Old days, dice and investigator's manual

Isaac stared at the headless sheep carcass, his brow furrowed slightly, and said to George, who was closest to him, "Sir, please move that man away a bit."

George snapped out of his daze and quickly ran over, half-supporting, half-dragging Old Jack away from the sheep carcass: "Old Jack! Are you alright?"

Old Jack's eyes were unfocused, and he was muttering something unintelligible. George patted his face a few times to bring him back to his senses.

"What...what is that thing..." Old Jack's voice trembled violently.

Isaac thought to himself, "I don't know either. That thing looks pretty weird."

Just now, Carlo had the car stop not far away, and the two observed the railway laying for a while and witnessed the entire process of the sheep appearing.

As the worker approached the sheep, Carlo suddenly asked, "Interested in saving someone?"

"The boss?" Isaac asked, somewhat surprised.

Although he sensed something was wrong when he saw the sheep, Isaac thought Carlo was the type who didn't care about other people's lives.

Although Carlo offered to rescue the people, he showed no urgency, leisurely saying, "We're investigators, after all. As investigators, shouldn't we get involved in suspicious events? How can we trigger an incident and begin an investigation if we don't do something?"

"But there's no need for me to handle such a small thing myself. So... it's decided that it's you, Asa. Go, rescue someone and find out what's going on at the same time."

Isaac hesitated for a moment, then got out of the car, took out his revolver, and pushed the hammer aside.

He'd practiced with guns, but something about that thing just didn't look right... Hopefully, the silver bullets will work.

Isaac took a deep breath, regulated his breathing, and watched as the worker turned around and said something to the other workers. Suddenly, the sheep behind him stood up and put its two front hooves on his shoulders.

There was no time to think about it anymore.

Isaac immediately raised his gun, aiming at the sheep's head, a fleeting memory of Edward teaching him to shoot flashing through his mind.

The old man, sitting in his wheelchair, smiled at Isaac: "Ready?"

Isaac nodded. The old man poured out the last bit of wine, shook the empty bottle, and placed it on the table. Isaac then raised his gun and aimed.

The trigger was pulled, the bottle exploded, and the headless sheep's body swayed before crashing to the ground.

Isaac put down the revolver, his heart pounding a little.

In the heat of the moment, he didn't have time to think and immediately aimed and fired. Now that he'd calmed down, shooting a bottle and watching a creature's head explode felt very different. What's more, if he had made a mistake, as Carlo said, and shot the wrong head, that would have been even worse.

As George dragged old Jack aside, Isaac took a few steps closer and examined the sheep carcass.

Carlo emerged from the darkness, walked to the sheep carcass, and glanced down at it: "It's interesting that this thing appeared in this place."

Just as Isaac was about to ask further questions, George helped old Jack over. Old Jack's face was still stained with blood, but he was finally able to stand. His lips trembled as he bowed to Isaac, saying, "Th-thank you, sir... if it weren't for you..."

"It was nothing." Isaac put away his revolver. "What are you doing here...?"

"Do we even need to ask about their situation?" Carlo glanced at them. "As far as I know, even during the day, wilderness construction requires guards and at least one priest. Judging from their appearance, they came out naked."

George looked troubled, his eyes darting around before he lowered his voice and said, "We don't know the specifics either. All we know is that Lord Sir ordered us to work through the night. As for anything else... we know nothing."

Carlo nodded: "The lords here are quite bold, secretly rushing to complete the work. Naturally, they wouldn't dare report it to the church. The noble forces in Vista are also under strict control, so unauthorized mobilization is a major taboo."

Upon hearing this, George and Old Jack's expressions changed, and they lowered their eyes.

They certainly dared not respond to this. They could only obey Lord Banbury's orders. As for whether the orders were in accordance with the rules or violated the Grand Duke's laws, that was not something they could discuss. If such words reached the Lord's ears, the consequences would be beyond their ability to bear.

Seeing their reaction, Isaac didn't press further, instead asking, "Has anything happened before?"

George hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "A few days ago, a team of night shift workers... twelve people, none of them returned. The lord sent people to investigate, but they found nothing. In the end, he said it was an alien attack and told everyone to keep working."

As he spoke, his gaze drifted to the headless sheep carcass, and he swallowed hard. "But I've never encountered anything like this before..."

Old Jack's voice was hoarse: "I...I just...I saw that sheep, and it seemed so gentle, I wanted to touch it...I knew something was wrong, but I just couldn't control myself..."

As Isaac recalled what he had seen from afar, he noticed that when Old Jack turned to speak to the other workers, he did indeed have a dazed smile on his face, as if he had been hypnotized by something.

"That thing isn't anything high-class, but it's somewhat mentally polluting," Carlo said. "If you hadn't been lucky, your head would already be in its stomach."

Old Jack's face paled even more upon hearing this.

George quickly confirmed, "Sir, there's only one monster, right?"

"You guessed wrong, there are a lot more."

George's face turned as pale as Old Jack's: "Gentlemen, since you know about this... could you help us think of a way? We can't just stay here and wait to die."

Carlo tilted his head. "Can you afford the commission fee?"

"Uh..." George and old Jack were both taken aback, not expecting the kind gentleman to suddenly utter such realistic words.

"If you can't afford it, then I can only give you the simplest, most direct, and most straightforward advice." Carlo shrugged, "You guys just need to run back to the city and file a report."

Old Jack gave a wry smile: "We'd like to run away, but if we do, the Lord will investigate, and not only will we lose our jobs, but we might also be charged with desertion..."

The helplessness in these words is not hard to hear. These workers are not unaware that they are in danger, but they are even more aware of the consequences of disobeying their lord.

In this era, ordinary people have very limited choices, and even if they know that there is a dead end ahead, they have no choice but to grit their teeth and keep going.

"Are you all stupid? You've already encountered this situation, why don't you just go to the church?" Carlo said.

Old Jack quickly shook his head: "The church doesn't care about our lives. People die every day in the wilderness. They probably don't even bother to look at the reports of alien attacks piling up on their desks. If we say we've encountered a monster that can only bleat like a sheep, they might just make a note of it..."

Carlo interrupted him directly: "So you guys are really incompetent when it comes to reporting crimes. You just run over and say you've encountered a terrifying monster, so of course the church will just categorize it as any other alien attack. After all, we get similar reports every day, how can they tell which ones are really important?"

"But if you say... Calamity Sequence 83, 'Shepherd' Mary, is wandering around here, then it's a different story."