Book 5: Chapter 10: The True Culprit of the Villa

“Sas, we’re fine. We’re inside the cabin now!” Cora’s voice soon came through the Team Channel.

The three men felt a wave of relief. This place was just too eerie. Even Qin Lun and Hansen felt a huge amount of pressure.

“When did you go back? Why didn’t you tell us?” Sas glanced awkwardly at Hansen and Qin Lun, then softly complained to his wife.

“I don’t know. We were following you the whole time, but then while walking, you just disappeared. And then we saw the cabin again!” Cora said with uncertainty and surprise.

“Could this place be some kind of maze?” Sas’ eyes widened in shock.

“We can test that!” Qin Lun and Hansen exchanged a look, then spoke seriously. “We just ran for over ten minutes. Let’s not go back yet. Let’s keep walking for another ten minutes or so. If we still end up circling back to the cabin, then we can confirm it!”

“But… Cora and Michelle are still in the cabin!” Sas hesitated a bit.

“Sas, do as Qin Lun says!” Cora said calmly. “We’ll be fine. We’ll block the doors and windows of the cabin for now. Even if we get attacked, we can hold out for a while!”

“Alright then. Be careful. We’ll be back soon!” After a brief moment of thought, Sas gritted his teeth and agreed. After all, he had been through five Quest Worlds. He knew that sometimes you had to take a risk to find a way out. He had to put aside the thought of going back for now.

The three men moved forward through the forest again. As time passed, the fog grew thicker. Surrounded by the fog, all the trees looked exactly the same. They completely lost their points of reference.

“Guys, we’ve been walking for over ten minutes. Shouldn’t we head back? If we keep going like this, we might not find our way back later!” Sas muttered. Even though he and Cora kept in contact through the Team Channel, his worry did not lessen at all.

“No need!” Qin Lun, who had the best eyesight among the three, suddenly stiffened. He pointed ahead with a bitter smile. “We’ve already gone back. In another hundred meters, you should be able to see the cabin.”

…

“So, this place is a maze?” Michelle blinked her big eyes. Compared to the several Apostles, the Centaur girl seemed more relaxed. She did not seem worried about her own safety at all.

“Yes, based on what we see now, it really is a maze.” Qin Lun nodded calmly. They had just returned to the cabin a few minutes ago.

“But why is it that when I came to this forest with Sheriff Marov before, we never encountered such a strange phenomenon?” Michelle pressed on without giving up.

“Sheriff Marov probably knows the truth about this place. When he brought you into this forest, he likely chose the right time each time, avoiding the nights and the fog!” Qin Lun said thoughtfully.

“That’s true. When Sheriff Marov took us into the forest, he never stayed overnight, and we never encountered fog either!” Michelle tilted her head, thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

“Qin Lun, do you think this place could be what we guessed before?” Hansen looked at the others, then secretly asked in the Team Channel.

“No, it doesn’t seem like it. If it were the matter we discussed earlier, then Shattered Starry Sky should have given us a hint by now. Besides, we still don’t know why Hill disappeared. We haven’t solved the ‘Mystery of Crystal Lake’ yet.” Qin Lun shook his head slightly and gave Hansen a meaningful look.

“Qin Lun, what should we do now?” Cora hesitated for a moment, then asked in the Team Channel.

“Nothing!” Qin Lun sighed. “Everything we did before has been proven useless. Continuing won’t yield any results either. If there really are other dangers in this place, they will naturally show themselves gradually. We just need to stay together and wait. That gives us the highest chance of survival!”

The night grew darker. Everyone in the cabin slowly lost their enthusiasm for discussion. It was deathly quiet around the cabin. Even the chirping of insects in the forest seemed to have vanished.

The fog that enveloped Crystal Lake and the nearby forest slowly seeped into the cabin. The room filled with a damp, chilly air. Everyone knew they were in great danger, but they couldn’t help feeling drowsy.

Even Qin Lun felt his eyelids grow heavy. He slowly closed his eyes. The night wind outside sounded like weeping, like a siren’s song, or a lullaby from heaven, luring everyone into a deep, deep sleep.

“Gah!” Just as everyone was about to sink completely, a sharp, miserable scream came from the distance beyond the cabin.

Qin Lun jolted. He forced his heavy eyelids open again. A flash of crimson abruptly appeared in his eyes as he suddenly broke free from the drowsiness.

“Mustn’t sleep, mustn’t sleep!” Hansen swayed as he struggled to get up. With one hand, he pulled a dagger from his boot and forcefully stabbed it into his own thigh. Blood spurted from the wound, jolting The Disciple fully awake.

Apart from the two Serial Killers, the others’ willpower wasn’t as strong. Sas just lifted his eyelids slightly before his head drooped again. As for Cora and Michelle, they didn’t even move. They were completely deaf to the scream outside, sleeping like logs.

