Trickster Hunter

Chapter 263: Ghost Town

The object reflected in the rearview mirror is a long-collapsed sentry tower. The searchlight and the place for people to stand guard on the top have long disappeared, leaving only a rusty steel structure frame.

And under the steel frame, there is a group of things similar to "Meat Ganoderma" - this group of "Meat Ganoderma" has long been integrated with the steel frame and extended to the top of the steel frame.

There, the "Meat Ganoderma" has grown a spherical bud, and the surface of the bud is full of cracks... If you look closely, you can see that these cracks are densely packed with things like eyeballs.

And at the root of the meat Ganoderma, a tattered puppet leaned crookedly. The puppet's limbs had long been broken, and they were completely attached together by the biological tissue provided by the "Meat Ganoderma". In the puppet's hand, a rubber-coated baton stained with dark red stains was fixed with nails.

On the puppet's arm, the dirty armband is actually a "meat ring" made of rotten meat.

This strange creature, just one look is enough to clear a person's SAN value directly.

Fortunately, Sun Hang's character attributes do not have this SAN value.

"So the light just now came from the eyeballs?" Sun Hang muttered in his heart, "But these eyeballs should not have a 360-degree field of vision... Otherwise, this strange creature would not show its true appearance in the rearview mirror..."

Sun Hang retracted his sight and continued to drive forward.

The outline of the building gradually enlarged and became clear, and the lights became more and brighter... For some reason, Sun Hang always felt that these warm yellow lights gave him a warm and reassuring feeling, just like a wanderer who had been wandering outside for decades, returning to his hometown and seeing the familiar oil lamp hanging at the door of his home...

"Damn, I'm not an aboriginal in the Yunnan-Yunnan area, am I?" Sun Hang took a deep breath and stopped the car.

Maoyun Town is called a town, but from today's perspective, many villages in Shuzhou are larger than it. This so-called town doesn't even have a road to enter the town. There is only a narrow, bumpy muddy dirt road that runs straight through the middle of the town.

Unlike the dry land in the wilderness where cracks can be seen everywhere, Maoyun Town seems to have just rained. Sun Hang's boots made a sound when stepping on the mud. Every step he took would leave a footprint two or three centimeters deep.

He took out the mirror he found in the car from his pocket. This was a box of powder for makeup touch-ups. Yang Qi threw it in the car, but she didn't seem to have used it for a long time. As soon as Sun Hang opened the box, the powder inside was broken into pieces and immediately fell out.

Fortunately, Sun Hang didn't need these things.

"Is this considered buying a casket and returning the pearl?"

Sun Hang wiped the small mirror on the inside of the box with his thumb, and pointed the mirror at the ground with the help of the car lights.

Fortunately, the mud was still mud, although it seemed to be mixed with some dark red liquid, but at least it was better than Sun Hang expected.

When he just got off the car, he subconsciously thought that this road was paved with rotten meat, just like the Zerg fungus blanket in "StarCraft".

There is a saying that as long as you keep your expectations low enough, you will never be disappointed.

As long as you imagine the situation to be the worst, then as long as the reality is not so bad that it can't be worse, all the news is good news.

"It's good news to find a town with 'people' living in it." Sun Hang muttered to himself, "The old man guarding the entrance of the town is also quite nice to me, which is even better news."

Sun Hang turned the box slightly and pointed the mirror at Maoyun Town not far away.

He originally thought that he would see a scene of demons dancing in the mirror, or at least a ruin... But in fact, the Maoyun Town presented in the mirror was almost the same as what Sun Hang saw with his naked eyes.

The most obvious difference is probably that the warm yellow lights have turned into pale cold tones.

"...It's really a small town?"

Sun Hang put away the box, put it in his pocket, and then took out the assault rifle from the passenger seat.

But soon, he put the rifle back.

"People" don't offend me, I won't offend "people"... The two strange creatures that Sun Hang had encountered before, whether it was the "old woman" or the "old man" guarding the entrance, they didn't show any malice towards him...

