Chapter 137 A Knock at the Door in the Middle of the Night, Three Long Knocks and One Short Knock

Lin Yun rubbed her temples again, feeling a headache coming on.

Not only that, she had also thought of the most crucial point.

Song Xizheng had said that the survivor he saw was the one who had eaten food from the amusement park that evening.

So, there finally seemed to be an explanation for why those people in vests had kept forcing them to eat the food sold at the amusement park when mealtime came.

Once you ate that food, would you be taken away by the crowd and become food for the tourists?

Lin Yun had originally thought that eating those foods would assimilate a person into the tourists, but she hadn’t expected that to be the case.

She was a little confused now.

She looked out of the window, where the NPCs were still wandering around nearby.

They simply walked around in the area and didn’t seem to be doing anything else.

A few minutes later, Song Xizheng sent another message.

Song Xizheng: "Sister Lin, the black vests have put away all the bones, and the suspended tourists who ate the meat have all returned to the ground."

Song Xizheng: "The float went around once and returned to where it was originally parked."

Song Xizheng: "This world is so terrifying! Something feels off about everything!"

Lin Yun asked again, "Are you alright?"

Song Xizheng: "...Not really. This is the first time I’ve ever seen something like that. I feel like throwing up."

Lin Yun sighed again and comforted Song Xizheng for a while.

How could she possibly explain this?

She didn’t know what else to say to him. After all, she hadn’t witnessed the scene herself, and the only thing she could do was tell him to calm down and stop thinking about it for the moment.

Looking at her personal panel again, Lin Yun noticed that the NPCs’ behavior had started to become strange.

Good grief. What did that mean?

The parade of floats had only just ended, and these NPCs were already beginning some other activity?

She continued watching from the window.

Then she discovered that the NPCs who had previously been walking together had split up.

They began wandering around aimlessly.

One of the NPCs approached the Mushroom House and wandered among the surrounding mushroom houses.

He seemed to be muttering something under his breath, but Lin Yun couldn’t hear what he was saying clearly.

She pressed herself closer to the window and listened carefully.

As the strange NPC passed by, Lin Yun seemed to catch one of the words.

"Try to find..."

Looking for?

Looking for what?

Were they looking for them?

Lin Yun frowned slightly.

The NPC wandered around the nearby Mushroom Houses for a while, seemingly searching for something, but he appeared to find nothing.

Soon, he quickly left.

Not long afterward, she could no longer see any of those NPCs from her window.

Lin Yun told Song Xizheng about what she had just seen, but to her surprise, Song Xizheng said that he hadn’t seen such an NPC at all.

Lin Yun thought about it and figured that it might be because the float he was on had been driven away by the black-vested NPCs, so those NPCs wouldn’t go there again.

That explanation seemed possible, although she wasn’t completely sure.

She sighed and ended her chat with Song Xizheng.

With no further developments in sight, Lin Yun decided to rest for now.

There would probably be another tough day waiting for them tomorrow.

However, not long after she fell asleep, she heard noises outside again.

Lin Yun immediately opened her personal panel and glanced at the time.

It was now 12:01.

Before she could even get out of bed, she heard a series of murmuring sounds outside.

"Where... where exactly are they... where have they all gone hiding?"

"Why can’t I find them? Why can’t I find them? Where are they... Where are you all...?"

The voice sounded distant and strange.

But soon, the sound gradually began to fade away.

Sang Biao and Tuantuan, who were lying at the foot of the bed, had already woken up.

Both of them perked up their ears, and Sang Biao even let out a low growl.

After the sound disappeared, Sang Biao immediately darted to Lin Yun’s side.

"Youyou! The things outside are annoying!"

Lin Yun glanced at the window again.

It had already been closed, and the blackout curtains had been drawn.

Silently, she pulled Sang Biao and Tuantuan into her arms.

Didi.

She opened her personal panel and saw that the message was from Song Zhenzhen.

Song Zhenzhen: "Are you hearing any strange noises over there? If you hear a knocking sound, please don’t go out!"

Lin Yun was startled again.

A knocking sound?

However, the very next second, there was a knock on her door!

"Ha!"

Sang Biao immediately barked toward the door.

Song Zhenzhen: "Hello? Are you awake?"

