Establishing the Network of Relationships

After the funeral ended, the resonance between the candle plate and the black coffin was broken. The black coffin rotted into an unknown object so fragile that its skin flaked off at the slightest touch, while the intact candle plate was taken away by Yu Xing.

He guessed that the black coffin was the source of the curse, and the candle plate was a sacrifice.

With the curse broken, the chilling aura on the sacrifice lessened. Yu Xing carried the candle plate with him, and it posed no significant harm.

All the villagers of Coffin Village had been dealt with. The group returned to the village and casually found a few houses to rest in.

Yu Xing felt a bit regretful. Some villagers, like the old woman with mobility issues, had disappeared along with the others without even attending the funeral.

However, on second thought, their existence went against the laws of nature. When they were transformed into this undead state, they must have harmed the innocent, either actively or passively. Disappearing was the best outcome for them.

The more troublesome issue was the injuries of the Xu brothers. The two had been severely wounded. Fortunately, Wei Fan, despite being an engineer, unexpectedly possessed a healing-type sacrifice. Under Xiao Xuechen's instruction, he helped the Xu brothers once. Then, the group half-supported and half-carried the two back to the village.

At least their lives were saved. They would be able to jump around in reality after leaving the game.

Yu Xing vaguely felt that the way Wei Fan and Xiao Xuechen interacted wasn't like mere colleagues; it was more like a subordinate and a superior.

However, this had nothing to do with him. After the crisis was resolved, he slept comfortably for another night in the empty room of the former village chief's house... which was actually a tomb. He forgot to set an alarm and only woke up leisurely the next day when the sun rose and Xiao Xuechen knocked on his door.

"San, are you awake?" Xiao Xuechen's mature voice came from outside the door. After the battle at the funeral, their relationship had grown much closer.

"Ah..." Yu Xing slowly got out of bed, rubbing his groggy head. He wasn't wearing a shirt; his white fuzzy top, stained with too much blood, had been inexplicably taken by the thrifty Wei Fan to be washed last night.

If it hadn't been washed, Yu Xing might have been arrested and questioned by the local police today if he had crossed the mountain into town wearing his blood-stained clothes.

Not only his clothes but basically all the clothes with obvious bloodstains had been washed by Wei Fan. This robust middle-aged man was like a nanny, creating quite a contrast.

"Can I come in?" Outside the door, Xiao Xuechen's eyes flashed with excitement as she held the now dry fuzzy top.

Ah, a good mood for the day starts the moment I see a handsome man!

"Come in." Yu Xing wasn't bothered by this anyway. It was just his upper body. He checked his pants and confirmed they were properly on.

The door was pushed open, and Xiao Xuechen cautiously poked her head in before moving her entire body inside.

The sunlight illuminated the room brightly. She immediately saw Yu Xing sitting on the edge of the bed. His muscles were firm and toned, the lines on his arms flowed elegantly, and he surprisingly had eight-pack abs. He was so fair he seemed to glow.

The little person in her heart had already started bleeding from the nose.

Wuwuwu, I think I'm really lusting after his body, what should I do!

After sighing inwardly, Xiao Xuechen maintained a serious expression on the surface and handed him the clothes. "There are still some bloodstains on this... but you can't tell unless you look closely. The tear on the arm couldn't be fixed. Wei Gong said it was a pity he didn't bring any needles and thread..."

Yu Xing: "..." Wei Gong's skill points were allocated in a very novel way!

"Then I'll have to thank him properly when I see him later." He smiled at Xiao Xuechen and put on the shirt. Xiao Xuechen reluctantly, with great difficulty, averted her gaze and touched her earlobe.

At this moment, she spotted a neglected oil painting in a corner on the floor.

Judging by the color palette, it looked like... something San had painted before?

Oh right, San even painted Zhou Yongsheng so beautifully back then. It must have been very upsetting to find out later that Zhou Yongsheng actually had ill intentions...

She walked over, intending to pick up the painting.

The next moment, upon seeing the picture again, her breath hitched, and her outstretched finger trembled.

In the painting, the warm-toned youth was gone. In his place, a few more strokes had been added to the original, depicting a ferocious ghostly creature, bound and imprisoned by heavy chains.

Mixed with the warm tones, this made the ghostly creature even more unsettling and malicious, as if it were hiding.

"This painting... when did you change it?" Xiao Xuechen still picked it up and turned to ask Yu Xing.

Yu Xing had already put on his clothes and casually examined the tear on the sleeve. Fortunately, it wasn't a large tear. On him, even if he said it was a deliberate ripped-clothing style, no one would question it.

Hearing Xiao Xuechen's question, he casually replied, "I fixed it yesterday before the funeral. Don't look at it, just throw it away. It's nothing good."

"You, you knew it was... early on?" Xiao Xuechen's eyes widened.

"Of course." Yu Xing nodded as if it were obvious and ran a hand through his messy hair. "I just painted it to tease it, to make it think its scheme had succeeded..."

He revealed a wicked smile. "This way, when it discovers it was a failure from beginning to end, it will feel even more enraged and desperate~"

Xiao Xuechen: "...So scary."

She had thought San had a soft spot deep down. I'm sorry, it was me who was naive.

Yu Xing guessed what Xiao Xuechen was thinking and let out a soft chuckle.

He wasn't a good person to begin with. Did she really think he had the leisure to paint a ghostly creature he met only once?

It was merely a pastime out of boredom, and a way to plant a seed.

Soon, they packed their belongings and gathered at the village entrance.

Xiao Xuechen still took the painting with her, folding it and stuffing it into her bag.

