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Rough yellow paper tubes were tied messily with hemp rope, with a long, thin, gray-white fuse sticking out from the top.
Some of the Villager held these things in their arms like treasures, while others carried them in one hand, their faces wearing idiotic and fanatical smiles.
"My god..." Leon lowered his body, hiding behind the dense bushes, his voice carrying an unbelievable sense of absurdity.
"These Villager really are explosively hospitable."
He had experienced a zombie siege, dealt with fast-moving Lickers, and even faced off against biological weapons like the T-103 Tyrant, but he had never seen a scene where guests were welcomed by a line of people using explosive packs as standard weapons.
"They're holding mining explosives."
Noah's voice sounded beside him.
Through the gaps in the bushes, he carefully observed the movements of the Villager and the details of the explosives in their hands.
"Look at the length and color of the fuses. These old-fashioned explosives have very slow-burning fuses, giving them plenty of time to throw them. But in contrast, they're extremely powerful and unstable; a heavy impact or high temperature could detonate them directly."
Noah withdrew his gaze and turned his head toward Leon.
The corner of his mouth twitched upward slightly, revealing a familiar expression with a hint of mischievousness that Leon found recognizable.
From the side pocket of his tactical vest, he pulled out a dark green fragmentation grenade and weighed it lightly in his hand.
The metal casing reflected a cold luster under the dappled light of the forest.
"So..." Noah's voice carried a Bloodline-pumping provocativeness, "How about we have a passionate exchange of explosions with them?"
Leon's eyes instantly lit up.
The choice of words was spot-on, perfectly matching his current restless mood.
"Thrilling!"
Leon felt as if a troublemaker switch inside him had been completely flipped by Noah's words.
His mind began to race, his gaze shifting back and forth between the open ground on the opposite bank of the river valley and the surrounding environment, as the outline of a bold and crazy plan quickly formed in his mind.
"Their intelligence is affected, and their movement patterns are very simple; they'll just swarm toward the target in a group," Leon said in a low voice, speaking very quickly.
"We can make some noise, find a way to get them to gather together, and then..."
His gaze fell on the grenade in Noah's hand, the rest of his words left unsaid.
Make a big bang.
"Good idea." Noah immediately understood Leon's line of thought and found the key point to perfect the plan in an instant.
His gaze passed over the Villager holding explosives and landed on a building not far behind them.
It was a two-story wood-and-stone structure, slightly larger than the other shacks around it, standing alone in a clearing and looking relatively sturdy.
The second-floor window faced their current direction, making it an excellent position for observation and attack.
"We need a 'container' to put them all inside." Noah gestured toward the house with his chin. "That place is the most suitable. Let's find a way to get over there first, then lure them in."
"How do we get over?" Leon frowned.
Between their current position and the house was a stretch of completely exposed open ground and a stream that was neither wide nor narrow.
Once they revealed themselves, they would immediately become the target of concentrated fire from those seven or eight "explosive fanatics."
Leon didn't doubt his or Noah's skills, but being targeted by so many explosives at once would be enough to skin even an immortal.
Noah didn't speak.
His gaze quickly scanned the surroundings as if searching for a tool.
Soon, his eyes stopped on a stone at his feet.
It was a fist-sized pebble with relatively smooth edges.
At the same time, he saw another perfect "tool."
Not far from the group of Villager on the other side of the river, a plump hen was walking with a leisurely waddle, its head down as it focused on pecking at something in the mud.
It knew nothing of the monsters holding explosives nearby or the danger hidden in the bushes.
Noah bent down and silently picked up the stone.
He gave Leon a "watch me" gesture.
Shhh—!
The stone traced a precise arc through the air, crossing dozens of meters and hitting the plump hen's fat backside squarely.
"Cluck, cluck, cluck—!!"
The sudden attack caused the hen's feathers to stand on end instantly.
It let out a shrill, distorted scream, flapping its wings and hopping around frantically in place, feathers falling everywhere.
This sudden noise instantly broke the eerie silence in the river valley.
The seven or eight Villager, who had been immersed in their own worlds, paused in unison.
Their dull gazes all turned simultaneously toward the hen that was running around and screaming frantically.
The expressions on their faces quickly changed from idiotic fanaticism to extreme anger and irritability at being disturbed.
"¡Polloestúpido!" (Stupid chicken!)
"¡Mátalo!" (Kill it!)
One Villager let out an incoherent roar and was the first to rush toward the chicken.
