Statue

Statue

"Why did you deliberately provoke that NPC?" Huang Junjie asked on their way back to their rooms.

"I was just curious," Xu Huo said. "He didn't seem stupid. Maybe we could've gotten something out of him."

"Instead, you got nothing and made an enemy." Wan Zhikang shot him a scornful glance. "You can't even play a game with your brain switched on."

"We're going to search the villa and look for food while we're at it. Why don't we go together?" Du Lanlan came over to invite them, though her main interest was Huang Junjie.

Xu Huo didn't plan to go with them, so he left with Yuan Yao.

The villa wasn't small, but there were only a few places they could search: the rooms, the dining hall, and the warehouse. Apart from those, the surrounding area was all dense greenery, making it difficult to move through.

Xu Huo estimated the distance from the villa to the Wooden Cabin from afar, then went to check outside Huang Junjie's courtyard. There were no traces apart from the fresh footprints left by players who had come to investigate.

Back in the main lobby, he picked up a handwritten guest register from behind the counter and read through it from start to finish.

"Xu, what's so interesting about the register? They're all names we don't recognize." Yuan Yao had failed to get the old computer working and said, disappointed, "I wanted to see if there was any news on it. If we'd been able to bring our phones in, maybe we could've looked up some information."

"Even if we'd brought our phones, there'd be no signal. The game wouldn't let players find a loophole." Xu Huo put down the register and headed for the warehouse. Earlier, when Wang Wei had come back from there, he'd mentioned that it was full of junk guests had left behind.

It was mostly worthless belongings from deceased guests, like clothes and shoes. Because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the deaths, no one had claimed some of their personal effects, so they'd been left in the warehouse.

The warehouse had been ransacked. Players had already gone through every book, notebook, and other item with writing that might contain useful information. Now they lay scattered across the floor.

In a corner was a pile of moldy newspapers. Xu Huo went straight over and began searching through them.

Yuan Yao helped for a while, but the smell soon got to him, so he moved on to sort through what the other players had left behind.

"Would you look at that, there's a diary here." Yuan Yao held up a green notebook. After flipping through a few pages, he was about to toss it aside. "It's all over the place. I can't even tell what it's about."

"Let me see." Xu Huo looked up.

Yuan Yao hurriedly handed him the diary.

The beginning was fairly normal. The writer was related to the villa's current owner and had started working there full of ambition, hoping to make a name for herself. But when the Head Chopper Demon appeared, all her hopes came to nothing.

The entries that followed mostly described the gruesome deaths, along with her fear that she would one day be cursed and killed too. Eventually, the pages filled with words like "curse," "murder," and "death." The writing was disjointed, and it was clear the diary's owner had become mentally unstable.

"Find me the newspapers that reported on the Head Chopper Demon," Xu Huo said.

"Fifty years' worth? How are we supposed to look through all those..." Yuan Yao broke off, surprised. "There really aren't many about the Head Chopper Demon."

"The villa was renovated after a fire a few years ago. The newspapers on the floor are all from after that," Xu Huo said.

Besides, the newspapers had been delivered in bundles and dumped here unread.

The articles couldn't be too detailed, but some of the information matched what was in the diary.

"Xu, what exactly are you looking for?" Yuan Yao finally couldn't hold back from asking.

"Some of the people killed by the Head Chopper Demon only lost their heads, while others were missing limbs. If you look at the timing, there's a pattern to it."

"What does that mean?" Yuan Yao's face suddenly changed. He slapped his thigh. "Could the Head Chopper Demon be eating people too?"

Xu Huo glanced at him. Yuan Yao gave an awkward smile. "You carry on, you carry on."

Xu Huo picked up a pen and imitated the diary owner's handwriting, adding a few sentences between the lines.

"Everyone who touched the statue will die..." Yuan Yao watched him write in the diary, bewildered. "Why are you doing that?"

"Just taking an extra precaution." Xu Huo tucked the diary under his arm. "Come on. Let's find the Head Chopper Demon's statue."

The other players were resting in the dining hall.

They'd spent half a day searching every place inside and outside the villa where someone might hide. They'd even checked the mirrors and wardrobes in the rooms, and only stopped once they'd confirmed there were no secret passages or rooms.

"Good thing there's a Small Supermarket by the dining hall, or we wouldn't have anything to eat." Liu Yuanyuan slurped up her vermicelli. "I think the Head Chopper Demon is probably hiding in the woods outside."

"I think so too." Abel gripped his Cross. "Let's go into the woods later."

"Go if you want. I'm not going." Wan Zhikang patted his stomach after eating his fill. "The Head Chopper Demon has killed so many people and still hasn't been caught. It can't be something ordinary people can handle. The game only requires us to survive five days, so why take the risk?"

"He has a point." Wang Wei pointed at the fog outside. "It looks like night even in broad daylight. What if we run into the Head Chopper Demon?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Zhang Xiong slapped the table. "There are more than ten of us. You're telling me we can't take down one Head Chopper Demon?"

"Evolution is one thing, but you saw it yourself: there's supernatural power in the Head Chopper Demon Dungeon. If it were that easy to fight the Head Chopper Demon, the game wouldn't have given us a survival mission." Wang Wei turned to Du Lanlan and Xia Guo. "It's not safe for two female players to stay alone. Don't take Wan Zhikang's words to heart. It'd be better if we all stayed together tonight."

"Watch your mouth!" Wan Zhikang shot to his feet. "I'm not giving those two women a hard time, and now you think you can take advantage of me? I don't have time to babysit two deadweights... Isn't there an Elite here? If he thinks he can handle it, let him do it."

Huang Junjie's expression darkened. "We're all in this together. Do you really want to make things this ugly?"

"Like hell we are!" Wan Zhikang fumed. "Who's in this together with you? The Head Chopper Demon will come for you first. You must've broken some taboo and been cursed. You, and those two women—don't think you're staying in the same room as me!"

Just as they were about to start fighting, the dining hall doors suddenly swung open from the outside. Xu Huo walked in carrying a huge chunk of blue-gray stone.

"You people have nothing better to do than haul rocks around?" Wan Zhikang snapped, already in a bad mood with everyone.

"This isn't an ordinary stone." Xia Guo was closest. As soon as the stone hit the ground, she brushed away the moss. "It looks like a statue!"

"A statue?" The players crowded around. Sure enough, though it had no head, the carvings on its clothes were visible from the front, and an axe hung beside its feet.

Everyone fell silent. Then Wan Zhikang cried out, "Could this be the cursed Headless Statue?"

"Where did you find it?"

"Why bring that thing here?"

Xu Huo had just lit a cigarette. He said slowly, "It was right at the crossroads we passed yesterday, looking like a stone bollard at first glance."

"Oh, and I found a diary too." He opened it. "It says that everyone who touched the statue will die."