Chapter 13
by GideonChapter 13: Snow Mountain Town 13—Xiao Yang’s Heart-Wrenching Scream
The off-road vehicle sped toward the town’s outskirts.
Though Snow Mountain Town was a tourist destination, its transportation was far from convenient. It had only one exit connecting it to the outside world, which other players had mentioned was already blocked by a landslide.
Many of the town’s industries were self-sufficient, including livestock farming. Several farms of varying sizes were located on the town’s outskirts, supplying raw materials to the canning factory.
Lingling Eight, being the naturally sociable type, had tried to start a conversation several times along the way. But with the others barely responding, he eventually shut his mouth.
“Bai Qi,” Luan Qi Ba Jiao suddenly turned around, his eyes full of anticipation.
Jiang Qibai saw right through his thoughts and sighed helplessly. “Go ahead.”
The two of them then became a pair of Englishmen, chatting endlessly about the weather, finally managing to fill enough time for their “interview.”
Luan Qi Ba Jiao glanced left and right at the remaining three people, struggling to decide who to invite next.
Lingling Eight couldn’t hold back any longer. “Interview me! Interview me!”
Luan Qi Ba Jiao had been planning to do exactly that, so he started, “The temperature today—”
“Have you guys heard the legend?” Lingling Eight interrupted, his voice raspy.
Luan Qi Ba Jiao blinked. “What legend?”
Lingling Eight launched into his story without a pause. “The legend of the Snow Mountain Goddess! They say it’s her protection that keeps the town’s climate so mild and livable, and gives it such stunning snowy vistas. That’s what made Snow Mountain Town what it is today. The whole place is covered in images of her—statues, murals, handicrafts, you name it.”
“That’s just a marketing tactic,” Luan Qi Ba Jiao countered. “It makes the place seem like it has deep cultural roots. Plenty of tourist cities do the same thing.”
Lingling Eight didn’t argue. Instead, he lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “That’s not the point. There are records saying the priests and monks who served the Goddess left a warning: they said the Goddess is actually as fierce and cruel as the dead of winter. If she’s ever angered, she’ll bring a cataclysm upon the entire town, and no one will survive. Tell me—isn’t that exactly what’s happening to Snow Mountain Town right now?”
Luan Qi Ba Jiao sounded skeptical. “Are you sure this isn’t just some hindsight prophecy? Like, the disaster happens first, and then someone fakes a prophecy to match it.”
“Everyone in town is dead,” Lingling Eight countered, “so who would’ve faked it?”
His question left the group speechless. After a long pause, Luan Qi Ba Jiao sheepishly muttered, “Ah, interview complete.”
Finally, Tan Xiaotian, who had been silent in the passenger seat, spoke up. “This legend is too steeped in folklore. It doesn’t explain why the town ended up like this.”
Lingling Eight wasn’t annoyed. “I only heard it from other Players. I was just throwing out a theory to get the conversation started. What do you think?” He wasn’t afraid of being challenged; he was afraid of silence. This was exactly the kind of provocation needed to draw people out.
Tan Xiaotian hesitated for a moment before saying, “Before the disaster struck, a mining company moved into Snow Mountain Town.”
Jiang Qibai’s attention sharpened. This information corroborated the intel she had already received.
“They weren’t mining for ore,” he continued. “They were excavating a ‘tomb.’ Whatever they brought out of it is what caused the disaster.”
Just then, the car jolted violently, sending a jolt of alarm through everyone.
“It’s fine,” Lingling Eight’s voice crackled over the radio. “Probably just hit a small branch.”
“Talk about a wild swing,” Xiao Yang muttered. “We went from mythology to a supernatural mystery in one go.”
“Wait,” Luan Qi Ba Jiao said, a sudden spark of inspiration lighting up his face. “What if a mining company accidentally dug up the Snow Mountain Goddess’s tomb, and she got so pissed she turned everyone into Shadow Ghosts?”
He wore a look of absolute genius.
Jiang Qibai sighed. “And that’s how information gets distorted as it spreads.”
Every version of the story they’d heard had been filtered through countless retellings, each person adding their own embellishments until the final version bore no resemblance to the original.
Truth and lies were so hopelessly intertwined that no one could tell them apart—and with the town in its current state, there was no way to verify the facts anyway.
As the group continued their animated discussion, Sweet and Sour Fish spoke up, her voice hauntingly calm. “Have you guys noticed? The sky… it’s never gotten any lighter.”
Everyone snapped out of their discussion and immediately checked the time.
They had set off at 7:30 AM, and they had been driving for over an hour now. It was almost nine o’clock—the sun should have been up by now.
But when they looked out the car windows, the world outside was still shrouded in a dim, murky gloom. Not a single sliver of dawn’s red glow touched the horizon.
“It’s a cloudy day,” Luan Qi Ba Jiao said, having already commented on the weather countless times. “It’s always darker in the morning when it’s cloudy.”
Sweet and Sour Fish, who had inadvertently startled everyone, looked a bit embarrassed. “Uh, what I meant was… we should pay more attention to our surroundings and not let our guard down.”
Lingling Eight continued Luan Qi Ba Jiao’s line of thought. “Cloudy weather is fine. As long as it doesn’t rain.”
The moment the words left his mouth, a sudden, heavy downpour slammed against the car windows.
Before the “jinx” could even register his mistake, Lingling Eight slammed on the brakes. The passengers were thrown forward, their heads nearly hitting the back of the seats.
“So this is what you call… good driving?” Sweet and Sour Fish complained, her voice trailing off as she realized something was wrong.
The windshield was a smear of crimson, thick liquid slowly oozing down the glass. In this state, it was impossible to see the road—slamming on the brakes had been the right call.
But the biggest problem right now wasn’t the lack of visibility.
