The battle against the Plague House brought two surprises for Leon - one good, one bad.

The good news was that "Possessed Chen Li's" combat prowess far exceeded his understanding of 'E+' rank. Against these plague entities, whose physical abilities were limited to human parameters, she could easily dismember them with a single cleaver strike.

The bad news? The plague entities weren't bound by normal physical limitations. Every severed part that hit the ground became an independent creature.

During the fight, one finger even managed to crawl up Chen Li's leg unnoticed, its nail tearing through her skin to spread the plague.

"Chen Li, try to gather their body parts into one pile," Leon called out.

"Got it..."

When everything was in position, Leon hurled his two bottles of cheap liquor forward.

Chen Li's cleaver precisely split the bottles mid-air.

The alcohol splashed over the writhing plague flesh.

Leon followed up immediately, smashing the plastic lighter against the ground. The breaking plastic created a pressure differential, causing the fuel inside to create a small explosion.

The high-proof alcohol ignited instantly.

Fire was these plague entities' greatest weakness. As long as they remained biological in nature, flames could easily burn away the plague bacteria. Even their spores couldn't survive temperatures above 130°C.

Before the flames died out completely, Leon pulled out a mysterious metal syringe from his right hand. After confirming the charred limbs had lost all activity and posed no danger, he extracted their "cellular essence."

The hidden event completion notification chimed right after.

But instead of claiming his reward, Leon rushed to Chen Li's side.

"Chen Li, please sit down against the wall. If we don't treat that leg wound quickly, the infection could spread internally."

"Alright."

Chen Li sat down and extended her injured right leg. Through the torn jeans, dark green fluid oozed from the wound - the situation looked grim.

"I need to check the rest of your calf... is that okay?"

"Yes."

With her permission, Leon used his knife to cut away the denim around the wound to check for infection spread.

But surprisingly, he found only Chen Li's pale calf - no sign of spreading infection.

" Strange... With all that movement and time passed, the infection should have spread through your bloodstream by now. Yet somehow it's contained here."

Using his flashlight for a closer look, Leon finally noticed dark energy swirling around the wound. This malevolent aura was actually containing the plague bacteria.

"Now that's interesting..."

Leon took out another bottle of cheap liquor and carefully applied it to the calf wound.

"This is going to hurt," he warned Chen Li. "Are you ready?"

"Yes."

To eliminate the plague completely, he ignited the alcohol on the wound.

As organic matter burned away, Chen Li's body tensed sharply

The burning alcohol killed all the bacteria in the wound area.

Most people would have passed out from such pain, but Chen Li remained oddly composed.

"...Thank you."

Leon smiled back. "I should be thanking you. Are you sure you're alright?"

"I'm fine."

Chen Li's pain tolerance was remarkable. Despite having her thigh just cauterized, she stood up using the wall for support. After a brief rest, she moved without any impediment.

As for Leon, he turned his attention to claiming his reward with barely contained excitement.

When they'd burned the plague entities, a bronze chest had materialized in the cellar. Leon stared at this mysterious chest, his curiosity about the "Destiny Space" growing.

The chest opened.

On red velvet padding lay a dagger about 40 centimeters long.

The handle was intricately carved with a serpent motif, and the sharp blade gave off a faint green glow under his flashlight beam.

"What's this?!"

As Leon gripped the blade, he immediately received information about this "Destiny Item":

Destiny Item - "Plague Doctor's Dagger"

Type: Mystic Artifact

Quality: Superior

Effects:

①. Attacks can inflict "Poison" damage.

②. If wielder specializes in [Mysticism], can activate skill: "Plague" - Single-target non-directional skill that infects target with plague (Level = 1 + Mysticism proficiency)

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Origin: A protective dagger used by plague doctors during the Black Death in medieval times.

"So Destiny Items work like game equipment?"

Leon recalled the sword wielded by the Black Rose Knights' leader, which had emanated intense white energy - likely another Destiny Item.

"This kind of equipment could greatly increase survival chances... And what's this about [Mysticism Proficiency]? Interesting - I'll have to learn more about that if I survive."

Leon replaced his store-bought knife with the dagger, securing it at his waist.

The hidden event had taken an hour.

Six hours and thirty minutes remained for the main event... They could still make it back to the inn in time. This unexpected gain had further improved Leon's survival odds.

"Chen Li, let's take a detour before heading back."

"Why?"

"Murray's sacrificial pawn is dead. To save himself, he'll definitely come looking for me in the mountains... We should avoid meeting him for now."

"Understood."

But the rain had made the mountain paths treacherously slippery... With Chen Li's support, it took them twenty minutes to safely return to the inn.

There, they reunited with Qing, who had been waiting.

"Qing, is everything ready?"

"All set... but with this heavy rain, it might not work as planned."

"That's fine, as long as we can get started!"

With preparations complete, Leon secured himself inside the inn, ready to weather the most dangerous hours ahead.

...

Murray

This youth from a privileged background had spent a year and a half preparing for this "Destiny Space" event. He'd even deliberately sacrificed an arm, spending enormous sums on prosthetic surgery.

In Murray's eyes, all his companions were merely stepping stones, meant to be used for maximizing his survival time.

However... he now faced an unexpected problem.

"Where are they?! That sickly Nicolas and that cowardly religious woman couldn't have gone far... How can I not find them? Not even a flashlight beam?

Those two weaklings couldn't have committed suicide together, could they?"

Murray had found the old house where Leon had hidden earlier and searched the hillside extensively with his superior physical condition, but found no trace of them.

Just then, his flashlight beam caught a thin woman with black hair slowly emerging from the forest.

"Arkman... Finally found you!"

Murray approached eagerly - in his eyes, Arkman was just another tool to buy him more time.

