Chapter 4225: Evil Spirit Possession (Thirteen)

When Bruce woke from the dream, he felt a wave of weakness. He thought it was because the dilapidated house they had found was drafty, causing him to catch a chill. But deep down he knew that contact with these supernatural events would inevitably damage his psyche. It was only for the sake of more clues that he had no choice but to do so.

Dawn was just breaking; orange mixed with purple morning mist rose from the horizon, giving a hazy, dreamlike feeling. Big Canyon Town was indeed beautiful, yet everyone knew this place was no paradise. In stark contrast to such beautiful, tranquil scenery, there was bound to be an evil and dark story here.

With a creak, the door was pushed open. Kent walked in from outside. He took off his glasses, rubbed the space between his eyebrows, and then said, "I didn't find any living people in town. Perhaps some are still hiding in houses or basements, but I couldn't find them."

"Not surprising," Bruce said. "When the fire started, none of them came out, proving there probably aren't many living people left here. We shouldn't investigate in this direction. Perhaps we can go take a look at the waterfall."

Kent nodded and said, "My colleague mentioned that some people refer to this place simply as Waterfall Town."

Bruce frowned slightly. He said, "Waterfall Town is a real town in Utah, USA. And in the memories I saw, the clown performer's hometown was precisely Utah. Could this be Waterfall Town?"

"But even if the real-world Waterfall Town declined further, it wouldn't be down to just this handful of people, right? And I heard it's considered a decent tourist spot; even tourists should be numerous."

"This proves the Waterfall Town we're in right now is abnormal. Have you ever heard of the Inner World?"

"I can roughly imagine," Kent said, "but I don't feel everything here is illusory, because not only are there no people here, there are no monsters either."

"Not necessarily." Bruce shook his head. "For some reason, I have a bad premonition; perhaps we need to speed up."

The two set off immediately, heading for Big Canyon Town's waterfall. But upon seeing the waterfall, they were somewhat disappointed, because it wasn't a very large waterfall, probably only three or four meters high. The water flow sounded powerful, but on closer look, the current wasn't actually fast.

The pool beneath the waterfall was beautiful; under the morning light, cold mist rose up, making the surrounding jungle even more mysterious. There had originally been a path here, but because it hadn't been walked in too long, it was overgrown with weeds, and the two had a hard time picking their way through. After much difficulty they reached the bottom of the waterfall, gazing at the boundless lake surface, and really couldn't see any clues.

Before long, Bruce discovered a series of footprints. Kent was pleasantly surprised, thinking they had found other people. But Bruce said, "These are Mr. Rodriguez's footprints. And there's another woman, should be Linda. They went into the water to catch fish, and may have grilled fish here, because I smell the stench of entrails."

"They ran all the way here to catch and grill fish? Quite the leisurely mood," Kent said. "I reckon he wanted to pry some intel out of this girl. But that won't be easy; Linda looks like she has a traumatic past."

Bruce looked at him with some surprise and asked, "How do you know?"

"They're all like that," Kent merely said.

Then they also went up to the top of the waterfall and looked around; there were no clues there either. But on the way down, Bruce looked behind the waterfall's spray.

"Is there a rock over there?" Bruce asked.

Kent also leaned over to look, then nodded and said, "There is indeed one. A very small rock. What about it?"

"That doesn't look like a naturally formed rock from the mountain," Bruce said. "It looks a bit man-made. Can we get over there to look?"

Kent estimated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Probably not. That rock is too small, and not fixed securely; if the two of us go down we'll definitely fall."

"The warehouse should still have some leftover burnt stuff; we can bring it over and build a path across. I suspect there might be clues there," Bruce said.

Kent didn't object; he merely said, "Between the two of us you weigh less, so it's better if you go, but approaching the waterfall you'll definitely get soaked. Are you sure you'll be fine?"

"Thanks for the concern, I'm fine."

"You really should look in a mirror," Kent said. "Do you know how bad your complexion is right now? Your face is pale as if you haven't eaten in days."

"I said, thanks for the concern." Bruce walked toward the town without looking back. Kent pressed his lips tight, looking a bit angry. But he raised his head and glanced at the void, and in the end said nothing.

They went to the burnt-down warehouse and fetched some things. Most everything there had been melted by fire, but some metal items remained, like cage bars and such. Bruce spent a long time bending some off, and also found some rope nearby. They took these things and returned to the waterfall.

After returning, they tied the rope to a tree and tested it, but it wasn't long enough, so they drove those bars into the ground to secure them, then tied the rope to them. Kent was responsible for standing guard at the top of the waterfall, ensuring the rope wouldn't come loose. The lighter Bruce went down to investigate.

