Demons Beside You

“How unlucky! It’s actually raining.”

The three cursed and ran. On the other hand, Black-Ma and White-Ma did not mind the rain at all. They continued to play in the wind and rain until their body was covered in mud.

Just then, the three noticed a cave in front.

“Quickly go in there.”

When the three rushed into the cave, they realized that it was already occupied.

Click!

The three saw more than a dozen guns being pointed at them. They quickly lifted their hands in shock.

“Err… Put down your guns.” Carlo waved his hand.

The people in the adventure team also recognized the three.

“Hello, what a surprise.”

The three almost peed their pants. Even Chen Zhao was unsure whether he could survive being shot by more than a dozen military automatic assault rifles.

“Come in. The rain is so heavy. You have nowhere else to go.”

The forest was warm and humid. In the rain, a person would lose water and heat at an astonishing rate.

Even the strongest man would collapse after staying in the rain for just one night.

“Thank you.”

They had been actively avoiding the team and they clearly did not expect the second encounter.

Now, they had no choice but to enter the cave, given that they really had nowhere else to hide.

“Come, remove your coats and dry them,” Carlo said warmly.

Their coats were waterproof, but it was indeed uncomfortable to keep them on.

The three removed their coats. When the tall lady saw Chen Zhao’s body, she whistled.

“You have a great body.”

Risfar and Dell were somewhat unhappy, as their bodies were actually not bad either.

Nevertheless, Chen Zhao had the perfect shape. Since Fannity saw Chen Zhao’s muscles, she had been swallowing saliva at the corner.

Fannity’s comment caused major dissatisfaction among her teammates too. A man in vest glanced at Chen Zhao. “So what if he looks good? He might not even be able to take a punch from me.”

“Alright, I know you have two years of middleweight boxing experience. Even if you can win an outsider, what’s there to be proud of?” Fannity widened her eyes at her teammate.

Chen Zhao ignored them and sat down beside the fire.

Carlo brought the three a bottle of liquor. “Come and drink some vodka. It can really warm you up.”

The three drank a bit and indeed felt much warmer.

“You’re really not an illegal gang?”

“I said, we’re a private adventure team, or maybe treasure hunters.” Carlo smiled.

“What are you looking for here?” Chen Zhao asked curiously.

Although they were deep in a mountain forest, it was only a hundred kilometers from the city. Being so close to a populated area, what treasure could there even be?

“That I cannot tell you.” Carlo smiled.

“Then where have you been in the past?”

“Many places across all the six continents,” Carlo replied.

“But you have guns and knives. Will there be any danger?” Risfar asked curiously.

“Let me tell you a story,” a middle-aged man suddenly said. “It happened twelve years ago. At that time, we didn’t have so many people. It’s just me, Prof. Carlo, and four other buddies. In Australia, we discovered an ancient Indian ruin…”

“An Indian ruin in Australia?” Risfar asked, confused.

From what he recalled, the Indian society in Australia had been undeveloped, even primitive, before Western civilization kicked in.

Their greatest architecture was probably tree houses.

“Don’t ask me that. We’re an adventure team, not an archaeological team,” the middle-aged man said. “Prof. Carlo might be able to answer you.”

The middle-aged man glanced at Carlo and then continued, “That ruin was underground. From its crafting and structure, the degree of civilization should be close to ancient Egypt three thousand years ago. We explored the ruin all the way till the end, where we found a fist-sized blue diamond.”

“Haha… you must be exaggerating. A fist-sized blue diamond?” Dell laughed.

“Fine. If you don’t believe me, just take it as a fictional story.” The middle-aged man was really well-tempered. He continued, “We were elated. With the diamond, we were about to leave the ruin when we met many incomprehensible creatures. They had a slender body, six legs, and crawled on the ground. Then, they started attacking us recklessly.”

“Back then, our equipment was pretty poor. We had six people, but only four pistols and a few military sabers. We ran as quickly as we could, and the monster kept chasing us. In the end, someone triggered a mechanism and the whole underground ruin began to collapse. Prof. Carlo and I made it out, but the four others, together with the blue diamond, were buried forever.”

Risfar and Dell did not believe him. “Prof. Carlo, did that really happen?”

“That’s not the only case,” Carlo said. “Although you may think that it’s impossible, we’ve explored many places over the years and encountered many strange things and creatures. For example, one time we accepted an invitation from the Chinese government and participated in the exploration of a crypt. We bumped into plants that attacked us. We lost three men.”

“Really?”

“Another time, we found an imperial mausoleum in Thailand. In there, we found some dolls that had been mummified. They attacked us as well.”

“What are you looking for here?”

“Do you know that sixty years ago, this very mountain forest was a weapon test site?”

The three shook their head. They had never heard about it before.

“We received some information from a madman in a mental hospital. When the military was testing their weapons here, they accidentally blasted an opening to an underground cave. Some terrifying creatures emerged from the cave and attacked the military camp. Less than a tenth survived, and they all became insane.”

“You mean, we’re in that weapon test site?” Dell said with a stiff smile, swallowing some saliva.

“Those creatures either have territorial awareness, or they are being restrained by something. They cannot move too far away from the underground cave, so you would be fine if you stay close to the edge. The deeper you go, the more of these creatures you’ll find.”

Woof, woof!

Just then, Black-Ma and White-Ma, who were outside the cave, barked loudly.

Chen Zhao immediately stood up and walked to the entrance. Black-Ma and White-Ma were barking at the darkness.

“Black-Ma, White-Ma, what’s wrong?”

“There’s something there!”