Interactive Fiction: The Right Choice After Unemployment

Chapter 28 Midnight Horror
Option 30 is 5%, option 30 is 35%, option [-] is [-]%, and option [-] is [-]%.

……

【Option [-]】

[Immediately enter the depths of the ancestral hall and try to block the opening with all the tools you can find (cranes, detectors, plaster, etc.)]

……

"There's something approaching you! Run in! Block the hole with everything you can find! Don't let it in!"

Zheng Zhuo yelled at the radio.

"...Shusha...'It'?...Something is coming...Hello?...Zheng Zhuo? Zheng Zhuo—"

"Do it first!"

Seeing that "that thing" had disappeared around the corner of the coast, Zheng Zhuo's forehead was wet with sweat.

Can that thing hurt?What happens if it kills the target person?Rescue of the target person failed?The world is falling apart?I'm stuck here?

"...Now is not the time to think about these things!"

Zheng Zhuo immediately cut off the communication with Chu Huairen.He jerked open the tent, ran down the cliff, and dialed the number on the radio again.

This time, he dialed the emergency contact number on the scientific research ship.

……

"Do it first!"

After Zheng Zhuo said this, he hung up the communication.

And Chu Huairen inside the ancestral hall still didn't know what happened.

"what happened?"

Professor Lin Wen turned his head from the front.

"Zheng Zhuo has a radio call, Professor." Chu Huairen put down the brush in his hand.He picked up the metal detector and walked cautiously towards the entrance of the cave, "He asked us to seal the entrance of the cave...something is coming."

Zheng Zhuo's words were endless, but his tone didn't sound like a joke.Chu Huairen felt a chill in his heart for no reason, and looked towards the entrance of the cave.

At the mouth of the cave is the pitch-black sea.The sun had already set, only the sea breeze was whimpering, and there was a slight fishy smell in the wind.

He asked me to block the hole... What can block the hole?

Chu Huairen looked towards the entrance of the cave.There, there were only scattered piles of plasterboards for pouring molds, and buckets of plaster that had not yet set.

"(Seal the hole with plaster? Impossible...the only thing left is...the crane...)"

"Professor, can you help push the small-equivalent crane over?" Chu Huairen shouted into the cave, and then tentatively walked out.

then.

He saw it.

In the darkness illuminated by high-powered flashlights, in the cracks between mountain walls and reefs.

There is a humanoid thing.

The thing was hunched over, standing behind the nearest rock.It has hands, feet, a body, and a long, scaly ridge on its back.Its face—the place facing Chu Huairen, presents vague human-like features, and also has the characteristics of fish: the head is extremely large, and the eyeballs are protruding.The body protruding from the side of the reef showed a dirty green like the eutrophication of the water.Under the green, mottled scales grew in irregular clusters like skin moss.

The huge protruding eyeballs rolled.The light of the flashlight shone on it, but it didn't respond.

This is not the response of any living creature.However, it is definitely alive.

Because on both sides of its neck, the throat and the side of the neck are split.The off-white, bloodshot gills protruded from there, trembling slightly.

"--Alas--"

what--

Chu Huairen cried out uncontrollably.

next second.

The thing suddenly opened its mouth.

A mouth full of thin, spiral-shaped fangs.

"——————!!!"

There was a sharp, hoarse scream.

That monster rushed towards Chu Huairen!
……

Oops!

Chu Huairen immediately kicked the plasterboard next to his feet towards the monster!However, the monster's strength is far greater than imagined.Its barbed and webbed feet crushed the drywall with ease, still closing in.

"do not come!!!"

Chu Huairen swung the metal detector vigorously, and smashed it towards the monster's head.There was a "clang" sound, and the long steel rod of the metal detector was bent—it felt as if it had been hit on a rock.

"—!"

The monster screamed again, and easily swung the pole away.The detector immediately flew towards the distant sea like a hollow product.

"Bad—"

at this time.

With a cracking sound, a lit thick wooden stick flew from a distance and landed in the sea water.

It's Zheng Zhuo!
The monster hesitated briefly because of Zheng Zhuo's attack.

"Quick! Crane! Block it with a crane!"

Zheng Zhuo shouted.

crane……!
Chu Huairen did not dare to let go of this opportunity.With a hard push, he splashed the liquid plaster on the monster.Off-white plaster immediately splashed on the monster's waist, abdomen and legs.

"—!"

The monster screamed louder than ever.It violently and frantically swung its slender, twisted hands and feet, trying to break free from the sticky plaster slurry.

Chu Huairen took the opportunity to run into the cave.

"Let's go, professor!"

He pushed away the professor who was immobile due to fear near the exit, and pushed the small-equivalent crane forward.

Ga la la la la——

The wheels of the small-equivalent crane made a tooth-piercing sound and crashed into the hole.Finally, it successfully got stuck between the two pillars at the entrance of the cave.

"Go back!"

Chu Huairen pulled the professor and ran backwards.They heard the monster approaching—it jumped forward, trying to squeeze into the entrance of the passage.However, the crane jammed its chest and abdomen.

The entire passage was immediately filled with creepy writhing, struggling and screams.

Crunch, crunch.

