Chapter 403: Chapter 403: Mysterious Manuscript
In Han Dong’s view, the fourth answer was the ‘perfect’ option.
The problem here wasn’t just dealing with the remaining spider egg parasites, but also avoiding suspicion from others.
There had only been two monster incidents in the supermarket, both of which Han Dong had coincidentally encountered and resolved alone… anyone with half a brain would find it suspicious.
Moreover, the role Han Dong played wasn’t native to the area. He was merely a writer looking for inspiration. And a moody, peculiar, and offputting writer at that, making it even more likely locals would suspect him.
His aggressive response, true to his character, would greatly reduce the chance of suspicion.
“Motherfucker…”
Although Han Dong’s cursing made him somewhat repulsive,
David, the protagonist, saw it as an emotional release from going through a life and death situation, given his understanding of the eccentric author’s character.
Furthermore, everyone’s attention was focused on the pitiful security guard, Murray.
The protagonist instructed the supermarket employees, “Quickly find a bag to cover the corpse and drag it to the back warehouse. Try not to let anyone know someone died in the supermarket… otherwise, it could cause unnecessary panic.”
Then David attempted to ask Han Dong, the eccentric writer,
“Mr. Nicholas… Did the security guard say anything about how he became infested with spiders?”
“He didn’t say much, however… he was a pretty dutiful security guard. Even in this state, he managed to convey an important message. He says there are others in the supermarket feeling the same discomfort as him. You guys better check it out, a man at deaths’ door wouldn’t joke about something like this.”
“Alright!! Mr. Nicholas, you rest for a bit.”
Han Dong added, “I’ll tell you… in times like these, try not to be overly compassionate.
You saw what happened to security guard Murray. If anyone else starts showing similar spider mutations and it’s not controlled in time, everyone in the supermarket could be in danger.
And as someone who knew about it, if you couldn’t prevent this, the blame would fall on you.”
“I’ll do my best.”
The protagonist quickly returned to the supermarket’s main hall, where he, together with the staff and the medical personnel present, began checking the physical condition of each refugee in the supermarket.
Under the pretext of ‘advanced treatment’, they gathered locals with abnormal conditions in the employee rest area.
There were five people in total.
Two of them were simply suffering from the common cold after being checked by a doctor and were immediately released.
The remaining three were the spider egg parasites Han Dong had detected earlier.
As time elapsed, their conditions rapidly deteriorated.
A town doctor performed a simple check on the three but couldn’t find the root cause… however, during his examination, he noticed spider-like particles flashing across their eyeballs.
“The conditions are limited, I can’t figure out the cause…”
The doctor then leaned close to the protagonist David and quietly muttered a few words.
David, looking at the three pitiful figures wrapped tightly in blankets, their bodies trembling and covered in large, swollen, white lumps, made a decision after discussing with the staff.
After confirming that none of these three had relatives or friends in the supermarket, they moved them to the back warehouse.
Han Dong naturally followed quietly to see how David, the main character, was going to handle this.
However, David was still reluctant to kill them directly, instead, planning to leave the warehouse door open and let these three fend for themselves.
“Leave them to die on their own? The pain brought by the spider eggs hatching and devouring their bodies from the inside would make their life worse than death.
Moreover, more importantly, there will be three more terrifying spider monsters in the mist.”
“Nicholas, we don’t have the right to take their lives.” David was suffering inside.
“What if they want you to do it?”
Han Dong looked at the old man who was the weakest resistance. A boil on his body had already burst open, and a terrifying cold spider hatchling crawled out from inside. He instantly squashed it with his shoe.
“I don’t have many years to live anyway, so just kill me.”
The old man was rather relieved. He could clearly feel the anomaly inside his body. Since he was going to die anyway, he chose a more direct way to die.
Han Dong suggested, “I propose we first submerge them in gasoline, kill them quickly, then light the gasoline for cremation… to avoid the spiders from bursting out of their bodies.”
Indeed, Han Dong’s cold approach is the best solution, but… it is rather cruel.
The young man among them refused to accept their impending death, desperately clinging to the leg of one of the workers, begging for mercy.
“Make a decision quickly, Old Joe can’t hold on any longer.”
“Mr. Nicholas, could you lend a hand…”
The protagonist finally broke through his moral restrictions.
The reason Han Dong enticed the protagonist to do so was to cultivate the protagonist’s survival philosophy in an apocalyptic environment… Dangerously unnecessary pawns must be decisively eliminated.
Before the spider eggs burst.
Execution accomplished.
Staring at the burning barrels of gasoline, the expressions of David and the supermarket workers became exceptionally grim, speechless.
“You’d better find an excuse to explain the situation of the three people to the other townspeople in the lobby. For example, let them leave from the back door, go to the nearest hospital because the medical facilities in the supermarket are insufficient to treat their condition.
I will handle their bodies, you go explain.”
“Um…”
Wait until everyone leaves.
Han Dong immediately inspected the three barrels, making sure there were no spiders that had slipped through the net.
Unexpectedly, during the inspection process, he found a clean white paper at the bottom of one of the barrels that had not been burned.
The burning process lasted for a long time, and such paper should have been completely burned long ago.
Han Dong decisively reached out and pulled the piece of paper out, at the same time, receiving a prompt from the system.
“[Manuscript One] picked up.
The Omen event ends, conditions are met… the Omen Value is awarded as usual.”
With a bit of Omen Value at hand, Han Dong now had a slight ability to deal with a crisis.
“Manuscript…”
Han Dong stared at the high-quality piece of paper in his hand, it was filled with characters he could not recognize.
They were blurry from afar,
and a twisting and turning unknown font when scrutinized closely, he even felt the letters were twisting and shifting, unidentifiable.
No matter what.
This was a special item left behind after the Omen event ended, perhaps closely related to Han Dong’s role as [The Writer], it might even be a key item to escape from the “Mist”, or an important clue to unravel the mystery of the Mist.”
……
In the remaining time, the supermarket was ‘calm and peaceful’.
Due to the death of the fanatical religious followers, the townspeople learned of the existence of the monster ahead of time, and with the protagonist becoming the leader here, everyone united.
The situation in the supermarket was much better than in the original movie. There was no major contention, everyone took turns standing guard to ensure the basic safety of the supermarket.
Of course, some people started to propose that waiting around was not a solution, they wanted to select several brave townsfolk, arm them, and have them venture out for exploration.
After the first exploration team was wiped out in a short time, everyone abandoned the idea of exploring outside.
A few days passed.
The event progressed to the end of the “Mist” movie.
The mist slowly faded, a fully armed military force came to the town, and the soldiers wearing gas masks rapidly exterminated all kinds of monsters on the street with flamethrowers.
People in the supermarket felt like they were seeing first light again, each of them excitedly sticking to the glass window, waving to the soldiers.
At that moment, Han Dong’s ‘Bag of Misfortune’ started to shake again.
