Silent Crown

Chapter 111 Nightmare Attack

Sam Luo stood expressionless before the corpse. He tossed the bow to his bodyguard Sandro, then took out a handkerchief and blew his nose forcefully. He tossed the dirty handkerchief on the corpse and turned to leave.

After two steps, however, Sam Luo suddenly grabbed the bow from Sandro and rushed back, aiming at the corpse. He pulled back frantically, "F*ck, they, f*ck…"

Twang! Twang! Twang! Twang!

As everyone held their breath, he emptied a quiver of arrows. Furious, he slammed the quiver onto the ground and yanked on Sandro’s collar. Dragging the man to his face, he roared, "Dig another ditch and get those *sses who saw the demon! I want to see them in the ditch tomorrow night, understand? Otherwise I want to see you all in there…"

Seeing his stormy expression, Sandro gulped and nodded stiffly.

Light laughter traveled with the wind. It had come from behind Sam Luo.

"Who is it?!" the Pyramid King spun around, staring at the dancing darkness behind the withered tree. "Who’s there? Get the f*ck out!" he roared in anger, glaring at the vague shadow. As the shadow laughed, Sam motioned for his men to investigate.

Sandro gulped and shook his head, "Boss, there’s nothing there."

"No f*cking way!" The Pyramid King raised his bow, and under everyone’s confused eyes, emptied another quiver at the tree in the shadows. In the end, the dancing darkness finally shattered, and everything looked how it should.

Panting, he threw down the bow. He grabbed a torch and marched over, but there was nobody there. There was only a shattered tombstone. The Pyramid King looked at the tombstone in shock. Putting the torch closer, the flame illuminated the name on the tombstone, as well as his deathly pale face.

Beside him, Sandro yelped and stumbled back as if he had seen a ghost.

--

The words on the tombstone were menacing under the flame’s light, "Here lies Sam Luo." There were also a few lines of an epitaph below it:

"Buried here is a traitor, someone blind with greed, a rat."

"Anta? Anta’s back!" Suddenly remembering something, Sandro became pale. "Boss, Anta’s back! He came back to…"

"Shut up. Anta is dead." Sam looked at him emotionlessly. Seeing those dead eyes, Sandro trailed off. Anta’s name was definitely familiar to the senior members of the Pyramid Scheme. When the group was first created, it was not called the Pyramid Scheme. Sam was not born as the leader either. At that time, it was called the Brother Gang. Anta was the leader, and everyone respected him, uniting under him.

Anta had fled from Romulus. He had werewolf blood in him, and no one in downtown could win against this man marked by demons. He did not say much and was never greedy. He would share his profits with those who called themselves his brother and felt that he had a family like this. Sam was part of his ‘family.’

Anta had protected this bankrupt merchant. Treating him like a brother, Anta pulled him out of his quagmire of debt. Sam considered Anta as his brother too. The man had treated him so well and never asked for anything in return. Even his own father could not compare.

But then Sam no longer wanted to be Anta’s brother anymore. Anta was an obstacle, the elites told him. And then Anta died. He died in an alley, shot to death by his own brothers’ arrows. Until he died, he had never used his inhuman strength and skill that had given him his status in downtown, winning him the respect of his brothers.

Anta had been surrounded by those he thought was his family, humiliatingly turned into a porcupine, but he did not die then. Instead, he growled furiously like a true werewolf.

"Aren’t we brothers?" Anta finally asked Sam, who had planned it all. "We’re family. Why did you do this to me?"

"We are family." A little upset, Sam used a dagger to dig out Anta’s heart, "Can’t you sacrifice a little for family?" And so Anta gave up his heart for his family’s success.

"I will not forgive you," Anta had said. Then he died, his eyes wide open.

Later, Sam buried Anta to placate the others, or maybe to placate himself. But Anta’s tomb had been dug up. Some said that homeless men dug up his tomb to steal the burial items. Others said that it was opened from the inside. Everyone who had been there would describe to others how there were countless scratches on the coffin. There was blood and flesh all around. They all formed the same name over and over again:

"Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam…"

"I will not forgive you," the murmur suddenly sounded in his ears again. Sam spun around, blood drained from his face. But there was not a decaying corpse staring at him in the deathly pale moonlight. There was nothing there except for the new members of the Pyramid Scheme. They watched Sam in shock, whispering amongst themselves, unable to hide their fear.

"Anta? It really is Anta!" Staring into the darkness, scared out of his wits, Sandro stumbled back. "You’re back?! How can you…"

Crack!

"Calm down, Sandro." The Pyramid King’s slap forced Sandro back to reality. Gazing around, he narrowed his hateful eyes, "Someone is messing with us."

