“Tanaka, Kusaka, Ohara...”

Li Ang and Wang Congshan searched house by house, only to find that the vast majority of them had their doors and windows tightly closed, with lights on inside.

“Not a sound.”

Wang Congshan murmured, standing in front of a house, peering inside.

Many of these houses used frosted or ground glass, making it difficult to see inside the rooms through the windows, and it was unclear whether anyone was inside.

Ding-dong—

Li Ang pressed the doorbells of several houses in a row, but after waiting for a while, there was still no response. He frowned and said, “What’s going on with the people in this village? Have they all disappeared collectively?

Or did they know we were coming and ran away overnight with their gold, silver, and jewelry?”

Wang Congshan casually retorted, “Why not a dissection conference of extraterrestrial beings in the village, and everyone went to watch the dissection surgery?”

“Makes sense.”

Li Ang nodded seriously. After looking around, he used his Xinyuan staff to prop himself up, placed his palm on the front door of the house, and flipped over the gate, silently jumping into the courtyard of the house. His movements looked incredibly skillful.

Wang Congshan was startled and lowered her voice, “Hey, what are you doing!”

“Visiting the owner here, of course.”

Li Ang said matter-of-factly, “Guests from afar are always welcome. As a guest, it’s only normal for me to come and visit the owner here in a friendly manner, right?”

“Then don’t swing your staff while picking up bricks from the ground when you say that, okay?”

Wang Congshan said helplessly, and had no choice but to put her gun in her pocket and jump over the gate.

“Remember to hide your weapon.”

Li Ang reminded her, walked to the front door of the house, stuffed the brick he picked up from the ground into his pocket,

Held the Xinyuan in his right hand, placing it in an angle where it couldn’t be seen from the peephole,

Straightened his appearance, and knocked on the door, “Hello, is anyone there?”

Silence. No response.

“Hello, is anyone there?”

Li Ang asked again. After receiving no response, he immediately changed his approach, “Hello, anyone here?”

Wang Congshan sighed, “They won’t understand you even if you speak English.”

Li Ang thought for a moment and roared at the door, “きさま，ドアを开けてください。” (Kisama, doa o akete kudasai. Open the door, you bastard.)

Wang Congshan's eyes twitched, "That construction site Japanese won't work either."

"Tsk, troublesome."

Li Ang curled his lips and knocked on the door, "Hello, we are NHK door-to-door fee collectors. You haven't paid your viewing fee for last month~"

"Saying that won't make anyone open the door."

Wang Congshan couldn't help rubbing her brow.

NHK, short for Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), aims to provide public television services to the Japanese people, with no commercial advertisements and independence from the Japanese government. Due to its special public nature, it has a very bizarre compulsory fee system. Any Japanese family that can theoretically receive television programs must pay NHK a viewing fee every year and every month, regardless of whether they have a television at home.

It even spawned a bizarre profession called NHK door-to-door fee collectors, who try every means, even unreasonable means, to get residents to pay the viewing fee, like salesmen.

"If there's no response even after saying that, it seems like there's really no one here."

Li Ang muttered to himself, looking up and down the door frame.

The wooden door looked thin, but the touch was extremely solid when he knocked on it, like stone.

Even if he smashed it with the Xinyuan staff, he probably wouldn't be able to break it.

He looked around and noticed some flowers planted in the front yard. He walked to the flower bed and broke off a piece of wire used to straighten the seedlings.

After bending it, he returned to the door and once again began to use his lock-picking skills.

Wang Congshan stood beside him, calmly watching Li Ang pick the lock.

As childhood sweethearts, she had personally seen Li Ang deliberately drink some diluted croton water before class in order to practice his lock-picking skills, and then lock his wrists with a lock.

He forced himself to unlock it within a limited time to save his student career—if you're seeking stimulation, then you have to carry it through to the end.

"Mmm..."

Li Ang, who was squatting on the ground, stood up after picking for a while, and groaned.

Wang Congshan raised an eyebrow, "Mm? What's wrong? Can't you open it?"

"Yeah."

Li Ang nodded, "The entire door seems to be welded to the space itself, and even the lock cylinder inside is motionless.

It looks like they don't want us to explore these unplanned houses at all."

"Isn't this a classic horror game trope, doors and windows that are firmly connected to space?"

Wang Congshan sighed and complained, "Next, are we going to search the world for keys, repair generators, and open combination locks?"

"Times have changed, girl. The current trend in horror games is to add a two-meter-four-tall, white-dressed vampire noblewoman who likes to chase people and say 'hee hee hee'."

Li Ang casually replied with a complaint, put away the wire, and stomped his numb legs, "Well... not being able to enter these houses is also a good thing in a way, equivalent to eliminating interference items and saving us time."

"Yeah."

Wang Congshan looked around and said, "There doesn't seem to be a village map posted on the bulletin board in this village.

But judging from the task description, 'enter the Hiratsuka family's residence,' since it's a family residence, it certainly won't be small.

We may be able to walk directly up the slope. The houses there have a larger area."

She turned her head, but didn't see Li Ang's figure.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively raised her gun and surveyed her surroundings with standard tactical movements.

However, the next moment, she saw Li Ang—he had climbed onto the eaves of the house at some point, overlooking the entire village from above.

"What are you doing?"

Wang Congshan breathed a sigh of relief, still holding her gun.

"Observing the terrain."

Li Ang paused on the eaves, holding the Xinyuan staff in his right hand, and using his left hand to block his forehead, making the classic pose of that famous monkey, looking around.

He observed for a while, confirming that there was indeed an ancient house above the hillside that occupied a larger area than other houses, and then flipped down from the eaves.

After confirming the target location, the two of them were no longer in such a hurry.

The main scene of this mission must be in that so-called Hiratsuka family residence, but the system did not directly teleport them to the entrance or inside the Hiratsuka residence.

Instead, it provided such an open scene.

This proves that other places in the village must contain key clues about the clearance task, or important props such as keys to open the Hiratsuka residence.

The two walked along the street for a while. Almost all the doors of the houses were closed. They could see some parked cars by the roadside. The brands of all the cars were also varied and completely unfamiliar. There were no familiar car logos.

The background of this script world is Japan, but it is slightly different from the real Japan—there is no such place as Okamori Prefecture in the real Japan.

The two traveled together, chatting and complaining, and the eerie and terrifying atmosphere faded a lot. Soon, the two discovered the first house with an open door and a Fujimura nameplate.