“Sean! Wait!”
Just a split second before Ye Yuzhi pulled the trigger, Du Yun, standing not far away, called out again to stop him.
“You can’t kill him yet!” she said urgently.
Anthony, who had shown no fear at all when facing Du Yun, now revealed a trace of terror under Ye Yuzhi’s gun. “Yes, you can’t kill me.”
“Why?” Ye Yuzhi asked, his face devoid of any extra expression.
“I’m your—” Anthony struggled to explain.
Ye Yuzhi shoved the barrel into his mouth. “I wasn’t asking you. Please stay quiet, sir.”
Du Yun still felt that something was wrong with Ye Yuzhi but there was no time to analyze anything, her own sanity was already teetering on the edge.
Taking advantage of the moment, Jiang Xing managed to climb to his feet and rushed to Du Yun’s side to help steady her.
“Because look, there are still so many monsters around us.” She forced herself to explain patiently. “They listen to Anthony. If Anthony dies, we might be in danger!”
Ye Yuzhi looked at Anthony, who immediately nodded quickly.
“Friends should help each other,” Anthony murmured. “So I should keep them safe.”
His friends, friends were important. Friends should be safe. He should help his friends. The monsters were dangerous, this place was dangerous. They needed to leave Guerrero.
Ye Yuzhi seemed to have pieced the logic together. He lowered his lashes, looking at Anthony. “Send them away.”
“Send them to the other towns outside.”
Anthony wanted to say something but with the gun still in his mouth, he couldn’t articulate anything. Seeing that, Ye Yuzhi pulled the gun out and pressed it to Anthony’s temple instead, waiting for him to speak.
“I… the mountains are sealed now. I can’t send them out…”
“Please don’t use such excuses,” Ye Yuzhi replied. “Don’t you have plenty of mounts?” He was referring to the byakhees lingering nearby.
Anthony froze. Fear and joy surged at once through him. An eerie, twisted jealousy flooded his chest, wrapping him in a suffocating mix of emotions.
He was terrified, terrified that Ye Yuzhi would really kill him, because he could feel that Ye Yuzhi absolutely had that ability.
But at the same time, he felt a pull, an attraction. From Ye Yuzhi’s posture and tone, he felt something profoundly similar to the aura of the Lord he worshipped.
Danger, fear, dread yet also thrill, gratitude, reverence.
This was the Lord’s lamb, the one chosen by the Lord!
And so, he would eventually become an existence just like them.
“Yes.” His voice trembled and his form of address suddenly shifted. “If you wish to command them… you may use them as well.”
“They are the fastest servants. You could even have them carry those people to another continent in an instant, as long as you stay…”
“Sean is leaving with us.” Du Yun suddenly interrupted.
Ye Yuzhi turned to her, only to find that she was staring straight at him. It looked like she was looking at him yet her gaze seemed to pierce through him toward something else beyond him.
“I absolutely, absolutely will not leave him behind again!”
Ye Yuzhi asked Anthony, “I only need to stay in Guerrero?”
“Yes, if you are willing,” Anthony pleaded. “All that’s needed is you…”
“Come with me!” Du Yun’s voice cracked like a shrill scream, sharp enough to almost pierce eardrums.
She stared at Ye Yuzhi, her entire being like someone possessed. Suddenly, she lifted her hand and pressed the dagger in her grip against her own neck. “Either I die with you right here or you leave with me.”
“Du Yun!” Jiang Xing barked softly, only then realizing belatedly that Du Yun had probably fallen into temporary madness.
Throwing dice and such things were only heard by themselves; if a teammate failed a SAN check, it could be very hard to detect mid-game. Jiang Xing was not as perceptive as Xia Jienan, he had failed to notice Du Yun’s abnormality at first and in the current situation he didn’t even dare interrupt. He hadn’t done a psychological analysis yet. All he could do was try to call her back.
Ye Yuzhi looked at her for a moment, then suddenly lowered his gun and walked toward her.
Anthony could have escaped right then and there but instead he froze in place, staring blankly in Ye Yuzhi’s direction. Just as the byakhees around them waited for his command, he too waited for Ye Yuzhi’s.
As Ye Yuzhi approached, the expression on Du Yun’s face gradually softened. Her gaze was full of expectation yet strangely, her eyes remained fixed on Ye Yuzhi’s neck, as if that was where his eyes truly were.
“We’ll go back together, okay?” she whispered, almost pleading.
“But I only want you to leave…” Ye Yuzhi said. He still had other things to do; he couldn’t leave yet.
