dognovel Chapter 167 The Beheaded Ant-Li
Chapter 167 The Beheaded Ant-Li
Chapter 167 The Beheaded Ant-Li
Li Jiuhe and Ma Li exchanged a glance.
Chen Song had just said he was going to find a place to hide alone, but now he suddenly changed his mind and came to our door.
This situation is clearly very unusual.
Because usually, as long as you can get through this difficult time, it is safer to do nothing when you are alone and not be found by others.
Moreover, Chen Song has been gone from them for some time, and no one can guarantee what has happened during that time.
Li Jiuhe gestured for Ma Li to be quiet, and the two of them remained silent without making a sound.
The knocking continued intermittently, and Chen Song's voice came through: "Are you there? Has the person already left?"
Li Jiuhe guessed that either Chen Song outside didn't exist at all and was an imposter, the butcher, or he had already gone wrong and become abnormal.
After waiting a while longer, the knocking stopped, and the footsteps faded away; the house and the surroundings became quiet.
Li Jiuhe and Ma Li remained silent, sitting quietly on the small bed and waiting.
About ten minutes later, Ma Li leaned close to Li Jiuhe's ear and whispered, "The ants have found something. At the very bottom of a pile of headless corpses in the restaurant, there's a human head. They also found a head in the corner between a sink and the wall in the kitchen. And in the training center, there's a locker in the innermost locker."
"Describe what kind of people's heads these are," Li Jiuhe said.
He still remembered the pile of headless corpses in the restaurant; he had seen them when he entered the restaurant after he had become headless himself.
He just didn't expect that there would be a head under the pile of corpses.
It seems that these heads were likely hidden. If Guo Fan did it, he was probably leaving himself a way out, or rather, preventing himself from being hunted down by the butcher.
"The head under the pile of corpses in the restaurant is that of a man, who looks very fat and has a large head. The head behind the dish cabinet is also that of a man, probably in his thirties. The head in the locker room of the gym is that of a middle-aged woman—"
MaLi quickly described the three human heads she had found, then asked, "Should we have the ant larvae bring these three heads over?"
"Don't move for now," Li Jiuhe replied. "Make a note of the location and then continue searching."
After waiting in the room for a while, Ma Li sent some of the black ants outside to check, and then told Li Jiuhe that there was no one outside.
Li Jiuhe got up and opened the door, and the two returned to the reception desk together.
They quickly found a list of tourists, which contained visitor records from the past three months, including the last few days.
Li Jiuhe counted them and found a total of 127 people. At the same time, Ma Li found a roster of employees at the resort and found that there were about 38 people.
Li Jiuhe said, "This employee roster is probably not comprehensive. It only includes formal employees. In reality, there are at least a dozen or so contracted staff such as cleaners and security guards."
Ma Li nodded.
So even if we include the hired staff, which is 30 more people, the total is only about 195.
But Li Jiuhe had seen more than two hundred heads in the freezer before, so why was there more than a few dozen people?
"Isn't this different from the number you predicted?" Ma Li asked, noticing the confusion on Li Jiuhe's face.
Li Jiuhe nodded: "My precognitive abilities tell me that, not counting people like you and me who are still alive, there have already been more than two hundred people whose heads have been chopped off, so the numbers do not match up."
Just then, Ma Li paused, as if she had received the latest news from the black ants.
"There's a basement here. My ants found five people there, alive. They must have been hiding there the whole time."
Then, Ma Li wrinkled her nose slightly: "That place stinks. They eat, drink, and relieve themselves all in there."
She added, "The entrance to that basement was piled high with headless corpses, probably dozens, completely blocking the entrance. I doubt these five people could get out now unless we rescue them."
"There's no need," Li Jiuhe shook his head. "It's safer to just let them stay there."
He quickly turned his attention back to the number of people he had just tallied.
Even if their statistics were wrong this time, the error wouldn't be too big. Even if the resort originally had about two hundred people, the number of people in the freezer was around two hundred and thirty or forty, which still far exceeded the actual number of people here.