Lin Yun replied, "Someone is knocking on the door. I’ll go check it out."

Song Zhenzhen: "?? Don’t look!!!"

Lin Yun paused as she was about to get out of bed.

"Don’t look? Why shouldn’t I look?"

However, Lin Yun was a very obedient person.

When Song Zhenzhen told her not to look, she really didn’t.

The Ghost Vine, which had been staying on the Star Tea Tree in the backyard, suddenly slipped inside.

[Again? Someone’s knocking on the door?]

"Hmm. Don’t open it. There might be something bad outside."

The knocking came again.

Three long knocks followed by one short knock.

"I’ll go check it out!"

Ghost Vine immediately dashed toward the door, climbed up to the peephole, and looked outside.

[Wow—so ugly!]

Didi.

Song Zhenzhen: "The things outside look a bit scary, so you really mustn’t look at them. I wasn’t paying attention just now and got startled."

Lin Yun replied, "I’m the kind of person who’s very good at taking advice."

Song Zhenzhen: "That’s good."

Song Zhenzhen: "But you can look if you want. They’re just knocking on doors now, and they’ll probably leave after a while."

Lin Yun then asked, "They’re knocking on doors everywhere?"

Song Zhenzhen: "Yes. They knocked on the door at twelve o’clock, three times. After knocking, they opened the door directly, but they could only open the outside door. They couldn’t open the shelter door."

Song Zhenzhen: "We can hear them because we chose this place as a shelter, but they still can’t see us."

Song Zhenzhen: "Okay, I’ve already left."

[Again! The person outside is so tall, even taller than you, but so ugly.]

[It looks like there’s a black ball growing on its face. It’s disgusting!]

Ghost Vine slipped back and complained to Lin Yun again.

At that moment, a third knock sounded at the door.

Just like the previous two times, there were three long knocks followed by one short knock.

The creature outside waited for a minute before opening the small door to the Mushroom House.

The creature glanced around the space inside the Mushroom House, found nothing, quickly closed the door, and went to the next one.

Lin Yun got out of bed and walked to the door, peeking through the peephole.

Then, a half-obscured black figure appeared behind the Mushroom House.

With its back to Lin Yun, it knocked on the door of the Mushroom House in front of hers.

Three long knocks followed by one short knock.

After the third knock, it waited for a while before opening the door.

Because its body was partially obscured, Lin Yun couldn’t see what kind of creature it was, so she had no choice but to look away.

Lin Yun sighed again.

There were quite a few Mushroom Houses around her.

Was this thing planning to knock on every single one of them?

You know what?

It really was.

For the next half hour or so, Lin Yun lay on the bed and listened to the creature outside knocking on the doors one by one.

The knocking was quite loud.

Every time the familiar pattern sounded, it was three long knocks followed by one short knock.

Lin Yun could hear the sound moving from one Mushroom House to another.

At first, she paid close attention, trying to determine how far away the creature was each time it knocked.

But after listening for so long, the repeated sounds gradually became exhausting.

She still didn’t know what the creature was looking for.

Nor did she know what would happen if it actually found someone.

Fortunately, according to Song Zhenzhen, it couldn’t open the shelter itself.

As long as they stayed inside, they should be safe for the time being.

That was probably why the creature could only open the small outer door of each Mushroom House and look around before moving on.

Lin Yun hugged Sang Biao and Tuantuan closer and continued listening.

Ghost Vine had also returned after looking through the peephole and remained nearby.

The shelter was quiet except for the occasional knocking outside.

Three long knocks.

One short knock.

Then silence.

After that, the same pattern would sound again at another Mushroom House.

Lin Yun didn’t know when the creature finally finished knocking on the doors.

At some point, the sound gradually faded into the distance.

Perhaps because she had been listening to it for too long, she didn’t even notice exactly when it disappeared.

Eventually, she fell asleep.

After being woken up by Sang Biao’s paw, Lin Yun got up with a confused look on her face.

Damn it.

Would she get knocked on the door every night for the next few days?

Just thinking about it gave her another headache.

Lin Yun closed her eyes again, took a moment to wake herself up, then got out of bed and headed into the bathroom to wash up.

They had to leave the shelter before seven o’clock.