When Lin Jie unearthed the ominous pages filled with dire information from Karl's dust-sealed relics, darkness had already enveloped the sky outside the window.
The last golden afterglow on the distant Alpine snow peaks was consud by the night, leaving behind only jagged silhouettes.
The town of Oberamrgau, which had seed like a fairy-tale wonderland during the day, shed its warm disguise after nightfall, revealing the bone-chilling eeriness and strangeness at its core.
Lin Jie stood quietly in the studio filled with old mories, letting the night wind carrying the chill of the snowy mountains brush against his flushed cheeks.
The "Limb Collector" was a Town-class UMA that used Oberamrgau as its hunting ground.
The great "Cartographer," Karl, had discovered its existence decades ago and had likely engaged in so unknown confrontation with it.
That patchwork-monster-like painting and that enigmatic "stolen toy" were probably related to it.
That evening in the hotel's dining room, the Iron Triangle team reconvened with Professor Schmidt.
Lin Jie unreservedly told them about his encounter at the cetery in the afternoon and the shocking discovery in Karl's old house.
When the page bearing the words "Limb Collector" was spread flat on the dining table, even seasoned hunters like Julian and William, accustod to the bizarre events of the inner world, couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines.
The color drained from Professor Schmidt's face, turning it deathly pale.
"So that's how it is... so that's how it is..." the old professor muttered repeatedly, his eyes filled with imnse terror and sudden understanding.
"No wonder... no wonder that child Max suddenly shifted his doctoral thesis research direction from 'Classical Philosophy' to such an obscure field as 'Individual Limbs and Self-Identity'... No wonder he ultimately chose that thod... He must have discovered sothing too."
"It seems our previous speculations were all wrong," Julian's voice beca exceptionally grave as he looked out at the night, "The root of this town's xenophobia and strangeness isn't so abstract 'collective secret,' but stems from a living, breathing entity."
"And those missing travelers," William continued, "likely all beca 'collectibles' for the so-called 'Limb Collector.'"
Lin Jie and Julian imdiately looked at William with inquiring gazes.
William retrieved an encrypted telegram he had just received and personally decoded from the inner pocket of his hunting jacket.
"I wasn't idle this afternoon either. While the town's official archives were purged, they couldn't alter external records. So, I used the telegraph service to send a 'Background Intelligence Verification' request to the London Intelligence Departnt."
"My request was simple," he pushed the telegraph paper to the center of the table, "I asked Barton's team of 'intelligence analysts,' skilled in calculations, to imdiately retrieve and cross-reference all 'missing persons' cases officially recorded over the past twenty years within the British Empire, the French Republic, and the German Empire."
"And to filter out all cases where the last known location pointed to the 'Alpine region of southern Bavaria.'"
"And London has just sent back their preliminary verification results."
Lin Jie and Julian leaned in and saw the telegraph paper listing many cold nas and dates, each representing the end of a life.
"1872, Charles Hampton, mber of the Royal Geographical Society, disappeared after coming here for 'glacial geology exploration.' Official conclusion: Caught in an avalanche, body unrecovered."
"1879, Isabelle Dupont, French painter, disappeared after coming here for 'alpine landscape sketching.' Official conclusion: Attacked by wild beasts, body not found."
"1883, Albrecht Koch, German entomologist, disappeared after entering the Black Forest in pursuit of a rare alpine beetle. Official conclusion: Lost in the forest, died of exposure and starvation."
"..."
The entire list detailed seventeen missing persons over the twenty-year period, with the disappearance locations all geographically highly coinciding with Oberamrgau.
And these were only the officially recorded missing persons from the three major nations. As for the vagrants, rcenaries, and marginalized individuals without identity or background, the actual number of disappearances was likely even more staggering.
"Barton added a final line in the telegram," William's voice was heavy, "He said that over the past half-century, the 'abnormal population disappearance rate' for the Oberamrgau region is at least seven tis higher than that of London's most chaotic White Church District during the height of 'Jack the Ripper's' reign."
"It's just that because this place is remote, and the missing people are mostly rootless outsiders. So these deaths, cleverly disguised as various 'accidents,' have never been truly connected and investigated by any official agency."
For a mont, the atmosphere in the dining room beca oppressively heavy.
They were like lambs who had wandered into a slaughterhouse, only now slling the thick scent of blood hidden beneath the aroma of fine food.
Halfway through dinner, a polite yet enthusiastic knock suddenly sounded from outside the door of their private booth.
Then the plump face of the hotel owner peeked in, followed by several townsfolk representatives dressed in traditional Bavarian attire, who seed like the town's "leading figures."
At the head was the town mayor, also the president of the local, most renowned woodcarvers' guild association, Mr. Hermann Vogel.
He was a tall, middle-aged man with a thick, bushy beard.
He wore a magnificent traditional coat adorned with deerskin and embroidery, appearing to possess the straightforwardness and simplicity of a Bavarian mountain folk.
But his eyes seed overly "standardized," like the puppets he carved himself, lacking the genuine, vibrant spirit belonging to a real human.