Besides, Ma Li just discovered five more living people, so there should be five fewer heads in the freezer.
This makes it seem like there are more people there.
Where did these extra thousands of heads come from?
Suddenly, Li Jiuhe thought of something. He quickly opened one of the drawers in the cabinet, took out the old newspaper, and flipped to the front page headline.
He quickly pointed to one of the numbers in the news with his index finger.
"37! He beheaded 37 people when he committed the crime!" Li Jiuhe finally concluded, "We need to add those 37."
There should be 37 heads, so besides the heads of the victims at the resort, the freezer also contained 37 heads from before. That makes the total number match!
From this, he quickly came to another conclusion: Guo Fan's original intention was not to destroy all the heads, but rather to destroy these 37 heads.
However, Guo Fan was unable to distinguish the 37 heads, so he had no choice but to destroy all the heads in the freezer.
This will take some time, but it will ensure that nothing goes wrong.
"So, by destroying 37 heads, we can indirectly take down the beheading butcher!" Li Jiuhe raised his head and muttered to himself.
But there was still one thing he didn't understand: if the goal was to quickly eliminate so many people, why didn't Guo Fan send more people in to help? Instead, he had people stand guard outside the cold storage as shields for him?
At this moment, Li Jiuhe frowned, holding an old newspaper in his hand, and plopped down on the chair behind the counter, lost in thought.
Considering the scene before the mission reset where he became a headless body, he followed Guo Fan into the cold storage and found that Guo Fan had smashed more than thirty heads on the ground.
In such a short time, Guo Fan's headless body couldn't have moved that fast enough to destroy so many heads.
Therefore, most of the head was probably damaged when Guo Fan entered the cold storage last time.
Not long after Li Jiuhe entered the cold storage, the beheading butcher returned. Now it seems that the butcher returned much faster than expected this time.
Since there were fewer than forty heads damaged at that time, it indicates that this time the incident occurred earlier than expected.
So, was it because you entered the cold storage that you sped up the butcher's return to the cold storage?
If Guo Fan were alone inside, he could probably smash heads for a while longer. But the two headless bodies entering the cold storage would increase the butcher's sense of crisis, causing him to arrive in a faster time!
It makes sense once you think about it that way.
Li Jiuhe has now discovered the most crucial information: destroying the previous 37 heads will allow him to eliminate the beheading butcher and solve the haunted house scenario.
However, there are two difficulties. One is that there are too many heads, which need to be destroyed one by one, which is very time-consuming. According to Guo Fan's approach, he uses cannon fodder to buy him time to destroy the heads.
The second difficulty is that Guo Fan is blocking the way ahead. He has already started implementing the plan ahead of time, so Li Jiuhe must get there before him.
Just then, he turned to look at Ma Li beside him and found her squatting on the ground with a pained expression on her face.
"What's wrong with you?"
Ma Li looked up and said, "I don't know why, but I suddenly feel a little unwell."
"Is something wrong with your black ant colony?" Li Jiuhe asked.
"No, they're all fine." Mali stood up and casually placed the tourist list on the counter.
Their attention was no longer on the tourist register, so they didn't notice that the names "Li Jiuhe" and "Ma Li" had appeared out of nowhere in the last two rows of the register, right after the name "Guo Fan".
The two returned to the lounge room.
After closing the door, Li Jiuhe asked Ma Li, "Have you found any more black ant colonies?"
"No more for now," Ma Li replied. "Actually, the kitchen and cafeteria have the most headless corpses; they're everywhere. And there's one headless body standing motionless in front of a metal door, doing who knows what."
She was clearly referring to Guo Fan.
Li Jiuhe asked, "That's the door to the cold storage. Can the ant colony get in?"
Ma Li shook her head: "We can't get in. It's completely sealed off. There's not even a crack at the door, and the cold storage doesn't have any ventilation openings."
"Search around the area and see if there's any way to get in," Li Jiuhe said. "The cold storage might contain a lot of human heads. If the black ants can get in, let them find the head that's been stored the longest."
Under normal circumstances, even if such a head is kept in a cold storage, it will definitely become noticeably different from a head that was just cut off a few days ago over time.
