After coming out of the bathroom, Darnell threw himself on the bed, preparing to replenish his physical strength by sleeping after the fight with Nick and others.
Before going to sleep, Darnell stuffed a carrot into his mouth. After sleeping for more than three hours, Darnell fell into a dream.
He was holding his bayonet, killing in and out of a village, with countless corpses lying around him, blood flowing all over the ground, and the village stream was red.
But not long after, these corpses crawled up again, roaring and moving quickly towards Darnell.
Darnell kept slashing and breaking through, relying on the village terrain to kill for three days and nights before killing all these zombie-like guys, and he was exhausted.
When Darnell sat down by an ancient well, a pair of hands came out of the well and pulled him fiercely into the dry well.
A bunch of zombies roared below, pouncing on him, trying to tear him alive.
Darnell’s body trembled. He clenched his teeth in agony. With a crisp sound, the carrot broke, and he woke up from the dream.
Darnell spat out the carrot in his mouth, then took a tissue to wipe the sweat on his head. His body was as weak as if he had fought a war, and his back was all wet.
“Fortunately, I bit the radish. Otherwise, I would be paralyzed for three days.”
Darnell leaned against the bed, panting heavily, with an indescribable seriousness on his face. He didn’t know why, in recent years, he had repeated the dream just now.
A village, a group of zombie-like enemies, persistently consuming his physical strength, and every time he woke up from the dream, he felt like he had died.
Not only was his whole body weak, but his heart was also slightly trembling. Darnell could diagnose all kinds of diseases in the world, but he didn’t know what was wrong with his body.
The only progress was that after having this dream a few more times, he became more familiar with the village environment and enemies, and the survival time in the dream also changed from one hour to three days and nights.
Moreover, Darnell found a way to cut off the dream, that was, to put a piece of carrot in his mouth beforehand, which could play a role at the critical moment.
Just like today, the carrot disrupted his dream, allowing him to wake up, which saved him a lot of physical strength.
“I got enough rest.”
After getting up, Darnell took another bath, then turned on the computer to check the things he liked, several international websites, and then looked at some domestic news.
Suddenly, his attention was attracted by a headline. “The enchantress secretly visits the Swain Group and lifts the veil of the mysterious empire worth 60 billion.”
“Sixty billion? That’s quite a lot.”
Darnell muttered to himself, then went to look at the gossip news, thinking it had nothing to do with himself.
He spent the day peacefully.
The only thing that gave him a headache was the occasional roar of the female landlord from the village, which was really penetrating and deterrent.
As soon as she shouted, all the dogs in Woodsea started barking.
The next morning, Darnell woke up at six, did his morning routine, and then munched on five carrots, followed by a large glass of carrot juice. Feeling satisfied, he checked the fridge and, seeing the carrot supply was low, grabbed one to head downstairs to buy more at the grocery store.
On the third floor, he spotted a Halloween zombie mask in the middle of the stairs, slightly torn with a footprint on it, left behind by somebody. Darnell bent down to pick up the mask, intending to throw it in the trash bin on the first floor.
As he opened the door on the first floor, Darnell immediately saw a familiar figure. It was Edwin, the bouncer from Moonlight Lounge who had tried to drug him the night before. It was still early, and with sparse traffic in Grandeur Plaza, even beggars were nowhere to be seen, making Edwin in his security uniform quite conspicuous.
“Delivering himself to my doorstep,” Darnell muttered with a smirk. Seeing Edwin, who looked tired from his late shift, Darnell didn’t rush to confront him directly. Instead, he wiped the zombie mask he was about to discard and quietly approached, wearing it. When only three steps away, he let out a sinister chuckle.
Edwin, hearing the noise, turned around instinctively and let out a scream. “A ghost! Help!” he shouted hysterically. The already weary Edwin jumped in fright, dropping his milk and fried dough sticks, and fell to the ground with a thud. His face turned pale, his legs trembled, and he scrambled to get away, clearly terrified.
Darnell, wearing the mask, roared and charged at him. Edwin jumped up and ran, yelling, “Somebody help!”
