"Let's see if we can make use of that mop."
Although he needed to hurry and find the clues, Ethan still didn't want to touch those strange things inside the water tank.
So he quickly picked up the mop Mom had left behind and kicked off the mop head.
He then took the mop handle and started probing around in the water.
But unfortunately… the water in the tank was simply too deep.
Ethan searched around for a long time, but apart from getting tangled up by those strange mushrooms over and over, he couldn't fish anything out.
Of course, the main problem was that the mop handle wasn't long enough to reach the bottom.
"Brother, how do I solve this problem?"
Riyana's voice came through the window and reached Ethan's ears. It was obvious how loud she was speaking.
"You have to tell me your approach to solving it. If you just write it down like this, how am I supposed to know how to solve it?"
"That's because you're stupid!"
A lowered male voice came from below.
Needless to say, the male voice was definitely Riyana lowering her voice and pretending to be Ethan. She was doing it to make Mom think that Ethan was also in the room.
And this proved one thing, which was… Mom had appeared again, forcing Riyana to put on this act. The reason she was deliberately speaking so loudly was also to try to warn Ethan.
"Fuck!"
Ethan cursed under his breath.
Judging from how tightly the creepy Mom was keeping watch over them, if he didn't go down and search now, it would probably be difficult to get another opportunity this good later.
Besides… Mom had previously said that Dad would come back in the afternoon.
Could Ethan take that to mean that Dad would reset in the afternoon, changing from a corpse back into a living NPC?
[31:53:45]
There wasn't much time left.
He had to hurry.
Splash!
Pinching his nose, Ethan jumped straight into the water tank.
Because the water in the tank couldn't receive any sunlight, it was several degrees colder than tap water, probably only around eleven or twelve degrees. It was a little chilly, and there was also a foul smell coming from the water.
Especially after Ethan entered the water tank, the stench became even stronger.
It was practically enough to knock someone unconscious.
Bang!
But the instant Ethan jumped into the water tank, the lid of the water tank strangely… Closed by itself.
"…"
Ethan looked up at the lid.
'What the hell…'
'Is this what they call walking right into the trap?'
He quickly stood up and pushed against the lid on tiptoe, only to discover that it was sealed tightly, as if it had been locked again.
Bang!
Ethan slammed it hard.
Unfortunately, he couldn't open it at all. The lid of the water tank was stuck fast.
On top of that, the water tank was more than two meters deep. Ethan had to reach up just to touch the lid, so even if he wanted to smash it open, he couldn't put any strength into it.
"…"
He had fallen into a trap.
He just didn't know whether he had fallen into Riyana's trap or the creepy Mom's.
Ethan was helpless.
But at this point, there was nothing he could do.
He could only try to see if he could find Clue 3 inside the water tank.
The water in the tank came up to Ethan's chest. When he pushed aside those eyeball mushrooms with his hand, he felt a bunch of slippery, sticky things slide across his fingertips.
And when Ethan touched those eyeball mushrooms, he even had an illusion.
It was as if these mushrooms could move.
Because… he discovered that no matter how much he moved those eyeball mushrooms around, the large gray-black spots on them always faced in Ethan's direction, giving him the eerie feeling of being watched by countless eyeballs.
Especially inside this dark, damp water tank, where only a tiny amount of dim light could get in.
If an ordinary person had been in here instead, they probably would have been scared to death even if they hadn't been killed.
'Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, when practicing the profound Perfection of Wisdom, saw that the five aggregates were empty and crossed beyond all suffering…'
When he was afraid, he recited the Heart Sutra.
This was one of Ethan's little tricks for facing fear.
At this moment, he recited the Heart Sutra as he plunged his head into the water and began feeling around inside the tank with his hands.
But for some reason, those eyeball mushrooms seemed to be everywhere. No matter where Ethan moved his hand, he seemed to touch one of them, along with their stems, which were as thin as strands of hair and kept getting caught between his fingers.
[!]
A small red exclamation mark appeared in the corner of the water tank.
Ethan quickly swam toward the corner of the tank. Then, using the red exclamation mark, he saw an eerie scene at the bottom of the water tank.
A bloated man's corpse was curled up at the bottom of the tank. Many hair-thin, translucent red tubes had grown from his body, each one like an infant's umbilical cord, connecting to the water's surface or to the eyeball mushrooms that were half-submerged in the water.
And those mushrooms really could move.
Especially when Ethan was about to approach the man's corpse, all the eyeballs suddenly withdrew into the water. Then, one by one, they all turned toward Ethan and stared at him.
It seemed… as long as Ethan dared to do anything reckless, they would all attack this outsider together.
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