"Boss, I-I heard his voice."

"That is Phantom Voice. Musicians love using it to mess with people." Sam Luo forced a cold laugh, repressing the fear in his heart. He had interacted with those legendary figures in all his years living in downtown. Those legendary figures would come do dirty work for money too.

The Pyramid King had hired some before, and had even killed some. No matter how powerful a low-level musician was, he was still a man, and would die when he had lost enough blood.

"He must be close if he wants to affect us, but there’s nowhere to hide here" he murmured. His hawk eyes locked on his underlings, "He’s hiding within you!"

The group instantly grew restless. They studied each other in shock. None of them had expected a demon to be hiding amongst them.

"Everyone here looks familiar," Sandro said. "There can’t be a musician."

Growing sure of this thought, Sam spat out, "For a musician, changing a face is easier than changing his pants!" With his command, the men behind him raised their bows, aiming at the crowd. Stunned, the thugs began yelling. Some gripped the handles of their swords.

"Sam, what are you doing?!" someone yelled. "We’re here to make a living. How can you do this to us?"

"No one is allowed to move!" Sam stared coldly at them, "There is a traitor amongst you! No one is allowed to move until we find him! Otherwise, I will be dragging you all to the grave with me. Don’t blame me for being heartless!"

In the crowd, Bai Xi stepped back subconsciously. She had started to regret being here. She was here because she worried about Ye Qingxuan, but now he was going to get her killed! But what had just happened made her suspicious. Could her gentle and kind cousin really be the one who had fooled all of those thugs? Or was there someone else? Someone even more dangerous…

She looked around instinctively, observing every terrified face. But there was no trace of Ye Qingxuan. Suddenly, she thought of something. Seeing the surging darkness outside of the area illuminated by torches, she finally knew where Ye Qingxuan was hiding. "That *ss…" she thought.

At the same time, a vague melody sounded. As if the hate sleeping in the cemetery had finally awoken, the melody resounded in each person’s ears. The melody, containing countless feelings of franticness, turned into a black river, flowing into their hearts. And so the deepest and most painful memories in their hearts were awoken, bringing with it ineffable terror.

"Monster! There’s a monster!" Bai Xi yelled in a deep voice, helping Ye Qingxuan create panic. "Run, the Pyramid King wants to kill us!"

With that, some men could no longer take the strange tension and ran, but the Pyramid King’s men coldly raised their bows. The arrows whistled through the air, and a giant hole was made in the back of the running figures. The rune Explosion had been carved onto the arrow! Within a few moments, the writhing body on the ground stopped moving. Black blood flowed from the wound, dying the broken tiles on the path, seeping into the dirt.

"Sam has started already! He wants to kill us all…" Bai Xi yelled in another voice after changing her location. "Get rid of him! He’s crazy…"

The crowd rustled. Anger flashed through everyone’s eyes as they instinctively grasped their weapons, but they were met with a row of raised bows.

"I said no one is allowed to move!" Sam roared. His eyes darted around, searching for the source of the melody. "Get the f*ck out! You motherf*cker, I know you’re here!" But the sharp melody continued to echo like swords scraping against each other. It wailed with inexplicable frustration and depression, as if a vengeful ghost had climbed out of its coffin.

"I said that I will come," the dark melody echoed in the dark and decaying cemetery. A deep voice sounded. It was polite like a gentleman, but filled with mockery. "Thank you for preparing such an unusual welcoming ceremony. To return the gift, I want to bring you the greeting from…an old friend." With that, the dark melody grew in intensity, rushing into Sam’s ears like a tidal wave. The chilling sound was like furious roaring, like a demon singing in hell.

Every note slammed into the weakest part of his heart. Every melody dug at his unspeakable past. The dark melody resounded in his consciousness, unearthing the nightmares entangled in his memories. The Pyramid King saw fresh blood flow from the ground. Before him, the corpse that he had just shot opened its eyes. The soulless eyes ignited with fury. It was raw hate.

The corpse’s face gradually changed, becoming rough and wild, like a werewolf. His body was filled with arrows. He had been turned into a porcupine, but he refused to die. He stared at the Pyramid King, the man who had once been his brother, "Sam, Sam, Sam…"

The Pyramid King suddenly remembered the moment before the man had died. Lying in blood, Anta had stared deeply into him and murmured as if he were cursing him, "I will not forgive you, Sam!" It truly was…a lifelong nightmare!

"It really is you…" The Pyramid King stumbled back. Unable to accept the reality, his face turned ghastly white, "You’re dead! You should be dead!"