Chapter 291: The Mutant Swarm in the Thick Fog
The Special Defense Department had done a decent job; there wasn't much more information on the forums. However, quite a few people were paying attention to the sudden thick fog. Most were advising others not to wander around randomly, lest they get dragged into some strange instance.
"I'm ready." Yan Jiayu walked out and asked him, "After we eat, are you going back to Ting City?"
Xu Huo had already sent a message to the Painting Woman, telling her he'd return in a couple of days.
"I don't plan on going back either, but I need to head to the welfare home later. How about we go together?" Yan Jiayu said. "A few days ago, I saw some kids from the welfare home begging for food outside. Maybe things have been too chaotic lately and no one's looking after them. It's pitiful for little kids to have nothing to eat."
Xu Huo had no objections. After breakfast, they bought some food and clothes and carried them to the welfare home.
But when they knocked on the door, they were stopped outside. A middle-aged man dressed as a security guard, holding an electric baton, eyed them warily. "Go on, go on! The welfare home isn't accepting visitors lately!"
"We're not bad people. We're just here to bring things for the kids." Yan Jiayu held up the bags in her hands. "Some of the older kids from your home have seen me in the park. If you don't believe me, call them out. Teenagers, around that age."
The security guard was half-convinced, his suspicious gaze lingering on Xu Huo. Xu Huo glanced at him. "I'm just an errand boy."
"Wait here." The security guard picked up the phone. Soon, a teenager emerged from the small building inside and immediately recognized Yan Jiayu.
Yan Jiayu set the things down at the entrance and pulled out some neatly wrapped money, smiling warmly. "I was planning to give this to you when you came to the park again, but you never showed up, so I had to come here."
The teenager didn't reach for the money. Instead, he looked ashamed. "The little ones didn't know any better. They even grabbed mud and threw it at you. I'm sorry!"
"It's fine. Kids will be kids." Yan Jiayu waved dismissively and stuffed the money into his hand.
"I don't want the money." The teenager clenched his fist stubbornly. "The director lady is missing. The welfare home is haunted. Money and food just disappear suddenly. We just need some clothes and a little bit of food, that's all."
"What haunting! Don't talk nonsense!" the security guard scolded. "It's you half-grown kids with sticky fingers! You stole the money and won't admit it!"
"We didn't!" Two more older children ran out from inside, followed by a string of younger ones. They snatched the bags away as if afraid the security guard would touch them.
Faced with the questioning looks from Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu, the security guard quickly defended himself. "I'm not stealing their stuff! You know how unsafe things are everywhere lately. After the director disappeared, the staff quit too. I'm only staying here because I'm worried about them. I can't just wander off, so I have to take a little bit of their food..."
The security guard didn't seem to be lying. He was just a coward.
"There have been quite a few rumors about hauntings in Flower City," Xu Huo said. "The locations are scattered."
The "haunting" in the park might have been due to an instance entrance, but for the scope to be this wide was a bit strange.
"What kind of ghost would steal money and food?" Yan Jiayu rolled up her sleeves. "I'm going to catch that ghost."
With that, she grabbed the gate railing with one hand, vaulted lightly over it, and patted each of the older kids on the head. "Leave it to me!"
She then walked into the security booth, opened the gate, and waved for Xu Huo to come in.
The security guard wanted to complain but didn't dare. He could only glare at the kids before shutting the security booth door.
Yan Jiayu quickly bonded with the children and got the full story. The director had gone missing half a month ago. The police had come to investigate but found nothing and dropped the case. Before leaving, they did try to contact others to take over the welfare home, but since even the staff refused to stay, no outsider would come.
Xu Huo inspected the welfare home and checked the local news. "It's not a haunting. It must be some kind of animal."
"There are some small bite marks on the cabinets. Could it be stray cats?" Yan Jiayu thought for a moment. "But I haven't seen any cats or dogs around here."
"I'll check the nearby sewage pipes." She dashed off without another word.
Xu Huo didn't follow. Instead, he called the welfare home children over and asked for more details.
Actually, even before the director disappeared, the home had started losing money and food. It was small change for daily expenses, and the food was completely gone—locking it up didn't help. Later, the director moved everything into her room, and then she vanished.
The likelihood of human involvement was very small. But after humans evolved, it was possible that animals had also mutated. However, amid the previous upheaval, no one had paid attention to this.
"Uncle, the big sister is calling you," a little kid ran over and said.
Xu Huo went out the back door of the welfare home, crossed the street, and headed to the opposite side.
Yan Jiayu poked her head out of a sewage pipe. "Down here, there are a lot of chewed-up cat carcasses, and a human corpse too. The face is unrecognizable, but the clothes have the welfare home's logo. It might be the missing director."
"Any other findings?" Xu Huo bent down to pull her up.
"Lots of rat droppings, much bigger than what I've seen before. The drainage network is a maze. I don't know where the rat nest is. We should call the police..." Yan Jiayu used his help to get up, but as her feet touched the ground, she suddenly felt something was wrong.
Xu Huo sensed it too. The moment he pulled her up, the fog suddenly thickened, and their field of vision subtly shifted. The ground and the buildings on both sides of the street seemed to have double images.
"Did we just walk into an instance?" Yan Jiayu turned her back to him, guarding the other side. "Using a sewer as an entrance? This instance is way too shabby!"
Just as Xu Huo was about to speak, a dense, rapid burst of footsteps erupted from within the fog. He looked up, and a dark figure lunged out, snarling and biting at him!
Then came a second, a third, a fourth... countless figures surrounded them. They were covered in bite marks, their bodies blue-black and reeking of a strong stench. If not for their faint heartbeats, they would look exactly like corpses!
"They're mutants!" Xu Huo swung his sword, clearing the wave in front of him, and pressed his back against Yan Jiayu's. "Grab me! We're going up!"
Yan Jiayu's scissors swept off five heads in one go, but before she could reach out, more people jumped down from the buildings on both sides of the road. Though their expressions were numb, their movements were ferociously fast.
With such numbers, even the two of them were struggling to hold their ground.
After a few minutes of hacking and slashing, Yan Jiayu couldn't help asking, "Did we really enter an instance? Why haven't we gotten any game prompts yet?"
Xu Huo's eyes sharpened. He immediately took out the Fifty-Fifty Vent. The item didn't react.
The Fifty-Fifty Vent could open any space once in a non-instance situation. If they hadn't entered an instance, did that mean they were still in District 014?
"Let's check the other side first," he said.
The two fought their way across the street, but the welfare home they'd seen was gone. In its place was a broken wall. And the moment they stepped over that wall, a shockwave swept out from deep within the thick fog!
(Chapter End)