Everyone continued reading.

"The Reindeer God had hoped to rely on the worship of the Forest People to maintain its God Status and autonomous consciousness. Sadly, despite their rapid reproduction and expanding population, the Forest People's worship was not enough to sustain the Reindeer God's existence.

As the Reindeer God gradually lost its God Status, it fell into a comatose slumber. After its silence, the Forest People also vanished, digging out dense underground tunnels on Roanoke Island and settling within them.

The lifespan of the Forest People was not long. Those who aged and died would actively crawl to the surface and bury themselves in the land, where trees would grow in their place—these are the black, twisted pine trees surrounding the mansion.

The Mysterious Scholar, William, unearthed this piece of history. In an attempt to steal the Reindeer God's Divine Power, he chopped down the trees that the Forest People had become. He used this timber, together with other occult materials, to build the Williams Mansion.

He failed. As he cut down the trees, part of the Reindeer God had already merged into the mansion itself. The Ritual of Divinity Deprivation went wrong, and William died.

Years later, we, the Lesley family, took over this mansion.

We are a Secret Wizard Family, inheriting the Titan Giant's bloodline, and naturally possess powerful supernatural abilities. However, this bloodline power would eventually become a curse: all members of the Lesley family would undergo full-body Petrification in middle age, becoming living dead trapped in stone carcasses.

As the Titan lying deep beneath the sea slowly awoke, the bloodline's call grew stronger, and we had no choice but to flee to the New World to avoid the summons of bloodline assimilation."

Li Ang narrowed his eyes. Using his peripheral vision, he sharply noticed Stonemason's and Forest Cat's eyebrows twitch slightly as they read this part—they were clearly having an emotional reaction.

"After discovering Williams Mansion and his notes, we bought the estate. We used our knowledge of the occult to try to perfect the Ritual track, using the Reindeer God's Divine Power to resolve the bloodline issue.

The Ritual track... was successful. We began to draw Divine Power continuously, alleviating the Petrification Curse. But during the Ritual track, part of the Reindeer God also revived.

It lay hidden within the mansion, becoming part of it, and killed my husband. Its Divine Power infused into our family's bloodline. Even fleeing Roanoke Island would incur backlash.

We kept rebuilding the mansion, trying to wear it down.

Unfortunately, the Reindeer God's God Status was too high, beyond expectation. Family members were constantly murdered. The Petrification Curse befell me. Before losing my sanity, I had my grandchildren turn me into a specimen to continue leading the family as its head.

I had them set up Magic Circles to block the Forest People from nearing the mansion, and had some of the younger family members escape Roanoke Island to avoid being scrutinized by the Reindeer God.

The remaining members, who had entered the bloodline awakening period, stayed within the mansion to continue the struggle.

In the end, we failed. The Reindeer God devoured all family members inside the mansion, attempting to use us as material for its revival.

I am trapped here, uncertain how much longer I can maintain my sanity..."

The small print under the wooden table had become somewhat chaotic and blurry, hard to decipher, like the messy notes of an extremely drowsy student in class.

"My descendants, you must have been summoned by the inescapable bloodline curse on a full moon night to this island.

I do not know how much strength you have, nor how far the Reindeer God's revival ritual has progressed...

Take my head with you. I hope you can break the Ritual track, save the Lesley family, and also save yourself."

The content that followed was a large area of messy scratches, the handwriting indiscernible.

So this is the history of the Williams Mansion... Stonemason mused, lifting his head. He asked his companions, "How credible do you think it is?"

"Hard to say."

Forest Cat shook her head. "The abnormal organs we encountered earlier could directly trigger hallucinations. Just relying on the hallucinations from the first four abnormal organs, along with some clues hidden within the mansion itself, we could have roughly deduced what happened here before. The purpose of this text," she continued, "is probably to increase our understanding of the scenario's world, improve our mission evaluation, let us know who our enemy is, and prepare us for the upcoming battle."

She paused and squinted. "And then there's the part where she said to take her head... What does that mean?"

SLAP. SLAP.

The three players turned their heads. They saw Li Ang tossing the shrunken head from one hand to the other, occasionally spinning it on his fingertip like a basketball.

Noticing his teammates' gazes, Li Ang held up the head and smiled. "This thing is also recognized as equipment by the System."

He revealed the item's information.

[Name: Lady Lesley's Charging Head]

[Type: Weapon]

[Quality: Excellent]

[Special Effect: Psychic Impact. Press the metal part behind the neck to release a powerful telekinetic shockwave forward]

[Consumption: All current charges. Current Charge: 300/1000]

[Cooldown: 10 minutes]

[Note: Losing one's head is one of the 'moe' points of a magical girl]

[Note: This is really baffling]

[Note: Destroyed after one use]

An Excellent quality piece of equipment!

Everyone's eyes lit up, but seeing the note that it would be destroyed after one use, they all felt a bit disappointed.

"Considering the Formation near the generator," Forest Cat said, frowning, "it can be assumed that Lady Lesley used her last ounce of will to set up a contingency plan, allowing her family's descendants to understand the truth of what happened. However, this equipment isn't fully charged, and it can only be used once... It will likely be consumed in the upcoming battle."

Li Ang nodded and stored the equipment away, asking, "Who brought a portable diesel or petrol generator?"

Ur Wunnian scratched his head. "Uh, who would bring something like that on a scenario mission?"

Stonemason thought for a moment then said nothing.

For players at the novice stage, carrying a portable generator in their inventory was actually quite useful, especially in wilderness or post-apocalyptic scenario worlds.

However, after reaching Lv10, players had usually accumulated a fair amount of equipment and items. Consequently, inventory space became extremely tight, leaving little room for miscellaneous items without Special Effects.

"Never mind the generator," Li Ang said. "I'm guessing that Reindeer God's revival Ritual track will take effect soon.

If it completes its revival, there might be unexpected developments, like the Formation that blocks the Forest People becoming ineffective, or something similar.

We're short on time, let's continue searching for the abnormal organs."

"Mm."

Forest Cat nodded. After they checked the room thoroughly to make sure nothing was missed, they walked out into the corridor.

"Wait."

After they had walked some distance, Ur Wunnian suddenly stopped. His brow furrowed, his nose twitched, and his expression changed. "Do you smell that? There seems to be a scent of urine in the air."