Moonfall Village… Moonfall Village!

Shen Lin suddenly thought of something. He opened the drawer and took out Cain’s diary.

In the margins of the diary, there was a word Shen Lin had noticed earlier. At the time, it seemed like a meaningless word, as if it had been randomly pieced together from various radicals and components, like a fabricated chinese character.

As he re-examined the meaning of the word, KP’s voice echoed in his ears: “Roll for Inspiration check.”

Shen Lin rolled the dice and, unsurprisingly, succeeded.

Brian praised sincerely, “So steady.”

KP: “When you performed in the French opera Faust, you came across these characters. You remembernow. This is French, but the letters are scrambled. You’ve found a clue in the ordering and rearranged them. The pronunciation is—”

“Moonfall Village,” Shen Lin read the name aloud.

He closed the diary and let out a long sigh. “I know why Cain died. He once swore an oath to the ‘deity’ worshipped by the Harrison family, pledging eternal loyalty and never to betray or reveal the family’s secrets.”

“So… he thought you were Dylan, revealed the Harrison family’s secrets, got struck by the curse of the oath… and died???” Freud asked in disbelief.

Shen Lin didn’t want to believe it either, but the truth forced him to nod. “His death matches the oath he swore. There’s no other explanation for his bizarre death.”

Brian looked at the mess of red and white on the floor and said with lingering fear, “It seems you can’t just swear oaths casually in this world. It’s terrifying.”

“What is this Moonfall Village?” Nana hugged her arms, trembling with fear.

“I don’t know,” Shen Lin said. “According to his description, Moonfall Village only appears at night. The materials for the ritual are stored there. It might be a cave, a low-lying valley, or even a small rock exposed only with receding tides.”

The group felt a heavy weight in their hearts. Humans naturally fear the unknown, especially when it carries great potential danger.

Shen Lin looked around and said to the others, “The good news is that we can now safely use this place as a temporary camp. From Cain’s reaction, it seems Dylan hasn’t met with him since arriving on the island. If Dylan wants to contact Cain, he’ll definitely come here.”

“Um…” Brian raised his hand, his eyes wide and innocent. “The meat in the pot has been stewing for so long. Shouldn’t we, out of respect for the meat, politely check if the water has boiled dry?”

Nana, her face pale, said, “What if it’s not the kind of stewed meat we’re thinking of, but something… else? Looking at it might cost us Sanity.”

“KP is our friend. He wouldn’t do that,” Shen Lin said. “Releasing a pot of delicious but sanity-draining meat… our conscientious KP would never do something so disrespectful to food.”

“Exactly! No human would do that!” Brian chimed in.

“But I’m not human,” KP said meaningfully.

Shen Lin wasn’t sure how KP appeared to the others, but during their interactions, he had been observing KP’s behavior. KP was too human-like, with human-like movements, psychological activities, and emotions.

But KP claimed he wasn’t human… Shen Lin furrowed his brows. He couldn’t explain what KP really was.

“However,” just as Shen Lin was pondering, KP, dressed as a gentleman, took off his top hat and placed it over his chest, bowing to Shen Lin. “You’re right. I wouldn’t add to your psychological burden. This is, after all, a beginner’s game. So, please, enjoy your meal.”

Hearing this, the group eagerly rushed to the kitchen to devour the meat. Shen Lin smiled and looked back at Yan Xiuyi, who was silently cleaning up the mess on the floor.

Faced with the indescribable scene, the man remained calm and composed. Shen Lin recalled that he had never seen Yan Xiuyi flustered or panicked. He had sharp insight and exceptional observational skills, always quietly handling details Shen Lin hadn’t noticed. He was also brave, seemingly unafraid of anything, and a cool, silent type. Aside from his bad luck, he had no other flaws.

“He’s very perceptive,” KP chatted with Shen Lin, his voice tinged with amusement. “If he hadn’t covered your eyes earlier, witnessing death first hand would have cost you Sanity, and you might have temporarily gone mad.”

Shen Lin glanced at Yan Xiuyi, the warmth of his palm still faintly lingering on his face.

Before eating, they cleaned the room with brooms and mops, arranging all the available seating around the small half-meter-square low table, their heads huddled together.

Nana brought over the clay pot of stewed meat from the kitchen. After Freud’s Biology check, it was confirmed to be venison¹—young deer meat, tender and delicious.

