Hunter of Mysterious Creature

Sun Hang rubbed his wet hair with a bedsheet he'd picked up and walked out of the bathroom, only to be greeted by the sight of a fisherman holding a bottle with a delighted expression.

"Look, look! See what treasure I found!"

"What treasure?" Shino popped his head out from a nearby dormitory.

"A bottle of vodka!" The fisherman said, shaking the bottle in his hand, "And it's a military special version!"

"Vodka from over a hundred years ago... can you still drink it?" Sun Hang looked skeptically at the bottle in his hand. Although the vodka had not been opened, less than half of the liquid inside remained. Its color was not as clear as common distilled spirits, instead having a muddy texture, with suspicious white sediment at the bottom.

"Who would dare drink this? It's a hot commodity in the collectors' market, open one bottle and there's one less bottle." The fisherman said, "A well-preserved antique liquor like this, bringing it back to the mainland, could easily sell for seventy to eighty thousand, and if you're lucky enough to find an auction, it could top a hundred thousand!"

"Then you better hold it tight, don't drop it." Sun Hang teased, "If you drop it, it's like throwing a hundred thousand bucks into the water."

To Sun Hang's surprise, as soon as he finished speaking, the fisherman tore open the tin seal on the bottle and pulled out the cork.

"Hey, weren't you planning to sell it?" Shino asked curiously.

"Hell no, who knows if we can even make it out alive. I've been stingy my whole life, might as well indulge a little at the end, right?" The fisherman closed his eyes and held the bottle under his nose, taking a strong sniff.

"Cough cough... damn, the smell is overwhelming! It's both sour and spicy, like rotten hotpot base..." The fisherman said, somewhat speechless as he lifted the bottle, staring at the swirling murky liquid inside. "I watched a TV show once where a group of millionaires and sommeliers opened a bottle of eighty-year-old whiskey, each tasting a small glass. Those sommeliers practically praised it to the skies... I seriously doubt if there's something wrong with their taste buds."

"If a pile of crap were worth a million, then its stink wouldn't be called a stink anymore; it'd be a unique aroma." Sun Hang shrugged, "Though, in my opinion, anyone willing to spend a million on crap probably has a screw loose."

"So, are you still going to drink it?" Shino asked with a smile.

"No way, no way..." The fisherman waved his hand dismissively, "I'm afraid if I take a sip, I'd become that fool who eats crap."

The three continued searching the dormitory — to their surprise, there were no traces of a struggle, nor the chaotic scene typical of an emergency evacuation.

Except for an extremely untidy few, most of the beds had their blankets neatly folded, and personal items were placed where they should be — spare clothes were tidily hung inside wardrobes, suitcases were tucked under beds or atop cabinets, and several dormitory doors were still locked.

If you ignored the thick layer of dust on the furniture and floor and the traces left by time on various objects, the dormitory building looked like it was merely deserted during work hours, completely unreflective of the sort of "severe incident" that led to the complete abandonment of Nameless Island.

Sun Hang attempted to recall "fragments of memory" from the day of the incident; however, his mind was utterly blank... he could only see those peaceful and serene everyday scenes, completely unable to recollect memories from the day of the incident.

It seemed as if the owner of these memories had already left Nameless Island before the incident occurred.

"Doesn't seem like there's anything valuable here." The fisherman said, closing the last drawer. "Found quite a few letters, but most are letters intended for family, and they seem to never bring work-related documents back to the dorm."

"There are also quite a few books in the dorm, but they're all popular novels or classical literature. The only vaguely academic ones are probably Hegel's 'Logic' and Lyell's 'Principles of Geology,' which are totally unrelated to anomalous object research," Shino said dejectedly, putting down the heavy tome in his hands that felt like a brick, sighing.

"This place is cleaner than my face after a dump." The fisherman mumbled, "Are these researchers really not competitive at all? They don't even bring unfinished work back to the dorm for overtime?"

"What kind of nonsense comparison is that? Do you take a dump with your face?" Sun Hang glanced at him, speechless.

"Damn it, brain fart. I meant to say I washed my face after a dump this morning... forget it, forget it, let's not go off on a tangent, let's keep moving. Since we haven't found what we're looking for here, surely the lab can't be this clean as well?" The fisherman shoved letters from senders and recipients long deceased under a quilt and turned to leave the dormitory.

...

After leaving the dormitory, the trio continued along the path lit by red fingerprint lights. There were several similar dormitory buildings along the way, but they merely took a cursory glance around each before moving on... all the dormitories were the same, yielding scant valuable information.

"I suddenly remembered a topic I researched before." As they walked, Shino suddenly said.

"What topic?" The fisherman asked, curious.

"It's something recorded in European folklore, maybe two things," Shino replied, "The Pied Piper, have you heard of it?"

The fisherman and Sun Hang both shook their heads.

"According to the story, the piper is most likely a kind of vengeful spirit entity, and the pipe in his hand is probably an artifact-type anomaly..." Shino explained.

"And then?" The fisherman pressed on.

"Typically, the piper appears at midnight when most people are asleep. It plays an eerie tune on the outskirts of a village. Adults can't hear this tune, only the children of the village can. Those who hear the tune will climb out of their beds as if sleepwalking, following the sound to the village outskirts... and the piper will shepherd them away like a flock of sheep... as for where the children went or what they experienced, the story doesn't say."

"Sounds like a children's horror story," Sun Hang commented. "So you're suggesting that there might be a 'Pied Piper' on Nameless Island, using some kind of special method to gather everyone on the island together?"

"Exactly," Shino nodded.