Chapter 785: Basement
Basement
Three days later, Lin Ye leaned back in his chair, eating canned meat. This was already the tenth can he had eaten today.
After entering the basement, strange sounds occasionally came from above.
Perhaps due to different time flow speeds, or perhaps for other reasons, they hadn't pulled Lin Ye back, and he couldn't directly return to the Shelter either.
Additionally, Lin Ye had discovered a rather troublesome situation—the Special Ability Gluttony had been constantly active, forcing him to consume a large amount of food every day. Otherwise, he would suffer from unbearable hunger.
Fortunately, there was plenty of food stored in the basement; otherwise, he would have had to go out to search for food.
"...Lord Deity, when will we be able to leave this place?"
Eura leaned against the chair, staring blankly at the ceiling.
"When only a quarter of the food is left, we'll go out and check the situation."
Lin Ye didn't want to go out casually. The situation outside seemed quite dire, and random excursions might lead to unpredictable consequences.
"...When we finally get out, will the outside world already be destroyed?"
Eura wasn't referring to the world outside the basement, but the world beyond the secret realm.
"If that happens, the secret realm will probably be destroyed too, and we might be able to leave early."
Lin Ye continued eating the awful canned meat.
"You don't seem to care about the world being destroyed?"
Eura had previously thought that this phantom beast deity would use her as a sacrificial offering to stop the world's destruction.
"It's not me who's destroying the world, so why should I care? Don't worry. If that really happens, I can send you to a plane where you can survive."
Lin Ye wished this world, where he could only eat canned meat, would be destroyed as soon as possible.
"...But if I hadn't run away, maybe the world wouldn't have been destroyed."
Eura wore a very heavy expression.
"You don't actually believe that nonsense, do you? Even if you're connected to the world's destruction, you don't have the ability to destroy the world. If destruction is inevitable, sacrificing your life means nothing. If destruction isn't inevitable, then it takes capable people to change that outcome—not some stupid trick like this."
Religion always likes to blame right and wrong on individuals, but that's just using religion as a means to achieve an end.
"...So boring."
Eura turned over, shifting to a more comfortable position.
"It really is boring."
Lin Ye placed the empty can on the floor.
Thump, thump, thump!
Something was knocking on the metal door above.
Lin Ye picked up the hunting shotgun from the table and aimed it at the metal door.
The knocking grew heavier, and soon the lock was smashed off.
The metal door was forced open, and Lin Ye fired four shots directly at the figures outside.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
There were three figures outside. The first three bullets hit their heads, and the fourth bullet altered the direction in which the corpses fell.
Having killed the thugs trying to break into the basement, Lin Ye quickly climbed the stairs to the doorway and shut the metal door as fast as possible.
There was a spare lock in the basement, but Lin Ye didn't waste time. Instead, he used a dagger to twist the broken lock chain together.
Eura came over with the spare lock, but Lin Ye didn't replace it. Instead, he pulled Eura and quietly retreated to the depths of the basement.
Strange sounds came from above again. Lin Ye held his breath, trying to minimize their presence.
The entire house began to vibrate irregularly. This shaking lasted for a while before gradually fading.
Lin Ye had been monitoring the commotion above these past few days. When the metal door opened just now, he noticed that fleshy structures and red eyeballs had grown on the walls of the house. Seeing those things, he could roughly guess what had been causing the disturbances earlier.
Those figures had already awakened the monster in the house. If they hadn't closed the door in time, it would have been too late.
After the noise above subsided, Lin Ye picked up the loaded hunting shotgun and crept close to the metal door with low steps.
That monster above had just finished a feeding, making now a good opportunity to go out and explore the outside situation.
Lin Ye had already communicated this to Eura with gestures. This time, he planned to go out alone to scout the area, while Eura would stay behind to watch the house.
After Lin Ye left, Eura would replace the lock and wait for his return.
Lin Ye opened the metal door and returned to the living room. By now, the corpses were gone, and the ceiling was covered in twisted fleshy structures.
If he looked closely, he would notice that those fleshy structures and red eyeballs had already grown into the walls.
Lin Ye crept quietly near the window, pulled open the curtain, and glanced outside.
He saw a window covered in eyeballs. Through the transparent glass, he could see the internal structure of those eyeballs.
Perhaps because they had just finished eating, the eyeballs didn't focus their gaze on Lin Ye.
Lin Ye looked through the gaps between the eyeballs to check the situation outside. Outside the house was a moderately wide road, and across the road were two-story buildings similar to this one.
On the road stood some pillars made of flesh, impaled with human corpses.
Some oddly moving figures were active inside the houses across the street, and the eaves of those houses were hung with human heads.
In the distance, some tall shadows could be seen moving slowly. Due to the distance, Lin Ye couldn't make out what they were.
Lin Ye pulled the curtain shut and quietly retreated to the basement door. He knocked on the metal door in a rhythmic pattern. Eura opened it and let Lin Ye into the basement.
"The situation outside is very bad. We might have to stay here a while longer."
Lin Ye decided to ration their food slightly each day. He didn't know how much longer this secret realm would last.
"That monster outside didn't find us? Does it see us as backup food?"
Eura felt that the monster outside wouldn't let them off.
"At least it's safe here for now. If we go out recklessly, we might get surrounded by hordes of monsters and end up becoming one of them."
Lin Ye had considered this issue too, but for now, they were just ordinary people. The risk of going out was simply too great.
"That's true."
Even though Eura hadn't seen the street outside, considering the state of this house, the other houses were probably no better.
"We can gather information through the broadcast. If there's a safe place outside, we can find a way to get there. That car in the garage doesn't seem to be broken yet."
Lin Ye had taken a quick look when he went out earlier.
If there were other useful things in the house, he would have noticed them too.
"We can still drive outside? Hiss—"
Eura suddenly jumped up. A large patch of red eyeballs had grown on the ground beneath her.
Lin Ye grabbed two emergency backpacks, then pulled Eura and rushed out of the basement.