Old days, dice and investigator's manual

Chapter 137 Interrupting the Speech

Isaac paused for a moment. Glenn, the ghoul cult member who had been in contact with him, was dead?

In his memory, Glenn still thought he could control the situation, constantly referring to himself as an "immortal" and a "short-lived species."

After one night, only his head remained intact; he died so hastily.

And—he died in this nursing home?

Why did he come to this nursing home? Isaac thought for a moment and then he had a clue: "When Glenn parted ways with me last night, he said he was going to discuss with his superiors whether he was worried that the FBI would target his old place after I left, so he decided to move and chose this nursing home as his new base? After all, this is the cult's territory."

"After they arrived at the nursing home, they should have gone into that room—to settle Halprin?"

Since so many people are gathered together, rather than scattered, it's easy to imagine what they were originally doing together.

And then you encountered that demon?

Isaac paused, then realized something and pressed, "Boss, was Halprin in the body? If he knew what was in that room, or could sense the demon's presence, could it be that Halprin had the demon do it?"

"The FBI has only received fresh chunks of meat from the bodies so far, no ribs. But if it really was a lich, its body might have turned to ash after death," Carlo said. "I sent you here to check if there was anything special in this nursing home, and now we see it—there's a demon."

"Furthermore, if the Ghoul Order knew that the guys who brought Halprin died here, it would be hard for them not to pay attention to this place."

Isaac breathed a sigh of relief. No wonder Carlo had asked him to come over. The most important reason was to let the Order see him and prevent his connection with the Order from being severed because of Glenn's death. They would come to him on their own, and he wouldn't need to look for the Order anymore.

Therefore, the gaze sensed outside earlier was more likely someone from the cult monitoring this place than a demon.

It could even be Halprin himself, who "came back from the dead."

Isaac put the booklets he had just looked through back in their place: "Where to next, that underground workshop?"

"Since you asked, let's go down and take a look."

Isaac walked to the door, made sure there was no sound, and went down the stairs.

When he reached the corner on the second floor, he slowed down and heard voices coming from below the stairs.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

"You can take over. To be honest, even our people were a little intimidated by the scene on the third floor."

"That's normal. Our people came to check this morning, and you haven't touched anything since, have you?"

"No, no, we just set up a cordon."

"Let's go check out the basement first."

Isaac stopped in his tracks, realizing that the people who had arrived were from the FBI and were likely officially taking over the scene.

He peeked out and saw two figures in FBI uniforms. He vaguely recognized one of them as Grayson, the introverted, muscular man.

Carlo's voice rang out: "Looks like someone's here. Let's leave the basement for now and head out. It wouldn't be very dignified to run into them in the hallway."

Isaac waited a few moments, then quickly went downstairs and headed towards the hallway leading to the kitchen.

"Whether Isaac Lessing went unnoticed by Andrew Grayson, check value 50, Dexterity bonus 12, final value 62."

"Carlo's voice rang out."

The illusory image of the dice appeared for a moment: 47. Check successful.

Isaac paused, quickening his pace. It seemed he had been seen after all, and by someone he knew. Fortunately, he had passed the check; the other person had seen him, but hadn't "noticed" him.

He went into the kitchen, opened the window, climbed over the windowsill, landed, turned around, closed the window a crack, squatted down and listened for a moment, but there was no unusual noise.

He breathed a sigh of relief: "Boss, is that demon still following me?"

"Never leaving or forsaking us."

Isaac sighed. This trip had brought him the attention of an unknown member of the Ghoul Cult and a demon follower, so it was quite a fruitful trip.

"What's next? Glenn's dead, Halprin's fate is unknown, am I just supposed to wait for them to come looking for me?"

"Let's leave here first. It's really inconsiderate of us to be squatting in someone's corner discussing our next steps."

Isaac got up and walked out, but as soon as he reached the alley entrance, the feeling of being watched resurfaced.

And this time it felt like it was right in front of me.

Isaac paused, and a phantom appeared before him, first as an outline, then as color, gradually solidifying into a gaunt human form.

"—Mr. Helpulin?" Isaac recognized him, or rather, in his memory, only Helpulin looked like this.

However, the Halprin before him was completely different from the old man who couldn't even speak last night. Although he still had the appearance of a skin and bones, he was able to stand up and was wearing a cloak that fit the stereotype of a mysterious person.

This transformation from near death to standing gave him a more intuitive understanding of the weight of the word "lich".

Halprin spoke, his voice hoarse: "We meet again."

You look like you're recovering well.

"Thanks to you, although you didn't do anything, at least—"

Before he could finish speaking, Halprin's body suddenly twisted to one side, as if he had been lashed out by an invisible tentacle, and he flew out and crashed into the wall.

Isaac: "————?"

What's going on?

A few seconds later, Halprin regained his composure and looked at Isaac with scrutiny: "Looks like you've brought out something extraordinary."

Before Isaac could respond, Halprin's body twisted again, this time more violently, his upper body arching backward as if something had pierced his body, tearing him apart from the inside out, scattering into a cloud of light mist.

Isaac:

Could it be that demon attacking Halprin?

The light mist coalesced again, and Helpulin reappeared, looking at Isaac, and remained silent for a moment: "What deal did you make with it?"

"You don't need to know, do you?" Isaac said, pretending not to know the situation.

Just as Halprin was about to speak, his body twisted for the third time. This time, it was as if he was folded from the waist, his upper body bent backward at an acute angle, and then shattered.

A sense of absurdity washed over Isaac. A ghoul cult elder who had lived for countless years, a self-proclaimed lich, was being repeatedly interrupted in front of him by a demon.

However, he also gained a direct understanding of the lich's survivability and made a judgment about the unseen demon beside him. This thing was much more aggressive than he had imagined, and it seemed to have a clear hostility towards Halprin.

The elder of the cult reformed even faster than before, regaining his human form within moments, but his withered face revealed an expression somewhere between anger and helplessness: "Making a deal with the devil is indeed—"

Then it was torn to shreds.