Chapter 55: Battle in the Graveyard (Asking for Votes!!)

Lei Kedun followed Mr. Ke Si around the graveyard for several laps, discovering many traces left by what looked like the claws of large animals.

"Is this monster infected with the werewolf virus sharpening its claws? No matter if it's a tree or a stone, it has to scratch it a little." Lei Kedun muttered, somewhat speechless.

The claw marks found after this round were unusually numerous, as if the other side had deliberately left a trace everywhere.

"These marks weren't left at the same time; they were scratched out over a day or two." Mr. Ke Si said after carefully examining each scratch.

"You can tell that too?" Lei Kedun asked in surprise.

"Yes, this is the ability of the Watchers. You'll be able to do it once you advance." Mr. Ke Si nodded in response.

"How long does the werewolf virus take to take effect on a target? During that period, does the body mutate uncontrollably toward the monster?" Lei Kedun asked curiously, staring at a scratch on a tombstone.

Mr. Ke Si pondered for a moment before saying, "I'm not sure either, but controlling a target with the werewolf virus indeed requires letting the toxin infiltrate the target for a period of time."

"Could these marks have been left by the person infected with the werewolf toxin? He was only infected at the time, not directly controlled by the werewolf, so he left these traces while struggling." Lei Kedun offered his guess.

"That's possible. If so, he's likely still nearby." Mr. Ke Si thought it over and also felt the likelihood wasn't low.

Lei Kedun stood on a protruding stone and looked around; the area was densely packed with tombstones and trees. Although there was plenty of stuff, hiding a human-sized monster wouldn't be easy.

"This doesn't really look like a place where a monster could hide, does it? What are the characteristics of a werewolf‑virus‑infected monster?" Lei Kedun asked aloud.

"Their lives tend to be short." Mr. Ke Si didn't know much more.

"What about the grave keeper here? If there really is a monster, he'd probably be the most dangerous, right?" Lei Kedun asked.

"The grave keeper has been missing for several days already." Mr. Ke Si shook his head.

"Has he turned into a werewolf‑virus‑infected monster?" Lei Kedun blurted out.

"Maybe." Mr. Ke Si couldn't offer any useful information.

Speaking of the grave keeper, Lei Kedun suggested going to check where the grave keeper lives, perhaps there would be an unexpected gain.

The grave keeper's residence is at the roadside of the graveyard entrance—a simple white‑painted single‑room shack. We passed by it when we entered the graveyard earlier, but we didn't go inside to examine it closely.

The grave keeper's room was a bit messy, with the pillow and blanket dragged onto the floor, as if he had left in a hurry, without time to tidy up or close the door.

Lei Kedun covertly used the Peeking Eye at the doorway to scan the interior, finding nothing abnormal; perhaps several days had passed and any original anomalies had already dissipated.

Mr. Ke Si walked inside and carefully inspected every corner of the room, then restored the furnishings to their original state.

"He left in a great hurry, as if something had startled him." Mr. Ke Si drew that conclusion.

"Maybe he was infected with the werewolf toxin, or maybe he discovered suspicious intruders breaking into the graveyard?" Lei Kedun followed up on Mr. Ke Si's remark.

"It probably isn't that he discovered an intruder; that wouldn't make a grave keeper panic like this." Mr. Ke Si said, thinking.

Lei Kedun didn't interrupt Mr. Ke Si's contemplation; instead, he went out on his own, found a good spot, and surveyed the entire graveyard.

"Werewolves are probably more accustomed to night, right? Would an infected person have that habit too? If he's still in this graveyard, the only place that could both satisfy some of his habits and conceal him would be..." Lei Kedun said.

"Inside the tombs." Mr. Ke Si picked up Lei Kedun's line.

"Do we have to check each tomb one by one?" Lei Kedun asked.

"Unless we have a spell for locating people." Mr. Ke Si responded noncommittally.

In the end, Lei Kedun and Mr. Ke Si could only start from the graveyard entrance and inspect each tomb one by one, lasting until noon, with nothing found.

"I'm exhausted; this guy is too good at hiding, or did we guess wrong?" Lei Kedun doubted his earlier inference.

"We've only checked half; maybe it's not here." Mr. Ke Si said while checking the surroundings of the tombstones.

