Curse

Chapter 22: Curse

The stooped back was much shorter than the dangling corpse from yesterday, but the face was indeed the same one whose tongue had been stuffed back into its mouth. The bluish complexion now looked no different from a normal person's.

There was a heartbeat, breathing—he was alive.

The noose still lay discarded to the side, and the lock on the wooden door was already broken.

Even Xu Huo found it hard to believe. He had checked yesterday—the man was definitely dead. Yet after one night, he had come back to life on his own.

The Woodcutter acted as if they didn't exist, turning his head back to continue splitting wood.

"Is he a person or a ghost?" Abel raised his cross high.

"He's a person, I think. He has a shadow," Wan Zhikang said hesitantly.

"I say he's the Head Chopper from last night. Damn it, still daring to play tricks!" Zhang Xiong clenched his fists, ready to charge over, but Huang Junjie frowned and held him back, his gaze sweeping over the Woodcutter.

The rich second generation sneered, picked up a piece of firewood, weighed it in his hand, and exchanged a glance with Liu Yuanyuan. The two of them walked toward the Woodcutter, whose back was turned to them.

"Old pal, how long have you been living here?" Xu Huo suddenly cut in from the side, interrupting the pair as they were about to speak to the Woodcutter.

The Woodcutter turned his head at the offered cigarette, hesitated for a moment, then took it. He lit it with Xu Huo's lighter, sat down on a tree stump, took a couple of puffs, and said, "Quite a few years. Been here since the villa was built."

"The villa looks pretty old. No one lives here now. Don't you get bored living alone? Ever thought about going out for a walk?" Xu Huo sat down next to him.

"What for? I never even left when I was with my family. Now that I'm sick and about to die, I don't have the strength."

Xu Huo glanced at his neck. "Medical technology is advanced these days. Even terminal illnesses can be cured."

The Woodcutter pointed to a nearby New Grave. "My daughter went. She still died. The whole family is buried here. I'll be buried here sooner or later too."

"The most important thing is for the whole family to be together," Xu Huo nodded. "I'm going to stay here for a few days. If you die, I'll bury you."

The Woodcutter stared at him expressionlessly. After a couple of seconds, he continued, "You're here for the adventure too, aren't you? I advise you to leave quickly."

"Old man, do you know the legend about the villa?" Xia Guo leaned in. "They say there's a Head Chopper here. Aren't you afraid?"

"What's a dying man afraid of?" The Woodcutter shook his head. "You young people have the biggest guts. You'll do anything for a thrill. Let me tell you, this villa is cursed. Anyone who comes for the Head Chopper will die."

"I remember a few young people came not long ago. In the end, their bodies were taken away by the crematorium staff."

Two audible gulps sounded in the air. Xia Guo pressed on, "No one did anything about it? They just called the crematorium to take them away?"

The Woodcutter's eyelids drooped. "Couldn't even find the heads. Where else would they go but the crematorium?"

"You've lived here long enough. You must know a lot of stories about the Head Chopper. Why don't you tell us about them?" Xu Huo waved Yuan Yao over and stuffed the half-pack of cigarettes he had hidden on him into the Woodcutter's hands.

The Woodcutter reluctantly accepted them, as if oblivious to the wary gazes of the Players. Slowly, he began to recount the tales of the Head Chopper.

Fifty years ago, before the area was developed, there were still a few residents. At the time, the mountain had already been bought by the previous owner of the villa to build a leisure resort. Those few households refused to leave and clashed with the logging workers. Somehow, one of them ended up hitting an axe, his head and neck severed clean off.

After the compensation was settled, the project, which had been shelved for a while, restarted. But strange things kept happening after that. Among the workers, the Designer, the cooking Auntie, and even the driver who delivered supplies, it was said that over a dozen people in total had seen a headless figure carrying an axe lurking nearby.

The previous boss hired a master to perform a ritual and spent a large sum of money to erect a Stone Carving to suppress the mountain. Unexpectedly, on the very day the ritual was completed, a worker died—coincidentally one of the workers who had clashed with the deceased. His body was found lying on a tree stump, his head missing.

Then came the second and third victims. The method of death was the same: the body was left there, the head mysteriously vanished. When the authorities searched the mountain for the heads, they once saw a black shadow carrying an axe trying to put a rotting head onto its shoulder. But the mountain was foggy, and the shadow vanished in an instant. In the end, only a few heads were recovered. The rumor that the villa was cursed by the Head Chopper spread like wildfire.

The investigation came to nothing. The master hired by the previous boss said the deceased was killing because he was looking for his own head, and he wasn't satisfied with any of the others. In a flash of inspiration, the previous boss had a Mask carved. Placing this headless, faceless statue actually managed to calm things down.

Later, the previous boss's business failed, and he sold the villa to the current owner.

When the new boss renovated the villa, he accidentally broke the head off the Head Chopper Demon Statue. Not long after, a guest at the villa died in the hot spring. The pool was filled with blood, but the head was gone.

After learning the full story, the new boss tried to find the statue's head but couldn't locate it anywhere. From then on, people died in the villa from time to time. First guests, then exorcists who came to drive away the evil, and detectives and police officers investigating the truth.

Thus, a rumor spread that anyone who entered the villa would be cursed by the Head Chopper. The matter caused a huge uproar. No one dared to come anymore, and even the staff quit. The boss simply closed the villa, never expecting that it would instead attract fearless thrill-seekers.

"Have you seen those bodies?" Xu Huo touched his neck. "Were they really headless?"

The Woodcutter stared at him darkly. "Not only headless, some didn't even have complete bodies."

"How terrifying!" Du Lanlan hugged her arms, then said to Huang Junjie, "You were really lucky."

The Players deeply agreed.

With this story, the missing background of the Head Chopper instance from the game introduction was now filled in. Since the incident started fifty years ago, it proved that the possibility of it being man-made was extremely low. There had to be some supernatural force at play.

As for this Woodcutter, he looked old, but fifty years ago he was just a child. Even if he had lived in the villa all along, he couldn't be the Head Chopper.

On the contrary, his inexplicable resurrection from the dead actually proved the existence of supernatural forces.

If it had nothing to do with the Head Chopper, there would be no reason to kill him.

The Players exchanged glances and decided to head back.

"I saw you hang yourself yesterday," Xu Huo suddenly said.

The Players, including the Woodcutter, all turned to stare at him at the same time.

Xu Huo grinned and stubbed out his cigarette. "Aren't you curious how you ended up locked in that wooden cabin?"

"A man who was clearly dead came back to life. How did you do it?"

The Players present both admired his boldness and were intensely curious as they looked at the Woodcutter. Perhaps the NPC's resurrection was the key to dealing with the Head Chopper!

The Woodcutter suddenly flew into a rage. "Nonsense! What dead man coming back to life! So it was you bastards who locked me in that room while I was sleeping soundly! Get lost!"

"Don't get so angry, patient," Xu Huo stood up lazily. "Dying from anger wouldn't be worth it."

The Woodcutter raised his axe. "Get out!"