In fact, when Anthony left, Duanmu Huai had been following behind him the entire time. Relying on the techniques of the Raven Guard, it was naturally impossible for Anthony to discover Duanmu Huai.
To put it bluntly, Duanmu Huai was using Anthony as bait for fishing enforcement.
Duanmu Huai didn't care about that at all. After all, players had long said that in this world one of the three divine artifacts was friends.
If friends aren't used to screw over, then what are they kept for?
But now that this guy had already appeared, Duanmu Huai naturally wouldn't be polite!
"——————!!!"
The monster that had been struck by Duanmu Huai suddenly let out a miserable scream, then stood up from the ground, twitching its nose as it faced Duanmu Huai. However, it didn't suffer any SAN damage from this...
The reason was simple. This thing didn't have eyes at all!
Naturally, it couldn't see Duanmu Huai!
"W-what the hell is that thing?"
With the help of the flashlight, Anthony could now clearly see the monster's appearance, and he immediately screamed in shock. Under the beam of the flashlight, it was clear that standing before them was a humanoid monster roughly the height of a person. Its body and limbs were similar to a human's, but its head was extremely strange—
Its head had only a mouth. Everything above the nose was completely absent, leaving a smooth, empty surface that looked incredibly bizarre. Especially when it opened its mouth and exposed the tongue and teeth inside, it looked even more disturbing.
The monster's fingers were extremely long as well, like dry branches. Just looking at them made one feel nauseated.
Not only that, but the monster's body suddenly swayed, and then it turned transparent again, disappearing into the darkness. Only the rapid thudding of footsteps echoed around them.
"What do we do now?"
If Anthony had been alone, he might have already been on the verge of collapse. Fortunately, Duanmu Huai was still beside him. Anthony hurriedly moved to stand back-to-back with him, vigilantly watching the surroundings while asking the question.
"No need to worry. Just a bunch of beasts. Killing them will solve the problem."
Facing Anthony's question, Duanmu Huai appeared extremely calm. If someone else had said this, Anthony might not have felt reassured. But recalling the moment when Duanmu Huai had smashed the monster flying earlier...
Yeah, this big guy seemed pretty reliable when he talked.
"Clack! Clack! Clack!!"
At that moment, the monster hiding in the darkness suddenly accelerated again and charged toward them. It roared and abruptly appeared from Duanmu Huai's side, shrieking as it extended its claws and stabbed toward Duanmu Huai's chest!
"Die!!!"
However, facing the monster's attack, Duanmu Huai roared furiously. He suddenly raised his right hand and threw a punch straight into the monster's head, smashing it heavily to the ground. A wet explosive sound rang out, and Anthony watched as the monster's head burst apart under Duanmu Huai's fist like an apple hitting the ground, splitting into several pieces.
The monster let out a wail, its body twitched once, and then it stopped moving.
"..."
Seeing this scene, Anthony was completely stunned. Although he had already expected that with Duanmu Huai's physical strength it wouldn't take long to deal with such a monster, what he hadn't expected was that this man would be so brutal—he crushed the monster's head with a single punch!
However, before Anthony could even breathe a sigh of relief, low growls suddenly echoed again from all directions!
"W-what's going on?"
Hearing the overlapping growls, Anthony became tense again.
"It's obvious there's more than one of them. Maybe because I killed one of their members, the rest of them are enraged now..."
"Then what do we do?"
Anthony immediately understood. Obviously, these monsters were like a wolf pack. If one wolf died, the remaining wolves certainly wouldn't let it go!
"Very simple."
As he spoke, Duanmu Huai tightened his grip on the cane in his hand and swung it fiercely.
"Just kill them all!!!"
"ROAR————!!"
The moment Duanmu Huai said this, it was as if the other side also understood his intention. The originally low growls suddenly turned into sharp shrieks. In the next moment, dense footsteps sounded from all directions as the monsters lunged toward Duanmu Huai and Anthony!
What happened next was something Anthony had no idea how to describe.
He could feel those terrifying monsters surrounding him. He could even sense the foul, nauseating stench of their breath. But he couldn't see what those monsters actually looked like. All he could see was Duanmu Huai holding a fist in one hand and the cane in the other, shouting as he swung them around.
