CH 89

Chapter 89: Castle Cry (XVI)

This absurd and bloody scene shocked the three people. At least, Qi Leren had been stunned. He had witnessed death before, but such a tragic and shocking way of dying still made him feel scared. It took a good half-day to realize that he should do something.

He took a step forward, stopped again, and looked back at Su He.

Su He looked at the tragedy on the far away landing, and his eyebrows were slightly frowned. When he saw Qi Leren looking at him, he also stepped forward: “Go and see.”

Qi Leren finally steeled himself and walked boldly to the stairs. In the dark light, Nan Lu, who was kneeling in a pool of blood, hugged Xiao Hong, who was only half left. The tears mixed with his blood that soiled her beautiful dress. She muttered: “You’re mine… It’s mine…”

When Qi Leren stepped on the first set of stairs, a hound barked on the stairs to the second floor. He suddenly looked up. The burnt hound slowly came down the stairs and stood beside Nan Lu, barking at them.

South Lu seemed to wake up with a start. She picked up the body on the ground and ran for her life towards the stairs above. The half of Xiao Hong’s body was like a blood bag, with blood streaming, dragging out shocking blood on the ground.

The hound crouched beside the blood pool that looked like it was from a slaughterhouse, showing its dense teeth to them. It wasn’t until Nan Lu disappeared from the top of the stairs that it walked back slowly, ignoring them.

“Is that the dog you met before?” Dr. Lu asked from behind the two people.

“Hmm… but this time it didn’t attack us?” Qi Leren said in confusion.

“This must be the result of two EX-lucks saving an E-luck,” Dr. Lu spoke out.

Unable to refute, Qi Leren rolled his eyes.

Su He squatted down beside the pool of blood and looked at the scattered internal organs on the ground for a while. “Did you see how the NPC’s body was divided into two just now? It stands to reason that two people pulling him at most could cause his arm to break. It’s impossible to have such a clean tear.”

“I only saw a flash of lightning outside the window, and Xiao Hong became two halves. I didn’t see anything else,” Qi Leren said.

“Looks like they didn’t accomplish cutting their legs, but were instead struck by lightning. When those girls said they’d tear it apart, they meant it, not at all being vague,” Dr. Lu told a cold joke.

“It’s probably that the Devil’s power has infected the two NPCs, so they have abnormal strength and abilities. I’m afraid the inside story of this copy isn’t simple,” Su He said, standing up.

“Devil’s power?” Dr. Lu muttered. Qi Leren hadn’t told him about being parasitized, so he didn’t know anything about the Devil’s power.

“A kind of energy related to the Devil, I and Qi Leren can perceive some. At present, this copy should be inseparable from the Devil,” Su He said and looked up at the upper stairs. “Let’s go up and have a look. Listen to their footsteps. They should be on the third floor. Have you been to the third floor yet?”

Both of them shook their heads. It was dangerous to go anywhere in the castle. In addition, the space was too large, and it wasn’t easy to collect clues. The two men had circled on the first and second floors.

“Before, you said that there is a key to the second floor. There should be no nursery on the second floor?” Su He asked.

“No, the nursery is probably on the third floor. We didn’t plan to go deep into the story before, so we didn’t go to the nursery,” Qi Leren said.

“If you want to go, you have to find the key. I’m good at this,” Dr. Lu said proudly.

Su He nodded and said to Qi Leren, “It’s very likely that you’ll meet the dog before you go up. How are you going to deal with it?”

Qi Leren looked at Su He’s concerned eyes and silently swallowed the words “just do it or not”: “I brought three miniature bombs, and now there are two left, so I should be able to kill the dog.”

“If you’re not sure, let’s go to the piano room on the second floor to get the dog collar. If my guess is correct, picking it up will attract the dog, and you can set traps to deal with it in advance.” Su He expressed his speculation according to the previous experience Qi Leren had.

Qi Leren nodded eagerly, completely ignoring the way.