The group ate heartily, their exhaustion melting away. They even took a short nap afterward.

Refreshed, they gathered around the table again to discuss their next steps.

Brian slammed the table and cursed, “Damn it, where has Dylan gone?”

Freud asked, “Could he have gone directly to the sacrificial altar? A family as big as the Harrisons must have such a place, right?”

“That’s possible,” Shen Lin said, taking out the folded parchment from his pocket. “I feel that this scroll is the key to unlocking the ritual, but the risk of reading it… is a bit high.”

Should they try to decipher it?

Shen Lin’s fingers tapped rhythmically on the back of the parchment as his eyes scanned the complex text. KP’s voice echoed in his mind: “You’re being disturbed by a mysterious force and can’t focus on reading these words.”

Can’t read?

Shen Lin looked up and asked, “Can any of you read it?”

One of them leaned in and said, “There’s a mysterious force interfering. I can’t read it.”

“Same here.”

“Me too.”

“Then let’s leave it for now,” Shen Lin put the parchment back in his bag and said to the others, “During the day, we’ll continue exploring the area. At night, we’ll head to the Moonfall Village that Cain mentioned. I think that most of the clues are there.”

In the afternoon, they split into teams and explored different directions in the dense forest. By dusk, they returned with the same report.

The forest was deserted, with no signs of human habitation. Even wildlife was scarce. When they tried to venture deeper, they inexplicably walked into a fog. No matter how detailed their markings were, they always ended up back at the starting point, as if encountering a ghost wall².

The thick fog blocked all their paths.

“It’s hard to imagine how Cain survived in such an environment.”

“There must be secrets we don’t know about,” Shen Lin’s gaze fell on the ink bottle on the table. Given how frequently Cain wrote in his diary, the ink would have been used up quickly. The bottle on the table was new, with a strong ink scent. The packaging was from an unfamiliar brand, with a production date of two years ago. There was no manufacturer’s address, only the words “Old Pete’s Black Ink.”

As the sky darkened, the group divided Cain’s clothes to create makeshift bedding. The bed was small and given to Nana, the only woman, who was physically weaker. The men had to make do as best they could.

Shen Lin glanced at the cramped space with a complicated expression, suddenly feeling that Shawn’s choice to sleep in the messy kitchen was a wise decision.

He resignedly crouched down to arrange his “bedding and blanket.” Cain’s clothes, stored in the wardrobe, reeked of mildew³.

Yan Xiuyi came over and picked up the cotton jacket Shen Lin was about to lay on the floor. “Let me air it out over the fire to get rid of the mildew smell.”

“It’s fine,” Shen Lin took the jacket back. “We don’t have time for that. We need to go find Moonfall Village soon.”

“Can you sleep like this? Aren’t you bothered by how dirty these clothes are?”

“I am,” Shen Lin said, holding his breath. “I’m bothered to death, but now’s not the time to care. There are more important things to do.”

“You look like a rich young master, but you’re quite tough,” Freud said, wiping the fog off his glasses with the hem of his shirt. He squinted at Shen Lin, his eyes crinkling with a smile. “If it weren’t for you, we’d probably be dead on the beach, keeping those bones company. This damn game.”

“KP’s listening,” Brian reminded. “Be careful, or he might give you a hard time.”

“I must defend myself,” KP’s voice chimed in. “In this journey to uncover the mysteries, I am your guide and companion, not your enemy. I will fully abide by the rules of the game. Otherwise, like you, I would face punishment.”

“What punishment? From whom?” Shen Lin asked.

“A secret,” KP said. “This is not something you can know yet. Rest well and conserve your energy. Night will come soon.”

Outside, the cawing of night crows echoed. The group woke from their light sleep, refreshed.

After gathering their weapons, they set off into the depths of the forest under the cover of night.

The fog that had lingered during the day grew thinner. After walking for about half an hour, they saw faint lights in the distance.

In the mist, a few flickering lights swayed, and the bushes exuded an indescribable eeriness.

1. Venison refers primarily to the meat of deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, including the internal organs. ↩︎
2. 鬼打墙 (guǐ dǎ qiáng): Literally “ghost hitting a wall,” meaning to go in circles or be trapped in an endless loop, often used to describe disorientation. ↩︎
3. Mold and mildew smell stale and pungent, similar to the smell of rotting wood. ↩︎