Chapter 140: The Insoluble Curse (Part I)

The task allotted a total duration of twenty-four hours.

In other words, Qin Fei and the others only needed to hold out until midnight tomorrow to successfully complete the second main quest.

The situation outside was currently unknown, and that mysterious "God of Biting" had yet to make an appearance. Venturing out rashly at this moment would be exceedingly unwise.

Furthermore, the pigmen in the village had not turned into rabid pigs, so Qin Fei intended to hide out in Caesar Pig’s house for a while and assess the situation before taking further action.

Inside Caesar Pig's house, Qin Fei and Xie Nainai huddled together until the morning of the next day.

The village remained utterly peaceful.

Qin Fei cracked the door of the pig house open a sliver and peered outside.

Unlike usual, the pigmen had not emerged from their dwellings.

Though it was already early morning, no sun graced the sky. That eerie, pale white full moon still hung suspended in the heavens.

The entire world was cast in a grayish-white hue by the moonlight of this full moon.

After scouting the outside environment, Qin Fei remained inside the pig house, passing the entire day.

That "God of Biting" still did not appear.

[Survival Countdown: 22 Hours]

What Qin Fei found peculiar was that although he had not suffered any attacks from the "God of Biting," the countdown on the quest prompt was also ticking down very slowly.

Qin Fei and the others had stayed in the pig house for a whole day, yet the quest countdown had only decreased by two hours.

Calculated this way, it was slower by at least a factor of six to eight.

Could it be....

Qin Fei surmised that it was likely because he had utilized the pig house to fend off the "God of Biting."

This was equivalent to exploiting a "loophole" in the quest world to weather the crisis. Consequently, he had incurred a penalty from the system, resulting in the slowed passage of time....

However, no matter how slow it ticked, it didn't matter.

Even if time within the pig house became sluggish, as long as it kept the "God of Biting" at bay, that was enough. Twenty-four hours wasn't long; it would eventually pass.

What's more, the food and water in Qin Fei's backpack were still abundant; staying for another ten days or so would pose no problem at all.

The night passed without incident.

Soon, the morning of the third day arrived.

The so-called "God of Biting" still failed to arrive.

This caused even Qin Fei, who usually acted with utmost caution, to feel somewhat restless.

He sensed that something was slightly amiss.

This quest was a bit too simple.... Even if the pig house could evade the attacks of the "God of Biting," there ought to be some commotion outside.

Remaining perpetually this quiet instead made Qin Fei feel that something was abnormal.

He decided to go outside and take a look.

If he just stepped outside for a tiny moment, there shouldn't be any danger....

Qin Fei gathered his wits and cautiously walked out of the house.... Since the pigmen were all hiding inside their pig houses, the entire village was eerily quiet.

Yet, apart from this bizarre atmosphere, Qin Fei, standing outside, detected no other abnormalities.

......

Qin Fei felt somewhat puzzled.

Could it be that the system had made a mistake?

In reality, there was no such thing as the "God of Biting" at all....

That shouldn't be.

The information provided by the sample implant had never once been erroneous.

Moreover, judging by the behavior of those pigmen, they clearly wore the expressions of impending doom, which circumstantially proved that the disaster was undoubtedly real.

I wonder how the pigmen in the village are doing right now....

To investigate the situation, Qin Fei relied on the skill Shadow Form to slip into a nearby pig house and check the situation inside.

Those pigmen were practically all inside the houses. Furthermore, the majority of them were cowering in the corners of the rooms, trembling in terror.

The quest given by the system should be correct.

And the fear exhibited by the pigmen couldn't be faked either.

Yet Qin Fei truly hadn't encountered any danger outside.

How strange....

At this moment, Qin Fei suddenly noticed that after lingering outside the house for some time, the countdown on the quest seemed to be ticking a bit faster.

Throughout the entire previous day, the countdown had only decreased by two hours.

Yet after Qin Fei stepped outside the pig house, mere moments had passed, and the time had already decreased by one hour.

The passage of time in the outside world had returned to a roughly normal one-to-one ratio compared to the quest countdown.

[Survival Countdown: 21 Hours!]

Having confirmed that there was no danger outside, Qin Fei immediately called Xie Nainai out of the pig house. This way, the time countdown for both of their quests could progress a bit faster.

The two of them were not far from the pig house, meaning that should any sudden situation arise, they could dash back inside at a moment's notice.

"Hey? Why do my hands feel so itchy?"

Xie Nainai, who had been standing outside for only a short while, suddenly began scratching the back of her hand.

"Itchy?"

Because Qin Fei had been concentrating intently on his thoughts previously, he hadn't noticed any abnormalities in his own body.

Yet now, upon hearing Xie Nainai say this, Qin Fei—who hadn't felt itchy initially—now detected something wrong as well.

The back of his hand had also begun to itch.

Not only that, Qin Fei discovered rice grain-sized scales and tiny granule-like protrusions on the back of his hand....

These.... looked like the traits of a merman....

"Is this a curse?"

Qin Fei immediately arrived at a terrifying conclusion.

So, the plague spoken of by the pigman elder referred to a curse that turns people into mermans?

Viewed in this light, the greatest crisis of the Eternal Moon was not some unknown terrifying monster at all, but rather the curse of gradually mutating into a merman!

The impending arrival of the "God of Biting" mentioned in the quest referred to himself and the pigmen about to transform into mermans.

No wonder he had never laid eyes on the so-called "God of Biting"!

Seen this way, the so-called countdown in the quest wasn't a survival timer at all.

It was the countdown to death as he and Xie Nainai, afflicted by the curse, were about to transform into mermans!

Thus, the reason why the swamp pigmen had turned into mermans was also found.

Those pigmen were likely all transformed into mermans collectively during the previous "Eternal Moon" event.

However, after standing outside for just this brief moment, the merman scales on Qin Fei's arm had already covered half the back of his hand....

No, he couldn't continue staying outside.

Qin Fei and Xie Nainai had stayed inside the pig house for the past two days since the arrival of the Eternal Moon.

Inside the pig house, not only did the death countdown on their quest tick extremely slowly, but their bodies also showed no obvious mutations.

The pig house should be able to delay the onset of the curse!

Realizing this, Qin Fei immediately grabbed Xie Nainai and hurried back inside Caesar Pig's house.

Upon returning to the room, Qin Fei immediately noticed that the strange sensation in his body had vanished....

Judging by the passage of time, the pig house roughly slowed the manifestation of the curse by a factor of six to eight....

However, Qin Fei's heart remained filled with anxiety. If they couldn't find a way to lift the curse as soon as possible, he and Xie Nainai would ultimately still mutate into mermans.

Mutation was not death; therefore, the Doll of Substitution would be rendered completely useless.

Furthermore, this curse was practically ubiquitous and formless. Qin Fei hadn't even the slightest clue as to the source casting the curse.

This curse was simply impossible to evade.

Qin Fei began to panic.

Could it be that this quest world was entirely unwinnable?