Chapter 489 One After Another 2
Amidst the dried, rotten bloodstains scattered throughout the surrounding amusement rides, I spotted a relatively vibrant color. It was also a bloodstain, dotted on the ground near the "Pirate Ship" ride not far away, and it was clearly fresh blood.
The bloodstains also bore the marks of shoes, extending forward. Only one type of shoe print could be found, possibly made by the bleeding victim themselves.
This suggests that a living human likely passed through this area not long ago.
If we could find this living person, we should be able to get clues related to this place. With this hope, I tried to trace the shoe prints.
Perhaps because the bleeding person's wound was small and they had plugged it, the fresh blood trail broke off after a short distance. The bloodstained shoe prints also disappeared quickly. With my superhuman eyesight, I continued to trace the shoe prints based on the slightest traces of dust on the ground, but I soon lost track of them; the owner of the shoe prints seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Was it caught in a spatial chaos and moved away from this abandoned amusement park? I tried to analyze it. If so, it's likely we'll lose track of it completely. The kind of transfer caused by spatial chaos is something I can't predict or control.
Just then, I heard a sound that sounded like footsteps coming from nearby.
The footsteps were highly suspicious, reminiscent of someone walking on muddy ground, yet carrying an unusually nervous quality. I immediately turned my head and looked in the direction of the sound. Just twenty meters away, I saw a strange figure that had appeared out of nowhere.
That wasn't a living person. Although it was alive, it wasn't human. It looked more like a bloody and terrifying monster.
This monster left me somewhat at a loss for words. If I had to describe it, I would first imagine a naked, short human being, turned inside out like a bullfrog that had been gutted. Muscles, skeleton, blood vessels, nerves, and other "internal parts" were all exposed, even the yellow fat and internal organs of varying shades were steaming and hanging from the outside, and you could see these organs twitching, throbbing, and writhing, radiating an evil life force.
For some reason, it could still walk. Its skinless lower limbs trembled as it staggered toward me, as if it might fall at any moment. The rough ground chafed its fragile, skinless soles, leaving a trail of bloody footsteps. Thick, sticky fluid secreted from every part of its body, dripping onto the ground in thin threads.
This is yet another strange creature that has appeared in this area.
I could sense the evil and greedy intent emanating from it, like a carnivorous beast drooling as it tries to tear its prey apart and devour it. Although I couldn't see where its fangs or mouth were, it was undoubtedly aggressive.
Can you understand my language?
I wasn't sure if the conversation would work, but I asked anyway: "Have you seen anyone alive around here? He might be injured; he was in the area not long ago. I would be grateful if you could tell me."
The other party did not respond at all, nor did they show any reaction in their movements, but moved towards me slowly and steadily.
"Didn't you hear me? Or are you pretending not to understand?" I asked. "If you don't stop, I'm going to attack you."
The other party still didn't react. Seeing this, I had no choice but to give up and raised my palm.
If this were just a demon hunter, I might have obediently stood still and "kindly" taken a couple of attacks to test its strength. But this is clearly a monster, so I won't show it any mercy. Even weak monsters can sometimes display abilities beyond human comprehension. I may be unpredictable, but that doesn't mean I have any reason to be careless when facing monsters.
Without waiting for it to get close, I extended my finger and aimed my fingertip at the strange creature. Flames gathered at my fingertip, forming a bullet, which I then shot towards the creature.
The fiery projectile struck the strange creature, but instead of piercing it, it caused it to explode in flames. Without even a scream, or perhaps even the ability to scream, the creature instantly turned to ashes.
It seems very weak.
However, it's possible that they simply didn't have time to demonstrate their supernatural abilities, or perhaps the other party hasn't finished yet.
I stood there for a while longer. After confirming that the other party really had no follow-up and that there were no other enemies around, I went forward and examined the footprints it left behind.
At least I can be sure that the shoe prints I found earlier did not belong to this strange creature, since it wasn't even wearing shoes.
The fact that the source of the clue I was looking for wasn't this disgusting, uncommunicative monster gave me a slight sense of relief. Then, I turned and left that spot to find the owner of the shoe print I'd just seen. While the person might have been moved, it wasn't necessarily to a place outside the abandoned amusement park.