This means that these strange creatures seem to have regarded Sun Hang as "one of their own"...And from the words of the "old man", it can be determined that this town is not xenophobic - at least it does not exclude "outsiders" like Sun Hang.

If Sun Hang enters the town with such an obvious weapon, it will easily arouse the hostility of the "townspeople".

"Let's go in and take a look first." Sun Hang finally took only the 50-cent note and the "rice cake" that the old woman stuffed into him, then locked the car door and walked towards the town with one foot deep and one foot shallow in the mud.

I don't know if it's the wrong time or for some other reason, there aren't many "townspeople" on the street, most of the buildings are closed, even those with lights on - only a few shops that look like shops are open, with a few dustpans supported by benches at the door, with some strange goods on them.

As for the shop owners, they are hidden in the shadows behind the door, and you can vaguely see a vague human figure, or a half-hookah sticking out of the darkness, and a thin wisp of smoke rising.

The clothes worn by these townspeople are very old-fashioned... No one wears this kind of clothes in the current Shuzhou area. Only some ancient towns and villages with scenic spots will sell this kind of retro clothes in the name of "handicrafts".

Sun Hang swept his eyes around the street. There were three men, four women, and two little girls, a total of nine townspeople... To the naked eye, they were normal human beings, with no signs of mutation in their bodies.

However, Sun Hang soon discovered an abnormality: these villagers, whether male or female, all looked pale and thin, except for the two little girls, who were white and plump, forming a sharp contrast with the adults.

"Is this town... not enough food?" Sun Hang wondered, "But why is there such a clear difference between 'adults' and 'children'?"

He walked and thought, and passed by a "middle-aged woman", but the other party only lowered her head to count the things in the basket she was carrying, and did not even look at Sun Hang.

Not only her, but all the townspeople on the street had no obvious reaction to Sun Hang's appearance... It was as if Sun Hang was a "person" living in this town.

Two little girls, one holding a rattle and the other holding a kite, chased and played back and forth. Sun Hang took a look at the toys in their hands - the double-ear rope of the rattle had broken, and the two beads used to hit the drum surface were missing; and the paper skin pasted on the bamboo frame of the kite was also full of holes, completely losing the ability to fly in the wind.

Sun Hang did not take the initiative to talk to the townspeople, but continued to walk forward silently until he stopped in front of a stall.

There were not many things sold on the stall, but they were very mixed - cartoon-shaped hand-cranked pencil sharpeners, a few crudely made glass beads, a pair of old straw sandals, a folding knife with peeling paint, and a tung-colored oil-paper umbrella.

These goods have one common feature, that is, they are all "broken".

The rocker of the pencil sharpener was broken, the surface of the glass beads was covered with traces of bumps, the laces of the straw sandals had long been worn out, the blade of the folding knife was curled and could not be retracted into the handle at all... As for the oil-paper umbrella, although the fan was still intact, at least 20 of the 28 ribs were broken...

"Is this store selling junk?" Sun Hang turned his head and looked at the things displayed at the door of several other stores, and found that the contents were similar, all of which were things that could only be described as "broken"... What Sun Hang cared about most was that none of these stores sold "food".

"Food shortage? But if that's the case... why is that 'old woman' willing to share 'food' with me?" Sun Hang was a little puzzled, "Since the shops in the town don't sell food, why did the 'old woman' give me money?"

"No... From the words of the 'old man' who watches the door, it can be confirmed that food can indeed be bought in the town... Could it be that I came to the wrong place, and the shop selling food is somewhere else?"

Sun Hang squatted down in front of the stall and looked up into the store.

The door of the store was ajar, leaving only a palm-wide crack. The owner seemed to be sitting behind the crack, holding a whole bamboo in his hand. As the owner "gurgled" and smoked a water pipe, the light on the pipe flickered, just like breathing.

