Day of Imprisonment

The foul, putrid odors that An Zhiyan had previously detested in the tree hollow now became her shield.

They masked her own scent.

In any case, An Zhiyan was the second-in-command of the Awakened Association and a seasoned Memory Retriever. Even in her panic, she knew how wolves tracked their prey.

Scent was crucial.

To break the scent chain, one had to either hide in water, but she hadn't found a river, or mask it with other scents, and those scents had to be strong and pungent.

Foul odors were the best choice.

That's why she had hidden in the tree hollow.

Outside, the werewolf was running and searching rapidly. It seemed to know she was hiding nearby. At one point, the werewolf's claws were right at the edge of the hollow, giving An Zhiyan a taste of what it meant to have her heart race.

The bite was on her ankle.

And she was sure it was venomous because she quickly lost feeling in that leg.

But An Zhiyan still didn't dare move.

The werewolf was within a range of five or six meters. Any slight movement from her could alert it.

Finally, the werewolf didn't notice anything, and the clouds overhead seemed to once again cover the full moon.

The crisp singing started again.

"La la la la, I walk alone on a path in the suburbs, I'm bringing cake for Grandma to taste, she lives in a remote and secluded place, I must be careful whether there's a big bad wolf nearby... When the sun sets, I must hurry home, to enter sweet dreams with Mommy."

The singing gradually faded away.

An Zhiyan finally breathed a sigh of relief, but she was now cold all over, and her forehead was covered in cold sweat.

Her leg was completely numb, and she knew she had to detoxify immediately, or she would die.

As a Memory Retriever, she wasn't afraid of death.

In past loop days, she had died many times, in various ways, and had long grown accustomed to it.

But this was different.

Because all the Memory Retrievers who had entered the Fairy Tale Town before had disappeared, indicating that even death couldn't escape the Fairy Tale Town.

So, she had to survive as long as possible.

She used almost all her strength to crawl out of the narrow tree hollow. During the process, she felt like she was participating in a marathon, and she was almost exhausted.

After finally crawling out, she checked the wound.

Her calf was already black.

"It's definitely venomous!" An Zhiyan wasn't panicked. Her profession card was 'Apothecary'. Very few people in the Awakened Association knew this. They all thought she had a profession similar to 'Doctor'.

Because there were many similarities between the two.

For example, both could heal and detoxify other Memory Retrievers.

But in reality, An Zhiyan could do much more than that.

In the entire Awakened Association, only two people knew her true profession card.

And even those two didn't include Lin Yixuan.

The people who knew her profession card were Yu Xiaoru and Aunt Qin.

The 'Apothecary' ability, in addition to being able to concoct [Healing] and [Detoxification], also had a more powerful card synthesis ability.

For example, she could concoct [Anesthetic].

This was why she could suppress the hyena alone before.

In addition to that, she could also concoct [Poison].

[Poison] cards were also divided into several types, mainly [Crippling Poison], [Paralyzing Poison], and [Lethal Poison].

She could even use several other cards to synthesize [Adrenaline], a very special card.

This was An Zhiyan's greatest trump card.

At a critical moment, an [Adrenaline] card was enough to allow her to ignore all pain and toxins in a short period of time, while increasing her combat power to 'Elite' level.

Of course, the side effects of using [Adrenaline] were also very large.

She would be unable to move for the next two hours, and would remain in a weakened state for the entire loop day.

At this moment, An Zhiyan used [Detoxification], healing, and a small amount of [Anesthetic] on herself.

This could relieve pain and numbness.

There were some claw marks on the surrounding tree trunks. Looking closely, the claw marks were very deep, indicating that the werewolf could easily tear through the flesh of a Memory Retriever.

"So, what fairy tale is this?" An Zhiyan took out some food cards, materialized them, and began to eat, replenishing her strength.

An Zhiyan's mind was still very chaotic.

But she knew that she had to sort out the correct one from these chaotic clues.

"Lin Qiqi is probably in grave danger, because Little Red Riding Hood was chasing her first. As for Liu Rong and the hyena, they might have survived, but they are not trustworthy." An Zhiyan realized that she was now alone.

And she was injured.

This was already the worst-case scenario.

