Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 263: Strange Town
What was reflected in the rearview mirror was a sentry tower that had long since collapsed. The searchlight on the top and the place for people to stand guard had long disappeared, leaving only a rusty steel structure.

And under the steel frame, there is a group of things similar to "Meat Ganoderma" - this group of "Meat Ganoderma" has long been integrated with the steel frame and extends to the top of the steel frame.

There, the "Ganoderma lucidum" grew a spherical bud, the surface of which was covered with cracks... If you look closely, you can see that the inside of these cracks are densely packed with things that look like eyeballs.

At the root of the Ganoderma lucidum, a tattered puppet leaned crookedly. The puppet's limbs had long been broken, and were completely stuck together by the biological tissue provided by the "Ganoderma lucidum". In the puppet's hand, a rubber-coated baton stained with dark red stains was fixed with nails.

And on the puppet's arm, the dirty armband is actually a "meat ring" made of a circle of rotten meat.

Just one look at this weird thing is enough to clear a person's SAN value to zero.

Fortunately, there is no SAN value in Sun Hang’s character attributes.

"So the light just now came from the eyeballs?" Sun Hang muttered to himself, "But these eyeballs should not have a 360-degree field of vision... otherwise this weirdo wouldn't have revealed its true appearance in the rearview mirror..."

Sun Hang withdrew his gaze and continued driving forward.

The outline of the building gradually enlarged and became clearer, and the lights became more numerous and brighter... For some reason, Sun Hang always felt that these warm yellow lights gave him a warm and reassuring feeling, just like a wanderer who had been wandering outside for decades and saw the familiar oil lamp hanging at the door of his home when he returned to his hometown...

"Damn it, could I be a native of the Yunnan-Dian region?" Sun Hang took a deep breath and stopped the car.

Maoyun Town is called a town, but from today's perspective, many villages in Shuzhou area are larger than it - this so-called town does not even have a road leading into the town. There is only a narrow, bumpy and muddy dirt road that runs straight through the middle of the town.

Unlike the dry land with cracks everywhere in the wilderness, Maoyun Town seemed to have just rained. Sun Hang's boots made a squeaking sound as he stepped on the mud, and every step he took left a footprint two or three centimeters deep.

He took out the mirror he found in the car from his pocket - it was a box of powder for touch-up, which Yang Qi had thrown in the car. However, she seemed not to have used it for a long time. As soon as Sun Hang opened the box, the powder inside immediately fell out in pieces.

Fortunately, Sun Hang doesn't need these things.

"Does this count as buying the casket and returning the pearl?"

Sun Hang wiped the small mirror inside the box with his thumb, and with the help of the car lights, he pointed the mirror at the ground.

Fortunately, the mud was still mud. Although it seemed to be mixed with some dark red liquid, it was at least better than what Sun Hang had expected.

When he first got off the car, he subconsciously thought that this road was paved with something like rotten meat, just like the Zerg fungus blanket in "StarCraft".

There is a saying that goes, as long as you keep your expectations low enough, you will never be disappointed.

As long as you imagine the worst possible situation, then as long as reality is not so bad that it can't get any worse, all the news is good news.

"It's good news to find a town with people living in it," Sun Hang muttered to himself. "The old man guarding the entrance to the town is also quite nice to me, which is even better news."

Sun Hang turned the box slightly and pointed the mirror towards Maoyun Town not far away.

He originally thought that he would see a scene of demons dancing in disorder in the mirror, or at worst a ruin... But in fact, the Maoyun Town presented in the mirror was almost the same as what Sun Hang saw with his naked eyes.

The most obvious difference is probably that the warm yellow lights have turned into pale cold tones.

“…It really is a small town, huh?”

Sun Hang put the box away, put it in his pocket, and then took out the assault rifle from the passenger seat.

But soon, he put the rifle back.

