"Can you really save him?"
All three stared at Zhang Zhiqiang in surprise. They hadn't expected him to have a way to save the man in a vegetative state before them.
"You have a way? That's great," Cheng Xu said, a little excited.
"As long as we can save him, we should be able to find out how to lift the curse. We might even be the first players to complete this instance's hidden quest."
All three were glad that Zhang Zhiqiang hadn't died. It gave them a chance to clear the instance.
Zhang Zhiqiang said, "I have a special item I got from an instance. It's a pill that should be able to save him.
"Once he takes it, he'll recover immediately, no matter how badly injured he is. But he'll definitely die seven days later."
"That's fine. Seven days is enough."
"Hurry and save him! Our lives are at stake!"
"Okay." Zhang Zhiqiang walked over to the bed, and the others moved aside to watch from behind him.
All three waited eagerly for Zhang Zhiqiang to save the man with the medicine.
The man was the key to lifting their curse.
Zhang Zhiqiang looked at the man, and his hand suddenly moved. But instead of feeding him the pill, he slashed at the man's neck with the knife in his hand!
He had snatched the knife from the residents. It was sharp, and its blade easily sliced through the man's skin and severed his throat.
It all happened so fast that the three had no time to stop him. They didn't even react.
Only after Zhang Zhiqiang cut off the man's head did they react, but by then, it was already too late to say anything.
Someone whose head had been cut off definitely couldn't be brought back to life.
"Y-you... what are you doing?!" Cheng Xu roared.
Jiang Yue was furious too. "Do you have a death wish? Kill him and you'll die here too!"
"You're not Zhang Zhiqiang. Who the hell are you?!" Zhao Yuqing stared fixedly at Zhang Zhiqiang, her eyes full of killing intent.
The Zhang Zhiqiang before them had destroyed their only hope.
Just moments ago, they had thought they could clear the instance and complete the hidden quest, but now all hope was gone.
The important clue they had just found had led to a complete dead end.
"I'm not Zhang Zhiqiang," Zhang Zhiqiang said with a smile. "Goodbye, my prey!"
Suddenly, Zhang Zhiqiang lost all strength. His body went limp, and he collapsed to the floor.
"Damn it!" Cheng Xu couldn't help cursing.
Now he finally understood. The Zhang Zhiqiang from moments ago had been the instance's boss.
Zhang Zhiqiang must have been possessed.
But he hadn't thought of something so simple just now.
One careless mistake had now cost them any chance of clearing the instance.
A commotion came from outside. The three hurried out of the room and saw dozens of residents armed with weapons, surrounding their way out.
The people's faces were full of rage, and they could charge in and tear the three to pieces at any moment.
"What have you done?!" The mayor stood in the middle of the crowd, holding a shotgun.
His eyes were red, as if they were about to spit fire.
"The man inside is dead," Cheng Xu said. "But we didn't kill him."
"Dead? Is he really dead?" the mayor asked in disbelief.
"Yes." His head had been cut off, so of course he couldn't still be alive.
"Damn it, they've killed us all!"
"Kill them!"
"Kill them!"
The crowd roared.
Their eyes were full of rage, but deep down, they were also terrified.
The mayor waved his hand, and the crowd immediately fell silent. He raised his gun and aimed it at Cheng Xu.
"In that case, die!"
Cheng Xu hurried back into the room and slammed the door shut. A gunshot rang out immediately after, and the shotgun blast nearly shattered the door.
One more shot would render the door completely useless.
"Hey, we really didn't kill him, and killing us now won't do you any good.
"If you still want to live, let's talk this through. If we fight and both sides suffer, we'll only be doing our enemy a favor."
"Do you know who you killed? It's only because he was here that those monsters didn't attack us.
"But you killed him. Now we're all going to die here!"
"We know, but his death was an accident!" Cheng Xu explained.
"Accident, my ass!" the residents outside bellowed.