"Where's your rabbit? Why isn't it by your side?" Mr. Ke Si noticed that Tu Ba Ge had somehow left Lei Kedun's side at some point.

"It felt too hot, so it ran to the shade of a tree to rest." Lei Kedun shrugged.

Tu Ba Ge, off to the side, found a patch of grass in the shade and lay down. After a short while, he felt a chill on his rear. Not wanting to move, he rolled over in the grass and ended up falling into a pit.

"Wooah~" Lei Kedun heard his rabbit suddenly cry out, turned his head, but saw no sign of the rabbit that had been under the tree shade.

Having fallen into the pit, Tu Ba Ge braced all four feet against the ground below, preventing himself from rolling all the way down the slope.

Just as Tu Ba Ge steadied himself and hadn't even caught his breath, a wave of malice washed over him. He turned his head to look deeper into the pit, where a pair of gloomy green eyes glowed, locking gazes with him.

A chilling thrill shot up from the rabbit's legs to its ears; Tu Ba Ge felt his rabbit's courage about to shatter. Instantly reverting to animal instinct, he frantically dug with all four legs and ran toward the pit's exit.

"Wuu~ Wooah!! Help!! Boss!" he screamed loudly while frantically running outward.

Before Lei Kedun could even start searching after hearing Tu Ba Ge's cry and seeing him disappear, the rabbit's heart‑rending wail came through.

Lei Kedun pulled a pistol from his waist pouch with one hand and moved toward the shade where Tu Ba Ge had been lying.

After letting out the wail, Tu Ba Ge quickly burst from a clump of grass and sprinted straight toward Lei Kedun.

Behind Tu Ba Ge, a dark shadow also lunged out. Its body was covered in patches of gray short fur, its claws were long, its eyes had turned gloomy green, its arms were abnormally swollen, its legs were slightly bent—it looked like an incomplete werewolf mutant.

"Bang! Bang!" Lei Kedun fired two shots in succession at the monster behind Tu Ba Ge.

The bullets' effect was poor; they merely used their own kinetic momentum to momentarily stall the monster's movement, causing no real damage.

"Boss! Help! There's a monster!" Tu Ba Ge leapt onto Lei Kedun's shoulder and ducked his head.

The commotion had already caught Mr. Ke Si's attention; after Lei Kedun fired two shots, Mr. Ke Si also began shooting continuously.

Mr. Ke Si's marksmanship was clearly far superior to Lei Kedun's; every bullet struck the werewolf‑virus‑infected monster squarely in the head.

The bullets hitting the monster's face made the skin split and flesh tear, turning its already gruesome visage even more horrifying.

Lei Kedun retreated while bracing Tu Ba Ge on his shoulder, swapping the bullets in his gun for ones with a purifying effect.

The monster seemed to have inherited the werewolf's partial self‑healing ability; although Mr. Ke Si's bullets split the flesh on its face, they weren't fatal, instead provoking the monster's hatred,

the monster abandoned the nearer Lei Kedun and Tu Ba Ge, darting in a rapid zig‑zag ("Z") pattern toward Mr. Ke Si.

Mr. Ke Si didn't retreat as the monster charged; instead he fired harder, and at the moment the monster's face was inches from his, he blew out its left eye with a single shot.

At the same time, Mr. Ke Si twisted his body at high speed, swept a leg sideways at the monster, then used the recoil to shift his position, and fired again, hitting the monster's right eye.

The monster's lunging body was directly knocked aside by Mr. Ke Si's combo, and it writhed in pain on the ground.

Having switched to purifying bullets, Lei Kedun also closed in and fired two shots straight at the werewolf‑virus‑infected monster.

"Bang! Bang!" The purifying bullets left a bright golden trail in the air before sinking into the monster's chest.

A "hiss‑hiss‑hiss" sound rose from within the monster's body, as thin strands of black smoke rose from the wounds where the purifying bullets had struck.

The monster's struggle intensified for a moment, then it became weak and feeble.

Leiketon, to be safe, fired another shot at the monster's forehead. The monster's feeble struggle paused for a moment, then it stopped moving altogether.

The three purification bullets he carried on him were used up, but this monster infected by a werewolf was also dealt with.

(End of chapter)