Chapter 87: Death Certificate
The two returned to the town mayor's office building and stayed inside for the night, not leaving until the bus returned to town the next morning.
"Did something happen last night?" Shen Yi noticed the signs of a struggle on the street.
Lin Pei briefly explained how the doll had lured the xenomorphs over, then added, "The risk is very high."
"If that's the case, I'd rather go hungry than face a xenomorph." Shen Xin shook his head.
"Going hungry isn't a solution. You'll have to face xenomorphs sooner or later. The sooner we act, the better." Xu Huo said.
"Are we really going to try every single puzzle?" Shen Yi looked around.
"I think he has a point." Gu Yu said, "The longer we drag this out, the more our stamina will decline, and the higher the risk will be."
"Do you have any good ideas?" Wu Qiuyi asked.
"One person goes to answer the questions, while the others lie in ambush nearby. If a xenomorph appears, we kill it." Gu Yu spoke first.
"But fighting will inevitably make more noise," Shen Yi said. "What if it attracts other xenomorphs?"
"The xenomorphs might be distributed across different areas of the town," Lin Pei said after thinking it over. "The game said the town only hired a few security guards. Let's assume there are nine of them. If we could find their hiding spots one by one, that would be ideal."
"But there's a rule in the game: no three people are allowed to appear in any public place at the same time. The definition of 'any' is hard to pin down. If we want to lure out the xenomorphs and then track them back to their lairs, we don't have enough people to pull it off."
"Also, finding something to seal off the entrances and exits is another problem."
Shen Yi frowned. "It needs to be strong enough to block the xenomorphs, and it has to be done silently. Is that even possible?"
"How about we start searching the entire town today?" Wu Qiuyi suggested. "Two people take turns getting off the bus each time."
"A town this big—how many days would that take?" Gu Yu objected. "If we end up not finding anything, won't we have wasted our time? My plan is better: lure the xenomorphs out first, lead them to a place where it's hard to make noise, and kill them there. The woods outside the town look like a good spot."
"Your plan won't work." Lin Pei said. "You might be able to avoid making extra noise, but the xenomorphs are uncontrollable. Moving through the town could easily attract other xenomorphs. If there's more than one of those xenomorphs we saw at the east gate, no matter how many people we have, it won't matter."
Gu Yu fell silent for a few seconds before saying, "Then what do you suggest?"
"First, we need to find something to block the lairs." Xu Huo spoke up. "The town used a certain metal to build the walls. There might be some left over. Maybe all the town's infrastructure uses this metal. Two people stay with the bus, and the rest split up to search."
As he spoke, he took out the picture book and crayons he had brought from the mayor's office and roughly sketched a layout of the town.
"Seven people, heading in seven different directions."
"Any shop, gas station, mayor's office, clinic, or street—these are all public places. But if the game means that public places can overlap, then all of us could enter different shops at the same time."
"Every place in town, every shop, has traces of people. If we count the streets as a single public place, there wouldn't be enough xenomorphs for that many people. I'm leaning towards the idea that the streets are also divided into zones, but there are no clear landmarks."
"To avoid these risks, the best approach is to act in shifts."
"Limit the time, limit the places we go, and avoid having three people appear in what might be a public place at the same time."
Wu Qiuyi looked at the scattered residential houses Xu Huo had drawn across the town and said, "We can follow the bus schedule."
"Residences don't count as public areas. This plan is feasible." Lin Pei said. "Whether it works or not, let's search first."
They settled on their destinations, the times to get off, and the time limits for moving through public areas.
"The bus needs to refuel every day, so at least two people have to stay on the bus." Wu Qiuyi glanced at Nian Hong'an and Wang Chaoqing. He wasn't comfortable letting either of them get off or stay on the bus.
"Nian Hong'an stays on the bus." Xu Huo's gaze swept across their faces.
Nian Hong'an immediately breathed a sigh of relief, but Wang Chaoqing put on a flattering smile and said, "Brother, how about I stay on the bus too? Look, my trait is completely useless. What if I cause trouble for you?"
"If you cause trouble, you'll be the first to die." Xu Huo said flatly. "For your own sake, good luck."
Fifteen minutes later, Wang Chaoqing got off the bus first, his face full of misery.
Then came Wu Qiuyi, Gu Yu, followed by the Shen siblings, and finally Lin Pei and Xu Huo.
Most of the town's residences were single, standalone buildings, with only a few houses built side by side. So, the activity time for each residence was twenty minutes. After twenty minutes, starting with the first person who got off, two people at a time would have five minutes to enter a public area. After searching the residences, they would move on to the shops.
After Xu Huo finished searching the first building, he waited fifteen minutes before entering the next one.
After searching three or four residences in a row, he began to feel increasingly strange.
Although these places all showed signs of having been lived in, it seemed the residents had moved out in a hurry. Most of the daily necessities like clothes and bedding were left behind. But all the houses shared one common characteristic: the living atmosphere was very thin.
Simple kitchens, simple bathrooms. Apart from the basic necessities, things like bookshelves and storage rooms were almost empty. There were no traces of children.
Every single house was exceptionally clean.
He didn't understand the reason, but the sparse furnishings clearly had nothing useful. He was about to head to the next place when he suddenly noticed a reflection from the top of a building outside the window. Looking closely, it was a clock. On the second hand of the clock was a reflective crystal, identical to the one on the clock in the mayor's office building.
His mind stirred, and he went straight to that building.
Crossing the street, he pushed open the heavy door and walked in. The first thing he saw was a wall full of clocks, but they were all broken, their hands stopped at different positions.
In the middle of the wall was a photograph. It showed an old man and a little girl wrapped up tightly. The old man had a serious expression, holding the half-closed-eyed child in his arms. His gaze wasn't directed at the camera but to the side. Both of them seemed out of sorts.
The old man in the photo was the same one he had seen in the photo at the clock shop yesterday.
Stepping on the thick carpet, Xu Huo walked up to the second floor without making a sound. Pushing open the first door, this should be Master Nicer's bedroom. Most of the things had been moved out, except for some photos and children's crayon drawings stuck to the walls.
Unlike the photos downstairs, the subjects in these photos were smiling brightly. Besides Nicer and the little girl, there was also a young couple. The man bore a strong resemblance to Nicer.
"Death Certificate: Certified by the Stellar Authority Five-Star Medical Research Group, it is confirmed that Logan Nicer and Molly Ye died in a car accident. Hereby certified."