Chapter 14 The players aren't some kind of devils...
The clouds were blown away, the full moon was fully revealed, and black mist appeared out of thin air on the auction stage, condensing into three pitch-black and ferocious hunting dogs.
Rayleigh frowned, then jumped onto the cage like Violet did. Violet, seeing this, also put a flower wreath on his head.
"Woof woof!"
Once the hounds appeared, they immediately charged toward the player with the highest aggro value. However, because the player was sitting on the cage and the area around the cage was so smooth that there was nowhere to put their feet, the hounds could only wander around the cage unwillingly.
Surrounded by hounds, the sanity of the group plummeted. Violet and Rayleigh, wearing flower wreaths, were alright, but Spandam, locked in a cage, felt dizzy and his face turned ashen.
"Ugh!" His eyes rolled back and he fainted.
Vera calculated the time until she saw a large black hand slowly emerging from a dark corner not far away. Only then did she jump down, raise her spear, and begin to pull the monster.
When a hound is attacked, it will become stunned. As long as you are not surrounded by a pack of hounds, you can use this stunned time to kill monsters without taking damage.
So Violet ran, the hounds chased, Violet turned and swung a spear, Violet kept running, the hounds kept chasing, Violet turned and swung another spear...
The hound was dealt with by flying a kite, and Violet picked up the [Monster Meat*2] and [Hound Fang*1] dropped by the hound and put them in her backpack, then waved to Rayleigh.
Rayleigh: "What are you planning to do?"
Vera: "Call the police."
Rayleigh: "Call the police?"
He watched as the girl took a Den Den Mushi from one of the unconscious guests and skillfully dialed the Navy's general emergency number.
Vera composed herself, then cried out in a terrified, tearful voice, "Is it...is it the Navy? Help...help! There's a monster killing people here at the auction house!"
"What? Miss, could you please describe the location and situation in detail?"
Violet: "Waaah, I'm here, I'm in the Sabaody Archipelago... Auction House #17... Waaah, the monsters are so scary, please come and save me, or I'll be..."
After saying that, before the person on the other end could react, she hung up the phone and grabbed Rayleigh's sleeve.
“Do you know where the slaves who weren’t sent to the platform are? I have a companion there, and we’ll run away with him.”
After listening to Vera's nonsensical acting, Rayleigh helplessly covered his face, picked up the wrong-direction Vera and tucked her under his arm: "Why did I have to mess with you... Never mind, this way!"
Ten minutes later, the navy personnel rushed into the auction house, but they did not see the so-called monster. Instead, they saw the auction stage in complete darkness with all the lights off, the CP officer locked in an iron cage, and a torch that was about to burn out next to the cage.
Everyone in the stands knelt silently, heads bowed, their expressions unreadable.
Something was amiss, and the vice admiral at the forefront swallowed hard.
"Captain, everyone's passed out." No external injuries, they just collapsed like that!
call--
A gust of wind blew, and the torches burned out completely, plunging the auction stage into darkness.
"Ahhh!" Remembering the caller's words, the sailors immediately conjured up all sorts of terrifying images, and huddled together in fear, crying out, "Ghost! Ghost!"
"The one who called the police might be a ghost too!"
"Yeah, yeah, didn't the captain say that ghosts can disguise themselves as humans to lure their prey?"
The captain broke out in a cold sweat, his legs trembling as he considered retreating. But he couldn't; the officer locked in the cage was from the CP department, and they couldn't just leave him there.
"It's okay, we'll just take the adults out and run..."
The officer's voice trembled, and it was unclear whether he was trying to comfort the other navy personnel or himself.
They walked shakily toward the eerie auction stage, fumbled for the lights, and with a snap, the blinding light shone on the entire stage. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ha, you're just scaring yourself..."
The captain patted his chest to comfort himself, but the next second, his deputy, who had been walking behind him, suddenly hugged him tightly.
Captain: "What are you doing? Where are your hands going?!"
"Captain, Captain, Ghost Hand, Ghost Hand!!!"
"Aaaaaah!!!"
