Old days, dice and investigator's manual

The second blow, the third blow... The executioner swung his axe, and debris flew across the walls, some from the wooden floor, some from Spider-Man.

Spider-Man struggled at first, flailing his limbs wildly, but after a few blows with the axe, he stopped moving.

As Isaac watched the executioner dismember Spider-Man, a mixture of wariness and doubt filled his heart.

These two shouldn't be working together, right? Even considering that the ghoul cult might be putting on a show for him, it's still quite inexplicable and hard to understand their intentions.

In other words, this executioner was likely targeting Spider-Man?

Isaac glanced at the severed hand that Spider-Man had thrown at him earlier, and an idea struck him. While the executioner was busy dismembering the hand, he covered the bed with the blanket.

A moment later, the executioner stepped on the mangled torso, pulled out his axe, turned and walked toward the door without even glancing at Isaac.

The room returned to the state it was when only one person was there, except that Spider-Man's remains were scattered on the floor, and the remains of a wooden door remained by the door.

Isaac walked to the door and glanced down the corridor. The dark figure was walking towards the end of the corridor, while a head peeked out from the stairwell.

Glenn tilted his head, staring at the executioner, then looked down the corridor and noticed Isaac.

Upon realizing he had been discovered, he clicked his tongue and walked up the stairs.

As Glenn passed by the executioner, he neither deliberately avoided him nor made any attempt to communicate, as if he were passing a fixed object rather than a dangerous creature.

Glenn stopped a few steps away, and before he could speak, Isaac asked, "What was that thing just now?"

"That's what I was going to ask you," Glenn frowned. "I was just downstairs when I heard a lot of banging and crashing upstairs. I thought you'd been chopped into pieces."

"Was it your arrangement to have that guy with the axe?"

“That’s the ‘Executioner’,” Glenn said. “Mr. Halprin lives here, so the Order naturally provides guards, and the Executioner is part of those guards.”

"The guards... don't look human."

"Of course not, this is a demonstration of the Order's 'Great Art'."

Isaac understood. Glenn's posture when he passed the executioner had already revealed the truth. If the executioner were alive, Glenn would at least have greeted him and asked what had happened.

But Glenn completely ignored it, as if it were just a walking tool. Isaac guessed that the thing was probably similar to the shrouded zombie that Li Jiehao had previously created, a kind of existence that was manufactured and controlled by the cult.

Glenn seemed unwilling to discuss much with someone who wasn't yet "qualified" to learn the art of greatness, and steered the conversation to what mattered more to him: "What exactly did you do?"

"I didn't do anything, and I'm wondering what's going on."

"That……"

"All I can say is that something climbed in through the window." Isaac tilted his chin toward the windowsill. "The executioner came and dismembered it."

Glenn followed Isaac's gaze, looked at the broken pieces on the windowsill and floor, and fell silent for a moment: "...What are these things?"

"I don't know, he was taken down by that big guy."

Glenn walked over and squatted down, looking at the broken pieces on the ground with disdain: "It's those...those guys again."

"Those guys?"

"Those traitors who go against the Order." Glenn waved his hand. "These inferior zombies are what they usually use. They're crudely made and clumsy. It's obvious they've only learned the basics and have no idea about the core of the Order's 'Great Arts'."

……traitor?

Isaac knew that the Ghoul Order was relatively loose, with different factions acting independently. Even if they didn't like each other, they were still within the framework of the Order and usually wouldn't call each other traitors.

The word "traitor" implies those who might be behind Spider-Man, who were once considered "one of their own" by Glenn, but later turned against him.

"Has something happened within the cult?" Isaac asked.

Glenn glanced at him: "This is none of your business."

"It climbed in through the window and almost got onto my bed." Isaac pointed to the pile of wreckage on the floor. "If this isn't my business, then I don't know what is."

Glenn was silent for a moment: "...A year ago, a group of people in the Order were making a fuss about leaving, saying that the Order had gone astray and that old guys like Mr. Halprin were no longer keeping up with the times, and that the Order should be managed by a new group of people."

"Some people left, leaving behind a mess. They still consider the cult an enemy and come knocking on our door from time to time. That thing tonight was probably put there by them, trying to probe the situation here."

"What are you doing here, trying to find out my background?"

Glenn did not answer, his gaze momentarily shifting towards Halprin's room.

Isaac noticed this subtle movement, and Glenn's reaction seemed to indicate that the forces behind Spider-Man were targeting Haliplin.

But what's wrong with saying this? Why hide it? It's not surprising that a cult elder so weak that he can only lie in a chair would be targeted by a traitor, but Glenn's reaction of hiding it shows that things are not so simple.

"Do they come to 'harass' us frequently?"

"We've never been this close before," Glenn said. "This is the first time tonight that we've come this close to the outpost."

"Will you come back again in the future?"

"It's hard to say, but now that they've shown themselves, the cult won't just stand by and watch; they'll naturally retaliate."

Isaac didn't press for more details. Glenn was probably only willing to talk about these things because he needed a reason to explain the commotion that had happened tonight.

However, if Isaac really came to join the cult, seeing a traitor instructing dirty things to climb through the window and attack in the middle of the night, and seeing the cult's guards chop the intruder into pieces, it's hard to know whether he should have more confidence or feel that his future is bleak.

Glenn seemed to think he had said enough, turned and walked towards the door, then stopped: "Change rooms tonight, choose one next door."

Isaac glanced at the rubble on the ground; it was indeed not a suitable place to stay until the middle of the night.

"Those things..."

"Someone will come to clean up tomorrow," Glenn said before leaving the house.

After Glenn left, Isaac lifted the blanket, revealing the severed hand underneath, which Spider-Man had inexplicably thrown at him after his "heroic sacrifice."

Isaac rolled up the blanket along with the severed hand, packed it into a small bundle, and went out the door.

The corridor was silent; the executioner was nowhere to be seen, and Helpulin's door remained ajar.

"Hey, Asa, what do you think?"

Isaac had been holding the dice in his hand the whole time, and Carlo had been watching the whole thing.

"Boss, I have a feeling this Spider-Man...could he have been sent by Halprin?"