Li Ang swung his skewered explosives back and forth, easily repelling a horde of monsters. The silenced assault rifle in his hands fired in bursts, accurately hitting the heads of the monsters that drew near.
These monsters were equipped with sharp teeth and claws. They could run as fast as horses and leap better than monkeys. Despite their small frames, their strength was by no means inferior to that of wolves and leopards.
Moreover, they were fearsomely indifferent to death itself. They didn't care whether Li Ang killed one or two at a time; they continued to throw themselves at him in waves, desperate to drag him from the treetop and disembowel him en masse.
It's like the collective hunting of a wolf pack, but I haven't spotted a leader like an alpha. Their skin is hardened, their muscles tough; rifle bullets hitting their bodies won't immediately kill them—only a shot piercing their head will do. Their individual combat strength is weaker than the Lickers in "Resident Evil," but their sheer numbers are more than enough to pose a threat to mercenary armies in modern warfare within an urban combat environment.
Li Ang's thoughts raced, and his forward speed was slightly slowed, but he still had the capacity to scrutinize his enemies carefully.
As long as a player has a high enough Agility Attribute and a sufficient amount of ammunition, kiting them to death should be easy...
Before he had finished speaking, the ground below began to tremble slowly. The sandy earth collapsed, revealing one deep pit after another, each about two meters in diameter.
Endless monsters climbed out of the pit tunnels, reminiscent of countless cockroaches swarming out of a nest, chasing after Li Ang in neat formation, becoming a dense, dark mass.
Li Ang cursed under his breath and quickly shook off the monster corpses impaled on his rifle, stowing only two in his inventory. He pushed off with his feet, suddenly accelerating.
To avoid being surrounded, Li Ang also put in his earbuds and activated the BGM skill, playing the song "Run" to enhance his running and jumping speed.
In a moment, Li Ang barely escaped the encirclement, rushing to the open space at the foot of the mountain. Looking back, he saw the crawling monsters all come to a halt at the edge of the woods, not venturing into the open space.
ROAR—
At the edge of the forest, the vast expanse of discontented monsters stared deeply at Li Ang with their blood-red eyes, howling at him in waves.
They were only twenty meters away, yet they dared not step out of the woods.
As if there was something they feared.
Li Ang gave them a cold glance. If the situation had been different, he actually would have liked to bring out a loudspeaker, stand his ground, and see who could shout louder, or play a few songs like "Above the Moon," "The Most Dazzling Folkstyle," and "Moonlight Lotus Pond" to test the monsters' tolerance to the acoustic attacks of square dance music.
I just don't know if their hesitation is due to the mansion itself or something inside it...
Muttering to himself, Li Ang turned and looked towards Williams Mansion.
After emerging from the woods, the Victorian-style mansion, nestled in the shadows of the trees, looked even more magnificent and grand.
The mansion showed signs of long neglect. Bricks and stones on its walls were mottled and falling off. The flowers in the garden had withered, and the fountain held only a puddle of stagnant water covered in green algae. However, these elements of decay only added to the mansion's somber and profound atmosphere, one that reeked of ancient desolation.
Four silhouettes stood quietly behind the flowerbeds, spaced apart from one another, seemingly in conversation.
Upon seeing Li Ang, one of the figures waved from afar but did not approach.
Li Ang did not approach hastily either but used his sniper rifle's scope to observe them carefully.
Among the four figures, one was a tall, blonde, blue-eyed European woman with light golden hair draped over her shoulders, wearing a thick brown wool coat and black riding boots.
One was a handsome young man with short gray hair, wearing square-framed glasses, a well-tailored white shirt, and a red suit, with a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth.
Another was a youth of medium stature with a stern expression, dressed in simple clothes and wearing a black top hat.
There was also one Li Ang had seen before: a Caucasian young Stonemason he had encountered on a mission in the Abnormal World.
Players who survived several scripted tasks might include a Lucky One, but there would certainly be no fools. Since these individuals dared to show their faces, it meant one of two things: either they did not care about revealing their identities, or the faces they displayed were not their true ones.
Li Ang observed his four teammates for a while and committed the structure of the mansion to memory. After spotting no anomalies, he stowed away his sniper rifle and walked towards the four figures.
He had barely taken a few steps when the light before his eyes suddenly darkened. His senses of hearing, smell, touch, and control over his body were swiftly stripped away; even the processing speed of his brain became extremely slow.
All he could see was a human-shaped shadow, firmly restrained by chains, quietly emerging from the void in front of him.
The shadow's face and gender were unclear. It had been kneeling motionless on the ground. Upon noticing Li Ang, it began to struggle violently, as if trying to break free from the chains and pounce towards him.
"You will die here!"
A raspy yet resonant female voice rang out in Li Ang's ear. The shadow in front of him suddenly retreated as if something had dragged it back into the void, vanishing from sight.
As his senses returned and he regained control of his body, a shocked Li Ang hastily executed the Ripple Breathing Method, filling his body with surging Ripple Energy. At the same time, he gripped the Triangular Bone Tipped Spear firmly, sweeping the shaft viciously behind him.
Unknown to him, a woman had appeared behind him. She wore a torn red dress; her hair was disheveled, her face dirty, and her skinny figure caked in mud. Her filthy hands gently rested on Li Ang's shoulders—the fingernails on all five fingers were gone, vanished as if into thin air.
The powerful swing of the Triangular Bone Tipped Spear, imbued with Ripple Energy, did not make contact with any solid body; it just passed lightly through the woman's waist and abdomen.
"You will die here."
The woman, whose face was obscured, muttered hoarsely, a strange laugh gurgling in her throat, "Find me..."
Li Ang swiftly retreated, firing Bonetip Spear blades at the woman, but to no avail—her figure quietly dissolved into nothingness, leaving no trace behind.
Li Ang's expression was grim and unsettled. He asked Miss Chai what had happened, but she said she hadn't seen any shadowy figure or red-dressed woman. She only saw Li Ang suddenly stiffen and, for no apparent reason, grab the Triangular Bone Tipped Spear and sweep it behind him.
"What's wrong?"
Miss Chai asked with some anxiety, "What happened?"
Li Ang explained the situation to her. He was puzzled about whether what had just occurred was reality or an illusion. Was it a setting inherent to this script mission, or a covert attack by those few teammates...
Spiritual attacks were the most difficult to deal with. Without items or skills of appropriate quality to counter them, one might not even know how they died.
Li Ang shook his head and walked slowly towards Williams Mansion. Based on the appearance randomly displayed by his Face-Changing Mask, he greeted the four teammates.
"Hello, kids, I'm Super Mighty Blue Cat. Do you all remember me?"