She planned to throw it away later. She knew Yu Xing didn't care, but Investigator-type deduction games had cause and effect. If the painting were left in the village and later discovered by the official forces of that world, it could have an unknown impact on the character of San.

Under the sunlight, several deducers, along with the groggy and kidnapped Zhou Qinghai, passed by the large locust tree at the village entrance, intending to cross the mountain on their way back.

The village's curse was gone, so Zhou Qinghai no longer needed to bear the responsibility of the village chief. Even though his origins were strange, he was innocent. After experiencing such an ordeal, perhaps in this deduction world, he would become an "NPC" with a story.

That was, of course, assuming he wasn't traumatized by Carlos's actions.

But seeing his cheerful demeanor this morning, he probably didn't care anymore. Yu Xing thought Zhou Qinghai wasn't a typically normal person mentally; in short, he had a big heart.

The Xu brothers' complexions had finally turned as pale as Yu Xing's usually were. Their lips were ashen, and their voices were weak, but their words still conveyed the joy of surviving a disaster.

The group said their goodbyes. Although they would "climb the mountain" together again, they all knew this was something that could only exist in the memories of story characters. The deduction system wouldn't let them, the deducers, do something so boring.

"Everyone, let's exchange contact information before we leave. We might travel all over the country in the future, and perhaps we can even send you some local specialties," Xu Hong said, his body wrapped in bandages in multiple places. He and Xu Yuan supported each other, showing the others their utmost goodwill.

Perhaps because the supernatural power in the village had only recently dissipated, the signal was still poor. Phones and social media apps were unusable; they'd have to wait until they reached town.

"Sure, it's always good to make more friends when you're out and about. Besides, your initial warning was right. If we were ordinary people, we might have really escaped disaster. You're kind Feng Shui masters," Xiao Xuechen said, casually patting Xu Yuan's uninjured shoulder. "It's a shame, though. Wei Gong and I are investigators. We couldn't not enter the village back then. Instead, we caused you trouble. Sorry, sorry."

"Then let's all exchange contacts. Oh, how about we create a group chat? We can share any interesting experiences we have in there later," Wei Fan suggested with a clap of his hands.

Yu Xing nodded. Carlos, who had been standing with his arms crossed, snapped his fingers. "No problem~"

Seven people entered this game, and six survived. This survival rate was definitely high, thanks in part to the game not being particularly difficult. There were only two death points: the first night and the funeral on the second day.

Everyone was in good spirits, deciding to use this conversation to tie their characters' fates together.

It's worth noting that although the Absurd Deduction game is called a "game" and has a game system, it doesn't have a friends list.

In the vast world, a brief encounter leads to a long separation.

To put it simply... teaming up this time means it will be incredibly difficult to meet again in the game next time.

With other types of games, you can achieve fixed teammates by forming a team in reality and then entering the game. However, in investigator-type deduction games, when the deducers are offline, the characters are also moving around according to the world's operations. Even if you form a team in reality, once you enter the game, you'll find that your characters are scattered all over the place, making it hard to meet.

This requires a little trick: establish a network of relationships when you can control your characters.

Like what they were doing right now... they reached a consensus to create a group chat. The system would then default to assuming their characters would still be in contact after returning home. Perhaps they would visit each other, go on vacation together, or grab a coffee.

Take Xiao Xuechen and Wei Fan, for example. Their characters had a "colleague" relationship, working in the same studio. It was incredibly easy for them to play games together.

The absurd world seemed to operate on a bizarre logic, granting freedom in terms of "friends" and allowing deducers to experience the thrill of uncertainty.

With the relationship network initiated, the rest was left to the system. The group set foot on the mountain, resuming their tiring climb.

After walking a dozen meters, Yu Xing glanced back. The village, surrounded by mountains... had vanished under the sunlight. Only a single locust tree remained, with a dilapidated, large hole beside it.

That must be the entrance to the tomb.

As expected, the entire village was just a communal tomb. What they had seen and felt for the past two days had been distorted.

His walking stick poked the mountainside, transmitting a real force.

Hmmmm... I wonder what the water from the faucet Wei Fan used to wash clothes was? He suddenly thought of this.

Never mind, it's not important. I don't have germophobia.

The scenery before his eyes quickly blurred. The voices of the others, taking turns to answer Zhou Qinghai's incessant questions, gradually faded. The next moment, the deduction aftermath and settlement appeared in Yu Xing's mind.

[You have successfully left Coffin Village. After entering the town with your companions, you reported the incident to the relevant authorities.]

[Upon investigation, the relevant authorities discovered that the location of Coffin Village had a heavy yin energy, with a strangely sized large tomb underground that surprisingly showed signs of human activity. Consequently, the news was sealed, and systematic research was conducted. You did not concern yourself with the subsequent progress, only hearing from the Xu brothers, who remained in the area to recuperate, that the source of the great tomb's mutation was the ancestral hall on the mountain. The ancestral hall predated the tomb's construction, vaguely pointing to an even more terrifying history.]

[Your performance was highly praised by two of your companions. Not long after returning home, you were visited by a man who claimed to be a partner and member of the Strange Event Investigation Studio, inviting you to join their team.]

[Believing this new identity would be beneficial for investigating your family's conspiracy, you agreed. From then on, you became an investigator.]

[Deduction Hint: Investigator type deduction game "Coffin Village" has concluded]

[Case Truth Restoration: 95%]

[Personality Deviation Growth: 0]

[Score: S]

[Deduction Points Obtained: 701 (Story Comprehension) (Score Bonus) (Exploration Bonus) (Deduction Contribution)]

[Main Quests Completed: 1/4]

[Sacrifice Obtained: Tears of the Underworld Candle]

[Exiting Deduction]