Chapter 44 (1/2)

After a long period of exposure to the elements, the words on the bus information board had worn off. The only thing that one could make out was that the terminal was a place called X Village.

K’s gaze shifted away from the board toward Tang Luo. “Monk, what do you think?”

As the only two veterans here, to K, the monk was the only person with whom he could discuss how they ought to go about completing the mission.

When the time came, perhaps they could help each other out.

As for the other newbies, it would do as long as they didn’t hold them back.

K didn’t pin any hope on them.

“Let’s wait for a while.”

Tang Luo looked at the sky.

Due to the rain, the skies were gloomy and overcast, preventing them from determining the time of the day when they were transported here.

If the day was still young, then it was likely that a public bus would arrive if they waited there.

This was the safest and most reliable way to make their way to the terminal.

However, the timing for the last bus of the day in the case of buses whose routes obviously headed toward the city suburbs was usually 17:30.

Once they missed the last bus, they, who almost had no inkling of what the mission entailed, would not be able to get to the terminal so easily.

The mission was to head to the terminal and stay there for a night.

This mission was clearly separated into two parts.

If they couldn’t even find the terminal, the mission would fail for sure.

Should they manage to find it but were unable to stay there for a night, the mission would similarly fail too.

The option of “I’ll let the pros complete the mission instead while I try to get by” didn’t even exist.

They either completed or failed it. There were only two possible outcomes.

“Wait?”

K’s brows furrowed slightly. Such a Buddha-style attitude clearly wasn’t his style.

If the public bus had already left, then waiting here would just be a waste of time.

He looked at the houses that could vaguely be seen at the end of the path to the side.

“I intend to go over there and ask around. I’ll see if there’s anyone around and ask about,” said K. He didn’t ask for the opinions of the others. Putting the hood of his jacket over his head, he walked right into the rain.

He was wearing an outdoor jacket, the fully waterproof kind, on the outermost. The rain didn’t bother him at all.

The others, however, had no way around it.

The moment they stepped out, they would be drenched to the skin.

Mico, in particular, was constantly rubbing her arms. It was evident that she was freezing.

The temperature there was lower than what it was in the real world.

Auntie Shufen very kindly took off her apron and gave it to Mico. Although it couldn’t keep her warm, it could more or less provide some cover.

“If a young girl like you wears such little clothing, everyone would see everything,” said Auntie Shufen.

Mico laughed in embarrassment.

Her words seemed to end up annoying Lin Zi-ang, who couldn’t help speaking up. “Pfft, those that are squeezed out are fake. What’s there to look at?”

Mico’s embarrassed expression became even more obvious. She even shrank back a little.

“What’s that way of talking, young fellow! Who was it that couldn’t take his eyes off her earlier!?” Auntie Shufen glared at him.

“You—”

“What’s there to ‘you’ about? Are you looking for a fight?”

“I—”

“Oh my, so you really are looking for a fight. Youngsters these days—”

Although that was what she said, Auntie Shufen was all ready for action instead. She was already close to lifting the broom in her hands.

Obviously, the ‘fight’ she was referring to was in no way verbal sparring where a gentleman used his tongue and not his fists.

“What a crazy woman!” Lin Zi-ang swore and stepped away to the side.

To put in some extra information here, Auntie Shufen was just a little shorter than the average female westerner.

The female referred to here was the kind that had already gone past their shelf life by 20 years. Her arms were thick and muscular and were almost half of Lin Zi-ang’s.

Should they really get into a fight, Lin Zi-ang wouldn’t be her match.

“Amitabha!” Tang Luo chanted and prevented things from getting worse. “This monk intends to go over to the houses for a look.”

K had already vanished into the rain. It was unknown whether or not he had reached the area where the houses were.

Even though the skies weren’t terribly dark due to the rain, the visibility was actually very low.

Tang Luo got onto his feet and put on the white hood behind him.

This particular set of clothing he was wearing came with a hood. It was usually left down, but when the need arose, he could put it on for protection against the elements. If he pulled it down a little, it could even hide a good half of his face at night.

“Master, do bless me before you go,” said Auntie Shufen.

“Sure.”

Tang Luo pressed his palms together and chanted a few sutra lines, which none of them understood.

“That’s it?”

Auntie Shufen moved and stretched her limbs.

Tang Luo nodded. Without saying anything else, he walked into the rain and toward the houses.

If the eyes of the remaining three were sharp enough, they would realize that the rainwater pitter-pattering on Tang Luo didn’t wet his clothes at all.

They dripped down his clothes, leaving no traces of moisture behind.

When K reached the two houses, he lifted his head and sized up the two houses sitting side by side.

Cement walls formed the exterior. There were no outer wall decorations such as tiles and so forth on them. The small door was old and worn down. Next to it was a sliding window with an anti-theft grille on the outside.

K looked through the window, only to see pitch-black darkness and a bit of his own reflection.

Rust covered the spots where the screws on the anti-theft grille were. One could tell that the grille was already quite old.

K reached out and banged on the door. He shouted, “Is anyone there?”

He wasn’t very sure if these two neighboring houses were occupied.

On a rainy and gloomy day like this, the visibility both indoors and outdoors was very low. If there were people in the house, the lights should have been switched on. Furthermore, there were only these two lone houses along the path.

As expected, even after banging twice on the door, there was no reaction whatsoever from inside the house.

K threw a hard punch at the door and then kicked it.

If there wasn’t anyone there, he would leave.

Unexpectedly, the kick broke the door off the hinges, causing it to fall. It crashed heavily onto the floor in the house, causing huge clouds of dust to fly everywhere.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

K accidentally inhaled a large mouthful of dust and coughed while he retreated.

“There’s no one here.” K took a look inside the house.

He managed to make out with some difficulty that it was bare and empty inside the house. There were only a few pieces of old and broken furniture inside.

Apart from dust, what filled the house the most was cobwebs.