Chapter 13 The Mysterious German

One o'clock in the afternoon, Xiao Tan and two NPCs arrived together in front of a large house in the northwest corner of the community.

The three children stopped outside the fence of this house, side by side.

"Okay...I guess we really can't find anyone else to translate this book..." Sean said to Xiao Tan.

"But...someone has to knock on the door, right?" Horace said, glancing at Xiao Tan.

"Don't worry, I'll go." Xiao Tan agreed generously. As an adult, he wouldn't fear an unfamiliar neighbor because of some stereotypes like these children.

"You need to think carefully... Wang is very scary..." Horace said with a serious look, reminding him, "He's German. Maybe he doesn't even speak English."

"Hmm..." Sean thought for a moment and added, "Should we first look up how to say 'please don't kill us' in German?"

"Bitte_toten_sie_mich_nicht." The next second, a voice came from their side, speaking the sentence in fluent German.

The three of them were stunned and turned to look in unison.

Entering their sight was... an old man wearing a red plaid shirt and a gray woolen coat.

Ten minutes later, inside the house...

"Lads, time is running out." The strange German man, holding a sharp knife, stood in front of the sofa with his back to the light, a stern expression on his face. "This is your last chance today..." As he spoke, he bent down and cut a piece of fruit pie on the coffee table, "...to taste the hot pie that I made myself."

As he spoke, he handed a cut piece of pie across the coffee table.

At this time, Xiao Tan, Horace, and Sean were already sitting side by side on the sofa. Horace took the pie from the old man with a silly grin and turned to look at the two beside him, as if saying, "I never thought we'd encounter such a good thing."

"Alright, where were we?" The strange German man finished cutting the pie and returned to his seat, putting on his reading glasses. He faced the children, picked up the book, and said, "Oh, here... The amulet itself is not large, and it is engraved with mysterious incantations..." Translating to this point, he seemed to have discovered something and immediately turned the book around, facing the page towards Xiao Tan and the others, "...This thing looks pretty strange, doesn't it?"

Xiao Tan stared intently and saw a hand-drawn stick figure on the page. The overall pattern... was two miniature dragons (shaped similar to dragons in Western mythology, rather than Eastern dragons), climbing on an oval-shaped, multicolored boulder, one on the left and one on the right, one high and one low.

Of course... if Feng Bujue were here to observe, he might see that Van Helsing used a quill rather than a fountain pen when drawing this picture and deduce that he was in a hurry from the ink stains. He might also be able to deduce the true appearance of the amulet from this poorly drawn picture. But... Brother Jue wasn't here, and no one would care about these details.

"This is the amulet?" Xiao Tan asked, looking at the pattern suspiciously.

"I think so," the strange German man replied.

"Hey, guys..." Horace lowered his voice and said excitedly to his two little partners, "The strange German man is amazing."

The old man, referred to as the strange German man, glanced at the children and said with a subtle expression, "My name is Leonardo Cimino."

"Uh... Mr. Cimino," Sean asked at this time, "Can you explain the 'equilibrium' part in detail? I didn't understand it."

"Hmm." Cimino responded, "According to this book... the forces of good and evil are constantly rising and falling, alternating with each other. And every hundred years, at a specific point in time, these two forces will reach a perfect balance." He paused for two seconds. "And the amulet we were just talking about gathers the 'power of good' and is a holy artifact for exorcising evil. Not only can it resist evil, but... it is 'indestructible'." He pointed to the page with his finger. "Here... it uses the word 'indestructible,' and there's even an underline under it."

Speaking of this, he turned a page and continued to read, "And on the 'Night of Resurrection,' which occurs once every hundred years, when the midnight bell rings, the amulet becomes particularly vulnerable. During this time, it will become 'destructible'."

"What happens if the amulet is destroyed?" Sean asked.

"Then the balance between good and evil will be broken," Cimino replied. "Evil... will become the new order of this world." He looked up at the children. "But our friend, Mr. Van Helsing, says... even on the Night of Resurrection, there is still at least one way to stop the forces of darkness..."

"What is it?" Xiao Tan quickly asked.

"If someone can get the amulet before the forces of darkness, they can open the gates of Bianyu through a ritual... a ritual that can only be performed once every hundred years," Cimino replied. "It's like a terrible vortex, a fierce tornado... that can devour the forces of evil and everything around it... thereby maintaining a century of peace."

Xiao Tan and the two Monster Club children listened intently to Cimino's narration, even Horace put down the pie in his hand.

"Does he describe the process of the ritual?" Xiao Tan quickly asked again.

"Yes, and in great detail," Cimino replied. "This 'diary' continues until the last day of his struggle with the forces of darkness. Interestingly... judging from the date, there are less than twelve hours left, which means midnight... We are exactly one hundred years away from that day."

…………

One forty in the afternoon, the suburbs.

It was unknown what structure this planet, similar to the United States in the 1980s, had. In a place not far from the city, there was actually a swamp shrouded in thick fog. Although it was only a thirty-minute drive from the city, the terrain here was comparable to a primeval forest.

"It's nearby, can you smell it?" Dracula walked through the muddy ground with his elegant, unhurried steps.

"Ah? Ah--" A werewolf wearing a tattered jacket and jeans followed Dracula, responding with a few howls that sounded like a wolf but weren't, and like an ape but weren't.

Whoosh--Whoosh--

Their conversation had just ended when they heard the sound of something being dragged nearby.

Dracula and the werewolf turned to look and saw... a mummy.

"Heh..." Dracula smiled and said nothing.

