"Mountain Inn": I Suspect You Aren't Human

This was Xu Xi's second time entering the passage, so as soon as he jumped down, he skillfully crouched and crawled a few steps inside on his knees.

The High-Ponytail Woman hadn't expected the passage to be so narrow. She had no choice but to crouch down and crawl after the young man.

"That's far enough. Here will do."

Xu Xi looked back and saw that they were in a blind spot, out of sight from the opening above. He stopped and sat down with his legs bent.

The High-Ponytail Woman sat cross-legged.

"There's something I don't understand."

After hesitating for a moment, she decided to ask.

"If this passage isn't dangerous, why did you say we'd die if we came down?"

Where was the danger coming from?

Xu Xi paused, then suggested, "You can try crawling farther in and see."

Unlike him, she hadn't started over after experiencing the outcome of being trapped here and left to die. Without that information, she naturally couldn't make sense of it.

The High-Ponytail Woman glanced at the dark passage ahead, pursed her lips, and slowly crawled around Xu Xi, heading deeper inside.

As they passed each other, Xu Xi suddenly remembered that she didn't have a flashlight. She couldn't very well crawl in there in the dark, so he reached out and handed her his.

"Take the flashlight with you."

The High-Ponytail Woman paused, then took the flashlight.

As she turned away, she relaxed a little, almost imperceptibly.

Xu Xi sat where he was, with nothing to do but stare into space.

It was quite a while before the High-Ponytail Woman slowly crawled back.

Her brow was furrowed. She had evidently discovered that there was no way forward.

No wonder the young man had seemed so confident about luring out the unknown thing lurking in the shadows.

If the four of them had really fallen into this trap and all come down, that thing would surely have come over and blocked the opening, trapping them here to die.

The High-Ponytail Woman even felt a wave of fear after the fact.

She couldn't imagine what it would feel like to be trapped in this cramped hole, slowly waiting for death.

Even though she had a prop, it could only save her life if she was attacked by something strange. In a predicament like this, it would be of no use at all.

This was a [God Hunt] instance. One small mistake and she would die inside it.

Xu Xi didn't explain further. He believed that, given how smart she was, she had figured it out the moment she saw there was no way forward.

The High-Ponytail Woman returned the flashlight to Xu Xi.

The two sat there in silence, listening for sounds outside from time to time.

Before long, they heard something.

"Ah—You, you let go of me! Let go!!"

A high-pitched male voice rang out, filled with panic.

Xu Xi and the High-Ponytail Woman exchanged a look.

Had they caught someone?

When they climbed back up through the opening, they saw the Burly Man pinning a young man firmly to the floor with his arms behind his back.

The young man's cheek was pressed against the floor, squashed out of shape. His expression was resentful, and he struggled hard to break free.

The Refined Man was confiscating the things he had on him.

A flashlight, a thick wooden plank, long nails, a hammer...

The instant the four saw those things, they knew what they were for.

The young man had wanted to seal the opening beneath the wardrobe and trap them in the passage for good.

The High-Ponytail Woman wore an expression that said it was just as she had expected.

The Refined Man and the Burly Man, however, looked grim.

If Xu Xi hadn't warned them, they would probably be in that underground passage right now, crying out to heaven and earth with no one to answer.

"Behave yourself." The Burly Man pressed down harder, warning him in a fierce voice.

The young man looked perfectly normal. He grimaced in pain, his expression vivid, with nothing strange about him.

But the "normal" people in an instance weren't necessarily truly normal.

Xu Xi instinctively thought of the Red-Skirted Woman he had met in the previous instance, who had returned to the village to be a bridesmaid.

She had been lively, cheerful, and outgoing. No matter how they looked at her, she had seemed like an ordinary girl. Yet just as they were about to leave, they had discovered that the village had turned into a collection of dilapidated, ruined houses.

"Who are you? Why did you try to hurt us?"

The Refined Man's serious voice pulled Xu Xi out of his thoughts.

He swept the flashlight over, but his gaze fell on the Burly Man's wrist.

In the light, he saw a red mark on it.

Had the young man scratched him?

It wasn't serious, though. Judging by the Burly Man's complete lack of reaction, he either hadn't noticed the scratch or didn't care about a small wound that would scab over before long.

He had managed to scratch the Burly Man. It looked like this young man had some skills.

"Don't shine that in my eyes!" The young man turned his head away and squeezed his eyes shut, seemingly bothered by the intense white light.

Oh, sorry.

Xu Xi smoothly moved the flashlight away.

"Answer my question. Who are you? We shouldn't have any grudge against you, so why did you try to hurt us?"

The Refined Man asked again.

It wasn't as though he hadn't suspected that the person being pinned down was something strange, but the fact that the Burly Man could restrain him proved that he posed no direct threat to them for the time being.

With the bright light no longer shining on him, the young man slowly opened his eyes.

He looked up at the strangers before him and tried to move, only for the man above him to immediately pin him down with force.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? Who are you? Why did you come here?"

The Refined Man replied calmly, "We're a group of hiking enthusiasts. We were halfway up the mountain when a sudden downpour started. We were worried about a mudslide, so when we found an inn here, we came over to rest for a bit."

As he spoke, he took off his backpack and showed the young man the basic hiking supplies inside.

"But after we came in, we discovered that the inn had been abandoned, and there were even strange things here. One of our teammates lost their life because of it."

When the Refined Man mentioned "strange things," the others all quietly became more alert. They knew he was sounding the man out.

However, the young man merely frowned, his expression otherwise unchanged.

"Let me go first."

The Refined Man shook his head. "Sorry, but you tried to hurt us. Until we know your identity and your real purpose, please forgive us for refusing your request."

The young man fell silent for a while, realizing that he couldn't resist.

He lowered his eyes and confessed quietly, "My name is Yang Wu."

Yang Wu?!

The four exchanged glances.

The Refined Man asked to confirm, "You're the Yang Wu who stayed in room 202?"

The young man nodded. "That's right. My older sister also came here to hike, but she disappeared after spending a night at this inn. My family reported it to the police, but they couldn't find her. I couldn't let it go, so I came here myself to look for clues about my sister."

"Then why did you try to seal us inside the underground passage?"

The young man who called himself Yang Wu carefully scrutinized each of them before saying flatly, "Because—"

"I suspect you aren't human."

The four of them: "...?"

The tables had turned???