Lingling Eight’s voice was taut. “Who’s coming with me to wipe the windshield?”
The liquid splashed onto the glass was too viscous. The wipers couldn’t clear it; instead, they just smeared the blood even more evenly across the surface.
“Is this really the time to be wiping the windshield?!” Xiao Yang shouted, his eyes wide with terror as he stared out the window. He quickly cast a skill on himself.
[ Player AAA Professional Antarctic Penguin Wholesale and Retail Xiao Yang has used the skill [Born in Rome]. Defense +5, Strength +5. Duration: 2 hours. Cooldown: 12 hours. ]
“The point isn’t wiping the windshield,” Lingling Eight retorted. “The point is someone needs to get out of the car with me to see what’s going on.”
Hiding in the car felt safe, but it solved nothing. With the windows completely obscured, they couldn’t even drive away. They had no idea what kind of monstrosity was causing this chaos outside.
If it managed to break into the off-road vehicle, the cramped interior would leave them with no room to fight back.
Jiang Qibai pointed outside the window. “My Shadow Ghost will go with you.”
Lingling Eight turned his head and saw a skeletal, black humanoid creature clinging to the car window, a glaringly bright red ring around its neck.
To help her teammates distinguish her Shadow Ghost employee from the real monsters and avoid friendly fire, Jiang Qibai had specially wrapped a big red scarf around its neck before they set out.
That just makes it scarier, doesn’t it?
Lingling Eight stammered, “It’s still better if a person comes with me. We can watch each other’s backs if we spot anything.”
He called out, “Xiao Yang, you’re coming with me.” Lingling Eight had originally thought Xiao Yang was a pure support, but after seeing the skills he’d just used, it was clear he had some combat capability.
“Me? …Alright.” Perhaps it was because there were too many non-combatants in the car, or perhaps the skill buff had given him courage, but Xiao Yang gritted his teeth and pushed open the car door.
They hadn’t noticed it from inside, but as they stepped out, they found a thick fog had rolled in, making the already dim sky even harder to see. Both men took out flashlights. Seeing Lingling Eight head toward the front of the car, Xiao Yang hurried to follow close behind, sticking to him like glue.
The thick fog flowed around them like spilled milk, swallowing the beams of their flashlights. Xiao Yang stubbornly clicked through his flashlight’s settings, but even on the highest mode, the light barely pierced the gloom.
“I’m going to check the car for damage,” Lingling Eight said. “Keep watch for me.”
He wasn’t just worried about the windshield being smeared; if other parts were damaged, driving off wouldn’t be an escape—it would be a one-way trip to the afterlife.
Xiao Yang’s voice trembled. “Got it.”
A desolate wilderness, a gloomy sky, thick fog, and an unknown blood-red liquid… This was the textbook opening to a horror movie.
Lingling Eight pulled out a tool and started tapping and knocking on the car. Suddenly, the sound of metal hitting the ground echoed—like a tool had been dropped.
Xiao Yang, already on edge and wishing he had eyes in the back of his head to watch their surroundings, snapped, “Lingling Eight, make sure you’re looking before you pick things up. That’s my leg!”
Lingling Eight’s voice drifted from the far end of the car. “Looking at what?”
If Lingling Eight is at the back of the car… then what is touching my ankle?
“AHHH!” Xiao Yang’s scream tore through the silence.
The scream jolted everyone out of the car.
Jiang Qibai didn’t know what had happened, but she saw the Shadow Ghost employee’s HP instantly drop by 6 points. The Shadow Ghost’s vision was already nearly nonexistent, so the debuff from the thick fog was negligible. Yet even so, the Mutated Shadow Ghost was too slow to dodge the attack, losing half its current HP in a single exchange.
Tan Xiaotian, who had already gotten out, and Lingling Eight from the back of the car both rushed toward Xiao Yang.
Xiao Yang didn’t just sit there and wait to be killed. After all, he wasn’t the support he’d claimed to be. He immediately drew his weapon and slashed at the thing that had grabbed him.
Through the gloom and fog, Xiao Yang caught a glimpse of the arm extending from beneath the car. It was astonishingly long, and its skin didn’t look human at all—it was covered in concentric rings, like an earthworm.
Under the car… The monster was under the car all along!
The hand retracted instantly. A low, dark figure darted out with blinding speed and vanished into the fog. The next second, Xiao Yang felt a heavy weight land on his back.
A chill shot straight up his spine, freezing him solid. Just then, Lingling Eight’s furious roar echoed: “Get down!”
Xiao Yang, his mind a blank, obeyed the command by instinct. He threw himself flat onto the ground, oblivious to the gash he tore in his chin. Just as he felt something about to pierce his thick jacket and sink into his skin, a sudden barrier blocked the blow.
Lingling Eight had hurled a wad of chewed bubblegum. It expanded rapidly in the air, instantly ballooning into a massive sphere. The moment it touched the creature on Xiao Yang’s back, it burst, entangling the monster completely. Tan Xiaotian seized the opportunity and kicked the creature away, sending it flying back into the dense fog.
Freed from the creature’s grasp, Xiao Yang’s adrenaline surged. He scrambled to his feet and rushed to join the others. They formed a tight circle, backs pressed together, warily scanning their surroundings for any sign of movement.
Trembling, Xiao Yang felt a sticky residue on the spot where the monster had touched him. He couldn’t tell if it was his own blood or some fluid from the creature.
“Xiaotian, did you see what that thing was?” Sweet and Sour Fish asked, turning to Tan Xiaotian, who had been the closest to the monster.
“Long, spindly limbs… it moves incredibly fast on all fours,” Tan Xiaotian said, his voice uncertain. “As for its head… I don’t know if that fleshy tumor-like thing was its head. It was growing right in the middle of its body.”
What kind of freakish mutation is this?
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