Then, a second, a third... All the Villager holding explosives, like robots activated by some command, abandoned their original guard positions and marched with stiff steps, letting out unintelligible roars as they scrambled to surround the poor hen.
The scene was as absurd as a clumsy farce.
"...Nicely done." Leon watched this surreal scene, the corner of his mouth unable to stop twitching.
He withdrew his gaze, no longer wasting this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"Go!"
The two of them leaped out of the bushes at the same time, quickly rushed down the slope, waded through the cold stream water, and ran toward the pre-selected two-story building.
Instead of going through the front door, they circled to the side of the house.
Noah braced one hand against the wall and grabbed the first-floor windowsill with the other, his arms exerting force as his body lightened and flipped upward.
Leon followed closely behind, making almost no sound as he silently climbed through the window.
The interior was filled with a heavy smell of dust and decaying wood; the furnishings were simple, and no one was there.
Without staying for a moment, the two took up advantageous positions by the second-floor window.
Noah crouched under the left windowsill, while Leon guarded the right.
From here, they could clearly see the farce unfolding on the open ground below.
The group of Villager had already surrounded the unlucky hen, flailing their fists and feet, and some even used the explosive packs in their arms to smash it; the scene was a chaotic mess.
The chicken let out a final mournful cry under the assault and soon turned into a puddle of blurred flesh and blood.
"Alright, the appetizer is over." Leon extended the barrel of his matilda out the window, aiming at one of the Villager' legs. "Now, it's time for the main course."
Noah also pulled out his beretta, its cold barrel protruding from the gap in the window.
Bang!
Bang!
Two crisp gunshots pierced the silence of the river valley almost simultaneously.
Below, a Villager's knee exploded in a burst of blood, and he collapsed to the ground screaming.
Another Villager's shoulder was shot through, and in his pain, the explosive pack in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter."
This sudden gunfire caused the group of Villager, who had just "dealt with" the intruder, to freeze instantly.
They slowly turned their heads, their numb faces once again replaced by irrational, extreme madness due to their companion's injury and the new attack.
"¡Allí!" (There!)
"¡Forasteros!" (Outsiders!)
"¡Mátalosatodos!" (Kill them all!)
Furious roars, mixed with various foul Spanish curses, exploded in the clearing.
All the Villager, including the one shot in the knee, leaped up from the ground as if they had been injected with adrenaline.
They raised the explosive packs in their hands, their distorted faces filled with bloodthirsty killing intent, and launched a death charge toward the house.
"Here they come." Leon licked his dry lips, an excited smile appearing on his face.
"Don't let a single one escape." Noah's voice was calm, without a hint of emotion.
Thud!
The wooden door of the house was slammed open by the body of the first Villager to arrive.
Then, more Villager, like a bursting flood, frantically poured into the small space of the first floor.
They huddled together, pushing and trampling each other, scrambling to rush up the wooden stairs leading to the second floor.
The stairwell was instantly blocked.
The space on the first floor wasn't large to begin with, and now seventeen or eighteen adults were squeezed in, each holding a large bundle of explosives; the scene was crowded to the extreme.
"What are they shouting about?" Leon listened to the chaotic roars below while loading a new shell into his shotgun.
"Probably some welcoming words," Noah replied without looking up, "Like 'we'll pull your guts out and use them as a necklace' or 'we'll use your skulls as wine cups' and the like."
"Such a warm and hospitable traditional culture." Leon whistled.
He saw that Villager had already begun climbing the stairs and knew the time was ripe.
He pulled a flashbang from his tactical vest and yanked the pin.
"Prepare to jump," he said to Noah.
Noah also held the fragmentation grenade in his hand, the pin held firmly by his thumb.
"Goodbye, friends."
Leon grinned and threw the flashbang in his hand into the crowded "can" below in a clever arc.
The small metal cylinder tumbled through the air and landed precisely in the densest part of the crowd.
The next second.
Screech—!!
A blinding white light, enough to cause instant blindness, accompanied by a piercing screech, exploded on the first floor!
The vision of the group of crazed Villager below went blank instantly.
Their sight and hearing were completely stripped away at this moment, leaving only a dazzling white, and their ears were filled with a buzzing tinnitus.
In this brief chaos of less than a second.
Noah threw the fragmentation grenade in his hand with an underhand toss at almost the same time the flashbang exploded.
The grenade traced a very short arc through the air, hit a Villager's head with a "thud," and then bounced under the feet of the crowd.
