Chapter 281 - 275: Battle in the Woods

Chapter 281: Chapter 275: Battle in the Woods

It was called a storage area, but in reality, there were no actual warehouses. Instead, freshly cut logs were simply stacked together, forming towering mounds.

The original ground was completely covered with scattered bark and all sorts of debris. Stepping on it felt strangely soft and uneven, rising and falling with every step. Every so often, there was a crisp CRACK, as if something had snapped.

Lloyd took only a few steps before feeling like he was standing on a pool of dark flesh and blood.

The air was filled with a certain indescribable smell, like the stench of rot.

There wasn’t a soul in sight, only the incessant noise of saws cutting wood drifting from a distance.

Lloyd moved cautiously between the piles of logs, his mind racing.

’To think that after going in circles, the problem would still be here at the lumber mill.’

’And it’s so well-hidden. If not for the system panel’s notification, I never would have noticed it.’

’It’s a good thing I got involved. Otherwise, this kind of low-intensity, low-frequency Spiritual Contamination would be hard for even ordinary people to notice, let alone an Extraordinary Being. It would be almost impossible to detect.’

Lloyd continued to explore, following the direction his inspiration was pointing him in as he mulled things over.

Suddenly, his inspiration sensed some movement behind him, and he quickly ducked behind a pile of logs.

Looking back, he used his inspiration’s see-through effect and saw two workers dragging two huge burlap sacks into the storage area.

The two men wore grim expressions and didn’t say a word, their silence seemingly a testament to the difficulty of their labor.

The burlap sacks behind them looked extremely heavy, so much so that they could only be dragged along the ground, making a SHHH-SHHH-SHHH sound.

’Are they just here to store something?’

Lloyd thought for a moment, then reached up to touch his chest, confirming he was wearing his vest. He then activated [Enhanced Investigation] and took a look at the two men’s Attributes and status.

The result startled him.

’They’re already in a state of [Moderate Madness]?’

’These guys should be checked into a psychiatric hospital...’

As for their Attributes, their [Rationality], [Spiritual Power], and [Cognition] were all low, in the single digits like an ordinary person. But their [inspiration] was around 20 points?

’What kind of bizarre Attribute is that?’

’The thoughts of a madman know no bounds, so their [inspiration] is high?’

As for their system and Threat Level, both were blank, indicating they were still ordinary people and posed no danger to him.

And this [inspiration] value was within the effective range of his vest. Since he was a complete stranger to them, he met the conditions for its ’detached from the world’ effect.

So, Lloyd tried stepping out from behind the pile of logs.

One of the workers seemed to notice something and whipped his head around, looking in Lloyd’s direction.

But in his line of sight, the area was completely empty. He couldn’t even see a shadow. He scratched his head and continued deeper into the storage area.

Lloyd nodded to himself, then touched the Square Ring on his finger a few times. He activated the [Eye of Wisdom], and the world took on a few more colors. He then quietly followed them.

Under the various colorations of the [Eye of Wisdom], Lloyd could see the workers were covered in a layer of dull, dead gray, not the vibrant light green of an ordinary person. They seemed utterly devoid of life.

As for the burlap sacks they were dragging, they radiated a strange dark red, looking sinister and malevolent.

’This is clearly a problem...’

’But I don’t know how it’s connected to that grave-digging father.’

Filled with doubt, Lloyd kept his distance from the two workers and followed them quietly for a few minutes, arriving in a deeper part of the storage area.

The two workers reached an open area encircled by several large piles of logs, then their figures flickered slightly and vanished completely.

And the faint Spiritual Contamination Lloyd had sensed originated from the exact spot where the two had disappeared.

’Two ordinary people just vanished. Could there be some kind of hidden Space Teleportation Gate here?’

Lloyd didn’t dare to approach directly. He could only probe the area repeatedly with his inspiration, but besides that faint Spiritual Contamination, he detected nothing else.

’I need to contact my three teammates right away!’

Instead of risking it alone, Lloyd chose the more prudent option: calling for backup.

After all, according to the experience his butler had imparted in that PvP manual, the three factors with the biggest impact on the outcome of PvP were Tier, numbers, and equipment.

If you were going to face someone, you either needed to crush them with a higher Tier, gang up on them with more people, or have a "full set of god-tier equipment."

He never bothered with "fair competition" or "honorable duels." When it came to life-or-death PvP, you had to play for a steamroll victory.

However, Lloyd couldn’t contact his three temporary teammates at the moment. They were probably still wandering around in the forest district.

He would just have to wait until seven o’clock in the evening when they were all supposed to regroup.

Lloyd took out his pocket watch and checked the time. With all his coming and going, it was almost six o’clock already. He wouldn’t have to wait long.

