Chapter 149: The Kind Old Grandmother
The moment the voice reached them, every player tensed.
The appearance of an elderly woman in a place like this was more than just strange; it was deeply unsettling, a detail so out of place it could only be described as eerie.
"Be careful. It could be a trap," Ye Tian whispered, his hand already resting firmly on the hilt of his greatsword.
Haruto, too, was sizing up the seemingly ordinary old grandmother.
"Children, don't be so nervous," the old woman said, her smile growing even kinder, crinkling the corners of her eyes. "You've walked so far, you must be exhausted. Why don't you come in and have a cup of tea?"
She turned and pushed open the wooden door. The motion was perfectly natural, yet it only served to ratchet up the tension in the suffocating silence.
"What do you think?" Haruto asked, his gaze shifting to Yotsuya Miko.
Miko gave a slight, almost imperceptible nod. "I don't sense the aura of a ghost on her."
"Are we going in?" Lin Xuelao asked, her voice a soft murmur.
"Of course we're going in," Haruto replied, taking the first step forward without a hint of hesitation. Youmu, ever the silent shadow, followed immediately behind him.
Kaguya let out a light chuckle and nodded. "How could I possibly miss out on something so interesting?"
"Let's go! Boldly!" Ye Tian declared, hoisting his massive sword onto his shoulder. "Even if there's real danger, I'll just slay it with a single strike!" He strode inside with an air of absolute confidence.
Seeing that the strongest members of the expedition had already made their way into the wooden house, the remaining players exchanged uneasy glances before steeling themselves and following one after another.
The interior was spartan, furnished with simple wooden tables and chairs. Several strings of dried corn hung from the wall, adding to the rustic, isolated feel. The old grandmother was already at a stove, brewing hot tea, the steam curling gently into the air.
"Sit down, sit down. Don't be shy," she greeted them warmly.
Haruto and Kaguya calmly took their seats, while Youmu remained standing quietly to the side, her hand never straying far from her katana as she maintained constant vigilance.
Seeing Haruto act with such decisiveness, Ye Tian also sat down without a second thought. As the self-proclaimed number one, he had to walk the path of the invincible; showing even a hint of cowardice was out of the question.
"Elder," Haruto began, getting straight to the point, "why would you be living in a place like this?"
The old grandmother simply smiled, not answering directly. Instead, she offered, "You aren't the first group to come here. Some other young people, just like you, have visited before."
That single sentence made everyone's nerves tighten instantly. If this followed the usual script, was the old woman about to tell them she had killed every last one of them?
"Then where are they now?" Haruto pressed, his eyes narrowing slightly.
The old grandmother didn't answer right away. She let her gaze wander over their tense faces, a silent moment stretching on before she suddenly broke into a soft laugh.
"Children, there's no need to be so nervous. I'm not a ghost like you're imagining, nor am I a bad person. Those people simply stayed with me for a night and then left."
'Stayed for a night?' The claim immediately sparked doubt in Haruto's mind.
No matter how he looked at it, this old woman was a walking anomaly. This was an escape-type instance. The number of teams capable of reaching this location on the very first day could be counted on one hand. Even with vehicles, the noise would have inevitably attracted a horde of monsters. And even if a team did manage to arrive here, with the clock ticking down, who would dare to waste precious time staying overnight?
The other players present were no fools; the same inconsistencies naturally occurred to them. As the old grandmother began handing out cups of freshly brewed tea, everyone cautiously kept their hands to themselves, refusing to touch the steaming cups.
Only Kaguya seemed completely unbothered, gracefully accepting a cup and drinking it down before taking another, and then another, without the slightest hesitation. The members of the Ascending God organization watched her, dumbfounded. Wasn't she afraid there was something wrong with the tea?
"And what about you?" Haruto continued his questioning. "Why are you here? If they left, why didn't you go with them?"
