Underworld Player

Not ten minutes after leaving the bus, the party had been attacked by a mysterious entity, and Zheng YaoWen was now dead.

With his flashlight, Bai Zhi carefully examined the area around the body and began putting together preliminary ideas about how Zheng YaoWen had died, ignoring the stunned Xu Feng, who was sitting on the floor in a daze, for the time being.

The delinquent had died a gruesome death. From inspecting the neck area, it looked like Zheng YaoWen's head had been brutally ripped off in one motion, and even his spine seemed to have been ripped out along with it.

Although his death hardly affected the overall strength of this impromptu squad, it had a profound impact on his friend, Xu Feng.。

After all, Xu Feng was processing the horrific realization that he had been carrying his friend Zheng YaoWen on his back the whole time, completely oblivious to the terrifying entity who had killed him and was eating the head with extreme impunity, mere inches away from himself...

Perhaps it was well that his friend had died painlessly, in his sleep, but the thought was scant comfort.

"We must watch our step going forward," said Lin He gravely, tightening his grip on his silver pistol. "My basic stats are the highest, so I should guard the rear. The sooner we reach the end of this treacherous trail, the better."

Bai Zhi glanced at Lin He. He stood up next to Zheng YaoWen's body and said, shrugging, "That works. I'll take point."

Xu Feng said nothing.

As much as he loathed the thought of leaving his friend behind, there was nothing else to do for Zheng YaoWen. Time was of the essence, and with only three hours to spare, the time needed to give the body a proper funeral was time they could not afford. Besides, they were hardly equipped with the necessary tools.

The three of them trudged on in total silence, during which Lin He fended off two more attacks, but the shadowy creature moved too quickly for him.

Of the eight shots Lin He fired, only one hit the mark, but was not enough to critically wound the elusive enemy. They had yet to see more than the briefest glimpse of it.

On the other hand, after another five minutes of following the winding path that was paved with slabs of bone-white stone, the surroundings seemed to lighten up, while the path itself also grew wider and straighter. Eventually, they were able to discern things in the distance, even without the use of their flashlights.

When they finally made it out of the forest of tortured trees, they found themselves in a seedy-looking village. The sky was the color of dried blood, and about a dozen hazy shadows seemed to drift about in the village.

"Twenty-five minutes," declared Lin He. "That's how long it took to get here."

He reached for the watch on his left hand and stopped the timer, furrowing his brows as he worked out the remaining time. "Including the time we need to walk back out, we should leave in about two hours."

"Two hours..."

Bai Zhi turned to look back the way they had come, and he noticed something that made him shiver. From where he stood, it was clear to see that what they had thought were bone-white slabs of stone were really layers of tightly packed bone—they had been stepping on skeletons the whole time!

"We'll just have to make it up as we go." Bai Zhi shook his head to dispel the chills. "We're already here, might as well check out the village." Taking the lead, Bai Zhi took steady steps toward the mysterious village.

Following him was Lin He, who finally put his pistol back into his Inventory. As he passed by Xu Feng, who had not said a word the whole time, he reached a hand out and patted Xu Feng on the shoulder.

It was as Bai Zhi said—they were already here, so what good would it do to turn back now? The dead were past the point of no return, but for the living, there was no choice but to forge ahead.

The run-down village seemed perfectly ordinary from the outside, but once they stepped foot inside it, all of them felt an oppressive atmosphere weighing upon them—even Xu Feng.

The dull maroon sky, the squishy, blood-red ground that felt like walking on meat and the strange images carved on the walls that they passed by, all combined to induce a sense of uneasiness deep within their hearts.

There was a noticeboard erected at the entrance to the village, but when Bai Zhi went to take a closer look, he found that whatever notice had once been put up had since been ripped to shreds, exposing thin, unsteady lines left by fingernails in a frantic, unsettling pattern. It felt like even staring too long at it could drive one to madness.

The notice on the noticeboard was in such a tattered state that Bai Zhi had no way of piecing together any useful information from the scraps, except for the one at the bottom right, which bore some blurred, but legible text—Chu Tsi.

Bai Zhi raised an eyebrow. "So, that guy's been here too, huh?"

Seeing the name reminded Bai Zhi of the information he had heard about Chu Tsi from the swindler at the trading post. He was almost certain that this was the "one named Chu" that the bus driver had referred to earlier.

Bai Zhi shook his head upon discovering this connection as he continued along the path leading further into the village. Lin He, as well as Xu Feng, who seemed to have come to terms with the situation, followed closely in his wake.

The main street was empty, and the hazy shadows they had seen from outside had all disappeared. However, the doors to the shops on either side of the main street were wide open.

"Hopp Swan S'tra, what an interesting name for a business."

Bai Zhi stopped at the first shop and looked at the plaque that hung above the doorway, nodding as if he was impressed.

"From this name alone, I can sense a deep Zen Buddhist meaning behind it. The owner must be an unusually devoted Buddhist."

"...It says Art's Pawn Shop, you've got it mixed up," said Lin He incredulously.

"No, you. It clearly says Hopp Swan S'tra. Are you perhaps dyslexic*?"

Bai Zhi scoffed as he gave Lin He the side-eye. "Think you're funny, do you, reading the shop name wrong on purpose?"

"I—"

Bai Zhi's bold statement shocked Lin He so much that he could not think of a comeback.

"Railroad the opponent and corner them completely" was a mantra that Bai Zhi had always believed to be a winning strategy—when it came to getting people's backs up, he was a consummate professional.

* In the raw, the joke works by having 铺当典 (Something something sutra) and 典当铺 (pawnshop) present different meanings depending on whether the sign is read left to right or right to left. Here, Bai Zhi actually accuses Lin He of reading comics the wrong way around, i.e. left to right. In the Japanese/Chinese tradition, books are meant to be read right to left. I took liberties to convey the humor of the situation more viscerally instead of sticking with the literal translation.