Step Back! Master is Here! - Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Walls?

After a long period of exposure to the elements, the words on the bus information board had worn off. The only thing that one could make out was that the terminal was a place called X Village.

K’s gaze shifted away from the board toward Tang Luo. “Monk, what do you think?”

As the only two veterans here, to K, the monk was the only person with whom he could discuss how they ought to go about completing the mission.

When the time came, perhaps they could help each other out.

As for the other newbies, it would do as long as they didn’t hold them back.

K didn’t pin any hope on them.

“Let’s wait for a while.”

Tang Luo looked at the sky.

Due to the rain, the skies were gloomy and overcast, preventing them from determining the time of the day when they were transported here.

If the day was still young, then it was likely that a public bus would arrive if they waited there.

This was the safest and most reliable way to make their way to the terminal.

However, the timing for the last bus of the day in the case of buses whose routes obviously headed toward the city suburbs was usually 17:30.

Once they missed the last bus, they, who almost had no inkling of what the mission entailed, would not be able to get to the terminal so easily.

The mission was to head to the terminal and stay there for a night.

This mission was clearly separated into two parts.

If they couldn’t even find the terminal, the mission would fail for sure.

Should they manage to find it but were unable to stay there for a night, the mission would similarly fail too.

The option of “I’ll let the pros complete the mission instead while I try to get by” didn’t even exist.

They either completed or failed it. There were only two possible outcomes.

“Wait?”

K’s brows furrowed slightly. Such a Buddha-style attitude clearly wasn’t his style.

If the public bus had already left, then waiting here would just be a waste of time.

He looked at the houses that could vaguely be seen at the end of the path to the side.

“I intend to go over there and ask around. I’ll see if there’s anyone around and ask about,” said K. He didn’t ask for the opinions of the others. Putting the hood of his jacket over his head, he walked right into the rain.

He was wearing an outdoor jacket, the fully waterproof kind, on the outermost. The rain didn’t bother him at all.

The others, however, had no way around it.

The moment they stepped out, they would be drenched to the skin.

Mico, in particular, was constantly rubbing her arms. It was evident that she was freezing.

The temperature there was lower than what it was in the real world.

Auntie Shufen very kindly took off her apron and gave it to Mico. Although it couldn’t keep her warm, it could more or less provide some cover.

“If a young girl like you wears such little clothing, everyone would see everything,” said Auntie Shufen.

Mico laughed in embarrassment.

Her words seemed to end up annoying Lin Zi-ang, who couldn’t help speaking up. “Pfft, those that are squeezed out are fake. What’s there to look at?”

Mico’s embarrassed expression became even more obvious. She even shrank back a little.

“What’s that way of talking, young fellow! Who was it that couldn’t take his eyes off her earlier!?” Auntie Shufen glared at him.

“You—”

“What’s there to ‘you’ about? Are you looking for a fight?”

“I—”

“Oh my, so you really are looking for a fight. Youngsters these days—”

Although that was what she said, Auntie Shufen was all ready for action instead. She was already close to lifting the broom in her hands.

Obviously, the ‘fight’ she was referring to was in no way verbal sparring where a gentleman used his tongue and not his fists.

“What a crazy woman!” Lin Zi-ang swore and stepped away to the side.

To put in some extra information here, Auntie Shufen was just a little shorter than the average female westerner.

The female referred to here was the kind that had already gone past their shelf life by 20 years. Her arms were thick and muscular and were almost half of Lin Zi-ang’s.

Should they really get into a fight, Lin Zi-ang wouldn’t be her match.

“Amitabha!” Tang Luo chanted and prevented things from getting worse. “This monk intends to go over to the houses for a look.”

K had already vanished into the rain. It was unknown whether or not he had reached the area where the houses were.

Even though the skies weren’t terribly dark due to the rain, the visibility was actually very low.

Tang Luo got onto his feet and put on the white hood behind him.

This particular set of clothing he was wearing came with a hood. It was usually left down, but when the need arose, he could put it on for protection against the elements. If he pulled it down a little, it could even hide a good half of his face at night.

“Master, do bless me before you go,” said Auntie Shufen.

“Sure.”

Tang Luo pressed his palms together and chanted a few sutra lines, which none of them understood.

“That’s it?”

Auntie Shufen moved and stretched her limbs.

Tang Luo nodded. Without saying anything else, he walked into the rain and toward the houses.

If the eyes of the remaining three were sharp enough, they would realize that the rainwater pitter-pattering on Tang Luo didn’t wet his clothes at all.

They dripped down his clothes, leaving no traces of moisture behind.

When K reached the two houses, he lifted his head and sized up the two houses sitting side by side.

Cement walls formed the exterior. There were no outer wall decorations such as tiles and so forth on them. The small door was old and worn down. Next to it was a sliding window with an anti-theft grille on the outside.

K looked through the window, only to see pitch-black darkness and a bit of his own reflection.

Rust covered the spots where the screws on the anti-theft grille were. One could tell that the grille was already quite old.

K reached out and banged on the door. He shouted, “Is anyone there?”

He wasn’t very sure if these two neighboring houses were occupied.

On a rainy and gloomy day like this, the visibility both indoors and outdoors was very low. If there were people in the house, the lights should have been switched on. Furthermore, there were only these two lone houses along the path.

As expected, even after banging twice on the door, there was no reaction whatsoever from inside the house.

K threw a hard punch at the door and then kicked it.

If there wasn’t anyone there, he would leave.

Unexpectedly, the kick broke the door off the hinges, causing it to fall. It crashed heavily onto the floor in the house, causing huge clouds of dust to fly everywhere.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

K accidentally inhaled a large mouthful of dust and coughed while he retreated.

