Playing the Foolish Beauty in a Deadly Game - Chapter 9
As Yan Ting was kissed by surprise, a fleeting look of astonishment flashed through his eyes, but he quickly composed himself. His Adam’s apple moved up and down, and he reached out to loosen his tie.
The group quickened their pace in moving the firearms, knowing that there was something off about the black figure. So why, despite recognizing the problem, did they still not believe Lin Qiao? It was simply too absurd.
Whether it was licking the window or making indecent gestures, which ghost would do such things? Don’t ghosts have pride?
Lin Qiao and Yan Ting finished placing the last crate of weapons into the trunk, and the female lover’s group had also packed up their supplies. It was only when everyone drove away that they discovered the passengers had deliberately blocked the road with their cars.
The passengers had found weapons in the town—just a few scattered guns, but they had given them enough courage. Several male passengers hid behind the cars and shouted, “We don’t want any conflict. You just need to wait for half an hour.”
“If we can find an evacuation point or a hiding place, we are willing to share the information with you.”
“It’s definitely better to stay on land than on the plane. We just need a little over half an hour to gather supplies.”
In reality, the passengers wanted to find a cellar on land or a place to hide from the sunlight. However, they were worried that they might not find a good hiding spot, and if the plane left without them, they would be left to die. To avoid any loss to themselves, they forced Yan Ting to stay and share the risk with them.
It was clear that Yan Ting disagreed. The passengers directly fired an old-fashioned signal gun they had found, calling on the other passengers who were still gathering supplies to hurry to the town’s exit. Some passengers were defiant. A female passenger was frantically grabbing jewelry in a store, and her companion urged her to hurry up.
The female passenger complained, “Didn’t they say we had half an hour? Why are they in such a rush? If we go now, we might run into the hijackers. Let’s go later.”
The self-important female passenger continued to put earrings on her ears. Another companion, growing impatient, thought he saw an extra shadow of the female passenger.
Many passengers were unwilling to gather, and only a few returned within the specified time. They didn’t come back partly because they were afraid of facing Yan Ting and the others directly, and partly because they didn’t want to arrive early and wait for others, thus getting less supplies.
The returning passengers had no intention of moving their cars; instead, they started complaining. Some cursed Yan Ting for being heartless and selfish. Others blamed the passengers for being late and letting their teammates down.
“You only care about yourselves. You didn’t even tell us about the solar anomaly, and you just hijacked the plane and forced us off… “
“There is strength in numbers. We should all unite and face the difficulties together.”
“Forget it. You want to help each other, but they don’t care about you at all. If it weren’t for that brown-haired man who told us, we would still be in the dark. How ruthless they must be to let us die like this?”
“Stop talking and lower your voice. Why aren’t the others back yet? Is it really worth it for those few supplies…?”
Time ticked by, and the passengers grew increasingly restless. Just as they were about to lose their patience, Yan Ting got out of the car with the men in black suits, preparing to force a way through. The passengers on the other side were on high alert, their hands trembling with tension. Lin Qiao thought there would be a fierce gunfight.
Just as the conflict seemed imminent, a woman covered in blood ran over from the distance, drawing everyone’s attention. She cried out, “Help! Save me!”
The passengers were startled, and Yan Ting also raised his gun, his expression tense. The woman’s right arm was severed at the shoulder, and she held the detached limb in her other hand, letting the red blood flow everywhere. Strangely, the severed arm was charred black and faintly emitted an eerie, meaty aroma.
Lin Qiao opened the car window and listened to the woman’s sobs. It turned out that she and her companion had gone to the jewelry store to get some items but were attacked by an unknown creature.
“It was too dark. I couldn’t see what it was. It was just too terrifying.”
“They were tall and dark, and they were very strong. They twisted Phine’s neck in an instant, and now they’re coming for me.”
“I started running when I realized something was wrong, but… my arm, the monster tore off my arm.”
The female passenger sobbed, her strength almost gone, gasping for breath, “Run! Everyone, run!”
With that, she desperately tried to climb into the car, using her remaining arm to start the engine. The blood loss had weakened her, and her face turned pale and frightening. She rolled her eyes back and fainted.
The passengers began to panic. Even with guns, they didn’t feel as confident. The more rational passengers turned on their headlights, shining them in the direction from which the female passenger had come. Everyone was on edge, feeling uneasy and anxious.
