A Core Ship From The Start
/ A Core Ship From The Start Chapter 654
Chapter 654: Chapter 485 Investigation Begins_1 Chapter 654: Chapter 485 Investigation Begins_1 Sitting in the carriage, Duanmu Huai was genuinely speechless.
The maid was driving, with Lorena sitting in the passenger seat, and naturally, he was left to sit in a shipping container.
Yes, it was a shipping container!
The interior was empty, without a chair! Duanmu Huai could only spread a blanket on the floor to sit cross-legged, and while it was not ideal, there were windows on both sides of the container. But for some reason, thick black iron bars were embedded in the windows!
Is this meant for humans? Are they transporting circus lions and tigers or what?!
Regardless, just sitting inside made Duanmu Huai feel a sense of sheer malice from the crappy system……
The setting of this world was in the year 2000, modern times, but unfortunately only just. Duanmu Huai did have a mobile phone, and he had also made a call, but no one picked up…
Well, all normal so far, nothing unusual.
By evening, the maid finally drove the large vehicle to a mansion on the outskirts, where a few cars were parked at the gate. But the courtyard was void of people. Had it not been for the brightly lit mansion, Duanmu Huai might have thought he had come to the wrong place.
But according to the address on the envelope, this should be it.
After parking the vehicle, Duanmu Huai climbed out of the container and joined up with the maid and Lorena.
“Is this the place where the banquet is held, Sir Knight? Why does it seem like there's no one around?”
“That's normal, I'd be surprised if there were people here.”
In response to Lorena's curious inquiry, Duanmu Huai casually replied, straightening his clothes before striding towards the mansion's entrance.
The mansion was brightly lit, with lights everywhere, and faint music could be heard from inside. Yet in contrast to all this, not a single figure could be seen. The front door was not completely shut, but slightly ajar, and Duanmu Huai, unconcerned, reached out to push the door open and entered the lobby.
“————–”
At the same time, the music abruptly stopped. Duanmu Huai led the maid and Lorena into the house before closing the door behind them. The mansion was eerily quiet, with only their footsteps echoing in the hallway.
“What…what's going on, Sir Knight?”
Although Duanmu Huai had given Lorena a warning on the way, the current situation still surprised her.
“Who knows, but we should find out what happened just by investigating around a bit.”
As Duanmu Huai was speaking, he looked around. In the lobby, a table was pushed against the corner of the wall, covered with a phone and some notes. On the opposite side hung a distorted, bizarre painting of a starry night. Duanmu Huai picked up the papers on the table, which turned out to be invitations. It was clear that they were left by other guests who had arrived before him, but whether they were still alive was a matter of question.
The drawer under the table was locked and could not be opened, but of course, this did not stop Duanmu Huai. He grabbed the handle and pulled hard, and with a “crack”, successfully opening the locked drawer.
“Sir Knight? Going through other people's belongings…is that really okay?”
Seeing Duanmu Huai do this, Lorena asked uneasily. Duanmu Huai merely shook his head.
“It's part of the investigation, given that the owner of the house can't complain if they're even still alive.”
While speaking, Duanmu Huai glanced at the contents of the drawer — but found nothing that caught his attention.
“Meow———-!!”
Just then, the black cat, who was transformed by Ling'Nu, suddenly leaped onto Duanmu Huai's shoulder. She turned her gaze towards a door on the left of the main entrance and let out a low growl. Noticing Ling'Nu's response, Duanmu Huai immediately put down the stuff in his hands and approached the door. He then made a gesture to Lorena and the maid, signaling them to follow him. Subsequently, Duanmu Huai reached out and swung open the door.
In front of Duanmu Huai was a majestic dining room, a long table filled with various types of delicious food. However, in a corner of the dining room, a strange, twisted creature was crouched with its back facing them. It was dressed in tattered clothes, and its skin looked like black rubber. It was making unnerving, indistinct noises.
Duanmu Huai opening the door naturally caught the monster's attention. It turned its head towards him, revealing a face stretched out like a wild dog's. The upper half of its face somewhat resembled a human, but its mouth was elongated like a dog's, stretched across its face. You could clearly see the long tongue and sharp fangs inside, stained with fresh blood.
The moment they saw each other, both sides were taken aback. Meanwhile, a system prompt appeared before Duanmu Huai.
