The Black Trojan's left eye blinked. When it opened again, the statues hadn't moved or split further.
He sighed with relief, blinking his dry and uncomfortable right eye. "PHEW. Thank goodness."
As long as he alternated blinking his eyes, he wouldn't Trigger the "switch" of these statues.
Now the question was, how could he deal with these statues that were seemingly indestructible and couldn't be damaged?
The Black Trojan scrutinized his backpack slot but found no suitable items or equipment.
To make matters worse, he discovered the walkie-talkie he used to communicate with his two teammates had fallen at the foot of a statue and was now broken in half. It was likely damaged during the recent rocket firing and enemy attack.
[Task Objective: Resolve seven supernatural events, currently completed 5/7]
Suddenly, a System prompt sounded in his ear. The Black Trojan immediately realized that it was probably his teammate Li Rising who had resolved the supernatural event at the swimming hall.
The Black Trojan felt a moment of joy, which then immediately turned to despair.
Thinking from Li Rising's perspective, he was probably trying to reach his teammates through the walkie-talkie. Upon finding he couldn't contact me, Li Rising would highly likely not come to the art building for a rescue. Instead, he would head to the last unsearched club activity building within Ibaraki Middle School.
With only ten minutes left before sunset and some distance between the art building and the swimming hall, it made more sense for Li Rising to trust that the Black Trojan might independently solve the sixth supernatural event. He himself would go to the location of the seventh event, asking the Plague Doctor for assistance.
This way, the mission team could complete the task with maximum efficiency—this was also the safest and most prudent way to clear the mission.
This was the Black Trojan's prediction of Li Rising's actions. As for the Plague Doctor... he had already been severely injured inside the infirmary. Even if he managed to come over, he wouldn't be able to scale the walls of the building to provide support.
With no means to contact his teammates and unable to leave this corridor, the Black Trojan felt overwhelmed by a deep sense of despair as the sun was about to set.
He was out of options.
On the other side of Ibaraki Middle School, Li Ang ran out of the swimming hall, disconnecting the walkie-talkie as he went.
With less than ten minutes until the sun completely set below the horizon, this was likely the implicit time limit set by the System.
Just as the Black Trojan had predicted, upon realizing that he and the Plague Doctor were the only ones on the communication channel, Li Ang decisively asked the Plague Doctor to go assist the Black Trojan. Li Ang himself continued his own mission to resolve the seventh supernatural event before the deadline.
He was willing to trust the Black Trojan and the Plague Doctor to a certain extent. If the seventh supernatural event was resolved and the Black Trojan still hadn't completed his task, then he would turn back and head to the art building to provide support... or to wrap things up.
Li Ang braved the Gale, dashing toward the club activity building.
Arriving at the building, Li Ang kicked open the door—sealed with paper strips and locked with an iron chain—and burst in, an iron bar in hand.
This two-story club activity building was the shabbiest and oldest in Ibaraki Middle School, remodeled from an old teaching building decades ago.
According to the map at the school gate, the school planned to build a new building in its northeast corner to serve as the new club activity center. This meant the old club activity building would likely be demolished soon.
SQUEAK—
The screeching noise of the iron bar dragging across the wooden floor was particularly grating as Li Ang walked down the corridor, supported by eight Spider Claws that extended from his spine. T^his@ c@h#ap$ter is p+art! of the c!ollec$t&ion on *.@
"Is anybody there?" Li Ang's friendly voice echoed through the club activity building as he smashed through one wooden door after another with his steel rod, flinging floorboards aside and breaking through walls.
He called out gently, "Why don't you come out so we can have a nice chat?"
His current form resembled a grotesque monster from a B Rank horror film. Paired with the steel rod in his hand, as thick as a bowl's mouth, he hardly looked like someone who would have a "nice chat" with anyone.
Li Ang didn't expect to find and properly resolve the source of the supernatural event in such a short time.
Since time was already against him, he might as well take a more direct approach...
After demolishing several walls, he took out several packages wrapped with black duct tape from his backpack. Each had a partially disassembled Casio F-91W digital watch attached to it.
These packages were IEDs Li Ang had made himself. They were laden with a large amount of explosives, possessed considerable power, and could not only Trigger automatically but also be set to a timer mode.
Originally, Li Ang intended these IEDs for breaching buildings and laying mines in the field, but they would do the job here as well.
Unlike the other buildings in Ibaraki Middle School, this club activity building is quite old. Its load-bearing walls would collapse with a single explosion. If the IEDs are properly placed, a dozen or so should be enough to bring down the entire structure.
As an ordinary netizen who liked to surf the internet, it was quite normal for Li Ang to possess expertise in demolition engineering.
He set the timers on all the IEDs using the Casio F-91W watches and placed them beneath the load-bearing walls on the first floor.
After making the necessary preparations, he walked out of the building and silently began to count down: ten, nine, eight... three, two, one.
BOOM—!
The continuous explosions thundered, echoing to the skies. A flash of fire shot through the building, and the blast wave shattered all the windows, sending glass shards flying in every direction.
Li Ang stood outside, silently watching the decrepit club activity building collapse.
The billowing dust was quickly swept away by the howling wind. With the aid of Cat's Eye's detection function, Li Ang saw a two-story-tall wall standing alone amidst the collapsed ruins.
The wall was unremarkable, except for an almost imperceptible, tiny green spot at the second-floor level, as if infested and rotted by mold.
Li Ang walked over with his steel rod and, with one swing, demolished the lower half of the wall.
The wall collapsed with a crash. He then proceeded to smash open the reinforced concrete structure around the green spot with his rod, again and again.
As debris fell away, the wall's inner structure became clearer. The green spot, initially just a small dot on the surface, grew larger within the wall, becoming the size of a washbasin. Through this green patch, one could even discern the details of a human face, twisted in a grimace of utter despair and terror.
Li Ang remained silent, continuing to hammer away. A small piece of gray fabric emerged from the concrete, followed by more clothing, an arm, and then a head.
Buried in a wall on the second floor of Ibaraki Middle School's club activity building was a person, someone who had been dead for decades.
Before the club activity building fell into disuse, Ibaraki Middle School students had regularly used this classroom, coming and going, laughing and playing. They were completely unaware that, from within the walls, a pair of hollow, lifeless eyes had always been watching them. The green spot on the wall wasn't mold; it was purulent fluid that had oozed from the corpse as it decayed in the damp.