Hell's Handbook

The three bullets hit one person each. They started howling, and a foul smelling black smoke rose from their bullet wounds.

Su Jin immediately ran and slammed the young man against a wall. He punched the man in the chest, but the place where a heart ought to have been was completely empty.

“If it’s not the heart, then it’s the brain?” murmured Su Jin before raising his arm to punch the man in the head and causing it to explode. This time, the young man stopped moving altogether.

Wu Chen and Kano Mai had attacked the other two at the same time as Su Jin. They took down one each by punching their opponents hard enough for their heads to explode.

This Level D Challenge had reduced their physical strength by 60%, but the three of them had gone through some form of body strengthening before, so they were still way stronger than ordinary humans even with the reduction.

Wu Chen gave Su Jin a thumbs up. “That was amazing! You noticed something amiss so quickly!”

Su Jin glanced at Wu Chen and scratched his head awkwardly. “I… didn’t notice anything wrong with them, actually.”

“What?! Then… why did you attack them?” Wu Chen was stunned.

“Isn’t there some phrase that says something like ‘hit the branch even if you can’t tell if there are dates on it’? So, I thought I’d try hitting the branch,” said Su Jin with a shrug before squatting down to take a closer look at the man’s body.

“Try hitting the branch? What if you hit the wrong one…” Wu Chen stopped himself mid sentence. Who cared if Su Jin attacked the wrong person by mistake? These were all people who only existed in a Challenge.

He had met many owners over the years, and some of them were crazy enough to kill even the ordinary people in any Challenge they were in. While part of it was to reduce as many uncertainties as possible, part of it was also to satisfy their murderous desires. He just hoped Su Jin wouldn’t become someone like that.

Kano Mai could tell what Wu Chen was worried about, but she smiled and said, “Wu Chen, take a look at where Jin fired his shots.”

Wu Chen took a closer look and his eyes lit up. Su Jin had fired the three of them in the arm.

“White Ash has uses holy bullets, so if these guys were monsters, even a hit in the arm would give them away immediately. And even if they turned out not to be monsters, Jin could use his psychokinesis to wipe their memories out. It’s not a serious injury,” said Kano Mai.

As Su Jin continued to scan the dead bodies on the ground, he nodded and said, “Mai’s really smart. I realize the women in our team are smarter than the men. Situ’s not as smart as Bo Ya.”

“That’s not true! You’ve got an intelligent, mature man right here!” Wu Chen patted his own chest.

Su Jin sighed. “If I were alone, I could easily surpass the two ladies, since my average is higher than theirs. But thanks to you, the average among the men has gone down.”

Wu Chen glared fiercely at Su Jin and snapped, “You ungrateful youngsters! Have you already forgotten? If I hadn’t been so smart in the last Challenge, would you still be standing here, laughing and boasting?”

“Yes, yes, Wu Chen is the greatest! Wu Chen is the best!” Su Jin and Kano Mai repented immediately.

After checking all three bodies, Su Jin realized that they had become extremely soft after dying, as though they were a lump of mud. Their faces also changed. A unique human facial feature would disappear. For example, one’s nose would disappear and be replaced with a dark gray piece of skin.

“Shapeshifters?” Su Jin made a guess. Based on the information given at the start of the Challenge, these things were probably shapeshifters. They were able to turn themselves into humanlike creatures and kill humans.

“Do we just leave them here?” asked Kano Mai.

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“No, we can’t. It’s best to burn such monsters,” said Wu Chen. His expression was grim as he said, “I’ve run into similar evil creatures in an earlier Challenge before. They look like they’re dead, but they’re actually still alive. If they are left alone for a long enough time, they might actually revive.”

Su Jin nodded in agreement. They found some flammable objects in the vicinity, piled them up, and threw the three monsters as well as the dead woman onto the pile. Kano Mai summoned her Soul Whisperer. This gun of hers had multiple uses, so it was very useful in a Challenge that had limits on the number of items.

She switched the gun to fire mode and flames instantly shot out of the barrel like a flamethrower. The flames were so strong, they instantly covered all four bodies.

“Gosh, with something like that, why did we bother gathering other flammable objects?” laughed Su Jin. Soul Whisperer was a really excellent weapon to have. It could switch to several modes that could help the owner deal with most situations in a Challenge, so it was extremely useful.

But Wu Chen took a look at Soul Whisperer and said a little puzzledly, “If I’m not wrong… this gun is still incomplete?”

“Incomplete?” Su Jin was puzzled now.

Kano Mai smiled and nodded. “Wu Chen is really the most knowledgeable of us all. This gun of mine can still be upgraded and unlock more uses in the future, so yes, it’s currently at an incomplete stage.”