So, using his vest’s ’detached from the world’ effect, he began to inspect the other areas here, and the entire lumber mill, tossing an [Enhanced Investigation] at anyone he saw.

The results were both unsurprising and surprising.

What was unsurprising was that, aside from the spot where the two workers had suddenly vanished, there was nothing wrong with the other areas.

The three investigators had surely inspected this lumber mill once before. If they hadn’t found anything unusual, of course Lloyd wouldn’t either.

But the surprising part was that almost all the workers here had the Attributes of an ordinary person, yet their [inspiration] was exceptionally high.

Furthermore, they were all in a state of [Moderate Madness], and all of them were shrouded in that same dull, dead gray.

’This place seems even creepier than a psychiatric hospital...’

But what was even stranger was that they were somehow still able to work like normal laborers. Aside from their silence, their behavior showed no signs of mental illness.

’So maybe the problem isn’t the grave-digging father, but the workers here—the other residents of the small mountain village?’

A bold theory suddenly surfaced in Lloyd’s mind.

’Perhaps, early on in the incident, the Tomb Guardian who suddenly went missing and the zealous young man who tried to dissuade the father weren’t killed by the father at all, but were taken out by these people?’

’It’s even possible that those three were the only sane people left in this village...’

’And could the version of events I heard just be a rumor fabricated by these crazed villagers to eliminate outsiders?’

’The villagers got rid of two sane people. The remaining father might have some way to protect himself that they can’t overcome for now, so they’ve resorted to spreading rumors and calling the police, trying to use outside forces to eliminate this last one?’

Lloyd’s mind raced with wild theories, and then he considered another possibility.

’Of course, my theory could be completely backward. Maybe the father is indeed incredibly powerful and has controlled the villagers here through some means?’

’But that wouldn’t explain the rumors that have spread. If the suspect really possessed such abilities, there would be no reason for him to attract outside forces to come after him.’

’Right, what about the supervisor?’

’He should know something, right?’

’But where did he go?’

Lloyd realized that after walking a full circle around the lumber mill, he hadn’t found the cordial and welcoming supervisor from before.

Just as he was thinking about the man, he suddenly noticed two villagers nearby inexplicably drop what they were doing, pick up a logging axe and a chainsaw, and head directly toward the forest on the outskirts.

They didn’t say a word. No one had called them, and they hadn’t discussed where they were going.

’It can’t be...’

Lloyd quickly and quietly followed them, heading in the direction that Kading the scholar had chosen earlier.

He hadn’t gone far before his inspiration detected a surge of Spiritual Charm in the air—the sign of an Extraordinary Being releasing their power.

A few streaks of faint blue light also appeared in his field of vision, darting about.

Continuing in that direction for a while longer, he heard someone speaking.

"Please, give up your resistance. Your friends can’t possibly come to help you now. I’m afraid they can barely save themselves. And your [Redemption] system isn’t really suited for this kind of one-on-one combat. You’re no match for me...

"Of course, as I promised before, I will not harm you."

It was the supervisor Lloyd had been looking for who was speaking.

Then, he heard the scholar Kading’s angry curse:

"Heh, fuck you! Don’t think the [Redemption] path is a pushover!"

As soon as the words fell, Lloyd felt the fluctuations of Spiritual Power in the air grow turbulent and intense.

But the supervisor just said calmly:

"Oh? Are you planning to [Redeem] my sins with your own life? Alas... what a pity. Why can’t you understand us? Rationality is merely a cage that binds us, Cognition just a shackle that holds us back...

"This isn’t some ’sin,’ but the future we should be striding toward, the Destiny that we humans should walk.

"Why not join us? Embrace the madness, follow the great one!"

Unfortunately, the response he received was a gunshot.

Standing opposite him, the scholar Kading’s skin appeared red and scorching hot, as if a fire had been lit inside his body, burning himself up.

He held an old-fashioned Flintlock Gun, the entire weapon wreathed in an orange-red flame. The bullet that erupted from it was also burning, guided by Kading’s inspiration as it flew toward the supervisor’s forehead.

But the supervisor just gave a wicked smile and casually extended two fingers, catching the high-speed bullet between them.

"I told you, your attacks are no threat to me. Only by embracing madness and following the great one can you obtain true power!"

As he spoke, he applied a little pressure with his fingers, and the bullet crumbled into dust.

Neither the bullet’s kinetic energy nor the flames burning on it had managed to cause him the slightest harm.

The expression on Kading’s face instantly turned grim...

But strangely enough, the supervisor, who had been in complete control, also saw his expression suddenly turn grim...

"Ugh... wait... what is this..."

The supervisor felt his vision suddenly blur, and then he saw the scholar Kading’s figure abruptly swell.

Then he transformed into a monster? One that was eight meters tall, with a thick waist and broad shoulders, covered in blocky muscles?