Abominable blood-red clouds filled the sky, and blood rain poured down and soaked the dark dead trees and the earth, forming blood-like veins, without a trace of life.
Everything is dead silent.
The blood rain fell silently.
"Huh...huh...huh..."
At a certain moment, a faint sound of breathing and chaotic footsteps could be heard from a low hill in the swamp.
The sound of footsteps quickly became clear, and then suddenly, a figure rushed out from the deep hole of the low hill and fell down.
Oliver fell into the mud mixed with blood rain, the matchbox fell out of his hand, and the two matches fell out and hit the mud.
"Huchi...ha..."
Oliver turned around, panting heavily, his wide eyes filled with fear, staring at the secret passage leading to his escape.
In the dark and lightless passage, some kind of dark and evil existence that makes people want to escape at all costs dissipates unwillingly.
Oliver maintained this position for a long time, until his breathing stabilized and he was sure that nothing would suddenly burst out of the dark passage.
Snap——
Oliver lost all his strength, and his upper body fell back into the mud.
The soft ground like slugs, the rotten smell in the air caused by soaked mud, and the dead woods with twisted tree roots, all tell the story of where Oliver is at this moment.
This is Shadow Swamp.
It is rumored that the place where the locals talk about it is the place where the six-legged monsters, shadowmen, and more monsters that are ravaging Shadow Town originate from here.
Wanting to escape danger, Oliver broke into the monsters' lair.
This is a good thing... This is a good thing... I can go to the Swamp Road and get away from Shadow Town from there. Oliver, you have to calm down, you have to get back to Jojo alive...
Oliver convinced himself not to give up, propped up his trembling legs, and climbed up from the soft and disgusting mud.
Shaking off the mud stuck to his hands, he picked up the two scattered matches and put them back into the matchbox. Oliver looked up at the sky.
This place is still shrouded in blood-colored clouds. Oliver doesn't know how wide it is, but one thing he is sure of is that the place shrouded in blood-colored clouds is unsafe.
"North... on the right..."
Oliver confirmed the direction and stumbled towards the swamp road through the swamp mud of different shades.
The cold mud slowly took away Oliver's body temperature and physical strength. Oliver had to do his best every time he pulled out his foot that was stuck in the mud.
He suddenly understood why the six-legged monster crawled instead of walking standing up.
Even more terrifying than these are the mire blisters that are no different from the mud. They can be seen everywhere, disguised, and engulf you the moment you step into them.
The branches Oliver picked up had brought him back from the brink of death several times, preventing him from turning into fertilizer in the Shadow Swamp.
But branches alone are not enough. Some swamps are hideous and hidden in the mud. There is no difference when you step into them, but they will continue to swallow you downwards. When you wake up, it will be difficult to escape.
Oliver could only go around the seemingly empty and flat space and walk close to the exposed roots of the dead trees.
It takes him several minutes to cover a distance of one hundred meters.
To make matters worse, after half an hour of walking, Oliver realized that he had strayed off course.
According to the speed of travel, he should have seen the long and straight road that divided the north and south swamps and connected the interior to the Allen Peninsula in a few minutes.
But apart from the shadowy dead trees, there was only dead silence and an unsettling sense of peeping.
There seemed to be something peering at me in the darkness.
Oliver had no time to pay attention to this. Just rushing on the road had exhausted all his energy and attention.
He felt tired.
Lady Luck opened her eyes to Oliver.
Ten minutes later, when Oliver was about to collapse due to the sense of separation and voyeurism, the outline of a distant house appeared in his eyes.
The houses were different from the buildings Oliver had seen before. They were built on standing logs, like tree houses, far away from the ground. Suspension bridges composed of vines and wood connected the houses. In the darkness, where only the outlines were visible, the vines looked like
There are snakes and ropes hanging everywhere in every house.
Oliver knew it, and everyone who passed the Marsh Road knew him.
The abandoned village of Shadow Swamp is located on the roadside of the swamp.
Seeing it means that Oliver is very close to the swamp road.
A power called hope emerged from his depleted body. Oliver panted and approached the wooden house village.
But Oliver is deliberately avoiding there. There are many bad rumors about the abandoned village, such as ghosts and six-legged monsters.
An abandoned, uninhabited village is more frightening than an empty plain.
The goddess of hope closed her eyes again.
The earth began to tremble, as if the distant beating of a heart from ancient times slowly sounded deep in the earth.
Oliver knew what it was.
He sat down among the roots of a tree and tried his best to hide himself against the trunk.
The roar from nowhere echoed over the Shadow Swamp. There were monsters, which also meant that the Shadow Swamp was full of danger.
Rustling——
Suddenly something seemed to pass by in the distance, and whispers came from all around.
Oliver gradually felt uneasy. The execution he was hiding in now was not considered hidden...
Looking towards the peaceful abandoned village with no sound coming from the distance.
Is it safe there?
Oliver gritted his teeth, stood up from the roots of the tree, and staggered into the abandoned village.
Dead silence permeated the houses. The ladders connecting the wooden houses might have been rotten, and Oliver had no time to carefully search for their locations.
The doorless darkness faced Oliver, and the uneasy feeling of being watched resurfaced.
Oliver's breathing was trembling, maybe because of fear, maybe because of exhaustion, maybe because of the pounding of the heartbeat underground.
He climbed up to the wooden house in the center of the abandoned village, which looked the largest and strongest.
The shoes had long been swallowed up by the swamp on the road, and the soles of the feet stepped on the damp and cool wooden boards, making a sour squeaking sound.
There were no strange noises, the cabin didn't collapse, and things didn't get worse.
Oliver huddled on the edge of the door frame, where he could not be swallowed up by the darkness and his body would not be exposed.
He waited quietly, and after a few minutes, the slow beating sound of his heart, as if he was pinching it, fell silent, and Oliver's heart seemed to come to life, beating violently.
"Who will save me..."
With his back against the cold wall of the wooden house, Oliver murmured in despair. Unwilling tears fell, but they could not wash away the layer of mud on his face.
He wanted to be resentful, but he didn't know what to resent.
Oliver didn't even know why all this happened, but at least he didn't die in despair like the townspeople who also didn't know what happened.
"what do I do--"
Oliver's sobs and murmurs suddenly stopped.
He tilted his head slightly and listened outside.
The sound of wet treading water came from the swamp below the abandoned village.