After receiving this news from what seemed to be the real Steve, the [skill panel] in Richard's body, which had been dormant for a long time, finally showed activity.
[You have decrypted an Anomaly—Pseudo-human.]
[Pseudo-human (003) - A strange creature from a dark, alien dimension, evil in nature, taking pleasure in replacing "others" and feeding on their lives. Its abilities include shapeshifting, mental wave intrusion into circuits, and damage transfer. Its shadow is its only fatal weakness.]
"Everything is clear now." Richard dropped the wooden stick he was holding, deciding to fight hand-to-hand until the Pseudo-humans reverted to their true forms.
Once fear is no longer unknown, it ceases to be frightening.
Richard stomped forward and pounced on the Pseudo-human Mrs. Howard, simultaneously kicking Mrs. James over, before wrestling with the tackled Mrs. Howard on the ground.
Mr. Howard, who had been immensely sad upon learning he had accidentally injured his own wife, felt his inner pain intensify when he saw a young man wrestling on the ground with a monster that looked exactly like his wife.
"No! My wife! Even if it's a monster wearing my beloved's face, I must be the one to deal with it." Mr. James was resolute. He glanced at his younger brother, who was too heartbroken to speak, felt a pang in his heart, and immediately roared as he lunged toward the Pseudo-human mimicking his wife.
Richard had never systematically learned any grappling techniques; true fighting wouldn't involve such considerations—it required the resolve to "take someone down" so they couldn't get back up. That's what fighting meant. But he currently had to limit all his moves to ensure he didn't harm Steve's mother, and these techniques could only come from his limited knowledge.
With great effort, Richard finally managed to pin the Pseudo-human Mrs. Howard face-down on the ground, using his legs to restrain her lower limbs from the insides of her thighs, threading his hands under her armpits and clamping them behind her head, and finally using his full weight to suppress her, forming a complete restraint.
Although the posture was undignified, at least he had restrained her.
Richard was sweating a little and looked toward the battle involving the Pseudo-human Mrs. James, only to be stunned to find that Mr. James seemed to have already secured his Pseudo-human wife using a Cross-body Pin.
"Huh? How did you do that?" Richard was astonished.
Hearing this, Mr. James struggled to restrain the Pseudo-human wife, yelling, "Stop fucking moving, bitch," before replying, "When I was younger, I did practice Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for a few years."
Richard wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but he vaguely saw a confident, smug smile on Mr. James's face.
Seeing that both Pseudo-humans were restrained, Mr. Howard walked over, holding a flashlight and a shotgun. He tried hard to remind and reassure himself that the thing pinned beneath the young man was not his real wife, then said grimly, "What should we do next?"
"As soon as either of them can't hold back and reverts to their true form, shoot their shadow!" Mr. James shouted.
The two Pseudo-humans, restrained by Richard and Mr. James, were intelligent. Hearing this, they immediately stopped struggling and began to laugh eerily and coldly.
"I'd like to see how long your human stamina lasts. Can you restrain us for one hour, two hours, or even three hours?"
"Hehehe, I can already see their desperate expressions. What delicious ingredients."
The two Pseudo-humans laughed maniacally.
Howard listened nearby, his fists clenched. He pressed the muzzle of the shotgun against the Pseudo-human wife's head and roared furiously, "I forbid you from using my wife's face and voice to say such things!"
However, to the Pseudo-humans, Howard's enraged and embarrassed appearance played right into their hands. The Pseudo-human Mrs. Howard deliberately adopted a wanton posture, made her face flush, and said seductively, "You know, I can feel the young body on top of me—hot and hard, much better than yours..."
"Calm down! Mr. Howard (Little Brother)!" Hearing this, Richard and James's expressions instantly changed. The thoughts of these Pseudo-human creatures were truly depraved.
Mr. Howard was so furious he wanted to blow the other party's brains out with a shot, but he knew that doing so might kill his real wife, so he had to restrain himself.
"My apologies, I didn't think this through." Richard said to Mr. Howard, who was struggling to contain his anger. "Do you have any rope?"
Howard took a few deep breaths and patted himself down. Suddenly, he spotted the sling on his shotgun, and his eyes lit up as if he had seen the hope of victory. "I have a gun sling! I can use the sling to tie her up. This thing is very sturdy; even a strong man weighing three or four hundred catties might not be able to break free."
"Hey, my gun has a sling too. Howard, help me with mine as well, I'm getting tired." James also had a flash of inspiration.
Upon hearing this, the faces of the two Pseudo-humans immediately darkened. If they were truly bound like this, they would be in danger.
The next moment, the two Pseudo-humans' forms changed drastically. Their bodies suddenly inflated like balloons, finally transforming into black, fluid, humanoid creatures that swung the tentacles on their bodies to attack Richard and the others.
Bang!
