Chapter 279: Ice and Snow |
Bang! The bullet shot out from the muzzle of the revolver and hit the thing's forehead, penetrating right through.
Unexpectedly, no blood splattered out. And it seemed the headshot attack couldn't kill her; she only paused slightly, and then stopped concealing herself. A machete suddenly appeared in her hand, and she swung it toward Bai Mu with astonishing speed and strength.
Bai Mu reflexively threw out a thunder talisman with a backhand motion, summoning a sudden bolt of thunder that struck the thing down directly.
"Some kind of monster that disguises itself as a human?"
"Using the appearance of a little girl is probably an attempt to win human sympathy. She was probably saying words like 'Help' just now, but because I don't share a language with her, it sounded like gibberish. If someone felt sympathetic, they'd get stabbed in the back by her."
"Her frontal combat ability is also very strong. Judging from her speed and strength, these houses were probably destroyed by her."
"The danger level of this place is quite high. This guy's combat power is almost comparable to the broadsword zombie from the last script. However, her defense seems to be much worse; at least her resistance to thunder talismans is very poor."
Bai Mu looked at the 'little girl' who had been struck down. She suddenly made another, more understandable sound—a faint crying sound that actually sounded quite convincing.
If it were Xiao Wei here, she'd most likely be deceived by her.
He took out his night vision camcorder and tried to select this thing as a model. However, the selection unexpectedly failed; her Spirit attribute was higher than Bai Mu's.
"I can't control her..." Bai Mu fired a few more shots at this guy's heart from a slight distance.
The bullets smoothly pierced through. She cried even louder, a heart-wrenching sound with a rather desolate flavor.
Yet, even with her heart pierced, she still didn't die. Her vitality was truly tenacious enough.
As the first monster specimen Bai Mu encountered, he wasn't in a hurry to kill her. He just stood at a distance, using various attacks to test her. The thunder talisman's effect was very good, the fire talisman was very average, and the bullets had no effect at all. This kind of monster didn't seem to have a particularly fatal weak point.
Bai Mu took out 'Azure Light'. This cross sword actually reacted to this thing, vibrating and emitting a glow.
"So, fundamentally it's some kind of evil spirit or demon."
After Bai Mu threw several talismans and shot her in several vital spots, she probably couldn't endure it anymore. She finally gave up her 'crying' strategy, instantly switching to a cold, indifferent face, and lunged at Bai Mu once again.
Unfortunately, she was only doing useless work. Bai Mu used another two thunder talismans, then held Azure Light and unleashed a Secret Sword Art. A mottled blade aura struck her chest.
Bai Mu's move was intended to kill her. Since Azure Light could light up, it meant it had a suppressive effect on her. He was thinking of killing her and seeing if he could raise her as a corpse. However, she was indeed killed, but this thing unexpectedly didn't leave a corpse behind.
After being hit by the Secret Sword Art, the accumulated damage probably reached the limit she could endure. Her body turned into some kind of black smoke and disappeared into the blizzard.
"That's a bit of a loss." Bai Mu looked at the empty snowfield.
He shot six bullets, used four thunder talismans, and two fire talismans, but in the end, he gained nothing except intelligence.
And the blizzard all around showed no signs of abating. The temperature was terrifyingly low. Even wrapped in a down jacket, he still felt very cold.
But regretting and complaining at this time was meaningless; he could only think about what to do next.
All in all, he still had to survive first.
Although he took care of this monster, the situation hadn't improved. The low temperature and food were both problems. Surviving for 30 days in such a world of ice and snow was already a very troublesome matter in itself, not to mention there were such monsters.
He decided to first find a place to sleep tonight. He didn't intend to stay in this village; it had already been attacked, and the smell of blood was very likely to attract bad things. He'd quickly scavenge and then leave.
He turned around, his gaze sweeping across this house once more, and walked in.
He didn't spare the black bread on the table. Although he still had some food in his inventory, he tried his best not to waste his script items as food for True Mode. Moreover, he didn't have many food reserves himself; if eaten by one person, it would last two weeks at most.
On the floor by the fireplace was a pile of scattered firewood. Fuel was also very important. In this kind of weather, if he couldn't start a fire for warmth, he might freeze to death alive. Even though his attributes made him a minor superman, he didn't have much of an enhancement in terms of resisting cold.
With ready-made firewood, he didn't have to spend effort looking for it. It would at least be enough to last through tonight.
However, when he tried to put these things into his inventory, he found that it actually failed.
"In this mode, everything will be real?"
"Using talismans just now wasn't affected, so is it just that things in True Mode can't be put into the inventory?"
"Never mind, if they can't be put in, then they can't be put in. I'll just treat it as returning to my hometown and resuming my old profession," Bai Mu muttered.
This tiny setback naturally couldn't stop him. He picked up the animal skin on the bed to use as a bundle, packed a small amount of firewood, and wrapped the black bread in a layer of straw.
Except for those houses that were particularly severely damaged, he searched through most of them.
He didn't scavenge much. The people here didn't seem to have stored much food for the winter, or perhaps their food had all been eaten; he actually couldn't even find a single piece of cured meat.
There were still a few warm furs. He simply wrapped them around himself for warmth, conveniently took away an iron water canteen, and picked a random direction to leave.
The daylight hadn't changed, still indistinguishable whether it was dusk or afternoon, but the wind was fiercer, the snow was denser, and visibility was only a few dozen feet. He didn't summon Tuya; a deer would still be too conspicuous in this kind of environment. Plus, his new shoes, the Cloud Silk Footwear, had a special effect for walking on snow. Walking with these shoes, he wouldn't even leave footprints behind.
After walking for another half hour, his vision was drawn to something inside a bush he was passing by.
He picked it up and found it was a helmet—the kind of knight's helmet with hollowed-out eyes. But this thing obviously hadn't saved its original owner's life. Inside was a frozen head that had already stuck to the helmet.
He had a very bad feeling. He walked a few steps into the bushes and looked around; there were severed human limbs everywhere.
They had uniform heraldry on their armor, and their banner was buried in the snow—a green background with a sword and shield. It seemed to be a standard squad of knights.
But those human warriors in full armor had been easily torn to shreds. Their corpses hadn't been eaten like the people in the village, but they were scattered in pieces, making it impossible to summon them using Corpse Raising.
Among these corpse fragments, Bai Mu found some rather strange pieces. There were some corpses with very short limbs that were also wearing full armor. Their limbs were thick and sturdy, not belonging to children; the muscles were very solid. Judging from the skeletal structure, they looked more like a short race different from humans.
"Are they dwarves?"
Bai Mu was considering whether to use a Soul-Summoning Talisman to summon nearby wandering souls and ask about the situation. But he didn't share a language with the natives here; if he summoned one and couldn't communicate, it would be a huge loss. In the end, he still didn't perform this action.
After rummaging through the corpse fragments, he did pick up a few bundles. He didn't have time to open them up and look; opening them and packing them back up would take quite a bit of time. He didn't want to stay long in a place with so many corpses. If this was a Western fantasy-style world with dwarves, there were probably other monsters besides the kind in the village.
Moreover, it was about to get dark, and the blizzard showed no signs of stopping. If he didn't quickly find a safe and warm place to spend the night, tonight would be very difficult to endure. Honestly, his hands and feet were numb with cold. He really wanted to start a fire to warm himself up and eat something to fill his stomach.