He also knew that there was nothing to say to the mummy. The corpse wasn't very good at communicating.

In any case, the mummy and the werewolf seemed to have accepted their "follower" status and naturally followed behind Dracula, who didn't mind leading them forward.

As they walked, they came to a deep, vast swamp.

"It's here," Dracula said, standing at the edge of the swamp.

Silence descended.

After a moment, the middle of the swamp began to bubble as if boiling...

Hiss--Tear--

Seconds passed, and a large rectangular wooden box emerged from the swamp surface, accompanied by a rhythmic, bizarre footstep.

Immediately afterward, a figure covered in mud also appeared.

The "person" held the box high with both hands and walked out from the bottom of the swamp all the way to the shore.

After reaching the shore, the mud on his body quickly faded, revealing his true appearance.

Overall... he was just a gillman (according to the end credits of *Yao Shou Biedongdui* (Monster Special Task Force), the monster is named gillman, which can be translated as "鳃人"sai ren) His face looked like a combination of Ben Bo'er Ba and Ba Bo'er Ben (both are minor demons in *Journey to the West*). His figure looked similar to humans, with distinct pectoral and abdominal muscles. His hands and feet had webs and claws, and his entire body was covered with crocodile-like skin.

This was another monster who was obviously intellectually challenged. After he moved the large wooden box ashore, he looked at Dracula silently, waiting for his boss's instructions.

At this moment, faint thunder rumbled in the sky above the thick fog.

Dracula once again affectionately squatted next to the large wooden box and handed his cane to the mummy standing behind him.

"I've waited too long..." Dracula slowly reached out and opened the lid of the wooden box, "...too long..."

Judging from the Count's condition, nine out of ten people would guess... his old lover was lying in the wooden box.

However, after the lid was opened, it revealed a tall and strong man.

Compared to the other three monsters, the one lying in the wooden box was considered famous - Frankenstein.

"Cane." Dracula gazed at Frankenstein for a few seconds, then turned to the mummy and said.

The mummy obeyed and immediately extended the cane, placing the head of the cane in front of Dracula.

The head of the cane was a copper bat carving, about the size of an apple, with a lifelike appearance.

Without even looking, Dracula skillfully pulled out the two "bat ears" on the head of the cane and pressed them onto Frankenstein's ears.

It was unknown who designed it... after these two parts were pulled out, they brought out two thin copper wires, and the "bat ears" themselves could be used as clips.

"Wake up... my old friend." After Dracula finished doing this, he took the cane and stood up, exclaiming excitedly, "Our time has come!"

With that, he raised the end of the cane high. After pressing a certain mechanism on the cane, a section of metal rod instantly popped out from the end of the cane, turning it into a strange, upright lightning rod...

…………

On the other hand, in the community, in the sewers.

The four-on-four battle between Hell's Frontline and Blade had moved from the ground to the underground.

It had turned from a sniper battle across the street into a surprise attack in a specific environment.

"Another trap..." After encountering the sixth small-scale directional blast, Greed Wolf's Survival Value finally dropped below 20%. Just in case, he had to drink a large dose of Survival Value supplement.

"Each one is placed in a different way..." Greed Wolf thought to himself, "Although I also know that Hell's Frontline has more than just Feng Bujue as a strategist... but to be able to do this is really admirable..."

"Hey... you've been hit six times, are you really okay?" Po Jun, who was more than ten meters behind his teammate, asked worriedly, "Otherwise, should I go in front?"

"Don't joke around," Greed Wolf replied, "If it were you, it wouldn't be a matter of being hit six times... maybe you'd already be dead six times."

"You're really blunt," Po Jun pouted, responding in an indifferent tone.

"I'm telling the truth..." Greed Wolf replied seriously, "I've been maintaining a high degree of concentration while moving forward, and with specific equipment and S-level medical specialization skills, I would have died several times already."

"Oh? Just some traps are so troublesome?" Po Jun asked strangely.

"It might be okay normally, but don't forget..." Greed Wolf replied, "...our bodies have been shrunk. Under this premise, the products of the Machinery and Summoning specializations will exert greater effectiveness." He paused. "And the most typical example of this is... explosives."

"Speaking of explosives, I have some too," Po Jun said again, "Since it's so disadvantageous to pursue, why do we have to take the initiative? We can also learn from them, laying traps and detouring along the way..."

"Then wouldn't we lose the advantage we had on the ground earlier?" Greed Wolf said, "After finally gaining a certain degree of suppression by relying on the first move, forcing them to escape underground... if we stop pursuing and let them retreat completely, wouldn't all our previous efforts be in vain?"

"Calm down..." As expected of the man who was favored by Brother Jue, in this situation, he considered the problem more rationally than Greed Wolf, the strategist. "...Maybe the other party is using this mentality to lure you to continue chasing... thereby increasing the losses..."

After being enlightened by his captain, Greed Wolf also suddenly realized, "Wait... you're right..." His expression changed slightly, "I seem to have fallen into a gambler's mentality without realizing it..."

The so-called gambler's mentality consists of many parts, and the two most typical ones are: First, winning a little doesn't count as winning; not winning more is the same as losing. Second, the more you lose, the more you have to increase the stakes so you can get back your capital.

"Right! We can't keep chasing..." At this moment, Greed Wolf's mind buzzed, and many images flashed before his eyes. He quickly said to Po Jun, "It's not that I'm so clever, but those blasting traps... are just tricks to distract us! The other party's real purpose is..."

Boom--

In that instant.

A blast interrupted his words.

A tremor disturbed their steps.

But they saw...