The sound of smoking stopped, and a hoarse voice came from the crack of the door: "The price is fair, no cheating, just tell me what you like."

"Boss, I want to ask, do you accept things here?" Sun Hang asked.

"Collect?" The shopkeeper's tone was a little strange, "What do you want to sell?"

"Food." Sun Hang took out the container of "rice cake" and placed it on the dustpan.

The shopkeeper didn't say anything, but Sun Hang could hear "his" breathing suddenly became rapid. With the creaking sound of the bench, the shopkeeper seemed to have come to the door and was looking closely at the things in the container.

But even so, Sun Hang still couldn't see the other person's face clearly.

The darkness in the room didn't seem to be darkness in the optical sense, but a kind of flowing substance. They filled the whole room and covered the shopkeeper.

Before the shopkeeper spoke, an abrupt voice sounded behind Sun Hang.

"What a beautiful bait."

Sun Hang turned his head and looked. It was the middle-aged woman who had passed by before. She didn't know when she "teleported" behind Sun Hang. The pair of turbid eyes flashed with fanatical light, and she kept swallowing saliva.

"Erkuai... So this 'rice cake' is called Erkuai." Sun Hang silently remembered it in his heart.

"Is there food?"

"What? Where?"

It would have been fine if the middle-aged woman didn't say anything. As soon as she spoke, the "adult" townspeople on the street were instantly attracted... Only the two white and chubby little girls were still having fun by themselves, not caring about what was happening here.

"What are you doing? Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" The owner's voice came from the door, with a hint of anger, "He planned to sell this Erkuai to me! What does it have to do with you!"

"Have you paid?" The middle-aged woman took another step closer, "If you didn't pay, it means it hasn't been sold yet!"

"I'll buy it now! How much is this thing, you tell me!" The owner spoke quickly, as if he was afraid that the Erkuai would be snatched away by other townspeople.

Just when Sun Hang was thinking about what price to quote, the middle-aged woman rushed over first and reached out to grab the container!

In a flash, the darkness in the store overflowed from the crack of the door, wrapped around the middle-aged woman's arm, and pulled her into the store!

The middle-aged woman's face began to twist, she opened her mouth wide, and made a meaningless cry from her throat... However, no matter how she struggled, she was finally dragged into the store little by little.

When the darkness swallowed up her last foot exposed outside, her cry disappeared.

The townspeople who surrounded her suddenly showed panic on their faces and retreated... After a while, they scattered and left.

"You don't follow the rules, you deserve it." The store manager said with a hateful tone, "These bastards are spoiled by them... They really think they are something..."

Sun Hang: "Uh..."

"Name a price." The store owner urged, "As long as it is within my acceptable range."

Sun Hang actually wanted to ask the other party how much he could accept, but he changed his mind and asked another question.

"Are you...hungry?"

"Hungry? Hehehe...hehe..." A slight strange laugh came out from the crack of the door, "Aren't you talking nonsense? In this world today, how many people do you think can fill their stomachs? Locust plagues, droughts, floods... Every year there is famine, and people starve to death every year... Who is not hungry? Go to the street and ask someone, who is not hungry?"

"Famine... Is it a drought this year?" Thinking of the cracked soil in the wilderness, Sun Hang asked subconsciously.

"That's right, this scorching sun, all the crops are sunburned to death... The landlords have no surplus food at home." The store owner said.

Sun Hang looked up, the sky was pitch black, there was no sun at all.

He had observed the sky with a mirror before, and the sky in the mirror was also black.

"Is there enough food in the town?" Sun Hang asked again.

"If you say it's not enough, then it's definitely not enough." The shopkeeper suddenly laughed strangely again, "Hehe... but if you say it's enough, then it's enough."

"Huh? What does this mean?" Sun Hang was a little confused, "Is it enough or not?"

"If you want to feed that mouth, then there is definitely not enough food. But as long as enough people starve to death... then there will definitely be enough food in the end, hehe, maybe there will be surplus!"