Eerie Chanting

The scene was brutally bloody.

Blood gushed from severed limbs, pooling around Tu Ran's feet.

She shifted on her toes, moving away from the central confluence.

Stepping over the piled corpses of the creatures, she trudged to the brown bear.

The inner core identification panel was still lit, and a plump pheasant lay pinned beneath the bear.

Tu Ran grabbed its half-severed wing and dragged it aside, then drew her dagger and stabbed into the bear's nape.

The skin there was thick. Using all her strength, she sliced diagonally, carving open a twenty-centimeter gash. Underneath lay an even thicker layer of fat. Suppressing her nausea, she rummaged until she finally found the inner core.

Leaping off the bear, she wiped the core on her clothes and quickly left the area.

The moment she stepped out of the sea of corpses and blood, the sharp, eerie chanting rang out again.

Tu Ran froze. Last time, the chanting had preceded the appearance of the creatures.

She immediately swallowed the inner core, gripped the laser gun with both hands, and scanned her surroundings warily.

The laser gun had already been restored to full energy by the "Wheel of Time."

Tu Ran listened intently for the source of the chanting. It seemed to come from every direction—a 360-degree immersive audio experience.

A fierce wind blasted head-on, forcing her to step back to steady herself. Even in the insulated combat suit, she could feel the chill.

Behind her night-vision goggles, a pair of gleaming beast eyes emerged from behind the thick tree trunks—dense, countless, stretching beyond sight. The biting cold froze everything, and a chill crept up from Tu Ran's feet.

Tu Ran struck first. A blinding beam of light condensed with devastating power, leveling everything in its path. A large batch of beasts was mercilessly bisected, whimpering and dying in the cold wind without even a roar.

Their steaming blood splattered onto the frigid soil, rapidly cooling and creeping forward slowly.

Tu Ran spun in place, sweeping her gaze across every corner of the dense forest. Confirming no survivors, she activated the "Wheel of Time," rewinding to three minutes ago when her energy was full.

"Woo—"

The howling wind carried the distant chant once more.

Tu Ran pushed off the ground and sprinted toward the direction the wind came from.

Behind her, only a blur of her fury-laced figure could be seen.

At first, Tu Ran could clearly tell the chanting grew louder, meaning she was approaching its source.

But as she continued her frantic sprint, the sound grew fainter, until it vanished entirely.

Tu Ran stood still, bewildered, straining her ears. Aside from the howling wind, she heard nothing else.

She surveyed the scene again—it was no different from before.

Tu Ran steadied herself and thought about what to do next. Suddenly, she realized she had overlooked a crucial point.

The ability panel for "Sense of Direction" had never appeared.

In the past, the moment she swallowed an inner core, the ability panel would appear in her mind.

Why hadn't it this time?

Tu Ran reviewed all the abilities she already possessed and confirmed that "Sense of Direction" was indeed not among them.

"Ability Identification" had never made a mistake. It had initially shown that the brown bear contained an inner core, yet after she consumed it, it vanished. A possibility occurred to Tu Ran: perhaps the inner core she ate wasn't real at all.

A chill ran down her spine.

This place was too bizarre, and the chanting only made it stranger.

The way the creatures emerged from behind the tree trunks was also unreal.

She hadn't heard any movements behind the trunks, yet the creatures kept pouring out endlessly.

As her confusion deepened, the chanting rang out once more.

The voice came from all directions. Tu Ran calmed herself and listened carefully—even the faint rustling of wind through the branches of pines and spruces couldn't escape her ears, yet she still couldn't pinpoint where the chanting originated.

As the chant continued second by second, creatures of various forms emerged from behind the tree trunks once more.

Behind every tree seemed to be a vast space capable of spewing forth endless creatures.

Among the swarming horde, Tu Ran spotted the very brown bear she had killed earlier, and this bear also had an ability panel above its head reading "Sense of Direction."

A scene identical to before—like a game where you'd repeat the level forever unless you killed the final boss.

Without a doubt, the final boss of this game was the one who chanted.

And the creatures before her were the minions the boss created to confuse those trying to clear the level.

Tu Ran didn't choose to defeat the entire horde with the laser gun like the previous two times. She would take a different path.

Before the creatures encircled her completely, she activated "Flash Step," weaving between the rhino and the mammoth, leaving the horde far behind.

However, the moment she reached the next spot, the chant followed close behind, and another batch of creatures emerged from behind the trees.

Tu Ran immediately relocated again.

But the eerie chant stuck to her like glue, impossible to shake. Every time she moved, a new batch of creatures would surround her.

It seemed this path of escape was also blocked.

Tu Ran sought another method. She pulled an ultra-high-power flashlight from her space.

As she flicked the switch, the entire dense forest was instantly illuminated bright as day, as if the sun had risen.

Tu Ran's eyes were seared by the glare. She quickly removed her night-vision goggles, and only then did her eyes ease.

She looked at the forest again—there were no creatures at all. Rows of pines and spruces stood straight, every detail exposed without concealment. Even the eerie chant had vanished without a trace.

So it was all an illusion—an illusion that only appeared at night.

To verify, Tu Ran switched off the flashlight, plunging the forest back into darkness.

She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again to see pure black. She pricked up her ears and listened carefully, but no footsteps approached.

After a moment's hesitation, Tu Ran put the night-vision goggles back on.

The creatures were closing in on her, already surrounding her in a ring.

Tu Ran's heart clenched. She immediately turned on the flashlight.

The moment light filled the forest, the creatures vanished.

Tu Ran concluded: the creatures only appeared when she wore the night-vision goggles.

And she only put on night-vision goggles when traveling at night. The previous few nights, she had rested in the trees without wearing them, which was why she had never encountered such a scene before.

But why was this happening? Tu Ran couldn't figure it out.

Still, since she had found the crux of the problem, she no longer worried about wasting her energy on the small fry. She could focus on the big boss.