The Highest Bounty - Chapter 163

Chapter 163: Liliath’s Dream

Inside a dark house, Lilliath felt her clothes drenched to the skin. She looked around in a daze. A French window not too far away from her was half-open. A cool breeze came sweeping in and blew on her wet clothes, making her shudder.

It was raining heavily outside the French window, and the wind was howling. Lilliath could vaguely see tree branches shaking in the distance. Being blown by the wind, rain poured into the house. Every once in awhile, thunder roared outside, accompanied by flashes of lightning that illuminated the room.

Lilliath wrapped her clothes around her tightly, pulled up the French window, and locked it.

With the help of several flashes of lightning that gave the room light, Lilliath managed to determine the position of the power switch in the room. She walked up to it and pressed a button that had an unknown purpose, figuring that there should be at least one light switch on the switch panel.

Lilliath pressed all four buttons on the switch panel several times. Nevertheless, the lights did not turn on, nor did anything else respond.

Then, Lilliath vaguely heard a strange noise coming from outside the door.

She crept as quietly as she could to the door, pressed the door handle gently, and cracked the door open. Through the crack, she saw a corridor. In that same corridor, a huge insect could be seen heading toward the room she was in with its eight long legs.

Quickly, Lilliath locked the door. She covered her mouth with one hand and backed away, trying not to make a sound. Her legs were trembling. This time, it was not because of the cold but because of her fear.

The eight-legged insect was a spider she feared and hated ever since her childhood. She was traumatized back then when she was bitten and nearly poisoned to death by the creature when she was very young.

The spider outside was huge and stood nearly three meters high. It had terrifying spikes on all its eight feet, and sharp teeth could be seen protruding out of its mouth. Strangely, its eyes had evolved as it had twelve instead of eight on its back. It was a bit like the mutant beasts Gu Ding had encountered on Coela. One could say that it was a fusion of her two most unpleasant experiences.

Not long after, the sound of knocking was heard from outside the door. Then, in just one hit, the sharp spines on one of the spider’s legs made a hole in the wooden door. Next came the second and the third…

Lilliath began to back away but suddenly lost her footing. She happened to stumble over a stool on the floor, and her eyes fell right under the bed.

There was a flash of lightning and Lilliath saw a little girl lying underneath the bed. She put her hands over her mouth and began to sob softly.

The little girl had fiery red hair and looked around five to six years old. Lilliath recalled being bitten by a spider at around the same age.

Perhaps it was because of the sight of the little girl, but Lilliath’s fear subsided a little. She walked toward the bed and lifted its sagging sheets. Then, she crouched down and held out her hand to the little girl. “Come out. I’ll take you with me. It’ll find you if you hide here.”

The little girl hesitated for a while. Nevertheless, she wiped her tears before nodding and crawled out from under the bed. She was holding a fluffy white teddy bear in her arms.

Lilliath felt that the toy looked oddly familiar, but she did not delve too much into it. Lilliath rubbed the little girl’s head. “Tell big sister, what’s your name?”

“My name is Lili.” The little girl’s nervousness seemed to abate a little.

“What a coincidence? My name is Lili too.” Lilliath looked at the door. The lower part of the door had basically been destroyed. Nevertheless, with the spider’s size–it could not squeeze in. On the other hand, it did not look like the door would last any longer either.

Lilliath took the little girl’s hand and walked toward the French window. After pushing open the French window, a cold wind blew in from the outside. The rain was still pouring, but Lilliath could not care less about it. When they stepped onto the balcony, Lilliath looked down, she wanted to know how high the room was from the ground. Looking down, she was despaired by the possibility of them escaping. The place was at least two or three hundred meters away from the ground.

“Big sister, there’s a tunnel in the closet,” Lili said as she pointed toward the closet in the room.

Lilliath was not in the mood to think about why there was a tunnel in the closet. She tugged at Lili, rushed toward the closet, and opened it. The closet had a lot of premium clothes–both men’s and women’s. The room was probably occupied by a couple.

Pushing the clothes aside, Lilliath saw a tunnel. She picked Lili up and carried her inside. After stepping into the tunnel, Lilliath closed the closet behind her and moved the clothes back into place before she began to lead Lili down the tunnel.

