Chapter 9
Chapter 9
After walking through the forest for so long, exhaustion began to set in, and Wei Sen’s pace slowed noticeably.
She continued forward for another ten minutes or so, until she could finally make out the edge of the forest in the distance.
She was finally about to leave this forest!
Wei Sen sighed inwardly.
Beyond the trees lay a stretch of rolling grassland, and at the forest’s exit stood a wooden cabin.
Warm firelight glowed from within. Wherever the light reached, Wei Sen could see the colors normally.
Was that Little Red Riding Hood’s home?
Wei Sen was a little uncertain.
All she knew for now was that Little Red Riding Hood’s home was on this side of the forest. She did not know its exact location or what it looked like.
If what the Witch had said earlier was true, then Little Red Riding Hood’s home should have a red exterior. In that case, it could not be the wooden cabin before her.
But the Witch’s purpose and identity were still questionable. She could not simply take her words at face value.
Wei Sen stopped on the path outside the cabin and observed it, trying to find some clue that could prove the owner’s identity.
Flowers and plants filled the area around the house, none of which Wei Sen recognized.
The glow from the first-floor fireplace was warm and inviting. She could vaguely make out tables, chairs, and a sofa, but the second floor was pitch-black, without the slightest trace of light. There also did not seem to be anyone inside the first-floor room.
As Wei Sen was thinking, the cabin door creaked open. A figure stood in the warm firelight beyond the doorway, and a hoarse voice called out.
“Are you lost in the forest?”
Wei Sen stared at the person across from her. Wasn’t this the Old Witch she had just seen in the forest?!
But that Old Witch had clearly left in another direction. How could she appear here again?
No. Though they looked exactly the same, they definitely were not the same person!
The Witch she had met earlier had said no one lived ahead. If she encountered a person in a place where no one lived, then that person had to be the Wolf in disguise!
Wei Sen glanced at the blood-red moon.
On the night of the Blood Moon, the Wolf could take human form!
But while the Wolf could turn into a person, how could it conjure an entire house?
Or was this actually Little Red Riding Hood’s home, but Little Red Riding Hood’s Mother had already been eaten by the Wolf, and the Wolf had taken the shape of the Old Witch?
No, that was not right either… If it were going to transform, it would make more sense for it to become the mother.
“It’s dark and cold outside. Why don’t you come in and sit for a while? It’s very warm inside, and there’s freshly roasted turkey.” As the Witch spoke, she raised a meaningful smile and beckoned in Wei Sen’s direction.
The Little Red Riding Hood Identity Rules said not to accept the Witch’s invitation.
The Witch before her was real. The Witch she had met in the forest earlier was the one transformed from the Wolf!
Wei Sen’s thoughts raced as she worked through the logic.
Why would the Wolf take the form of the Witch and tell her a lie like that?
The Wolf’s lie was meant to make her misunderstand the Witch before her as a fake and kill this Witch.
Out of the corner of her eye, Wei Sen glanced at the Hunting Gun in her hands.
She understood now!
It was the Hunting Gun!
The Wolf was afraid of the Hunting Gun!
It knew there was only one bullet in the Hunting Gun. It wanted her to use that bullet somewhere else, so it could attack her without fear!
It had been following her ever since she met the Hunter-or perhaps even earlier!
Otherwise, it could not possibly know there was only one bullet in her gun.
Yet despite following her for so long, it had only started acting after nightfall. It seemed the Wolf was also bound by rules and could not make a move against her before dark.
“Come in and sit for a while,” the Witch’s bewitching voice called again.
After Wei Sen sorted out the cause and effect of everything, she prepared to leave and ignore the Witch before her.
But just as she was about to turn around, she heard a faint clinking of chains from inside the cabin. Then a pair of eyes appeared at the window, black as the abyss.
Although only the upper half of the face was visible, she could still tell it belonged to a girl with pigtails, around twelve or thirteen years old.
Her eyes were hollow and pitch-black, filled with timidity and confusion.