What made Lin Jie's heart clench most was seeing the exquisitely polished raven brooch pinned to the chest of the mayor's splendid deerskin coat.
The raven's design possessed a Gothic, eerie beauty, its eyes inlaid with tiny rubies that shimred with a disquieting glint under the flickering candlelight of the dining room.
This pattern bore a startling resemblance to the UMA sketch codenad "Corpse Snatcher" in Lin Jie's mory of Karl's diary.
"Good evening, esteed guests!" Mayor Vogel's voice was booming, not perceiving the oppressive atmosphere in the room.
"Please forgive our abrupt intrusion. We rely heard that several distinguished scholars from the University of Munich are staying at our establishnt and specifically ca to extend the warst welco from our entire town of Oberamrgau."
As he spoke, he unceremoniously led the townsfolk representatives behind him inside.
Each of them carried bountiful "welco gifts": sizzling German sausages, fresh beer drawn from oak barrels still foaming white, and pretzel bread filled with the aroma of butter, made by the town's best baker.
A passive welco banquet full of "goodwill" and "enthusiasm" thus began.
The entire banquet process was utterly bizarre.
The faces of those townsfolk representatives all wore stiff smiles identical to their mayor's.
They strenuously promoted the town's "safety" and "piety" to the four n.
"...Rest assured, gentlen, in our Oberamrgau you will enjoy the most peaceful and safest holiday in all of Bavaria," a portly police officer assured them, thumping his chest.
"We don't lock our doors at night here, and lost items are returned, because we all bask in God's grace. Sin cannot take root in this blessed land."
"Yes! God's grace!" a tall, thin man who looked like a pastor imdiately chid in, "Especially our town's Passion Play, perford only once every ten years! That is no ordinary play, gentlen! It is the sacred vow our entire town made to thank God for saving us from that terrible Black Death plague three hundred years ago!"
"Every performance is a direct conversation with God! A purification of the soul!"
They repeatedly emphasized "safety," "piety," and "God's grace." This excessive enthusiasm and strenuous justification itself carried the implication of protesting too much.
It was like a group of real estate agents desperately trying to sell you a "haunted house," constantly assuring you the house was "absolutely not haunted."
Julian, the Curator skilled at finding flaws in verbal exchanges, finally seized an opportunity.
He raised his glass and, with an air of academic curiosity, asked the mayor, "Mr. Vogel, I have great respect for your town's long history, but I am also more interested in the older Germanic and Celtic folk legends that have been passed down for thousands of years, long before the Christian faith reached this valley. For example, those legends about the forest god 'Wotan,' or those about forest spirits that collect limbs..."
He deliberately, without batting an eyelid, dropped the clue of the "Limb Collector."
The mont his words left his mouth, the enthusiastic atmosphere at the entire dining table instantly froze solid.
The standardized smiles on Mayor Vogel's face and the faces of all the townsfolk representatives behind him vanished without a trace.
Their eyes beca as hollow and numb as the ticulously carved puppets in their hands.
A full half-minute passed before Mayor Vogel managed to squeeze out a stiff smile uglier than crying. He awkwardly raised his glass and changed the subject.
"Ahaha... Professor, you certainly have a sense of humor. Those are all pagan dross long abandoned by civilized society. Our Oberamrgau is a civilized town of devout faith in God. Co, co, let us toast to God's grace!"
This bizarre and probing "welco banquet" finally ended hastily in an awkward atmosphere.
After the townsfolk left, none of the four in the room spoke.
But each of them had clearly reached the sa conclusion.
From top to bottom, from the mayor to every ordinary townsfolk, this town had a problem.
They were all collectively guarding the terrifying secret of the "Limb Collector."
That night, after returning to his room, Lin Jie couldn't sleep for a long ti.
His mind raced at high speed.
He connected all of today's clues—the disabled boy's fear, Karl's patchwork-monster painting, the information on the association's page, the mayor's raven brooch, and the townsfolk's bizarre, "collectively hypnotized" reaction—trying to find a breach that could be exploited.
Right at that mont, a faint, woodpecker-like "tap tap" sound suddenly ca from the tightly closed wooden window of his room.
Lin Jie's body imdiately shifted into a state of alert.
He silently drew [Serene Heart] from under his pillow, rolled off the bed in one fluid motion, and pressed himself against the wall beside the window.
"Tap tap..."
The tapping sound on the window ca again, very faint and hesitant.
Lin Jie took a deep breath, then swiftly pulled open the wooden window, simultaneously aiming the gun in his hand outside.
However, there was no one outside, only a few withered leaves swept up by the night wind swirling past the windowsill.
The courtyard below, constructed from moonlight and shadows, was as quiet as a tomb.
But Lin Jie's gaze was drawn to sothing on the windowsill.
It was a small, crumpled-up piece of paper, seemingly cheap paper torn from so exercise book.
It was placed in the most conspicuous spot on the windowsill.
Lin Jie cautiously used the gun barrel to nudge the paper ball over, then slowly unfolded it.
There were no complex sentences or codes on the note.
Under the moonlight, there was only one word written in a child's trembling, childish pencil handwriting.
"Run!"
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