I Will Teach You How to Hunt Gods

"Eat up all the food we provide, waste not a single bit; live in the house we provide well, don't damage it; and do not go outside, especially not into the forest."

"These are the rules of our Yangshan Town, the three of you."

Mayor Kong resumed his previous kindly demeanor and asked, "There shouldn't be any objections, right?"

"There are!"

Yun You suddenly lifted her head, staring intensely at the old man's eyes, her gaze sharp as a knife from behind the gas mask, startling the old man.

"I can understand the rules about eating and housing, but it's particularly the rule about 'going' that I don't quite understand."

She pointed to the forest shrouded in shadow and silence outside the town and asked hauntingly, "Why can't we leave the town, and even more so the forest?"

"Is there something dangerous there?"

"..."

Silence, as expected.

According to previous conventions, encountering such "sharp" questions, Mayor Kong should have been dumbfounded, then stammering, putting on a completely unaware attitude, using ambiguous words to answer.

But somehow, this time...this Mayor Kong did not seem dumbfounded.

His gaze gradually became cold, his face tensed as if water could be squeezed out.

Yun You sensed a hint of hostility from the old man.

It wasn't obvious, diluted like the aggression expressed by a cat or dog in a stressed state, and it only lasted for a moment.

But it was real, and Yun You caught it.

The little girl knew that she had asked a key point, so she perked up her ears.

The old man's next response, whether it was lying or being evasive, would determine her subsequent investigative direction.

"Why are you three so insistent on getting to the bottom of this?"

Mayor Kong did not answer immediately, instead he asked sternly, "Wouldn't it be nice to settle down peacefully?"

"Because of curiosity, of course."

Yun You no longer kept her serious expression, nor did she confront Mayor Kong aggressively.

She just gave a little smile, casually asked, "From what you mentioned about these rules, it seems we are to become a part of this town, living here for the long term, right?"

"If that's the case, then as citizens of the town, we have the right to know some secrets, like that guillotine-like contraption, or the forest for example..."

"You say, is my request excessive?"

It's indeed not excessive, and from anyone's perspective, it's an extremely reasonable request.

The maker of the law should have the duty of "explanation," why obey the law? Why does this law exist? These must all be explained to those who obey it.

After hearing these words, the gloom between Mayor Kong's eyebrows faded considerably, though he still wore a stern face, at least it no longer bore that aggressive tone from before.

"To be honest with you."

Mayor Kong sighed and explained, "That forest, indeed harbors our enemy. It sometimes attacks the town, but more often, it chooses to entice those townspeople with weak willpower, making them yearn and curious for the forest, then they sneak in."

"And once they are in, once they are in, they never return..."

"As for the enemy's appearance and form... honestly, we cannot describe it."

"[It] is twisted, filthy, evil and cruel... all the insults in the world aren't enough to describe it, nor can they encompass its power."

"The forest is its home, moreover its territory, where it is almost omnipotent. Mortals simply cannot resist... thus, borrowing the high walls and the town, we can resist its power."

"By the way."

The old man turned to point at the "ancestral hall" in the center of the town, muttering, "These valuable experience rules, passed down from our ancestors, we should strictly adhere to these teachings... for hundreds of years, this town had got through this way..."

"Hold on!"

Suddenly, Jack interrupted the old man, asking in a deep voice, "I've looked at this town, although there are a few roads leading to the outside, they all have to go through the forest... in other words, one has to break the rule."

"Have you never used these roads? If so, doesn't that mean, you all have never gone outside the town?"

"This..."

The old man was momentarily speechless, obviously stumped by Jack's question.

After some time, he lightly shook his head and softly replied, "Indeed, as you said..."

"Since I can remember, I've lived here all my life, never left the town, nor have I ever seen anyone come from the other side of the forest."

"We are self-sufficient, the food we produce we eat, the iron we mine we forge into weapons and farm tools we use, we don't need outsiders, nor have we met outsiders..."

"Yangshan Town has been like this since it was founded hundreds of years ago, persisting to this day. If you insist on asking about before the town was founded, I'm sorry, no one can answer, because no one remembers... besides, for us, it's not an important matter."

"If you still want to ask why I specifically came to greet you all, and appeared in such a 'skilled' manner, then I can only answer you—these are ancestral rules left by our ancestors."

"From a long, long time ago, situations like yours suddenly appearing at the town entrance have frequently occurred, even became an important source of the town's early population."

"Although in recent decades this kind of situation has almost disappeared, we still remember the ancestral teachings and have inherited the rules for receiving outsiders."

Mayor Kong, as if foreseeing it, answered several questions in one breath, including the town's operating methods, and a little bit of its past history.

These answers seem logical, but if delved into, many loopholes can still be found.

For example, the entire town is very small, yet the various facilities and living supplies within are very complete, with salt, silk, cotton, glass, all readily available, which clearly a small self-sustaining town of a thousand people couldn't provide.

Moreover, the town had "transmigrators" like Yun You and the others appear long ago, yet they didn't bring any external things or culture to the town.

Yangshan Town is still a village with the style of the last century.

It's all quite strange.

But seeing Mayor Kong's attitude of "speaking without reserve," Yun You could tell that this guy probably didn't want to continue on this topic any longer.

Or rather, he didn't know what else to say either.

"I think, this guy's memory might have issues."

Yun You whispered into the intercom.