Chapter 21

Chapter 21

He moved incredibly fast, appearing at the door of Room 315 in the blink of an eye.

Through the door’s window, Chu Yue could hear his heavy, ragged breathing.

A moment later, the door creaked open.

The Monster stood at the threshold, motionless, its eyes fixed intently on the people inside.

Chu Yue looked at him, his gaze shifting slightly to see Wang Meng peering over from a nearby window.

It seemed the creature already knew it had been tricked by them the previous night.

The two sides stood in a silent standoff for a long time before the Monster lowered its head to squeeze through the doorway, closing the door behind it with a backhand motion.

He didn’t speak, merely extending a hand toward Chu Yue.

“I can give you the letter, and I can give you the Pearl Hair Clip,” Chu Yue said, remaining still. “But I want the Butcher Knife in your hand.”

The Monster didn’t respond immediately. Its gaze swept over Chu Yue’s face for a long time before its mouth peeled back into a grin.

“You want to make a deal with me? You’re not afraid of death?”

His voice was low and gravelly, but if one listened closely, the voice of Li Ergou was still recognizable.

They hadn’t guessed wrong; this Monster was indeed Li Ergou.

Realizing this made Chu Yue feel a bit more composed. “It’s precisely because I’m afraid of death that I’m doing this. Do you agree?”

“Agree? Why wouldn’t I? The Butcher Knife will end up back in my hands eventually anyway,” Li Ergou said sinisterly. “But even if I agree, do you really think you can get out of here?”

Chu Yue caught the implication in his words and frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”

Nighttime Li Ergou possessed no humanity; Chu Yue began to wonder if he had been too impulsive.

The question went unanswered.

“Since you’ve discovered my identity, I assume you must already know quite a bit about our town’s story,” Li Ergou said, showing no rush to complete the exchange.

“Not really.” Shen Yubi hopped down from the bed wearing only his thermal underwear, seemingly indifferent to the cold. He spread his hands. “We’ve only learned a bit about your story. As for your town, we’re still completely in the dark. However, there is one thing I’m particularly curious about. I wonder if you could enlighten me?”

Li Ergou’s eyeballs rolled as he looked at Shen Yubi. He was unexpectedly cooperative. “What is it?”

“I think you already know what happened to your wife. Why are you still fulfilling your deal with the Town Chief to kill us? Haven’t you thought about taking revenge on the townspeople?”

Or perhaps they had assumed too much, and a wife from the outside wasn’t enough to make him betray the town.

These words seemed to strike Li Ergou’s most painful memory. Before Shen Yubi could even finish, Li Ergou’s breathing grew violently heavy.

He drew the Butcher Knife and swung it with force, shearing off more of the bed railing that had already been broken into two pieces the day before.

“The Town Chief? The Town Chief! That despicable villain! That pack of subhuman filth!” Li Ergou cursed with raw hatred.

His chest heaved violently, red veins crawled across his eyes, and plumes of hot breath snorted from his nostrils.

Born in this town, Li Ergou had never felt there was anything wrong with the townspeople’s ways for the first twenty-odd years of his life.

As the saying goes, you don’t feel the pain until the knife stabs your own flesh.

Because Brother Youxiang and the others hadn’t agreed to the Town Chief’s deals, their families had been torn apart one by one. He should have known long ago how cold-blooded the Town Chief was.

During her life, Yaqiu had taught the town’s children for free and worked hard to maintain good relations with the neighbors. Unless it was necessary, she never even stepped outside to avoid being an eyesore to them.

Three years.

She had lived here for three whole years!

Yet when the need arose, they still laid hands on her without a shred of mercy.

While he was off fulfilling his deal with the Town Chief to kill those Outsiders, they had broken into his home. They dragged Yaqiu out and took her to that Altar, turning her into food for their revelry. Her bones were then tossed into a pile of rotting fragments.
As a mere trader, he couldn’t open the Altar at all.

He couldn’t even give Yaqiu a proper burial!

Li Ergou hated it!

He hated himself for actually believing the Town Chief!

He hated his daytime self even more for knowing nothing, acting like a fool, and greeting the townspeople with a forced smile.

He didn’t know how many times those who knew the truth had laughed at him behind his back, calling him a fool and an idiot!

How could Li Ergou not be filled with hate?

He hated the townspeople; he hated everyone.

So this time, he was going to make this town disappear forever!

At this thought, Li Ergou threw his head back and laughed.

“Do you know why the townspeople have to perform Three Days and Nights of Prayer before the gathering begins?” Li Ergou asked, his excitement suddenly spiking. “Do you know what they pray for?”

Without waiting for the two to answer, he continued on his own.

“They pray to confess their sins, and also to report the sins they are about to commit to the Deity.

Once the Three Days and Nights of Prayer are complete, they can feast on those Outsiders without any restraint.

Have you seen that scene?

Everyone looks like they’ve gone mad, clutching human limbs that have been dead for five or six days, chewing and swallowing them in huge gulps.

It’s as if they’re enjoying some delicacy. Every single one of them is a Monster.

Heh, what Deity!

If there were a Deity, such a filthy and sinful town should have ceased to exist long ago.

But it doesn’t matter. This time, that so-called Deity will punish these unfaithful believers.”

The smile at the corner of Li Ergou’s mouth was both evil and neurotic.

Whether he was serious or just trying to deceive them about the Deity and the punishment was unclear.

Chu Yue took his words to heart. He ignored the part about the Deity but noticed the phrase “unfaithful believers.”

A flash of insight struck Chu Yue’s mind, and he suddenly understood. He looked at Li Ergou. “You’re taking revenge on them. You’ve already started your revenge.”

This was a horror game Instance; the fact that Li Ergou sold human meat didn’t seem like much at first.

Initially, they had only treated it as a trivial detail meant to heighten the horror atmosphere.

But now they understood.

Since the townspeople prayed to report their upcoming sins to the Deity and clear their karma, what would happen if they ate someone without praying first?

Li Ergou had set them up.

Nighttime Li Ergou killed people and threw their limbs onto the Altar, but he secretly took the torsos away and gave them to his daytime self.

He had been influencing the daytime Li Ergou, preventing him from noticing anything unusual about the corpses, and then used his hands to sell the meat. Those residents had eaten human flesh before they had even begun their prayers.

Perhaps there really was a curse, or perhaps it was for some other reason.

When night fell, those ordinary people who had eaten the meat ahead of time transformed into Monsters, surrounding this place and eyeing the remaining Outsiders like predators.

Li Ergou killed them specifically so the townspeople would eat human meat prematurely!

Chu Yue thought of the Woman on the 4th Floor again. “But she clearly didn’t know…” the taste of human meat.

“It was cooked,” Shen Yubi interjected. “She just didn’t know what cooked human meat tasted like.”

Because in the past, they always gnawed on it raw, so the taste was naturally different…

Chu Yue fell silent. Shen Yubi’s words made sense; he had nothing left to say.