"Beep~~~"
That sound again, but this time, Lu Yuan ignored it directly and picked up the graffiti book to observe it.
This little book was very old; looking at the edges, the paper had already yellowed. The cover was printed with a few cartoon characters that must have been cute once, but now they had been corroded by mold into creepy smiles.
Lu Yuan opened the little book.
On the first few pages were the immature scribbles typical of a child: a house, a lawn, and two adults holding a child—clearly a family of three. Although the drawing wasn't great, one could feel a hint of warmth.
However, a few pages later, the long-haired figure, who presumably represented 'Mother', began to lie on a bed, while the figure representing Father stood in the very corner of the drawing.
Later on, the number of times 'Father' appeared in the graffiti became fewer and fewer, until, after a few more pages, he disappeared completely.
"Hmm, so, are these few pictures a child recording the whole process of their mother falling seriously ill and their father gradually abandoning the mother and child?" Lu Yuan muttered to himself and flipped to the next page.
This flip made Lu Yuan pause, because the art style on this page suddenly underwent a drastic change. If the previous drawings were only somewhat oppressive, then this page was pure, unadulterated madness. All the blank spaces were messily filled with a red pen. Amidst those nearly insane, chaotic lines, the figure representing 'Mother' was no longer lying in bed but standing upright, except her head was lowered, her long hair hanging in front of her face, and on her neck, a thick, pitch-black line went straight upward until it disappeared at the end of the paper.
Lu Yuan stared at the graffiti figure that was clearly in a 'hanging' state.
"This... this isn't..." He had just started to say something.
Suddenly, there was a faint, light sound.
Lu Yuan immediately turned his head to look toward the door, and the next moment, he saw a sight he least wanted to see at that moment.
The talisman pasted next to the door had burned out, leaving only a few fragments smaller than a fingernail on the ground, still faintly glowing with sparks.
And these sparks were certainly no longer enough to hold back the fellow villager outside the door. Because Lu Yuan had already seen the handle on that door begin to turn slowly.
With a 'click', the door opened.
A wave of biting cold air surged in through the door crack instantly.
Soon, the door swung wide open. Outside, the female corpse was floating, her mouth still emitting that creepy 'cackle-cackle' sound, and below her, the monster crawling on the ground like a spider opened a huge mouth capable of dislocating its jaw, with black liquid like ink oozing from its oral cavity.
Lu Yuan looked at the stance of these two blocking the door and had to step back.
"Uh... we're all fellow villagers, why not sit down and chat?" He put on a smile he thought was very sincere and said.
As soon as he finished speaking.
"Ah-ooo-ooo-ooo————"
The two, one above and one below, erupted almost simultaneously into an inhuman scream, shaking Lu Yuan so hard he nearly fell to the ground. It seemed that trying to talk things out was no longer an option.
In a single breath, the crawling monster leaped over, heading straight for Lu Yuan's head, its blood-red maw wide open, looking as if it intended to swallow Lu Yuan's entire head alive.
Lu Yuan was naturally prepared; otherwise, he wouldn't have retreated to the wall. He suddenly dodged to the side, avoiding the monster's huge mouth, but his chest was still deeply gashed by the creature's claws, leaving the flesh exposed.
As for the monster, because it couldn't stop its momentum, it slammed with a 'thud' into the nest built of disgusting maggots on the wall.
At this, those big fleshy insects went wild. "Squeak-squeak-squeak—squeak-squeak-squeak—" A series of continuous, shrill hisses erupted from every corner of the room, and then, tens of thousands of maggots surged out from the wall like a dam breaking, instantly submerging the fellow villager.
It seemed Lu Yuan was right; the design of this room wasn't just aimed at the Player, but was also a Trap that the Player could utilize. If one really couldn't beat an NPC, luring them here could also cause them significant damage.
However, now was not the time to be happy. Although he had temporarily gotten rid of one, the remaining one was the most troublesome.
The Beautiful Fellow Villager's speed was very slow, only able to float bit by bit, but the cold she radiated was truly too terrifying; getting close drained Life, and touching her meant instant death. Lu Yuan didn't dare to relax. After dodging that attack, he hurriedly performed a clumsy roll, grabbed the talisman that had burned to ash on the ground, and flung it violently at her.
The bedroom space was somewhat effective for dealing with that fellow villager who couldn't stop his momentum, but against this Beauty, it was useless. He would be forced to the wall and chewed into minced meat by insects in minutes.
Therefore, Lu Yuan had to use the talisman fragments on the ground that hadn't completely extinguished to force her back and rush out of here.
The result was fortunate; the ashes seemed to still have some effect. Under the scattering, the Beautiful Fellow Villager screamed and moved to the side, and Lu Yuan hurriedly took advantage of this gap to dash out the door.
This series of actions seemed strenuous, but in reality, it all happened within 5 seconds. Afterward, Lu Yuan gathered all his strength and ran to the other side of the living room, staying far away from that deadly chill.
Having done all this, Lu Yuan finally found the time to catch his breath. It would have been better if he hadn't; as he breathed, a fierce, severe pain struck his chest. He looked down and was shocked to find that his chest, which had just been clawed open, was now oozing dark blue blood, and that blood was radiating waves of cold. It seemed this was because he had been too close to the Beautiful Fellow Villager just now.
A sense of weakness washed over him, and Lu Yuan hurriedly leaned against the wall to keep from collapsing. In fact, if he could see his Life value now, he would find that he only had less than 20% left.
Weakness, cold, dizziness, mobility impaired—if he hadn't used a Bandage to restore one-third of his Life beforehand, he might have been finished by now.
"Key... key..."
Lu Yuan kept urging himself in his Mind. He knew the only chance now was to find the Key quickly and escape this place.
However, what made him feel despair was that he had no idea where the Key was. Even more despairing was that, at this moment, the female corpse began to turn slowly and float toward him.
The cold aura forced Lu Yuan until he had nowhere left to retreat, and he could only lean against the corner of the wall. His Life value had gradually descended to about 10%. That wasn't all; at this moment, after several screams came from inside the bedroom, the spider-form fellow villager seemed to have broken free from the wall's insect nest. It dragged its bloody body out from the room, its huge, scarlet eyes staring fixedly at Lu Yuan under the pale light.
Lu Yuan sighed helplessly. In this situation, he had no room left to counterattack. The only Item left in his backpack was 5 Resurrection Cross Badges, but honestly, in this situation, resurrecting would just mean letting these two fellow villagers kill him again.
So, was his first Normal Instance going to end so miserably?
Lu Yuan thought powerlessly.
However, just at this moment—
"Beep"
That strange sound that had appeared repeatedly from the beginning sounded once again.
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