"so."
After hearing Lin You's report, Skull figured it out and said thoughtfully.
"You and a few other people, after staying in this hotel, found that the boss wanted to use sacrifices to summon the fanatics of the evil god, and he really summoned his offspring, so he set fire to this place and the black goat cub. ?”
"No," Lin You said, looking at the breached roof, "it can't be burned."
At that time, the flame was burning quietly, giving them the illusion that it was also buried in the sea of fire. But not long after they were rescued, the black goat cub rushed through the ceiling and escaped to nowhere.
"Ah, that's normal."
Skull said wisely.
"The body of a black goat cub is not made of the substances we know. It cannot be killed by fire alone. Heat, explosions, and poison corrosion will not work. Only a knife or a gun can cause some damage."
This was all an afterthought, and they didn't have any protection at the time. The boss and his wife used ropes to kill people, so don't expect to have many sharp weapons. but-
"You know a lot." Lin You stared at the dangling skull hanging from the bag.
"Isn't it?" Skull said proudly as if he didn't hear the meaning in her tone at all.
"I know more than that."
It showed off: "At the beginning of the birth of the universe, Azathoth gave birth to 'darkness', 'nameless fog' and 'chaos', and then they produced the three pillars of the original god—"
"Sab Nicholas of 'The Black Goat of the Forest', Yog Sothoth of 'The Key to the Door', and Nyarlathotep as the 'Messenger'."
"Oh, yes," it took her a while to remember the name of the innkeeper, "Langton wants to summon the Goddess of the Black Goat."
"Remember the manuscript that the young lady picked up?"
Lin You knew that it was referring to the two photos that Jian Mingjia found in the underground of Silent Hill Hospital.
"Remember, what's wrong."
"It is said that the complete version records all the spells of inviting gods and sending gods, not to mention the three pillars of the original god, even Azathoth can do it-of course, the two pieces of paper in your hand only record several kinds of dust. How to make it, but that's also useful."
Lin You: "Have you read the whole story?"
The skull shut up.
It obviously didn't intend to answer this question directly, and started humming again, and could vaguely hear words such as "the place of love" and "later regret".
She sang word for word, but unfortunately none of the notes were in tune. Lin You felt that if she released Chu Renmei at this moment, the latter would probably be revived when she heard it sing like this.
Its talkative character is destined to be impossible to keep pretending to be stupid without saying anything. Within ten minutes, the skull couldn't help but speak.
"What are you going to do now?"
"I thought I didn't need to say it."
At that time, Lin You had already walked to the side of the car, and she held the doorknob, "Of course I want to see if there is any way to contact my teammates."
— She was lucky.
As soon as the driver's door was opened, Lin You's gaze was fixed on the dashboard. She paused for two seconds, then took out the cell phone stuffed in the groove.
And as she did so, a thin piece of paper floated under the seat.
Lin You bent down to pick up the piece of paper, and saw a long line of numbers written on it.
Anyway, maybe she should try it.
She turned on her phone and began to enter the string of numbers. After pressing the dial key, the phone rang twice before being connected.
Lin You put the phone close to her ear, and as soon as she said "Hello", the person on the other end recognized her voice immediately.
"Sister Yuzu?!"
The man said in surprise.
"God, good thing you called, I thought—"
With this voice and tone, as soon as Lin You recognized who it was, she immediately interrupted him, preventing Geng Qinghe from repeating his rich brain supplements.
"I'm alone here, what about you?"
Speaking of this topic, Geng Qinghe's tone was obviously hesitant.
"It's not just me, there are others..." he said, "but..."
His voice was a little farther away, as if another person had picked up the phone, and immediately, a strange male voice sounded, "Hello, it's me."
Lin You: "Who are you?"
On the other end of the phone: "..."
"I-"
"Just kidding." Before he could explain, Lin You spoke again, "I know who you are, but there is no one else who thinks I should know you after changing the voice."
Gu Heng may have never had such a big deflation since he was born. The other end of the phone was quiet for a long time, and Lin You suspected that she heard him taking a deep breath.
"I hope there are other teammates." After a while, he said dryly, "If there are only you, I have no hope."
Lin You realized that she had never heard another voice, "Is Jian Mingjia not with you?"
"No, no, she's not here." Geng Qinghe said from a little distance away, "Sister You, you called me, and there are only two of us here."
"This is an office."
It was Gu Heng who spoke.
"My name is on the business card - it should be assumed that 'I' opened it."
"Do you have a computer?" Lin You asked.
Geng Qinghe: "Yes, yes, but—"
"Don't ask too many questions, I'm in a mountainous area, and the signal is not very good." She said, "Help me check, is there any news about a fire in a family hotel a while ago."
"Ah good."
Although he still didn't understand what was going on, Geng Qinghe immediately did as she said. The phone was in his hands again, Lin You heard the keyboard snapping, and then he said:
"I found it, let me have a look - the most recent one seems to be that a month ago a hotel caught fire strangely, the owner's life and death were unknown, and the police rescued a group of passengers whose bus broke down not far away...Huh?"
This description obviously aroused his memory, Geng Qinghe said in a daze: "Difficult, can it be said—"
"Yeah." Lin You affirmed his thoughts, "It's the previous dungeon, and the current timeline seems to be a month later."
"Check again."
she says.
"Has anyone seen a tall black monster with long tentacles appear?"