“There’s no one here.” K took a look inside the house.

He managed to make out with some difficulty that it was bare and empty inside the house. There were only a few pieces of old and broken furniture inside.

Apart from dust, what filled the house the most was cobwebs.

K stepped out of the house and repeated what he had done earlier, kicking open the other house’s door.

Like the previous house, this house was also empty and void of human presence. It looked slightly cleaner than the first house.

At least, there wasn’t as much dust that flew into the air. After the lesson from earlier, K didn’t inhale as much dust this time.

K thought for a moment. Then, he walked into the house.

He didn’t go up to the second floor thoughtlessly but only went around on the first floor.

The people who lived here had moved out very thoroughly.

After a quick look around, K didn’t make any new discoveries.

He strode out, intending to leave.

Except that just as he stepped out of the door and walked toward the outside, his footsteps suddenly paused.

A look of confusion gradually appeared on his face.

“Wasn’t I walking out?”

K’s eyes widened. What laid in front of his eyes was the dark room. Behind him was the door which he had just stepped out of.

K spun around and looked behind him.

The door which he had kicked to the side was still on the floor. Half of it laid in the light outside while the other half was hidden in darkness.

Light streamed into the dark house. It actually felt vaguely like a light beam.

Particles of dust could be seen floating about in the light. They were practically as though microorganisms that were moving about.

This was clearly a situation that only occurred when there was strong and bright sunlight, yet it strangely appeared during this gloomy rainy day.

K felt his heartbeat pounding faster and faster.

What started to speed up along with his heartbeat were his actions as well.

Facing the back now, he pushed off the floor forcefully like a runner taking off during a sprint and charged out of the door.

He charged into an expanse of darkness.

K had no choice but to stop in his tracks. His toes were pressed against the tips of his shoes and hurt a little.

Once again, he had reentered the house.

“Ghost walls[1]?”

K looked around at his surroundings warily. He was already prepared to launch his skill.

Excluding this mission, K had gone through a total of three missions with two successful and one failed. Thus, he had two skills.

Was he supposed to use them here?

But in a situation like ghost walls, it didn’t seem like either of his skills would be suitable. Neither did it seem like they would resolve the situation easily.

Never mind, there was no time to waste. One must be prompt and decisive when in danger.

K ran toward the door again.

This time, when he got near, he lowered his speed drastically and paused where he was. One foot rested on the floor outside the door while the other remained inside.

“It didn’t…”

Only when he determined that he was facing the correct direction did K’s foot, which was inside, push off forcefully from the floor. His entire self dived toward the outside.

Unlike the sensation of stepping on the ground, the texture of the surface he was stepping on was that of wood.

He looked down to see that his right foot was stepping on wooden flooring.

Once again, he was back in the room.

K didn’t even know how he had entered the room. He clearly didn’t even blink a single time and stayed in the same position, not moving an inch.

K listened quietly. There was no sound in the house at all.

There was only the sound of his breathing and his heartbeat, as well as the pitter-patter of the rain coming from outside.

He began to step backward bit by bit. When he reached the doorway, he continued to retreat.

Upon seeing that he had finally stepped out of the house for real, K was overjoyed. He spun around.

“…”

The look of joy froze on his face. A door entered his sight.

Light shone from outside into the room through the door. It was a lot dimmer and darker than when he had first come in.

K sucked in a deep breath. He felt like even breathing had become difficult now.

Something seemed to be sticking to his nose and mouth and covering them. At the same time, it covered his eyes too.

First, it was ghost walls, and now, even his face was being covered by ghosts?

“Get out here!”

“Why don’t you get out here!?” yelled K, his voice echoing within the house and covering the sound of the rain outside.

K bent over, hoisted the door slab, and started waving it about as if he was battling an invisible enemy. Then, he slammed the door slab viciously at the window.

The window, which had black paper stuck all over it on the inside, shattered. The door slab hit against the anti-theft grille and let out a deafening boom.

K charged toward the doorway once more. Then, he felt as if his entire face had slammed onto the wall.

Pain and an aching numbness came over him while tears and snot flowed uncontrollably. His eyes that were closed couldn’t see what was in front of him at all.

Reaching out instinctively, he grabbed hold of something which seemed like the door frame and pulled hard, propelling himself outside.

Raindrops landed on him. Joy filled K’s heart.

Not daring to open his eyes, he continued to charge ahead with his head lowered.

‘So the ghost walls could be broken just by closing one’s eyes?’

Then, his head seemed to hit against something. From the feel of it, it seemed like a hand?

‘Someone’ was pressing against his head?

Without any hesitation, K lifted his arm and launched his skill, Cutting Gale!

A brilliant pale blue light appeared in his palm, forming a razor-sharp arc of strong wind. It went slicing towards the person blocking the way.

The other arm of the person in front waved outward, the back of his hand slapping against the pale blue wind blade.

It dispersed the wind blade directly as if it was breaking up seafoam.

K opened his eyes as well at this point.

“It’s you?”

He was dazed for a moment. The person in front of him wasn’t the ghost he had imagined but a human.

It was the monk who called himself Xuanzang.

“It is exactly this monk. Benefactor’s styling is quite unique,” replied Tang Luo as he loosened his hold.

There were some cobwebs washed away by the rain, on the hand pressing against K’s head.

K touched his head. It was only then that he realized that his head and face were covered in a huge bunch of cobwebs.

“Cough, cough, cough.”

K started coughing loudly, his face flushing red.

[1] A phenomenon where people in open fields find themselves walking in a direction yet circling back to where they started after a long while as if a ghost had built a wall that kept them from walking straight