Even though obscured by layers of tree shadows, making it difficult to see clearly,

those light spots are distributed very systematically, orderly yet staggered, all fixed in place, obviously originating from house lights.

"I remember reading in the newspaper that Fate Carving Village was destroyed by an earthquake and landslide in Showa 54, right?"

Wang Congshan lowered her voice and said, "What’s going on here?"

Li Ang took a few steps forward, carefully discerning the lights, and said softly, "There are three possibilities.

One, Fate Carving Village was rebuilt after the disaster and has now regained vitality.

Two, we’ve fallen into an independent time-space similar to Silent Hill, where the timeline and reality are chaotic, hence we see Fate Carving Village before the destruction. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The first possibility is quite low because according to the newspaper, the surface buildings were destroyed, and all villagers disappeared.

Even if Japan Islands were extremely responsible and allocated funds to rebuild the village, they couldn’t find villagers to live there.

More likely, the village was outright abandoned and removed from the map.

In comparison, the second possibility seems more reliable—though more troublesome for us."

"...Tch"

Wang Congshan clicked her tongue, "And the third possibility?"

Li Ang turned around to look at her and calmly said, "The characters we’re playing are already dead, this is the Underworld.

The bad thing is we’ll see lots of underworld stuff coming up,

but the good thing is we don’t have to worry about dying again."

"In the Underworld, my foot."

Wang Congshan rolled her eyes, "If we were ghosts, we wouldn’t be able to see our own shadows and shouldn’t have heartbeats or anything."

"Hmm... you’re right."

Li Ang nodded, suddenly moved a few steps to the left, raised his arms high in the moonlight, with thumbs crossed and palms fluttering,

making the shape of a dove.

"Huh?"

Wang Congshan was startled, thinking Li Ang was about to perform the second set of broadcast gymnastics for elementary and middle school students, Eagle Taking Off,

only reacting after a few seconds,

Li Ang was casting shadow puppets under the moonlight.

In a short time, he had already made several animal shapes, trying to replicate the zodiac signs.

"Alright, there really are shadows."

Li Ang made a few movements, lowered his arms, nodded, and looked back toward the direction of the lights.

The two stood observing for two or three minutes, during which the lights of the houses in the village showed no signs of turning off or on,

and when nothing was happening,

with their path behind cut off, the two had no choice but to continue forward along the winding trail.

Along the way, a considerable number of Jizo stone statues placed on stone platforms could be seen.

Twin Jizo, mother and child Jizo were all there, some statues wearing worn-out red hats and scarves, with pinwheels and other decorations stuck beside them.

After passing these Jizo stone statues, the path down the mountain suddenly became much steeper, muddy and slippery, with the slightest carelessness leading to a fall.

However, this posed no real issue for the two with fairly good balancing abilities,

Li Ang and Wang Congshan silently walked down the mountain road, stepping on a simple gravel path, arriving at an open area at the side of the village.

[Stage one mission objective "Proceed to Fate Carving Village" has been completed]

[Stage two mission objective: Enter Hiratsuka Family Residence]

The system prompt sounded in their ears,

Li Ang, holding the Heart Monkey Staff, scanned the village scene with no emotional fluctuation.

Fate Carving Village forms a right-angle trapezoid, facing south, the entire village is spread out at the foot of a slope of a certain gradient,

the terrain at the main entrance of the village is lower, while the residential terrain is higher,

the higher the position of the residence, the more upscale it appears—the residential style is not unified, with both traditional wooden-stone structures and relatively modern concrete buildings.

The path they took is located on the east side of the village,

that path is too narrow and should be used by villagers going to chop firewood or to farmland, not the main road leading outside the village.

The actual main road is situated at the village entrance on the south,

under the light from the village houses, one can see it is a relatively wide cement road,

at the boundary where the road and the village entrance meet, two stones, one tall and one short, are placed, with some moss growing on them, and a rope wrapped around the middle of the stone.

It should also be Japan Islands’ traditional Taoist Ancestor God Stone Statue, placed at the village entrance, symbolizing the protection of the village against evil spirit pandemics,

the rope wrapped around the stone, known as Shimenawa, is a symbol of barrier—Shimenawa usually made from straw-like stems, also known as marking rope, 753 rope, a Shinto tool used for purity,

sometimes, white zigzag Gohei are hung on the Shimenawa as well, symbolizing super-purity multiplied.

Due to the distance, Li Ang could not see the specific shape of those two Taoist Ancestor God stones clearly,

his attention was mainly focused on the houses of Fate Carving Village.

"These houses appear relatively old from the surface, but show no signs of destruction or reconstruction."

Li Ang observed and said, "If it were post-disaster reconstruction, the house styles should be unified and closer together to save on costs."

"Hmm."

Wang Congshan gently nodded, taking a deep breath.

Like the forest outside, the village was silent, with no noise, including bug buzzes or birds calling,

the whole village seemed like a shadow painted into a picture, terrifyingly desolate.

"Heh,"

noticing her slight nervousness, Li Ang chuckled, "Don’t worry, I’ve seen a lot, this can only be considered a small scene.

If the system arranged a bunch of Japanese grandpas and grandmas holding banners with [Warm Welcome to Players Visiting Japan] as we entered the village,

I might actually feel a bit scared."

"Tsk, you?"

Wang Congshan retorted with narrowed eyes, "Anyone who spent any time with you knows what kind of character you have,

like a rat crossing the street, how could everyone not shout to beat you."

As someone who knows Li Ang best, Wang Congshan obviously knows how unloved and unwanted Li Ang was by cats and dogs as a child, disliked by people and even ghosts,

even when the school organized activities to visit elderly homes, the head teacher would go out of their way to exclude Li Ang,

to prevent causing a major incident while visiting the elderly.

"Ah, whatever."

Li Ang waved his hand, not caring about Wang Congshan’s teasing, casually saying, "The current task objective is to enter Hiratsuka Family Residence, we need to find where that house is first.

Tsk, this time there’s no time limit for the task, completion rewards or failure penalties given.

Meaning if we delay casually, it’ll trigger some bad consequences.

Let’s start searching quickly."

"Hmm."

Wang Congshan nodded, thanks to the banter, her tense mood eased quite a bit,

the two made brief plans, then entered the village, starting to observe the name plates at each house entrance.