A shadow of gloom passed over the old grandmother's aged face. "I'm just looking for my granddaughter. Ever since the world became like this, she and I have been all each other has. But one day, she disappeared... I can only search for her everywhere I go."
"My condolences," Haruto said, carefully observing her expression. The sadness in her eyes didn't seem feigned. He glanced at Yotsuya Miko and Lin Xuelao, who both gave him a slight nod. He continued, "But how can you be sure she's inside this giant monster? Perhaps she never came in at all."
Haruto's question was one many of them wanted to ask. It was difficult enough for them, a group led by a few monstrously powerful individuals who had been all but forced inside. How could an ordinary person have possibly made it in?
"At first, I also thought it was impossible," the old woman explained, her voice tinged with sorrow. "But there are traces she left behind here—shoes, fragments of her clothing..." Her voice trailed off as a pained expression crossed her features. After a pause, she added, "I want to stay here and see if I can find my granddaughter. Besides, it's actually much safer here than outside. With this giant monster as a barrier, most of the other monsters don't dare to come in. You must have heard the roars in the tunnel just now, right?"
Hearing this, Haruto raised an eyebrow. He had already guessed that the sound was the work of the elderly woman before him.
Sure enough, she pulled out an extremely old-fashioned flip phone and pointed to a loudspeaker sitting on a nearby table. "That was actually a recording I made of the Broodmother's voice. When I play it through this loudspeaker, it's enough to scare off the ordinary monsters."
The old woman's explanation was reasonable, almost flawless. Coupled with her portrayal as a lonely, helpless elder searching for her family, even several of the more experienced players couldn't help but relax their tense nerves.
"Then do you know how to leave this place?" Haruto pressed on.
The old grandmother nodded slowly. "There's a passage at the back of the house. If you walk along it for about half an hour, it will take you out of the monster's body. However, the passage only opens at six in the morning. That's why those children who came before had to stay with me for the night."
A passage? Six in the morning?
Before Haruto could carefully scrutinize the truth of her words, the old grandmother had already pushed herself to her feet. "I'll go prepare some food for you all."
She turned and walked into an inner corridor, and the room immediately erupted in hushed, urgent discussion.
"What do you all think? How much of what she said can we believe?"
"I don't think any of it is believable. The appearance of an old woman in this place is strange enough. Her explanation might sound reasonable, but do you really believe a safe haven like this exists in this hellhole?"
"Then what should we do? Leave now?"
"Stop!" Ye Tian's voice cut through the chatter, brimming with confidence. "Why are you all thinking so much? Even if there really is danger, just stay behind me! I will lead you all and carve a path of blood out of here!"
He then turned to Haruto's group. "Brother Haruto, what do you think?"
"Sixty percent true, forty percent false," Haruto stated, relaying the conclusion his own group had just silently reached. "Her words are a mix of truth and lies, making it hard to judge completely. But what's certain is that she does harbor ill intent toward us."
What he couldn't quite figure out, however, was that while the malice was present, it didn't feel as strong as he would have expected.
"Sixty percent true, forty percent false?" Ye Tian rubbed his chin. "In other words, a good chunk of what she said is a lie?"
"Pretty much," Haruto confirmed, tapping the wooden table twice. "The key information is likely fake—for example, the story about her granddaughter, the existence of the passage, and the time of departure."
Lin Xuelao suddenly lowered her voice. "I feel like there's something else inside the house, but I can't say for sure what it is. It's definitely a living thing, though."
"Insects or ghosts?" Ye Tian asked immediately.
"I'm not sure," Lin Xuelao admitted, shaking her head. "The distance is too far, and that area seems to be a sealed-off room. My perception is being blocked."
"Boss, so are we really going to stay here overnight?" Xia Ye, one of Ye Tian's men, couldn't help but ask. His throat was parched. Seeing that Kaguya was perfectly fine after drinking several cups, he reached out and picked up the teacup in front of him.
Just as he was about to bring the cup to his lips, Kaguya's airy voice drifted across the table.
"The tea is poisoned."
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