Why is my anime art style so weird?

Time passed slowly. Xu Ming glanced at the upper left corner of the screen; it was already 9:00 PM.

The entire mansion remained quiet, without any movement.

Maybe I'm just too nervous, considering the task is only half a star difficult...

Just as Xu Ming was thinking this, a series of hurried and chaotic footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor.

His expression immediately changed.

Just from the sound of footsteps, you could tell there were at least three or four people.

But there were only three people in the entire mansion, including him, and one of them was an old man...

Xu Ming subconsciously stared intently at the door, his hand involuntarily gripping the fruit knife, even though he knew it was useless.

The footsteps came from the first floor to the second floor, passed right by his door, went up to the third floor, and then quickly disappeared.

The mansion returned to silence.

However, Xu Ming dared not be careless at all.

He put away his phone, then quietly retreated to the corner, away from the window, while keeping a close eye on the door.

Time began to drag on endlessly.

It seems like an hour has passed... two hours... three hours...

Seeing that there was no movement for a long time, Xu Ming finally couldn't help but take out his phone and glance at the time on the screen.

But they found that only half an hour had passed.

Just then, Xu Ming suddenly smelled a strong smell of smoke!

Chapter Twelve: Black Carnival and Blood Moon

'Fire!?'

Xu Ming's face instantly turned extremely ugly.

He discovered during his daytime scouting trip that although the exterior of the mansion was made of brick and stone, the interior floors, stairs, beams, and so on used a lot of wood. Once the fire spread, the entire mansion would be engulfed in flames.

In addition, the Polar Star Lodge is located in the mountains and forests, making it impossible for fire trucks to get in.

Thick smoke soon began to seep in from under the door.

Instead of rushing to open the door, Xu Ming wet a towel with mineral water and stuffed it under the door. Then he lifted the bed sheet and duvet cover, twisted them into a thick rope, pulled the bed to the window, and tied the bed sheet to the corner of the bed.

Judging from the thick smoke that has entered, the fire has already spread to the corridor. Rather than risking crossing the corridor filled with flames and deadly smoke, it would be safer to just climb out the window.

After all, Xu Ming's room was only on the second floor. Even if he jumped down, as long as he wasn't reckless, he would at most sprain his ankle.

But when Xu Ming opened the window and threw the bed sheet out, he was surprised to find that it was pitch black outside the mansion.

With such a large fire burning in the corridor, and the entire mansion being pitch black, there should have been some light visible from outside.

Let alone a fire, Xu Ming didn't see even a glimmer of light.

This is very unusual, could it be that...

Xu Ming immediately thought of another possibility.

He tiptoed to the door and then secretly opened it a crack.

The corridor was quiet, without a single flame, but billowing smoke filled the air.

Xu Ming could vaguely see through the crack in the door that the smoke seemed to be coming from room 209.

He immediately recalled the charcoal stove and wood he had found in room 209 during the previous search of the mansion.

Just as Xu Ming was about to take a closer look, a pair of eyes suddenly popped out and stared at him through the crack in the door.

Xu Ming was startled and quickly closed the door and locked it.

He listened intently to the sounds outside in the hallway through the door.

The eyes that had suddenly appeared seemed to vanish as well, and after a long time, there was still no movement outside the corridor.

Not only that, the thick smoke also quickly disappeared.

Everything seemed like a hallucination for Xu Ming.

Xu Ming took out the remaining mineral water and gulped down a large mouthful. Due to the excessive force, a lot of water gushed out of the bottle and splashed onto his collar.

The cold touch completely calmed Xu Ming down.

The thick smoke in Room 209 reminded Xu Ming of someone.

Shun Ibuzaki, a chef specializing in smoking and grilling, nicknamed "Smoked Prince".

Ibuzaki Shun has always had the bad habit of using empty rooms to smoke food.

As for the eyes that suddenly appeared outside the corridor and were spying on him, they could have belonged to any of the missing people.

