Chapter Sixty: A Corpse Fraught with Doubt
Page (1/3)
Plop...
The head of the "Silent Mourner" fell and rolled close by, repeating history once more.
Only then did the vision before Colin's eyes truly end; all scenes and objects swiftly lost their color, dissolving into white mist and vanishing. He felt himself return to reality, and a clear sound reached his ears, as if resurfacing from the depths of the ocean.
“Hah... hah... hah...”
A terrifying sense of palpitations surged over him like a tide. Colin bent slightly, clutching his chest, breathing heavily.
At that moment, gentle white light radiated, dispelling the gloom that had sprouted within. Seeing Colin recover, Shana softly asked, “What happened?”
It wasn’t that she was especially curious about those events, but rather she wished to guide him emotionally, allowing Colin to fully release the pressure in his heart.
“Nothing much, just a little accident. I’m all right now.”
Colin hid the truth almost instinctively, putting on a smile to ease their worries. Whatever he witnessed in the dream wouldn’t help even if he spoke of it.
As he spoke, Colin tore off the "Meditation Headscarf." He had already realized the cause of this anomaly.
It was this headscarf...
[You vaguely sense that the subsequent anomaly of the "Twisted Soul" originated from lingering psychic influence on this item, but now it has dissipated and poses no real harm.]
Upon seeing the notification, Colin suddenly felt he’d been tricked. Only now did he understand the concept of "psychic residue."
Previously, without this concept, Colin wouldn’t have thought to use the prompt in that way.
He realized that mysterious items aren’t simply usable once acquired; if possible, they should be detoxified first.
“Some psychic remnant from that monster guessed I’d use the headscarf… He seems to know me, or rather, our group…”
“What did his words mean? A warning? Warning us, the ‘outsiders’ who invaded this land?”
Reflecting on what had happened, Colin thought of many things in an instant, but… gained little.
Crucial information was still too scarce…
He didn’t rush to check the quest; instead, he glanced at the massive remains on the ground, paused in silence, then took out a dozen barrels of explosives…
First things first: detoxify.
Page (2/3)
Lacking occult methods, he settled for physical ones…
After handing them over, Colin opened the armored vehicle's door, climbed inside, and directed them to continue advancing inward, forging a path toward the church.
Finally, Colin took advantage of this moment to open the quest list.
[Quest Triggered: Guardian of the High Court.]
[Quest Requirement: Explore “Church Passage—High Court Ruins,” confirm the situation within the High Court.]
[Quest Duration: Unlimited.]
[Quest Description: The former guardian has fallen. He believes himself unworthy to keep watch, yet he longs to know what lies beyond the gate. Please fulfill his wish as soon as possible.]
[Quest Reward: Hard Black Bread ×99, Recovery Cards ×3, Treasure Map Fragment ×1, Random Creation Blueprint ×1.]
[Hint: You sense that if you explore the underground passage and seek the source of the Luminous Stone, you will conveniently complete this quest, for the source is most likely within the High Court ruins.]
“Well… that’s convenient.”
Colin finished reading, unsure how to describe the feeling. He sensed a strange undertone, as if many things were guiding him toward that area.
Nevertheless, Colin had already decided to go, but before that, they would rest for a night, recuperate, and begin exploring the underground passage tomorrow, along with searching for the collapse mentioned by the other group.
He would compare the routes and determine which to take.
If memory served, the dangers below the passage and those in the mist did not overlap; there was no gray mist there, and some unknown force shielded the area.
So even at night, he needn’t worry about events in the gray mist affecting that region.
However, correspondingly, it was a dangerous zone with overlapping areas, full of terrifying threats.
The danger likely matched that of nightfall.
Yet, so far, whether in chat channels or discussed topics, no useful intelligence about the night had surfaced.
Those who left their cabins at night faced two outcomes: either nothing happened, or they disappeared.
No one knew what truly lurked in the darkness.
“Furthermore, based on current intelligence, triggered quests almost always involve a lord-level aberration. It’s possible not all do, but so far, there’s been no exception, so conservatively, there must be at least one lord-level aberration in the underground region…”
Of course, since this quest itself originated from a lord-level aberration and already met the condition for involving one, the underground might not be as dangerous as Colin feared.
Still, nothing should be left to chance.
Page (3/3)
Besides that, as he returned to this area, a nearly forgotten matter resurfaced in Colin’s mind.
That female corpse…
Not long after leaving the cabin, when he first received the quest to go to the church, he saw the corpse. At the time, bewildered, he assumed she was just another survivor like himself.
A pitiful soul, unlucky enough to die soon after stepping out.
But now, with a deeper understanding of the mist world, Colin realized the corpse was riddled with mysteries.
No, not merely mysteries…
It was full of suspicious points. With the information he now possessed, many of his earlier assumptions had been overturned.
For example…
The most obvious point: the one who removed her head…
It was definitely not the "Silent Mourner"…
From what Colin knew, that creature would more likely wield a multi-ton candelabrum and smash down in one blow.
If so, the corpse would be formless, not sitting intact and preserved so well.
So… who tore off her head?
Colin was certain no other survivor could have done it…
To wrench her head off with the body otherwise unchanged… this wasn’t just brute strength.
If someone had that ability, Colin wouldn’t still be ranked first.
Of course, it was clear that the monster did indeed approach the corpse…
After all, the footprints were its own—no one could have faked them.
But evidently, there was a cognitive misstep: the woman’s death and the arrival of the Silent Mourner could not be equated.
It likely merely arrived afterward.
Before that… she had probably already died…
For a reason Colin still could not even imagine.