Chapter 286: Chapter 286: Human Head
From Abe’s perspective.

The sudden downpour was precisely aiding Abe to conceal his figure and rapidly leap between rooftops.

Suddenly, Abe’s running speed abruptly decreased, and he stopped on top of a dilapidated residential building.

Sniffing.

A peculiar scent was captured by Abe.

“Immediately withdraw when encountering any ‘Strange Tales,’ dealing with it alone carries high risk.”

However, Abe’s thought was different from Han Dong’s.

His objective was solely to find the ‘Shop,’ unwilling to engage with Strange Tales at game start.

In the almost deserted residential building, only some elderly people, half into the earth, were residing.

Following the scent.

Abe arrived at a wooden door with a metallic nameplate.

The refined and beaded metallic nameplate contrasted sharply with the cracked dilapidated wooden door. Twisted letters printed on the plate read ‘Strange Tales Shop.’

Regarding texts, Han Dong had informed Abe of the Japanese word for ‘shop’ beforehand.

“Found it, hurry back to regroup with them!”

Abe immediately climbed out from the window in the corridor.

During the climb, he inadvertently saw four robust men with vicious looks in their eyes walking under the building, seemingly also in search of the shop.

“Death row inmates? Let’s ignore them for now.”

His claws embedded in the wall, Abe climbed out swiftly.

However,

Among the group of death-row inmates below, there was a man who was completely blind. Having heard some ‘sound,’ he immediately pointed towards the rooftop.

When his teammates looked over, they saw only a white shadow flash by.

From Han Dong’s perspective.

Directly interacting with the ‘Strange Tales,’ he was trying to ‘lower’ the danger.

Similar to a plant rooting in the ground,

This woman’s head, smeared with exaggeratedly white powder, was also rooted on Han Dong’s shoulder through some sort of tendril. However, the roots were limited to the outer clothing and could not penetrate the Bone Feather Robe radiating a polluted aura.

A head like this,

Not to mention its terrifying makeup alone.

Just growing directly on someone’s shoulder would likely make other team members enter a state of ‘panic’ for some time, and most would probably choose to remove the umbrella.

Moreover, the skull itself exuded a highly lethal sense of danger.

However, Han Dong, neither hurrying to throw away the umbrella nor panicked by this head, was calmly staring at this woman.

After all, from the ‘essence,’ Han Dong was also a head.

Speaking with possibly the most standard pronunciation, Han Dong said in fairly authentic Japanese: “Hello!”

However,

There was no response from her.

Drip, drip… With a tongue covered in rainwater, she slowly licked towards Han Dong’s cheek.

The moment it was about to touch,

Whoosh!

A light flashed across.

A kitchen knife, appearing from nowhere, beheaded the head precisely.

The dark gray tongue, with a thump, fell to the ground and immediately turned into a puddle of rainwater.

Gurgling… Shortly after, another tongue grew from the woman’s mouth.

Unlike the first time, the tongue extended rapidly this time, fiercely licking Han Dong’s cheek.

Whoosh!

The ending remained the same.

The kitchen knife executed decisively, and the tongue fell to the ground… turning into a puddle of rainwater.

While following and observing that unfortunate office worker, Han Dong had been pondering over all the countermeasures.

Licking the victim’s face with its tongue.

Each lick would result in an eerie rainwater soaking into the victim’s face and seeping into their skin through the pores.

This is why victims always felt a cold chill on their cheeks when they opened the Red Umbrella, and why, after their death, large amounts of rainwater were found in their bodies.

The rainwater that invaded their bodies would, to a certain extent, interfere with the victim’s thinking, leading to unexpected death.

So, Han Dong targeted the ‘tongue’.

At the first moment he had picked up the Red Umbrella, he secretly prepared Chen Li… once the opponent dared lick Han Dong, she would serve up the kitchen knife.

Han Dong continued speaking politely, “I mean no harm; can we communicate normally, please?”

However, the grey tongue was extended again.

But this time, it did not appear to be aiming to lick Han Dong.

Instead, the tongue spun around in the air, in an enchanting manner.

Seemingly, it had not spoken in a long time and had forgotten the basic way of utilizing the tongue… after a while, an unclear speech flowed from the woman’s mouth:

“All… who… pick… umbrella, must die!”

With a helpless look on his face, Han Dong nodded, “Hmm, sounds like a cliché line from a horror movie… can you say anything else? After all, we are of the same kind.”

Han Dong, having previously determined that there were no other people nor surveillance cameras in the alleyway through Little Demon Eye.

Showed his head and body, separated from each other, moving on his shoulder, as a sign of respect in front of the woman’s head.

Knowing the existence of the [Friendliness] setting.

Having experience of briefly collaborating with the ‘clown’ in the event of “Clown Revival”.

Han Dong tried to take a gamble.

He tried to establish a relationship with the ‘spirit’ corresponding to the “Strange Tales” at the beginning of this event… It was necessary to try. If successful, Han Dong would obtain unexpected information resources.

“You…strange,” the woman said, looking startled.

Han Dong tried to soften the relationship between the two, “As we are of the same kind, there is no need to harm each other… If there’s anything you want to do, feel free to tell me.”

“I want you dead.”

“Emmm…” Han Dong had heard rumors that the spirits behind the island country’s horror films often resented the entire world and would indiscriminately kill… It seemed the rumors were indeed true.

“I can die, but I have a request… could you let me live for 24 hours? Once the time is up, you’re free to do what you wish.”

By saying this, Han Dong was actually making another gamble.

He bet that this ‘spirit’, who only knew to harm people and had a simple mind, would not know about the 24-hour limit, nor would it consider this issue.

After talking a few times, the woman’s head regained the feeling of speaking, and her words became much clearer, “Remove… strange… ‘Feather Robe,’ I’ll agree… else you die now.”

“Oh… you seem to fear the robe within me.”

The “Bone Feather Robe” was entirely made from elements outside the city.

This was why the equipment from outside the city was a double-edged sword… the contamination could target anything.

Han Dong quickly took off the robe and placed it in his backpack.

Creak! Creak!

Without the protection of the robe.

The flesh threads that were originally rooted on the surface of the clothes forcefully seeped further, a cooling sensation of the rainwater spread from the shoulder… the woman’s head had fully integrated into Han Dong’s shoulder.

With a cruel smile, the woman’s disembodied head said:

“The countdown starts now… enjoy your remaining time.”

“Alright.”

Han Dong naturally complied on the surface, pretending to be nervous.

“The ‘spirit’ corresponding to the ‘Strange Tales’ seems to be a bit low intelligence-wise.… that’s excellent!”

Han Dong wore an irrepressible smile.

Carrying the Red Umbrella, with an extra head on his shoulder, he returned to the crossroad to meet up with his teammates.

Of course, ordinary people couldn’t see this additional head.

“If possible… you can try to trace the origin of this umbrella within these 24 hours. Being rated as B-class by the system, the difficulty of this strange tale itself is not low.

Whether the head is the main body, or the umbrella is the main body… it’s too early to jump to a conclusion now.

Let’s try to ‘utilize’ it.

If it doesn’t work, we’ll think of another solution.”