Chapter 138 The Night Watchman's Commission
It's getting dark.
Wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a black suit, Ben drove a covered carriage rented from a car rental company and slowly approached the north gate at the northernmost end of St. Joseph Avenue.
There was no curfew in Innadri, but the city gates had to be locked after dark. As soon as the carriage approached, two soldiers in military uniforms came out of the duty booth to stop it: "Hey, stop! Don't you know that you can't enter or leave the city gates at will after dark!"
Benler stopped his unicorn gray horse, took out his exorcist certificate from his pocket, raised his chin slightly, and looked at the two soldiers grimly from under the shadow of his wide-brimmed hat.
Seeing the metal badge of the gold coin church night watchman on the certificate, the two gate soldiers changed color slightly, without saying anything more, they immediately retreated and turned the capstan on the side of the city wall with force.
With the creaking sound of the capstan turning, the closed city gate was slowly lifted.
Ben put away his credentials, shook the reins, and drove the carriage into the darkness.
Behind him, the heavy city gate slowly fell down again.
Some of the older soldiers at the city gate watched the carriage leave, shook their heads, and muttered in a low voice: "Leaving the city from this direction...will the walls of 'Red Wall Farm' be stained with blood again?"
Another gate soldier, sweating profusely as he tied up the capstan, asked curiously, "What are you talking about? What farm?"
Guarding the city gates at night was a very boring thing, especially the deserted North Gate. The old soldier called his companions back to the duty post, drank the half-remaining corn rum on the table, lowered his voice, and told his young colleagues mysteriously about the horrible rumors that had spread from a noble family in Innadri...
In the caravan driven by Ban, with the words "out of the city gate", the tarpaulin covering the cargo was immediately opened from the inside, and more than twenty skeletons sat up from under the tarpaulin.
"It's so inconvenient to have no teleportation points. To complete a mission, we still need transportation, and it's still a thing like a carriage." A ginger cat showed off its bald skull and began to complain, "Sister Zhao, when will the planners open more teleportation points? Do you have any inside information?"
Zhao Zhenzhen also mingled among the players - she was really worried about letting these silly players go, so it was safer to keep an eye on them.
"How should I know? I only have a tool account, not a GM account." Zhao Zhenzhen deftly solved this problem easily. She took out a rolled-up paper document from her backpack and spread it out while saying, "We still have some time to reach our destination. Let's first figure out the... um, plot of this hidden mission. Take a look at this first."
As she said that, she handed the document to Miaobishenghua and Enbuteng who were sitting next to each other.
Yang Ying, who was sitting next to En Bu Zeng, and the student who was studying next to Yang Ying, also leaned over curiously.
Players are unable to communicate with the citizens, but with the translation function of the brand matrix, they have no problem understanding the text:
"Disaster No. 016: Redwall Farm Incident"
"Investigator: Codename 'Goldfish'."
"The Bancroft family built Redwall Farm 30 years ago, located 17 kilometers west of Newin Town. After the autumn harvest in 1029, something strange happened, and they requested help from the local church."
"On November 2, 1029, 'Goldfish' was ordered to investigate Redwall Farm."
"Master William's personal valet claimed that he heard a baby laughing in the courtyard when he was changing the toilet in the master's bedroom at midnight."
"Soon, a rumor spread among the servants that a maid had an affair with someone and gave birth to a dead baby, which she secretly buried in the garden."
"After investigation, it was confirmed that this was an unfounded rumor, and the source was a kitchen maid who was jealous of the study maid."
"After the baby's laughter incident, Master William began to become weak and claimed to be haunted by nightmares, but he would quickly forget the contents of the nightmares after waking up."
"Conduct a psychiatric evaluation on Master William to rule out the possibility of mental illness."
"Investigate Master William's social connections over the past year and rule out the possibility of the creation of an infant spirit due to promiscuity."
"I suggested that Master William go to the church to be baptized, but he was solemnly rejected. He claimed that his family and godfather were devout believers of Lord Storm and could not accept pagan baptism."
"The first investigation was aborted."
"On November 18, 1029, the Bancroft family sent another letter asking for help."
"The event is still being handled by 'Goldfish'."
"The number of witnesses who claimed to have heard the baby's laughter increased to twelve, including Master William himself."
"The housekeeper, the cook, the coachman, the gardener... ten people in total all claimed that they also had nightmares like Master William and could not sleep all night."
"The original valet died suddenly for no apparent reason ten days ago, and Master William is also dying."
"On the 20th, Master William died in his sleep."
"On the 24th, the butler died."
"On the 25th, the coachman and the gardener died."
"The 26th..."
"On the 33rd, except for the study maid and four low-level servants, there were no more survivors at Redwall Farm. The second investigation was concluded."
"On December 1, 1029, 'Goldfish' claimed to have heard a baby laughing in his house."