The dagger in Du Yun’s hand pressed forward again. The sharp tip pierced the skin of her neck, drawing tiny beads of blood. “You have to leave. You must leave.” She repeated the words, still staring unwaveringly at the place on Ye Yuzhi’s neck.
Ye Yuzhi looked at her for a moment, then slowly leaned down and placed his hand over Du Yun’s wrist, the wrist that was gripping the dagger.
A scream, sharp, piercing, stabbed into Jiang Xing’s brain like a blade driven straight into his skull. He stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him, unable to react, unable even to process what had just happened.
“Please don’t hurt yourself.” Ye Yuzhi’s voice, cool and faint, brushed past their ears.
Jiang Xing held the now unconscious Du Yun, who had passed out from the violent pain. He stared at Ye Yuzhi, at a loss, no idea what to say or what to do.
Suddenly, he felt that maybe he and Du Yun had both been wrong from the very beginning. This NPC called Sean… perhaps he wasn’t on their side at all.
But before he could think any further, Ye Yuzhi had already turned away and instructed Anthony to send the byakhees to carry them out of Guerrero Town.
Under circumstances like these, they had no power to choose anything.
As they were lifted higher and higher into the sky, Jiang Xing’s vision slowly darkened. He no longer thought about today’s string of breakthroughs. He allowed himself to sink into sleep.
His game had already ended.
Once the byakhees that had delivered the others returned, Ye Yuzhi finally looked back toward Anthony. “Where is Samuel?”
A trace of confusion flickered through Anthony’s feverish, fanatical eyes. He could not even remember the name of the person he had been chatting so happily with just one day ago.
Ye Yuzhi lowered his eyes. “I see.”
The gunshot rang out. Afterward, he swept his gaze coldly across the surrounding byakhees.
The first time he had seen them, they had scared him so badly he had nearly jumped. Birdlike yet molelike, antlike yet resembling decayed humans, these creatures, however, did not seem to have had any intention of attacking him from beginning to end.
When his gaze passed over them, they only crouched down slightly, then leapt upward and vanished into the air.
Ye Yuzhi lifted his eyes to the cloud choked sky. After a moment, he holstered his gun and prepared to return to the church.
He needed to inform Mother Alide that he had resolved the trouble and that everyone could return to their normal lives.
But the moment he turned around, that murmuring whisper, that haze of sluggish thought that had clouded his mind, suddenly evaporated.
The world before him was as though a filter had been torn away and the emotions and malice that had been delayed slammed down like a tidal wave.
Ye Yuzhi had not even taken a single step before he doubled over, covering his mouth as he retched violently.
What had he done?
Filth mixed with blood and what felt like fragmented organs spilled from his mouth. His head swam with dizziness. The things he vomited were tangled masses of worms, writhing and twisting on the ground, accusing him with every movement.
In the blink of an eye, all of it transformed into sticky, pulsing flesh, roaring, screaming, dying in waves of agony.
Ye Yuzhi’s eyes reddened. He staggered to his feet, unsure where he should go, too afraid to look back even once.
Panic and terror surged all at once, swallowing him whole.
What had he done?
How could he have done such a thing?
He should confess, he had to confess…
But first… first he needed to see Alide.
Ye Yuzhi wiped his mouth with his sleeve, fighting desperately to keep himself from crying.
He would tell Alide that he planned to leave and then he would turn himself in. He had to make sure Alide was properly taken care of.
He needed to tell her some good news first, so she wouldn’t suspect anything. He had to come up with a reasonable excuse… He had to… he absolutely had to…
But when he stumbled forward and reached the front of the church, the sanity he had just regained shattered instantly at the sight of the blood covering the ground.
The dice that had been suppressed since moments ago suddenly burst into motion.
【san check 1/4】
【san check 1/6+1】
【san check 1/4】
【san check 1/4+1】
After the chain of rolling dice, a voice, serpentine, whispering, brushed against his ears:
【san=22】
【You have lost 15 points of Sanity in a short span.
Idea roll 55/70, regular success.】
【Indefinite Madness, Extreme Belief.】
【You revere your God and now, you believe that perhaps only by allowing Him to descend can this disaster be saved.】
_________
Author’s Notes:
The four consecutive SAN checks correspond to: injuring a teammate, attacking Anthony, seeing a ground covered in blood and realizing that someone he knew has died.
