IWOL Chapter 62: Doom

Dong Linhai looked around, but couldn’t find Victor.

He immediately became nervous, until he remembered Victor’s ability. A box like this shouldn’t be too difficult for him, so nothing should happen. Thinking like this, he was barely able to swallow down the heart lodged in his throat.

Victor was a summoning beast. As such, they should have a connection similar to the prisoner link. Dong Linhai held his breath and carefully reached out with his senses. He vaguely felt that Victor wasn’t far and immediately felt relieved.

In front of them, Pan Chuangen had completely transformed; the original appearance of the fat and greasy-looking middle-aged man was nowhere in sight. A crow perched on the back of the goat man’s hand, and he lifted it before him, seeming to be listening to it.

Because it’d been raining all day, the liquid had completely immersed into the soil, causing the two people lying on the ground to feel as if the stench was going to suffocate them to death. Dong Linhai thought happily that if he has to fight in the bathroom in the future, no one would have as much tolerance as him.

The goat man said something in a low, deep voice, his words drowned out by the pattering of rain on the leaves. Soon after, all the crows simultaneously took flight. However, instead of maintaining their usual low altitude, they moved out toward the distant black clouds.

Dong Linhai: ?

The goat man’s whole body of hair, his ash-colored sheen, his pair of ram horns, and his hind legs and tail slowly disappeared. He once again became Pan Chuangen. Even the clothes on his body retained their original appearance.

Pan Chuangen took the raincoat on the side and shook out the urine that had gathered on it. After putting it on indifferently, he turned to leave.

Oh no!

Dong Linhai and Lin Hangzhi were alarmed. Pan Chuangen walked straight in their direction, giving them absolutely no opportunity to retreat.

Lin Hangzhi held down Dong Linhai’s head and laid low on the ground, his heart beating wildly in his chest. He kept chanting: Can’t see us, can’t see us, can’t see us…

[Interdependent Blessings and Disasters] shouldn’t only be for guessing numbers and playing cards. Although Lin Hangzhi had never used it in this way, it was their only chance.

Pan Chuangen was a half-goat monster who knew magic, and Victor wasn’t here. It was almost impossible for them to fight him head-on.

Pan Chuangen came closer and closer, until his shoes almost touched the tip of Lin Hangzhi’s head and the force of his step splashed muddy water on his face.

They were so nervous that they dared not breathe. Lin Hangzhi clenched his fists and exhausted all his thoughts on repeating his most urgent wish. He consoled himself that their black raincoat was almost the same color as the soil.

Pan Chuangen walked past them without seeing them.

The sound of rain continued to crash down.

After a long time, Dong Linhai raised his head cautiously and saw that there was no one around. He asked in a low voice, “Is it safe?”

Lin Hangzhi got up and wiped the mud off his face, feeling utterly disgusted. Even after spitting twice, he still tasted the smell of urine in his mouth. “It should be safe.”

Dong Linhai breathed a sigh of relief, sincerely happy for Pan Chuangen’s blindness. The two of them walked out of the bushes where they were hiding and couldn’t help but pay attention to the most important question: Where was Victor?

“Meow–” Dong Linhai whispered.

Lin Hangzhi said, “Isn’t Victor your summoning beast? You can’t use the contract to call? I remember the captain and Xiao Cui can do it.”

Dong Linhai scratched his head, embarrassed. “The contract I signed with Victor shouldn’t be considered a normal summoning beast contract. At that time, the contract was dominated by this, so I still have no control over its usage.”

A white figure poked his head out of the tree and meowed to Dong Linhai.

Dong Linhai walked to the tree and stretched out his hand. Victor immediately jumped along the tree and into his arms. The ground was full of mud and was too dirty. If Victor ran around, he would definitely become a little black cat. Even now, he wasn’t very clean.

“Uncle, where did you go so quietly. It scared me.”

“I went to see the front face of that thing.” Victor subconsciously wanted to lick his wet paws. As he raised it up to his mouth, he suddenly thought of what the rain was made of and immediately stopped. He could only endure the clammy discomfort. “That was a faun, the Faunus. You may be more familiar with its other name, Pan.”

“Pan?” Dong Linhai and Lin Hangzhi looked at each other and shook their heads.

Victor: “….”

Victor said, “Well, once this box is over, I’ll have to teach you some knowledge.”

Neither of them knew what he’d said, and Victor had to explain patiently. “In ancient Greek mythology, Pan, the half-man and half-goat, was a symbol of creativity, music, poetry, and sex. He was also a symbol of panic and nightmares. He was an excellent musician, but because of his ugly appearance, all the nymphs he sought often avoided him.”

“It was rumored that the God Pan once stood in a lake that turns people into fishes, just to save a terrified harp fairy running from a group of monsters. His lower goat half turned into a fishtail. In order to express his admiration for Pan, Zeus threw the image of the faun into the air, thus forming Capricorn.”

Lin Hangzhi said, “I’m a Capricorn.”

Dong Linhai interjected, “But you don’t look like a Capricorn at all.”

Lin Hangzhi waved his hand. “Things like astrological signs are all feudal superstitions and are prohibited.”

Victor said, “Can we go back to talk about this? I want to take a bath.”

This appeal was echoed by the two people, and they quickly returned to the castle. On the way back, the god of misfortune took note of Lin Hangzhi, displaying to Dong Linhai and Victor an interesting show known as genuinely falling flat on one’s face. One laughing human and one cat quickly hurriedly over.

