"Mountain Inn": Big Shot Xu Xi's Laid-Back Attitude Is Truly Unprecedented

"The strange uncle mentioned in this diary might be the owner of this inn. He warned the grandmother and grandson in room 103 not to go out at night or respond to any knocking. Wang Xiuping opened the door after hearing a knock at night, and that's when the bizarre things described afterward happened."

The refined man flipped through the diary once again, reading it more carefully this time as he tried to unravel the information that might be hidden inside, one thread at a time.

"Do you remember the rules posted on that wall? Looks like we were right about the first one. It told the guests not to go out at night or respond to knocking."

"One more thing: the child pretended to be asleep, so he saw the whole thing when his grandmother opened the door. According to the diary, the knock he heard came from that strange uncle, possibly the innkeeper. But here's the problem—"

"The innkeeper had just warned the grandmother and grandson. How could he have come knocking the very next moment?"

The burly man sneered. "So the thing that knocked can mimic human voices. We just don't know whether it can mimic appearances too."

A flash of inspiration struck the refined man. "That thing really can mimic human appearances. After the man in room 204 murdered the woman, it definitely couldn't have been her who came back."

The refined man noticed another problem and suddenly looked at the other three.

"If you pushed someone off a cliff and she came back completely unharmed afterward, you'd feel guilty and scared, and you'd call your mother."

The burly man frowned deeply, not quite understanding why the refined man was repeating the story. "What do you mean? If you've got something to say, just say it. Don't beat around the bush."

The refined man's mouth twitched. He was about to explain when the High-Ponytail Woman picked up where he had left off. "The person who came back obviously isn't the person you knew anymore. But after she came back, you didn't die right away."

The burly man wasn't stupid either. Once he heard that, he spotted the problem too.

"The guy even had time to call his mom. And not a moment sooner or later, the call stopped connecting right after he told her something was wrong with the woman."

Everyone came to a bit of a realization.

The refined man couldn't help smiling. "Looks like everyone's thought of it. The first rule on that paper was not to go out or open the door when you hear knocking. The third might be not to let those things discover that you... have discovered them."

"Since we've already worked out two of the rules, the second becomes simple. Following the same logic, the second is obviously not to trust anyone, because you can't be sure whether the person beside you is human or one of those things disguised as a human."

As though a fog had lifted, the group finally had some idea of what was going on in this instance.

These people's experiences were both similar and different. They had all encountered those bizarre things, but Wang Xiuping of room 103 had violated the first rule and died from a mutation, while Wang Xiang, the man in room 204, had violated the third rule. How he had died was still unclear.

Unfortunately, these rules weren't taboo rules, so they didn't apply to them.

"One more thing." The refined man unconsciously tightened his grip on the diary, a note of gravity in his voice. "The diary says that as Wang Xiuping mutated, her body gradually grew taller and her arms gradually grew longer..."

The burly man narrowed his eyes. "The thing that killed the woman with glasses... was a tall, white humanoid with overly long arms."

The High-Ponytail Woman said in surprise, "So that thing was Wang Xiuping after she mutated?"

"Not necessarily." The refined man shook his head. "We don't know what those things originally look like. It seems Wang Xiuping was infected by them and transformed into one of their kind."

"Now that only leaves Yang Wu from room 202. We still don't know what happened to him, or whether his missing sister has anything to do with those things. The register says she checked out after staying one night on April 3."

Xu Xi, who had been listening quietly to the side for a long time, had only two words in his head now—

Freaking awesome!

They had started out completely clueless, but by slowly piecing the clues together bit by bit, the group had now learned part of the background.

The most impressive of them was undoubtedly the refined man before him. He was observant and clearheaded; it could be said that the whole discussion had relied on his guidance.

The burly man and the High-Ponytail Woman were quick-witted enough to keep up with the refined man's train of thought. Even when they didn't understand something at first, they got it immediately with a small hint.

Xu Xi, who had previously considered himself a little clever, once again came to a profound realization of just how wide the gap in intelligence between people could be.

Without his ability to roll back upon death, he really couldn't play this at all.

After reflecting for a while, Xu Xi quickly comforted himself again.

It's fine. I might not be a genius, but I'm not that stupid either. At least I understood all of that. My intelligence is normal, at any rate.

I can't learn someone else's intelligence, but I can learn from experience. Once I've accumulated more instances, I'll definitely be even more awesome than I am now.

And he seemed to know what had caused his death in the previous run. He had probably died the same way as Wang Xiuping, infected by that eerie figure and turned into one of its kind.

No wonder he had kept feeling that his body had changed when his consciousness was about to fade at the end. It hadn't been an illusion.

Then how did the woman with glasses get killed so swiftly and cleanly?

Surely it wasn't because the eerie figure was provoked by my flashlight?

...Holy shit, no way?

[Holy shit, this Refined Man's got some skills. He managed to piece together so much information from those scattered clues.]

[Why can't I have a smart brain like that?]

[This instance feels so complicated. I'm completely lost.]

[It's not that bad. I actually like watching mystery instances where they unravel things layer by layer. I enjoy watching them gradually uncover the truth, and there's a sense of satisfaction when they finally dig it out.]

[Those three are deep in discussion, and big shot Xu Xi hasn't said a word the whole time. The label "silent and reserved" is so firmly stuck to him you couldn't peel it off.]

[Why stick it on him? It's obviously grown right onto him.]

[No, no, no. He's obviously silence and reserve incarnate.]

[I'm dying. You guys are too funny.]

[Xu Xi looks so relaxed standing there. Everyone else is seriously discussing things, and he looks like he's spacing out and slacking off.]

[Big shot Xu Xi's laid-back attitude is truly unprecedented.]

[He really isn't worried at all. The burly man and the other two are frowning so hard they could almost crush flies between their brows.]