Besides, as the saying goes, "once makes a difference," and besides me and the owner of the shoe print, there might be other living people in the abandoned amusement park. It's too early to give up now.
I continued wandering around the abandoned amusement park, but after searching for a long time, and I was pretty sure I had searched almost every area of the park, I still couldn't find any clues about anyone other than myself.
It seems searching here is pointless; I should head elsewhere. I wonder if I can actively utilize the spatial chaos to teleport to another location in one go? However, that would only result in random teleportation. Perhaps walking away from the abandoned amusement park would be better?
As I was considering whether I should experiment with this, I heard footsteps nearby again. Turning around, I saw another bloody and terrifying monster, much like the one before.
The other party moved toward me shakily, just like that monster from before, exuding a despicable and disgusting predatory intent.
Just as I was about to unleash a fireball to destroy it again, I noticed something unusual.
This monster... looks so much like the one from before.
It doesn't look like the "same kind" as the one from before, but rather the "same kind".
I immediately retrieved my own memory information and compared it with the monster opposite me, which quickly solidified my belief. The size, skeleton, shape of exposed fat and internal organs, and distribution of blood vessels and nerves of the two monsters were virtually identical. With such a high degree of similarity, it was hard to believe that they were simply strange creatures of the same type.
As a test, I canceled my own fireball and quietly changed position. However, this strange creature didn't seem to rely on sight and could still lock onto my location. After getting close enough, it suddenly accelerated and ran towards me. I didn't intend to kill it; it seemed like it would revive even if killed. I decided to restrain and control it for observation.
"—Stop." I activated my Word of Power.
However, to my surprise, the other party didn't stop. It wasn't that my power of words failed on them; in my perception, it seemed that the power of words had never truly been activated in the first place. Objectively speaking, I had just uttered a meaningless statement.
The strange creature suddenly leaped up, its body opening up from the middle, its entire torso seemingly a vertical mouth, revealing haphazardly growing sharp fangs.
I had intended to burn it to ashes again, but then changed my mind. Almost simultaneously, lights shone from afar, accompanied by the whooshing sound of wind, and an attack flew towards the strange object in the air. It was a steel bar. Like a sparrow struck by an arrow, the strange object, leaping through the air, was pierced by the incoming steel bar, its entire body dragged along, and then pinned to the side of the drop tower ten meters away.
"What are you doing?"
From the direction from which the steel bars were being shot came human voices asking questions.
I turned my head and looked over. I saw a figure wearing a linen cloak and carrying an old-fashioned kerosene lamp slowly walking towards me. As if to indicate that he posed no threat, he stopped at a distance and took off the hood from his head.
He was a weathered-looking man, about forty years old, with short black hair and a face covered in freckle-like marks. Upon closer inspection, however, one would discover that they were not freckles, but countless tiny scars, as if made with a razor blade.
Although he was the one who "rescued" me, the way he looked at me was clearly wary. This posture suggested less that he had encountered an unidentified person outside and more that he was questioning whether anyone here was even human. It seems his reluctance to approach was also due to this suspicion.
I'm so glad that I've finally met someone alive and with whom I can talk in this strange place.
"...Can you speak?" the man asked warily. "Please say something so I can know you can communicate."
“Of course I can speak,” I said.
The man's expression relaxed slightly.
"And, regarding that question earlier, I'm lost," I said. "Excuse me, where is this place?"
The man seemed to be glancing around out of the corner of his eye, while saying, "I can't answer that. It's my first time here too. It looks like...an amusement park? I've only ever seen that in books from old civilizations..."
"—'Old Civilization'?"
This word cannot be ignored. After thinking for a moment, I said, "Let me put it another way. According to my memory, I used to live in a peaceful and bustling city with complete public facilities."
"But for some reason, the city suddenly became unfamiliar and dilapidated, and there wasn't a single living person to be found. Moreover, there were terrifying monsters and strange, dangerous phenomena..."
Hearing this, the man interrupted me in astonishment, saying, "You...you've even forgotten about 'the end of the world'?"
(End of this chapter)
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