A Core Ship From The Start Chapter 671

Chapter 671: Chapter 497: Night of Terror at the Museum_1 Chapter 671: Chapter 497: Night of Terror at the Museum_1 When Chief Anthony turned his head to look at the wall behind him, he saw a painting hung on the wall — a terribly horrifying and ferocious monster that could not be described in words. At this moment, the creature seemed to be bellowing, with its enormous mouth wide open, as if it was about to pounce on Chief Anthony!

This immediately startled Chief Anthony, causing him to hastily step back. Seeing his reaction, Duanmu Huai also quickly averted his gaze.

“What's wrong?”

“I just saw a painting, it was rather terrifying, almost scared me witless.”

Anthony sighed with relief, then looked back at the painting and was momentarily taken aback.

Under the illumination of his flashlight, the painting that hung on the wall was merely a sunflower oil painting. The beast he had seen earlier had completely vanished without a trace!

Seeing this, Chief Anthony was dumbfounded.

Where's the painting?

“What's wrong?”

“The painting is gone. I clearly saw a monster here earlier, lunging at me in the painting…”

With a frown, Chief Anthony picked up his flashlight and glanced around. But the oil paintings around them were normal with paintings of apples, tulips, and roses, mostly depicting plants. There was no sign of the monster Chief Anthony had mentioned.

Did I see it wrong? That's impossible, right?

While Chief Anthony appeared puzzled, Duanmu Huai just calmly looked around and then began to speak.

“If you didn't see it wrong, then I might have a theory.”

“What theory?”

“Maybe, the monster that attacked humans is hiding in the painting.”

“In a painting??”

“Right.”

Duanmu Huai nodded.

“We've already checked the files, and it clearly states that the time and place of the disappearances were all different. The only commonality is that they all disappeared when no one was watching. This means that it's definitely not a problem with an exhibit in some gallery. It's more likely that some monster is hiding using certain means, and then attacks when its prey is alone.”

As he spoke, Duanmu Huai slowly looked around at the decorations.

“So, how did the monster hide without being discovered? If it's possessing some antique or decoration, it would be easy to detect. But if it's a painting, it would be different. After all, there are oil paintings hung everywhere in this museum. If you weren't mistaken, Chief Anthony, it's clear that this creature is trying to attack you by hiding in a painting.”

“…I didn't expect you to consider this much.”

Chief Anthony turned to gaze at Duanmu Huai, surprised. After experiencing Duanmu Huai's powerful physical strength, he had no doubt about his fighting abilities. However, he had doubts about Duanmu Huai's other abilities, as muscular guys generally aren't the sharpest. Yet, surprisingly, Duanmu Huai was able to deduce all these just through simple conversation and even throw in his own conjectures.

Truth be told, such a conclusion would have been dismissed as sheer fantasy elsewhere, but as someone in charge of U-grade cases, Chief Anthony had come across more bizarre incidents than this.

Moving in and out of paintings was nothing, he had seen even stranger things before.

“So what do we do now? Do we go find that painting?”

“No, it's too troublesome.”

Facing Chief Anthony's proposal, Duanmu Huai shook his head in rejection.

“There are so many paintings in this museum, and who knows when we'll find the right one. And since the opponent has such an ability, it might set a trap for us and mislead us intentionally. So… let's just lure it out and finish it off, then find out which painting had issues.”

Take back what I said earlier, this is indeed a straightforward and brutal solution.

“So, what you're saying is, we need to split up and act separately???”

Now, Chief Anthony was not so calm. Seriously, even if he was the police chief responsible for such cases, it didn't mean he had any special superpowers. To face an elusive monster alone was genuinely unnerving!

Hearing Chief Anthony's words, Duanmu Huai rolled his eyes, then reached into his pocket and pulled out something to hand to Chief Anthony. It was only when Chief Anthony took it that he realized it was a strange decoration with a symbol of a War Hammer, and there was also a skull emblem in the middle.

“What is this??”

“An amulet, ensuring your safety.”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai's explanation, Chief Anthony twitched the corner of his mouth, lowered his head to look at the “amulet” in front of him, along with the lifelike skull on it… This is an amulet? Are you sure this isn't some sort of curse tool?

“Well, thanks.”

Chief Anthony muttered inside, meanwhile accepting the amulet from Duanmu Huai. Although this object looked somewhat eerie no matter how you look, Anthony had seen many ridiculous oddities in his life. Dried up lizard corpses, monkey claws, shriveled children's skulls… Unconventional religions like Voodoo always churned out bizarre amulets. Compared to those, this one seemed rather normal.

