Night Sounds

Chapter 20: Night Sounds

"Nothing." Xu Huo shifted his gaze from the corpse to the overly large pile of firewood beside it and the freshly sharpened axe, then stood up to look around.

"I get it!" the short-haired female player said, holding up a pair of large and small rubber boots she'd found in the wooden cabin. She spoke with keen interest. "So there were supposed to be two people here, probably a married couple. The woman died first, and the man was seriously ill. After burying her, he lost all hope and killed himself."

"Couldn't die earlier or later, had to die right when we walked in." Smoky Eye curled her lip.

The muscular man and the others searched inside and outside the cabin but found no useful clues. They had no choice but to put the corpse back inside the house, planning to bury it when daylight came.

The group returned to the main path and crossed through the woods to the Mountain Villa's Main Hall.

The courtyard was laid out in a square, with the Main Hall at the main entrance, corridors on both sides leading to guest rooms, two rooms on each of the three sides of the square—each with its own hot spring—and two paths at the rear corners leading out of the courtyard, one to the dining hall and one to the Warehouse.

At a glance, the courtyard was well-connected in all directions, with no privacy to speak of.

There was no one else in the Mountain Villa, but it was fairly clean and the power was working. Probably because the place was damp and made entirely of wood, a musty smell permeated the air.

"Six rooms. How do we split them?" the rich second generation asked.

"Two to a room is just right." The muscular man slapped the muscle on his arm. "But I wouldn't be afraid to stay alone either!"

"I think it's better if we stick together," the long-haired female player suggested. "If we all stay together, we can look out for each other. It'll be easier to handle anything that comes up."

"Are you all forgetting something?" the middle-aged bald man suddenly said. "There might be a Cannibal Player among us. Who wants to share a room with a Cannibal Player?"

"Finding a Cannibal Player is simple. The number is unique..." The cowboy man didn't get to finish before the short-haired female player cut him off. "Wang Wei, don't just stand there and talk like it's no big deal. White players are in a weak position. Look at the number? Who knows who'd end up dead at whose hands!"

White players—Xu Huo had noticed when he dealt with those ticketless players at the station that besides red and black, there was also a category of white players. Players who hadn't eaten anyone or killed anyone were probably classified into this group. Compared to the other two types, white players were indeed in a bad spot.

Cowboy man Wang Wei shrugged. "If you don't want to, fine. Staying apart is better anyway."

"Of course we should stay apart!" The short-haired female player pulled the long-haired one along. "You're rooming with me!"

The long-haired female player opened her mouth, then nodded in agreement.

"Might as well all split up." The suit man swept his gaze over the group. "Once we're in the game, everyone's looking out for themselves. It's only five days anyway."

The players came from different places, unfamiliar and distrustful of each other. It was only natural for them to adopt a "sweep in front of your own door" mentality.

Besides, this was a survival instance. All they had to do was live through five days.

"Brother Xu, can I share a room with you?" Since the other players showed no interest in teaming up, Yuan Yao had no choice but to follow behind Xu Huo.

"Sure." Xu Huo picked the first room on the right. Before entering, he jerked his chin forward. Yuan Yao caught on and immediately pretended to look for a roommate, trailing behind the other players.

After a while, he came back and reported the room assignments for everyone.

"That long-haired beauty is called Du Lanlan. Pretty easy to talk to. The short-haired one is Xia Guo. They're staying across from us."

"The woman following the rich second generation is a streamer. Average-looking. Her name might be real or fake—Liu Yuanyuan."

"They're staying next to Huang Junjie and Zhang Xiong. Huang Junjie is that middle-aged guy in the suit."

"The bald guy is Wan Zhikang. Du Lanlan and Xia Guo arrived one after the other. When they first got here, Wan Zhikang ran over to suck up to them. They ignored him, so he started hating them. He's rooming with that foreigner Abel in the room directly across from ours."

"The room next door is taken by Wang Wei. That university student had nowhere to go. I saw Wang Wei call him in when I came back."

Xu Huo listened and nodded. "Which two players had you not seen before?"

"Wang Wei and Huang Junjie." Yuan Yao spilled everything he'd gotten from Du Lanlan in one breath. "Huang Junjie is really sharp. When Wan Zhikang was harassing them, he saw through him at a glance. Turns out the bald guy was wearing a green hat to keep the wind and rain off, got cleaned out by his mistress, and turned his love for beautiful women into hate."

"They know each other?"

"No, they don't. That's why it's impressive. Huang Junjie figured it out from little clues." Yuan Yao's voice was full of envy. "Why can't I have such a powerful trait?"

By now, Xu Huo had finished checking the room. He pulled the curtains shut. "Get some sleep early."

Yuan Yao suddenly felt a bit scared. He looked cautiously at the man who had been expressionless the whole time. "Uh, Brother Xu, aren't you afraid I might be a Cannibal Player?"

Xu Huo lay down on the bed. "Relax. I'm not a Cannibal Player."

Yuan Yao gave an awkward laugh and lay down on the other bed.

The light in the room was dim. Outside in the courtyard, the running water of the hot spring made a steady, rhythmic sound. Xu Huo felt the phone in his pocket and sorted through the players' information in his mind.

He had observed everyone. They had basically come empty-handed. Aside from clothes and a few simple everyday items like lighters and earrings, they had nothing—no phones, watches, or weapons. The game's definition of props seemed to be related to technological content.

But he had come straight from the station, and the phone and dagger he brought hadn't disappeared.

The game prompt mentioned that the instance level was too low to carry non-game props, and that the Mountain Villa had once been popular with players and non-players alike. This actually hinted that the instance location wasn't completely sealed off.

You couldn't bring things in from outside the game, but if you were already inside the game world, whether something was a game prop or not, you could bring it into the instance. Similarly, whether or not you were an instance player, you could enter the instance location.

And the game hadn't explicitly stated the number of participants in the instance.

Xu Huo turned over, his eyes open, and met the gaze of the person who had silently come to his bedside. "What are you doing?"

Yuan Yao nearly screamed. Startled, he quickly explained, "I wasn't trying to hurt you! I just wanted to see the number on your back."

To prove his innocence, he first lifted his own shirt. "See? I'm a white player!"

Xu Huo sat up, leaned against the headboard, and lit a cigarette. He watched the nervous Yuan Yao. "Since you're so scared, why do you still want to share a room with me?"

Seeing that Xu Huo didn't intend to make a move on him, Yuan Yao relaxed a little. "I'm basically just an otaku. I can't carry or lift anything in normal life. You might not believe it, but on the Preliminary Train, I almost got beaten to death by a fifteen-year-old girl... You're different, Brother Xu. Calm and composed, with long hair—you look like a hidden master. I wanted to latch onto a strong backer..."

Xu Huo raised a hand to stop him, concentrating to listen:

"Clang... clang... clang..."