Chapter 20: Monsters in Reality

Liu Bo also turned his head to glance at Zhou Huaiwen.

This was his first time seeing the man. According to Zhao Shuang, it was Zhou Huaiwen’s son who had been among the first to enter the Apocalypse World. However, the boy was seemingly killed by another human player within that realm. Upon discovering the information left behind by his son, Zhou Huaiwen had proactively sought out the government, hoping to obtain information about the killer to exact revenge.

"Huh, this Uncle Zhou seems quite similar to me. He lost his son, I lost my father, and both cases are tied to the Apocalypse World."

Liu Bo sighed softly. Having a loved one murdered was a pain he could empathize with.

Although Zhao Shuang had told him that his father, Liu Hong, had died from "hidden poison," Liu Bo couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss. According to his father’s diary, Liu Hong was capable of crafting spiritual artifacts and had become an apprentice to the village chief. Logically, he should have been protected by the militia whenever he traveled. How could he have been injured by a level-six bird-snake and lost his life so pointlessly?

He felt there was a deeper secret here.

His trip to the capital for training was motivated by rumors that one of the instructors was a "born" resident of Dayu Village. He hoped to make contact with this instructor and uncover the truth behind his father’s death.

The vehicle sped forward, leaving a trail of dust on the highway.

...

On the other side, after Lin Yi finished his shift online in the afternoon, he returned to the factory to slaughter cattle.

He worked until past seven in the evening, his butcher’s apron soaked in fresh, crimson bovine blood.

The owner of the slaughterhouse, a man surnamed Zhu in his thirties, was slightly plump and wore a pair of scholarly glasses. Seeing Lin Yi dispatch a cow with every strike, his efficiency unnervingly high, Zhu couldn't help but say, "Brother, are you sure you aren't going to have a breakdown from killing these cows? If the work stress is too much, you should go see a doctor..."

"Haha, Brother Zhu, you’re joking..."

Lin Yi brushed him off with a few casual words. He knew he looked strange; it was inevitable that others would overthink it.

By the time he returned to his dormitory to eat and wash up, it was already ten o'clock at night.

Lin Yi still had half an hour of online time left. He had originally planned to head into the Apocalypse World to practice his archery, but considering the specters currently roaming Gutian Village, he dismissed the idea.

With time to kill, Lin Yi didn't stay idle. Instead, he logged onto several gaming websites to see if he could find any information related to the Apocalypse game.

However, after browsing for a while, he didn't find anything significant.

Furthermore, the post he had previously seen on the forum selling game activation codes had been deleted. He wondered if those codes had actually been sold.

Afterward, Lin Yi contacted a few employees from his studio and learned that many of them were still awake, pulling an all-nighter to take orders and farm gold.

Lin Yi offered a few words of encouragement, telling them to balance work and rest, and sent them each a red envelope for a late-night snack.

In the gold-farming business, working through the night was the norm. When Lin Yi first started in this industry, he was no different from his employees.

Just as Lin Yi was about to fall asleep, the roar of a wild boar suddenly echoed outside the quiet rural homestay.

In a village nestled against the mountains, the appearance of wild boars was not unusual.

Lin Yi didn't pay it any mind and turned over, intending to continue sleeping.

But then, faint screams of terror drifted in from outside the homestay.

"It’s eating people! A wild boar came down from the mountain and is eating people!"

"Help! Save me!!"

Hearing the cry, Lin Yi bolted upright and quickly headed downstairs.

"Boss, what’s going on?"

"I don't know, I just woke up..."

The owner of the homestay shuffled out in his slippers, looking dazed; it seemed he had also been awakened by the commotion.

Many nearby residents turned on their lights and gathered together to step outside.

Lin Yi took a shovel handed to him by the homestay owner and followed the crowd.

"What happened? Who was screaming for help?"

"It sounded like Old Jiang, didn't it? Doesn't he like night fishing? The sound seemed to come from the pond by the roadside, right?"

