A Core Ship From The Start
Chapter 658 - Chapter 658 Chapter 487 Invitation_1

Chapter 658: Chapter 487: Invitation_1 Chapter 658: Chapter 487: Invitation_1 Paintings adorned all four walls of the entertainment room. Duanmu Huai didn’t know the order, but fortunately, numbers beneath each painting saved him the trouble.

Upon cursory review, Duanmu Huai discovered that the majority of these paintings depicted ghouls. The first painting represented Arkham City; with city-dwelling Arkham citizens illustrated in the upper half and, beneath their feet in the sewers, hordes of ghouls scurrying about like rats.

The second painting depicted a number of ghouls infiltrating a household unnoticed, stealing the baby, and replacing it with a loathsome, little ghoul in the crib.

In the third painting, the kidnapped human infant seemed to have grown into a child, under the tutelage of the ghouls, learning to gnaw on corpses. The painting split in two showed the substituted ghoul child growing too. Despite appearing human, the twisted, malicious grin on his face gave him away.

The images that followed showed the human baby, now a fully-fledged ghoul, contributing to the ghoul ranks, while the infiltrator ghoul stood atop a mountain, towering over Arkham City with hundreds of ghouls behind him.

The subsequent prints mainly illustrated the ghouls’ assault on Arkham City and the slaughter of the human population. Emerging from crevices in the ground, they annihilated humans at subway stations or hid in bushes in the park, preying on passersby. Smoke billowing from Arkham City, corpses everywhere as an onslaught ravaged it…

To put it bluntly… it was a well-spun daydream.

“Sir Knight? Do these paintings scare you??”

Duanmu Huai, having taken in all the paintings with one sweeping gaze, rolled his eyes as Lorena blinked curiously. Undeniably, the scenes painted were gruesome, especially the renditions of humans torn apart and ghouls consuming their flesh–it looked so lifelike that the viewer could practically smell the blood.

Surely, these images could not be displayed without an age restriction–they were far more hideous than any B-grade plasma film.

Saying it’s repugnant would be an understatement, but terrifying… well, Duanmu Huai thought that was debatable.

“They would be terrifying to the people of this world.”

“Would…they?”

“Of course, the people in this world rarely see ghouls, ghosts or any such thing. To them, these are legendary.”

Duanmu Huai helplessly spread his hands. As a pilgrimage priest from the Holy City, Lorena had slain her fair share of monsters, and having repeatedly accompanied him, she had seen her fair share of ghouls and ghosts. A mere ghoul could hardly frighten her.

However, things were different for the people of this world. Ghouls, vampires, and ghosts were stuff of myths and folklore. To witness it firsthand would shatter their perceptions. From this perspective, the terror penned into the diary was understandable to Duanmu Huai and Lorena… to an extent.

Of course, the other reason was that this was a basic tutorial event. Currently, their enemies were at most ghouls, a lower race–neither the starlights of Bayaki nor Dagon had made their appearances yet. The real threat was yet to come.

Who even knew what the mighty existence might be…

In RPG terms, Duanmu Huai and Lorena were still at the stage of fighting slimes–the final boss was miles away.

“Alright, it’s clear that Cliff is the ghoul who was substituted into the human world, aiming to lead the ghoul army to take down Arkham City. These ghouls must be brainless! It’s the year 2000, not 1900…”

Duanmu Huai couldn’t help commenting on the absurdity of the enemy’s presumptuous ambition. If it were the year 1900, it was plausible that the robust bodies and grotesque appearances of the ghouls could be a winning factor. At the dawn of the year 2000, would a ghoul dare to step out and confront a tank? Was it sick of living?

“Meow———-!!”

As Duanmu Huai contemplated, Ling’Nu seemed to discover something, tapping Duanmu Huai’s face and pointing towards the back of the room. Duanmu Huai’s gaze followed and found a door he hadn’t previously noticed. When he opened the door, walked down the corridor, and arrived at the end, he was met with a study. From behind its heavy door, one could hear the intermittent groaning as though someone were growling within.

Without any hesitation, Duanmu Huai turned, forcefully kicking open the door.

“Boom!”

As the door flew open, Duanmu Huai’s eyes fell upon a magic circle, formed from congealed blood, situated in the middle of the blood-spattered room. Within it was a well-dressed, middle-aged gentleman tied up with an expression of excruciating fear. Outside the magic circle, a robed figure dressed like a cultist stood, a handful of ghouls bowed by his feet as though conducting some ritual.

Everyone there was so engrossed that Duanmu Huai’s sudden intervention startled them. Even the man tied to the chair in the magic circle momentarily halted his struggles. His eyes widened in shock as he turned towards Duanmu Huai–before fainting dead away.