A long, thin, black, semi-transparent hand with only four fingers emerged from the deep red velvet cloth behind the auction stage, reaching out to grab the group of marines. The appearance of the hand caused the surrounding space to distort, and a strong sense of dizziness and nausea overwhelmed them!
This, this must be the hand of a ghost, the devil!
The piercing scream woke Spandam from his unconscious state. He shakily raised his head and saw the familiar navy coat.
Spandam: "Navy? Get me out of here, you bunch of bastards!"
The sailors did not move, but just stared at him in horror.
Spandam sensed something was wrong. He stiffly turned his head and saw a large, dark hand pierce through the hole in the iron cage, grab a CP who had fainted beside him, and drag him into the darkness.
The CP was swallowed by darkness, silently, without even a sign of resistance, simply vanishing into thin air.
Spandam was terrified. He struggled desperately, begging the navy men he had previously looked down on to quickly rescue him from the cage.
But no one dared to go over at that moment and confront that terrifying ghostly hand.
Another couple was dragged away. This unlucky guy probably aggravated his wound while being dragged. He woke up halfway through and saw the thin ghost hand grabbing his chest. He let out a piercing scream and begged for mercy until he was pulled into the darkness. The terrible scream stopped abruptly.
Spandam is now all alone.
As Spandam watched the black ghostly hand cling to him once more, a sentence suddenly came to his mind.
"Let the devil judge you."
Spandam: "It's the devil! She's the devil! Help!"
He disappeared too.
——
"Ha, what's with those weird expressions?" Garp picked at his ear with his little finger, looking at Sengoku and Tsuru opposite him. "What are you rushing to call me and Kuzan over for? To have a tea party?"
Garp gagged, "Ugh... How disgusting!"
Sengoku angrily slammed his fist on the table: "I'm serious, Garp!"
After he finished speaking, he looked at Kuzan, who was sitting lazily to the side, skillfully rummaging through his fingers to produce hot tea and snacks, and then pushing them in front of Garp without saying a word. Kuzan sighed inwardly.
Since the O'Hara incident, this future general candidate, whom he had always highly regarded, seemed to have become a different person, transforming from an energetic individual who constantly upheld his ideals of justice into the listless person he is today who is uninterested in anything.
Sengoku: "Kuzan, you've been in charge of liaising with Spandam all along, haven't you?"
Kuzan scratched his fluffy head and squinted: "Spandam...who's that?"
Sengoku: "CP Department, Spandam's son."
Garp munched on his senbei: "Oh, that bastard!"
Kuzan: "...I think so, what happened to him?"
Kuzan prayed that he wouldn't have any connection with the Celestial Dragons, otherwise he would drag Garp along for a training camp at sea.
Sengoku recalled the report from the Sabaody Archipelago naval fortress, his voice slightly strange: "He was...he was captured by a demon?"
Kuzan looked up at the sky. The sun hadn't risen in the west today. What was Mr. Sengoku talking about in his sleep?
Even the usually nonchalant Garp turned serious: "Sengoku, do you want to go to the medical department?" His old friend seems to be out of his mind.
"I'm not talking in my sleep, nor am I insane!" Sengoku took out a Den Den Mushi. "Go see for yourselves!"
[Is this the Navy? Help... Help! There's a monster killing people here at the auction house!]
[What? Miss, what did you say? Please describe it in more detail... Hello, hello, Miss, are you alright?]
[Technical department, locate the Den Den Mushi's position!]
...
[Team leader, everyone has fainted...]
[Ahhh, a ghost!]
...
[She's a devil, she's a devil, help!!]
When the recording ended, the Den Den Mushi's eyes drooped again, and the people sitting in the office were eerily quiet.
Staff Officer Tsuru turned off the Den Den Mushi that was playing automatically on a loop and said in a deep voice, "The Navy in the Sabaody Archipelago has confirmed that the CP members who were pulled into the darkness by the Ghost Hand have vanished into thin air."
"After dragging away those CP members, Ghost Hand did not attack the remaining Marines present."
"Spandam's father, Spandam, is pressuring the Navy to demand his release."
