I Forged the Myth of the Ancient Overlords-Chapter 44 - 0. Grassland_1
Chapter 44: 044. Grassland_1
Chapter 44: 044. Grassland_1
The face was riddled with holes and had long since rotted away, its expression so wooden that even fear had dissipated.
This head was scattered atop a pile of grass, where even insects refused to cling to it any longer.
Mary jerked back two steps, only to bump into something solid.
She hurriedly turned around and realized it was Lu Ban.
“Has this person been dead for a while?”
Lu Ban poked at the head with the crowbar, and the unbalanced skull rolled onto the ground.
“An accident wouldn’t result in just a head remaining, is there some dangerous creature nearby?”
Lu Ban used his crowbar to part the faintly luminescent weeds and raised his flashlight, illuminating the path ahead.
“There’s a noise.”
“Hunter” seemed to have heard some rustling and, with his functioning right hand, drew out his pistol, pointing it forward.
Lu Ban listened carefully, but heard no sound.
It was very quiet, unnaturally so.
Normally, in such lush grasslands, there would definitely be many mosquitoes and small animals inhabiting, perhaps even large rats like the one they had just seen.
But now, the whole grassland was eerily silent, without a single sound.
No.
Ga-ah—
Lu Ban, following the direction “Hunter” was moving in, heard a noise.
It was like the last, wheezing gasp of a bedridden patient, a creepy voice with an unsettlingly bizarre quality.
Sharp, continuous, like glass beads falling to the ground.
Gagaga gaga—
“Hunter,” stepping through the towering weeds, cautiously proceeded forward; the glowing grass collapsed down, forming a narrow path.
Lu Ban glanced back to see Mary and Stone standing at the bus door, watching the direction he and “Hunter” were taking, their figures being slowly obscured by the vegetation, with only the bus roof faintly visible.
Gagagaga gaga—
A sequence of whining sounds came from ahead again, and Lu Ban’s flashlight beam pierced through the dense foliage, seeming to catch something.
“Hunter” slowed his pace slightly, shot Lu Ban a wary glance, and then burst through the grass curtain.
Lu Ban followed closely behind; suddenly, he felt the ground under his feet become soft, but before he could pay it much attention, he saw that they were in a clearing.
The grass, taller than a person, cleared away from this piece of land, where the ground was dark, as if composed of a pile of humus. In the center of this area, no larger than a basketball court, lay a grossly overweight man.
It was the bus driver.
“Hey!”
“Hunter,” upon seeing this, called out to him with caution.
“Help… Help…”
The driver let out a weak and labored voice. His arm was twisted in an unnatural direction, and one leg appeared broken; clearly, he had suffered a great deal after being thrown out of the bus.
“Don’t move, I’m coming right over.”
“Hunter” was ready to holster his gun and go to the rescue.
However, Lu Ban raised the crowbar, blocking “Hunter’s” way.
“I feel something isn’t right.”
A sense of foreboding told Lu Ban there was a big problem with the area ahead.
Why would such a lush, wildly overgrown grassland have such a clear opening?
Why is the soil here softer and darker?
How did the driver end up being thrown so far from the bus?
“Help… Help…”
The driver continued his pained groaning.
Lu Ban thought for a moment, then took a pack of compressed rations from his backpack, throwing it toward the driver.
Thump—
The bag of compressed rations fell beside the driver’s body.
“…!!”
Without making any rash moves, “Hunter” saw the mud beside the driver beginning to wriggle.
The black soil, as if animated with life, moved ever so slightly. Then, under the bag of compressed rations, a hint of green emerged.
It was a sprout of new green.
Beyond the zone lit by the flashlight, the world was silent and dark. Yet, within that circle of light, some form of life was being conceived.
A small tuft of grass pushed through the black soil, covering the compressed rations. In just a moment, the rations disappeared without a trace, leaving only a small patch of green grass.
“Save… save… Gaga… gaga gaga gua gua gua…”
The driver’s cries for help gradually changed in pitch, twisting and eventually becoming the strange sound that Lu Ban and “Hunter” had heard earlier.
Lu Ban and “Hunter” moved a little distance around the driver, only to see that the space between his eyes was now a blur of blood and flesh, with green grass growing out of the wounds, sprouting from the driver’s eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth.
“Gaga… save… save me…”
The grass moved as if by an unseen wind, causing the driver’s vocal cords to produce such a vibrating sound.
This was the predator.
Lu Ban knew it well.
It mimicked the appearance of prey, emitting cries for help to attract the prey’s kin, and then commenced its feeding.
If Lu Ban and “Hunter” had rashly approached, they would likely have been captured, devoured, and assimilated into it.
This whole grassland was probably…
Lu Ban saw that on the driver’s face, where the wounds were deepest and blood most plentiful, among the green grass, a pristine white flower had blossomed.
One, two, three… His corpse swiftly became a small field of flowers, those pure blossoms unfurled, forming a beautiful yet extremely harrowing scene.
“We have to go, get back to the road.”
Lu Ban instinctively felt a threat. He signaled to “Hunter” to turn back, but when they did, they discovered the grass seemed to have grown taller, completely covering the roof of the bus.
Without stars or moon, the surrounding grass indistinguishable, they could only guess the bus’s general direction in the dark night.
“No matter, let’s move.”
But the danger of staying put was clearly greater. Lu Ban swung his crowbar, knocking down the flickering grass and stepped into the increasingly towering plants.
The scent of earth and green grass grew intense, as if a creature was preparing for hunting, and a strange atmosphere began to brew.
Lu Ban and “Hunter” struggled forward, the flashlight barely functioning in the dense grass.
He felt the grass seemed to be actively growing, attempting to worm into his clothes, under his skin.
In a grassland without direction, end, light, or sound, death was proliferating.
“Where are you guys?”
“Hunter” called out loudly, and a few seconds later, a response came from a direction.
“Over here, there’s, there’s a problem here!”
It was Stone’s trembling voice.
Lu Ban caught the direction of the voice, turned his body, and struggled through the rapidly growing, increasingly dense wild grass.
A moment later, Lu Ban and “Hunter” finally broke through the obstruction and saw the top of the bus.
“We’ve made it.”
Lu Ban called out, turning to look at “Hunter.”
That’s when he saw Hunter’s previously injured left hand was now covered with green grass.
That green, which represented life, was now a symbol of terror.
*
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