Alice's Hell (24) - A New Idea

No body was left at the scene, just as Han Xinyi herself said, she has the ability to be resurrected once.

Yu Xing watched the stains flow away and disappear into the darkness, then looked up at the countdown on the gray mist at the top.

There are... fifteen minutes left until the half hour ends.

In those fifteen minutes, he needed to find the location of the resurrected Han Xinyi and eliminate her completely.

Presumably, Han Xinyi, who decided to turn him into a souvenir, will also take advantage of the free attack period to attack him. In other words, if no other deducers or ghosts come in during the process, the two of them will truly act as opposing sides and attack each other without any scruples.

Anyone else would worry about the possibility of being counter-attacked.

But Han Xinyi's opponent is Yu Xing.

Yu Xing stretched and stepped off the pebbles, intending to start her search from the corridor next to the open-air exhibition hall.

The entire sculpture exhibition hall consists of three spaces: an open-air exhibition hall and functional rooms on both sides.

The risk of being exposed in the open is too great. If you want to gain the upper hand, you can't expose your position. Yu Xing knows very well that Han Xinyi will not choose to stay in such a risky place, because the disadvantages of doing so are too great, and they cannot even make up for the benefits brought by "reverse thinking".

He picked up the still-singing doll from a pile of stones, patted the dust off it, and straightened its skirt. "Stop singing."

The doll ignored him and continued chanting, "La la la--woo wa!!"

The next moment, Yu Xing covered its "mouth" and threatened, "I'm serious, stop singing, or I'll rip your head off."

Doll: "..." And then throw it like a grenade?

When Yu Xing withdrew his hand, the doll let out two mournful howls, then shut its mouth tightly and remained silent.

[Because you terminated the "Weird Doll's" ability ①, it is very angry and will be unable to use abilities ② and ③ for one hour.]

Yu Xing calmly put the doll back into the mask panel, crossed the venue, and arrived at the mechanical-looking door on the other side of the open-air area. There were small wooden signs on the wall next to the door as markers. He glanced at them and saw that they indicated the types of functional rooms.

[Inside the door: changing room, toilets, sculpture classroom]

He pressed the button by the door, and with a soft pop, it seemed as if some small mechanism inside the wall began to operate. The door, which was at least a decimeter thick, loosened with a hissing sound and opened a crack large enough for someone to push it open.

Yu Xing used some force to push the door open. Behind the door was a wide, metallic corridor, very short and almost rectangular.

The corridor was pitch black. He could only make out the layout of the corridor by the red and blue light from the open-air venue. There were four rooms arranged in a circle around it, all quiet and quiet, as if no one had been there.

He glanced at it briefly and saw the light switch on the wall not far away. He walked over, reached out and turned on the light, but sensed something was off.

The switch seemed to be damaged; its feel was different from a normal button, giving Yu Xing a sense of obstruction.

Sure enough, the corridor lights didn't respond. Yu Xing lifted the button cover and found that the contactor inside was broken.

"It was done by someone... She's right here?" Yu Xing made up his mind, glanced back at the door he had opened, and silently closed it again, even thoughtfully locking it.

Suddenly, the small space was completely plunged into darkness and silence. When Yu Xing listened carefully, he could only hear his own breathing.

Listen more carefully, and from an indiscernible location, it seems there is another person breathing in sync with him.

He made quite a commotion when he entered; if someone were hiding in another room, they would have already received word of his arrival and pinpointed his location.

Yu Xing simply chuckled lightly, letting her footsteps echo in the space without any attempt to conceal them, and openly opened several room doors.

There were four rooms in total, and he opened three doors, but didn't encounter anyone.

There was one toilet and one changing room. The toilet was small, with only two stalls, one for men and one for women, separated by two thick doors. The third room was the sculpture classroom. As soon as Yu Xing pushed open the door, he smelled a unique tool odor. He squinted his eyes, which had adjusted to the darkness, and looked around. As expected, there were many unfinished stone statues displayed here. They were all unfinished and looked like a group of living people with broken bodies at first glance.

Besides the stone statues, the room was also fully equipped with tools. It was clear that this classroom was specifically designed for stone carving. Instead of providing traditional wood carving tools, it was filled with goggles, protective gloves, chisels of various sizes, electric hammers, axes, and electric drills, among other dangerous equipment.

Yu Xing walked up to a male stone statue whose upper body was only completed, touched the texture of the stone, and felt that the workmanship of this stone carving was very delicate. The person who carved them must have been a very professional sculptor.

Yu Xing actually knew a little about stone carving.

Many years ago, when he was still a naive young master, he went abroad to study painting. There were many students in various majors at the art academy, and the sculpture academy was right next to the painting academy. Due to his nationality, he became friends with a girl who was also from China, and they would occasionally discuss art-related issues together.