The mansion remained quiet, but Xu Ming knew they had returned...

call!

Just then, a huge shadow suddenly swept across the window.

Xu Ming gritted his teeth, rushed to the window, and prepared to close it.

However, just as Xu Ming was pulling back the bed sheet he had thrown down earlier, his hand suddenly felt heavy.

Xu Ming thought he had caught something, so he stuck his head out to look down.

To their horror, they discovered a dark shadow grabbing the bedsheet and rapidly climbing upwards.

Xu Ming was startled and quickly squatted down to untie the bed sheet.

But to prevent the sheets from coming undone, he had deliberately tied an incredibly tight knot, and now, in his panic, he couldn't untie it.

Just then, Xu Ming heard a piercing rustling sound coming from below the windowsill, as if something was rubbing against the wall of the mansion.

And the sound was getting closer and closer to his window!

Xu Ming decisively took out a fruit knife and began cutting the bed sheet.

Fortunately, the bed sheet wasn't of good quality and had been left out for a long time, so Xu Ming quickly cut most of it in half.

At this moment, the eerie rustling sound had reached below the windowsill.

Oh!

At the critical moment, the bed sheet was completely cut.

Then, with a whoosh, the torn sheet slid swiftly out the window.

Before Xu Ming could even feel relieved, a skeletal claw reached up from below and gripped the windowsill.

At this moment, Xu Ming, not knowing where the courage came from, suddenly stood up and kicked the bone claw.

Bah!

Xu Ming kicked the bone claw away.

Suddenly, an angry roar came from outside the window, followed by a dull thud of a heavy object falling to the ground and the sound of bones breaking.

Xu Ming quickly closed the window and drew the curtains.

The heavy curtains completely blocked out the view outside, and Xu Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A short while later, a series of thumping sounds suddenly came from the ceiling above.

Xu Ming clenched his fist; it seemed that what he had just witnessed was merely an appetizer...

Time passed slowly.

The moment the time on his phone screen changed from 11:59 to 12:00, Xu Ming breathed a sigh of relief.

He finally made it through.

Xu Ming swore that this was definitely the longest night he had ever spent.

As midnight approached, the commotion throughout the mansion grew louder, as if the things in the darkness were awakening.

Strange noises from the ceiling, knocking outside the window, dripping water in the bathroom, footsteps in the hallway…

The mansion was like a grand black carnival.

Strangely, as soon as 12 o'clock struck, all the noise vanished without a trace.

It's like when the dormitory lights go out at 12 o'clock, students go back to their rooms, and the dormitory manager starts checking the rooms.

Xu Ming knew that this 'dormitory manager' was definitely not Granny Wenxu.

Having maintained a state of high tension for a long time, Xu Ming suddenly felt a strong sense of fatigue when he relaxed.

He quickly went to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on his face.

The biting cold instantly cleared his mind.

Xu Ming raised his head, about to leave the bathroom, when suddenly his movements froze.

On the mirror facing the sink, a blurry muddy handprint had appeared out of nowhere, as if reminding him that what had just happened was not an illusion.

Xu Ming took a few deep breaths, and his racing heartbeat gradually calmed down.

During the day, when he was scouting the site, he found that the mansion was very eerie, and at night, the eerie atmosphere became more than 10 times stronger.

It was already past midnight.

Xu Ming didn't dare to delay and immediately checked the items in his backpack, paying particular attention to the candles, rice grains, flashlight, and fruit knife.

Then, with his backpack on, he went to the door and gently turned the doorknob.

Squeak!

Due to lack of maintenance over a long period of time, the door hinges emitted a harsh, screeching sound.

Xu Ming immediately stopped what he was doing.

The corridor was silent.

Xu Ming listened intently for a while and, finding no movement in the corridor, gently pushed open the door with the slowest possible movement.

However, when he saw the scene in the corridor, he was deeply shocked.

The corridor was blood red, as if the walls were smeared with blood.