Interrogation

Interrogation

"I've got nothing to say." The Woodcutter's face darkened. "I don't know anything about Players or being stranded. I've lived here my whole life."

Xu Huo clicked his tongue. His face was hidden in shadow, making his expression impossible to read. The next moment, the sharp edge of an iron shovel pressed against the Woodcutter's neck. His voice was cold. "Players have some strange abilities. Let's see if you can still come back to life after I cut your throat."

Only then did the Woodcutter panic. "You can't kill me! If you do, you'll never clear the game!"

"Weren't you the one who said you knew nothing?"

The Woodcutter forced a smile. "I can give you a hint for clearing the game, on the condition that you don't tell the other Players about this..."

The shovel pressed down without mercy.

Blood ran down the Woodcutter's neck. A garbled "uh, uh" sound came from his mouth as he stared at Xu Huo with wide eyes. After struggling for a moment, he finally gave in. "I... I'll talk..."

Xu Huo let go and stuffed the cigarette butt he hadn't finished into the Woodcutter's mouth. "Go on."

The Woodcutter sucked the cigarette butt dry before telling Xu Huo about himself.

He had entered Hot Spring Mountain Town Station two and a half months ago. Before that, he'd already been through two E-class instances, so he was something of a veteran. But he hadn't expected all the Players in his third instance to be abnormal. Apart from those killed by the Head Chopper Demon, nearly all the others had died at one another's hands. He'd only managed to survive by handing over all his items.

He'd kept his life, but when the instance ended, he received neither a Ticket nor a Return Ticket. He couldn't leave, so he was stuck at the Mountain Villa.

To get Tickets from the Players who came later, he disguised himself and stayed in the Wooden Cabin area.

With an Evolver's normal physical condition and the advantage of getting the jump on people, killing Players and taking their Tickets shouldn't have been hard. But after half a month at the Mountain Villa, green boils began appearing on his body, and he grew thinner and weaker. His physical abilities had nearly fallen back to an ordinary person's level.

Dozens of Players had come and gone, but he only dared target those who looked weakest. As it turned out, they were even worse off than he was. They had no Tickets, no items, no Potions—nothing. And when they died, their bodies didn't disappear when the instance reset. He had to bury them near the Wooden Cabin.

"Is your illness because you've been missing instances?" Xu Huo asked when he finished.

"How would I know?" the Woodcutter said irritably. "The first time I skipped an instance, the game told me I'd be forcibly sent into a random B-class instance three months later. The more times I skipped, the higher the danger level would be. I barely survived the E-class instances. A B-class instance would be a death sentence!"

"But there's nothing I can do if I can't get a Ticket. Do you think I wanted to kill people? Weren't we all honest, decent people before we entered the game..."

"What's your game mission?" Xu Huo interrupted him without a hint of sympathy.

The Woodcutter gritted his teeth. "Protect our heads."

Xu Huo frowned slightly. The Woodcutter had received the same instance mission and survived until the instance ended, but he hadn't obtained a Return Ticket. That meant he hadn't cleared it.

So simply surviving until the mission timer ran out didn't count as clearing the instance.

"How long has it been since you last took an Evolution Potion?" he asked.

"Three months..." The Woodcutter suddenly understood. "So it's because of the Evolution Potion! I got this strange illness because I stopped taking it!"

Xu Huo ignored his wailing, his thoughts already on something else.

Judging by when the Woodcutter had entered the instance, his symptoms had appeared only after he'd been off the Evolution Potion for at least a month. Players with an Evolution rate below ten percent had to take one Evolution Potion every month. Was this a side effect of the low-grade Potion, or a weakness caused by Evolution itself?

If the problem lay with the Potion alone, he could solve it by looking for a higher-grade one. But if Evolution itself made Players dependent on the Potion, then they'd never be able to escape its control for the rest of their lives.

This game really did lay traps for Evolvers everywhere.

Still, he could set this matter aside for now. Completing the instance mission was the priority.

If he couldn't clear the instance and get a Return Ticket, his only options were to remain trapped in the game or go straight into the next instance.

He asked a few more questions about the instance. When the Woodcutter could no longer provide any useful information, Xu Huo dispatched him without hesitation.

[Congratulations, Player Passerby A, on killing a Black Player. You may claim the dead Player's property, items, and Tickets. Please receive the Player's belongings.]

The moment the Woodcutter breathed his last, a game notification rang in Xu Huo's mind. He opened his Personal Panel, where the Woodcutter's Player information was listed.

[Player nickname: Professional Talent]

[Player type: Black Player]

[Occupation: Mourning Actor]

[Player level: E]

[ID: 285471]

[Evolution rate: 8%]

[Property: None]

[Ability: Die and Come Back to Life]

[Items: ① Sunny Rainy Belt ② Floating Balloon]

[Ticket holder: Empty]

The Player information had been simplified. Apart from property, items, and the Ticket holder, all the other sections were grayed out and couldn't be selected.

The Ability Xu Huo was most interested in came with no detailed explanation either. But since he couldn't obtain it, it wasn't that important.

He took out the items, and two realistic images immediately appeared in his own item inventory:

[Sunny Rainy Belt (Note: A belt forecast more accurate than the weather report. Watch the belt buckle's smile. A big smile means a big sunny day.)]

[Floating Balloon (Note: A balloon that loves the sky, but can't stray more than a hundred meters from the person who blew it up. An ideal item, full of enthusiasm and dreams, and blessed with unwavering loyalty.)]

One weather belt with no real precision and one tracking balloon with a limited range. They were indeed two pretty useless items with little practical value in a fight, but even little trinkets had their uses.

After collecting the items, Xu Huo buried the body and returned to the Mountain Villa.

According to the Woodcutter, before the Players arrived at the Mountain Villa after an instance began, the Head Chopper Demon had never appeared. Though he was a Player himself, and the instances had reset several times, the Head Chopper Demon seemed to overlook him as an outsider and had never attacked him of its own accord.

He'd assumed this was because he wasn't a Player in the current instance, which let him kill people outside the rules. But that wasn't the case. He had simply happened to confirm that the Head Chopper Demon must be among the Players every time.

Most of the murders at the Mountain Villa involved victims being decapitated. Some of the dead were missing limbs, too. Huang Junjie thought Players were imitating the killer, with the hunters and hunted evenly matched—that was why there were signs of struggle.

The theory made sense, but Xu Huo saw it differently. The missing limbs were simply another way of concealing the victims' identities.

There weren't just White and Black Players. There were also Cannibal Players. It was likely that the Player acting as the Head Chopper Demon happened to be a Cannibal Player. To conceal the evidence of feeding, he'd deliberately hidden the limbs. That would explain why bodies missing limbs appeared in clusters during certain periods—and why the pattern matched the instance's timeline.

He looked toward the Mountain Villa.

The lights over there had gone out once, then come back on after Huang Junjie and the others returned. If the Head Chopper Demon had been active, there should have been some sign of it by now.