Chapter 39.4

After the joy from having survived had passed, Xiao Tangqiu’s first reaction was to turn around to confirm how Shen Yuan was doing. As a long-time old player, Shen Yuan was naturally in a much better state than a rookie like Xiao Tangqiu. His hair wasn’t very messy and his clothes looked even more neat and meticulous, far from how miserable someone who had just escaped the clutches of death should look.

By contrast, Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian appeared much more pathetic. There was a handful of scorched hairs on Xiao Tangqiu’s head and several small holes had burned through his clothes. Tang Mianmian looked even worse. His face had been blackened by the smoke, his body was covered in ash, and the bottom of his pants had a large hole, revealing his underwear.

When Xiao Tangqiu turned to size up Shen Yuan’s current condition, his eyes coincidentally met Shen Yuan’s line of sight. Their gazes staggered for a moment, meeting halfway, but Shen Yuan soon withdrew his sight and turned to look at the situation before him.

He hesitated whether or not to go to Shen Yuan to thank him. He hadn’t expected Shen Yuan’s help earlier, but Shen Yuan had not only stopped him from making a fatal mistake, but also pulled him to run with him… While he was hesitating, Shen Yuan’s teammates had already walked over to him, sandwiching him from the front and back.

Naturally, Xiao Tangqiu didn’t have the chance to thank Shen Yuan. He also withdrew his gaze and looked up at the surrounding environment.

Except for Lu Si’er, who had been engulfed by the flames after accidentally falling down, the seven of them had survived, including the little boy. However, the little boy was obviously frightened. Right now, he was crouching in the corner with his hands on his head, his expression full of fear and horror.

Xiao Tangqiu walked over and patted the little boy on the shoulder, comforting him softly, but this obviously didn’t have any effect. The little boy was still curled up and shivering. He sighed. What they had just experienced was so horrible that even an adult couldn’t withstand it, what more such a little child. Even he felt traumatized, how was he in any position to comfort others? How could he help anyone if he couldn’t even help himself?

Xiao Tangqiu turned around to carefully look at where they were. At the end of the secret passage was what seemed to be a narrow and enclosed space. The light was dim and visibility was very low. He quickly took out his flashlight.

As soon as the light came on, the whole space lit up. The next second, his hair stood on end.

This narrow space was full of portraits of Lily Marlene and the floor was covered in puppets that looked like Lily Marlene… But this wasn’t the reason why his hair stood on end, because within the pile of puppets, there were also organs such as human eyes, hair, as well as broken limbs such as arms and thighs.

Those human organs and limbs were thrown on the floor like puppet parts. The blood had already turned black and solidified. Looking around, it was like a slaughterhouse.

Hell on earth.

Xiao Tangqiu’s face turned pale. Tang Mianmian took a big step backwards, covering his mouth.

This was a human slaughterhouse!

Broken limbs and dried-up, caked blood could be seen everywhere. The stench was disgusting, but it was in stark contrast with the beautifully made puppets, which were as clean and beautiful as goods sold in a shop window. The portraits hung on the walls looked even cleaner and in perfect condition. This strange contrast made this place even more eerie, as if it wasn’t part of this world at all.

Compared to Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian, Shen Yuan and his team were much calmer. They had obviously become accustomed to such horrible scenes. Besides the slight frown made by the girls who were used to cleanliness, Shen Yuan and Duan Hongzhen didn’t even blink.

“These people should have been dead for a long time. From their clothes, they look like the townspeople,” Duan Hongzhen said, touching his chin. “There aren’t any fresh bodies…”

Townspeople? Xiao Tangqiu stared intently. Sure enough, certain parts of clothing were still left on some of the broken limbs. The style did look familiar. It was clearly similar to what the residents of the small town had worn.

“What do you mean by no fresh bodies?” Tang Mianmian covered his mouth, appearing like he would vomit at any moment. “The murderer is dead? So, that’s why he stopped killing?”

Duan Hongzhen smiled and said, “The murderer might not necessarily have stopped killing because he’s dead. It’s also possible that everyone is dead… so there’s no one left to kill…”

Tang Mianmian’s face turned ashen while Xiao Tangqiu frowned. Were all the residents of Daemon Town killed? But from what they saw earlier, there didn’t seem to be a single living person in the town, only a zombie/puppet army. It’s no wonder there was a strange smell ever since they stepped into the town.

“Someone slaughtered the entire town?! Who did it?” Tang Mianmian felt uncomfortable all over. “Lippinobert? Never mind that this psycho is crazy over Lily Marlene, but he’s actually so cruel to slaughter an entire town? Why did he kill these people?”

