Interrogation

Chapter 26: Interrogation

"I have nothing to say." The Woodcutter's face darkened. "I don't know anything about players or being stranded. I've lived here since I was a child."

Xu Huo let out a "tsk," his face hidden in shadow, his expression unreadable. But the next second, the sharp edge of the iron shovel pressed against the other man's neck, his tone cold: "Players do have some peculiar traits. Let's try cutting off your neck and see if you can come back to life."

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

"So you do know something?"

The Woodcutter forced a smile. "I can give you tips to clear the instance, but you have to promise not to tell the other players..."

The iron shovel pressed down without mercy.

Blood flowed from his neck. The Woodcutter let out garbled, guttural sounds, his eyes fixed on Xu Huo. After struggling for a moment, he had no choice but to yield: "I'll... talk..."

Xu Huo released his grip and shoved the unfinished cigarette butt into the man's mouth. "Talk."

The Woodcutter took a fierce drag on the cigarette before starting his story.

He had entered Hot Spring Mountain Town Station two and a half months ago. Before that, he had already been through two E-class instances, so he considered himself a veteran. But he never expected that the players in his third instance wouldn't be normal. Aside from those killed by the Head Chopper Demon, almost all the other players died at each other's hands. He only survived by handing over all his items.

He saved his life, but when the instance ended, he got neither a Ticket nor a Return Ticket. Unable to leave, he was stuck in the Mountain Villa.

To get a Ticket from later players, he disguised himself and stayed near the Wooden Cabin.

Under normal physical conditions for an Evolver, with his head start, it wouldn't have been hard to kill players and snatch their Tickets. But after half a month in the villa, green pustules started appearing on his body. He grew thinner, and his physical abilities dropped back to ordinary human levels.

Dozens of players had come and gone. He only dared to target the ones who looked weakest, but those people were even worse off than him. Forget Tickets—they had no items, no potions, nothing. And after they died, their bodies didn't disappear with the instance refresh, so he had to bury them near the Wooden Cabin.

"The sickness on your body—is it because you missed the instance?" Xu Huo asked after listening.

"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 B-class random instance in three months. The more instances I miss, the higher the danger level. I barely survived E-class instances. Wouldn't a B-class one just mean death?"

"But I can't get a Ticket either. Do you think I want to kill people? Before the game, I was an honest, decent person too..."

"What was your game mission?" Xu Huo interrupted him coldly.

The Woodcutter gritted his teeth. "Protect My Head."

Xu Huo frowned slightly. The instance mission was the same. The Woodcutter had survived until the instance ended, yet he didn't get a Return Ticket. That meant he hadn't cleared it.

So simply surviving until the mission time ended didn't count as clearing.

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

"Three months..." The Woodcutter suddenly realized. "So it's because of the Evolution Potion. Not drinking it caused this strange disease!"

Xu Huo ignored his howling, his mind on something else.

Based on when the Woodcutter entered the instance, his symptoms appeared at least a month after he stopped using the Evolution Potion. Players with an evolution rate below ten percent had to take one bottle of Evolution Potion every month. Was this a side effect of low-grade potions, or a weakness inherent to evolution itself?

If it was just a potion issue, finding a higher-grade one could solve it. But if evolution itself created a dependency on the potion, then players could never break free from its control.

This game really was digging pits for Evolvers at every turn.

Still, that could wait. Completing the instance mission came first.

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

He asked a few more details about the instance until the Woodcutter had nothing useful left to say, then sent him on his way cleanly.

[Congratulations, Player Passerby A, for killing a Black Player. You may obtain the deceased player's property, items, and Ticket. Please accept the player's legacy.]

The moment the Woodcutter breathed his last, the game notification rang in Xu Huo's mind. He opened his personal panel, which displayed the Woodcutter's player information.

[Player Nickname: Professional Talent]

[Player Type: Black Player]

[Occupation: Mourning Actor]

[Player Level: E]

[ID: 285471]

[Evolution Rate: 8%]

[Property: None]

[Traits: Die and Come Back to Life]

[Items: ① Sunny Rainy Belt ② Floating Balloon]

[Ticket Holder: Empty]

The player information was simplified. Aside from Property, Items, and Ticket Holder, all other fields were grayed out and unselectable.

Xu Huo was most interested in the Trait, but there was no detailed explanation. Since he couldn't acquire it, it wasn't that important.

He took out the items, and his own item panel immediately gained two realistic icons:

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

[Floating Balloon (Note: A balloon that loves the sky, but it can't leave the person who blew it up by more than a hundred meters. A perfect item with passion, dreams, and loyalty.)]

A weather belt with zero precision and a positioning balloon with limited range—two truly useless items. Not much use in actual combat, but small gadgets had their own clever applications.

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

According to the Woodcutter, the Head Chopper Demon had never appeared before the players arrived at the Mountain Villa after the instance opened. Although he was also a player, after several instance resets, the Head Chopper Demon seemed to ignore him as an outsider and never actively attacked him.

He believed this was because he didn't belong to the current instance's player pool, allowing him to kill outside the rules. However, that wasn't the case—he merely happened to prove that the Head Chopper Demon should be among the players each time.

In the murders at the Mountain Villa, most deaths involved decapitation, but some victims were missing limbs. Huang Junjie believed this was players imitating the crime, with hunters and prey evenly matched, leading to struggles and fights.

This theory had some merit, but Xu Huo thought differently: the missing limbs were just another way to conceal identity.

Besides the black and white players, there were also Cannibal Players. It was simply that the player playing the Head Chopper Demon happened to be a Cannibal Player. To cover up the traces of feeding, they deliberately hid those limbs, resulting in a concentrated period of mutilated corpses, which also matched the instance's time pattern.

He looked up toward the Mountain Villa.

The lights there went out once, then came back on after Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao returned. If the Head Chopper Demon had been active, there should have been some sign by now.