“You got a weapon that can be upgraded further? Wow, you’re so lucky, Mai,” said Wu Chen in amazement. He looked in awe of the sniper gun.

While they spoke, some screeching could be heard coming from the bonfire. Just like what Wu Chen had mentioned earlier, these creatures might seem dead at first, but they were actually still alive. If they had just left these shapeshifters alone, their efforts would have gone to waste.

Once they were certain that the shapeshifters had been reduced to ashes, Su Jin’s group continued their journey back to the church. When they stepped in, they saw Situ Jin and the other four newbies holding silver crosses and praying fervently in preparation for making holy water.

The priest rushed up to the trio and said, “Did you manage to get the information back?”

“We did, but… we saw someone in the slum who had strange symbols drawn all over him. He just sat in a rattan chair and didn’t move at all.” Su Jin described how they found Sherva extremely briefly to the priest.

The priest paled and nearly collapsed onto the floor as he murmured, “It’s the affliction demon. They’ve managed to make it back to this world after all.”

Su Jin raised an eyebrow at these words, and so did Kano Mai and Wu Chen. Su Jin asked, “So, it’s a demon? Too bad then. I should have killed him right there and then.”

“Exactly! You’ve missed such a good opportunity! If you had done so, you might have prevented the demon from entering the world and you could have saved this place!” The priest let out a sigh, then knelt before the statue of God and started praying. A moment later, he got up and said, “Sir, perhaps it’s not too late. For the sake of all the living creatures here, I beg you to help us. Kill the affliction demon and stop him from wreaking havoc here.”

Su Jin looked even more suspiciously at the priest now. Kano Mai and Wu Chen looked even more horrified as well. The priest looked puzzledly at Su Jin and was about to ask him what was going on when Su Jin raised his arm and shot the priest.

“Ah!” the priest yelped in pain. He asked in a confused voice, “Sir, why… why did you shoot me?”

“You’re not a priest.” Su Jin shook his head. The words that the priest said sounded righteous and logical, but they ran contrary to the clues that they had gotten when they met Sherva and the demon in him. This priest seemed more like he was trying to get Su Jin to release the demon.

The priest stared at him in a daze. “Why… why do you say that?”

“Sherva used his body to create a seal of sorts that trapped the demon inside him. If we kill Sherva, the affliction demon will be set free. And you… are now telling us to kill him, which is very strange indeed,” said Su Jin as he shook his head.

The priest looked frightened as he said, “Oh, I see… I’m sorry, but… I’m just an ordinary priest. I thought that since the demon possessed Sherva’s body, you would be able to kill the demon if you killed Sherva. My ignorance has caused a misunderstanding, please forgive me for my foolishness.”

“Oh? And when did I mention that Sherva has been possessed by the demon?” Su Jin had a cheeky smile on his face as he pointed White Ash at the priest’s head.

Kano Mai and Wu Chen also took their positions to surround the priest. Situ Jin quickly pulled the four newbies further back so that they wouldn’t get hurt if a fight broke out.

The priest froze for a moment, then wiped the frightened look off his face. This man could really act – if he hadn’t been careless with his words, Su Jin couldn’t be sure if this man was really the priest or not.

“Tsk, so in the end it’s because I slipped up?” The priest shook his head disdainfully and looked straight into Su Jin’s eyes. Su Jin looked right back and he could see that the priest’s eyes now looked like a ball filled with shattered glass that gleamed eerily.

“You’re a demon!” Su Jin remembered these eyes. The twisted half of Sherva’s face had such an eye too.

“Holy bullets, eh? You’re exorcists, alright. You’ve even got such weapons on hand.” The demon glanced at his arm. A gigantic scar had formed over the wound. The scar suddenly burst open, and a terrible stench filled the air. It turned out that after Su Jin had shot him, he had used his body to not only cover the wound, but also cover up the stench that came with the corrosive effect of the holy bullet.

“That’s right! Aren’t you surprised? Tell me who you are, or I’ll kill you right now.” Su Jin pressed White Ash against the head of the demon. If the demon moved even an inch, Su Jin was going to shoot him in the head without hesitation. He was more willing to kill this fake priest and reduce the danger they were in than to keep him alive and get more information.

But the demon merely burst out laughing. “Haha! Just like Sherva, this body is merely a tool to me. You can kill it if you want. I can always find another body to use, including yours!”

“Is that so? How about now?” A silver light flashed in Su Jin’s eyes.

The demon’s expression shifted dramatically as he exclaimed, “No! No… you can’t do this!”

“No, no, I CAN!” said Su Jin with a smirk.