Having done all this, the two didn't even stay to see the result of the grenade landing.
They turned at the same time and leaped out of the window behind them.
Their bodies stretched out in mid-air, and they landed in a forward roll, absorbing the impact of jumping from the second floor.
Then, without a moment's pause, the two scrambled on all fours, running like mad toward a hollow formed by several large boulders not far away.
Just as their bodies disappeared into the shadows of the hollow.
Boom!!!
A muffled explosion came from inside the two-story house.
It was the sound of the grenade detonating.
Countless steel balls and fragments formed a storm of death in the suffocatingly narrow space of the first floor.
It was like lighting a fuse.
The high temperature and violent impact of the grenade's explosion instantly ignited the extremely unstable bundle of mining explosives held by one of the Villager!
Boom—!!!
A thunderous roar, enough to tear the sky and shake the entire river valley, erupted!
A huge fireball of orange-red mixed with rolling black smoke expanded violently from inside the house!
Fragile wooden wallboards, heavy stones, beams, furniture, and... the severed limbs and broken bodies of those Villager controlled by parasites were all blown into countless pieces in this terrifying explosion, carried by a destructive shockwave as they were hurled frantically in all directions.
Hiding in the hollow, the two could still feel a scorching wave of air hitting their faces, and the ground beneath them trembled violently, as if a small-scale earthquake had occurred.
Gravel and wood chips fell from the sky like a rainstorm, hitting the boulders they were hiding behind with a dense "pitter-patter" sound.
The roar of the explosion echoed continuously in the valley for a long time.
After a long while, when the last piece of burning wood fell from the sky and hit the ground with a thud, the entire world returned to silence.
A thick, choking smell of gunpowder and smoke, mixed with the stench of charred flesh, filled the air.
Leon and Noah looked at each other, both seeing a hint of relief from their narrow escape in the other's eyes.
They cautiously peered out from behind the hollow, looking toward the site of the explosion.
The scene before them made them gasp.
The two-story house had completely vanished from its spot.
In its place was a huge crater over ten meters in diameter, still emitting wisps of blue smoke.
The ground was covered with charred gravel and burning wood.
Among the ruins lay scattered pieces of tissue and remains that could no longer be identified as human.
"Well..." Leon said with a hint of amazement in his voice.
"It seems they were indeed very 'hospitable' and set themselves on fire."
The two stepped out of the hollow, guns raised, and carefully approached the massive crater.
They needed to confirm that all the enemies had been eliminated.
When they reached the edge of the crater, Noah knelt down and looked at a relatively intact severed arm that had been blown out.
The place where the arm had been severed was a bloody mess.
But within that blurred flesh, several long, thin, pale-fleshed tentacles were slowly emerging from inside.
The tentacles seemed to have lives of their own; upon contact with the air, they began to uncontrollably and frantically twist and twitch, as if making a final death struggle.
Leon also saw this scene and spat out two words expressionlessly: "Disgusting."
Just then, Noah's gaze was drawn to something in the center of the crater.
In the very core of the explosion, the ground had been blown into an even deeper hole.
And at the edge of that hole, a section of a structure reinforced with heavy wooden planks, similar to a door frame, was exposed.
The explosion had actually blown open a hidden underground entrance here.
The two exchanged a look and immediately understood.
They ignored the still-twitching tentacles, slid down the crater wall, and came to the opening that had been blown open.
Noah used the butt of his gun to knock away a few precariously hanging wooden planks, and a pitch-black entrance leading underground was completely exposed before them.
Without hesitation, the two turned on their tactical flashlights and walked into the basement, one after the other.
The basement was small, the air was foul, and the walls were wet, covered with slimy moss.
The beam of the flashlight swept through the darkness; there was nothing inside except for some discarded wooden barrels and junk.
However, at the very back of the basement, against the wall, sat a large bag made of coarse burlap.
The burlap bag was bulging and tied tightly with thick hemp rope, with a complicated dead knot at the opening.
The two walked up to the bag.
Leon used his knife to carefully pick apart the binding ropes, then pulled the entire burlap bag open.
Inside the bag, a man lay curled up, quietly.
He was wearing a shirt and trousers, his hands and feet were tied behind his back, and a dirty rag was stuffed into his mouth.
He looked like a local Spaniard, with messy black hair clinging to his forehead, and his face was covered in dust and dried blood.
He seemed to have been knocked unconscious by the world-shaking explosion just now...
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