“Damn it,” Darnell muttered, kicking Edwin down as he fled, then removed the mask to avoid causing a commotion among any onlookers. Nowadays, a knife could scare off many passersby, not to mention such a lifelike zombie mask. He sauntered forward, pulling the mask off his face.
“Edwin, don’t you recognize me?”
Seeing Darnell remove the mask, Edwin’s panic turned to astonishment and a bit of relief, but his expression changed again quickly as he recognized Darnell.
“Ah!” Edwin cried out, scrambling to his feet and running away. He knew that if Darnell caught him, he’d have to spill some information, but if he did, he’d lose his job.
Watching Edwin’s escape, Darnell deliberately shouted, “You can’t run to number eight.” Edwin, running in a panic, paused, seeing the sign for No. 8 Grandeur Plaza and a two-story house ahead. Thinking there might be an exit or something Darnell feared there, he turned and dashed inside.
Darnell stopped, feigning concern as he watched Edwin’s retreating figure. “Why won’t he listen?” The landlady’s home was off-limits to strangers and animals.
Before Darnell could finish his thought, he heard a crash, followed by a familiar roar. Then, Edwin flew out of the entrance like a projectile, a large footprint on his face. As he hit the ground, the landlady stormed out, furious.
She wielded a mop and lashed out with it. Another sound as the mop struck Edwin’s shin.
“Ah!” Edwin screamed, tumbling several meters away.
“Didn’t you see my sign? No entry without permission!” The landlady, brandishing her mop, was fuming with rage. “You dare to barge in early in the morning, disturb my offering, and break my things. Are you looking for trouble?”
Edwin winced in pain, retorting, “Even though I trespass, you can’t just hit me just like that!” He appealed to the curious onlookers around him. “Could someone please call the police for me?”
In an instant, the crowd dispersed, pretending nothing had happened.
Edwin was furious. “You guys…”
“Call the police?” The landlady roared, “On my property, I’m in charge.”
She swung the mop at him again.
Edwin yelped, covering his head and running around, trying to dodge the landlady’s attack.
Ten minutes later, Edwin, panting heavily, hid in an alley. In addition to the shoe print on his face, he had bruises all over his body. His clothes were filthy, and he looked as miserable as could be, clearly having been chased hard by the landlady. The echoes of her angry shouts searching for Edwin still hung in the air.
Before he could catch his breath, he heard footsteps approaching.
Edwin turned his head instinctively and saw the bloody face again.
Edwin was startled once more, his legs gave way, and he fell to the ground.
Darnell removed the mask. “Scare you twice in a row.”
Darnell tossed the mask into the trash can before continuing, “You’re chicken-hearted.”
Edwin didn’t run anymore. Instead, he collapsed on the ground, weakly asking, “What do you want?”
“New around here, aren’t you?” Darnell took out a handkerchief and handed it to Edwin. “Otherwise, you’d know that No. 8 Grandeur Plaza is the landlady’s home, a restricted area in Woodsea.”
“And she says a prayer for her dead husband every morning, but you barged in and broke things. Of course, she’d be furious.”
“I already warned you not to go there.”
Darnell chided, “But you didn’t listen. You brought this on yourself.”
“Damn it! You deliberately misled me, and now you say it was a kind warning?” Edwin cursed inwardly.
At that moment, he couldn’t confront Darnell and could only weakly respond after taking his handkerchief,
“Thank you.”
“You’ve harmed me, and I’ve shown you kindness twice. I let you go last time, warned you this time, and even offered you my handkerchief…”
Darnell coaxed, “Aren’t you supposed to reciprocate by telling me who instigated you to scheme against me the other day?”
Edwin’s mouth twitched. Seemingly anticipating this question, he let out a bitter laugh. “I don’t know…”
“Then I’ll have to call the landlady…”
Darnell was about to yell.
“No! I’ll talk!”
Edwin’s body jolted, and he immediately slouched in frustration, clearly afraid of the landlady, then reluctantly spoke up,
“It was Brian…”