Normally, it would be time-consuming for two people to search the entire museum. Fortunately, the museum itself was not large, with only four exhibition halls in total. So they agreed to start from the main hall, each heading to the left and right, and each was responsible for searching exhibition halls B and C-D respectively, then meeting back in the main hall.

For safety reasons, all the lights in the museum were turned on, making the museum brightly lit. This somewhat relieved Chief Anthony. Clutching a flashlight in one hand and his gun at his waist with the other, he vigilantly watched the walls in front of him. The paintings hung on these walls were, of course, worthless ones, with many donated by local or nearby universities. Regardless of their value, at least these paintings were not a disgrace to display and could add some humanistic atmosphere to the museum.

Of course, for that reason, the paintings hanging on the wall were a wildly varied bunch; landscapes, flora and fauna, even some that looked insanely abstract… all in all, definitely of the insane school of art.

What's so good about these things anyway?

Looking at a painting in front of him titled “Dawn,” Chief Anthony couldn't help criticizing in private. Although the title was “Dawn,” this painting had nothing to do with light. It looked like someone painted the paper black, then randomly scribbled in blue, yellow, and green… If the painter wasn't at the museum, Chief Anthony would be more inclined to believe that he might be in prison for alcohol abuse.

There was nothing unusual about Exhibition Hall C, Anthony had a look around, then walked out of the exhibition hall. Standing in the corridor, looking at the empty floors on both sides, he felt an indescribable tension and fear. To be honest, he felt a bit regretful right now, unsure whether the monster really existed…

While lost in thought, Anthony walked into Exhibition Hall D.

However, just as he walked into the exhibition hall and stepped forward, suddenly, the situation changed.

The originally open door of the exhibition hall slammed shut of its own accord. This startled Anthony. He quickly turned around to look at the door, but before he got there to check what had happened, the lights illuminating the entirety of the exhibition hall suddenly went out. Not only that, but the lights from the hallway and the opposite exhibition hall seemed to go out completely at the same time.

In a blink of an eye, the entire exhibition room had been swallowed and enclosed by darkness. Only the light from Anthony's flashlight was still flickering.

“Damn it!!”

Witnessing this scene, Anthony was taken aback. Though he had mentally prepared for this, he still felt an uncontrollable fear and tension when it actually occurred. He quickly raised his hands, leaning against the wall, clutching tightly his flashlight and pointing his gun forward.

Under the dim light, Anthony could not see his surroundings clearly at all. The entire hall was like it was covered in a layer of pitch-black fog, making everything look blurred. He could feel his heart pounding wildly and an unspeakable feeling of tension and fear began to rise, driving him almost mad.

I must leave here!

Anthony went to the window, raising his hand in an attempt to smash the glass and escape. But his hand didn't hit the glass. There was a seemingly non-existent, yet firm and soft barrier in front of him. It completely stopped Anthony's next move. Seeing this, Anthony didn't hesitate to raise his gun and fired at the window.

“Bang!!”

The gunshot echoed in the dark exhibition hall, then was completely swallowed by the darkness. There wasn't a single crack in front of him, he didn't even know where the bullet had gone.

Meanwhile, Anthony heard a strange sound of footsteps emerging from behind him.

“Tap…tap…tap…”

He quickly turned around, raising his flashlight towards his front while clenching his gun tightly, constantly gasping for breath. He wasn't sure if Duanmu Huai could hear the gunshot. The feeling of the exhibition hall now was completely different from before, he even doubted whether he had been swallowed into another space. Maybe the others disappeared the same way, they were not there, but completely vanished. Would he also end up like them?

The dragging footsteps were getting closer, but Anthony still saw nothing. He widened his eyes, staring around, trying to find the slightest clue.

Then, he saw it……

What kind of monster is that!!

The moment his flashlight shone on the dark figure, Anthony saw what it looked like. No, or rather, he didn't see what this thing looked like. Because even in the light of the flashlight, he could barely make out the silhouette of the monster. It was like a transparent creature, with only a few lines and shadows belonging to this world.

Luckily, everything about it was transparent, so Anthony couldn't make out what it looked like. But it was clear that the monster had been angered. It let out a sharp, grating roar and suddenly ran towards Anthony. During this process, its once semi-transparent body changed too, showing its true posture!

“Boom!!!”

Just as the monster was about to lunge at Anthony, a fist, tightly clenched from behind Anthony, struck the monster and sent it flying!

“You finally appeared, you bastard!”

At the same time, with a roar of rage, Duanmu Huai gradually walked out of the shadows.

Chapter end

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