There was another rush.
"No!" Geng Qinghe hurriedly replied, "No."
Is that so
Lin You almost understood.
Because she and Geng Qinghe have been to this dungeon once, they now have established identities. They were tourists who survived the fire, and now they reappeared in front of this hotel because they felt something was wrong and chose to come alone.
As for Geng Qinghe, "he" went to a certain firm for help, and Gu Heng was set as the person in charge there. The three of them were linked together like this.
"We have located where the hotel is."
Gu Heng said: "I will leave after making some preparations, you can wait there."
She hung up the phone quickly, closed the car door and locked the car, and then heard the skull say: "Very well, I guess your friends will come to help later?"
"Maybe when they come over," Lin You said, "I've already checked."
She took a deep breath.
One month is not too long, plus there is no news about seeing a strange black monster—if someone hadn't deliberately suppressed it, the black goat cub might still be in this forest.
Lin You returned to the ruins beside the road.
She picked up a distorted iron bucket among the rubble. Compared with its kind, it has obviously been well preserved.
Lin You carried it, walked around to the lake behind the hotel, and filled a bucket full of water.
"What is this for?" Skull asked curiously.
"Not to mention anything else," she said, "I agree with Geng Qinghe now, the mucus of black goat cubs is disgusting, just in case it gets on it, it's fine."
Besides, you don't have to carry it yourself.
Lin You put the things in her backpack, and she was going to go back the same way. But almost at the same moment, she caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye.
She subconsciously held her breath and dodged to hide behind a large tree.
Skull: "You—"
Lin You: "Shh."
The warning was correct. Two people came out of the woods across the road and saw her car parked not far away.
They were all clad in robes, with wide hoods casting shadows that covered most of their faces. Lin You could only see the chins of the two people. They looked at the car, seemed to be discussing something in whispers, and looked around vigilantly.
When one of them glanced at Lin You's direction, she shrank back.
— not found.
The two men in the hoods still did not let go of their vigilance, and they separated one person to release the wind, while the other searched among the ruins.
Nearly 20 minutes passed, and he obviously got nothing like Lin You. After standing up and saying something to their accomplices, they all turned around and walked in the same direction they had come and gone.
Lin You took a step quietly.
"You won't tell me—" whispered the skull.
"That's right," she replied with the same volume, "Of course I'm going to keep up."
A rare opportunity.
These two guys are too suspicious.
Lin You kept a certain distance from them, while being careful not to step on any branches or blades of grass that might make noise.
She has done it with great success. It's just that the path that the two people in front walked was too winding, and even Lin You couldn't remember how long she had been following—finally, they walked a little slower.
Farther on appeared to be their destination.
It was a guarded cave.
It was big enough for two people to pass side by side, but they walked in one by one in front of the "guards" whose faces were also covered by hoods.
Lin You was still thinking about how to break in or get away with it, but in less than two minutes, a guy was pushed out.
He was not wearing a hood, his face was full of horror, and he was dancing and struggling when he was pushed.
"You can't do this to me!"
he yelled.
"I have been favored by the Mother God, without me, you would-"
"I know him." Seeing the man's face clearly, Lin You lowered her voice, "He is the guy who summoned the black goat cubs. It seems that he doesn't get along well with his new friends."
Speaking of which, she even poured a bucket of water on the summoning circle he drew so hard.
"I think so."
Skull said matter-of-factly: "Maybe the word accomplice needs to be put in quotation marks."
Sure enough, Langton hadn't finished speaking when he was pushed heavily on the shoulder by the other party. He staggered back a few steps, froze in place for a moment, turned around cursing and walked away.
Lin You changed her mind.
After confirming that the group guarding the cave had stopped paying attention to Langton's side, she turned around and followed silently.
After walking for an unknown amount of time, Langton stopped.
In front of him was a clearing covered with handfuls of hay. He looked a lot thinner than when Lin You saw him last time, his cheeks were deeply sunken, his beard was unshaven, not to mention how scruffy he was.
But when he brushed away the hay, his smile made his whole face hideous.
"It's coming soon," he said, "it's coming... just a little bit..."
"If they look down on me, they will pay the price. If I can summon once, I can summon the second time. This time is definitely more..."
"Would you mind telling me what happened?"
She has tons of questions to ask.
Where are the black goat cubs, what happened to the cave, where did the crowd come from—
"Who's there?!" Hearing Lin You's voice, Langton suddenly turned around, "You—"
Lin You came out from behind the tree undisguisedly. She thought Langton had recognized her, but instead of hatred, he saw vigilance and doubt on his face, with a distorted smile that hadn't completely disappeared.
"Who are you?"
… Um
Lin You raised her eyebrows, thinking that maybe the fire had knocked down a beam and made him lose his memory, or was the blow too big for him to forget
"It's okay." She looked at the complicated lines that spread to her feet, "I have a way to remind you."
Most of the dry grass covering it has been removed by himself, and right now, it can be clearly seen that it is a magic circle that has not yet fully formed. The dark red blood turned black, and it was unknown where the suspicious blood came from.
With a "crash", the water splashed in all directions, and a small piece of the pattern was splashed into a ball. Lin You took the time to put the deformed iron bucket aside, thinking that if it wasn't enough, she could ask Chu Renmei to fill it up.
Langston's smile froze.
"Now, can you remember who I am?"
she asked.