However, he wasn't swinging randomly.
In fact, every time Duanmu Huai swung the cane, Anthony could hear a loud bang, like the sound of an animal being smashed heavily. Immediately afterward, the originally shrill screams turned into miserable wails.
Duanmu Huai himself seemed to transform into a constantly spinning, frenzied storm. And Anthony stood at the eye of that storm. Looking around, aside from the fragments being torn apart and flung away by the storm and the roaring wind, he could see nothing and hear nothing else.
"Bang!!"
Duanmu Huai's cane came crashing down again, striking a monster's head. The thick, solid cane smashed down like a hammer, splitting the creature's skull open like a walnut. The monster wailed once before collapsing to the ground, motionless.
"Hmph! Trash!"
Duanmu Huai stepped on the monster's corpse and looked around. As the final monster was killed, the entire exhibition hall fell silent once again.
Perhaps because all the monsters had died, the space that had seemed sealed earlier returned to normal. The lights that had gone out flickered back on.
"Ugh... i-is it over?"
Feeling the lights suddenly come back on, Anthony slowly opened his eyes and looked around. When he saw the scene around him, he couldn't help but inhale sharply.
Not far from where the two of them stood, the floor was covered with the corpses of those horrifying monsters. Some had their heads smashed apart, while others had been torn into pieces. A rough count showed at least dozens of them.
Is this something one person could do??
Anthony stared at the monster corpses on the ground, then looked at Duanmu Huai beside him. During the attack, Anthony had wanted to help. However, the surroundings had been completely dark, and the monsters were semi-transparent, making it impossible for him to find a good moment to fire. Basically, Duanmu Huai had taken them all down by himself.
He really was that capable.
Although Anthony had already suspected it, seeing all the corpses in front of him still left him in disbelief. Even if dozens of people had fought them together, it probably wouldn't have been this easy—let alone against those half-transparent monsters.
"You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"I'm fine."
Duanmu Huai waved his hand.
"What about these corpses?"
"I'll handle it."
Hearing Duanmu Huai's question, Anthony quickly took out his phone and made contact. Usually, the corpses left behind in incidents like this would be completely destroyed. These monsters were no exception.
But encountering so many at once...
This was probably the first time.
No, actually the second time.
After all, in the files from Innsmouth, there had been a report discovering hundreds of corpses of half-human, half-fish monsters.
Hmm...
Thinking of this, Anthony looked at Duanmu Huai with a strange expression.
Don't tell me those were all killed by him too?
If it had been any other investigator, Anthony wouldn't even have had such a thought. But after personally witnessing how Duanmu Huai had casually slaughtered those fully transparent monsters hiding in space like chopping melons and vegetables, his thinking had changed.
Those half-human, half-fish monsters couldn't possibly be stronger than these ones, right?
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing."
Seeing Duanmu Huai looking at him, Anthony coughed awkwardly and changed the subject.
"I've already contacted the logistics team. They'll be here soon... so, does this mean the matter is resolved?"
"Of course not."
"Not???"
Hearing Duanmu Huai's answer, Anthony was stunned. He looked around in confusion, momentarily at a loss for words.
They had already killed dozens of them and it still wasn't finished?
How many did they need to kill?
But soon Duanmu Huai's explanation answered Anthony's doubts.
"There's no way this museum was hiding dozens of monsters. So obviously they were transported here through some kind of gate. We need to find that gate."
"That makes sense."
Anthony came back to his senses. Indeed, just as Duanmu Huai said, there was no way this museum had been hiding dozens of monsters. They must have come from somewhere. If they couldn't figure out where the monsters were coming from, killing more of them here would be pointless.
So the two of them immediately began searching again.
Fortunately, perhaps because the monsters had been completely eliminated, it didn't take long this time before they found something in a corner of the exhibition hall wall—a damaged oil painting.
On it was painted a monster with no eyes and a huge blood-gaping mouth.
Obviously, this was the monster.
And beneath the painting was a description of its origin.
"Empty Ghoul" — Donated by Christine Sellers, Department of Art, Miskatonic University.
"It seems we've already found our clue."
Looking at the title beneath the painting, Duanmu Huai spoke calmly.
(End of Chapter)