"Mountain Inn": As Though Everything Had Unfolded Just as He Expected

The Refined Man and the other two followed Yang Wu past the reception desk to an area on the other side that they had yet to explore.

Just as Xu Xi had guessed, it was the inn's kitchen.

To the trio's surprise, though the pots, bowls and utensils in the kitchen were far from neatly arranged, there was little dust on them. Dry firewood was piled in a corner, and it was clear that someone used the place often.

Had Yang Wu really lived here for a long time?

Then was he an Impostor or not?

For once, the Refined Man felt a headache coming on.

Even so, he still suspected there was something wrong with the man's identity, and that he had some ulterior purpose in deliberately taking them to a cellar.

Just as they had made no progress whatsoever in figuring out how to clear the instance, this "Yang Wu" had appeared at the perfect time, giving them a new opportunity.

Naturally, they had to play along with him.

After leading them into the kitchen, Yang Wu said, "The entrance to the cellar is right here. Wait a moment."

With that, he held the flashlight in his mouth, crouched down and opened one of the cupboards beneath the stove. He took out the bowls, chopsticks and other tableware inside, then pried up a thick stone slab.

The other three watched as he moved the slab aside, revealing a dark passage beneath it.

...That cellar was really well hidden.

The same thought occurred to all of them.

If they had explored on their own, they might never have found it.

"Come on. There's a ladder leading down, so be careful not to slip," Yang Wu warned.

After Yang Wu went down first, the Refined Man turned to Xu Xi and the High-Ponytail Woman and asked quietly, "Could there be something strange down there?"

The High-Ponytail Woman was visibly hesitant too.

After what had happened in the underground passage in room 101, she was no longer as confident in her items.

Her items could block attacks from the uncanny, but they couldn't help her escape a predicament like being trapped somewhere.

What if this so-called cellar, like that underground passage, was a prison trap carefully prepared by "Yang Wu"?

Xu Xi, on the other hand, wasn't worried about that at all. Ever since he had killed himself by running into a wall in the underground passage, it was as though a switch had flipped inside him.

A trap?

Who cared? At worst, he'd die.

Couldn't die? Then he'd just kill himself.

With that attitude, Xu Xi took the lead and bent down to enter the cellar.

"..." The Refined Man and the High-Ponytail Woman instinctively exchanged a look.

"Then let's go down too."

The Refined Man had long since acknowledged the young man's strength. Since he had chosen to go down, he must have been confident.

He had to admit that the rather overly reserved young man really did have an air of composure, as though a mountain could collapse before him without changing his expression.

It was as though everything had unfolded just as he expected.

Yet he and the Burly Man had actually tried to manipulate him.

At that thought, the Refined Man remembered the Burly Man, who had mutated without warning.

Had he broken some taboo rule?

But the Burly Man had been with him the whole time. If the Burly Man had broken a rule, the Refined Man certainly wouldn't have escaped it either.

Unable to think of a reason, the Refined Man shook his head.

Forget it. He'd take things one step at a time.

The three entered the cellar one after another. Once everyone was down, Yang Wu, who had been waiting to the side, moved the stone slab back over the entrance.

"I come down to this cellar often, so you don't need to worry about oxygen."

"That thing isn't very smart. It won't lift the slab on its own, so we're safe hiding here for now."

The cellar wasn't very large, and all sorts of odds and ends had been stored inside.

"Find somewhere to sit. It might be a little dirty, though."

Yang Wu invited the three of them to sit down and rest while he found a corner and sat down himself.

It really did look as though he had brought them here simply to hide from the mutated Burly Man and the White Humanoid.

As everyone was wondering what to make of it, the young man suddenly gave a bitter laugh.

"I know you don't trust me and suspect there's something wrong with me... All right, I admit it. I'm not Yang Wu."

What?!

None of the three had expected him to expose himself so suddenly.

"But don't worry, I really am human. I deliberately lured you into the underground passage because I wanted to protect myself. I was afraid you'd hurt me, so I wanted to trap you in there first and find out who you were and whether you posed a threat to me. If you didn't, I would have let you out."

The young man's expression was sincere, and he even apologized to the three of them again.

"When you were willing to give me food and water, I knew you were good people. I'm really sorry I lied to you."

Xu Xi had just one word for everything he'd said.

Bullshit.

Did he think Xu Xi hadn't been trapped in there?

Before he died, he hadn't heard the man come to question them. He had clearly intended to leave them trapped in there to die.

For a moment, none of them could figure out what the man meant by suddenly doing this.

They had all been doing a perfectly good job pretending with one another, so why had he suddenly started coming clean?

The Refined Man's jaw tightened, and his usually gentle voice turned cold. "So everything you told us before was a lie?"

Of course, he wasn't really angry. Getting angry in an instance at something when he didn't even know whether it was human or uncanny would mean he thought he'd lived too long.

He was only playing along in his role as an ordinary hiking guest.

"Half true and half false, I suppose." The young man seemed to have decided to tell them everything, and he no longer spoke evasively. "I really did stay at this inn for a while, so I'm fairly familiar with its layout."

"Living on wild vegetables and spring water was true too. As for what you asked me about what had happened at the inn before, sorry, but I made up some of what I told you."

"I'd already explored those rooms before you came here. Otherwise, how do you think the phone in room 204 still had power? I don't actually know what happened at the inn. I just made something up on the spot based on that information."

Hearing this, the Refined Man actually had the illusion that he had been sent back to square one in an instant.

No, it wasn't an illusion. He really was fucking back at square one!

"So you made up Impostors on the spot too?"

The young man scratched his head sheepishly. "Yes."

"...What about that White Humanoid? Was it the occupant of room 103 or not?"

"Uh, I don't know either."

"..."

Seeing the young man's feigned innocence, not only the Refined Man, but even Xu Xi and the High-Ponytail Woman had the urge to punch him.

"Aren't you only staying here for one night? Why are you so determined to find out what happened at the inn?"

The Refined Man reacted quickly to the question, immediately using the Short-Haired Woman with Glasses and the Burly Man as excuses. "One of our companions died here, and now another has mutated. We have to find out why, don't we?"