Hansen deftly took a box of ointment from the Team Warehouse and applied it to the wound on his thigh. Then he took out something that looked like an asthma inhaler, put it under his nose, took a sharp inhale, and then tossed it to Qin Lun.

Qin Lun did the same, taking a sharp inhale. An extremely spicy odor shot straight to his brain. He couldn’t help sneezing several times, but his spirits lifted, and all drowsiness vanished completely.

“What is this stuff?”

“A kind of stimulant powder I bought at the Mercenary Guild. A little trick often used by mercenaries.” Hansen grinned, speaking nonchalantly. “Let’s wake the others up too!”

Qin Lun raised an eyebrow while holding the inhaler, surprised by The Disciple’s strong will. He was wearing the Iron Cross Medal, which granted him Iron Will, and he had even borrowed Joey’s power earlier to shake off the Mysterious Power in the fog. Yet Hansen had completely shaken off the drowsiness relying solely on his own will. Clearly, the will The Disciple had tempered through war was incredibly firm, not one bit weaker than his own.

With the help of the stimulant, everyone soon woke up. Only Michelle was still a bit dazed and unsteady on her feet.

“It seems the change we were waiting for has appeared!” Qin Lun stood up and pushed open the cabin door. “Let’s go, let’s take another look in the forest. That scream just now seemed very close to us!”

…

“What is this?” Cora rubbed her bleary eyes as she looked at a corpse lying in the grass.

The corpse had died a miserable death. It had been cut in two at the waist, its intestines trailing on the ground. However, that wasn’t its only wound. Its limbs, chest, and abdomen were a bloody mess, many parts chopped into a pulp-like state. Only its face was relatively clear.

“Ugh, I recognize it!” Michelle leaned against a tree trunk, her face pale, and vomited loudly. Without turning her head, she pointed at the corpse and said, “I saw its photo in the files of those brutal cases from twenty years ago. It’s one of the two forest rangers who managed the camping area back then, the Troll Fink.”

“This is a Troll?” Sas gestured at the length of the two corpse sections.

According to information available in Nals World, Trolls are large creatures standing over two and a half meters tall. But even if these two sections were put together, they would only reach about one meter eighty at most. Moreover, the bones were slender, more like a human’s.

“Clang! Clang!” Qin Lun’s eyes glinted. He crouched down and tapped the “Troll’s” ribs with his Dagger of Sin. The sound of metal clashing immediately reached everyone’s ears.

“The appearance is indeed that of a Troll, but the body seems to have been condensed. The density of the bones and muscles is very high, no less than steel!” Qin Lun looked at the corpse with a detached expression. He used the dagger to move aside a section of intestine, examined it carefully, and then said with a smile, “It seems we’ve also found the true culprit of the villa massacre. There are still some undigested human organs in its stomach!”

“Ugh!” Hearing Qin Lun’s words, Michelle, who had just finished vomiting, turned pale again and started retching violently.

“If it really is one of the two Troll forest rangers, and it could go to the edge of the camping area to commit crimes, why has it been lingering in this camping area all these years?” Cora asked, puzzled. “Has it lost its mind?”

“Judging from the villa massacre, it probably didn’t lose its mind. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have placed the Skull Coin into the victims’ mouths.” Qin Lun said thoughtfully. “It never returned to the outside world, possibly related to the mutation of its body!”

“Regardless of whether it’s the killer or not, it’s dead now. Maybe we should be more worried about the thing that killed it!” Hansen said with a blank expression. “To be able to cut the Troll Fink, whose muscles and bones are hard as steel, in two, and even chop it into mincemeat… clearly, it’s an enemy we cannot handle alone!”

“Troll Fink probably lived in the hidden cave under the cabin all along, surviving by preying on animals in the forest.” Qin Lun pondered. “It hid for twenty years, but still couldn’t escape being cut down today. We caused its death. If we hadn’t stayed overnight in the cabin, it would have hidden in the cave and avoided the thing that killed it!”

“Officer Castro, do you think the other forest ranger could have killed it?” Michelle finally finished vomiting and asked weakly, turning her head.

“Doesn’t seem like it. If it were just infighting between the two forest rangers, it wouldn’t have dragged on for twenty years without Fink leaving this place.” Qin Lun shook his head. “Most importantly, I think I saw another Troll’s thigh bone in the hidden cave under the cabin!”

“Qin Lun!” A trace of surprise suddenly flashed across Hansen’s face. He gave Qin Lun a meaningful look. “Hill contacted me!”

“Oh?” Qin Lun’s pupils constricted slightly. “If that old fox is still alive, then that means he wasn’t captured by Troll Fink… but hid himself, avoiding us all along!”

“Mm, he explained it to me. Let him tell you himself.” Hansen nodded imperceptibly.

“Qin Lun? It’s Hill. I’ve solved the ‘Mystery of Crystal Lake’!” A soft voice, that of the Shepherd, came through Qin Lun’s Team Channel. “Listen…”