Old Mand, having just drunk a bowl of meat stew, came over and smiled at the miserable-looking WhiteStockingsLover.
WhiteStockingsLover, however, wasn't smiling. After finding out what Old Mand had been stewing, WhiteStockingsLover felt his stomach churning.
But man, it smelled good.
It smelled really good!
Old Mand: "Didn't Mayor Ronin tell you never to trust those mutated freaks?"
"Never said a word," WhiteStockingsLover mumbled, puffing out his cheeks, afraid he was going to puke.
What a great game. Why did they always have to put in this messed up stuff?
He was fuming. He definitely didn't want to provoke Old Mand and his crew and get hacked to pieces.
Right now, he just wanted to wait for his people to arrive and watch these bastards get slaughtered.
He needed to stall for time.
He could also set up "wards" to supervise them in real-time.
"Tell me everything about Prey Town." Seeing how obedient WhiteStockingsLover was, Old Mand decided he could skip the heavy torture. He liked enemies who were pushovers the best.
Less of a hassle.
"Prey Town, huh..." WhiteStockingsLover opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
At the same time, he was thinking: "Could this be some kind of special quest chain, but I came here by accident, causing me to skip some key story beats?"
It seemed he needed to find this so-called Prey Town first, and then let the story there guide him back here so the plot could progress.
That was his plan, but Old Mand clearly wasn't going to let him leave, much less go to Prey Town to complete the prerequisite quests.
"People in Prey Town...lots of them. Everyone's living...great lives," WhiteStockingsLover said dryly. "Yeah, great."
He didn't even know what kind of place it was.
"Looks like I underestimated you," Old Mand said, shaking his head. "How could anyone who's survived in this era be a pushover?"
He unlocked the cage and prepared the torture.
"Whoa, what's this, chopping fingers?" WhiteStockingsLover asked curiously as he was dragged out and his hand was forced onto the table.
Seeing his nonchalant expression, Old Mand smirked and pulled a dagger from his boot sheath.
The sharp dagger pressed against WhiteStockingsLover's pinky finger, easily drawing a red line.
Blood welled up.
A pool of blood began to form on the table.
"Tsss," WhiteStockingsLover hissed, taking a breath. He had already blocked the pain, so he didn't feel it at all.
But watching his finger be sliced open like that, with blood gushing out, he still felt phantom pain.
Seeing WhiteStockingsLover's grimace, Old Mand gave a satisfied smile.
If he was scared, that made things easier.
A person only has 10 fingers, but a man gets 11 chances! He had ways to make WhiteStockingsLover scared, and get him to cooperate and answer his questions.
The dagger lifted slightly, then came down with force.
Crack, the pinky finger was severed.
"Holy sh*t!" WhiteStockingsLover yelled.
"Hahaha!" Old Mand laughed heartily.
The others were similar, enjoying the panic on WhiteStockingsLover's face and... a smile?
Wait, a smile!
"That's kinda neat, ngl," WhiteStockingsLover said curiously, looking at his severed finger. It was the first time he'd ever had a finger chopped off.
He had seen torture in movies before and tried to imagine himself in those situations... then realized that even phantom pain was too much for him. Just the thought of a bamboo skewer under his fingernail...
Tsss—
But now, WhiteStockingsLover faced torture with a smile. Seeing the shock on his enemies' faces, he felt a strange sense of validation.
So, this was what it felt like to endure torment and suffering to protect your principles.
He didn't feel the pain, but he felt that willingness to sacrifice everything to protect a secret he had to keep, that "though thousands oppose me, still I go" feeling.
He was getting a little emotional, tears welling up.
There was just one problem: his heroic effort had nothing to do with Prey Town, and he wasn't refusing to reveal Prey Town's secrets; he genuinely didn't know them.
Oh well, might as well keep looking cool.
"This is interesting. Let's see how long you can take it!" Old Mand pointed the dagger at WhiteStockingsLover's ring finger.
Down it came, the finger severed!
