Xu Huo looked ahead. An old Chinese-style villa stood at the end of the path. There were no streetlights outside; the only light came from the white lantern hanging from the stone lion's mouth at the entrance. Its faint glow barely illuminated a few square yards in front of the gate, just enough to make out the people standing there.
By the gate stood a tall foreign young man with blond hair and blue eyes. He was talking to a young man beside him, who was holding a denim jacket. A muscular man was crouched to the young man's left, smoking.
A few steps away, beside the stone lion, stood a middle-aged man in a perfectly fitted suit. He was dressed to impress and looked like a successful businessman. A female player stood on either side of him, one with long hair and the other with short hair. They were standing close to him, but both were staring at the greasy, half-bald middle-aged man across from them with undisguised disgust.
Behind the half-bald man stood a man and a woman. The man was decked out in designer brands and wore an arrogant expression. The woman had Smoky Eye makeup and leaned against him affectionately.
A young man who looked like a college student stood off to one side by himself.
There were ten people in all.
The ten had grown impatient waiting. When they saw the late arrivals, Yuan Yao and Xu Huo, their expressions turned unfriendly. The muscular man sprang to his feet. "Why didn't you wait until morning to show up? If you're that much of a coward, go home and suckle at your mother's breast! What are you doing playing a Dungeon?"
The cigarette in Xu Huo's hand shook when Yuan Yao bumped into him, shrinking back. He smiled and offered the muscular man a cigarette. "Take it easy, man. The car only got here just now. It's not like I could do anything about it."
The muscular man snorted and slapped his hand away.
The denim-jacketed man beside him said coolly, "We're all in the same boat now. No need to turn on each other."
"Whether we're in the same boat remains to be seen." The half-bald man leered at the two female players. "We'll find out after you take your clothes off."
The long-haired female player had thick black hair that fell to her waist and looked sweet and innocent. She was disgusted by the man's hostility, but only frowned and said nothing.
The short-haired female player seemed lively and capable, and far more fiery. She shot back, "You see a woman and immediately want her to take her clothes off. Why don't you ask your mother to strip for you? Oh, right. If I were your mother, I'd regret ever giving birth to an ugly, bald piece of trash like you!"
The half-bald man's face turned purple with rage. He charged at her, ready to hit her, but the suit man stepped in and blocked his slap. "You're a grown man. Why pick a fight with a woman?"
The foreign young man came over to hold him back too. In heavily accented Mandarin, he said, "Wan, be a gentleman!"
Though the man the foreigner called Wan had the advantage in size, the two men held him firmly enough that he couldn't move. Seeing everyone laughing at him, he couldn't swallow his pride and turned to yell at Xu Huo and Yuan Yao. "What are you looking at?"
Xu Huo smiled but didn't answer. The others had clearly already gotten to know one another, though it hadn't gone well.
"What are you all bickering about?" The rich heir put an arm around Smoky Eye and complained, "The fog's getting thicker by the minute. How much longer are we going to stand out here freezing?"
The rich heir had been one of the first to arrive. He'd thought getting there early would give him an advantage, but he hadn't expected that they couldn't enter the villa until everyone had arrived.
The suit man checked the time. "The area covered by the fog probably isn't part of the Dungeon. We all know what the game entails: a Head Chopper Demon is roaming the villa. If we stay here, we could run into danger."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's get inside." The muscular man took the lead and went to knock. "Anyone alive in there? Open up!"
He pounded on the wooden door, but no one answered.
"Maybe the door won't open until midnight," Xu Huo said from behind.
The muscular man scowled. "I don't believe in that crap!"
He kicked at the door, but before his foot could connect, it creaked open by itself. Unable to stop himself, he stumbled inside and hit the ground with a dull thud.
The people outside laughed in twos and threes. The rich heir followed him in, grinning. "That's what you get for not checking the time. It's midnight now."
The remaining eleven people entered the villa.
The villa was hardly any better than the outside. In front of them lay a garden thick with greenery. Apart from a narrow pebble path running through it, barely wide enough for one person, the plants crowded together so densely that there was no room to move.
A few streetlamps were visible along the path, and a sign pointed toward the registration area.
"Why are the trees so overgrown?" Smoky Eye complained. "No one even trims them."
"That's not surprising. No one may have lived here for a long time," the rich heir said.
"I think someone lives here," the suit man said. "The pebble path is spotless—not a fallen leaf or speck of dust. Someone must sweep it regularly. There doesn't seem to be anyone living nearby, and getting up and down the mountain is inconvenient, so it makes more sense that they live here."
"Damn it! So it's an NPC! The bastard wouldn't even come open the door!" The muscular man rolled up his sleeves and started cursing. "Where is everyone? Where the hell did they die?"
"Gulp!" The long-haired female player, walking at the back, swallowed. She pointed into the bushes, her voice breaking as she said, "Look—is that a person?"
Everyone turned around. In the pitch-black woods, they could only make out an unusually tall tree, with two dark shapes hanging from its branches and a heavy object dangling below, swaying!
Had someone been murdered?!
"Let's go check!" They searched the woods for a while before finding a narrow path beside the Enclosure Wall near the entrance. It led straight toward the tall tree.
But by the time they reached it, it was too late. The person hung motionless from the tree, tongue lolling far out and saliva dripping down.
"Ugh!" The long-haired female player's knees gave way, and she collapsed to the ground.
The other players looked shaken too. The man was probably from the villa and might have known something about it. But he had died just as they arrived, as if someone had timed the murder so they would discover him.
They didn't know whether the killer was the Head Chopper Demon mentioned in the Dungeon, but the thought of a murderer watching them from somewhere nearby sent chills down their spines!
"I think he might have killed himself," Xu Huo said when he returned after looking around.
The area was easy to take in at a glance. Beneath the tree where the man had hanged himself stood a small wooden cabin, only a few square yards in size. It contained a bed and some logging tools.
Several graves lay behind the cabin. One of them was new, and the joss paper on the ground hadn't rotted yet.
Xu Huo patted the neatly stacked pile of firewood beside the corpse's feet. "This pile's just high enough for someone to climb up and hang himself."
"Maybe someone hanged him while he was still alive," the half-bald man said. "He's not the only person here."
"But according to the Dungeon description, isn't the Head Chopper Demon supposed to chop off heads?" the foreign young man asked, puzzled.
The suit man briefly examined the hanged man's body. His expression was complicated as he said, "Maybe he really did hang himself."
"He must have been sick for a long time. His body's covered in sores."
Xu Huo went over and lifted the corpse by the shoulder. Large green sores covered its back, leaving no trace of the skin beneath.
Yuan Yao came over. "Brother Xu, did you find anything?"
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