However, after returning to China, they lost contact. He wondered if the girl whose name he could no longer remember had ever felt sorry for him after the Yu family's incident.

In short... Yu Xing sensed the artistic skill on the stone statue. The unfinished product and the exquisite stone statue in the exhibition hall were clearly from the same person, but he couldn't figure out why these things existed in Alice Castle for the time being.

The entire venue's style is completely out of place with the castle; even explaining it by saying that Alice liked steampunk seems a bit far-fetched.

So, could it have been carved by an employee who didn't actually appear? That shouldn't be the case, otherwise there should at least be traces of that employee's existence.

Yu Xing felt something was off; under the established rules of the castle, it seemed there were many loopholes that could be plugged from both ends.

The last place that clearly had a steampunk theme was the kitchen, right? And he happened to learn from the tattered pages he found on the fifth floor that the three identical-looking chefs in the kitchen had all been the same "visitor"...

Another point of doubt is that, regardless of the sculptor's identity, it is probably impossible for one person to carve such a large number of stone statues as those in the exhibition hall in a lifetime.

Rather than believing that the sculptor personally created each stone sculpture, Yu Xing is more inclined to believe that Alice Castle used some means to replicate one person's sculpting skills and built this place.

Coincidentally, among the eight diviners, one of them was associated with a ghost related to the stone statue—[Abandoned Defective Product].

Could it be a coincidence?

Impossible.

Yu Xing placed her hand on the stone statue, a flash of Spiritual Sense striking her.

His brain seemed to have caught something, but his thinking wasn't clear enough to support his understanding.

"Li Yili..."

"If we proceed step by step, after I deal with Han Xinyi, we'll spend the night, which will be dangerous but also a time when we can gather many clues. The participants will either go out or sleep, waiting for tomorrow's meals and new rules. Then, at dawn on the third day, those who are still alive will be able to finish their deductions—that's the official rule."

"It's very difficult to increase the progress of collecting the Ghost Notices. Judging from the Heart Bracelet I got, the item doesn't specify the ghost's attack method. In other words, after the ghost corresponding to the White Face disappears, even if someone else gets the corresponding item, they won't be able to collect that page of the notice. The offering reward that can only be obtained by collecting nine pages of notices is completely gone. Is this reasonable?"

"The difficulty is far too great. Putting aside the danger, it also heavily relies on luck, which is inconsistent with the style of the Absurdity System that usually gives users a great deal of freedom."

His thoughts gradually became clearer, and in the silence of his mind, a conclusion he had overlooked surfaced.

"And so far, the burn marks visible everywhere, and the huge black hole into which Zeng Lai fell, all indicate that there is a hidden plot line in the deduction of Alice's Hell."

"Perhaps the inexplicable sense of unease within the castle is related to the plot, but—"

Yu Xing's eyes flashed. The plot should be able to influence or break the rules on the surface, right? Since it's hidden and requires the deducer to put in effort to obtain, it means that its importance is greater than the rules for visiting the amusement park set by Alice!

He suddenly had a new idea.

The idea seemed a bit crazy, but since it had come up, Yu Xing, who was always eager to risk his life, already had the urge to try it out.

Hmm... thanks to the stone statues in the sculpture classroom, he was reminded of the past, which calmed him down and made him think about things he hadn't considered before. His pale hand left the surface of the statue, Yu Xing patted the shoulder of the half-body statue, saying earnestly, "Thanks, brother."

Stone statue. "...?"

If this stone statue had consciousness, it would probably be completely bewildered.

Because it just stood there the whole time and did absolutely nothing!

Yu Xing walked out of the sculpture classroom with satisfaction and looked at the fourth room. If he wasn't mistaken, this room should also be a sculpture classroom, and Han Xinyi... was most likely hiding inside.

If he walked straight in, it would feel like he was peeking into the bushes. Han Xinyi is at least a Differentiation Tier deducer stronger than Han Zhiyong, and she had made preparations in the room long ago. She must have set up a trap that is more meticulous and powerful than the [Weird Doll].

But there's not much time left.

Yu Xing pressed the handle with one hand and pushed the door open forcefully with the other.

"Thump." The door bumped into something, making a soft knocking sound.

With the door wide open, Yu Xing only had time to glance around the room before something appeared before her eyes.

A white teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll shaped like a sunny day) dangled from the door frame, its round head hanging down, with a smiling pattern drawn on the white cloth.

Strangely, no matter how dark the environment was, Yu Xing could clearly see its expression. The smile changed after it saw him; one moment it was wailing, the next it opened its eyes wide, and two lines of bloody tears flowed from its eyes, staining the white cloth red.

It even has an extra mouth, and judging from the shape of its mouth opening and closing, the Teru Teru Bozu is saying...

Can you hug me?