Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 523 - 108: Videotape_2

"Where... where should I shine it?" The scavenger took the flashlight—Sun Hang’s flashlight was borrowed from the Field Operations Department, a standard military-grade device, with brightness and battery life far superior to the civilian models the scavenger originally had.

"Just shine it where you’re walking, watch your step so you don’t fall off," Sun Hang said.

"You... you don’t need a flashlight?"

"No need, I can see."

As he spoke, Sun Hang had already reached the bottom level of the stairs. In front of him was a rusted iron door—unlocked, but with a yellowing A4 paper attached to it, printed in orange font: "Machine Room Restricted, No Admittance."

Sun Hang ignored the warning sign and forcefully pushed open the rusted iron door.

A rush of machine room odor instantly permeated his nostrils.

It was a blend of ozone, rosin, and the smell emitted from heated PCB boards... Many people dislike this odor, but for some reason, Sun Hang found it somewhat tolerable, not as unbearable as others might.

"Could it be that I used to work with machines and got used to the smell?" Sun Hang mused to himself.

The machine room was spacious, filled with equipment that looked quite expensive, mounted on metal-framed stands, with bundles of cables coiled around the machines like a massive python.

Still, there was no eerie presence.

But after only a few steps, they saw a pool of dark blood on the ground.

The scavenger tensed up completely, gripping the flashlight in one hand and clutching a fire axe in the other.

Sun Hang crouched down and examined it closely.

"This time, it’s real blood," Sun Hang said.

"Is... is there really something eerie here?" the scavenger asked in a low, anxious voice.

"I don’t sense any eerie presence... The amount of blood suggests something fatal happened," Sun Hang said, "But don’t forget, killers aren’t necessarily supernatural, humans kill too."

"Huh?"

"Haven’t you scavengers had conflicts, fighting over spoils or having unequal splits lead to violent confrontations?" Sun Hang tilted his head, "Didn’t you say you killed someone yourself?"

"I... I didn’t kill... I just wanted to scare you... make you leave..." the scavenger admitted frankly, "I usually act alone... When I encounter other scavengers, I try to stay away from them..."

Sun Hang didn’t continue the joking and walked swiftly to a coil of cables, picking up a shoe from the ground.

It was a size 43 sneaker, with a recognizable brand, though Sun Hang couldn’t identify the exact style. The original color should have been white, but due to aging and dirt, it had turned beige, with the shoe’s collar heavily worn, exposing the padding inside.

"Is this guy’s shoe?" Sun Hang held up the shoe, shaking it toward the scavenger.

"I really don’t know... I never paid attention to what shoes he was wearing..."

"It’s actually easy to judge." Sun Hang turned the shoe over, the sole pattern matched perfectly with footprints he’d seen in the underground shopping district earlier, and the pattern grooves still retained some syrup that hadn’t worn away.

"The shoe got left here, seems the person is likely beyond saving." Sun Hang said.

"Was... was he killed?"

"Let’s search and find out, the corpse could be hidden in some corner of the machine room," Sun Hang said, "You check this row, I’ll check the other side."

"Can... can I look with you?" The scavenger clearly didn’t want Sun Hang to split up.

"Scared?"

The scavenger nodded.

"Alright, fine, stay close."

After about twenty minutes, they finished searching every corner of the machine room.

No eerie presence and no corpse, but they did find splatters of blood at multiple spots.

Unfortunately, Sun Hang didn’t have testing equipment on hand to confirm whether the blood belonged to the same person.

As for "wishful thinking"—searching for the supernatural had used up a lot of blue bars, and considering the potential fight ahead, Sun Hang thought it would be best not to use his ability lightly.

Even knowing the blood’s origin wouldn’t substantiate any major benefit to the upcoming search.

"The shoe was left here, blood on the ground... but no footprints... You know what that implies?" Sun Hang turned to ask the scavenger.

"Implies what?"

"It means that guy might have been a corpse before arriving... He didn’t walk in, something dragged him here," Sun Hang said, "Considering he left the axe by the street... I can pretty much confirm this isn’t the primary crime scene."

"Then what about this blood..."

"The killer dismembered the corpse or ate him here... This blood seems to be splattered directly from the body, there’s no obvious drag marks, so it’s fair to conclude that his body... or rather, his corpse was relatively ’whole’ before coming here."

"The killer might still be hiding here?" The scavenger nervously surveyed his surroundings.

"Back." Sun Hang suddenly said.

"Back to where? Upstairs?"

"Back to those shops we just searched," Sun Hang said.

"Sure... sure!" The scavenger nodded eagerly—for her, as long as it’s not here, anywhere would be better.

...

They quickly returned to the underground shopping district, Sun Hang entered the second-hand hobby shop and rechecked the figurines that had been played and fiddled with.

He found nothing.

He then entered the video store and picked up the tape cases and videotapes thrown beside the TV one by one.

All videotapes matched with their cases, except for one thriller and suspense film that had an empty tape case.

Sun Hang opened the player beside the TV, and sure enough, it had this movie in it.

The film’s title was "Horror Cruise."

Sun Hang was lost in thought.

After half a minute, he got up and walked to the shopping management office at the street corner, dragging out a spare gasoline generator.

He moved the generator next to the TV, using a power strip to connect the generator and the TV, then began pouring gasoline.

"What... what are you doing?" the scavenger watching Sun Hang busy himself asked, puzzled.

"I want to see what film that guy watched before dying." With that, Sun Hang started the generator.

A dull engine noise kicked up.

"But, but... this TV’s already broken... Ah?!"

As the power indicator lit up, the TV screen, already smashed with a large hole, displayed a distorted and scrambled image... Unfortunately, the TV’s sound equipment was thoroughly damaged, so Sun Hang could see the video but not hear any sound.

"Horror Cruise, have you seen it?" Sun Hang asked.

The scavenger shook her head.

Sun Hang checked the back of the tape case for the film’s description; it featured a group led by the female protagonist boarding a mysterious abandoned cruise ship where they encountered eerie and terrifying events on what seemed to be an "empty" vessel.

The movie’s most intriguing aspect was the presence of multiple timelines on the ship, each with a different protagonist, endlessly repeating the acts of killing their companions and themselves within the loop without escape...

At that moment, Sun Hang suddenly felt an overwhelming eerie presence emanating from below, but this presence vanished in an instant, as if it had never appeared. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Hm?" Sun Hang furrowed his brows, "No, it wasn’t my imagination."

[P.S. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.]