Before he could speak, there was a sharp barking sound over his head, which mingled with the sound of metal crashing, rumbling. The three men looked up, just in time to see the charred hound being hit by something, and fell hard on the landing of the second floor. The sound of clanging came, and Qi Leren whispered: “It’s that armor!”

“It’s not a monster in this world?!” Lu doctor cried in a low voice.

"Armor can’t be easily burned, so it’s normal for it to appear in the outer world after the fire,” Su He said.

The hound shot up again, barking and rushing at the armour, which swung an iron fist without a sword, and beat it to the ground again. The hound fell to the ground and rolled, making a whoop of a scream.

“Redmond, come back, Redmond!” From the third floor, there came Nan Lu’s cry. The hound barely climbed up from the ground before it ran in the direction of the voice.

The armor stood on the stairs, the heavy metal body was as tall as a mountain, and the heavy oppressive feeling was even greater than that in this world.

It moved!

With a deafening sound, the armor ran down the stairs with a long sword! Every step on the worn wooden stairs brought a tremor to the ground.

“Oh my god, it’s coming down!” Dr. Lu whined and rushed to run.

Qi Leren was a little panicked, as he met this armor without psychological preparation. What can I do now? Use miniature bombs?

The armor came down very fast, and it was already on the platform almost in the blink of an eye. When Qi Leren’s S/L skill was used to beat the crazy lady in the basement - although he didn’t load the file after using it - he still had the Easter egg in hand, but this rare resurrection prop was meant to be used as a last resort for when your hand reached the bottom of the box.

Fight!

Qi Leren was ready to take out the iron rod from his inventory and fight the resurrected armor, but before he could come forward, Su He suddenly threw something and said, “Take it!”

Qi Leren reached out and grabbed it. It was a rope. He looked at Su He and suddenly understood what he wanted to do.

The armor running down the stairs was getting closer and closer. Qi Leren and Su He each took one end of the rope, quickly distanced themselves from each other, and crouched down on both sides of the stairs in a posture that was ready for retreat. Dr. Lu stood blankly at the bottom of the stairs, suddenly realizing that he should run away, and turned to run down the stairs.

The armor is very fast, and when it came to the rope, it was too late for it to brake. The rope that was not as high as its knee tripped it perfectly. The heavy armor fell down under the momentum, and its strength was so great that it almost made the coarse hemp rope in Qi Leren’s hands slip.

The armor that fell down the stairs made a heavy noise. At the moment when the body touched the ground, its helmet, gauntlets, and sword all fell out and turned into separate metal parts, which were scattered all over the floor. What was shocking was that with the separation of the armor, broken bones were revealed inside the armor, which were obviously a skeleton.

Dr. Lu, who squatted on the ground with his head in his arms, opened his mouth wide: “Can you still play like this? This is too easy.”

Su He slowly put away the rope: “It was worth a try.”

Qi Leren had a bit of recollection: “What if it reacted quickly and didn’t trip? Or tripped and it didn’t fall apart? What if the skeleton inside comes alive?”

Su He smiled mysteriously. After letting it hang in suspense, he said slowly, “Then run.”

Qi Leren: “…”

Dr. Lu: “…”

“But this task is D-level difficulty. Even with the interference of demon power and the true ending route, the difficulty will not exceed B-level at most. Under this difficulty, monsters other than the boss will not be too difficult to deal with, or there are opportunistic methods. As long as you respond quickly and observe keenly.” After appreciating their ever-changing expressions, Su He gave a reasonable explanation.

Qi Leren agreed and nodded. It was even more difficult to figure out a way to deal with the armor in the heat of the moment. Su He was rich in experience, so he could solve monsters with the simplest props and terrain. He was an elder player from the Village of Dusk. Even if he didn’t use the skill card, dealing with this difficult a task was a simple matter.

“This skeleton is a bit interesting…” Su He stood on the stairs and looked at the skeleton that had fallen on the ground and become shattered, showing an interested look.