Staff Officer He sighed and looked at Kuzan: "Kuzan, did Spandam ever tell you anything about the devil before?"
"Huh?" Kuzan narrowed his eyes. "I've barely spoken a few words to Spandam... I've never even heard of him."
"—The Devil's Child, Nico Robin!"
"—How did she escape from Ohara? Quick, print her picture on the wanted poster, let's call her 'Child of the Devil'!"
A government that massacres scholars, a navy that kills close friends, and a newspaper that hunts down innocent children... Isn't this world full of devils?
Staff Officer He: "Then we can only try to deal with the people from the government departments first."
Garp retorted, "What does this have to do with the Navy? That Panda guy, if you're unhappy, go ask the devil for his son!"
Sengoku: "Should we issue an arrest warrant? What did the Science Department say?"
Staff Officer Crane: "We haven't found a Devil Fruit that corresponds to this behavior yet. Perhaps it's an ability user we don't know about, or perhaps the demon hand itself is a mysterious creature that we haven't recorded before."
After all, this world and this sea area are so vast.
Staff Officer Crane: "Let's just classify it as... an attack by an unidentified wild animal for now. If Spandam has any questions, let him investigate on his own."
Garp: "Pfft, Tsuru's idea is pretty good!"
Staff Officer Crane: "Garp, how's your exploration of the post-earthquake terrain in the New World going with Kuzan?"
Garp choked on his rice cracker, and Kuzan immediately stood up, grabbed Garp, and tried to rush out: "Mr. Garp, hang in there, I'll take you to the medical room right away!"
Staff Officer He: "You two, when you submit your reports, that's when we'll pay your salaries!"
——
Vera yawned as she walked into Xiaqi's overpriced bar. As soon as she entered the room, she smelled a familiar fragrance.
Vera: "It's takoyaki!"
Wearing an apron, Hachi placed a steaming bowl of takoyaki on the table: "Come and eat, Violet, it's still hot!"
Xiao Ba: "It's a pity we couldn't find the pink jellyfish that you like to eat the most."
While stuffing takoyaki into her mouth, Violet shook her head: "I don't have a favorite."
Violet: "I just haven't unlocked the cooking pot yet, so I can only make these few dishes."
Violet: "When can we set off for Fishman Island?" The farmland was calling to her; she couldn't wait to start building the infrastructure!
Hachi looked at Rayleigh behind him.
Violet: "Wow, it's a coating expert!"
Vera: "Why are you still reading the newspaper here? How can you stand reading a newspaper at your age?"
Reilly reluctantly lifted his head from the newspaper: "Spare me, it's barely dawn. I stayed up all night with you, let me rest a bit."
Rayleigh: "At my age, I can't handle the kind of nonsense that young people like you are causing."
Xiao Ba: "No, wait, what were you doing at the auction last night?!"
Vera looked at his platinum-blonde hair: "How old are you?"
Rayleigh squinted, trying to recall: "Sixty-something... or seventy-something?"
Violet: "Sixty-something is the perfect age to strive, you coating craftsman!"
Vera smiled gently: "Here's some takoyaki for you. After you finish eating, go get to work, okay, coating craftsman?"
After all, players aren't monsters.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Rayleigh: How come this guy is so good at ordering me around? And why is his body moving on its own? How come he's so adept at being ordered around too?!
Rayleigh: You're the culprit, Roger! [Angry]
Vera (forcing an elderly woman with gray hair to work): Eat breakfast first, then go to work. After all, I'm not some kind of devil. [Milk tea emoji]
PS: Hounds are monsters that spawn at certain intervals in the game Don't Starve. The spawn interval and number of spawns depend on your survival time; generally, the longer you live, the faster the spawn rate and the more numerous they become, but there is a maximum limit. Red hounds have a chance to spawn in summer; their attacks ignite surrounding objects, and they have a chance to drop rubies when defeated. Blue hounds have a chance to spawn in winter; their attacks have a chance to freeze the player, and they have a chance to drop sapphires when defeated.
In shipwrecked events, if the player is at sea when the hounds spawn, the sea hounds will spawn and attack the player as usual.
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