"On December 6, 'Goldfish' disappeared."
"On December 20th, residents of Newin found the body of the horse 'Goldfish' outside the closed Redwall Farm."
"January 1030, Redwall Farm restricted area order announced, files sealed."
Appendix: Copies of two letters asking for help signed by William K. Bancroft.
After reading the document that only had five pages of copies of the letter and the appendix, Miaobishenghua immediately gasped: "Hiss... It's worthy of being a task given by the Night Watch. It really has a sense of the K-series. This is definitely a horror plot!"
"Is this all the mission text?" En Buzeng asked in confusion. "This is a bit nonsensical. In the beginning, they carefully investigated rumors and conducted a mental evaluation, but in the end, they didn't record anything. They just simply and crudely said that so-and-so died. Isn't this boring to read?"
Zhao Zhenzhen hesitated, unsure whether to tell the truth.
"I guess we have to unlock the subsequent plot to see the details of the second investigation. All suspense and puzzle game plots follow this pattern." Miaobishenghua said.
Zhao Zhenzhen looked at Miao Bi Sheng Hua with approval. It was good and it saved her a lot of trouble.
"This mission is to solve the K-type incidents that occurred on this farm. From the intelligence we have now, the key point is the laughter of this baby." Although Miaobishenghua was afraid, his IQ was still online. He analyzed, "The valet died first, and then the young master. Obviously, they died in the order of hearing the baby's laughter. When we get there, we must focus on searching for mission props related to baby products."
"There is also the phenomenon of human-to-human transmission. If one person hears it, the people who come into contact with it will gradually hear it..." En Buzeng paused and frowned, "But that doesn't make sense. It clearly states here that the study maid and four low-level servants survived... Or maybe these five people also died, but it was not recorded?"
"Will the dead become undead?" Yang Ying interrupted. "If they do, we should be able to communicate, right?"
"It's hard to say. It seems that some of the undead are not very smart. The undead we met in the sewer were all impossible to communicate with." Shenmi Xuexi said.
"Let's wait and see when we get there." En Buzeng said, "The killing time of 'Baby Laughter' is quite long, at least half a month. It poses no threat to us, so we can search everywhere without hesitation."
"Eh? That's right!" Miaobishenghua, who was originally feeling uneasy, slapped his thigh hard, "That's right, this weird killing method passed down from person to person is quite scary, but it scares the living. What does it have to do with us? Who doesn't die every few days !"
"Uh... Huahua, it's better not to die if you can. If you die, you will be sent back to Westham." Sang Yeluo said.
"I know, that's what I said!"
Zhao Zhenzhen silently wiped away the non-existent cold sweat.
How should I put it... It's really good that players control the bodies of the undead and appear in this world by playing games.
As the players were chatting, Ben drove the caravan at full speed and arrived at the Red Wall Farm, about thirty miles away from the city of Innadri.
The Red Wall Farm has more than 300 acres of land, canals, water wheels and water conservancy projects . There are no houses within a two-kilometer radius, and the once fertile fields are now occupied by weeds and wild beasts. When the shift workers got off the car to clear the wooden fences and roadblocks on the road, there were even wild wolves hiding in the bushes and watching.
As the caravan followed the tall red brick wall around the main gate of the farm, a large flock of crows perched on the top of the wall flapped their wings and took off and landed, scaring Miaobishenghua, who could not stand the terrifying atmosphere.
The carriage stopped in front of a gate that was severely rusted. Ben jumped out of the carriage, took out the prepared axe from under the seat, broke the lock and chain on the iron gate, and pushed the gate open with force.
A dilapidated luxurious mansion in the shape of a U-shaped character "U" consisting of three connected four-story brick and tile buildings appeared in front of the players who had just got off the car.
"Wow - for a hidden task that has no idea whether it can be triggered, how can such an awesome scene model be created?" Shenxue Addicted said in amazement.
"Hey, that's because you didn't see Innadri on the ground." The Runaway Goldfish, who has the skill points of the Comic Exhibition Makeup Girl, boasted proudly, "The modeling scale of the Innadri city area is not much smaller than the real city, that's awesome. For this kind of mission scene, we can just copy the model of a mansion and it will be done."
"Don't just stand here and chatter, let's go in and take a look." En Buzeng waved his bone claws and walked into the door first.
"Hey wait, I'll go ahead." Yang Ying was worried that she, who was wearing a robe, would be killed instantly by a monster that appeared out of nowhere, so he quickly stood in front of her and turned to call out to the others, "Come on, let's go together. Everyone in cloth armor should go in the middle, don't take risks."
Zhao Zhenzhen looked down at the cotton T-shirt she was wearing... and without any hesitation, she squeezed in between the players who were playing the nanny role.
Ben had been told in advance not to enter, so he took off his hat and stood beside the carriage, silently watching the backs of the undead disappear into the darkness.