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
The translator promises nothing except gratitude and possibly more chapters.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Guerrero’s Lair (1)Chapter 2 · Guerrero’s Lair (2)Chapter 3 · Guerrero’s Lair (3)Chapter 4 · Guerrero’s Lair (4)Chapter 5 · Guerrero’s Lair (5)Chapter 6 · Guerrero’s Lair (6)Chapter 7 · Guerrero’s Lair (7)Chapter 8 · Guerrero’s Lair (8)Chapter 9 · Guerrero’s Lair (9)Chapter 10 · Guerrero’s Lair (10)Chapter 11 · Guerrero’s Lair (11)Chapter 12 · Guerrero’s Lair (12)Chapter 13 · Guerrero’s Lair (13)Chapter 14 · Guerrero’s Lair (14)Chapter 15 · Guerrero’s Lair (15)Chapter 16 · Guerrero’s Lair (16)Chapter 17 · Guerrero’s Lair (17)Chapter 18 · Guerrero’s Lair (18)Chapter 19 · Guerrero’s Lair (19)Chapter 20 · Guerrero’s Lair (20)Chapter 21 · Guerrero’s Lair (21)Chapter 22 · Guerrero’s Lair (22)Chapter 23 · Interlude (1)Chapter 24 · The interlude (2)Chapter 25 · The interlude (3)Chapter 26 Part 1 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 26 Part 2 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 27 · Calling in the Wind (2)Chapter 28 · Calling in the Wind (3)Chapter 29 · Calling in the Wind (4)Chapter 30 · Calling in the Wind (5)Chapter 31 · Calling in the Wind (6)Chapter 32 · Calling in the Wind (7)Chapter 33 · Calling in the Wind (8)Chapter 34 · Calling in the Wind (9)Chapter 35 · Calling in the Wind (10)Chapter 36 · Interlude (4)Chapter 37 · Interlude (5)Chapter 38 · Interlude (6)Chapter 39 · Interlude (7)Chapter 40 · Interlude (8)Chapter 41 · Interlude (9)Chapter 42 · Welcome to Doville (1)Chapter 43 · Welcome to Doville (2)Chapter 44 · Welcome to Doville (3)Chapter 45 · Welcome to Doville (4)Chapter 46 · Welcome to Doville (5)Chapter 47 · Welcome to Doville (6)Chapter 48 · Welcome to Doville (7)Chapter 49 · Welcome to Doville (8)Chapter 50 · Welcome to Doville (9)Chapter 51 · Welcome to Doville (10)Chapter 52 · Welcome to Doville (11)Chapter 53 · Welcome to Doville (12)Chapter 54 · Interlude (10)Chapter 55 · Interlude (11)Chapter 56 · Interlude (12)Chapter 57 · Interlude (13)Chapter 58 · Interlude (14)Chapter 59 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (1)Chapter 60 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (2)Chapter 61 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (3)Chapter 62 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (4)Chapter 63 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (5)Chapter 64 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (6)Chapter 65 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (7)Chapter 66 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (8)Chapter 67 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (9)Chapter 68 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (10)Chapter 69 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (11)Chapter 70 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (12)Chapter 71 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (13)Chapter 72 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (14)Chapter 73 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (15)Chapter 74 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (16)Chapter 75 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (17)Chapter 76 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (18)Chapter 77 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (19)Chapter 78 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (20)Chapter 79 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (21)Chapter 80 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (22)Chapter 81 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (23)Chapter 82 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (24)Chapter 83 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (25)Chapter 84 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (26)Chapter 85 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (27)Chapter 86 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (28)Chapter 87 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (29)Chapter 88 · Tunnel in the Dark Night (30)Chapter 89 · Interlude (15)Chapter 90 · Interlude (16)Chapter 91 · Interlude (17)Chapter 92 · The Promise of Hamelin (1)Chapter 93 · The Promise of Hamelin (2)Chapter 94 · The Promise of Hamelin (3)Chapter 95 · The Promise of Hamelin (4)Chapter 96 · The Promise of Hamelin (5)Chapter 97 · The Promise of Hamelin (6)Chapter 98 · The Promise of Hamelin (7)Chapter 99 · The Promise of Hamelin (8)Chapter 100 · The Promise of Hamelin (9)Chapter 101 · The Promise of Hamelin (10)Chapter 102 · The Promise of Hamelin (11)Chapter 103 · The Promise of Hamelin (12)Chapter 104 · The Promise of Hamelin (13)Chapter 105 · The Promise of Hamelin (14)Chapter 106 · The Promise of Hamelin (15)Chapter 107 · The Promise of Hamelin (16)Chapter 109 · The Promise of Hamelin (18)Chapter 110 · The Promise of Hamelin (19)