If “people” don’t offend me, I won’t offend “people”… The two strange creatures that Sun Hang had encountered before, whether it was the “old woman” or the “old man” guarding the entrance, they didn’t show any malice towards him…

This means that these strange creatures seem to have regarded Sun Hang as "one of their own"... and from the words of the "old man", it can be confirmed that this town is not xenophobic - at least it does not exclude "outsiders" like Sun Hang.

If Sun Hang entered the town with such an obvious weapon, it would easily arouse hostility from the "townspeople".

"Let's go in and take a look first." In the end, Sun Hang only took the fifty-cent bill and the "rice cake" that the old woman stuffed into his hand, then locked the car door and walked towards the town, stepping through the mud with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

I don’t know if it was because of the wrong time or for some other reason, but there weren’t many “townspeople” on the street, and most of the buildings were closed, even those with lights on - only a few shops that looked like stores were open, with a few winnowing baskets supported by benches at the door, with some strange goods placed on them.

As for the shop owners and stall owners, they are hidden in the shadows behind the door. You can vaguely see a blurry human outline, or a half-hookah sticking out of the darkness, and a wisp of thin smoke rising.

The clothes worn by these townspeople are very old-fashioned... No one wears this kind of clothing anymore in the Shuzhou area today. Only some ancient towns and villages that are scenic spots still sell this kind of retro clothing in the name of "handicrafts."

Sun Hang swept his eyes around the street. There were three men, four women, and two little girls, a total of nine townspeople... To the naked eye, they looked like normal humans, with no signs of mutation in their bodies.

However, Sun Hang soon discovered something unusual: these villagers, whether male or female, all looked pale and thin, except for the two little girls, who were fair and plump, forming a sharp contrast with the adults.

"This town... is there a shortage of food?" Sun Hang asked in confusion, "But why is there such a clear difference between 'adults' and 'children'?"

As he walked and thought, he passed by a "middle-aged woman", but the other party was only busy counting the things in the basket she was carrying and did not even look at Sun Hang.

Not only her, but all the townspeople on the street had no obvious reaction to Sun Hang's appearance...it was as if Sun Hang was a "person" living in this town.

Two little girls, one holding a rattle and the other holding a kite, chased and played with each other. Sun Hang took a look at the toys in their hands - the strings of the rattle were broken, and the two beads used to hit the drum were missing; and the paper sheet pasted on the bamboo frame of the kite was full of holes, completely losing its ability to fly in the wind.

Sun Hang did not take the initiative to talk to the townspeople, but continued walking forward in silence until he stopped in front of a stall.

There weren't many things for sale at the stall, but they were quite varied - a cartoon-shaped hand-cranked pencil sharpener, a few crudely made glass beads, a pair of old straw sandals, a folding knife with its paint peeling off, and a tung-colored oil-paper umbrella.

These products have one thing in common, that is, they are all "broken".

The joystick of the pencil sharpener was broken, the surface of the glass beads was covered with marks of bumps, the laces of the straw sandals had long been worn out, the blade of the folding knife was rolled up and could not be retracted into the handle at all... As for the oil-paper umbrella, although the fan was still intact, at least twenty of the twenty-eight ribs were broken... "Is this store buying and selling junk?" Sun Hang turned his head to look at the things displayed in front of the other shops and found that the contents were similar. They were all things that could only be described as "junk"... What concerned Sun Hang the most was that none of these shops sold "food".

"Food shortage? But if that's the case... why is that 'old woman' willing to share 'food' with me?" Sun Hang was a little puzzled. "Since the shops in the town don't sell food, why did the 'old woman' give me money?"

"No... From what the gatekeeper said, I can be sure that food can indeed be bought in the town... Could it be that I came to the wrong place, and the food shop is somewhere else?"

Sun Hang squatted down in front of the stall and looked inside the store.

The shop door was ajar, leaving only a palm-wide gap. The owner seemed to be sitting behind the gap, holding a hookah made of a whole piece of bamboo in his hand. As the owner puffed on the hookah, the flame on the mouthpiece flickered, just like breathing.