Time Remaining: 3 hours 50 minutes

The large red lanterns had been rehung around the building. In the darkness and pouring rain, their crimson glow only reached about ten meters into the surrounding area.

Leon watched and waited from the house's second floor. He was waiting for the evil spirit to kill Murray... after which they could proceed to the final phase of his plan.

However, things weren't going according to plan.

Through the downpour, a youth covered in an unidentifiable fluid limped toward the inn.

It was Murray.

His expensive steam-powered prosthetic seemed damaged, moving less smoothly than before.

"Arkman is the evil spirit, and the event characters are evil spirits too... No! Why are there two evil spirits? The intel never mentioned anything like this!"

A critical mistake had pushed Murray to the brink.

Murray had assumed that "Possessed Chen Li" was the one possessed by the event's evil spirit, so he never suspected any of his team members.

Of course, this misconception was partly Leon's doing.

When the team split up, Leon had ordered Chen Li to follow Murray while wearing red and carrying a cleaver.

This had cemented Murray's belief that Chen Li was the evil spirit.

So when he encountered Arkman later, he'd completely dropped his guard.

The fact that he survived was miraculous.

After all, even Derion - tough enough to swing sledgehammers in factories - had vanished without a sound when he encountered the spirit, despite being fully alert.

Yet Murray had somehow escaped what should have been certain death.

He'd even managed to flee all the way back to the inn area.

Staring at the house with its newly hung lanterns, Murray recalled the system notification about there being [3] survivors, including the evil spirit Arkman... meaning only Murray and one other person were still alive.

Murray, being relatively shrewd, his mind raced through the details of the past few days.

Certain conversations echoed in his memory:

"I'm Nicolas Warren... Born with poor health, mostly homebound. But during my idle time, I've studied languages, so I should be able to handle translation."

"Captain... I'm not feeling well."

"Captain, I need to rest."

"Let's split up this way... I'll team up with Miss Arkman."

The image of Nicolas Warren - that weak youth who needed to catch his breath after walking just a short distance up the hill - crystallized in Murray's mind.

Murray had initially written Nicolas off as just a 'translator tool' he didn't need to worry about. With Nicolas's physical condition, survival seemed impossible.

Keeping Nicolas for last, using him to buy time - that had been Murray's plan.

But Murray had been completely wrong... Physical weakness didn't necessarily mean someone had no chance of survival.

Monica was dead, Arkman was the lurking evil spirit.

Facing the house with its hanging red lanterns, Murray's "sunny" and "friendly" facade completely crumbled. Baring his teeth in rage, he snarled:

"Nicolas, you've really played dirty! I considered your weak condition, let you rest in your room every day. I led all the basic preparation work myself... and in the end, you schemed against me. With that weak body of yours, you think you can become a 'Returner'? You're going to die sooner or later... might as well serve as my stepping stone."

However, Leon didn't appear in response to Murray's taunts and rage.

Instead, only a woman in red appeared, cradling a baby doll in one arm and holding a cleaver in the other, slowly walking along the second-floor corridor before returning to her 'Room 6'.

This eerie sight made Murray break out in cold sweat.

Even now, he couldn't tell whether Chen Li was human or evil spirit.

Meanwhile.

On the muddy mountain path, a crawling 'evil spirit' was slowly approaching the inn.

But something seemed off about the evil spirit - it moved more slowly than before.

Its face was injured, apparently cut by some blade and burned at high temperatures. Its mouth was completely split and charred black, creating a horrifying sight.

A tongue slithered out from the burned mouth, speaking in slightly imperfect British English:

"This person... truly has some skills! It hurts so much, just like when father used to burn me with the hot iron. Still, it feels nostalgic."

...

Death wasn't inevitable.

Murray had learned from elders who'd survived the Destiny Space that no matter how dangerous the events seemed, there were always 'paths to survival'.

One way was to understand the 'restrictions'.

Another was to find the dangerous entity's weaknesses. If you could identify 'its' weak point, you could force it back enough to create an escape opportunity.

Most evil spirits feared fire - this was part of the intel Murray had purchased... though there were rare exceptions that could not only withstand fire but absorb it.

If he'd encountered the latter type, Murray would certainly be dead already.

But under normal circumstances, luck wouldn't be that bad.

Murray's steam-powered prosthetic wasn't just for steam-driven strength and attack speed enhancement.

It also contained an internal combustion device with small nozzles.

A flamethrower.

Yes... this was Murray's trump card.

If he lost control of the 'time factor' and the evil spirit came for him, this was his backup plan.

But due to the high cost of the embedded flamethrower, Murray could only afford to install a small standard model with limited capacity. He'd completely exhausted its fuel during his earlier confrontation with the spirit.

The internal fuel lines were even damaged - even if he had time to refuel, he couldn't use the flamethrower anymore.

Standing before the house, Murray struggled to stay calm... thinking, searching for a way out of this situation.

"I only have one way to survive... find that little rat Nicolas and kill him directly! I'm 100% certain now that Arkman is the evil spirit, but I still can't confirm whether 'Possessed Chen Li' is a evil spirit or not. In a rookie event, even at four stars, having two evil spirits is absolutely impossible! Chen Li, this special event character, is likely following Nicolas's instructions to pose as a evil spirit and mislead me. That must be it! This is all Nicolas's scheme! Where is that dirty, cunning rat hiding?"

Murray truly had talent and the qualifications to survive... Being able to analyze calmly in such a situation proved his 'excellence', and his preparations had been thorough.

Unfortunately, he'd already made a fatal mistake.

...

As Murray began searching the house, Leon sat upstairs on the bed, fingers interlocked in a triangle, deep in thought.

"Murray actually survived a direct encounter with the spirit... So facing a 'spirit' doesn't necessarily mean death.

No choice then, since Murray didn't die, I'll have to modify the plan."