Chapter 15: Disturbance
Ding! The doorbell rang.
The owner, who was fiddling with a dead fish specimen, looked up at the young man entering the door.
A hint of surprise flashed through his dull eyes, seemingly a bit unexpected that Yi Chen could return 'unscathed', but a slight smile also crossed his lips.
"You seem to have made some discoveries by the lake."
"I ran into a bit of trouble, but it's been resolved."
"Hmm..."
The owner continued to bury himself in the specimen, not asking anything more.
Click~ Returning to the guest room, closing and locking the door.
Taking out a glass cup from the bathroom,
Yi Chen poured the lake water preserved in the roots into it.
As the roots squeezed out the lake water, Yi Chen recalled the chilling experience by the lakeside.
"That sheriff..."
Although he easily completed the counter-kill,
Yi Chen's eyes captured an unsettling scene that made one's skin crawl.
When grabbing the sheriff's collar,
His chest exposed fish-scale tissue with flesh attached, densely packed and oozing slimy mucus... Yi Chen's fingers even got some mucus on them.
Such a scene instinctively produced a feeling of revulsion.
"Skin in fish-scale form, a sign of pathological change?"
At this moment,
Little Grape emerged from the collar, voluntarily providing information.
"The 'diversity' of pathological symptoms is beyond imagination. This fish-scale form of pathology is quite common in ocean, river, and large lake areas like this.
Don't worry,
The plants in your body will form a protective layer. Skin contact won't infect you.
But if you accidentally get cut, there will be a risk... Next time remember to use an axe."
"Understood."
Putting aside the matter of the sheriff,
Yi Chen picked up the glass cup filled with lake water and placed it in front of the kerosene lamp.
[Visual Enhancement]
Eyes like high-definition imaging devices scanned the water quality,
The magnified high-definition images revealed terrifying scenes invisible to the naked eye.
"Is this... some kind of parasite?"
Swarms of parasites were floating in the water, in huge numbers.
Moreover,
Just over ten seconds after the lake water was poured into the cup, these parasites had already laid a large number of eggs on the cup walls.
The transparent egg bodies could refract a faint green light, perhaps the origin of the name Green Lake.
"The owner's words not to have 'interactive behavior' with the town, perhaps this is the reason?
However, the plants growing inside and outside the town are all normal, showing no signs of pathological change.
Even the roots used directly to store lake water were not affected at all... In other words, these parasites are ineffective against 'plants', a point I must make good use of."
As Yi Chen was quietly analyzing,
Little Grape leaped down from his shoulder,
Using its weak and soft black arms to hold up the glass cup,
Gulp gulp~ It downed it in one go.
This scene startled Yi Chen. "What are you doing?!"
Little Grape gently shook its arm with only three fingers, indicating not to worry.
"Observation with the naked eye always has limitations,
Eating it directly, experiencing it with the body will be more intuitive and detailed.
Don't worry~ I'm already a pathological entity, this thing can't infect me."
"Did you get any useful information?"
"Hmm~ These little things that rely on water sources are obviously controlled by some kind of [conscious subject]... They wanted to transmit signals the moment I swallowed them, but unfortunately my body isn't so easy to penetrate.
Why don't we try to find the main body?
We might get a pretty nice 'big grape'."
"No rush, we need to take this slowly."
"True... With your current abilities, and with me not yet mature, even if we could find the [subject] we might not be able to successfully kill it. This matter needs to be carefully planned.
I'm tired~ I'm going to rest."
Chat ended,
Little Grape directly buried most of its body into Yi Chen's shoulder, leaving only a small patch of black fur exposed.
Soon after,
The bonfire party in the town center also came to an end.
Yi Chen leaned against the window, observing tourists and residents returning to their respective lodgings on the street, with no unpleasant incidents occurring... at least not on the surface.
Thoughts swirled and intertwined in his brain.
"According to the innkeeper, [three days] is difficult to achieve.
In other words, the longer the tourists stay, the stronger Green Lake Town's desire to 'occupy' will become.
At that time,
The personnel participating in the assessment will inevitably have large-scale conflicts with the pathological forces in the town.
Can't rush.
There are still many potential dangers in this town. The only thing that needs to be done today is to rest well."
After confirming the airtightness of the room, Yi Chen fell onto the pillow and went straight to sleep.
...
Green Lake Town - Central Street
As the bonfire party ended, the entire street fell into silence,
But in some dark corners, faint movements could still be heard.
In the depths of a certain alley,
The three-person team that had previously tried to invite Yi Chen to join was conducting 'disease elimination' here.
During the party, they had actively accepted an invitation from a 'person without a mask' to come to the depths of the alley, where they were ambushed.
Currently.
The blonde Edmund's face was filled with killing intent, his eyes bloodshot.
One hand held a short sword, the other gripped a gun adorned with the 'feather decoration' of the Mariano family.
Swoosh!
The thin sword was drawn, its blade still carrying traces of pus residue.
Lying in front of him was a man with fish-scale skin, the pathogen hidden in his brain pierced by the short sword... He had even managed to resolve it with just the sword in one hand, without pulling the gun's trigger.
Similarly,
His two companions had each killed a pathologically changed person.
The woman beside him was wiping her silver dagger with a cloth she carried, softly saying:
"It seems the town is the key to the assessment. If we want to pass the organization's test, we should find the root of the disease, or make enough 'disease elimination' contributions.
From the party,
The mayor wearing the golden demon mask, and the sheriff's office are very suspicious."
The blonde Edmund tidied his clothes,
"No rush... We still have over two days.
Since we attended the party today, tomorrow we'll experience the free lake tour, figure things out before taking final action.
I can't wait to obtain the organization's [Skin]."
...
Besides this team.
The other personnel participating in the assessment had also successively discovered anomalies, killing or even capturing and interrogating pathologically changed townspeople in different areas.
A large amount of death information was spreading within the town,
The townspeople staying at home became increasingly agitated and irritable, constantly scratching at the fish scales hidden under their clothes, even simulating chopping at furniture.
Similarly.
Movements also came from the [Green Shade Inn] where Yi Chen was staying.
An arm covered in fish scales extended from the gap under the door,
Perhaps due to the mutation brought by the pathological change, the length and flexibility of the arm were slowly exceeding human limits,
Stretching out to nearly two meters in length,
Then through unnatural joint twisting, it folded upwards...
Click!
The locks on the door fell off one after another,
The cut surfaces smooth and covered in mucus,
More terrifyingly,
Each lock that was cut open was steadily grabbed before hitting the ground, without making any noise.
Creak~
The door that hadn't been opened for months was slowly being pushed open.
A dark shadow crawled out from above,
Long unkempt hair that hadn't been trimmed in a long time hung from the ceiling to the floor, dragging lightly like a broom, making a faint rustling sound...
On Sunday, I took little Ah Fei to the amusement park to play, so there's only one update today. Don't hit me! Don't hit me!
(End of Chapter)
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