The sound of smoking stopped, and a hoarse voice came from the crack of the door: "The price is fair, no cheating, just tell me what you like."

"Boss, I want to ask, do you accept anything here?" Sun Hang asked.

"Buy?" The shopkeeper's tone was a little strange. "What do you want to sell?"

"Food." Sun Hang took out the container containing "rice cake" and placed it on the winnowing basket.

The owner didn't say anything, but Sun Hang could hear his breathing quicken. Along with the creaking of a bench, the owner seemed to have moved closer to the door and was looking closely at the contents of the container.

But even so, Sun Hang still couldn't see the other person's face clearly.

The darkness in the room did not seem to be darkness in the optical sense, but rather a flowing substance that filled the entire room and covered the owner.

Before the shop owner could speak, a sudden voice sounded behind Sun Hang.

"What a beautiful piece of bait."

Sun Hang turned his head and saw the middle-aged woman who had passed by him earlier. She had "teleported" behind Sun Hang at some point. Her cloudy eyes were flashing with fanatical light, and she kept swallowing her saliva.

"Erkuai... So this 'rice cake' is called Erkuai." Sun Hang silently took note of it in his heart.

"Is there anything to eat?"

"What? Where?"

It would have been fine if the middle-aged woman didn't say anything. As soon as she spoke, the "adult" townspeople on the street were instantly attracted over...except for the two chubby little girls who were still having fun by themselves, completely unconcerned about what was happening here.

"What are you doing? Get out of the way! Get out of the way!" The shop owner's voice came from inside the door, with a hint of anger, "He was going to sell this bait to me! What does it have to do with you!"

"Have you paid?" The middle-aged woman took another step closer. "If you haven't paid, it means it hasn't been sold yet!"

"I'll buy it now! How much is it? You tell me!" The shopkeeper spoke quickly, as if he was afraid that the bait would be snatched away by other townspeople.

Just when Sun Hang was thinking about what price to quote, the middle-aged woman took the initiative to pounce on him and reached out to grab the container!

In a flash, the darkness in the store suddenly overflowed from the crack of the door, wrapped around the middle-aged woman's arm, and pulled her into the store!

The middle-aged woman's face began to distort. She opened her mouth wide and made meaningless cries from her throat... However, no matter how she struggled, she was eventually dragged into the store little by little.

When the darkness swallowed up the last foot that was exposed, her cries disappeared.

The townspeople who had gathered around suddenly showed fear on their faces and retreated one after another... After a while, they scattered away.

"You deserve it for not following the rules." The store manager said in a hateful tone, "These bastards are spoiled by them... They really think they are someone..."

Sun Hang: “Uh…”

"Name a price," the shop owner urged. "As long as it's within my acceptable range."

Sun Hang actually wanted to ask the other party what the acceptable range was, but he changed his mind and asked a different question.

"are you hungry?"

"Hungry? Hahaha... hahaha..." A faint strange laugh came out from the crack of the door, "Aren't you talking nonsense? In this world today, how many people do you think can fill their stomachs? Locust plagues, droughts, floods... There are famines every year, and people starve to death every year... Who isn't hungry? Go ask someone on the street, who isn't hungry?"

"Famine... Is it a drought this year?" Sun Hang asked subconsciously, recalling the cracked soil in the wilderness.

"That's right. With this scorching sun, all the crops were burned to death...the landlords don't even have any surplus food at home," said the shop owner.

Sun Hang looked up. The sky was pitch black and there was no sun at all.

He had observed the sky with a mirror before, and the sky in the mirror was also black.

"Is there enough food in the town?" Sun Hang asked again.

"If you say it's not enough, then it's definitely not enough." The shop owner suddenly laughed strangely, "Hehe...but if you say it's enough, then it's enough."

"Huh? What does this mean?" Sun Hang was a little confused. "Is this enough or not?"

"If we want to feed one mouth, there will definitely not be enough food. But as long as enough people die of starvation... then there will definitely be enough food in the end. Hehe, maybe there will even be some left over!"

(End of this chapter)