Chapter 12 Disappearance

The viewpoint switches to the room where [Bald Derleon] is.

In the team, he is the most impatient and has a certain violent tendency.

From the very beginning, he neither trusts anyone nor wishes to follow Edward's command.

As a worker, he has evolved from being envious of middle and high-class life to harboring hatred...Upon finding out Edward's background, he found himself abhorring this rich young man from the bottom of his heart.

To him, Edward, who seems kind-hearted, is nothing more than a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Derleon downs a bottle of bought white wine to bolster his courage.

He sneaks out of the room armed with a flashlight and an axe.

Electricity of the bungalow has been cut off by Daqing at 23:00, hence red lanterns can only illuminate the corridor...a flashlight is very necessary at this moment.

Derleon murmurs softly: "According to the statistics, the survival rate for newcomers is less than 1%.

Let alone a four-star difficulty event involving evil spirits, our chance of survival may not even be one in a thousand.

If I, Derleon, am to die, I want to die by my own choice...Why not kill the known "Possessed" person in advance? Maybe it could buy us some time, increase our survival probability."

Derleon's idea is simple—to kill [Possessed Chen Li] on the first night before the situation worsens...This is why he chose to stay in a room next to Chen Li.

Given that Chen Li's room door is locked with a chain, a frontal break-in may alert others.

So, he chooses to enter secretly.

Derleon heads downstairs, circling to the back of the bungalow.

The "997" intensive work system has enabled him to build up physical strength in the factory, making it easy for him to climb such an old-style bungalow.

But just as he scales up the wall, sticking to the window of Chen Li's bedroom, he freezes!

The room is not pitch dark.

An red candle burns on the bedside table.

In the candle-lit room, there's no sight of Chen Li.

What's even more strange is that the room, which should have been locked, is currently open.

"I checked when I left the room, Chen Li's door was locked securely with an iron chain and could not be opened...How did it open?"

This succession of strange phenomena gives Derleon a sense of fear from within, which he struggles to suppress even under the influence of alcohol.

But having come this far, Derleon is not going to back down.

The window is not locked. Derleon sneaks into room number 6.

"So cold..."

The temperature inside the room is probably 10℃ lower than outside...and this chill seems to seep into his bones.

Just as Derleon is about to grip the axe handle for courage.

Tap tap tap!

A series of footsteps break the silence of the night.

At the same time, a woman carrying a baby walks past the door.

This scene scares Derleon so much that he trembles...but he still manages to suppress the fear that rises from his heart and stabilize his body.

Next second, he takes advantage of the alcohol courage to rush forward, trying to grab Chen Li and drag her back to the room to kill her.

Little does he know.

In less than two seconds, when Derleon chases out of the room.

On the empty corridor, only a few large red lanterns swinging in the wind are seen—there is no sign of the woman carrying a baby.

"Where is she?"

Strange, unknown, and incomprehensible phenomena make Derleon anxious, fear escalating within his heart.

Derleon's palm is full of sweat, and sweat is also oozing from his forehead.

Huh...

A gust of cold air blows on the back of Derleon's ears.

A woman with loose black hair stands motionless behind him, constantly exhaling cold air from her mouth.

Ten cold fingers attached themselves like centipedes.

Gliding along Derleon's neck up to his cheeks.

Dirt filled the crevices of the fingernails, ten fingers clutching Derleon's face tightly, immobilizing him.

A force that humans could not resist erupted, swiftly dragging the strongest of the six teammates, Derleon, into the room.

Clang, Clang!

Accompanied by the jingling of iron chains, the door was locked.

...

The second day, early in the morning.

Daqing arrived punctually at six o'clock to turn on the electricity in the bungalow, followed by climbing to the second floor to unlock his sister's door with a key.

Chen Li, who had just changed her clothes, seemed perfectly normal, and she followed her younger brother, Daqing, downstairs to prepare breakfast for everyone.

For the team members, the first night was not peaceful.

Everyone had experienced something, awakened in the middle of the night by footsteps and the sound of a baby crying... Through the glass window in the door, they saw a woman cradling a baby, pacing back and forth in the hallway.

Edward and the Newspaper Boy could see clearly, the woman was "Possessed" Chen Li.

This experience had seriously frightened everyone, almost none of them had a good night's sleep...

"It was just a fright, at least we are all okay."

While Edward comforting everyone, he glanced at the team members gathered in the room: "Where is Derleon? Is he still sleeping?"

"When I just passed by, I peeked... and found that he was not in the room," uttered Arkman, a worshipper with his hands tightly clenching a crucifix.

"We should check it out!"

Edward sensed that something was wrong, and he hurried to Derleon's door, which turned out to be empty.

Han Dong, who was standing at the end of the line, suggested amid the mutterings, "Should we ask Daqing? If Derleon left the bungalow ahead of time, Daqing, who lives on the first floor, should know."

Edward nodded, immediately heading downstairs, "Hmm... Let's hope nothing happens to Derlion."

Monica, the blonde woman following behind, spoke quietly, "It would be best if this reckless bald guy died. Otherwise, sooner or later, we're all going to be killed because of him."

Although her voice was very soft, Han Dong, who was trailing at the end, heard it.

Indeed, Han Dong felt the same way.

Derleon's reckless behavior could indeed bring 'trouble' to the team... From a benefit's perspective, his death could indeed be beneficial to increase the survival rate of the whole team.

First floor.

Daqing was starting the fire, preparing to cook noodles for everyone, while his sister Chen Li was silently chopping vegetables on the side.

"Daqing, have you seen the bald student who came with us... the one who's quite muscular and about one meter eighty tall?"

After placing the wood into the stove, Daqing turned his puzzled face towards the foreign exchange students.

"Bald student? ...Aren't you all here? I don't think I remembered incorrectly; there were only five of you, right?"

"Five people?" Han Dong looked puzzled.

"Yes... Didn't Wang Po bring you five here to follow and document the 'Return Human Ceremony'? Right, sis!"

Chen Li, who had been silently chopping vegetables, gave a slight nod.

Daqing's words shocked the five-member team.

Timid Arkman was so startled that he stepped back and started trembling.

Apparently, all memory of Derleon had been completely erased from their minds.

This indirectly indicated that Derleon had been victimized last night... The specific reason was unknown.

At the same time, a prompt sounded.

"Time remaining for the event: 60 hours. Number of survivors: [5]"

In the five-person group, only Han Dong and Edward remained relatively calm.

Of course, Han Dong was also startled inside, after all, a living person had disappeared silently, and even the memory of him had been deleted from the minds of the event participants.

Unconsciously, a sense of dread had spread amongst each member of the team.