Chapter 4: Murderous Intent in the Foggy Night.

Xiao Fen casually took the book out and glanced at the cover using the increasingly dim light.

“FAE & AWAKENMAN”. (“Awakened and Otherworld”).

Xiao Fen’s breathing involuntarily sped up, and his hands trembled slightly.

Just looking at this name, one could tell that this book was mostly related to his various past experiences, and likely closely related to everything happening around him right now.

After comparing the sizes slightly, the book fit perfectly into a specially made pocket inside the coat he was wearing. It could be determined that the owner of this book was the person who originally stayed here.

Xiao Fen held the book in his hand and flipped through it randomly a couple of times. It was entirely in English, and there were manual annotations on many corners, explaining specific paragraphs or phrases.

In addition, in the last part of this book, quite a lot of papers could be seen pasted in.

Those papers were, without exception, densely filled with English paragraphs. At a glance, these should be extra records for the whole book and the personal realizations of the person using this book.

Xiao Fen could not fully understand this book; there were many words he had never encountered before, but this did not stump him.

Although he could not read it, he could memorize all these things in a very short time, saving them for later when he could understand those words, to slowly recall and comprehend them.

Thanks to observing the Otherworld that others could not see on a large scale, Xiao Fen’s brain had been fully developed and utilized. This allowed him to flip through and memorize the entire content of a book even faster than those skilled in speed reading and memory techniques.

The book was spread open in Xiao Fen’s hands. The numerous pages flipped continuously with a rustling sound, as if blown by the wind. In a very short time, Xiao Fen had finished reading it once.

Then he closed the book and opened it again. It was another round of flipping just like before. After repeating this several times, Xiao Fen had already memorized all the content inside. Even the small notes with personal realizations at the back of the book, Xiao Fen had also completely memorized in his mind.

Xiao Fen let out a long breath and put down the book in his hand. By now, the sky outside had completely darkened.

Less than an hour had passed since he arrived in this World, but the darkness outside was spreading faster than he had imagined.

Walking to the window and glancing out diagonally, everywhere Xiao Fen looked was filled with yellowish-brown thick fog.

It was precisely this suddenly appearing thick fog that caused the surrounding light to weaken rapidly, and the fog was still growing heavier.

A clanging train sound suddenly cut through the nearby silence. The fog not only made the surrounding environment seem dreamlike, but even the sounds did not seem very real. Xiao Fen could not tell at all how far away the train sound was from him.

Accompanying the sound of the train’s movement were the ear-piercing screeching of brakes as wheels went around a bend, and the “screech” of brake sparks flying.

The sound of the train passing did not cease for long. Seemingly from a very far place, another round of dong-dong-dong bell sounds came. This bell sound sounded dull and solemn. Xiao Fen counted silently in his heart; it was now around 6 o’clock in the evening.

When all these sounds finally disappeared, the surroundings fell into silence again. Except for the occasional sounds made by rats passing by, the World of the small building seemed to instantly turn into a dead World.

After a while, Xiao Fen suddenly heard some strange sounds quietly emerging from all directions of this street.

Most of those sounds produced a fixed rhythm. After a thump on the ground, it was immediately followed by a short dragging sound, just like the sound made by people with bad legs when they walked.

“Thump, drag”, “Thump, drag”…

If it were just one such sound, it would be nothing. The key was that such sounds seemed to be appearing everywhere around the outer edge of this block.

Interfered by the fog, it was impossible for Xiao Fen to see what the owners of these sounds looked like. Just these strange sounds alone were enough to make one’s heart pound.

Not only that, above this roof, Xiao Fen also heard some rustling sounds. These sounds were completely different from those of the rats; they sounded more like the sounds made by small people climbing on ropes.

Interfered by the fog, the street was already hard to see clearly. Now, there seemed to be no one staying on the street. This was a huge difference from what Xiao Fen understood. In the Industrial Revolution era, for the streets to lose all traces of people at 6 p.m., this looked no different from the Dark Ages.

At this time, it should be when those workers were drinking alcohol and making noise, and the whole block was in chaos. On this street, it should also be brightly lit. Even a slum would not be this quiet. Moreover, the small building Xiao Fen was in had already proven that this block was not a slum area before.

Just as Xiao Fen was thinking, a small black shadow appeared before his eyes. It was a homeless man returning late. Although his specific attire could not be seen clearly, the method of tightly wrapping his body with newspapers exposed his identity.

This homeless man seemed very wary of the fog on this street. He dodged and flashed, wanting to run across from the other side of the street.

However, this homeless man clearly had not discovered that the noises above the street had vanished without a trace when he appeared. Replacing them was a moving rope that had descended from above his head at some unknown time.

On the rope, a pitch-black shadow was moving rapidly downwards.

The homeless man’s footsteps were destined never to return to his temporary shelter. Just as he was about to walk past an old, dilapidated house, the rope above his head suddenly dropped, and that pitch-black shadow also pounced fiercely on the homeless man.

There was no screaming. Xiao Fen could vaguely see that the rope seemed to come alive, suddenly blocking the homeless man’s mouth, forcing all panicked shouts back down his throat, leaving only faint “whimpering” sounds.

And all the homeless man could do was helplessly wave his hands and feet. Even this action slowly became weak and powerless.

Having seen too many changes in the Otherworld, Xiao Fen’s eyesight was relatively good. He not only saw the rope block the homeless man’s mouth, but also saw the rope, like a real living creature, constantly surging and probing into the homeless man’s body.

When this unlucky homeless man finally stopped moving, the shadow waiting on the side pounced up, used extra ropes to bind the homeless man completely and securely, then climbed back onto this bound “cocoon”.

The rope slowly retracted, eventually rising to a place higher than Xiao Fen’s position and disappearing. After a while, those strange rustling sounds came from above Xiao Fen’s head again.

The whole process was like a Web hunt. The life chosen by the Spider high above had absolutely no possibility of escape.