The waterfall had not only water flow, but also spray and water vapor. As soon as Bruce lowered himself on the rope, his pants were basically soaked, and further down his whole body was drenched. But he did indeed confirm his guess — that stone slab that suddenly appeared at the side of the waterfall, looking rather abrupt, was indeed nailed there by someone; the chiseled grooves in the rock wall were still there.

What puzzled him somewhat, though, was what the point of nailing a stone slab here was.

Bruce swung on the rope to the other side of the waterfall, standing right above the stone slab, and then discovered a rock crevice behind the waterfall's turbulent flow — very thin and narrow; if not viewed from this angle, it would be completely invisible.

Bruce hesitated briefly, but still crouched, used the rock wall to push off hard, and jumped directly onto that crevice. He tugged the rope; Kent peered over from above. Bruce said, "There might be a cave behind this; I'm going in to look! You stay outside!"

Kent hugged his arms, face dark, not speaking. But Bruce ignored him completely; he untied the rope and squeezed through the crevice, just wide enough for an adult man to pass sideways.

The moment he entered, he found the space suddenly opened up — this was actually a fairly large cave, and not damp at all, rather dry. And Bruce found traces of human activity here.

On the side of the cave was a pile of firewood, looked like it hadn't been burned yet, but in the middle there was a campfire, already burned charred black. Bruce walked over and half-knelt to examine it; the instant he touched that campfire, another segment of memory flooded into his mind.

"One fish, two fish, three fish... looks like this fishing contraption works pretty well. Would be nice if I could get a few more."

A very childish voice came. Immediately followed by the crackling of flames, then the sight of fish skewered on sticks turning.

"Hiss... it really is a bit cold here. If it weren't for... wouldn't have had to run to this place. Damn it. It's gonna burn!"

"Bing, oh Bing, you can't even grill a fish right. This belted salmon is the most fragrant, and you just had to burn it, sigh."

"Forget it, better head back early. If they find out, I'm done for. Let's go, let's go."

After the memory ended, Bruce was dazed again. From the voice, this child was very young, even a toddler, probably not over five years old.

This also explained why the other party could enter this crevice relying on just a stone slab nailed to the rock wall — because this slab wasn't meant for grabbing with hands to leverage; a four- or five-year-old child could simply jump up onto it.

Even so, it was extremely risky, requiring great courage and superb skill. Ordinary children of this age couldn't do it. But the one in the memory was clearly different. Who was this boy called Bing? What was he doing in this cave?

Bruce felt some doubt. Unfortunately, the memory he saw was first-person, so he couldn't see his own face, but he instinctively felt this little boy should be connected to that clown performer.

After searching the cave, Bruce really did find some fish bones, though few in number. For an adult, it might be just a few meals' worth, but if it was a child, he might have eaten here many times.

Taking such a huge risk to come here and catch and grill fish — this kid either has mental issues or is starving desperate. Bruce leaned toward the latter — no one understands the severity of hunger among America's underclass better than he does.

To this day, about 20% of children in America still go hungry. The definition of going hungry here is the inability to guarantee the most basic nutritional supply, leading to malnutrition. To starve a child to this extent basically means a family that can't even guarantee one fast-food meal a day.

American fast food is already cheap enough, but families that can eat frozen fast food to their fill are already considered to have fairly decent circumstances. Quite a few can't even afford that kind of food, because their parents spend almost all their money on drugs. Most such families quickly end up displaced, and why no homeless children are seen on the streets is a bit like a grim joke.

Bruce sighed. He did feel some sympathy for this little Bing; look at what kids have been driven to, crossing mountains and ridges to come grill fish. It's just that this kid has ability, plus the nearby natural environment supports it; if placed in Gotham he'd be a big shot too... never mind, in Gotham he might not be able to catch fish.

After gathering all the clues here, Bruce left. But possibly because he was soaked through and had been washed by the waterfall twice, his whole body was now shivering with cold, teeth chattering uncontrollably.

"Stop being stubborn, you damn bastard!" Kent couldn't help cursing. He said, "Come here, I'll carry you down!"

Bruce indeed could no longer be stubborn, because he could feel himself getting hotter and hotter — a sign of hypothermia. These things can't be overcome by willpower; he urgently needed a heat source, a warm environment, and sufficient food.

But at the same time Bruce was somewhat puzzled. He had checked earlier; this instance restricted superpowers, but physical fitness was unchanged. He normally built up fat reserves during training to prevent rapid hypothermia and energy depletion. Before entering the water he had also estimated, and it shouldn't have ended up this miserable.

But soon, he would know why.