[The Ghoul sees you]
[Eye contact causes the Ghoul to lose 9 points of sanity]
[The Ghoul is panicking]
[The Ghoul goes into a mad frenzy]
“…DAMMIT!!!”
Upon seeing the system prompt, Duanmu Huai's face darkened immediately. At the same time, the eerie, twisted, horrific monster shrieked, then turned and pounced towards Duanmu Huai. It opened its mouth wide, letting out a shrill scream, and reached out its sharp-clawed hands.
However, facing the Ghoul's attack, Duanmu Huai roared and directly counterattacked, grabbing its head, and forcefully pulled—- the next moment, the Ghoul's rubber-like tough skin was torn apart, with dark, stinky blood spraying out. The Ghoul's head was forcefully ripped from its neck by Duanmu Huai and tossed aside.
Afterward, Duanmu Huai scoffed and directly threw the Ghoul's body to the ground.
“Damn, is this messing with me?!”
Looking at the system prompt before his eyes, Duanmu Huai was completely displeased. What did it mean that the Ghoul lost sanity upon seeing him? Had he become something unspeakable in their eyes? Damn it, this was slanderous to him! It was an outright insult!
Duanmu Huai calmed his internal rage and then walked to the corner, wanting to see what the Ghoul was doing here earlier. However, when Duanmu Huai arrived at the corner, what he saw was a mutilated corpse. Its entire stomach was ripped open, and its viscera were scattered all over the place. Clearly, the Ghoul was indulging in its meal just now.
Judging from the clothes on the victim, he appeared to be the chef here—-though now he himself had become food.
There was a string of keys hanging around the chef's neck, theoretically used to open doors, but Duanmu Huai didn't need to bother. Just smash open the locked door or even the wall. Who's afraid?
“Look around you, see if you can find anything.”
Duanmu Huai turned his head and said to the maid and Lorena, who both nodded and started searching the entire restaurant. Meanwhile, the black cat perched on Duanmu Huai's shoulder seemed to have found something and jumped down onto the body of the Ghoul killed by Duanmu Huai earlier. It flipped it over a few times and then ran back to Duanmu Huai's side, placing a pocket watch in front of him.
“Pocket watch??”
Duanmu Huai picked up the pocket watch in confusion, opened it, then closed it. But no matter how he looked, it was just an ordinary pocket watch. Apart from the letters “M.H” engraved on it, he couldn't see anything particular about it.
Of course, if it was just an ordinary event, Duanmu Huai wouldn't be bothered about it. He would just head straight in and kill whoever he saw. Unfortunately, the requirements of this linked event task were very explicit—-not only did the players need to solve problems, but they also need to find enough clues and evidence to convict during the process. The more clues and evidence found, the higher the mission evaluation would be.
On the contrary, if you rashly run in and defeat the Demon King, they probably won't give you anything.
So Duanmu Huai held the pocket watch and thought for a while, then once again came to the hall table and compared it with the invitations there. Surely enough, he found a clue—- One of the invitations was addressed to Maurice. White, an artist. His name's initials are M.H. So if he's not mistaken, the Ghoul he'd killed should be Maurice White.
Okay, this means that one of the guests who came here before him had already been transformed into a Ghoul… Well, he didn't know now whether this was some kind of curse or part of a ritual.
Well, it's certainly not a good thing.
Just then, Lorena and the maid also returned, reporting that they hadn't found anything noteworthy in the dining room and kitchen. However, when the maid opened the fridge, she found some strange objects, which looked like biological specimens…Clearly, these were not things that should be in the kitchen.
“Oh? Let me see.”
Hearing the maid's report, Duanmu Huai curiously came to the fridge in the kitchen next to the dining room, opened the fridge, and saw several glass bottles, about the size of canned goods, in the crisper compartment. The liquid inside appeared somewhat murky, and immersed in it were some creepy objects that looked extremely sickening. They looked like dead babies, curled into a ball and soaked in the fluid. However, these “babies” were about the same size as cicadas, looking quite mini and delicate.
Well, what's this doing in the kitchen's fridge? Is the chef planning to make a human-shape ginseng fruit out of this?
Duanmu Huai fiddled with the thing, but the system did not give him any answers, so he put it back into the fridge.
“Alright, let's check the other rooms. There might be more to find.”
Chapter end
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