“Look what I found!” Dr. Lu suddenly cried joyfully, having found a bunch of keys from the pile of metal parts and skeleton fragments on the ground, and shook them excitedly.

“It should be the keys to the third floor. Well done,” Su He praised him. The light here was too dark, and he hadn’t noticed the ring of keys hidden in the armor.

Dr. Lu ran up with the key and handed them to Su He.

Qi Leren was no stranger to his companion’s talent in finding things. Instead, he had doubts about this armor: “Su He, why do you think this armor fought with that dog just now?”

Su He rubbed the keys in his hands, hesitated and said, “I have a theory. At present, the NPCs and monsters that have appeared in this castle are as follows: four drama characters, the maid Nina, the crazy lady boss, the active armor, the burnt hound, white bones, and skeletons. Bones and skeletons are undoubtedly the former servants of this castle, with the weakest strength and no intelligence. They should be controlled by the will of the crazy lady, and attack all creatures that enter their sphere of influence. The burnt hound is also controlled by the crazy lady - now it should be controlled by Nan Lu. She called it away just now. But the skeleton in the armor, it is obviously not controlled by the crazy lady. So there is the question: who is it?”

Dr. Lu jokingly said: “It’s probably a self-motivated skeleton. It felt that wearing clothes is too mainstream, so it had to wear armor. It immediately evolved from white bones to an armor skeleton, became an elite monster, and then rebelled.”

Su He: “…”

Qi Leren: “…”

Qi Leren leaned against the handrail of the stairs and pondered: “According to what you said, would the skull and bones in this armor be the male host Johann?”

Su He nodded with a smile: “Your idea coincides with mine. Imagine that when the crazy lady was killing people everywhere, the male host John might hide in the armor because of fear. As a result, the crazy lady couldn’t find him and set fire to the castle. He was burned to death before he could escape, so he became such a monster. Armor, as an ornament, should represent men in a symbolic sense, and it also means strength and power, so he preferred this identity. The armor is the will of the male owner. In this case, it’s understandable that it would be at conflict with the hound, because the hound Redmond guards the crazy lady.”

Dr. Lu snorted twice: “It seems that this couple is still turning against each other.”

“I’m afraid this is inevitable,” Su He sighed.

“Why?” Qi Leren asked.

“In fact, I can see from their names. Johann’s letter to Dr. Flajser has his signature. His name is Johann Sebastian Wolff. Mrs. Sarah’s full name was given by Luo Xueyi just now. Her name is Sarah von Wolff. There is a ‘von’ in Mrs. Sarah’s last name, which is a symbol of noble birth in Germany. If Mr. Johann was a noble, he would never miss this word when signing his name, so he is probably not of noble birth. This task has never mentioned what title he had. On the contrary, this Mrs. Sarah must be a big noble,” Su He analyzed. “Johann’s diary mentioned that she didn’t want to live in the city after she came here, but built a castle. This castle was paid for by her. She should be a very rich lady due to inherit a lot of property.”

“Wow, the silk is soaked in Bai Fumei’s inspirational story, but unfortunately Bai Fumei has mental illness.” Lu doctor immediately extrapolated from the conspiracy theory to guess, “He knew Mrs. Sarah had a family genetic mental illness, but still married her, this is either true love or for money. When doing business in China during the war, it was difficult to hide from people’s eyes and ears, so did he come here to make a fortune from her legacy? ”

“This possibility isn’t ruled out,” Su He said. “If Mrs. Sarah had no mental illness inherited from her family, I’m afraid that her family would not easily have agreed to this marriage.”

Qi Leren couldn’t help recalling the crazy behavior and shouting of the crazy lady in the basement.

There was still a copper frame on the wall of the landing, which was illuminated by lightning again and again in this stormy night. He remembered that in this portrait of the inner world, she held her dog and snuggled up to her handsome and elegant husband. Her smile was full of happiness, and her husband also looked at her gently, loving and tender.

It was a wonderful time that they wished to go back to, to witness that they once loved each other.