Duan Hongzhen smiled and did not speak, but Xiao Tangqiu looked at the broken limbs on the ground and suddenly a crazy thought occured. “Frankenstein.”

“Frankenstein?” Tang Mianmian immediately froze.

“Yes, Frankenstein. He used different parts of different corpses to form a person, or more accurately, a monster…” Xiao Tangqiu looked solemn. “Does Lippinobert also plan to…”

“He also plans to use the bodies of these townspeople to make one person?” Tang Mianmian was shocked. “Fuck! There’s so many people. It’s more than enough for him to create a few!”

“Maybe it’s an experiment,” Xiao Tangqiu forced himself to calm down. He tried to analyze everything rationally. “This kind of crazy human body experiment won’t result in success with just one try… Maybe he wants to create the perfect body from these experiments.”

Tang Mianmian was so shocked that he couldn’t keep his mouth closed. “What does he really want to create? A God?”

Xiao Tangqiu turned to look at the portraits on the wall. “…Lily Marlene.”

“Lily Marlene? Fuck!” Tang Mianmian’s expression was the same as that of “The Scream.” “He killed his wives and the whole town, just to use their bodies to create a wife for himself?”

“…Maybe it’s more than that.” Xiao Tangqiu suddenly remembered something, “Don’t forget the personals he published in the newspaper.”

“He tricked and killed these people in the name of proposing marriage?” Tang Mianmian quickly followed Xiao Tangqiu’s train of thought, “Maria, and their daughter Alice, don’t tell me even Laura, his mother… Fuck! That’s his own daughter and mother! “

At this moment, Duan Hongzhen said, while playing with his scalpel, “He didn’t kill them, he just turned them into puppets.”

Xiao Tangqiu instantly remembered the little girl puppet with the axe and the strange long-haired puppet. Was that Alice and Laura who were made into puppets? What about Maria and Veronica?

Just then, Shen Yuan suddenly said, “There’s someone!”

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian jumped in fright at the same time but Duan Hongzhen and the two women looked prepared. In the next second, something appeared in front of them – it was a puppet!

It was a very crude looking puppet, only about as tall as an adult’s knee, with crooked facial features, just like it had been painted by a child. It had an oversized head and a stubby body. It looked very strange, just like a dwarf. No, it must be a dwarf puppet. Although the puppet was as small as a child, its face clearly had the appearance of an adult.

The dwarf puppet had a red and white leather drum hanging on its chest and a pair of drum sticks in its hands. It looked at them coldly, as if it were very angry with them, the intruders who had rushed in. Indeed, in the next moment, it suddenly screamed at them.

Never mind if it was just ordinary noise, but Xiao Tangqiu’s eardrum actually swelled up and hurt instantly. He quickly put his hands over his ears. The puppet behind him instantly cracked under the shockwave of its screams!

This dwarf puppet could actually attack using sound waves!

Seeing that the puppets were broken, Xiao Tangqiu’s heart suddenly sank. Did this mean that he broke the rules by damaging the puppet? ……This shouldn’t count! The dwarf puppet was the real culprit!

The dwarf puppet became even more furious when he saw the broken puppets. Its screams became more and more shrill. Although Xiao Tangqiu was covering his ears, he could still feel warm blood flowing out.

Tang Mianmian did the same as well. He quickly made a Roundhouse kick and then a bone-breaking kick at the dwarf puppet, hitting its red chest.

The dwarf puppet was knocked down, and rolled on the ground like a bowling ball. The screams finally stopped.

“Find the exit!” Tang Mianmian quickly put down his hands and shouted. Of course, he didn’t have to say that because Shen Yuan and the others had already started looking for an exit, but this room seemed to only contain portraits of Lily Marlene on the walls, puppets of Lily Marlene on the floor and a blood corpse mountain full of mutilated limbs. There wasn’t an exit at all!

At this time, the dwarf puppet got up from the floor after being kicked like a bowling ball, which had obviously infuriated it. Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian immediately covered their ears again. However, the dwarf puppet did not open his mouth and scream as they had imagined, but picked up the two drums sticks and began to beat its drum.

Soon, Xiao Tangqiu was surprised to find that even if he tried to cover his ears, the sound of the drums could still penetrate into his ears and he couldn’t control his body!

Following the rhythm of the drums, he was forced to put down his hands that were covering his ears and then knocked his head against the blood-stained wall.

Tang Mianmian also seemed to be under the control of drums. He put down his hands and hit his head against the wall just like Xiao Tangqiu.

Xiao Tangqiu was completely unable to control his own body and soon knocked his head wide open, fresh blood flowing down his cheeks.