"Whoa," WhiteStockingsLover said, without changing expression.
Old Mand stared at the extremely ugly, grotesque face under the green hair, trying to find fear and pain, but he was disappointed.
Aside from a brief moment of surprise at the beginning, the other guy's eyes were filled with nothing but curiosity.
It was like he couldn't feel any pain, and the arm wasn't even attached to his body, but to someone else's.
Old Mand gritted his teeth. "Take his pants off!"
"Whoa, what are you gonna do?!" WhiteStockingsLover suddenly panicked.
Chopping off fingers didn't work, so now they were going after his junk, huh?
You colorblind bastard. (referring to lack of seeing purple)
The more he struggled, the happier these colorblind bastards became.
"Old Mand!"
"What? You're good at taking women's pants off. What, you can't do it with a guy?"
"That's not it, this ugly dude's underwear won't come off."
"What?"
Old Mand stared at the white briefs that seemed to be growing directly out of his skin, and fell silent.
This was definitely some kind of magic, but why would anyone use magic to make their underwear grow onto their body? How would they go to the bathroom, relieve themselves...?
He looked at WhiteStockingsLover with pity.
WhiteStockingsLover snapped. "Hey! What's with that look? And who are you calling ugly? Does this handsome face of mine look anything like 'ugly' to you?!"
Getting his fingers chopped off, the threat to his junk, none of that had bothered WhiteStockingsLover as much as this.
"Let's try something else," Old Mand said. He was at a loss for what to do with this stubborn, weird guy.
Killing him was out of the question. They were following Lady Celine's orders: they had to find out about Prey Town, and a living prisoner was much more useful.
It would be best to solve the problem without bloodshed. After all, this wasn't just Lady Celine's order, but also another Lord's goal for territorial expansion.
Torture, haha laughter.
More torture, still haha laughter.
By the time his right hand was completely mangled, WhiteStockingsLover still hadn't revealed any useful information.
"I admit, I underestimated you," Old Mand said, exhausted, and stuck the dagger into the table at random.
Looking at WhiteStockingsLover's unchanging expression, it was the first time he had ever seen such a tough person.
There were those who weren't afraid of death, but was there really someone who wasn't afraid of torture?
"Kill him," Old Mand said, waving his hand dismissively.
Better to just kill him and eat the meat than waste time.
"Wait!" Hearing that he was going to be killed, WhiteStockingsLover panicked.
He was a hostage, and a "ward," all rolled into one. If he died, what would happen to those Undead who hadn't arrived yet? How was he supposed to secure the final credit and... steal kills?
"Oh?" Old Mand's smile returned.
Fear was a good sign. It meant he was willing to cooperate.
"I~"
WhiteStockingsLover dragged out his words.
"I~"
"Can~"
"Tell~"
"You~"
"What~"
"I~"
"Know~"
Drawing out each word, panting for breath after each syllable, if Old Mand and his crew couldn't tell that WhiteStockingsLover was stalling, they hadn't survived this long in the apocalypse for nothing.
"You're wasting time. You think someone's coming to save you?" Old Mand scoffed. "Even your Prey Town guards, without the protection of their walls, would only find death here."
He and his people had already lost everything, and now they were sacrificing everything, including their souls, to survive.
The people around Old Mand weren't his subordinates, but they were all wanderers, all hoping to pledge allegiance to Lady Celine, and...all had eaten the mutated freaks, those Blood Lambs.
Sacrifice something, and you will gain something.
As long as they could survive, any sacrifice was worth it.
Unexpectedly, WhiteStockingsLover nodded in agreement.
All he wanted was to stall for time. It didn't matter what they talked about, he was here to talk.
Someone had already contacted WhiteStockingsLover, including the "Black Tortoise Shield," "Moon Slayer Blade," and "Dragon Scale Sword" trio he used to play games with.
They had arrived!
Facing the garrulous Old Mand, who looked like he was holding all the cards, WhiteStockingsLover could only think:
"I see dead people!"