Deep in the Living
Chapter 389 - 377 Visiting

Chapter 389: Chapter 377 Visiting

Yu Ze looked at the scene before him with a bitter smile.

All sorts of divination and fortune-telling techniques were greatly restricted in the Corner, though he had known this for a while. Only in stable and gentle environments like Earth could divination be most effective.

To perform divination normally within the Corner, Yu Ze would need to at least sprout a pituitary bud in his brain, grow a plant structure, and harmonize with the Fear here, allowing it to regard him as kin.

Since many things couldn’t be divined, he could only rely on perception to judge the situation.

He had heard many things about the Exploration Bureau while staying in the Special Action Department, including the newcomer experience and the journey to the Exploration Bureau Headquarters.

These were relatively safe, low-risk surface layer activities. They mainly helped newcomers adapt to the fear environment of the Corner, teaching them the most basic exploration and in-depth modes.

The real Corner exploration only began after reaching headquarters.

Now it’s alright.

During the newcomer experience, Yu Ze not only encountered a powerful and unregistered monster,

but on the way to headquarters, he encountered another one.

The current spatial lockdown and environmental changes clearly indicated the monster came from the Corner Depths, with its brain pituitary already developed into a mature plant capable of controlling Fear Entities to alter the surface layer’s spatial structure.

This monster might be on par with or stronger than the previous clown.

"Miss Youzhen, have you seen this monster before? Your breathing is getting faster; you weren’t this panicked when facing the clown before."

Youzhen’s voice came from behind, mixed with rapid breaths, and her whole aura became chaotic.

"I’ve seen it... He’s the one who slaughtered the squad I was in. He clearly should reside in the middle section, so why come here specifically?

Is it because I was marked before, or is there another reason?

We can’t... we can’t survive."

Yu Ze frowned, guessing roughly what was going on but hadn’t expected the monster to be strong enough to decimate a formal exploration squad.

He wasn’t prepared to face such a monster, and the situation was extremely dire.

The only good news was,

their journey to headquarters was highly prioritized, and Yu Ze trusted the Exploration Bureau’s strength, believing they should have already detected the anomaly here.

Now he needed to make this "anomaly" more conspicuous and easier to notice.

The usual gentleness and spontaneity in Yu Ze were completely wiped away, even his voice changed, becoming purely commanding:

"I don’t care what happened before, tell me the intel on this monster in the most concise words at once."

Youzhen, as if scolded, straightened her body and filtered out most of her previous negative emotions, quickly summarizing the information in her brain: "Red Door Monster, mature in plants, termed ’Carnivorous Family’ by the Exploration Bureau.

Keywords: ’meat-eating’, ’family’, ’massacre’, ’enclosed space’

We can’t possibly deal with this guy now, let’s think of a way to escape.

I know Yu Ze, you have many methods, maybe you can find an exit in this enclosed space, I’ll try to buy time for you."

"No escape." Yu Ze directly negated Youzhen’s proposal, "Since you escaped last time, the adversary surely reinforced and improved for that.

Moreover, last time there were so many agents assisting, whereas Luo Di and I are just newcomers who have yet to grow plants.

The only way for us to survive is one."

Yu Ze raised one finger, turning to gaze at Youzhen behind him:

"Use all our strength, with killing this guy as the only goal, even if it means throwing away concerns about the [clown]... Can you do it?"

Youzhen roughly understood the meaning, nodding, "Okay."

With a brief exchange ended,

when they looked again toward the passage’s corner where a young boy stood, the boy had already stood up and extended his arm in an inviting gesture.

"Uncles and aunts, my dad invites you to our house for dinner. He’s already prepared the meal, please come quickly, or the food will get cold."

"Alright."

Yu Ze immediately forced a smile to respond and took steps forward, approaching proactively.

While walking, he communicated to Youzhen behind him, "Let’s follow the monster’s suggestion to visit their house; we should try to get as much information about that monster along the way."

"Okay."

Yu Ze chose to respond to the monster’s invitation, as declining and staying put would most likely anger it.

Every action now would determine their ultimate survival.

"Once inside the Carnivorous Family’s ’territory’, our flesh will be extremely vulnerable to being sliced off.

Any contact with the family might result in bodily loss.

Our team was once best at frontal combat; even Kaven from the Extermination Department managed to suppress the family members initially but soon noticed his flesh dwindling.

Avoid physical confrontation, especially Luo Di—do not engage in a melee fight with this monster."

Luo Di, who was walking in the middle, nodded, retracting the sword hilt, leaving only a slender metal wire protruding from his palm.

Youzhen continued, "The family should have four members, the most dangerous being a middle-aged male. We currently don’t have a numerical advantage, frontal combat is virtually..."

"I told you to state the monster’s information, not to prattle..."

A distinctly different aura emanated from Yu Ze, even making Youzhen’s forehead bead with cold sweat; this aura contrasted sharply with Yu Ze’s previous demeanor she knew.

By this time, the squad had reached the corner where the young boy was,

under his guidance, arriving at a household’s door,

the cleft-lip boy unlocked the door with a key hanging from his neck, taking out two pairs of slippers of suitable size from the shoe cabinet, smiling as he looked at the couple.

Yet Yu Ze’s concern was neither the boy nor the slippers, but a scent.

A scent wafting out as the door opened.

The aroma of meat,

reminiscent of that from the street braised meat shops, but more intense and fragrant.

"Come in."

Yu Ze stepped over the threshold without any hesitation, changing into the slippers.

Proactively walking into this ordinary two-bedroom apartment.

Today seemed to be a relatively important holiday, as all the light bulbs inside were turned off, replaced by rows of red candles.

The candlelight flickered lightly as they walked by.

Following the scent to the dining room, the young boy had already taken his seat.

A family of four was sitting around the table,

five dishes were placed on the wooden table, all covered with stainless steel lids, yet the aroma of meat still wafted out from within.

As the captain, Yu Ze sat beside the young boy,

Youzhen and Luo Di sat on the opposite side of the table.

Though she tried hard to suppress her own fear,

as she looked up at the family of four in front of her, especially the middle-aged man opposite her, a dark red Fear flowed into her body like mud, immobilizing her lead-filled legs on the chair.

The rice in front of her was completely cold, with two chopsticks inserted vertically into it.

The middle-aged man in a kitchen apron began his pre-meal speech:

"Now that everyone is here, let’s begin dinner.

The dishes tonight are a bit special, we’ll reveal them one by one, please be patient."

Then, he reached for the first dish and lifted the stainless steel lid.

Inside wasn’t any ordinary dish but a human hand... Seeing this structure, Youzhen suddenly looked at her own hands, but they were still intact.

Drip, drip~

The sound of liquid dripping came from beside her.

An intense feeling of unease spread through her body.

She trembled slightly as she turned her head, discovering Yu Ze staring wide-eyed, his arm resting on the table missing a hand, unable to even hold the simplest chopstick.