"Zzzzt… Please be aware, ordinary weapons are ineffective against the uncanny. If you encounter one… act as if you haven't seen it… and do not meet its gaze…"
Ye Shu's expression darkened.
The broadcast hadn't mentioned any safe havens. Clearly, even the state found these uncanny entities a formidable challenge—they would need to find shelter before sunset.
Half an hour had passed. Having left the hotel ahead of time, that male uncanny likely couldn't find her. She should be out of danger for now.
"Sister Ye, where are we going now?"
Instinctively, he trusted this girl, despite her being younger than himself.
As it turned out, he had made the right choice!
Back at the hotel, the uncanny in the black hoodie gripped a butcher's knife, ruthlessly slaughtering those in hiding. Wherever it passed, rivers of blood flowed.
On the top floor’s corridor, the male uncanny licked his crimson lips, his pitch-black eyes settling on a shivering woman nearby. With a swift motion, his sharp claws plunged into her pale neck.
"Disgusting… Disgusting…"
"Can’t find…"
His lifeless eyes swept suspiciously across the empty room.
……
Morning sunlight was brilliant.
But it left hearts chilled.
Pang Tong’s gaze swept over the ruined carnage, and he swallowed with difficulty. Severed limbs covered the floor; thick blood smeared every surface. Truly, it was a living hell.
"Jinshan Temple."
Ye Shu announced their destination without hesitation. She turned to the man beside her, raising an eyebrow. "If I recall, didn’t you say you got your protective charm from Jinshan Temple?"
"Yes."
There was no way Pang Tong would object to Ye Shu’s words.
Since ordinary methods couldn’t subdue the uncanny, they could only fight magic with magic.
A place as solemn and sacred as a temple ought to repel the uncanny.
Ye Shu stopped at a gas station, filling the car and gathering supplies from the convenience store.
"Hey! Are you people, or uncanny?"
A figure hiding in the shadows finally found the courage to emerge upon seeing Ye Shu basked in sunlight.
"As you see."
Ye Shu hopped into the car, which leapt forward like an arrow from a drawn bow.
The person, undeterred by surprise, copied her example and found food in the convenience store before squeezing themselves into a reeking trash bin.
Xu Zhixia didn’t know how it happened—one moment, she had mysteriously been transported into a game. Her starting funds of two thousand vanished in no time, and now she had to work at the gas station just to survive.
With the number of survivors in the game plummeting, she—a mere high school student in real life with no fighting skills—could only hide in a trash bin, using its stench as cover to avoid the powerful uncanny.
Thankfully, the uncanny didn't appear during the day, giving her a slim chance.
Ye Shu and Pang Tong reached the temple gates without incident.
All around was tranquil. Outside the temple, ancient trees soared into the sky; moss coated the old flagstones. A breeze stirred the bronze bells hanging from the eaves, while the distant sound of a chime drifted over, too peaceful to be comforting.
The feeling only intensified as they entered the temple.
"Pang Pangzi, was Jinshan Temple this quiet the last time you came?"
The temple grounds were vast, yet they’d seen no monks along the way.
Ye Shu instinctively sensed trouble.
The silence of this Buddhist sanctuary was unnerving.
"Sister Ye… something’s off here."
Pang Tong’s face grew grave. When he first arrived, it was the game’s first day—Jinshan Temple was bustling with crowds, tourists everywhere, and more than a dozen cleaning monks. Something had clearly happened.
But with less than half an hour before sunset and no settlements for miles, finding other accommodation was almost impossible.
At the entrance to the main hall, Ye Shu noticed half-burnt incense sticks in the censer, and a faint, sickly scent of blood hanging in the air.
Inside, a massive golden Buddha sat serenely on its lotus pedestal, fingers gently rolling prayer beads, its expression an image of infinite compassion.
"Sister Ye, shall we bow?"
Pang Tong had already knelt on the prayer cushion, burning incense in his hands, his posture devout.
The uncanny of this world had almost cost him his soul. Now, before this statue, reverence filled his heart, the bone-chilling fear washed away and replaced with gentle warmth—a rare comfort.
Ye Shu scanned the room, detecting nothing amiss.
Pang Tong offered her incense, and to her own surprise, she did not refuse.
The cinnabar bead on her wrist seared suddenly. Before she realized it, Ye Shu was kneeling on the floor. The golden Buddha smiled benevolently, yet the smile felt false, with a lingering hint of malice.
"You can see me!"
The golden sheen of the Buddha slowly faded, revealing a charcoal-black body—not a statue, but a specter. Its face was ashen green and fanged, one hand gripped a steel trident, the other cradled a living human heart. It grinned at Ye Shu, its smile unearthly and sinister.
In a flash, clarity returned.
There was nothing sacred left inside the hall. The floor was littered with dismembered corpses, entrails spilled everywhere.
"You can see me!"
The uncanny's cyan-black eyes bulged in fury, its sinister gaze sticky and venomous. Its mouth tore open, its porcelain-dark face horrifying.
Ye Shu turned her head to evade its stare, then slapped an invisibility talisman onto herself.
Seeing its prey vanish, the uncanny’s confident grin froze. It pounded the ground in frustration, smashing deep craters into the floor.
With the talisman holding, Ye Shu swiftly detached a cinnabar bead from her bracelet and hurled it into the uncanny’s gaping maw.
Unlike at the subway station, the charm did not shatter—only grew uncomfortably hot. Clearly, the cinnabar bead had some effect on this creature.
Sure enough, after swallowing it, the uncanny began to spasm, revealing a writhing mass of tentacles coiled atop the lotus pedestal.
With the talisman's magic failing, Ye Shu had no choice but to dodge wildly, stumbling into a monk’s quarters.
She took a defensive stance, but the uncanny dared not enter.
"Kakakaka!"
"Jiejiejie!"
A glint of unwillingness flashed in the creature's coppery-blue eyes. Its meal lay within reach, yet it had to stand by, impotent.
"Come on, then!"
Picking up on the monster’s hesitation, Ye Shu let her mounting anger take over, brazenly provoking it.
"Kakakakaka…"
The uncanny could not understand human speech, but it clearly felt Ye Shu's mockery—howling, bellowing with rage.
Following its hostile gaze, Ye Shu saw a wooden sword hanging on the wall.
There could be no doubt—the uncanny monk was wary of that plain-looking wooden sword.
Ye Shu took it down and held it before herself, moving it with fierce, practiced swings.
The uncanny shrieked, its huge body jerking away. Ye Shu knew it was trying to escape. She lunged, hacking at the abomination with the sword.
Once, twice…
Each chop burst open a tumor oozing cloudy pus from its bony flesh. Where the peachwood blade struck, white smoke rose instantly. In mere moments, the monster’s enormous form faded to mist, leaving only a pile of foul, rotting meat behind.
"What on earth is this peachwood sword's origin?"
Two effortless strikes had dispatched the uncanny.
"[High-Grade Item: Peachwood Sword – Slays Monsters and Demons (Note: The uncanny’s nemesis—a single sword dispels all your troubles!)]"
A look of disbelief, then delight, flashed in Ye Shu’s eyes.
In that instant, a bold idea took root in her mind.