The mayor fired again, blasting the door to pieces. The townspeople charged in recklessly.
These people had destroyed their chance of survival, and now all they wanted was to rush in and tear them to pieces.
Cheng Xu understood now. These people had already been crazed, and in this situation, any explanation would be futile. They could only fight their way out.
"Since they want to kill us, there's no point trying to reason with them!"
All three made up their minds. They weren't bad people and didn't really want to kill, but these people were just NPCs in the instance, so killing them wouldn't weigh on their consciences.
Cheng Xu drew the Demon Blade and slashed at the residents in front of him. A few swings claimed three or four lives, but he also suffered two deep cuts.
But those people had gone completely mad. They didn't care whether they lived or died; they only wanted to tear the enemies before them to pieces.
After each snatching a knife, Zhao Yuqing and Jiang Yue began helping Cheng Xu, but people kept pouring in from outside, and the three had no choice but to retreat.
The cramped space inside the house made it even harder for them to fight. Before long, all three were covered in wounds.
Even if their bodies were stronger than those of ordinary people, they still weren't ability users. Facing so many people, they could only end up dead.
"We're done for. Are we really going to die here?"
Just as the three were despairing, the light suddenly dimmed. It was as if something had covered the sun, and the darkness grew deeper and deeper.
The madness in the residents' eyes suddenly subsided, replaced by fear.
They seemed to realize that something unusual was about to happen, and their movements slowed.
Seizing the chance, the three quickly killed the people in front of them, while the rest withdrew from the room.
The three looked outside. The sky was dim, as if the sun had already set and it was twilight.
But it was only afternoon, three o'clock at the latest. The sun was still high, and it couldn't possibly have suddenly set in just a few minutes.
The people outside stopped charging in. Their faces were full of fear; perhaps they had realized that something terrifying was about to happen.
They no longer had the time to worry about the three outsiders in the house.
Cheng Xu watched the people outside. He now felt that whatever was about to happen would be even more dangerous than before.
"What's going on? Why are they all..."
Jiang Yue also felt that something big was about to happen, something big enough to make these people, who had already gone mad, calm down and even feel afraid.
"This is all your fault!" The mayor glared at the three in the house. "He's coming! He's coming to kill us! Now we're all going to die!"
Jiang Yue asked, "Do you mean Xu Jing? Why would he protect you and try to kill you at the same time? What's going on?"
"The one you killed was his benevolent side," the mayor said, his voice full of fear.
"We almost burned him to death, so he hates us and wants to kill us.
"But he's kind by nature and unwilling to commit murder. Caught in that conflict, he split into good and evil sides."
"As one side grew stronger, the other weakened. Now... you've killed the good side, and the evil side won't be restrained anymore."
Cheng Xu said, somewhat annoyed, "If that's the case, why didn't you tell us sooner?
"Our interests are the same. If you hadn't attacked us, we might have figured out how to destroy his evil side by now!"
"Of course he wouldn't tell us," Zhao Yuqing said.
"Because he was one of the main people who framed Xu Jing back then. To lift the curse, they have to receive the punishment they deserve. They have to be sacrificed."
"As long as they're sacrificed, Xu Jing's resentment can be resolved. His benevolent side should then be able to suppress his evil side, and the curse here will be lifted!"
"You must know how to lift the curse, but you won't tell the others. Instead, you've kept deceiving the residents, making them suffer alongside you.
"You knew we outsiders might be able to lift the curse, so you led the residents against us because you were afraid we'd find a way to lift it!"
"But it's too late to say anything now. His benevolent side is gone, and everyone will die with you."
When the residents heard Zhao Yuqing's words, they quickly understood. They looked at the mayor, their eyes full of killing intent.
Xu Jing's evil spirit only wanted to punish the chief culprits; the others wouldn't be killed. Yet they had been deceived all along by one of those very culprits.
They surrounded the mayor.
Looking at the furious crowd, the mayor couldn't help panicking.