Washington State is located in the northwest of the United States. The mountains and green trees make the natural scenery quite unique. Twilight Town sits on the edge of the state bordering Canada, located remotely and not easy to find.
Halfway there, Jian Jing had asked several people before finding the road to Twilight Town.
At noon, the car drove into the small town.
After a simple tour, Jian Jing realized Twilight Town was indeed not big, with just two main streets, a gas station, three coffee shops, and two bars.
In short, a rural area.
Jiang BaiYan wondered: “What are you doing in a place like this?”
“Do you still remember the first haunted house we played in? I suspect Qi Tian has appeared here before.” Jian Jing told him about her findings and said, "This person is very strange. If you're afraid, don't force yourself."
"I don't feel anything," Jiang BaiYan scratched his face and said honestly, "By comparison, I'm more afraid that you're acting alone. In a remote small town like this, if they see a girl like you, they might bully you."
Jian Jing sighed.
She knew Jiang BaiYan was telling the truth.
In terms of physical fitness, she was definitely better than Jiang BaiYan who was always slimming down. But the reality was that when she walked alone on the street, she would definitely encounter rogue men whistling. However, when she had male company, no matter how big he was, the deterrent was much stronger than her own.
Unless she carried an AK, that would be another story.
"Fine," Jian Jing was not too worried about Jiang BaiYan. He was even more cunning than her.
The two pretended to be tourists and settled down in the best hotel in town, then asked the owner, "I heard you can hunt here?"
There was a forest near Twilight Town with plenty of animals. When Jian Jing was researching online, she found an ad for a hunting guide service and hence had this question.
As soon as the owner heard that rare visitors had come to this remote little town, he immediately called his old friend without hesitation and asked him to come pick up the guests.
"Old William is a veteran hunter here. His family has lived here for generations and he knows this area very well," the owner enthusiastically introduced, "Follow him and you will definitely be able to hunt satisfactory prey."
Old William came very quickly. He was tall and muscular with solid tattoos all over his sturdy arms. As he entered, his eyes swept over everyone, and with a hunter's instinct, he skipped over Jiang BaiYan and his eyes fell on Jian Jing: "So you want to go hunting?"
Jian Jing nodded.
After looking Jian Jing up and down for a while, he nodded, "Okay."
Jian Jing implied, "I don't have a permit."
The owner timely chimed in, "Five hundred dollars, it's on me."
Jian Jing nodded, then asked again, "What about a hunting license?"
"I can help you with that," Old William provided good service, "But there is one thing I have to make clear."
Jian Jing made a gesture of listening attentively.
"Go in the morning and come back in the afternoon, don't stay overnight in the woods," he explained, probably afraid they would get suspicious, "You don't have wilderness survival experience, it's too dangerous."
Jian Jing pretended to hesitate first: "Then we can only stroll around the outskirts? That's not what I wanted. Besides, I do have outdoor camping experience, it should be fine, right?"
Old William said, "There are large animals here, wolves, bears and the like."
"Don't we have guns?" she retorted, her attitude was not firm, as if she was just saying it in passing, and quickly brushed it aside, saying elatedly, "Forget it, let’s play for two days first and talk later. Shall we meet tomorrow morning?"
Old William said, "You need to pay a $3,000 deposit first."
Jian Jing readily paid the money.
Who doesn't like generous guests? The owner was attentive and meticulous, and recommended two places to eat.
Jian Jing had been in the United States for less than a week and was already desperate for the food here, but she had to eat. She could only hope that the owner's recommended places were still acceptable.
Dinner was coffee, pizza and cherry pie.
To be fair, the taste was pretty good. She patiently asked the waiter about the town.
But the younger generation had almost never heard of any issues with the woods. When asked if hunting was safe now, they only said that people hunted prey every year and it should be fine.
No one mentioned the 1992 case.
She didn't stay long, took away a hot chocolate and pizza for Jiang BaiYan's dinner.
"I went to the department store to ask questions," Jiang BaiYan didn't have dinner with Jian Jing, so he naturally had a task at hand. He went to the town's largest and only department store to buy some clean clothes suitable for the outdoors as well as snacks.
Of course, being able "to ask questions in passing" would be even better.
Jiang BaiYan held the hot chocolate and drank it slowly, enjoying the happiness from the calories: "Not many people have heard that there were issues with the woods. When I asked them if hunting was safe now, they said it was no problem with a gun—they sell guns in their supermarket, it's really casual."
"I know, it just feels so unsafe," Jian Jing couldn't help but complain.
In China, after her physical fitness improved, she could walk alone in alleyways late at night without worries or fears. But after going abroad, she had to be more vigilant when walking on the streets.
It was dangerous out there, no lies about it.
However, everything had two sides to it. At least here, Jian Jing could get some self-defense gadgets to bolster her courage to enter the woods.
She analyzed, "In such an isolated small town, close to the border, any incident would spread like wildfire. No rumors means no one has died in the past two years. But this year, it’s exactly the tenth year."
The cases recorded by Reed had an unexplainable coincidence in time.
1982, 1992, 2002, 2012, exactly ten years apart.
Although there was only one bizarre case in 1992, if that person really was Qi Tian, there must be some inside story she didn't know about.
After the fire, there were no more deaths. It was possible the matter had ended, but it was more likely...waiting for the next ten years.
And this year was 2022.