For example, skin color, the degree of stiffness and dryness, the degree of brittleness of hair, etc.
These features would be difficult to identify using only Guo Fan's headless body in the dark; it would be more efficient to destroy all the heads.
But it would be much easier if the ants were to identify them.
Time passed second by second, and the storm on the island grew stronger and stronger, with torrential rain washing over the windowpanes, blurring the view outside and making it almost impossible to see what was happening.
"Brother Li."
Li Jiuhe, who was pondering how to break the deadlock, suddenly heard Ma Li calling him.
He and Ma Li were sitting facing each other at opposite ends of the small bed. Looking up, he saw that Ma Li had her eyes closed. It seemed that controlling such a large swarm of ants to carry out such a large-scale operation was too tiring, and she had fallen asleep.
"Brother Li."
Another shout rang in my ears; it sounded like Ma Li's voice again.
Li Jiuhe tilted his head slightly, without turning around. He knew the beheading butcher had probably returned, and would be using the same trick again.
However, as long as he didn't turn around or agree, the voice seemed to have no other choice.
Looking at Ma Li, whose eyes were already closed, he wanted to wake her up. Then he saw a string of black ants crawling under the skirt where Ma Li was sitting.
These black ants must have just crawled in through the crack in the window. I don't know which area they were responsible for searching, but they must have already finished searching that area, so they all returned safely.
After the black ants crawled to Ma Li's feet, they did not immediately burrow into her skirt as usual.
Instead, it sniffed around at Ma Li's feet, circled her feet, and soon the small group of black ants suddenly scattered and crawled in all directions.
Li Jiuhe was drawn to this scene. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the group of black ants. He saw that after they crawled to the corner of the wall, they gathered together, but they just crawled around there and did not come any closer.
"Brother Li."
The voice behind him sounded again, and this time it was almost right next to Li Jiuhe's ear.
Li Jiuhe felt as if a pair of warm lips were close to his ear.
"Brother Li, the person you saw—is not me, don't believe her—"
These words pierced his ears with exceptional clarity.
Li Jiuhe was startled, but he didn't turn around. Instead, he looked up at Ma Li, who was sleeping opposite him.
Then she saw that Ma Li had woken up at some point, her eyes wide open, staring intently at her.
"You—you're not asleep?" Li Jiuhe's heart pounded as he asked.
Ma Li didn't answer, she just shook her head, and her beautiful eyes slowly closed again, as if sleepiness was coming on again.
Li Jiuhe waited a moment, then slowly stood up. He was somewhat skeptical of what he had just heard.
The fact that all the returning black ants had now hidden in the corner and none of them were approaching the ant-woman in front of them was already quite unusual.
But Mali has always been by his side. Except for the time when he was looking for clothes in this house, the two have never been separated.
And then there was the time just now when I was at the reception desk, completely absorbed in analyzing the secret of those 37 heads.
He didn't notice what Ma Li was doing at the time, but he was sure that Ma Li was always by his side and was not acting alone.
So if Mali was really replaced by the beheading butcher, when did that happen?
Was she replaced? If not, why aren't these black ants coming near her?
Thinking of this, Li Jiuhe began to slowly back away, but he still did not turn around, because he still had to be wary of whether the person who had spoken behind him was a problem.
Moreover, there's something strange: if the person behind me is really Ma Li speaking, how could she, having already been beheaded, still be able to tell me the truth?
Thinking about it this way, Li Jiuhe became unsure again; the current situation was really strange!
He subconsciously looked towards the corner of the wall and discovered that the small group of black ants had formed a black line and was rapidly crawling towards him.
Before long, the ants had all climbed onto the back of his shoe, and then onto his trouser leg.
Li Jiuhe did not stop him. At this moment, the tingling sensation on his ear reappeared. He did not turn around, but reached out and touched it.
He then noticed several black ants crawling on his fingers, and realized that the sensation in his ear earlier must have been caused by these ants.
So the swarm of black ants should have returned long ago, but instead of going under Ma Li's skirt, they all crawled onto her body.