Both of them continued to walk for a long time. Just when Lilliath was beginning to wonder whether the tunnel would ever end, she saw a fork in front of her. The tunnel split into two different directions–one on the left and one on the right.

Lilliath activated her pupillary power but still could not see the difference between the two tunnels. Hence, she turned to Lili. “Lili, do you know where these two tunnels lead to?”

Lili shook her head. “I only knew there was a tunnel here. I never came in because it was too dark.”

Liliath was rendered speechless. Normally, she was not an indecisive person. However, she was now running for her life–it was important to make the right decision. After a moment’s hesitation, she averted her eyes to her left. “Lili, let’s take the left one, shall we?”

“Okay.” Lili nodded, raising no objections.

Having received Lili’s reply, Lilliath’s confidence rose slightly. “Let’s just go left. If it doesn’t work, we’ll just come back here.”

Having chosen the left tunnel, the two continued down it. They had not walked too far before they were met with a door. Lilliath’s grip on Lili’s hand tightened a little, and she motioned Lili to remain quiet. Lili covered her mouth with the teddy bear’s head and walked heel-first like Lilliath, trying to make as little noise as possible.

Liliath opened the door gently to reveal a crack and peered through it.

Behind the door was another room. It was quiet and seemed secure.

Taking Lili by the hand, Lilliath led her into the room. The room was a study that was very large. Bookshelves that were more than three meters high were affixed to the walls–the top of the bookshelves was close to touching the ceiling. The bookshelves were filled with a large variety of paper books.

There was a wooden mahogany desk in the middle of the room. Items made up of pure wood were quite expensive. Even ordinary people could not afford to buy paper, let alone items made of pure wood like desks.

Everything on the desk was organized in a neat and orderly manner. The owner of the study was clearly someone strict with themselves. There was also a frame on the desk, but in the darkness, Lilliath could only see a couple and a little girl in it. She could not see their faces clearly and did not bother trying too hard.

Behind the desk was a swivel chair made of black leather. Its legs were made of metal–it reflected a light metallic sheen in the darkness.

“Where are your parents?” Liliath finally took the time to ask.

“At work…” Lili did not seem very happy when she said it.

Scurrying toward the desk, Lilliath began rummaging through the cupboards and drawers for any weapons she could use.

She searched through the drawers that were on her left one by one. Nevertheless, the drawers were filled with only disks and things for work.

Lilliath did not leave any drawers closed except one that would not open.

Finding a metal card, she carefully slid it through the drawer’s lock and opened it.

“Big sister, are you a thief?” Lili asked.

“I’m not a thief. I’m just looking for a weapon to protect us.” Without looking up, Liliath rummaged through the last drawer but found nothing.

“Is this all right?” Lili handed her a silver handgun.

“Where did you get this?” Lilliath took the pistol.

“I took it from my mom’s purse when we were in the closet,” Lili replied.

Liliath looked at the magazine. It was fully loaded. The pistol had a capacity of twenty bullets. As soon as Lilliath got hold of the handgun, her gear instantly vanished, and she was ready to take the initiative and attack.

She would never have felt that way if she had not met Gu Ding; she learned from him that one had a bigger chance of winning by being proactive rather than being passive.

“Follow me. Don’t get lost,” Lilliath whispered to Lili.

Lili nodded.

Lilliath opened the door and looked around. The spider monster was gone, but she could see the room where she and Lili had hidden in earlier. It was less than twenty meters away from their current room. Lilliath remembered very clearly how the door had been damaged, and she could see her position clearly through the crack in the door.

Lilliath knew that the spider had not gone too far. Right at that moment, mucus dripped from the ceiling not far in front of Lilliath. Instantly, Lilliath reacted and raised her gun, pulling the trigger. The spider that had been hiding on the ceiling with its body bent low, was instantly shot in the eye by Lilliath.

Stimulated by pain, it frantically rushed toward Lilliath. Nevertheless, Liliath was fearless at this point. She landed her shots repeatedly on the spider’s eye socket that had been burst by her earlier. Five shots in rapid succession. Just as the spider’s serrated teeth were about to clamp onto her neck, the huge monster’s body collapsed.

The ground was covered in green blood.

“It’s over…” When Liliath turned to look back at Lili, she found that the little girl had disappeared. “Lili?!”

Then, when she turned to look around once more, she noticed that her surroundings had changed completely…