As the light of the Miracle Imprint shone bright, a burst of vigorous drum beats emerged from within. Soon after, a vast Laser Ball rose slowly from the light, reflecting a dazzling array of colorful brilliance.
It illuminated the figures of sixteen big-bearded dwarves wearing only tight leather pants.
Bare-chested, as if they had oiled their bodies, they glinted with an eerie light.
The muscular, stocky Abyss dwarves began to jump around to the rousing music, singing in unison, "Hey, young men..."
Huai Shi closed his eyes in despair.
Out of respect for Orchard Gym, he didn't immediately press the repatriation button. Instead, after fumbling in his pocket for a long time, he pulled out a gun.
He raised the gun, pulling back the hammer.
He closed his eyes and fired randomly.
Whatever number he could kill, he would kill.
After emptying an entire magazine, amidst the booming sounds, the group of dwarves who already looked like they deserved to be shot on the spot were huddled together, shivering.
The sight made him even more eager to fire a few more shots.
HUFF...
In the silence, Beelzebub, who had long been idle, couldn't help but groan with pleasure, "Thank you, brother, I'm good now."
"You're not allowed to be good!"
Huai Shi was furious. He was tempted to purify this piece of junk and the bunch in front of him—to put them out of their misery together.
"Where did you guys come from!"
He glared at the group of bizarre dwarves, realizing that several of them looked familiar, though he couldn't quite place where he had seen them before. "What on earth are you trying to do?!"
Among them, a muscular dwarf who had been leading the dance, shivering behind a thin veil, timidly held up a sign—In crucial times, how could there be no song?
[The Abyss Choir is at your service.]
"Unbelievable! It's you guys again!"
"We-we came to apply for a position!"
The dwarves huddled together, shivering. With the gun that had started to emit a sort of lethal threat pointed at them, they were nearly scared to tears and hurriedly held up the Hell Music Association's letter of recommendation.
"Mr. Paganini referred us here!" the lead dwarf shrieked. "He also said you would definitely like this program... told us to cater to your preferences..."
Cater to my preferences, my ass!
Does the Hell Music Association have some kind of misunderstanding about me?
Huai Shi stared at the crowd of muscular, oil-covered dwarves before him, a headache coming on.
"Could you please not join in on this chaos?" Huai Shi covered his face, waving his hand. "I freaking just wanted to recruit a bunch of Pokémon, why do you have to do this to me?"
BEEP!
He pressed the repatriation button.
With a glimmer of hope, Huai Shi looked up.
Next one.
But this time, the light shone for an unnervingly long time—nothing emerged from it, only the faint, continuous sound of tearing paper.
Like the fear that echoes through the spine at midnight.
It was hair-raising.
Soon, the light vanished, but nothing appeared.
Only dozens of torn and shredded red paper scraps fell out, as if some sort of ticket had been torn apart, brimming with the aura of Curses and rage.
It seemed like someone was cursing softly.
Immediately after, a jarring alarm sounded, and the defense mechanisms of the Ivory Tower activated instantaneously. A blaze of intense light flashed by and then returned to silence.
The air still carried a faint scent of blood.
Only about a dozen vague footprints remained on the ground, evidence of what had just happened.
In the quiet, Huai Shi gasped.
Inside the stifling interior of the Summon Dragon Flute, he was so frightened his hands and feet turned cold. Is there any hope for this world?
He knew exactly what had happened.
Just now, some indescribably weird entity from Hell had set its sights on him. If not for the protection of the Miracle Imprint of the Summon Dragon Flute, he feared he might have already died a horrible death.
No, death was probably the easy part. There were many gruesome cases in the library of those who desperately wanted to die but couldn't. How could he not be afraid?
This incident served as a rude awakening for Huai Shi.
He regained the wariness he should have had.
Even with the Summon Dragon Flute to assist, he had to face all sorts of peculiar things from Hell. Even archaeological teams sometimes capsized in the gutter.
At times like these, one couldn't be too careful.
He sighed from the bottom of his heart. Reliability is what matters most.