Chapter 86: Xenomorph Attack
"The puzzle solver who answers incorrectly will be punished."
The doll's voice suddenly turned sharp, and the two people standing behind the door changed expressions simultaneously, both rushing toward the windowsill!
Almost the moment they leaped from the second floor, the office door was slammed open, and a shadow loomed over their backs!
At this critical juncture, Lin Pei twisted his body in a difficult maneuver to grab the edge of the windowsill below, while Xu Huo, suspended in midair by the strings with his entire body exposed, became the Xenomorph's first target!
Time was tight—Xu Huo had no chance to swing his sword. He barely managed to pull out the Bull Shield when the pale shadow, whose limbs resembled a frog's, slammed into him, sending them both rolling across the street into a clothing store!
The Xenomorph, crouched on the shield, grabbed its edges with both hands, opened its mouth wide, and bit down wildly. Xu Huo dodged while getting a clear look at its appearance—it resembled a human face, but its eyes seemed to have degenerated, eyelids tightly shut, upper and lower lids fused together, while mucus dripped from its teeth and tongue!
Xu Huo was sprayed in the face, then used his knee to flip the shield over. Taking advantage of the Xenomorph flying over his head, he dashed out of the clothing store and ran toward the tracks in the middle of the street!
Over the short distance, he unavoidably stepped on a doll on the ground. As the scream rang out, the Xenomorph burst through the window again, chasing after the sound!
From the doll's cry to the Xenomorph's pounce, less than a second had passed, but the speed gap between them was enormous. Xu Huo had barely moved his foot off the doll when the Xenomorph was already upon him. He barely raised the shield to block, only to be sent flying with the shield into a tree beside the office building!
Ducking to avoid the Xenomorph's swinging arm, he saw those human-like fingernails effortlessly gouge into the tree trunk, carving several grooves into it... Xu Huo immediately realized that in terms of both speed and strength, he was no match for the Xenomorph!
Taking advantage of his bent posture, he grabbed a doll at his feet and threw it into the distance!
"Wah wah wah!!!"
"Wah wah wah!!!"
The sharp cries rang out over ten meters away. The sightless Xenomorph quickly turned and chased in that direction, but before it got far, it was again attracted by the sound of another doll it stepped on, and began frantically tearing and biting at the spot!
The hard ground was scratched with marks by its bare fingernails. Most of the dolls around it were ripped apart and swallowed, but after a short while, it vomited them all out, its bony, hollow-chested torso heaving.
After vomiting, it crouched like an animal, its long, thin arms pressed against the ground, ears perked up as if listening for something.
The town fell silent again. Xu Huo, carried by the strings, landed silently on the roof of the office building. Watching this creature that shared his physical form but had completely degenerated into a beast, he was unsure how to proceed—until a chime suddenly sounded from somewhere in the town:
"Twelve-fifteen! Twelve-fifteen! The night is beautiful tonight, the moon is lovely. Well-behaved people should be lying in bed sleeping now."
Hearing the sound, the Xenomorph immediately rushed toward it. Along the way, it stepped on several dolls, picked them up, seemed to realize they weren't edible, tossed them aside, then climbed up a wall and leaped across rooftops toward a small building where the sound originated. Shortly after it entered, the chiming alarm clock stopped.
Xu Huo waited a moment, and when the Xenomorph didn't emerge, he crossed the town through the air and approached the isolated house.
After circling the outside once without finding the Xenomorph, he entered the house.
The light from his lighter was enough to illuminate the small room. Following the wet footprints left on the floor, he walked to the fireplace. After a moment's hesitation, he stuck his head inside and looked up the dark chimney.
The chimney led straight outside, where faint dim light could be seen. Below was a narrow passage leading to an unknown destination, the walls covered with scratch marks from fingernails.
Xu Huo noticed that the passage below the chimney was different from the chimney above—it was made of metal, with rows of circular holes at regular intervals on both sides, arranged in a grid pattern that looked like bars.
He backed out of the fireplace and examined the other features of the house. He spotted a tuft of hair sticking out from the edge of the ash pile. Digging it out, he found it was a human head missing half its face.
Continuing to search, he uncovered at least five or six heads stacked together. Some had rotted down to bone, while others seemed only a few days dead.
He recorded the heads on video, then put them back in the ash pile before leaving the small building.
Just as he stepped outside, Lin Pei, who had escaped safely the moment the Xenomorph first appeared, suddenly emerged from a nearby shop. "It's great that you're okay."
Xu Huo raised his lighter and stared at him.
Lin Pei seemed somewhat guilty. "It's not that I wanted to abandon you, but in that situation, I also..."
"It's nothing." Xu Huo interrupted him flatly. "If it were me, I would have abandoned you and run too."
Unsure whether Xu Huo was holding a grudge, Lin Pei hesitated before changing the subject. "I saw light over here, so I came to check. What were you looking for inside?"
Xu Huo walked back along the tracks. "The Xenomorph was lured into the house by the alarm sound. That house is a place where Xenomorphs are imprisoned, and the exit has bars."
"During the daily puzzle-solving time, the exit bars should automatically seal shut, keeping the Xenomorph inside. So puzzle-solving time is relatively safe for players."
Lin Pei hadn't expected him to uncover such important information. "But not every puzzle-solving location is safe. We were just tricked earlier."
"Places where children frequently appear are less likely to be dangerous." Xu Huo paused and asked, "Do you know how many Xenomorphs are in this town?"
"Should be more than three," Lin Pei said. "They don't seem to appear at the same time."
"Although this is a town, it's quite large. The Xenomorphs might be scattered in different areas, so each time, only one is attracted by sounds just over 60 decibels."
"But anything above 80 decibels is uncertain."
The game background specifically mentioned 60 and 80 decibels. Loud speech, puzzle sounds, alarms, bells, and dolls were all below 80 decibels, which could attract Xenomorphs.
But whether excessively loud noises would summon all of them at once was unknown, and players wouldn't dare test it easily.
Xu Huo paused mid-step. When he was knocked flying by the Xenomorph earlier, the sound should have exceeded 80 decibels. Although the noise was fleeting, it hadn't attracted a second Xenomorph. Lin Pei's theory about distance was one possibility.
The Xenomorph tonight was clearly different from the one that had torn apart the car at the east gate. With two types of Xenomorphs and an unknown number, killing or trapping them was too difficult—unless the only way in and out of their prison was through the entrance, in which case they only needed to block the exit.
However, there was a large forest surrounding the town. The Xenomorph that attacked at the east gate might not stay in the town at all. And the cage that held the previous Xenomorph—could it even contain this one?