Could the ant-like sound I just heard have come from those black ants crawling around my ear?
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he looked at the sleeping Ma Li again and found that Ma Li had quietly gotten up at some point, holding a familiar fish knife in her hand and slashing at him head-on.
Because this was a frontal attack, Li Jiuhe was prepared before the opponent attacked.
He kicked out, feeling a chill on his neck, and at the same time, he kicked Ma Li away, sending her crashing heavily into the glass window behind her, breaking a hole in the window and sending her falling outside.
A sudden downpour poured into the house through the hole.
Li Jiuhe reached up and touched his neck. His skin was only scratched and bleeding a little, but it was nothing serious. This was because he had successfully blocked the opponent's fierce frontal attack with a kick.
He immediately turned around, opened the door, and rushed out.
"Mali, where are you?"
Just as he whispered these words to the black ants, the figure of Ant Li, who had been kicked out of the broken window of the house behind them, was gone, replaced by the beheading butcher.
The butcher probably didn't expect Li Jiuhe's attack power to be so strong.
However powerful he may be, it still cannot harm him; on the contrary, it will only provoke the butcher to become even more ferocious.
He expressionlessly scrambled through the window opening, carrying a heavy fish knife, and chased after Li Jiuhe in the direction he had fled.
Li Jiuhe asked questions as he jogged along.
Soon after, he felt several ants crawling near his ear again, and Ma Li's voice came: "I'm at the reception center—"
hall."
"What?"
Li Jiuhe was puzzled because they had just returned from there.
He sped up and rushed toward the reception hall. Although he didn't look back, he knew that the beheading butcher was definitely chasing after him.
Upon entering the lobby, a quick glance revealed no sign of Ma Li. However, upon approaching the counter, Ma Li's headless body lay on the ground, twitching slightly.
Li Jiuhe was stunned. He didn't know when Ma Li's head had been chopped off, because he had been sitting here just now.
"Why didn't I know you were attacked?! Where's your head?"
Just as he bent down to grab Ma Li's body, a flash of light appeared, slicing across his head, grazing his scalp, and instantly shaving off a lock of hair.
The butcher had caught up behind them.
Li Jiuhe casually lay half-reclined on the ground and kicked the half-person-high counter in front of him.
He kicked with tremendous force, hoping to stop the butcher for even a moment.
Because he knew very well that the butcher was practically invincible here and could not be killed by ordinary methods, so he only needed to stop him for a moment.
The counter was hit hard and tilted forward with a crash, sending pieces of wood flying that slammed into the butcher on the other side of the counter.
The black ant beside Li Jiuhe's ear immediately spoke up: "He doesn't want—my head, he should—throw it away—"
The butcher's body behind him had merged with the counter that had crashed into him. Then, the butcher passed right through the counter and emerged from the side of the counter closest to Li Jiuhe. At this point, the color of his body was very similar to that of the counter.
After passing through, he slashed down again.
Li Jiuhe could no longer dodge; his vision went dark, and his head flew off.
After an unknown amount of time, his headless body slowly awoke, and his familiar black and white vision returned.
Scattered around him were small black dots, the black ants that had been crawling on him just moments before. But now, these black ants were motionless, all dead.
Li Jiuhe found himself still holding Ma Li's headless body, but Ma Li's body had now turned back into a large, milky-white worm, with its head severed and gone.
Moreover, Ma Li's body had long since stopped responding, giving him the feeling that she was already dead.
Filled with deep doubt, Li Jiuhe gently placed Ma Li's insect body on the ground and slowly stood up.
Before long, he saw Ma Li's head in the dim light near the corner of the left counter, and this head had also turned back into an insect head.
Just as Mali had said, the beheading butcher did not want her head, the queen ant. However, because her head and body had been separated for too long, Mali died after a while.
In other words, as an insect-like being, she does not have the 48-hour safety period that humans do after being decapitated.
The series of events that had just occurred was too sudden. Li Jiuhe's headless body stood for a moment, carefully reviewing what had just happened. He suddenly realized what he should do next.