I Will Teach You How to Hunt Gods

"Creak—"

Yun You gently pushed open the rusted door and stepped into the stone villa.

As soon as she entered, a smell of moss mixed with the scent of wood wafted over her. Although it was somewhat pungent, after a few careful sniffs, she could detect a hint of comforting plant fragrance.

The houses in the town were built with bluestone, which would be roasted twice before use for simple sterilization. However, the environment in Yangshan Town was often humid, and after a while, bluestone would always grow layers of vibrant moss.

Usually, the residents of the houses would clean the moss regularly, but since this villa had long been unoccupied, naturally no one took on this task.

Yun You casually strolled around, observing the layout of the villa.

Although the house was somewhat old and lacked modern amenities like electric lights and Wi-Fi, requiring firewood stoves for cooking and bathing, it didn't seem very convenient...

Overall, it was reasonably clean and quite spacious, at least more so than the dormitories and tube buildings Yun You had previously lived in.

Each room's beds were neatly made, and things like teacups and tables were ready to use. The only downside was that each room was slightly small, generally accommodating just one person.

"Each of you pick a room, I'll take Aurora's, and while I'm there, I'll search and do some brief investigating to see if I can find any clues."

Yun You casually instructed and began to ascend the stairs.

"I'll head to town first then."

Jack dropped his luggage and said casually, "I'll check out the terrain and local customs. If I can gather information, that's great; if not, I'll see if we can restock our supplies."

"It's five-thirty in the afternoon now, and with only four and a half hours until the ten o'clock closing time, time is a bit tight."

"None of us know what might happen tomorrow, so it's best to get the entire town scoped out this evening... I once worked as a scout for some time, so I'm quite familiar with this task. Leave it to me."

That made sense, and Yun You had no reason to refuse, so she pulled a portable camera out of her pocket and tossed it to Jack.

"Remember to stay safe and take this with you."

She pointed at the camera and instructed, "It's a local network camera with a positioning function, so we stay in constant contact. If anything dangerous happens, remember to call me."

"Though the town should be fine during the day, better to be cautious..."

"Also, take Frost Moon with you. You two work together and watch each other's backs. Be sure to come back before nine o'clock."

Jack nodded, turned, and prepared to leave with Frost Moon.

But as he stepped out the door, he suddenly remembered something and turned back to ask, "Anything you need us to buy? Chica."

"Something to buy...?"

Yun You was about to say "nothing," but after a moment of thought, she quietly replied, "If you can, buy me some alcohol."

"I've been using my ability too frequently, and I'm running low on drinks."

This wasn't an exaggerated claim.

As the use of the [Pre-Borrowing] ability increased, the "future" it allowed Yun You to see grew more extensive.

Nowadays, it could let Yun You see up to forty seconds ahead, a third more than the initial thirty seconds.

At the same time, the downside required Yun You to drink more and stronger alcohol.

When she first triggered Pre-Borrowing, just a small bottle of beer was enough to neutralize her "weakness."

But now, she needed to down at least 500 milliliters of alcohol in one go to quench her thirst.

As they say, blessings and curses come hand in hand. Perhaps the more potent the ability, the greater the price the Apprentice Death God had to pay.

Equivalent exchange, a fair law that even the high-and-mighty Apprentice Death God must adhere to.

Buying alcohol seemed easy enough for Yun You to say, but Jack suddenly found himself silent.

He had witnessed the girl's awkwardness when drinking firsthand, knowing how much Yun You despised the sour and bitter beverage, fully aware that she couldn't hold her liquor and would get drunk after just one drink.

For some reason, an emotion of empathy and pity surged in the mercenary's heart.

He instinctively advised, "If possible... Chica, you should drink less."

"Yes."

Yun You nodded but then sighed helplessly, saying, "But there's no way around it, it's the Apprentice Death God's weakness, you know. I'll never be able to refuse it."

"From a certain perspective, maybe this is the 'cost' of becoming an Extraordinary."

Jack was momentarily at a loss for words.

He didn't know what to say, so he simply nodded silently and left with Frost Moon.

After they left, Yun You held onto the ladder as she climbed the stairs, following the corridor scented with peach wood to the room on the second floor nearest the balcony.

Here, Aurora had stayed in the guest room before.

As she opened the door, Yun You saw the beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows, the red sunset streaming in, the shimmering vases in the sunset, the pristine white bed sheets, and...

The floorboards and ceiling were a mess.

Aurora really knew how to make a mess, the neatly laid peach wood flooring had been pried up and snapped off, knife marks all over the place.

And the ceiling was smeared with brown vegetable soup, greasy and clumped after drying, impossible to peel off.

As for the chairs, tables, and such, they were smashed into pieces, wood scraps scattered everywhere, anyone unaware might think they had stumbled upon some gang's turf war...

"The mayor wasn't wrong, Aurora really did a number on this place."

Yun You set down her backpack and thought silently, "But why would she do this?"

"Logically, if it were just for an experiment, tearing up a couple of boards should suffice, right?"

"And this vegetable soup, shouldn't a microscope be good enough, why splatter it on the ceiling..."

"Does it have some special significance?"

Yun You couldn't figure it out for the time being.

She simply set her bag down, took off her gas mask and hazmat suit, wiped the sweat off her steamy body, and began a detailed search around the room.

The town had no pink smog, and the air quality tested by the chip confirmed no toxins or pollutants, so wearing a thick hazmat suit wasn't particularly meaningful, only hindering movement and vision, thus Yun You took it off.

As for appearance issues, she still wore her silver mask, so there was no need to worry about revealing her true face.

And so, she patiently searched, turning everything over, not missing a single gap...

Yet...

As time ticked by, she still couldn't find a single clue.