Of course, so as not to draw attention, they still had to climb through the window back into their room.

By the time Dong Linhai had taken a bath and changed into a clean set of clothes, half an hour had already passed. He also gave Victor a bath, but because this place had no hair dryer, he could only use a towel to somewhat dry Victor’s hair. Fortunately, unlike most cats, Victor wasn’t resistant to bathing and being wiped down so things went well for Dong Linhai.

When the two people finally met in Dong Linhai’s bedroom, they felt almost certain that Pan Chuangen would be harmful to Agatha. The male goat representing sex also subtly conformed to Lin Hangzhi’s previous conjecture.

“This is too beastly.” Dong Linhai felt very uncomfortable. In the real world, he’d read some relevant news, but it’d never produced such a big reaction from him.

Maybe…it was because he knew Agatha.

From the illusion, he’d personally experienced the helplessness and pain of the little girl being bullied. He’d also spoken with her, she who lived so quietly in this paradise. For him, this wasn’t like the thin words printed in newspapers, sharing things that were scary and sad and infuriating but was also easily forgotten.

She was a living being.

“Pan Chuangen commanded the group of crows to go who knows where. They probably went to the city wall, but Xiao Cui is there so there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“It is imperative to guard against Pan Chuangen. We must not give him an opportunity to do anything to Agatha.”

Dong Linhai nodded. He remembered Agatha’s pale face and purple lips. His heart felt uneasy so he got up and said, “I’ll go over and check in on Agatha.”

“I’ll go. I just slept a while ago. You stay and rest for a while.” Lin Hangzhi pressed a hand on his shoulder and then walked out of the room.

It was late at night, and the castle hall was mostly empty except from the guards on duty. It was so quiet that the rain could be heard from outside, and his footsteps sounded loudly in the hall as he walked to Agatha’s bedroom. The little girl lived in the most central location, which was only a short distance away from the guest rooms.

At the corner, he met the maid who was in charge of taking care of Agatha. The maid had just come out of the kitchen and was walking in a hurry, holding a dinner plate.

Lin Hangzhi frowned, stopped the maid, and asked, “It’s so late. Isn’t her majesty asleep?”

“The master just woke up and said that she was hungry so she asked me to get her something to eat.”

Lin Hangzhi instinctively felt that something was wrong. “I have something to tell her. Let me send it over.”

The maid hesitated and said, “Then I’ll go with you.”

Lin Hangzhi nodded. “Okay.”

Then, he said, “There were disgusting things in the food yesterday at dinner. Did you find out who did it?”

“Not yet. But now, we’re strictly controlling everything the master eats so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“Really?” Lin Hangzhi smiled, lifted the cover off the plate, picked up the fork and poked a piece of beef into his mouth. “I have always found one thing confusing. You are different from Agatha so how will you know that something toxic to humans will have the same effect on you? If not, how can you determine whether it’s really safe?”

The maid held the dinner plate with both hands and couldn’t stop Lin Hangzhi in time. As a result, the maid could only watch as he ate the food painstakingly prepared for Agatha. Lin Hangzhi chewed carefully and had to admit that the steak was quite tender and delicious.

He swallowed the mouthful of food, paused for two seconds and smiled. Wanting to explain himself to the somewhat angry maid, he opened his mouth but couldn’t make a sound.

Maid:? ! ? ! ? !

Lin Hangzhi’s eyes widened. He covered his throat and staggered back two steps, his face pale. Then, he fell on the ground, curled up sideways, and began to twitch uncontrollably.

The maid screamed. The plate slammed to the ground, causing the food in the plate to spill out. Horrified, the maid knelt next to Lin Hangzhi and shook his arm. Feeling the intense tremor under his clothes, the maid screamed, “Help! Help!”

Lin Hangzhi stopped moving.

He was lying on the ground with his eyes closed, holding back his laugh. As he listened to the maid’s horrified reaction, he was somewhat satisfied with his superb acting skills.

After all, he’d been a medical student for eight years and had worked in the hospital for another three years. What kind of symptoms of poisoning wouldn’t he know about? As he expected, this performance should sufficiently convince all these isolated dolls.

Now that he knew Pan Chuangen had ulterior motives, he must be very careful. Lin Hangzhi didn’t swallow the steak at all and kept it between his cheeks. Otherwise, if there was indeed something tricky going on with the food, he wouldn’t be able to extricate himself.

Even if the food wasn’t poisonous, it could at least make the dolls pay more attention to Agatha’s future diet.

Lin Hangzhi took advantage of the maid leaving to call someone and secretly tidied up his messed up shirt.

But soon, he felt an abnormal dizziness.

The burning sensation in his throat made it hard for him to breathe. He crazily wanted to drink water, and his entire abdomen began to ache faintly. Within minutes, it turned into an unbearable pain.

Dammit, was it really poisonous?!

This thought flashed through his dizzy mind, even as his entire abdominal cavity felt as if a hand had reached in and stirred it all up. Face twisting into a painful grimace, he shuddered and curled up into a ball, seizing the time to spit out the poisonous food in his mouth. He opened his mouth to stop the maid so that she could send him to Dong Linhai as soon as possible.

But, by this time, he couldn’t make a sound at all.

At the last moment when his consciousness disappeared, Lin Hangzhi almost wanted to choke himself to death.

—Sure enough, after using his ability, he shouldn’t use this method to die.

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