Under Stonemason's persuasion, Ur Wunnian silently put away the pale yellow chewing gum.
Li Ang, standing beside him, couldn't help but wipe his forehead and pat his chest. "Young people nowadays are really terrifying," he said with lingering fear. "Whipping out weapons of mass destruction at the slightest disagreement. Back when I was a guerrilla in Africa, I was never this impulsive."
Dong Fengpo couldn't help but ask, "Bro, you've been a guerrilla in Africa?"
"Yes."
Li Ang nodded. "I went to the job fair looking for work," he said. "They said being a mercenary for summer temp work was pretty good. The company had a formal labor dispatch contract and even provided high-value accident insurance.
"You could go to the battlefield carrying an AK. They'd pay 8,000 a day, plus an 800 high-temperature subsidy, and the transfer was made the same day, no fuss. Working felt as joyful as playing 'chicken' games.
"So, I went. Turns out, both sides on the battlefield were teams of our compatriots who'd signed up as summer temps. We just tacitly fired into the sky. At the end of the day, no one died, and we all got paid.
"Summer vacation was almost over, so I came back."
"..."
Dong Fengpo was stunned for a few seconds before he realized Li Ang was just spinning tales. He gave him an exasperated look and, without saying a word, turned around to join Stonemason and the others in searching the hall.
Stonemason took down a flower-shaped wall sconce from the wall and unscrewed the light bulb. "The living room itself is decorated with some wood that has a history of at least a century," he said. "Although the wall sconce used electrical wires for power, most of the wires buried in the walls have aged, and their structure is quite primitive.
"Hmm... it's a tungsten filament incandescent lamp. We can at least assume that the last time this house was inhabited was in the early twentieth century."
The reason he said "assume" was that they couldn't be sure if this scenario's setting was similar to Earth. If this was an alternate world, then any number of strange phenomena were possible.
"There's electricity, which means there's a power source," Ur Wunnian said coldly. "Maybe later we can follow the wires to a place like the power supply room and see if any so-called abnormal organs are there."
CLICK. CLICK.
Clear shutter sounds emerged. Ur Wunnian and Stonemason turned their heads to see Forest Cat standing in a corner of the living room, taking pictures with a brand-new Divination Polaroid camera (a traditional instant camera that prints photos immediately).
In an environment where all electronic devices failed, the Polaroid camera worked normally.
Forest Cat took photos, quickly inspecting each printed picture before placing it in the pouch hanging at her waist.
This Polaroid wasn't just any camera but an Excellent-quality piece of equipment named the [Divination Polaroid].
It could take photos with prophetic properties—if a scene in a photo was expected to experience an abnormal event within the next several minutes, the camera would display a blurred vision of the future event.
The [Divination Polaroid] had helped Forest Cat survive many extremely dangerous situations. However, its description was somewhat bizarre, written in a particularly small font: "The realm of photography is something you gear-obsessed types will never understand."
Its meaning was unclear.
Forest Cat noticed her teammates' glances. She lifted her head, a casual smile on her beautiful face. "Don't mind me," she said. "You carry on."
Ur Wunnian and Stonemason continued to study the wall sconce, while Dong Fengpo, holding a rather cumbersome, large flashlight, aimed its beam toward the dark second-floor corridor at the top of the stairs.
Li Ang sidled up, looking like an inquisitive child. "Feng bro, what are you looking at?"
"...Can you not call me Feng bro? It feels weird."
An exasperated expression flashed across Dong Fengpo's face again. He nodded towards the dark corridor. "See those rooms on either side of the corridor? The door structures, the designs—not one is the same."
"Hmm?" Li Ang narrowed his eyes and observed carefully for a moment. He realized Dong Fengpo was right; the second-floor structure was quite peculiar.
The shapes, colors, and sizes of the door panels for the rooms along the corridor were all different, clashing jarringly.
It wasn't just the rooms; the corridor itself was abnormal. There would inexplicably be one or two steps suddenly appearing on what should have been a flat corridor.
On the corridor's ceiling, some sections even had antique wooden flooring installed, or one or two inexplicable glass windows.
"The layout of the second-floor corridor is too chaotic, like numerous rooms stitched together," Dong Fengpo said, his brow deeply furrowed. Was it designed this way intentionally from the beginning by the owner of the house? Or was it caused by those abnormal organs within the mansion?
"The owner of the house is likely depicted in the oil painting hanging at the far end of the living room," Li Ang said calmly. "And these portraits of men and women hung on the walls must be the descendants of the mansion's original master. This was once a populous noble family.
"However, I just checked the painting frames and didn't find any surnames or family names on them. To get more clues, we still need to go up there and search personally."
"Yeah." Dong Fengpo nodded, then turned to look at Ur Wunnian and Stonemason down the stairs, only to find that the two of them, along with Forest Cat who should have been in the corner of the living room, had quietly vanished without a trace.
What's going on?! When did this happen?!
The hairs on Dong Fengpo's nape instantly stood on end. Those three were all Level 10 or higher experts, with relatively luxurious equipment and skills.
Forget an ordinary mansion; even if an ordinary scenario's Boss were to appear in person, it would be absolutely impossible to silently eliminate all three of them in an instant.
"Brother Li—"
As if realizing something, Dong Fengpo urgently turned to look beside him. But there was no sign of any living person there anymore!
The Level 11 player named Li Rising had disappeared right from his side!
Dong Fengpo immediately tensed. He took out from his backpack the most powerful offensive equipment he currently possessed: a Rare-quality, strong baseball bat. Its active Special Effect was "Hit a perfect home run, easily sending lighter enemies flying."
Dong Fengpo gently placed his cumbersome flashlight on the ground. He gripped the solid metal baseball bat with both hands, no longer daring to approach the walls. He could only huddle down, cautiously waiting for the abnormality to manifest.
He could hear his own ragged breaths. Inhale. Exhale.
In the hall, only his breathing echoed; everything else was eerily quiet, so silent you could hear a pin drop.
SIZZLE—
The wall sconces flickered erratically, emitting static. Their warm, soft yellow light gradually dimmed, turning to a dull red, then a deep crimson.
In the dim light, Dong Fengpo's pupils dilated. He watched as the handwoven carpet on the living room floor inexplicably began to bulge upwards. It slowly deformed, like mud or paste, gradually rising and coalescing into a humanoid silhouette that nearly filled half the living room.