"Help!!"
"The darkness— the darkness is alive!!"
"Someone! Please share an oil lamp with me! Please! We can move together!"
In the chaos, some people's oil lamps were bumped to the ground and shattered upon impact, the flame instantly extinguished.
Without the street lamps shining upon the parking lot, darkness quickly consumed the person who dropped their oil lamp before they could even scream.
Another person, a young girl, hugged their oil lamp tightly with vigilance, but the wind was too fierce and without her realising...
The flame went out.
Psssh.
The girl's eyes widened in horror as countless wriggling things erupted from the darkness, coiling around her body.
"Ahhhhh— "
Her scream was abruptly cut off as her body disappeared into the darkness, leaving only the oil lamp shattered on the ground.
In the chaos, Leinster painstakingly handed over one oil lamp to the woman and as clever as she was, she immediately hid the oil lamp inside her blazer so that only the faint light was visible, barely enough to "protect" her.
"Huff, huff, female bipedal, let's go!"
"Uh, you can call me by my name..."
The woman grumbled but she immediately rushed after Leinster, heading towards the automatic glass door.
Facing the crowd of people who were either running towards the glass door or doing something else, Leinster quickly waved his red tongue "robe" around.
"Get away, bipedal!"
Smash!
"Move, move! Your king is here!"
Smash!
Leinster forcefully carved a path for him and the woman, steadily getting closer to the automatic glass door.
It was just that, as more and more people scrambled for oil lamps, those without oil lamps, noticing that the parking lot slowly lost its light...
They started to snatch other people's oil lamps.
"Give it to me! Give it to me!"
"Let it go!! This is mine! Mine!"
In this "you die or I die" situation, someone was blind enough to see a certain alien with his striking white hair, looking fragile and weak.
This person, an awakened challenger, immediately stretched his hand and his hand actually separated from the wrist, moving like a stealthy thief.
Leinster only felt something was tugging at his oil lamp and then, it was yanked.
Tak!
The yellow light around him disappeared and the darkness quickly enveloped his body.
"Leinster!!"
The bob hair woman screamed as she quickly pulled Leinster into her embrace, barely letting the oil lamp in her blazer shone upon Leinster.
Leinster stood frozen on the spot as he felt strange wriggling things wrapping around his body but quickly retreated the moment the yellow light landed on his body.
Ah, fck. The darkness is indeed alive!
Wait, no, that's not the focus.
Which bastard stole his oil lamp??
Leinster's sharp eyes quickly spotted the floating hand that happily carried his oil lamp away and his lips instantly split open like a grinning clown.
"Got you, bastard."
Leinster flicked his wrist and the black chain instantly shot out, coiling around the floating hand!
The moment the chain wrapped around the hand, Leinster tugged the chain with all of his might, instantly dragging both the hand and the oil lamp back to his side.
Swoosh!
The hand and the oil lamp fell to Leinster's lap and the young man immediately snatched his oil lamp, carefully cradling it like a beloved baby.
On the other hand, the struggling severed hand was smashed to the ground and an alien's feet descended upon it.
"Damn, disgusting."
CRACK!
Leinster stepped on the severed hand with all of his might, his face cold.
"Ahhhh! My hand!!"
A scream erupted not far away from Leinster but soon, the voice died down as the darkness corroded the place.
Seeing that more and more lights disappeared or entered the shopping mall, Leinster quickly picked up the severed hand and put it inside his red tongue "robe", not caring whether there was a pocket or not.
"Let's go!"
The black chain immediately coiled around Leinster's wrist obediently as the man started to move.
The woman behind Leinster suppressed the urge to puke at Leinster's behaviour of picking a severed hand as she braved against the crowd in heels, shoving people here and there.
After kicking people's b*tt for the n-th time, Leinster and the woman finally arrived in front of the glass door and they immediately rushed inside without a care.
Ding.
The soft chime of a silver bell rang and the glass door slid open, bringing a stale smell from inside the building.
The moment Leinster left the range of the parking lot and his two feet stood inside the mall, the familiar system notification rang.
DING! [Welcome to "Midnight Hunting Spree" Ruin!]
[Mission clearance condition: Kill the shopping mall's guardian spirit]
[Countdown to Death: 00:10:00]
There it goes.
No wonder he felt that something was missing.
When they appeared at the parking lot, the system didn't give them the name of the ruin or the clearance condition.
It turned out the real game only started when they entered the shopping mall.
So...that fog outside was there to urge the challengers to enter the ruin because the game hasn't even started!
Still catching her breath, the woman who was now standing next to Leinster gripped the rusty oil lamp's handle until her fingers turned white, her voice trembling.
"L-lein, I mean, s-sir, w-what do we do now?"
The system said to kill the mall's guardian spirit, but how to find it and how to kill it?
The mission was too vague!
Just when the two people were talking, desperate screams sounded from outside of the glass door.
"The door is locked!"
"We can't come in!"
"No! No! Open the door!"
The sound of banging echoed in the building as flickers of light gathered at the other side of the glass door.
Clusters of heads were pressed onto the glass, their faces twisted in fear, horror, agony and desperate pleas.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"OPEN THE DOOR— "
A serene bell sound suddenly rang, cutting off the cries of help outside.
DONGGGGGG—
The speaker crackled, emitting a buzzing noise and intermittent voices before a sweet female voice sounded.
"Dear customer, the midnight hunting time has arrived."
"We have a batch of freshly-caught prey, guaranteed to fit your taste!"
"The hunting spree starts..."
"Now!"