"Why is it so quiet now?"

"Could he have fallen into the water?"

A villager shouted toward the darkness, "Old Jiang, are you there?"

But no sound came from the pitch-black road.

"Let’s go, let's go. There are so many of us, let's go check it out together."

Many people carried shovels and wooden sticks as they headed toward the scene, with Lin Yi and the homestay owner trailing behind.

For some reason, an unsettling feeling gnawed at Lin Yi.

After walking several dozen meters, on a stretch of concrete road without streetlamps, a massive wild boar covered in mud was slurping and chewing on something on the ground.

The sound of the boar eating was jarring in the dead of night.

The group gathered their courage and moved closer. The person in the lead shone a high-intensity flashlight, and only then did they realize the boar was enormous.

"Holy crap, how is this boar so big? Did it run down from the mountain?"

A wild boar?

Lin Yi stepped to the front of the crowd and looked through the beam of the flashlight. His pupils contracted, and his heart skipped a beat.

This boar was two meters tall, and most importantly, its eyes were blood-red!

While animals' eyes naturally reflect light at night, no flashlight they had could produce such a vivid red glow. This could only mean the boar’s eyes were naturally red.

Lin Yi recalled the warning from Militia Captain Gu Chenghu: the difference between demonic beasts and ordinary animals was that the former possessed eyes of abnormal colors, most commonly eerie green or blood-red.

But this was reality. How could a demonic beast from the Apocalypse World appear here?

"Wild boar, red eyes... could this be a 'Hacker Boar'?"

Lin Yi suddenly remembered the Hacker Boar that Dugu Feng had participated in killing a couple of days prior. Although he hadn't been there, he heard that Hacker Boars were massive, red-eyed beasts that loved to eat human flesh.

Just as Lin Yi was reeling from the shock, someone screamed in horror, "Damn it! That boar is eating a person! Is that Old Jiang lying on the ground?"

In the glare of the flashlight, the crowd finally saw two dark figures lying by the boar's feet. One of them was still clutching a fishing rod.

The boar had buried its snout into the stomach of one of the figures, gorging on blood and entrails.

Suddenly, it jerked its head up to look at the crowd. Its sharp white tusks and snout were dripping with fresh, crimson blood.

Its scarlet gaze seemed to mark everyone present as prey.

The group was terrified out of their wits by the horrific sight.

"Damn! What kind of monster is this?!"

"Call the police! Get the police to catch it!"

"This is bizarre! I've lived in these mountains forever and never seen a boar this big, let alone one with red eyes! Has it mutated?"

"Run! Run! We can't stop this thing..."

Just then, an elderly man said firmly, "Don't panic! Let’s all hit the ground with our shovels. This beast might not dare to approach if it sees there are so many of us."

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

Under the old man's direction, the group huddled together, striking the ground with their tools while slowly retreating.

The boar on the opposite side seemed genuinely startled by the noise and did not charge immediately.

It wasn't until it dragged the two corpses and disappeared into the roadside brush that the group finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Everyone back to your yards! Call your families, tell them to hide and don't come out! And call the police, tell them a giant red-eyed boar has entered the village and is eating people..."

"Uncle Lin, I already called the police."

"Call them again! Tell them they must bring guns—not tranquilizer guns. This boar is likely a mutant; it’s already eaten two people. It has to be put down with live ammunition..."

After the panic subsided, most of the men returned to their homes, while a small group remained in the courtyard of the homestay, waiting for the police to arrive.

Lin Yi returned to his room, pondering the boar that had just appeared.

He was certain that the beast was a level-five demonic creature from the Apocalypse World: the Hacker Boar.

He just hadn't expected to see one in the real world.

How did the Hacker Boar get here?

If one day he were to encounter a Ghost Demon, a Heart-Devouring Wolf... or even a Specter in the real world, what then?

Lin Yi furrowed his brows deeply. It seemed that with the emergence of the Apocalypse World, the real world was no longer safe.