Chapter 127: Doppelgangers |
Bai Mu remained silent, keeping his breathing extremely light as he observed the sudden visitor by the glow of the streetlamp.
"Hello, sir," the man said. "Do you live alone?"
The man asked bluntly right off the bat. Bai Mu noticed mud stuffed beneath the man's fingernails, which matched the news descriptions of the Doppelgangers.
Bai Mu also noticed that the man addressed him as "sir" rather than "neighbor" or "ma'am."
After all, Bai Mu had not stepped out of his room or shown his face outside for an entire day. Logically speaking, apart from official personnel with the water supply list, a stranger would have no way of knowing whether this house was occupied.
When the woman came knocking earlier, it could be assumed that, as Bai Mu's neighbor, she already knew if someone was inside.
But this man was highly suspicious. Ever since nightfall, Bai Mu had not turned on the lights for even a second, nor had he made any loud noises.
Even when walking to the door, Bai Mu had tiptoed, keeping his movements light and soundless.
His Reporter profession skill, Illegal Infiltration, was still taking effect and actively reducing his presence. Yet, the man acted as if he could see right through the door into the hallway, immediately addressing him as "sir."
From his outward appearance, it was truly impossible to find any differences between the man and a normal human.
He had hair, a beard, and could speak normally. He wore his shirt and pants quite naturally, fully covering his skin.
However, his words carried a lingering sense of eeriness. Showing up at 10:20 PM to knock on the door of an unlit house was utterly bizarre in itself.
"I know you are behind the door, sir," the man continued. "Could you let me in? I got drunk, and when I woke up, I realized everyone else was gone."
He scratched his head and faced the peephole, revealing a smile.
It was a stiff, artificial smile that didn't reach his eyes, giving off a thoroughly bone-chilling sensation.
Bai Mu could not determine this guy's combat power, but judging by the Script's C-grade danger rating, the Doppelgangers were undoubtedly much more terrifying than the Mutants and Zombies in Journey of Death.
'He is asking if I live alone. If I can create the illusion that there are other people in the house, he might give up on this attack.'
Bai Mu did not want to clash with the Doppelgangers this early. According to the Script's summary, these creatures possessed the sheer strength to break down doors and showed no fear of firearms. Their combat prowess was remarkably formidable, and with their numbers and pack mentality still completely unknown, provoking just one might bring a whole swarm to his doorstep.
They seemed to follow a specific set of rules for killing, prioritizing those living alone. If there were two or more people in a house, they would temporarily give up and back off.
Bai Mu had already anticipated this scenario during the day. He had even run through a drill with Lucy during his three-hour rest in the afternoon.
However, restricted by the skill's limits, Lucy had already left Bai Mu's side. The skill's cooldown still had twenty-three hours remaining; he would have to wait until after nine o'clock tomorrow night before he could summon Lucy again.
Bai Mu had no choice but to put on a one-man show. He spoke through the door, "Sorry, there are no spare rooms in the house. Perhaps you can go ask elsewhere."
"Do you not live alone, sir?" The man stared unblinkingly into the peephole.
Right at that moment, a slightly hoarse woman's voice rang out from behind the door.
"Who is visiting this late?"
The man froze for a moment, the smile vanishing entirely from his face. "Oh, my apologies. To think there is also a lady in the house."
"It makes sense. A drunkard like me would inevitably frighten the ladies."
"Good luck to you both, sir and ma'am. I will go ask elsewhere."
Bai Mu watched the man turn and leave. Hunching his back, the figure slowly shuffled away under the glow of the streetlights.
In Bai Mu's hand rested the Bowtie Voice Changer. He had just used the device to mimic a female voice, flawlessly creating the illusion of a second person residing in the house.
It seemed he had managed to fool the creature. The man's figure dissolved into the pitch-black night, and the world returned to a dead silence.
Bai Mu did not lower his guard just because the man had left. He returned to the living room and slipped into a state of light sleep—resting his brain enough to relieve his mental fatigue while remaining alert enough to snap up and fight at a moment's notice.
Fortunately, no further incidents occurred. On that very first night, only two figures had come visiting.
One of them had clearly been a Doppelganger, but it had ultimately abandoned its assault on him.
Time ticked away until the early dawn of the second day. The sun hung high on the horizon, and the temperature skyrocketed shortly after sunrise, plunging the world back into a suffocating, steamer-like heat.
However, despite the scorching heat, the daytime was significantly more reassuring than the terrifying night.
After all, Bai Mu could now clearly survey all the surrounding streets once again.
The bright sunlight illuminated the main roads and the surrounding houses. Down on the asphalt road near his front door, Bai Mu spotted several gruesomely mangled corpses.
The corpses had been completely disemboweled, their skin peeled clean off their flesh. They lay there in a bloody heap, casually discarded on the roadside like butchered animals in a slaughterhouse.
Bai Mu recognized the scraps of clothing left on the corpses. Just after nightfall the previous day, a group of drunkards had gathered on the road to drink, and several of them had been wearing those exact outfits.
"The Doppelganger from last night must have done this," Bai Mu muttered, narrowing his eyes as he analyzed the fatal wounds on the bodies.
He could not find any trace of a sharp weapon being used. These victims had been slaughtered by a sheer brute force far exceeding what the human body could possibly withstand.
He could almost perfectly picture the scene: a terrifyingly powerful monster had pinned them down, violently ripping apart their flesh and bones. It had peeled off their skin, tearing them from the inside out just like turning out an empty pocket.
From the tragic scene before his eyes, one could easily glimpse the sheer danger of the Doppelgangers. Their raw strength alone was completely on par with the Witch. However, what made them far more terrifying was their intellect; while the Witch was essentially a wild beast acting entirely on instinct, the Doppelgangers possessed intelligence completely comparable to humans.
A powerful beast was nothing to fear. Throughout history, humanity had conquered countless beasts with strength far exceeding their own. Tigers, lions, and elephants—the apex predators sitting at the very top of the food chain—all ultimately had to submit to mankind.
But a collective group that possessed human-level intelligence, yet was vastly stronger and actively viewed humanity as prey, was entirely enough to make anyone deeply anxious.
If it were anyone else, they would likely be overwhelmed with panic, rapidly spiraling into a deep state of anxiety and dreadful unease.
Bai Mu, however, maintained an excellent state of mind. He knew that whatever was meant to happen would inevitably happen. Rather than wasting time worrying about the future, it was much better to focus on exactly what he could do right now.
"I should finish modifying the washbasin first," he muttered.
Following the plans he had drawn up the day before, he decided to prioritize building a proper water reservoir.
He carried his toolbox into the bathroom. It seemed that even the Doppelgangers feared the extreme daytime temperatures and did not dare to roam outside. While he had to spend most of the night heavily focused on staying alert, he could finally relax a little and focus on working during the daytime.
He spent the entire morning tinkering away in the bathroom. Using loose bricks and wooden boards, he patched up and modified the washbasin, adding raised panels around the edges to greatly expand its water-holding capacity.