Global Fog Survival

Colin instinctively looked at the walls of the surrounding buildings…

No rat holes…

Thinking back, he hadn’t seen anything like that along the way.

Besides, with such a large number of rats, what kind of rat hole could accommodate them?

But at that moment, a new prompt appeared.

[You still cannot understand where these rodents come from, but you realize that when you have enough information, you might trigger a quest.]

[Through the quest description, you might be able to learn more information.]

“Just like with the Land of the Withered Olives, if you meet certain conditions, the system can directly issue quests…”

“But, meeting certain conditions and the system issuing quests, is this a ‘dungeon’ feature?”

Colin remembered that there was no such situation outside. Apart from the two later quests, the system only had a daily quest for black bread.

To get new quests, you could only rely on “Twisted Souls,” then luckily accept a quest, and then encounter a lord-level mutant—

Then it was game over.

Not doing trigger quests was a warning learned through many lives lost; countless people had died for this knowledge. Fortunately, this knowledge had spread with the rise of discussions, and people gave up the idea of doing quests.

At this moment, the chat channel had undergone a significant change thanks to Colin’s two instances of “selfless dedication.”

Negative emotions had greatly decreased, and people were encouraging each other more in their desperate circumstances…

Without thinking too much, Colin left the collapsed house, carrying the lantern, and continued with the group, digging through the last wills for historical information and trying to trigger system quests.

Although he had little interest in doing quests, he was very interested in what had happened here.

After all, this concerned whether they could avoid these deadly dangers.

“The system’s quest descriptions are incomplete, but with hints, I can piece together the quest content…”

Colin thought as he walked—not too quickly, because they would need to find a place to rest around here for the night.

It would take several hours to reach the foot of the mountain from here, and the gray fog’s nightfall was approaching soon.

It was uncertain what might happen in the underground area during the night, so they needed to camp and observe first.

At this moment, they entered another house. After a quick look around, Colin found a “last will” written in charcoal.

“…My poor little lambs have turned to white bones. Such a pity. I wish I could see them once more before I die. But if possible, it would be better to have goats. Goats are more tender and taste much better than lambs. I really want to have one more…?”

Colin exited the single-story house with a strange look on his face.

He thought that the neighbor’s wife-obsessed “Boss Cao” was weird enough, but this was even weirder…

At this moment, Li Chou, trying to change the topic awkwardly, said, “The people of this era seem backward, but their literacy rate is quite high. Almost every household has someone who can write. Is this also a miracle?”

His expression was also a bit peculiar. He too had the system, so he could barely understand what the words meant.

Except, unlike Colin, he didn’t have hints to correct him, making reading less smooth, but he could generally understand.

Of course, it wasn’t just them; the servants also had the system’s translation function, allowing them to roughly understand different civilizations’ texts.

But their “translation optimization” was worse than Colin’s group.

If Colin’s text had a bit of refinement…

Then what they saw, perhaps due to the cost-saving in computing, was much simpler and cruder: “My sheep are gone, but I prefer goats over sheep.”

Standing beside Colin, Shana no longer read these wills. She couldn’t extract any useful information from them…

Besides, many of the final messages were too filthy.

…

As they continued, exploring over a dozen houses, Colin felt he had gathered enough information.

But something was still missing—just a crucial piece to trigger the quest.

It felt like he was stuck at 99% completion, only one step away, but it would not move.

However, as they continued, Colin saw the largest building in this town.

A church.

A Gothic-style church with thorny patterns, gray-white walls, and only one floor.

Compared to the suffering church outside, this one was slightly smaller, with simpler wall patterns.

But something had happened, causing a third of this church to collapse.

[After observing, you find that although this church cannot compare to the Suffering Church outside, it seems to be older than the one outside.]

[Perhaps its age dates back further than the ‘Era of Suffering.’]

“Older than the ‘Era of Suffering’?”

Colin was surprised. He noticed that unlike the outside church, this one didn’t have many human reliefs on the walls, no bowed heads with iron balls hanging from their necks, no one prostrating…

None of that.

It only had pure thorny patterns, with no “suffering” acts…

What does this imply?

For someone unfamiliar with the church, they might call this the “Thorny Church.”

But as Colin was about to observe further, Number One reminded him:

“Lord, look over there…”

Colin followed Number One’s direction and narrowed his eyes.

In the collapsed part of this Gothic church, he saw the dried-out corpse of a large beast.

Its dry brown fur covered its bones, lying in the shadows, not easy to spot at first glance.

It was lying there, about one and a half meters tall.

Fortunately, after observing for a while, Colin found this creature was also dead, lying motionless in the ruins of the church’s right side.

[Upon examining the skeleton, you find it somewhat twisted, but comparing it to some animal skeletons in your memory, you realize it’s fundamentally a rat.]

“What kind of rat grows this big, bigger than an elephant…”

Colin’s eyelid twitched. Though it was hard to believe, it did look like a rat.

A giant rat.

However, the more he looked, the more familiar it seemed, as if he had seen this creature before…

This doubt didn’t last long. With the help of a hint, he suddenly realized—

This rat was killed by the priest!

At that moment, the cold system voice echoed in Colin’s mind.

The long-stalled quest finally appeared!