Boyd sat on the edge of the bed in his room at the sheriff's station, his elbows resting on his knees.
He raised his right hand in front of his face and slowly opened his palm, carefully examining his fingers.
They remained still. Steady. Not a single tremor disturbed his skin.
Ever since the cut caused by Martin's shackles, something had changed.
The symptoms of his illness seemed to have disappeared completely.
There were no tremors, nor the muscle stiffness that had recently accompanied his movements.
Still, the memory of those horrible things crawling beneath his skin was enough to send a shiver down his spine.
He clenched his fist tightly and rubbed his forearm, as if the gesture could erase the lingering sensation.
Earlier, he had asked Ellis, with all the subtlety he could muster, whether he had felt anything different in his body.
To his relief, Ellis assured him that there was nothing strange.
Even so, the answer hadn't completely eased his concerns.
If it happened to him, Boyd feared that, in time, it would happen to his son as well.
Or was it just a hallucination?
An engine roaring at high speed shattered the calm of the night, pulling the sheriff from his thoughts.
The sound was followed by a metallic crash that echoed through several streets.
He immediately rushed to the window, peering through the gap.
At the Matthews house, Jim dropped his book onto the arm of the chair and stood up, his heart racing.
Tabitha, who was preparing dinner, ran to the window, followed by her husband and son.
She pulled the curtain aside just enough to peek into the street.
"It's the motorhome," she murmured, more to herself than the others. Judging by the sound of the engine, there was little doubt.
"What is he up to now?" Jim asked, worried.
"I don't know, but he's not irresponsible. Let's keep watching. As long as they don't leave the vehicle, they're safe," Tabitha replied, keeping her eyes fixed outside.
Inside the motorhome, Daniel shifted into reverse with an almost insulting calm and parked back in his usual spot.
Outside, the light, irregular footsteps of the creatures began to approach.
"Come on," he called, unfastening his seat belt.
Julie followed him to the back. Together, they pulled the curtains, separating the cabin from the rest of the interior.
The two kept their eyes on the camera feed.
Three figures circled the front of the vehicle, but seeing no one in the cabin—nor any other sign of activity—they headed toward the pool.
"Now we just wait for them to disperse and see if it worked," Daniel said.
…
At the bottom of the pool, the creature dressed as a librarian was lying on her back, with her glasses askew on her face.
Her body, however, showed no sign of injury.
She rose slowly, like someone waking from a nap.
With her middle finger, she adjusted her glasses and smiled again before taking a step toward the tiled wall.
The steel cables, which until then had seemed like nothing more than junk, vibrated.
She ignored them, even as they began to intertwine around her legs.
Only when she tried to move forward did she realize that her leg no longer responded.
The cables began to move, sliding across her skin as if they were alive.
One wrapped around her wrist, another around her elbow, while several more tightened around her waist and legs.
With every movement, the pressure increased, trapping her even more tightly.
Four figures appeared by the poolside, drawn by the noise.
For a few moments, they simply watched their companion struggle to break free.
Their heads tilted at different angles, following every attempt to escape with that empty, unsettling curiosity.
Their interest, however, didn't last long.
Without showing any concern, they moved away from the edge and continued on their way, as if the trapped creature wasn't important enough to matter.
The librarian continued struggling.
Her smile remained almost intact as she pulled one arm and then the other, with the mechanical patience of someone trying to untie a particularly difficult knot.
Then the rods trembled.
The sound of metal under tension echoed.
The entire structure trembled under the force being applied to it.
One of the cables deformed, as if it were about to snap.
For a moment, it seemed as though the entire trap would finally give way.
Then something changed.
An invisible shimmer emerged from the trap, traveling along it until it reached the creature.
The energy passed through the monster's body, as if it were being ripped out from within, before returning through the same structure.
The flow repeated itself.
With each cycle, a small portion of her energy was drained and returned to the Hunter's Web, reinforcing the cables and distributing the force throughout the structure.
The more she resisted, the stronger the trap became.
For the first time, the librarian's smile faltered.
The scream she let out sounded totally inhuman. It ripped through the night from one end of the town to the other.
The other creatures, which had already moved several yards away, stopped.
They turned their heads toward the sound and watched for a few seconds.
Then they simply continued walking, indifferent, as if that monstrous scream were nothing more than another ordinary noise in the night.
Nearby, a crow landed on a streetlight.
The bird kept its small eyes fixed on the woman struggling at the bottom of the pool, watching the scene with an almost human level of interest.
Inside the motorhome, after hearing the scream and realizing that the creatures had moved away, Daniel finally took his eyes off the monitor.
"It's time."