"Then, will there still be characters from the original story here? For example, Grandma... The Hunter... and the Big Bad Wolf..." An Zhiyan thought about this clearly modified fairy tale. Under normal circumstances, if she read this kind of dark fairy tale, she might find it very interesting, but now, she didn't find it interesting at all, because when she was inside this modified fairy tale, she knew that fairy tales could be so terrifying and deadly.

[Detoxification] and [Healing] took effect.

The leg that was numb to the point of losing sensation seemed to have returned, feeling pain again, but the pain was quickly offset by the [Anesthetic], so although it was still painful, at least An Zhiyan had regained her ability to move.

It was difficult to get a sense of direction in the deep forest.

Because she didn't know the specific location, it became impossible to use the moon and stars in the sky to locate the direction.

For example, the moon here was very abnormal, too huge, and there seemed to be no other stars in the sky.

There was no way, An Zhiyan could only choose a direction based on her feeling.

Which was the opposite direction from which Little Red Riding Hood left.

This should be the safest.

She started to move. The foot bitten by the venomous insect was still clumsy, so An Zhiyan found a tree branch to use as a walking stick. In addition, she had been holding a knife in her hand.

The flashlight function of the mobile phone could still be used, but she didn't dare to use it.

The light in the dark forest would only become a target for certain dark creatures.

Apart from the knife, she was also holding a [Adrenaline] that had been synthesized long ago.

At a critical moment, she would not hesitate to use it on herself.

It was difficult to find a road in the deep forest. Most of the time, she was walking on rugged ground. An Zhiyan spent a long time moving forward, replenishing water and food once in the middle.

Two hours later, she found a small path. After walking along the path for more than ten minutes, she found a small house ahead.

A wooden house with a very strong fairy tale atmosphere.

However, in this environment, this fairy-tale style wooden house would only make people feel strange and terrifying.

But for An Zhiyan, this was a major discovery.

Whether it was good or bad, having a discovery was better than no discovery.

And she almost immediately made a judgment.

"In the original story, the small house in the deep forest can only make people think of one place... Grandma's house. If so, then this is Little Red Riding Hood's destination." An Zhiyan took a deep breath. Holding the cards and the knife, she first circled the house at a relatively safe distance, carefully observing.

The house was dark, and there seemed to be no one.

An Zhiyan picked up a stone and threw it at the house.

The stone hit the wooden wall, making a sound.

Wait!

There was still no movement.

Only then did she slowly approach, from the side of the wooden house, and then looked in through the window.

The house was dark, and she couldn't see anything.

The round window was sealed and couldn't be opened. She could only go to the door to see. As a result, the door opened with a light pull.

With a creak.

It was particularly obvious in the silent forest.

At this moment, An Zhiyan's heart rate accelerated, and her scalp was numb.

She even froze in place, waiting for the judgment of fate. In her opinion, the worst case was that a terrifying monster would pounce out of the house, such as a bloodthirsty werewolf, knock her down, and then swallow her alive.

She seemed to have heard people say that the process of being eaten by a beast was very terrifying.

Because she was alive, she felt her body being bitten, torn apart, and then chewed and swallowed by the other party little by little.

In addition to pain and helplessness, listening to the sound of the other party eating herself made her feel even more desperate.

But the things An Zhiyan was worried about didn't happen.

There was no movement in the house.

She suppressed the heart that was almost jumping out of her chest, swallowed, and looked carefully into the house.

There should be no one inside.

Otherwise, there would have been movement long ago.

She slowly walked in and closed the door.

Thus, she entered a closed, quieter place from a relatively quiet environment.

After all, the silence in the forest was the sound of wind, leaves swaying, and various insects and birds chirping.

But in this house, there was really no sound at all.

The house was warmer than outside. In addition, there was a strange smell.

It was the smell of something moldy, mixed with a damp and very obvious stench.

She lowered her body and stood at the door, holding the doorknob. If necessary, she would immediately open the door and run out.

Slowly, her eyes adapted to the darker light in the house. The hazy moonlight outside shone into the house from the window, making it very bright.

She saw the situation in the house clearly.

There was a bed over there.

It was messy, and there seemed to be blood stains.

And in the front, near the fireplace, there was a small round table and a wooden recliner. At the next moment, her heart rate, which had been stable, rose again like boiling water, beating wildly.

Because she saw someone sitting on the recliner with their back to the door.

Under the recliner, a large pool of blood had gathered, but this pool of blood had long dried up.