In the misty moonlight, Bohemia and the Descartes Spirit crouched together on the muddy ground outside the farmhouse. Under its keen gaze, Bohemia reached out and pressed her hand on the belly of the unconscious dog.
Monts ago, the room had been dimly lit, and before the light from the ga fish could illuminate the surroundings, the dog had been thrown out. Now, under the moonlight, it revealed its appearance, and it beca clear. Its belly protruded unnaturally, as if a small hill had risen beneath its sternum.
Upon further inspection around its mouth, the fur near the dog's mouth was clean, with no traces of blood.
"Let's go," the Descartes Spirit observed for a while, seemingly very disappointed and made no comnts. He urged, "Ti is running out, and we need to check other places."
Bohemia nodded, turned, and entered the neighboring farmhouse. In this house, there was no deceased, only a chubby man snoring loudly in bed. He didn't seem concerned at all about becoming a victim tonight. His dog was also quite overweight, and it looked at Bohemia and the Descartes Spirit for a mont before lying back down.
"He's sleeping on a straw bed too," the Descartes Spirit was more casual this ti, just using his mouth to instruct Bohemia, "Grab so of his straw and compare it with the straw the other deceased were sleeping on to see if there's anything unusual."
Although straw wasn't identical from one batch to another, they all looked ordinary and natural. Bohemia examined them under the bright light from the ga fish but found nothing peculiar.
"Half of their bodies are completely shattered," she speculated while recalling and guessing, "So it shouldn't be the kind of creature that swallows a person whole in one gulp, like you, right? Could it be that it has nurous tiny mouths? Or perhaps it has a body covered in small holes that can release an impact..."
"Stop, I have trypophobia," the Descartes Spirit interrupted her, thought for a while, looking at the straw, and then proposed another theory, "The question says it's a certain 'species' of creature, right? Not a certain 'individual.' Maybe we aren't looking for just one creature but a large group of them... like bedbugs, for example. Aren't these tiny insects originally bloodsuckers?"
Bohemia's eyes lit up – for once, she realized that the Descartes Spirit had a very capable mind.
"It's really possible!" Bohemia praised, using her Higher Consciousness to give it a few firm pats to show her appreciation. "It's easier for you guys to understand each other."
"You're the one who's 'ascended,'" the Descartes Spirit grumbled, seeming a bit disgruntled. Although they had only exchanged a couple of sentences, the daylight quickly began to erge, and the sun had almost risen in the blink of an eye.
"It's dayti," the voice outside the ga prompt said unnecessarily, "please continue exploring clues during the day."
... Clues during the day too?
Bohemia quickly checked her leaf, and even though the perceived ti was slower within the ga prompt, they only had a precarious two or three minutes left to solve the puzzle.
She wasn't sure when these farrs and farmwives had left their hos, but as she put the leaf away and glanced up, she noticed several figures working in the fields in the distance. A few lean sheep ambled through the village from the other end, while the farmwives gathered on the path, talking closely together, all looking nervous.
Bohemia quickly grabbed the Descartes Spirit and strode over. She was dressed like a gypsy, but the farmwives only glanced at her briefly before turning their attention back to the older man in the center.
"Our family decided this morning to go into the city together, try our luck," a relatively young, chubby woman said. "Even if we get cheated or mistreated there and can't find work, it's better than dying here!"
The other older won seed surprised, exchanging glances with each other. The man who seed like the village elder finally spoke, "I've already sent soone to bring the most knowledgeable person from the Green Hill..."
"In my opinion, it's a curse from the priestesses!" the plump woman, outspoken and fiery, interrupted him. "No matter how knowledgeable they are, they can't exorcise evil spirits, can they? Village elder, I've heard about the way they died—half their bodies missing, and the other half intact. What kind of wild beast eats people like this?"
So far, there had been nothing but unhelpful chatter. Bohemia impatiently tapped her foot on the ground and tried to hold back her annoyance as she continued to listen.
Unexpectedly, the village elder stamred, at a loss for words, while the won's conversation veered further off track.
"But how will you make a living in the city?" an elderly woman asked with genuine concern.
"With so many lords and ladies, you can't possibly do all the work yourself. I asked my distant relative, and they said there's plenty of housework like cleaning and laundry!"
"What about your fields at ho?"
The chubby woman appeared to have struck a nerve and grew sowhat annoyed. "That wretched land, we don't care about it! As you've seen, since last week, the corners of our fields at ho have also started to wither, and it's getting worse by the day... It's cursed land. Why would we keep it?"
"Clue!" the Descartes Spirit gleefully floated into the air. "She said 'also,' which ans that more than one place in this village has inexplicably withered... Let's go check it out!"
Before the Descartes Spirit even finished speaking, Bohemia had already turned and sprinted towards the fields. She thought she was fast enough, but just as she reached a hillock, Lin Sanjiu's voice suddenly cut in, yanking her forcefully out of the concrete puzzle: "I'm about to write the answer! Have you solved the puzzle?"
"Solved it, solved it," at this point, any false answer would do to confuse her since the goal was to make her answer incorrectly. "It's a dog."
"A dog?"
"Every household has a dog tied up as a guard when they sleep, but they didn't raise an alarm. Isn't that suspicious? So I checked, and the belly of the fifth victim's dog was quite swollen, definitely from sucking blood—"
Lin Sanjiu lowered her head, and it seed that the lump on the back of her neck had grown another circle. She couldn't look up at Bohemia and her voice ca through, low and filled with doubt, "You're not intentionally trying to hinder , are you?"
"Huh?"
"I've checked the fifth night's dog too, and it's pregnant."
Damn, you're quite the expert on dog physiology and hygiene.
Bohemia cursed in her mind, not knowing how to deceive her for a mont. She thought of asking the Descartes Spirit for his opinion, but when she turned her head, she noticed that the mosaic that had been following her had disappeared – it seed that it had been missing since she was pulled out earlier. Could it still be stuck inside the puzzle?
"Just now, it was the opinion of that Pocket Dinsion, and I thought it was wrong," she chuckled nervously, "I didn't expect that you and I would think the sa. I also believe it's pregnant! Um, the correct answer... the correct answer is..."
"Tell quickly, ti is running out!" Lin Sanjiu's voice beca tense and low.
Bohemia felt flustered as Lin Sanjiu's urgency and her own labored breathing made every word she uttered feel as dry as if scraped from a sharpening stone. In her state of confusion, Bohemia opened her mouth, and the true answer slipped out, "Yes, it could be a large group of creatures similar to bedbugs."
"Ah... that makes sense," Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath, and despite her sharp inhalation, her shoulders relaxed. "Why didn't I think of that? With those kinds of wounds..."
Lin Sanjiu spent more ti on this question, examining it more ticulously. Thus, when Bohemia gave her a slight hint, she understood it imdiately. Not only did she comprehend it, but as she quickly wrote the answer on her test paper, Bohemia leaned in to see that Lin Sanjiu's guess about the creature was more specific and comprehensive than the Descartes Spirit's, as if she had woven together various clues.
Bohemia couldn't help but sigh in disappointnt imdiately. This question was a dead end, and she could only wait for the next one. She looked at the swelling on Lin Sanjiu's neck, covered by a trembling, white mbrane, feeling regretful.
Lin Sanjiu hurriedly finished writing her answer, and as soon as she put her pen down, the ti was up, precisely within the 9-minute limit. The Pocket Dinsion host's voice imdiately ca through, "Player Lin Sanjiu answered one question incorrectly and will now perform a strip onion penalty."
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