Julie nodded, although her fingers were pressed tightly against her leg.
Daniel activated the Invisibility Cloak again, completely concealing himself.
When he opened the door, he poked his head out cautiously.
After making sure there were no creatures nearby, he carefully stepped out and closed the door behind him.
Julie kept her eyes on the camera feed.
Despite knowing exactly what he was capable of, she couldn't help but worry.
Outside, Daniel picked his way across the street, carefully stepping around the gravel.
His gaze landed on the crow perched on the streetlight. The bird didn't even turn its head toward him, which made him continue forward, but without letting his guard down.
When he reached the edge of the pool, Daniel stopped.
He activated the additional effect of the Hunter's Web—which allowed him to instantly eliminate a target, provided they were within one meter of the trap.
The impact was immediate.
The creature crashed violently against the tiles, like an old puppet whose strings had just been cut.
Then, something surreal happened.
Daniel saw what he assumed was the monster's soul leaving its body.
It wasn't something white or transparent, as pop culture portrays it.
It was a dark, irregular mass, bubbling like a sickly miasma.
Even so, the woman's features remained perfectly visible within that black mist.
At the top of that spectral form, a white thread, thin as silk, stretched toward the trees.
The thread tugged—slowly, but firmly, like an invisible hand reeling in a kite.
The soul began to rise, slowly drifting toward the forest.
Daniel began to grow apprehensive.
So that's it.
The creature he had burned a few days earlier had not died from it. Its body could be destroyed, but its soul could escape.
He was about to complain to the System when a change caught his attention.
Energy moved through the cables.
It surged up through the structure, passed through the spectral form, and concentrated around the white thread.
Then the energy closed around the thread like an invisible blade.
The cut happened in a single motion. The thread snapped in midair
The soul, which until then hadn't shown any reaction, stopped.
For a moment, it remained motionless, as if it simply couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
Then panic seized her.
Her face twisted. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as the spectral form began thrashing with desperate violence.
It tried to rise.
It tried to escape to the sides.
Nothing worked.
Some invisible force dragged it back, and the soul was eventually sucked back into the fallen body, trapped there like a fly caught in hardened resin.
Above, the crow became agitated.
It flapped its wings several times before flying to the edge of the pool. Its eyes darted from the body at the bottom to the trap, without daring to go down.
Daniel quietly removed his boots and socks and stored both in the Inventory. Then he braced himself against the edge and climbed down into the pool.
He was invisible, but he was still flesh and blood. Every step had weight.
And the intertwined cables covering the bottom formed a dangerous web, where a single misstep could reveal his position.
It was already obvious to Daniel that whoever was behind the monsters knew he was the one who had caused it.
That was why he had no intention of revealing all his cards at once.
If his invisibility could still remain a secret, there was no reason to make things easy for them.
Walking on tiptoe, he moved between the cables until he reached the librarian. He crouched beside her and touched her leg with the tip of his finger.
Snack time.
The Devour function was activated.
A mist burst from his tattoo, rapidly spreading until it enveloped the creature in a dark whirlwind.
Within a few seconds, the body began to disappear, being consumed until absolutely nothing remained.
The raven let out a long, agitated croak, disturbed by the creature's sudden disappearance. It flapped its wings and took flight, vanishing into the dark sky.
A familiar voice sounded in Daniel's mind.
[Reward: 12,000 silver coins. 15 attribute points. 20 skill points. Finally. I'd already accepted that you'd spend eternity devouring chickens.]
Daniel swallowed hard when he saw the amount.
Without wasting any more time, he retraced his path to the motorhome, his heart now racing with pure excitement.
He knocked twice on the metal exterior, following the agreed-upon code.
The door opened almost immediately.
Daniel rushed inside like a hurricane and pulled the cloak from his shoulders.
Before Julie could say anything, he grabbed her by the waist, lifted her off the ground, and started spinning her around, laughing loudly.
Julie let out a surprised laugh and grabbed his shoulders, trying to keep her balance.
"Put me down and tell me already!"
"It worked!" Daniel exclaimed, still spinning with her. "It worked, Jules!"
He finally put her down. Julie had to lean against him for a moment as relief washed over her face.
"How much did you get?"
"Twelve thousand silver coins," Daniel replied, unable to hide his excitement. "Fifteen attribute points. Twenty skill points."
Julie's mouth fell open. "Twelve... thousand?"
"Twelve thousand. Apparently, killing a monster pays better than any job I've ever had."
[Considering your previous jobs involved filming yourself trying to get killed, that wasn't much different.] The System said aloud.
Julie burst out laughing again and hid her face against his shoulder.
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