Chapter 157: Unfinished Mission

Watching Lycaon turn and leave, Xiao Fen took out Berela’s Lingering and a natural dagger from his backpack, then turned and rushed toward the wing rooms in the courtyard.

With several consecutive kicks, Xiao Fen at least forced open the wooden doors of four rooms. Roughly looking, these wooden doors had all been barred from the inside. Clearly, the people inside knew something had happened outside, but barring the doors did not let them escape death.

The chaotically crawling corpses on the ground seemed to have suffered considerable torture when they died. Each dead body presented an abnormal arched state, a condition often resulting from bodily spasms and distortion during extreme pain.

No, no, still no. Xiao Fen quickly kicked open the wooden doors of other wing rooms. All the wooden doors were barred from the inside, but the people inside, regardless of their attire, all met the same ending: death.

4 PM, survivors, 0.

Xiao Fen started to get a bit anxious. He came to this courtyard to find clues, not to kick down doors and look at corpses. Although these corpses might have some clues on them for judgment, for Xiao Fen, these things were far from enough.

There were over a hundred people in this courtyard and at least over thirty rooms. If he kept kicking down doors one by one, perhaps in the later stage, his strength would be completely exhausted. If he encountered a real enemy at that time, Xiao Fen might not have the ability to fight at all.

“Wait, something is wrong here!”

After kicking open the eighth door, Xiao Fen stood there and suddenly realized there was a problem with his approach.

“Why go looking for survivors who might not exist? The Eastern Depot made it very clear at the time that everyone in this residence had already died. Moreover, even if there were survivors in this residence during the mission process, looking at the current situation, those so-called survivors simply do not exist.”

“Then, given the conclusion that everyone was already dead, why would I suddenly think of the possibility of survivors now?”

Xiao Fen lowered his head and ruled out the starting point that he had actively thought someone survived. In fact, from the moment he left the Eastern Depot, he already knew that apart from the person who might have triggered the Main Quest, no one else in this residence could be alive.

However, in a short amount of time, after he entered this residence, he actually easily believed that there might still be people alive in this residence, and he was even busy running around for these non-existent lives now.

Thinking of this, he immediately realized that his subconscious had been interfered with, or rather, he had accepted some kind of suggestion.

“That was Lycaon’s suggestion. Before this, he kept talking about what to do and how to find clues, thereby making people form the judgment that ‘Lycaon is an expert at finding clues.’ At the very least, it could make people have the idea that ‘Lycaon will find something in this house.’ Once this idea was established, one would subconsciously obey Lycaon’s suggestions.”

“After entering this environment, Lycaon didn’t leave much time for judgment at all. From entering the courtyard, to the main room, and then to this place, Lycaon rapidly pushed the process forward, with the excuse that his armor couldn’t be maintained for too long.”

Xiao Fen followed this line of thought and found the problem behind it.

After entering the courtyard, because Lycaon kept pushing forward quickly, Xiao Fen didn’t have time to think seriously. Coupled with the fact that this environment’s stimulation of Xiao Fen’s perception was too great, after he subconsciously accepted that ‘Lycaon is very experienced,’ he didn’t have any doubts about Lycaon’s words and actions, and accepted the concept of ‘survivors’ proposed by Lycaon.

The corner of Xiao Fen’s mouth twitched slightly, and he finally figured everything out.

“First, there are no survivors here at all.”

“Second, Lycaon definitely realized something, so he lied on purpose and proposed splitting up, so that he could complete certain things alone.”

“That thing Lycaon cares more about is most likely the sister he mentioned. He must have found some traces of this sister just now up there. Maybe his sister is in the backyard right now.”

Having reached these judgments, Xiao Fen gritted his teeth, rushed into the blood pool outside the eaves, disregarding the pungent smell and the shaking light, and jumped high toward the eaves with force.

Although the blood pool beneath his feet was very viscous, Xiao Fen’s strength was not small now. Plus, his body balance had become better with the increase in agility, so this jump of his was still very high. With a slight raise of his eyes, the top of the corridor was already before his eyes.

He suddenly reached out and grabbed the tiles on the edge of the eaves, pulled hard, and before the tiles fell, his whole body had already used the force to complete a side flip in the air. In a blink of an eye, he landed firmly on the roof.

Looking out, everywhere was a scene of vast bloodiness. In the backyard, the blood was constantly steaming. The red smog gave off a piercing light under the sunlight, making it impossible to see slightly further places through these fog barriers. In this regard, Lycaon was not wrong.

However, this reflected light was not particularly strong. Even Xiao Fen did not tear up uncontrollably because of this light. Therefore, Lycaon’s tearing up just now had nothing to do with the reflected light; perhaps it was related to something he had seen.

Xiao Fen flipped down from the house, looked left and right, and the surrounding blood had already started to emit a bubbling sound like boiling. The steaming of the blood gas was abnormally intense.

Xiao Fen did not think much and waded through the blood water in the direction Lycaon left. He needed to know why Lycaon had lied.

The smell of blood around him became stronger and stronger. The steaming mist made the houses not far from Xiao Fen look hazy. At this time, although the blood only covered Xiao Fen’s ankles, it made him feel as if he were walking in an abyss of blood.

He was not clear how far he had walked. With the further steaming of the mist, the visibility around him had become very low. Apart from some faint frameworks that allowed Xiao Fen to barely distinguish the direction, he didn’t even know where he was now.

The bloody smell’s stimulation to Xiao Fen became heavier and heavier. He could feel that his lungs had started to show discomfort. An asthma-like sensation attacked him repeatedly. Perhaps in the next second, he would squat there coughing constantly, having difficulty breathing, until he finally died in this blood pool.

“You are being eroded by the Blood Plague, losing 2 points of Energy per second.”

“You are being eroded by the Deep Blood Plague, losing 5 points of Energy per second.”

“Please leave the erosion range of the Blood Plague as soon as possible. Massive loss of Energy will cause you to have hallucinations.”

Xiao Fen smiled bitterly and shook his head. The dangers of a Level 3 instance were indeed emerging one after another. But at this moment, he had no way back. The steaming blood gas around him made it impossible for him to see the direction clearly, let alone find the way he came.

Just then, his swaying body was suddenly supported by a large hand. As Xiao Fen turned his head, Lycaon in full armor appeared before him.

“I knew you would discover the problem. I just didn’t expect that you would be willing to come and help me.”

Lycaon spoke from behind his metal helmet.