"Are you sure it's a good idea to leave him back in the house like that?"
Raymond asked as he followed Kyle from behind. They had just come out of the second floor and reached the first floor, leaving Seth behind.
Raymond was a Third Order of the 'Hunter' Decree. His Decree granted him the ability to detect any abnormalities within the vicinity. From anomalies to any nearby living beings. He was mainly called here as the 'hunting dog' to look for the missing scout.
Kyle glanced back, raising his brow.
"Didn't you say it yourself that you don't detect anything nearby?"
"…I don't."
"Then it's all good. He can stay here."
"But just because I don't detect anything doesn't mean that there isn't anything. My skill isn't flawless, and given the nature of the anomaly that we're dealing with, I don't think leaving him alone will be good."
"I get what you mean, but this is for the best."
Kyle answered with a complicated look.
"If there's one person that I want to bring with me, it's him. He's... the last person that I wish would be put in harm's way. The only issue is that I need to take care of you guys as well. Seth is merely a regular human, and I can't have him join the team and become a burden. This is the standard protocol. Furthermore, he's here as a support, and this is usually what the support team does. The Guild will soon send another team over to help him out."
"...I see," Raymond responded, looking at the others who merely stood there in silence.
In the end, he said nothing more.
"Also, it's not like I'm going to leave him here without any precautions..."
Turning his head, Kyle tossed a small device onto the floor. It embedded itself into the ground with a soft thud, then began pulsing in slow, eerie rhythms.
"I've set up a detection meter. If anything comes near, I'll be able to tell if something has come into the house. That way, we'll be able to tell if we have to return or not."
Kyle stretched his body. He wasn't doing this out of spite. He was treating Seth as he would normally when someone of that level appeared on the team.
He kept them in a safe place while looking around and figuring out the situation.
'Since Raymond said that eye didn't detect anything, then it should be okay.'
Stretching his arms, Kyle walked toward the main door and slowly pulled it open. A sharp gust of cold air rushed in, carrying with it a certain rotten smell that made his stomach churn.
Outside was a neighborhood he recognized, but only in outline. The houses stood still, casting long and stretched out shadows that felt like they were alive, their windows blackened. Lawns were overgrown, fences broken.
Not a single car passed.
Darkness blanketed everything, outside of the dim moonlight that spilled over the cracked pavement.
The world outside looked dead.
As Kyle took in the sight, he looked behind him.
"Are you ready?"
"Yes…"
Seeing the others nod, Kyle moved ahead and entered the neighbourhood.
At the same time, he closed the door behind him.
Clank—
The expedition team had set out.
***
Blankly staring at the notification that appeared before me, I read through each word very carefully.
By now, the others had already left, leaving me alone in the house.
I had previously thought of reaching out to them, but the moment I read the description, I immediately stopped.
'It feeds through sound…?'
Alarm bells rang inside my mind as I looked around me.
Holding my breath, I tried to stay as quiet as possible. But the silence only made every sound around me louder. The groan of the window felt sharper, and even the faint creak beneath my own feet seemed to echo louder than before.
The silence made every other sense sharpen.
A musty, stale smell clung to the air, and the biting cold pricked my skin.
Closing my eyes, I took several deep breaths while trying to focus my attention on the quest.
'So, the goal of the quest is to figure out and investigate more about the current scenario. The difficulty is of the Second Order, meaning that it should be something that I can handle. Not only that, but now that I know the Twisted Man fed on noise, I can plan around it.'
The goal was to keep quiet the entire time while figuring out more about the Twisted Man. As such, the first thing I did was take off my shoes.
'The creaking sound of my steps feels a little too jarring. If I walk without my shoes, I should be able to minimize the sound that I make.'
This would make the Twisted Man have a harder time finding me.
'But I still need to be cautious...'
I could still distinctly recall the presence that I saw back when I used my glasses to stare at the video. That tall and lanky figure that sent shivers down my entire body. With just a glance, I understood that I wasn't dealing with any normal anomaly.
I was dealing with an extremely terrifying and evil one.
One... that couldn't be reasoned with.
This was why I had to be extra cautious.
Tightly holding onto the knife in my hand, I felt strangely safe. Although it had yet to taste any blood, I felt like I could cut the Dreamwalker if I wanted to. Whether I'd be able to beat it or not was a completely different matter.
What mattered was that I could now put up a fight against it.
I didn't need to rely on its weakness in order to fight it.
'I wonder how much stronger the knife will be once I kill some anomalies.'
From the description, it sounded like the knife had the potential to become something powerful. For now, though, it looked pretty ordinary. Just a regular knife with a long wooden handle and a blade that was only somewhat sharp. At least it was shiny, which was a nice touch.
"Hoo."
Taking a silent breath, I scanned my surroundings before settling my gaze towards the window.
From time to time, the moonlight would shift, illuminating the room for the briefest of moments, and allowing me to catch a better look at my surroundings.
Taking out my phone, I used the flashlight to illuminate the place before taking a step forward.
Although the floor still creaked, it wasn't as loud as it was before.
'Good. I shouldn't have any problems.'
I was just about to take another step forward when—
BANG!
".....Uk!"
One of the windows smashed against the side of the wall as a strong and chilly wind filtered through the room. Almost by instinct, I yelped, but just barely managed to cover my mouth in time to prevent a strong sound from coming out.
Nonetheless, the sound still came out, and my entire body froze.
My hand, which was gripping the knife, started to sweat, and my heart started to race at an impossible rate.
'Shit...! That was a total accident. It didn't notice anything, right?'
I turned my head to stare at the open window. The strong current from before had left, and its place was a suffocating silence.
In order not to want something like this happening again, I prepared to move towards the window and close it. However, before I could even do that, the moonlight seeped into the room, casting a faint white blanket over the surroundings.
And it was under the temporary brightness that I saw it.
A tall... and lanky shadow standing right in front of me, its form bent over to look down on me directly.
I lost all air in that moment.
The Twisted Man...
It was standing right before me!