Wasteland Lord: Starting from Thirty Days to Live

The people looked at the fork in the road with varying expressions.

Some were fearful, some were delighted, but Vittorio alone seemed lost in thought.

They started discussing it animatedly.

"What should we do now? Separate? Or go together?"

"Let's not break up, it feels too dangerous."

"But if we don't separate, what if we reach a dead end, turn back, and the other fork in the road disappears? What should we do then?"

They each had their own reasons, but in the end, the person who thought it was better to separate won out.

Their reasoning is as follows.

"That monster didn't seem very strong. Our lord repelled it with a single sword strike. We outnumber it, so even if we split up, it might not be a match for us."

After their discussion, they all turned their attention to Vittorio.

I don’t know if it was Vittorio’s imagination, but it seemed like these people were looking forward to splitting up their forces.

Just then, Eileen suddenly grabbed Vittorio's hand.

"Wait a minute, I have something to tell you."

"Speaking."

Eileen gestured for Vittorio to lower his head, and Vittorio lowered his head and turned to the side. Eileen whispered something in his ear.

Everyone looked at the two of them with curiosity, while Vittorio, after hearing Eileen's words, had already changed to an understanding expression.

"I understand completely now. Let's split into two groups. Eileen will lead one group, I'll lead the other, and the rest will split equally."

After Vittorio finished speaking, he quickly glanced at everyone's expressions and noticed a secret ecstasy on their faces, as if they were pleased with the decision to split up the forces.

After that, Leon, Will, the injured Tom, and Vittorio went to the left.

Louis, Kay, and Irene walk on the right.

After a brief farewell, Vittorio and the three men headed to the left, where the cave suddenly narrowed, became darker, and had a suffocating atmosphere.

Strangely, the three people who had been chattering away just moments before fell silent after entering the cave. They walked ahead with their heads down, neither turning back nor speaking.

Vittorio listened intently and could hear a constant "crunching" sound, as if something was grinding its teeth.

But there were only four people there, and Vittorio was certain that the voice wasn't his.

Therefore, there is only one answer.

Vittorio slowly drew his sword with one hand, and slammed his other hand onto Will's back.

"Hey, haven't you been gone long enough? Are you still going to keep acting? You don't want me to give you an acting award, do you?"

The person in front suddenly stopped and turned their head sharply 180 degrees backward.

His head sometimes appeared large and sometimes small, and his eyes were wide open.

From any perspective, it is not human.

Then "Will" spoke, revealing a lamprey-like mouthpart, and made a sound that was human-like, but devoid of any human emotion.

"I do not understand."

He said.

"My performance was flawless. Every image and movement of theirs was extracted from your memories. I... am now a completely human being."

Faced with such a bizarre scene, Vittorio showed no fear whatsoever; he even laughed out loud.

He simply found it funny how this monster was so obsessed with his acting skills.

Since he was in a fairly good mood, Vittorio unusually began to explain the monster to him.

"You understand acting very well, but you don't understand logic."

"You made the following mistake."

"First of all, when you first appeared, you claimed that you heard a strange noise and turned back, only to find me unconscious."

"To make your words more believable, you even went so far as to describe the appearance of the monster that attacked me."

"But there's one phrase that perfectly describes your action—it's like gilding the lily."

"If you had returned after hearing the screams and found me unconscious, the monster would have been gone long ago, and you would have had no way of knowing what it looked like."

"Unless you've already seen it before."

"But you claim that you were not attacked by a monster, which is a contradiction."

"Secondly, this is a matter of detail. If someone had already gone down to explore before we came down, my two knights would not have failed to tell me. You are simply making up a plausible story."

"Finally, this is the decisive evidence. Eileen just told me. When he ignited the Holy Light, you were constantly avoiding it, hovering on its edge. And the Holy Light cast your shadows, which were distorted ghostly figures on the wall."

She said, "You are not human."

Nawell turned his head and thought for a while, seemingly trying to figure out the logic behind it.

After a long pause, he voiced his last question.

"I do not understand."

"If you already knew I wasn't human, why did you agree to split up?"

Vittorio smiled.

"A coyote was chasing a hunter in the forest, and the hunter calmly turned around."

"At this point, it's not the hunters who should be afraid, but the coyotes."

"It needs to assess who the hunter and who the prey are."

Before Vittorio could finish speaking, he swung his sword fiercely at Will's head.

Sneak attack!

Anyway, Vittorio doesn't have any chivalry; he'll do anything to win.

As the sword struck down heavily, "Will" revealed his true form.

It was a humanoid monster with smooth, milky-white skin, much like the skin of a fish that lives underground year-round and never sees the light of day. This monster had no eyes, only a round mouth, and when it opened, it had layers of sharp teeth like a lamprey.

He had almost no armor or defenses, except for some sharp nails growing on his fingertips.

Just as Vittorio guessed, this monster was not good at fighting; he was good at disguise and even creating illusions—such as the illusion of constantly spinning in place.

This is why he went to great lengths to disguise himself as a companion and infiltrate Vittorio's inner circle.

He hoped that Vittorio would be terrified and go mad, thus causing him to lose his footing.

Therefore, Vittorio's excited and thrilled demeanor was precisely what was thwarting this attempt.

He deliberately separated from Eileen to make the monster think it had the upper hand, thus luring it out of its hole.

After all, if he really hid and left Eileen and Vittorio stuck in place, they might actually be trapped for a while.

In short, the balance of power has shifted, and the scales of victory have tipped in Vittorio's favor.

Vittorio's hand markings glowed faintly as he swung his sword at the monster's head.

It was as smooth as splitting tofu; no wonder the head flew off instantly, spurting out a large amount of blood from the neck.

As the monster dies, the scenery before our eyes continues to change.

After a flash, the narrow, appendix-like cave disappeared.

Instead, Vittorio and Irene were standing where they had started.

Eileen was not far from him, and his two teammates who were with him had also turned into similar monsters.

As for the two remaining people beside Vittorio, needless to say, they naturally revealed their true forms and gradually approached.

"Holy Light!"

Eileen increased the range of the holy light, enveloping Vittorio within it.

Vittorio kept retreating until he was back to back with Eileen.

"Are you alright?" Eileen asked him.

"I'm fine, but things became simple from then on."

"What?"

"Let's go on a killing spree!"