to travel this far in the treacherous gray fog world, I dared not even imagine what I might encounter along the way. The level of danger was many times greater than the last exploration.
Besides, Su Chen doesn't have any defensive equipment to protect himself right now. Rather than going out and taking risks, he might as well stay in the neighborhood and hunt owls against the wall.
Wouldn't it be great to receive an advanced rescue pack every day?
Having made up his mind, Su Chen walked towards the defensive point on the wall.
As he passed by the artificial lake, he noticed that the lakeside, which was full of fishermen yesterday, was now surrounded by a circle of wooden stakes, and it seemed that they were planning to build a proper fishpond.
On the open ground next to the fishpond, a large group of workers were busy processing timber with cutting machines. Some of the timber was transported to various defensive points of the wall, while the rest was sent to a special processing area where workers were using the timber to make old-fashioned barricades, seemingly in preparation for a possible breach of the wall.
Su Chen didn't linger and continued walking forward, soon arriving at the place near the wall where timber was piled up.
He didn't chat with anyone else; instead, he drew his Nepalese katana and began carving the wooden spearhead he would use that day.
Having prepared enough spearheads, Su Chen jogged to his defensive position from yesterday and began quietly practicing bayonet thrusting.
After yesterday's practical experience, he can now be considered a "veteran" and can go into battle directly without waiting for orders.
After practicing for about ten minutes, Su Chen broke out in a light sweat and felt his condition improving.
Just then, the gray fog outside the wall surged up, accompanied by a familiar "cooing" sound, and the human-faced owl flapped its wings and began to climb up the wall one after another.
The battle broke out instantly.
Having learned from yesterday's experience, Su Chen was very steady today.
He maintained a safe distance, remained calm and composed, gripped his spear tightly, and thrust whenever he saw an opportunity, each shot aimed at the throbbing core inside the owl's abdomen.
Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap!
Shot after shot, nine times in a row, finally piercing the heart of the owl in front of him, securing his first victory of the day.
call--
Su Chen let out a sigh of relief, not entirely satisfied with his accuracy today, having used nine shots.
"If I were to encounter these guys in the gray fog, with my haphazard marksmanship, I'd probably be at a disadvantage."
"I still need to practice! I need to practice until I can kill someone with one or two shots before I can even think about going out and making my way in the world."
He was mentally preparing to continue "target practice" when he suddenly heard an excited, distorted exclamation from not far to his left:
"Holy crap! It dropped loot! The face-obsessed owl dropped equipment! We've really been transported into a game world!"
The voice came from a scaffold, and it was the eldest son of the Zhang family shouting. He had even thrown down the long spear he was holding, and was staring intently at the carcass of an owl on the wall.
Tiny, firefly-like lights were rising from the corpse.
These points of light intertwined and coalesced in mid-air, gradually forming a dazzling white ball of light the size of a fist, and then slowly drifted toward the eldest son of the Zhang family on the scaffold.
The eldest son of the Zhang family excitedly reached out his hand, straining forward, and finally his fingertips touched the ball of light.
The moment they made contact, all the light receded inward, eventually transforming into a small white card that lay quietly in his palm.
At that moment, it was as if the surroundings had been muted; everyone held their breath and stared wide-eyed.
Su Chen was also surprised. He squinted and looked closely at the card: the card was engraved with a magnificent arrow tower, and it looked like a building card.
However, the edge pattern of the card seemed to be different from the [Building Card - Well] he had seen before.