Some passengers urged, “Don’t wait. Let’s leave now. It’s too dangerous here!”
The surroundings were deathly silent, with no one responding in agreement. Everyone’s faces looked grim. The passenger who spoke up sensed something was wrong and looked into the distance along the beam of light. “Wh-what is that?”
On the nearby road, one after another, thin, human-shaped black shadows appeared. They were no longer graffiti crawling on the ground but stood up and gradually approached. Their pitch-black bodies looked like chaotic lines piled together into silhouettes, or like distorted mosaics from a poor television signal.
The town had a typical Icelandic Nordic architectural style, resembling houses in children’s doodles. Pointed red roofs, white grid windows, and creamy white walls. Unfortunately, every window had a dark shadow inside, as if something inside the houses was spying. The human-shaped graffiti on the white walls had also sneaked in, no longer pretending to be dead but wriggling and moving their limbs. If one looked closely, it seemed they were holding something and feasting on it. The eerie meaty aroma grew stronger. It didn’t take much imagination to figure out what they were eating. The passengers who hadn’t returned were probably already in great danger.
A fairy-tale-like town, with monster-like black shadows. Naivety and absurdity intertwined, and the bell of the pointed church tower rang incessantly. Time was running out for Yan Ting and the players.
Lin Qiao huddled in the car, clutching the window with both hands, leaving only his eyes exposed, and whispered, “They’re following us.”
The bodyguard and player outside the car with a gun, Zhong Minglang, suddenly realized that Lin Qiao had hinted twice, “They’re following us,” when they arrived. At that time, Zhong Minglang thought Lin Qiao was referring to the passengers, but now it seemed that the other party might have already noticed the oddity of the human-shaped graffiti. The first time Lin Qiao said “following” was when they left the airport, and the second time was on the road to the town. It was also Lin Qiao who first spotted the dark shadows at the airport. On the way to the town, many of the passengers’ cars had disappeared.
More importantly, there was Lin Qiao’s joke: “You follow the master every day, just like his shadow.” Shadow… Lin Qiao meant that these human-shaped figures were shadows, caused by the solar anomaly?
There was no time to think it through. Some passengers had already started firing their guns, and the sound of gunfire erupted into a chaotic symphony. The black graffiti charged forward. Screams and sounds of fighting were continuous. Yan Ting ordered Lin Qiao to close the window and not to come out. Lin Qiao obediently rolled up the window as the dark shadows lunged at the vehicle, shaking it violently.
Through the window, one could see that after the shadows enveloped a human, the person seemed to melt like wax, gradually turning into liquid and being absorbed by the shadows. There were also instances where several shadows attacked a human together. Once the victim could no longer resist, the human-shaped graffiti would no longer envelop them but instead tear them apart and swallow them directly, as there wasn’t enough to share.
The passengers who had blocked the road to hinder Yan Ting and the others now suffered the consequences of their actions. The vehicles were trapped, and in a moment of panic, one passenger slammed on the gas pedal and crashed into a nearby store. The shattered car glass immediately drew the attention of the human-shaped graffiti, which found an entry point and swarmed in. The screams inside the car were immediate, and the splattered blood flew far and wide.
Lin Qiao, also hiding in the car, dared not make a sound. He was well-protected; the guns were effective against the standing shadows. Yan Ting and the men in black suits had cleared the area around Lin Qiao’s vehicle. At that moment, the car door opened, and the timid doctor player entered. He hadn’t fired a single bullet from his gun and was trembling all over.
Lin Qiao was about to say something when he realized something was wrong: “You brought the shadow…”
Before Lin Qiao could finish his sentence, a shadow indeed emerged from his seat. It was already night, and the dimly lit cabin made it hard to see clearly, but he could feel the undulating touch beneath him. The shadow seemed to have grown black hands and legs from the seat, tightly locking Lin Qiao in place and groping him.
Lin Qiao instinctively thought of the perverted shadow on the second floor. As expected, the shadow licked and lingered on Lin Qiao’s neck with its tongue. Lin Qiao screamed in despair, “Jun Shuyang, Shuyang brother, help me. It’s going to eat me…”
The doctor player covered his head, unable to bear to look: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Lin Qiao inwardly clicked his tongue and let out a soft sigh. If you don’t leave, how can I act?
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