Volume 4
217 Faceless Creatures
If this happened in the real world, I would have screamed my lungs out before throwing punches and kicks at him.
Don’t call me violent. This is simply the logical reaction of a weak girl. However, I can no longer be considered a ‘weak girl’ after arriving here in the Split Zone.
I kept my eyes on the creature. “Who are you?”
A hole began to appear on the creature’s white face. It appeared somewhere where the mouth should have been.
As that hole slowly opened to form a mouth, I saw nothing but rows of teeth against a bloody red background. There were hundreds of teeth in that mouth.
Goosebumps appeared all over me.
I think I might have trypophobia.
Stepping backwards, I frowned as I asked, “What exactly are you?” I readied my left hand, preparing to counter with Scorpion Ray at a moment’s notice.
That scary mouth moved as it spoke in a villainous voice, “So yummy.”
I swear I wanted to take a shower immediately after hearing this.
It was darkness all around me, and the stone walls had disappeared. There were two possibilities here. The first was that the cave was extremely wide, and it had a width of more than 20 meters across. If so, I wouldn’t be able to see any of the walls since they were more than 10 meters away from me.
The second possibility was that something else was obscuring my vision.
When I was thinking about the more likely scenario, that disgusting creature in front of me reached out with a hand.
I used Scorpion Ray to cut his hand off immediately.
The creature didn’t seem to be in pain from my attack, or rather, I wouldn’t be able to tell even if it was, since he did not have a face.
It started walking towards me with a single arm, like a zombie. Grossed out by the creature, I retreated a few steps, planning to use Scorpion Ray’s circular bow to turn him into mincemeat.
However, things did not go as planned. I bumped into someone else as I walked backwards.
As I turned to look, I realized it was the same faceless creature. But this time, it seemed to be a woman instead of a man.
How should I describe her? She was floating in mid-air and she had a full head of hair. There were no features on her face at all. Her head was just like a furry round ball that was full of hair.
Her hair circled around my neck the moment I turned back. It was so sharp it pricked my flesh. This was uncomfortable.
Just as I wanted to attack, I saw a pale and slender hand grab her head from the back, as if it was holding a baby. That hand then made two quick turns, left and right.
Crack.
The hair around my neck loosened immediately as the head dropped to the ground.
I then saw Nie Zun’s face.
Before I could say a thing, he reached out to grab the creature behind me, destroying it easily.
“Where did you go earlier?” I asked softly. I don’t know if it was because of the darkness or because I had just seen two faceless creatures, but at this point, there was an evil aura about Nie Zun’s face.
His lips turned up at an angle. “I’ve always been here. I thought these things were quite interesting, and I wanted to see if you’d be frightened, so I hid myself.”
“…”
Upon another look, I found this face way too thin and too full of malice. What an ugly man.
I pulled him with me in annoyance. I had to admit, I really didn’t want to face those weird creatures on my own again.
As we continued, he said suddenly, “Actually, there’s someone else following behind us.”
He was not whispering. If there really was anyone behind us now, they would definitely be able to hear him.
I didn’t know how to answer him like this.
“Hmm, aren’t you curious about what’s following us?” Nie Zun asked with interest.
I frowned. I wouldn’t be curious if you asked it like this.
Because you asked if I was curious about what was following, instead of who was following. This confirmed that it was some kind of creature.
But the feeling of being followed and not taking a look made me feel frustrated as well. So, I grabbed Nie Zun’s hand tightly as I turned back very slowly.
There was nothing but complete darkness.
“Hahahahaha you actually believed me?” Nie Zun started laughing.
I took a deep breath. I could stand it no more. Focusing my MF on my feet, I stepped on him with all my might.
“You’re really violent. Luckily I don’t really feel any pain,” Nie Zun said as he looked at his foot.
This man was crazy. I continued dragging him further into the cave as I wondered about what might await us. How had the demon cave changed? How long is it till we find that tablet? Can we even manage to find it?
“Zzz… ssss…”
Weird sounds started coming from both sides in the darkness and the sounds were getting louder and louder as we walked further in.
I felt goosebumps. It was eerie and it sounded like the nails of a woman scratching on glass.
I grabbed Nie Zun tightly in fear.
“Oh, so you’re actually scared? I thought you weren’t afraid of anything.” Nie Zun was teasing me casually, as if he hadn’t heard the sound.
I stared at him angrily.
Nie Zun then snapped his fingers.
With that, our surroundings lit up immediately.
This was a tunnel of stone, and it was very wide. There were torches on both walls, except that they weren’t lit before this. The path before us seemed to go on forever.
The source of the sounds was revealed as well.
Behind us were things that looked to be human beings. They were crawling on the ground and also on both walls.
That’s right, they merely looked to be human beings.
These things had human torsos and a head of long hair, but they did not have faces. They simply had mouths, similar to those faceless creatures we met earlier. The bottom half of their bodies were lizard parts and they stuck to the walls and to the ground.
Their fingers were transparent and sharp, looking exactly like fingernails.
Those hands were scratching against the surface continuously, making that sound.
There were at least five or six of them behind us crawling on the ground now. They were not far from us, and there were three or four of them on both sides of the walls as well.
The only clear path was forward.
“What are these?” I felt my hairs stand.
Nie Zun shrugged. “I don’t know.”
I wanted to give that annoying face a slap. Fine, but does this mean we have to fight these things?
I looked at the creatures. There was nothing but a mouth filled with teeth on their white faces. They had no eyes, and I couldn’t tell what they could possibly be thinking.
I didn’t know if I could communicate with them either, nor did I want to find out.
These things were just crawling on the wall and on the ground. They did not seem to have the intention of doing anything else.
I pulled Nie Zun with me and took a few steps forward.
Something interesting then happened. These things moved only when we moved, and they stopped when we stopped. They did not seem to be approaching us, nor did they seem to have the intention of retreating.
“What’s this?” I muttered.
Nie Zun answered, “Just grab one of them and ask.”
“How about you do it huh?”
Nie Zun smirked. He then grabbed me and pushed me to the side.
I didn’t expect him to do that, and I almost slammed into the wall.
Luckily, the path was wide and I could stop myself before it happened.
The first thing I did was not to look at the creatures on the wall, but to turn and scold Nie Zun.
“Do you have a death wish, Nie Zun…!” I almost roared at him.
Nie Zun pretended to look all innocent as he pouted his lips. “I just asked you to take a look at these things.”
I’m really…
I turned back slowly to face those creatures. “Hi, can you speak human?”
This question seemed a little…
The creature’s mouth opened as it answered, “So yummy.”
…This again.
My lips twitched in annoyance. “What are you? What are you planning to do?” Better to be direct about this.
The creature did not move as it continued, “So yummy.”
I took a deep breath and walked back to Nie Zun with a glum expression. “You asked me to take a look right? I’ve seen them. They’re just big eaters.”
I ignored him and continued into the tunnel.
Nie Zun caught up quickly, laughing. “They’re still following us.”
My hairs stood up. “I know. Let them.”
Even though I said that, I kept my eyes on both walls, keeping track of their every move as they continued following us.