Nightmare Assault

After inspecting the body, the three exited the toilet. No one felt good dealing with such a creepy corpse.

“The time of death is within the last three hours.” The muscular man glanced at the pocket watch and said confidently, “So, it was between 2 am and 5 am.”

“How can you tell?” The man glanced at the innocent girl who asked the question. He told them about the night watch shift and showed her the watch. It showed that seven hours had passed. The person on duty after the victim was Fatty. Fatty had to pee before he took his shift, and it was he who discovered the body when he went to use the toilet.

At that moment, Fatty crawled up shakily from the ground. He asked about the middle-aged man. The muscular man sighed, closed the toilet door and led everyone back to the fireplace.

As a newbie, Jiang Cheng had said basically nothing. He had been listening and analysing. It was mostly the woman with the mole and the muscular man who did all the talking. Through the conversation, Jiang Cheng gleaned that no one would die for no reason in this world. The victim must have triggered some kind of taboo, and this taboo would most likely be the key clue to solving the mission.

“What did he do that we didn’t?” The male worker curled up between Jiang Cheng and the innocent girl. He was clearly frightened. He didn’t want to die suddenly like the middle-aged man. The innocent girl frowned and said, “Could it be that he had used the first-floor toilet? Is that the hidden taboo of this mission?”

“That can’t be.” Fatty squatted there, hugged his knees and whispered, “I used that toilet too, when we were searching the house yesterday.”

Jiang Cheng looked at Fatty and said, “Then you better be careful. Your neck might be thick, but someone can still snap it with enough force.” Fatty almost cried. The muscular man was not satisfied with Jiang Cheng’s attitude, but he only shook his head. They had all used the first-floor toilet, so it made no sense that the middle-aged man was the only one who died.

“Maybe it’s not our turn yet?” The woman with the mole chuckled darkly, “As you know, the ghost rarely kills consecutively in a short amount of time.” The muscular man glared at the woman, but he didn’t counter her.

“So those things do exist…” Jiang Cheng’s guess was verified. The door that appeared in his dream was supernatural, and it was normal for ghosts to appear in a supernatural event.

“So, we’re fighting ghosts and not humans?!” The male worker’s face paled. Everyone ignored him again.

“Since someone has died, this also means that this bungalow is our destination. The so-called trip is a lie. The appearance of that bus is to send us here.” The innocent girl looked around, “The issue is with this bungalow.”

“What can the issue be?”

The innocent girl stared at Fatty, who asked the question and answered, “For example, something bad could have happened here before.”

The bungalow looked luxurious, and it showed no signs of being damaged. It was indeed suspicious to have it abandoned just like this. Jiang Cheng agreed with the girl’s assessment. The muscular man walked to the front door, grabbed the doorknob and shook it hard. The door didn’t budge. “We’re locked in.” The ma tried thrice before turning around to say, “It looks like this is really our mission venue. Before solving the mission here, we can’t leave this place.”

“Since we’ve confirmed the location, we should split up to look for clues. It’s already daylight. There shouldn’t be any danger.”

Regardless, the middle-aged man’s death was a warning bell, especially for the three newbies. To increase efficiency, they split into groups with a newbie led by an experienced survivor. Fatty paired up with the muscular man; the male worker stayed with the woman with the mole; Jiang Cheng joined the innocent girl.

For the sake of safety, the search zone was limited to the first floor. The muscular man’s group would handle the area near the front door and the living room. The woman and the worker would search the garage, which was slightly out of the way. Jiang Cheng and the innocent girl would focus on the kitchen and the dining room. Everyone was within each other’s line of sight so they could keep an eye on each other. With the earlier experience, the search this time was more thorough. Half an hour later, the three groups gathered around the fireplace again. By then, the sky was fully bright.

“We found this in the garage.” The woman took out a thick hemp rope. A section had an eye-catching red on it.

The muscular man took it over and gave it a yank. Then, he sniffed it, “It’s blood.” He looked up at the woman. The woman nodded. “I also found this behind a roll of wood.” She opened her left hand. In the middle of her palm was a light green brooch. It had a maple-leaf shape. It felt like the owner was a kind girl. A girl was once tied up in the garage.

“What did you find?” The woman turned to the muscular man.

“Come with me.” The man walked to the front door, and the rest followed him. Standing beside the door, the muscular man touched around the wall. Jiang Cheng noticed a light blue switch hidden on the wall. The switch was hidden in the oil painting beside the door. It hid perfectly well in the painted blue sky.

When the man pressed the switch, the wall on the right of the door opened a crack. There was a very well-hidden shoe cupboard inside. The cupboard had three layers. The third layer was untouched, but the partitions of the first and second layers had been shattered. All kinds of shoes were mixed together. After some arranging, there were two pairs of male leather shoes, a pair of red female heels and three pairs of female flats.

The woman with the mole picked out one pair of flats and placed it beside the heels. “These should belong to the same person.” The remaining two pairs clearly belonged to a younger girl. All the shoe sizes matched.

The third layer had a pair of male sports shoes sitting on it. After comparison, it was far smaller than the male leather shoes.

“From what we can see so far, there was a family of four who once lived here. The father, the mother, and a son and a daughter.” The innocent girl said, “This coincides with the layout of the bedrooms upstairs. The main bedroom is for the parents, and the two smaller bedrooms are for the kids.”