"..."

Crunch, crunch.

Chu Huairen and Professor Lin Wen didn't dare to vent their anger, they held their breath and waited.

It sounded louder and louder.Bit by bit, bit by bit... They saw desperately that more and more body parts of the monster were squeezing into the passage...

at this time.

"……quick……"

Noisy human voices came from a distance.

……

It's rescue!
The radio signal broadcast by Zheng Zhuo called the sailors on standby.The sailors, armed with torches and steel forks for preventing birds, rushed here as quickly as possible.

They ran towards Zheng Zhuo.

Very good!Seeing the familiar crew members whom he hadn't seen for a long time, Zheng Zhuo was overjoyed.

However, at this moment, he suddenly felt something was wrong.

The stench like the smell of dead fish intensified on the wind.And this smell...

It seems that it came from the crew.

The flames grew brighter.Zheng Zhuo saw that the faces of the crew members were all yellow, their eyes were red and bloodshot.On many people's necks, Zheng Zhuo saw rashes like skin diseases, and traces of scratching.

"how……"

"Where is the monster!?"

correct!Now is not the time to ask this!
Zheng Zhuo immediately commanded the sailors.

"The monster is at the entrance of the ancestral hall—Professor Lin Wen and Chu Huairen are still inside!"

"understood--"

The sailors shouted loudly and rushed forward.They threw torches and steel forks near the entrance of the cave.

At first, Zheng Zhuo was worried about whether these weapons would be effective against the murloc monster.Fortunately, the monster moved a few times after being hit by the steel fork, and then slid out of the hole.

It backed up a few steps, fell into the sea, and quickly disappeared, leaving only a series of tumbling bubbles.

……

The sailors rushed to the mouth of the cave.They pushed the small-equivalent crane stuck in the hole with all their strength, and Chu Huairen and Professor Lin Wen immediately crawled out from the gap.

"thanks……"

"Don't rush to say thank you! That thing may come again! Let's go!"

"crane……"

"There's no way to manage that much!"

The professor didn't forget to pack his suitcase - it contained the pottery shards he had brought along, and some peeling fragments he had collected here.He clings to them as if they are as important as his life.

That's all there is to take away from here.We really had no spare energy to take away the crane.

One by one the sailors held hands and pulled everyone ashore.

Everyone immediately withdrew towards the scientific research ship.

……

Zheng Zhuo and everyone ran back together.They must have run at the fastest speed in their lives: in an hour's journey, everyone only ran for about [-] minutes before they saw the docked scientific research ship from a distance.

"Quick—come on!"

Everyone dragged Professor Lin Wen and Chu Huairen, who were out of breath, onto the boat.

"what's the situation!?"

The captain and four students were waiting at the boarding port. Seeing that everyone was so nervous and rushed all the way, they knew something was wrong.

"There are... there are monsters...!"

Zheng Zhuo breathed heavily and said.

"Captain, there are monsters on this island—"

however.

Zheng Zhuo couldn't finish this sentence.His face changed.

Because he saw under the scientific research ship, among the dark reefs...

Indistinctly, a shadow emerged.

one, two...

Many.

"It's right below!!"

he shouted.

And while he was screaming.

Those murloc-like monsters began to charge towards the ship.

……

"—"

Screaming, the monsters jumped onto the moorings and gangplanks that connected the boat to the shore, and climbed up the hull.

"—quick—stop them!"

Everyone waved the anti-bird forks in a hurry, trying to prevent these monsters from boarding the ship!

"No way! There are too few of us!"

However, there are far more monsters than there are people on board!No matter how everyone slapped the tethers, the springboard, and dropped their hands on the railing of the ship, more and more murloc monsters were still climbing up—seemingly, they were about to climb up!
"no!"

Zheng Zhuo's forehead was covered with sweat, he held the anti-bird fork and roared.

"They will climb up sooner or later! Captain! Can you drive the boat!"

"It's low tide!"

There was also a tremor in the captain's voice.he shouted.

"With the current draft... it will take at least 8 hours before we can leave!"

"I can't wait that long!"

Zheng Zhuo shouted.

"There are too few people! We have to cut off part of the way to board the ship! Otherwise, we can't stop it at all!"

……

【problem】

[The murloc monster is trying to board the ship!One way of boarding the ship must be cut off in order to hold the ship with the existing manpower!Which ways to cut off? 】

[Option [-]: Cut the tether connecting the coast]

Possible problems: unable to securely dock on shore next time
[Option [-]: Cutting off the springboard for people to get on and off the ship]

Possible problems: After that, personnel can only use lifesaving ladders to get on and off the scientific research ship
[Option [-]: Splash oil along the hull and light it on fire]

Possible problems: will burn the lifeboats on both sides of the research vessel

[Option [-]: Don’t give up any way of boarding the ship, keep it with the existing personnel]

Possible problems: Some people were injured ~ died
　After [Option 1], [Option 1], [Option [-]] and [Option [-]], you can leave a message in the form of [this chapter says]. A message under [-] id counts as [-] vote.

　　票数统计截至至2022/11/16日中午12：00.
　　Finally, please recommend tickets~
　　


(End of this chapter)