The Witch followed Wei Sen’s gaze, then smiled and said, “That’s my little granddaughter inside. Come in and play with her.”
Wei Sen locked eyes with the girl. The girl’s hands clutched the windowsill, and the fear in her eyes deepened.
“No thanks.” Wei Sen said it coldly, then turned and left.
The Witch’s eyes instantly filled with resentment. Staring at Wei Sen’s back, she said in a voice that showed no fear of being overheard, “Poor woman, refusing the kindness of a Witch! I curse you to lose your way in this forest forever and ever, never to escape this world!”
Wei Sen heard the furious Witch’s venomous curse clearly.
What she hadn’t expected was that the forest, whose boundary she had already been able to see, actually began to expand. The edge was retreating from her at a speed visible to the naked eye.
How was she supposed to tolerate that?
She had clearly been about to get out!
This Old Witch’s curse could actually take effect!
Wei Sen stopped and turned back, staring coldly at the Witch standing in the doorway.
The Witch revealed a mouthful of pitch-black teeth and smiled. “Well? Hurry up and come inside for a seat. It’s very warm in here.”
The next second, Wei Sen raised her gun. A thunderous gunshot shook the entire forest.
Smoke curled from the barrel, and the Old Witch’s eyes went wide in disbelief as she collapsed to the ground.
The moment the Witch was shot dead, the vicious curse began to lose effect, and the forest’s boundary returned to the way Wei Sen had originally seen it.
“Sorry, your curse is invalid!”
She had used her only bullet on the Witch. Wei Sen’s best choice now was to sprint out of the forest at full speed.
Most likely, the Wolf’s range of activity and hunting was limited to this Misty Forest, because the rules only mentioned that the forest was dangerous at night and said nothing about what lay beyond it.
But she chose to head toward the wooden cabin instead.
She looked at the timid eyes behind the window, stepped over the Witch’s corpse, and walked straight inside.
Inside the cabin, Wei Sen finally got a clear look at the girl.
Her right foot was shackled by a huge iron chain, limiting her range of movement to the first floor of the cabin.
Her face was clean, but she wore thin, ragged clothes. The skin all over her body was covered in pus-filled sores of varying sizes, as if she had contracted some terrible disease.
When Wei Sen entered, the fear in her eyes from earlier was gone. Instead, she looked at Wei Sen in confusion.
Wei Sen stepped forward, took the axe from the bamboo basket, and chopped through the girl’s iron chain.
“You’re free,” Wei Sen said, looking at her.
The vicious curse was not the only reason Wei Sen had decided to use her one and only bullet on the Witch. Part of it was because of this girl as well.
She might be a player trapped here, but she might also be an NPC who could provide an important clue!
Wei Sen had already suspected, the moment she heard the sound of chains, that this girl had been imprisoned here by the Witch.
The fear in the girl’s eyes just now had come from the Witch, not from Wei Sen, a stranger.
“Th-thank you…” the girl said, though speaking seemed difficult for her. “But I don’t have a home…”
“What do you mean, you don’t have a home?” Wei Sen asked.
The girl lowered her eyes. “All I remember is that I’ve always been here. Granny was afraid I would run away, so she chained me up. I had to cook and clean for her. Granny liked refining all sorts of strange things and always made me eat them. That’s why I became like this. I don’t have a home. Like this, I can’t go anywhere…”
After listening to the girl, Wei Sen locked the cabin door and began searching the room.
The girl had most likely ended up like this because she had been testing medicines for the Old Witch, so there might be an antidote in the Witch’s room.
But finding an antidote was secondary. What Wei Sen wanted more was to see if she could get anything useful from the Witch.
Wei Sen searched the first floor but found nothing useful, so she prepared to go upstairs.
“It’s very dangerous up there!” the girl warned.
Wei Sen took a deep breath.
No matter how dangerous it was, she had to go. If she wanted to leave this Eerie Entity Instance alive, facing danger head-on was the first lesson she had learned!