“…………”

Without even prompting the system, Duanmu Huai could guess the outcome.

“Who are you?”

The conducting robed figure too was caught off guard. He stared in shock at the imposing figure who had burst through the door. His body trembled uncontrollably. However, quickly regaining his composure, he fumbled with the bizarre figurine clutched in his hand and raised it high.

“No matter who you are, you can’t stop the ceremony, as long as……”

However, the man in the black robe couldn’t finish his words because the strange statue in his hand suddenly exploded. Then, a fog filled with a disgusting smell emerged from the statue and spread around. The odor was so bad that even Duanmu Huai and Lorena hastily left the room.

At the same time, a tragic scream came from the fog, Duanmu Huai then saw a dark shadow violently springing out, opening its blood-filled mouth and lunging at him!

It was a strange, twisted, dark monster. It was about several meters long, with bat-like wings on its body, and its head was not like a snake. On the contrary, it was a gigantic, rotting and black hollow pasta, its body entirely a huge hole. Its head looked more like some worm-like creature. When it opened its huge mouth, Duanmu Huai could clearly see its mouth filled with constantly rotating sharp teeth.

“What the heck is this thing!”

Ordinary people would probably panic when faced with such a big and terrifying monster. But Duanmu Huai was not afraid at all. He let out a roar, reached out his arms, and forcefully grabbed the monster’s body. He quickly glanced at Lorena and the maid and gave them an order.

“Catch the person inside!”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s order, Lorena nodded her head and charged into the room with the maid.

Meanwhile, the huge weird snake held in Duanmu Huai’s hand was shaking its head and opening its mouth wide, trying to swallow Duanmu Huai whole.

“I’ve had enough of you!”

At this moment, Duanmu Huai was angered by the weird snake’s struggle. He yelled, his fingers suddenly digging deep into the body of the weird snake, penetrating its body. A nearly suffocating stench sprayed out of the wound, along with a thick, dark green liquid. The attacked weird snake struggled even harder, trying to get free from Duanmu Huai’s hands.

But it was too late. Its changing, rubber-like body was pierced by Duanmu Huai’s hands. Duanmu Huai firmly held its flesh – he could even feel countless wriggling, tentacle-like creatures inside it, as if hundreds of cockroaches were crawling across his palm.

“Die!”

Duanmu Huai violently opened his arms, tearing the giant weird snake in half. The completely torn snake let out a scream, then collapsed weakly to the ground, gradually melting into a pool of disgusting, thick fluid.

“What a nuisance.”

Looking at the disgusting fluid on his body, Duanmu Huai slapped his chest with annoyance. It was inconvenient without weapons. Unfortunately, there wasn’t his Thunder Warhammer or Chainsaw Sword in this world, and solely relying on his bare hands to fight was a bit inconvenient, let alone his shooting skills were basically non-existent…yes, he needed to find himself a suitable weapon once he gets back.

At this point, things were basically over. The middle-aged man that was going to be used as a sacrifice was saved, who turned out to be his distant relative in the setting, the unfortunate art dealer. The man in the black robe was Cliff, but unfortunately, he didn’t seem to have controlled the summoning of the weird snake, and ended up being bitten and lost half of his body.

As for the rest of the ghouls, they were killed directly by Lorena holding the Holy Canon high over them.

After that, Duanmu Huai called the police- why he didn’t do it earlier is simple: it was previously mentioned that in places where indescribable monsters appear, the boundary between reality and nightmare becomes unstable. Under such circumstances, it is basically impossible to contact the outside world with mobile phones or telephones. It’s only possible to call the police after the trouble here is dealt with, things are back on track, and the space stabilized.

The police arrived on the scene quickly, conducted an investigation and search, and Duanmu Huai handed over the clues and evidence he collected to the detective- this is a necessary part, clues and evidence can not only give a rating on the system task, but also affect the police’s opinion of you in this world.

If the evidence is sufficient, the police will certainly confirm that your actions are legitimate.

But on the contrary, if the evidence is insufficient, you run into someone’s house to vandalize and rob- then get ready to go to prison.

Since this is only a beginner-level mission, it is incredibly simple for a veteran like Duanmu Huai, and soon, a detective appeared before him.

“Hello, sir.”

Looking up at Duanmu Huai who was several heads taller than him, the detective was somewhat anxious.

“We’ve examined the clues and evidence you provided, and everything has been confirmed…”

“So, can I leave now?”

“Of course, however…we have a small request.”

“Oh?”

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai, who knew what was going to happen next, raised an eyebrow.

“What request?”

“Would you be interested in helping the police and becoming an investigator?”