Chapter 95: Clearing the Field and Dividing the Loot
"Heh heh."
Old Lamp stood beside Kyle's corpse, peering through the hole in his neck. Then, he raised his dazed face and chuckled at Marcus.
"?"
Marcus glanced at Old Lamp speechlessly. He looked like a rabid creature.
Old Lamp also realized what was happening, waving his arms and gesturing as if asking if he should revert to his original form.
Marcus shook his head. The matter wasn't over yet. He gave a look in the direction Lily had disappeared not far away and walked to Old Lamp's side.
Old Lamp nodded, his ghostly, demonic face flickering.
Marcus saw that the white bone wound on Kyle's leg had stopped spreading; he must be dead. However, the Keepers were too cunning; it was best to destroy the evidence.
He took out a handful of blessed papers and inserted them into the hole in Kyle's neck.
Kyle's head was now inside his stomach, because his shoulder and collarbone had been shattered by Old Lamp, so it simply squeezed in.
Absorption ability activated.
There wasn't much energy, almost none at all. It seemed Kyle's abilities came more from his mysterious potions.
However, Marcus only intended to turn him into a dried corpse for cremation. He then took out a heavy-duty bag, threw the shriveled, dried-up corpse of Kyle, trapped in the metal mesh, into it, and handed it to Old Lamp.
Then, tongs appeared in his hand. He walked to where he had picked up the potions, grabbed Kyle's right hand, gestured to Old Lamp, and went to where Lily had disappeared.
Marcus completely ignored Danny's remains and the black traces left by Bug's body, and went to where the upper half of Bug's head had been thrown off.
The head, which looked like it had been badly burned, with only the upper jaw showing traces of cooked flesh, lay quietly on the ground.
He took out a very sturdy isolation bag, used the tongs to grab Bug's head, threw it in, and sealed it.
Old Lamp stood quietly to the side, his long arm holding a heavy-duty bag, his strange expression constantly changing as he curiously observed Marcus's actions.
At this moment, the two of them inexplicably resembled a bizarre cleanup crew.
"Heh heh?"
Old Lamp asked, puzzled, seeing that Marcus had put away the creature's head but showed no sign of leaving.
"Old Lamp, step back a meter!"
Upon hearing this, Old Lamp took two steps back, his body tensing, ready to attack, his eyes fixed on the ground where the creature's head had been.
Suddenly, a bowl-sized, curved UV lamp appeared in Marcus's hand. With a switch-on sound, the purple light instantly illuminated the area within fifteen feet.
Many mottled marks that were normally invisible to the naked eye became clearly visible under the UV light.
"Heh heh!" Old Lamp's neck jutted forward, observing the soil where the creature's head had disappeared.
There were more than a dozen white parasitic worms, less than eight inches long and as thin as needles, seemingly disturbed, struggling to burrow into the soil. When the purple light shone on them, the parasites seemed to writhe in pain, their rounded mouths opening to reveal a ring of fangs.
Marcus placed Kyle's severed hand wound against the ground.
As if sensing life, the worms instantly changed direction, and more worms emerged from the soil, frantically burrowing into the severed hand through the wound.
Under UV light, more than twenty worms could be seen inside the severed hand, intertwined and swimming along the flesh, seemingly seeking a more comfortable place.
Some worms accidentally pierced the skin, exposed to the UV light, and quickly retreated back into the severed hand.
After waiting a while, when no more white worms emerged, Marcus placed the severed hand into the isolation bag. Under the UV light, he continued digging in the soil with tongs.
After digging about six inches deep, a faint red dot appeared briefly before disappearing back into the soil.
Marcus dug a couple more times, and a finger-length, deep red worm tail emerged from the soil.
The red worm seemed to know it had been discovered, instantly leaping to the ground and crawling upwards along the tongs at a speed no slower than a normal snake.
Marcus was already prepared, instantly discarding the tongs and producing a fly swatter, which he swatted at the red worm.
A sticky trap was attached to the fly swatter, which he had bought at a convenience store on the way there, taking only a few minutes.
The red worm was instantly stuck, firmly fixed to the trap, its round mouth opening wide, its fangs gnawing at the trap, but unfortunately, its mouth was too small.
This red worm was over eight inches long, and it was the true form of Big Bug that Marcus was searching for.
After recognizing Bug's parasitic nature, especially after seeing it accidentally shake off its head while rolling, Marcus suspected that Bug's true form was hidden inside its head.
Furthermore, its worm body was too fragile; in the wild at night, with various predators around, it could easily be preyed upon while moving around.
Therefore, it was very likely that the worm was hiding in place, waiting for someone to collect the body, at which point it could instantly possess that person's body.
Having confirmed that the three troublesome Keepers had no further tricks up their sleeves, Marcus thoroughly burned the remains of Danny and Kyle to ashes and scattered them into the river before returning to the hotel.
He sat on the white sofa in the living room, seemingly waiting for guests.
A noise came from the window outside, and the disguised Old Lamp climbed in.
"You're here, have a seat!"
Marcus gestured invitingly.
"Doctor, today was truly fantastic, haha."
Old Lamp sat down on the sofa with a carefree air, chuckling as if he hadn't had enough.
In this story world, he was depicted as a weathered, middle-aged man of about fifty, with several forehead wrinkles, looking like he had endured many hardships.
"Don't be careless, there's still someone who hasn't appeared from beginning to end,"
Marcus said, pouring himself and Old Lamp a glass of water, taking a sip from his own.
"Heh, the last one is definitely a nobody."
"All three teams have shown up. He's either from Kyle's camp or the cameraman's camp. He hasn't shown up yet, so he's probably just a beginner."
Old Lamp immediately started dismissing the seventh person, casually picking up his water glass and downing it in one gulp.
Marcus chuckled and refilled Old Lamp's glass.
"Oh, right!"
Old Lamp's hand swept across the coffee table, revealing three items:
a broken ceremonial blade, a bunch of bone fragments, and a half-full bottle of clear liquid.
"These are the spoils I got today."
"Heh, I grabbed them when that kid wasn't looking. This blade is pretty powerful, but it's mostly broken now. I guess it won't last many uses before it's ruined. What a shame!"
Marcus glanced at Old Lamp with slight surprise.
Old Lamp pressed down on three items and pushed them forward in front of Marcus, then said,
"The reason we were able to kill those three enemies so easily is all thanks to you, Doctor. It wouldn't have mattered if I were here or not. These two items are for you; just give me half the potion."
"Doctor, the next mission will depend on you,"
Old Lamp said earnestly, not daring to entertain the thought of secretly keeping anything for himself.
The meticulously prepared doctor before him had left a deep impression.
While he couldn't even find his way, the doctor had already used his intelligence to piece together the clues and easily tricked the three Keepers to death.
(End of Chapter)
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