Chapter 311: Hunting the Black Goat (3)

Chapter 311: Chapter 257: Hunting the Black Goat (3)

…

Han Su picked up his suitcase and stood. “Shouldn’t we first figure out how the two of us are getting out of here alive?”

The things in the shadows were already alerting him: powerfully built men were rapidly gathering around the inn.

The innkeeper was at their head. The moment he drew near, he smelled blood.

His rage intensified when he saw that the little boy who had been doing his homework in the lobby was gone. He ripped off his headscarf, instantly revealing goat horns shaped like scimitars.

The other men did the same. The gunshots echoing from all directions had already terrified them, and now these two who had burst into their village to commit murder would have to bear their fury.

HISS!

The men exchanged glances, drew their scimitars, and then opened their mouths to spew a roiling black gas.

This black gas spread with incredible speed, almost as if it were alive. It was midday, when the light should have been at its brightest, but as the black mist expanded, the sky seemed to turn overcast. Then the light vanished completely, plunging the village into darkness.

At the same time, the scimitar-wielding villagers used the cover of darkness to approach, their bodies agile, leaping as if they could fly.

The Mist of the Black Goat.

Believers who worshiped the Black Goat would gain powerful physiques and astounding leaping abilities, along with this black mist.

The black mist could obscure a person’s sight and sound.

Anyone enveloped by the black mist would lose all senses except for touch, left to be passively slaughtered.

“Stay put and don’t move. Follow me only after I pat your shoulder three times!”

Akbar gave the instruction just before the black mist flooded into the room, then quickly moved to the doorway.

The next moment, she fired abruptly, sending a villager who had charged the door flying backward.

But only a single gunshot rang out before the black mist surged in, and everything fell deathly silent.

The black mist had begun to swallow all sound, including the noise of the Queen Bee fighting the villagers.

Han Su fumbled for a pair of glasses and put them on.

When he looked again, his surroundings immediately came into view.

These were the glasses worn by the monster on the tenth floor, which he had taken during his last escape from the Ancient Castle. They appeared ordinary, but prolonged exposure to the monster had imbued them with its Mysterious Power, granting them an anomalous ability.

They allowed him to perceive the world through minute data and logic.

With the Glasses on, Han Su could see Akbar in the midst of a slaughter. Bullets flew from her gun, striking down the scimitar-wielding villagers one by one as they approached.

Any who managed to leap at her were met with a backhanded stab from her knife, killing them instantly.

He wasn’t truly *seeing* this. Rather, when she fired a bullet or stabbed with her knife, she created minute vibrations.

These vibrations traveled through the floor to Han Su, and with the help of the Glasses, he could reverse-engineer the logic to understand what was happening.

In a very short time, Akbar had dealt with all the villagers who had rushed into the inn. Then, with a strange look on her face, she turned to him. Her finger transformed into a black needle, and she brought it slowly toward him, as if intending to plunge it directly into his spine.

But after a brief hesitation, she retracted it.

The motion instantly reminded Han Su of the Emperor’s Book’s analysis of the Queen Bee. This creature possessed three methods of propagation. The first was contamination through mating; any creature that mated with her would become her drone, responsible for breeding more superior genes.

However, this process would weaken her. So, while she had an instinctual desire to reproduce, she also subconsciously hesitated, torn. She delayed the moment by raising her own aesthetic standards.

Simply put, she possessed a strong desire but was extremely picky about her mates. She wanted it, but she always felt the males around her weren’t perfect enough and were unworthy of her.

This conflict between instinct and subconscious represented the creature’s imperfection.

Many of the anomalous creatures born in the Age of Radiation possessed traits that were both powerful and imperfect.

The second method was contamination via pheromones, which would gradually influence other individuals until they became part of the hive.

The last method was the fastest: using the Queen Bee Needle to directly inject a target with pheromones, contaminating their will and genes.

However, members created this way, while extremely loyal, were also very short-lived.

This third method was typically only used in combat.

Han Su didn’t know what Akbar was thinking. In any case, she didn’t plunge the needle into his spine. Instead, she turned and patted his shoulder three times, then quickly led him downstairs. Following the pheromone trail she had left on the path earlier, they moved swiftly toward the center of the village.

Their target was the village’s House of Sacrifice.

From the looks of it, she had already gathered enough intelligence. And Han Su, having previously used the shadows to scout the village, had also noticed that of all the places within it, the House of Sacrifice was the one spot the shadow creatures dared not approach.

It was obvious that the Black Goat born in this village must be hidden there.

Along the way, figures periodically used the cover of the strange black mist to leap at them, flying from rooftops or from behind walls.

They moved without a sound, brandishing sickles or pitchforks, looking both fierce and bizarre.