Ruminas used the cloak's invisibility and temporarily hid in a room to avoid the monster. Having Beru drain her power had weakened her greatly, her limbs were shaking, and her face was slightly red.
Her tired eyes wanted to close but before she could rest for long, a resounding sound woke her up again.
Already-
Boom!
The wall of the room she was taking shelter in was destroyed, rocks and dirt flew everywhere, and the growls from the monsters were very close.
Ruminas quickly retreated.
Even though she had used her invisibility, the snake seemed to have some sort of marking ability that allowed it to always find its prey, and now it had found her.
Ruminas held the spear in her hand but her body became weaker since Beru drained her power, if she fought she would die in just one blow.
"Faster!"
The snake roared loudly and charged.
Ruminas shielded herself with her spear and closed her eyes, but instead of a deadly bite, she only felt the temperature around her begin to drop.
Beru had absorbed enough energy and green energy veins were emitted from its body beneath its shell, they began to spread throughout the centipede's body, like blood vessels pumping with new energy.
Beru roared, immediately a cold air swept past causing some monsters to freeze instantly but the snake did not give up and continued to charge forward.
"Freeze everything!" Ruminas shouted.
Beru released all of his power, the temperature quickly dropped to minus tens of degrees and when the cold air slowly dissipated, Ruminas saw before her eyes the scene of everything frozen.
Including the one with its mouth wide open and only a few centimeters away from her. After releasing its power, Beru also collapsed onto Ruminas' shoulder.
"Good job!"
Ruminas patted its head once and used all her remaining strength to run towards the control room. Finally, she stood before an old metal door, her hand raised—
BANG!
One kick was enough to blow the door open.
Inside was a dark room with dusty control panels and dimly lit screens. The space was cramped, with only one exit.
Ruminas's eyes scanned the panels, searqing for the subway system, but she eventually found the light switch in this room first.
"That's good, with light I don't have to grope around for long."
She walked quickly to a large screen—
And saw a line on it: "Subway System: READY TO START"
Her eyes flashed sharply.
"Good. Just activate it and the rails will open and I can go back."
But just as she reached out to press the button—
BOOM!
A sound rang out.
The door behind him suddenly slammed shut. The heavy metallic sound echoed, creating a sense of unease in anyone who heard it, and Ruminas was no exception.
She turned around.
There was only a patch of darkness there but Ruminas also realized that the clown was alone in this room.
From the darkness of the room, a strange entity gradually emerged.
It had a shape that was almost humanoid with long black hair, but it was horribly distorted. Its body was like an indefinite black shadow, its features were unclear, its face was covered by a layer of cloth but Ruminas could feel it looking at him with extremely greedy eyes.
It made no footsteps. It just floated, slowly moving towards her, as if it did not belong to this world.
Ruminas immediately drew her axe.
She didn't know what this was, but her instincts were screaming warnings of danger.
"What the hell is this again… Appraisal!"
[NPC: Woman with Slit Mouth]
[Description: A woman with a torn mouth has turned into a demon and wanders the foggy nights looking for a substitute. Men will be killed instantly, but women will have their mouths slit like hers and become substitutes]
[Characteristics: Ability to manipulate the victim's mind to do what she wants]
[Weakness: Ask her back what she asked]
"NPC? This devilish thing is an NPC?" Ruminas was extremely surprised but at the same time she also felt that this introduction sounded somewhat familiar because it was like she had heard about it somewhere before..
While Ruminas was thinking, the entity gradually approached her, it stopped for a moment when the distance was only a few steps, then spoke—
A voice echoed, mixed among hundreds of other sounds, as if countless people were speaking at once.
"A prey has come to find itself…"
Ruminas narrowed her eyes, her hand tightening on the axe handle.
"Who is the prey is still unknown!"
The entity tilted its head, looking at her indifferently as if her words just now held no weight at all to it.
Then it disappeared—
In the blink of an eye.
Ruminas judged the position and immediately turned around, swinging the axe—
BOOM!
The axe blade sliced through the air, but the swing was so powerful that the ground beneath her feet cracked.
She clearly felt that the entity was behind her but couldn't hit it.
A sinister laugh rang out and the entity once again appeared behind her. A voice whispered close to her ear: "Are you sure?"
Ruminas reflexively swung her dagger back—
But even before the knife could touch it, the entity disappeared once more.
No sense of touch.
Bloodless.
As if it never existed.
Ruminas let out a small breath.
She wasn't one to panic. But this thing… was unlike any monster she'd ever faced.
It has no weight.
It does not emit murderous aura.
And…
It is playing with her.
In the darkness, the entity's twisted smile widened further.
"Do you… want to play a game?" It said softly.
"What game?" Ruminas asked back.
She knew it was impossible to escape from here without doing anything, but the thing in front of her was an NPC and not a monster so she still had a chance, as long as she could win its game.
The other entity raised its hand forward and a system notification rang out.
[The Woman with the Slit Mouth NPC has proposed a mini-game to you. Do you accept?]
[Reward: 500 EXP, 5 Optional Stat Points]
Ruminas thought for a moment then chose yes.
"Answer my question honestly. Am I… beautiful?" the entity asked.
"Huh…?"
Ruminas realized where the thing in front of her came from when she heard this question. It was one of the demons that were passed down in the extremely famous urban legends in Japan.
"These things can also turn into NPCs???"
Ruminas knew that she couldn't use force to solve this problem, but instead she had to use other methods to restrain this entity.
"Answer me, am I beautiful?" the entity asked again.
Ruminas frowned, her eyes flashing with both annoyance and wariness. If this really was the Slit-Mouthed Woman, then she would have to be extremely careful with her answer.
In legend, if the answer is yes, she will remove the cloth covering her mouth, revealing a grin that cuts from ear to ear, and then her scissors will cut open the mouth. If the answer is no, the victim is killed instantly. And no matter what the answer, the result is usually death.
"It's a trap."
But with the information already known, Ruminas would never make such a mistake.
She did not answer but asked the same question: "Do I look beautiful?"
The entity before it paused. Its twisted smile seemed to freeze for a moment, as if it had not expected its prey to ask it a question in return. Its distorted body began to contort. The shadows clinging to it like mist were slowly dissipating.
Ruminas kept a tight grip on the axe handle, in case anything happened.
"Okay, you win," she said.
"Is it that simple?" Ruminas asked back.
"I will not break my rules, whether it is an urban legend or an NPC."
Ruminas was slightly surprised. "You were aware of this?" she asked.
The woman turned her back to Ruminas. "It has been like this since the beginning," she said, and slowly disappeared.
[You won]
[Receive: 500 EXP, 5 Optional Stat Points]
[Enough EXP to level up]
[Level Up Reward: 5 Optional Stat Points]
"Um, let's split it evenly. Five points for agility, five points for strength."
After the woman left, the space returned to normal. Ruminas waited a little longer to make sure nothing else happened. After making sure, she quickly left the control room.
The goal now will be to reach the subway in the mission.
Ruminas turned on the map, she saw that her current location was in the control room, five extremely long corridors away from the other ship, and there would definitely be no shortage of monsters on the way there.
"Well, let's go with the flow. I hope the others are okay."
Ruminas said to himself and started running.
Her figure gradually blended into the darkness of this place without realizing that from behind the woman with the slit mouth was silently observing her, beside her was another person, who looked like a woman wearing a kimono, holding an umbrella that covered her face.