Howard had just started to detach the sling, but everything happened too fast. Before he could fire a shot to stop it, a black tentacle slapped the flashlight out of his hand, and with another flick, the flashlight was smashed into pieces, plunging the entire basement back into darkness.
Losing the illumination meant that the shadows would not manifest, which virtually confirmed that the Pseudo-humans were now invincible.
Instantly, Howard and James were plunged into despair.
The two men were flung away by the Pseudo-humans' terrifying brute strength, slamming into the wall, nearly knocking them unconscious.
Meanwhile, the harrington family, whose members were all sheltering in the Underground Secret Room under the protection of the Old Man, also heard the fierce fighting outside the door. The terrifying shrieks of the Pseudo-humans once again enveloped everyone's hearts like a nightmare.
Mrs. Howard and Mrs. James lay in pools of blood simultaneously. Both had injuries to their heads and abdomens, especially Mrs. James's gunshot wound to the abdomen, which was particularly severe and seemed to have hit an artery. They were barely managing to stop the bleeding, relying on the first aid knowledge of Steve's Aunt, who was a nurse.
People on both sides were immersed in despair, and Steve also felt utterly powerless. Only now did he realize how well Richard and Eleven had protected them previously. Facing those equally terrifying monsters from The Upside Down, they hadn't suffered any serious physical harm, as if they had just walked through a few haunted houses... But now he knew he was wrong. When facing a power that even Richard seemed helpless against, he would endure greater fear and helplessness. He hated that he couldn't go out and help Richard, help his father and his Uncle.
He had injured people, elders, and a girl to protect here... He couldn't just walk away.
A hero... he wasn't qualified to be one.
"Chade! Chade..." Richard vaguely heard someone calling him. He was startled to realize that his consciousness had left his body and transformed into a Phantom Spirit Body. The familiar girl was calling out to him mentally.
"Eleven." Richard smiled, looking at Eleven, who had projected her consciousness to him. The girl, who had grown several inches of curly hair, had managed to find him using her Supersense, spanning thousands of miles.
Eleven was overjoyed when Richard noticed her, but she didn't forget to remind him, "You are in danger!"
"I know. Thank you for waking up my consciousness, otherwise, I don't know how long I would have been unconscious."
"Did I save your life?" Eleven was a little happy.
Richard blinked: "I might not die, but the things in my Mental Space might go wild and crazy because of this, escape, and cause chaos for the entire harrington family. At that point, Steve really would lose his whole family. But thank you. When I get back, I'll bring you the most expensive dessert in New York."
"Hehe, then I should help you more." Eleven's eyes sparkled. She then adopted a fierce expression, facing the two monsters in the darkness. Just before they could pick up Richard's unconscious body and eat it, she stretched out a hand and let out a soft, sharp cry.
The minds of the two Pseudo-humans were severely damaged, and their bodies twitched violently. This was Eleven using an ability similar to Henry Creel's mind-killing power to damage the Pseudo-humans' minds on the spiritual level. However, because Eleven's ability level was far beyond Richard's, Richard could not follow Eleven's mental perspective to see what happened.
Richard only knew that as soon as Eleven made her move, these two brutal, strange creatures were finished.
"Leave the rest to me. The only way to kill them is by attacking their shadows." Richard patted Eleven's shoulder and injected his consciousness back into his body.
"Goodbye, remember to visit me often, Chade, I'm bored." Eleven waved her arm obediently, watching Richard return to his body. She then woke up in reality, climbed out of the fully submerged bathtub, pulled the drain plug, watched the red bathwater quickly drain away, tidied everything up, and left the bathroom.
Hopper saw the residual bloodstains on Eleven's nostrils and secretly curled his lip, but pretended not to notice. "Why aren't you being difficult today?"
"Hmph hmph, I won't tell you." Eleven said mysteriously, sitting cross-legged on the sofa and watching Tom and Jerry with great relish.
Seeing the girl's innocent charm cheered Hopper up considerably. While preparing a cold dish according to the recipe Richard had given him, he raised his voice and asked casually, "Lunch today is Cucumber Mixed with Shrimp Chips, made exactly how Richard told me. I wonder if someone doesn't want to eat it?"
"Who said that? I want to eat!" Eleven bristled, jumping up from the sofa with a start.
Bang! Bang!
Under the bright sunrise, after two gunshots, the two masses of unidentified viscous matter, which had been dragged out and exposed to the sun, completely dissolved into oil-like liquid, settling in the snow.
Richard walked toward the villa with the gun slung over his shoulder without looking back, yawned, looked at his tattered pajamas, and muttered to himself, "I should take a shower and then sleep... I'm exhausted."
"Chade! Chade!" At the entrance of the villa, Steve and his Cousins were jumping and cheering, welcoming Richard back.
Almost from that day on, Richard became the name of the benefactor the harrington family would never forget.