Chapter 613

Chapter 438: Wall-Crosser

Seeing this strange scene, the strong man was startled. However, he had little time to marvel at it. He swung his dagger and stabbed directly into Brandon’s neck. Even this fatal blow failed to bring Brandon down. Instead, a peculiar pain transmitted from the dagger to the strong man’s body, causing him to twitch slightly.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the wardrobe zombies that had missed earlier pounced on the strong man, pinning him down. This time, the strong man couldn’t escape. He was held down tightly by several zombies working together. The restrained man struggled fiercely but could not break free. Unable to touch walls or ground, he couldn’t use wall-walking or earth-digging to escape.

With the two intruders subdued, the rest became simpler. Under the zombies’ force, their mouths and noses were tightly covered, making it impossible for them to breathe smoothly. Eventually, after prolonged struggling, both men collapsed, completely immobile. Once both were still, the zombies released them, ending the brief fight.

In a distant inn room, Dorothy, sitting on the sofa, sighed in relief upon seeing the scene.

“Phew… Finally settled. Quite a few unexpected things happened… I didn’t expect them to be two wall-crossers…”

Massaging her temples, Dorothy’s originally relaxed expression turned serious. Although the ambush was successful, she wasn’t entirely satisfied. The current outcome was not what she desired.

“From their conversation, they seemed to plan to take everything back. But I didn’t expect them to strip the person before taking them.”

Dorothy pondered, originally intending to let the two men take Brandon back. However, when Brandon’s lethal scars were discovered, she knew his zombie identity might be revealed. Thus, she decisively took strong measures, pinning them down.

However, during the execution, some unexpected events occurred.

“These two wall-crossers… seem more resistant to electricity than other extraordinary beings. When I used the electrified state on the skinny guy, he didn’t lose consciousness immediately.

“On the Shining White Pearl, this amount of electricity could handle a water manipulator, but against wall-crossers, it couldn’t knock them down instantly. Is this because ‘Stone’ hardening weakens the current? Because I couldn’t knock down the skinny guy immediately, Brandon with the bl**d-Eating mark couldn’t immediately transfer support, forcing him to continue restraining, prolonging the battle.

“Another critical point is… my zombie shot two bullets at the strong man right after exiting the wardrobe. Afterward, the guy stood up as if nothing happened and walked through the wall. The bullets seemed ineffective. Aren’t wall-crossers mainly ‘Shadow’ with secondary ‘Stone’? Can apprentice-tier hardened skin resist bullets?”

Carrying these doubts, Dorothy began controlling the distant zombie to tear open the clothes of the wall-crosser she shot, checking the wound. She found the skin around the b*llet wound was cracked like a spider web, with bl**d seeping out.

She had seen this type of injury before, similar to those of the bone craftsmen from Igewent. But the problem was that those bone craftsmen were Black Earth Tier with hardened skin.

Dorothy had shot the wall-crosser thinking their apprentice-tier hardened skin wouldn’t block the bullets. Unexpectedly, not only did they block the bullets, but they also escaped. If he hadn’t returned to save his partner, giving Dorothy another chance, he would have succeeded in escaping.

In summary, the unusual hardness and resistance to electric shocks of these two wall-crossers caused Dorothy’s plan to go awry, ultimately wasting some spirituality unnecessarily.

When Brandon lost his hand, Dorothy used the ability to transfer damage, shifting Brandon’s injuries to other zombies not involved in the fight, allowing him to maintain pressure on the skinny man. However, this came at the cost of using a few more “Cup” points of spirituality, which was unnecessary but due to misjudgment of the two wall-crossers’ strength.

“In any case, it’s now certain that the watch shop sold me a landmark sigil with the intent to trap me. They marked the product to track customers, then dazed them to rob them or even kidnap them?… Would such actions be done by the White Stone Craftsmen Guild? These guys are just greedy, but why kidnap people?”

Dorothy thought, then focused on the book “Navigation of the Literary Sea” on the table beside her. During the day, she had already informed Beverly about the potential issues with the White Stone Craftsmen Guild’s base in Trua via the book. Before leaving Tivyán, she had left a contact text for her neighbor. However, there was no response for a long time.

Unlike Vania, Dorothy couldn’t leave a puppet mark on Beverly, so she couldn’t actually remind her in real-time. Therefore, she could only wait for Beverly to see and respond to her message. Since she hadn’t heard from Beverly all afternoon, Dorothy decided to set up a simple scheme to prepare for any possible situation.

The house where Brandon was located was a seaside villa outside Trua, which Dorothy had specially chosen. The owner was away, and no one lived there. After entering, she had Brandon stay there, hoping the landmark in the secret transmission would attract something. Unexpectedly, it attracted two wall-crossers.

“Unusually tough wall-crossers, an abnormal White Stone Craftsmen Guild base… Customers being targeted… It feels like we’re dealing with ‘Stone’ this time… To understand the situation, I need to contact Beverly. I wonder if she checks the books I send her every day…”

While controlling the distant zombies to clean up the battlefield, Dorothy began flipping through her “Navigation of the Literary Sea.” On the contact page for Beverly, she had written all the anomalies observed at the watch shop during the day. Now, she waited for a response.

Looking at the book, Dorothy wondered when Beverly would reply. Suddenly, new letters appeared on the blank page, resembling standard printed characters as if typed by a typewriter.

This was Beverly’s response. After waiting for a long time, Dorothy finally received it. Seeing the continuous text appearing on the white paper, she immediately read it with renewed vigor.

“Good evening, dear neighbor. I hope my reply isn’t too late. I check your messages roughly every three days. I hope you didn’t send me messages from three days ago.

“Firstly, wish you a pleasant trip in Castia. I’ve read about your experience in Trua. I’m sorry you bought non-compliant goods from our Artisan Guild. If that item was truly sold by us, you can claim substantial compensation. But I think the ones you dealt with weren’t from the Artisan Guild, but rather a group of filthy and despicable people…

“They call themselves the ‘Dark Gold Society’… From your description, our unfortunate Trua branch might have been infiltrated, consumed, and replaced by this group. They are likely using our name to harvest from the local Secret World in Trua, as they have done elsewhere.

“Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the ‘Dark Gold Society.’ You only need to remember one key point: For us, the supposedly neutral Artisan Guild, they are among the few extreme enemies. They are the so-called ‘merchants’ spread throughout the Secret World.”