I Explore Urban Legends - Chapter 125: Breaking Through the Encirclement (Patreon)

After Dylan shouted at the top of his lungs, he realized the doll hadn't reacted at all.

For a moment, things got awkward.

"Ahem!"

He cleared his throat sheepishly.

"Uh, I think I forgot how to activate it. Give me a second. Let me think."

"Oh, you poor thing. That's such a cute excuse."

Jennifer assumed Dylan was so terrified that he'd started babbling nonsense.

Watching the beautiful woman approach step by step, Dylan had absolutely no desire to flirt with her.

After all, there was a whole bunch of monsters nearby discussing how they wanted to eat him, and the woman in front of him might very well be planning to do the same.

He nervously clutched the doll against his chest.

"How about we talk first? Get to know each other a little?"

Jennifer ignored Dylan's desperate attempt to stall and charged at him with superhuman speed.

Dylan immediately squeezed his eyes shut in terror.

"Bang!"

The pain he expected never came.

Instead, a gunshot rang out from somewhere against his own body.

Confused, Dylan looked down and saw a small hole in his jacket, with a faint wisp of gunpowder smoke rising from it.

Right.

All he had to do to activate the doll was squeeze it.

Dylan almost laughed at himself. But since he'd just saved his own life, he decided to let it slide.

He looked up at Jennifer and saw that she hadn't been hurt. She had dodged the attack at the very last second.

"You brought a gun? No, that's impossible. You didn't have a gun on you. I already searched you.

"Tell me, how did you do that?"

Only after hearing Jennifer's question did Dylan realize he'd apparently been searched without even noticing.

"Of course I didn't bring a gun. But if you want to hurt me, you'd better ask my buddy first."

Dylan burst out laughing and pulled open his jacket, revealing the cowboy doll inside.

The Sheriff immediately hopped down to the floor, lowered the brim of his hat, rested one hand on his belt, and slowly walked toward Jennifer.

Jennifer stared at the tiny moving toy in front of her, unable to believe what she was seeing.

Had something this ridiculous really forced her to retreat just now?

She had already received her Master's blessing and gained power beyond that of an ordinary human, yet she'd still been frightened by this little toy.

It never occurred to her to wonder how the toy possessed such power. Anger had already taken over, robbing her of her usual judgment.

"Hiss!"

Jennifer let out a vicious snarl. Her face twisted into something ferocious as all four of her fangs were exposed.

Dylan flinched at the sight.

He was suddenly very glad he'd been faithful to his girlfriend and hadn't entertained any inappropriate thoughts about Jennifer. Otherwise, that face would probably haunt his dreams for days.

The moment Jennifer charged at the Sheriff, he instantly drew his handgun and fired several shots in quick succession with the practiced stance of a Western gunslinger.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Confident in her enhanced body, Jennifer didn't take the tiny handgun seriously and didn't even bother dodging.

"Thud!"

The bullets were far more powerful than she'd expected.

The first shot tore away half her face. The second shattered half of one hand. The third blasted a hole through her body.

The force of the shots stopped her charge cold.

Jennifer crashed to the floor, blood pouring from her wounds. The Blood Servants on either side immediately dropped down and began licking it from the ground.

Seeing that, Dylan finally relaxed.

"You monster, surrender right now!"

But Jennifer seemed much stronger than the other Blood Servants. Even after suffering such horrific injuries, she still managed to get back to her feet.

She glared furiously at Dylan, clearly wanting to tear him apart and devour him, but first she had to deal with the toy.

Jennifer kicked off the floor and sprang onto the ceiling, then began circling around the Sheriff at high speed.

The Sheriff kept aiming and firing at her, but the toy's spiritual energy was limited. It couldn't keep up with the speed of a high-level Blood Servant.

Dylan watched anxiously from the side, unable to do anything.

Then he spotted the camera lying on the floor nearby.

He immediately dove for it and crashed to the ground beside it.

Dylan quickly snatched up the camera and inspected it. The casing was badly broken, but the flash still worked.

Looking up, he saw that Jennifer was completely focused on dealing with the toy and hadn't noticed him.

Remembering what had happened when he'd flashed Jennifer earlier, Dylan instinctively pressed the shutter.

"Click!"

A burst of white light filled the hallway.

Jennifer instinctively shut her eyes.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The Sheriff seized the opening and fired several shots, blasting Jennifer's body apart.

"Woohoo!"

Dylan cheered excitedly.

He immediately jumped to his feet, scooped up the Sheriff, and raised him high above his head.

"The Sheriff is the strongest toy!"

His celebration didn't last long.

As Jennifer's ruined body dissolved into a pool of blood, a rapid buzzing sound filled the hallway.

The barred doors around them suddenly began opening one after another.

The Blood Servants inside stepped out.

"Great. We're finally free."

"Bro, I'm starving. How about sharing some of your flesh with me?"

Groups of Blood Servants began closing in around Dylan.

But Dylan showed no fear.

He confidently raised the Sheriff, and the Sheriff obliged by firing several more shots, killing the Blood Servants at the front.

Then the Sheriff went completely limp.

Dylan silently stared at the toy in his hands.

He immediately understood.

The Sheriff was probably out of power.

Time to run.

Dylan took off at full speed, forcing his way through the opening created by the Sheriff's last few shots while the surrounding Blood Servants lunged at him.

Fortunately, those Blood Servants had only recently been turned. On top of that, they'd gone without food for so long that they barely had any strength left.

The worst they could manage was biting and scratching.

Dylan shoved and fought his way through them until he finally broke free of the horde.

He was covered in bite marks and scratches, but they were all superficial wounds.

He sprinted down the hallway.

As he reached the corner by the stairs, he suddenly saw the young man from earlier standing there.

"Hello. I think we met earlier. I feel a little..."

"Screw you!"

Dylan stepped forward and punched him aside without hesitation.

He didn't dare stop to check on him.

The guy might not look dangerous, but who knew when he might suddenly go berserk?

His own life came first.

Just as Dylan was about to reach the stairs leading down to the second floor, another figure appeared ahead.

His heart sank.

Looks like I'm not getting out of here today.

But the moment he saw who it was, his face lit up.

"Mr. Liam, you're finally here! This way! Those test subjects have all gone crazy, and they've got an ordinary person trapped in here too. Hurry, come help me save him!"

Liam nodded. He already understood what was happening and immediately followed Dylan back to where the young man was.

Looking at the redness and swelling on the young man's face, Dylan said without changing expression,

"It was the safest way."

"Right. You did well."

Dylan immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The last bit of guilt he'd been feeling vanished completely.