Li Lantian sighed. Collaborators in small places like theirs rarely encountered anomalous events, but every time one occurred, there were casualties.
This time, it was actually considered good; at least no one had died.
No matter where, collaborators were considered a high-risk profession.
Generally, ordinary collaborators could retire at forty if they were not at the rank of squad leader or above.
However, being able to retire as disabled was already considered fortunate.
The most common way for collaborators to exit was death!
Collaborators like Li Lantian, who were still active on the front lines in their fifties, were rare.
But seeing his subordinates change from one generation to the next, he felt a pang in his heart.
“Have you seen that doll?”
“No, everyone who saw that doll had their knees shattered. If I had seen it, you wouldn’t be seeing me here,” Li Lantian said with a wry smile, shaking his head.
“What I can do is evacuate the villagers, send them to another camp for comfort and aid, and then quarantine this village to prevent anyone else from being attacked by that doll.”
“Then let me go see the injured collaborators,” Wen Wen stood up, wanting to personally question the witnesses.
Li Lantian nodded and led Wen Wen to the two injured collaborators.
Seeing these two collaborators, Wen Wen sighed in his heart; they were still so young.
He walked over, crouched beside one of them, and asked gently, “Describe what happened when you saw that doll. I’m here to deal with it.”
The young collaborator struggled to sit up and said to Wen Wen:
“We were carrying an old man whose knee had been shattered out of the village when we saw that doll mechanically emerging from a pigsty.”
“A pigsty?” Wen Wen asked in surprise.
The collaborator nodded and continued, “After it spotted us, the doll’s speed became incredibly fast. It directly smashed our knees, then it reverted to its dazed appearance and slowly left us.”
It seems that the doll only attacks people’s knees and only attacks when it spots someone; when it doesn’t, it’s in a harmless state…
Wen Wen continued to ask, “What did the doll look like?”
“It was a wooden doll about twenty centimeters tall, wearing a small red vest, a black bow tie, and holding a small hammer in its hand, a rusty claw hammer.”
Wen Wen squatted beside him and placed his hand on the collaborator’s already shattered knee.
He felt the wound, his expression somewhat solemn. These were likely the injuries caused by the claw hammer.
The force was immense, perhaps comparable to Wen Wen’s own strike, yet it only shattered the knee, leaving no other damage… Su Dan Novel Network
Wen Wen’s movement looked as if he intended to further injure the wound, so the other collaborator tried to stop Wen Wen from persecuting their teammate. However, Li Lantian intervened, trusting that Wen Wen would not harm his subordinates.
Wen Wen possessed the ability to sense blood and control water flow, so he could help this collaborator clear some of the bruises. This was all he could do.
Compared to demon hunters, these unsung collaborators were equally respectable.
They also protected humanity, but lacking that innate talent, they faced unspeakable evil with their flesh and blood.
In ancient times, when superpowers had not yet formed a system, the first demon hunters were people like them.
“Continue, what other characteristics did the doll have?”
“It could speak, yes, it could speak. Its voice was like a child’s, and its words were roughly… ‘If anyone dares to look down on me, I’ll jump up and hit your knee…’”
The collaborator’s fractured leg gradually felt better. He looked at Wen Wen in surprise.
“My leg… thank you.”
“It was just a small favor, but it’s all I can do.”
Wen Wen stood up, went to the other collaborator, treated his wounds, and then walked out of the tent.
“Next, I’m going in to catch that thing. Tell everyone to stay far away so they don’t get caught in the crossfire.”
Li Lantian paused and said, “That thing is very dangerous. Are you sure you want to go alone? I’ll have a few people accompany you, so you’ll have backup.”
Wen Wen shook his head. “Precisely because it’s very dangerous, I have to go alone. Bringing more people would only result in more casualties.”
With that, Wen Wen sauntered into the village.
The doll had been wandering in this village, smashing the knees of everyone who saw it. Wen Wen wanted to find out what that thing truly was.
Once out of sight of the collaborators, Wen Wen let out a sharp cry. After waiting for a moment, a large swarm of bats flew over.
“In this village, there’s a doll about twenty centimeters tall. Find it for me!”
The bats flew out, thoroughly searching every corner of the village.
However, to Wen Wen’s surprise, the bats could not find the wooden doll. When he recalled all the bats, he noticed a few were missing.
“That shouldn’t be…”
He took a deep breath and followed the scent of the missing bats. Then, he saw one of the bats he had released.
The bat’s lower body had been shattered by immense force, and it lay bleeding to death, unable to transmit any information.
“They didn’t fail to find the doll. Instead, after finding it, they were discovered by the doll and had their knees smashed. Since bats are small, their other parts were also shattered along with their knees.”
“So, using bats is probably useless. But I’m even more interested now.”
Wen Wen continued to wander around the village. With just the size of a single village, Wen Wen refused to believe he couldn’t find it.
The scenes he saw along the way were somewhat gruesome. All the large animals in the village, pigs, dogs, cattle, etc., were lying on the ground, their knees shattered.
“Not just humans, but animals too?”
After this incident, the collaborators could only prioritize humans, so the animals in the village suffered the consequences.
Most of the livestock had already died. After all, it had been a long time since their knees were shattered, and the excessive blood loss was enough to cause death.
The few surviving animals were just waiting to die.
“Since they will die sooner or later, I might as well relieve their suffering.”
Wen Wen walked up to a half-dead yellow ox, tapped it lightly with his hand, and the ox immediately lost consciousness. Then, Wen Wen dragged it to the containment facility.
The corpses scattered everywhere could not be wasted; they could be sent to the facility as food for other monsters.
There were several large cold storage units within the facility that could perfectly store these animal carcasses.
He understood the association’s practices. Places where incidents occurred would be sealed off for several days, even after the incident was resolved. By then, the bodies would have rotted, and the association would compensate the victims.
The compensation money came from federal taxes, so it was a waste to keep it.
Well, the main reason was that Wen Wen was short on cash. The food supply for so many monsters was quite a drain on his finances, so he tried to save where he could…