"Let’s ask William tomorrow,” she said. “He insists on coming out before dark, he must know something."
In a remote small town like Twilight Town, close to the border, supervision was not strict.
The hotel owner helped get a gun permit, while Old William got a hunting license. Of course, according to regulations, her hunting license could only apply to small animals, game birds, rabbits, deer and the like.
These small animals breed very quickly and would interfere with the normal lives of residents, so hunting was allowed to control their breeding speed.
Jian Jing pretended to be curious, "Since small animals breed so fast, there shouldn't be many large wild animals, right?"
Old William said gruffly, "There used to be a lot.” He was impatient with her endless questions and said loudly, "Alright, you don’t have any hunting experience. I’ll teach you from the beginning. Listen carefully, I'm only saying this once."
Despite not being as professional as a formal course, his abundant experience meant the content he taught was very practical.
How to distinguish animal tracks and judge wind direction and distance, what were the best safety measures to protect oneself...the knowledge gained was invaluable.
At one point, Jian Jing had even forgotten her purpose for coming and concentrated on the lesson.
At noon, the three people took a break from the teachings and started a fire to cook food.
Old William used the wild chicken he had just hunted to demonstrate to them how to roast chicken on site.
Jian Jing pondered and figured after hanging out for half a day they were familiar with each other now. She ventured to ask, “Can we really not camp out here after learning so much from you?”
Without even lifting his head from dismantling chicken bones, Old William said,
"Too dangerous."
"What's so dangerous about it? You said large wild animals were only around before and rarely seen now," Jian Jing would not easily concede and slowly refuted, "Besides, we have guns."
Old William sneered coldly, “If you want to stay here so badly, just stay by yourself after I leave when it gets dark.”
He was not worried about Jian Jing making trouble. In the wilderness and woods, without him to lead the way, would she dare stay alone? However, Jian Jing suddenly asked, "Are you afraid?"
Old William: “Trying to provoke me won't work.”
"No no, you misunderstood. I'm just curious," she said, "I know people have died here before. Are you afraid that their ghosts will pester us?"
Old William’s dismantling actions paused, and he asked back, "What dead people? Killed by wild beasts?"
"Roger, Theresa, Ben, Laura, George," Jian Jing reported their names.
Old William's expression changed, the muscles on his face twitched, his thick eyebrows distorted, as if he was about to erupt at any moment to strangle her throat: "Who told you that? What is your purpose?"
"Reed," she said, half truthfully and half falsely. "He mistook me for Kerry and told me a lot of things."
Old William was stunned. The name Kerry seemed to trigger memories, and his expression became strange: "Reed? I haven't heard that name in a long time."
"Do you know Reed?"
Old William looked at her and turned his face away: "You don't look like Kerry, he is really getting senile."
Jian Jing was dumbfounded.
Jiang Baiyan poked her arm and whispered: "I think William's nickname is Bill."
William? Bill? What's the connection between these two names? Jian Jing wondered and asked: "Are you Kerry's boyfriend Bill?"
Old William put force into the stick, spearing the plucked wild chicken through the wooden fork, stuffing it with a kind of small mushroom he had picked up on the road, and sewing it up with thread.
The flames blazed up, roasting the freshly baked lunch, sending out a wonderful aroma.
He kept his head down, his tone flat: "That was a long time ago."
"Do you believe Kerry got lost and died in the woods?" Jian Jing asked.
"What's the difference between believing or not believing?"
"I don't think you believe it." She said, "Kerry didn't like the woods, how could she have gone into the woods alone? You want us to leave before dark, is it related to the legend that you can't enter the woods after dusk?"
Old William turned the stick to heat the chicken evenly: "Mind your own business, you just came here to hunt."
Jian Jing sensed his wariness, and after thinking for a while, did not continue to question him.
In the afternoon, William spoke significantly less, and all topics revolved around hunting itself. Jian Jing also temporarily put aside her thoughts for the time being, completely immersing herself in the joy of hunting.
But perhaps heaven was helping her after all.
William's plan was to leave at 5 o'clock, but a little after 4 o'clock, the sky was filled with dark clouds, ominously dark.
A storm was coming.
"Damn it, we have to get out of here now." Old William made a decisive decision to head back immediately.
But it was too late.
In no time at all, the downpour drenched all three of them like drowned rats.
Jian Jing asked: "I remember there is a farm nearby, can we take shelter from the rain there?"
William shouted loudly: "Frank's farm? Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," she said, "it's better than staying in the woods."
William was convinced and led them running towards the overcast farm. At first, with the dim light, Jian Jing did not notice anything amiss, but the closer they got, the stronger her sense of familiarity grew.
That stretch of connected houses, the tractors parked at the door, the smell of animal feces mixed with the scent of grass and rainwater, fused into a strange stench.
Jiang Baiyan spoke her mind: "This farm looks like a haunted house."
Jian Jing nodded lightly: "This is what a real farm looks like."
Robert's inspiration came from Reed, and Reed had conducted an extremely detailed investigation of this farm.
The moment they stepped through the gates, the system came online.
[New mission released]
[Mission name: Frank's Farm]
[Content description: 30 years ago, five teenagers were brutally murdered, the suspect *****, the secrets of the farm ****, the depths of the forest, who is calling ********]
[Note: Special dungeon, all gacha expenditures doubled, please be careful host]
