Headless

Chapter 27: Headless

However, the mountain villa was not as Xu Huo had imagined. The first power outage was due to a tripped breaker. Aside from Xu Huo, all the players had appeared. The scream came from Liu Yuanyuan, because Wan Zhikang had dropped a nail while rummaging through cabinets, and Liu Yuanyuan, feeling her way in the dark, stepped right on it. The two nearly came to blows over the incident.

Huang Junjie had originally thought that either the Head Chopper Demon or a disguised player would show up, but all the players were safe and sound, with no one attacked.

"Don't be so jumpy. This place hasn't been maintained for a long time; it's normal for the wiring to age."

After the lights came back on, the players returned to their original rooms one after another.

Zhang Xiong had stopped moving with Huang Junjie since the afternoon. He went to Wan Zhikang and Abel's room, while Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao returned to their room from the previous day.

"Why is this happening?" Huang Junjie's face was full of disappointment. "A perfect opportunity during a power outage, with fewer players in the villa, and the other side still doesn't make a move."

Yuan Yao kept a safe distance from him, and after listening to him mutter to himself for a while, said, "Let's go find Brother Xu."

"Did you know each other before?" Huang Junjie looked up at him.

"No."

"Why do you trust him so much?" Huang Junjie found it hard to believe. Many of Xu Huo's actions seemed very inexplicable, honestly just like the man himself—wearing a short-sleeved shirt and shorts, with hair that long, he didn't look like a normal person.

Yuan Yao was momentarily at a loss for words.

"It's not safe to go out now. I'm not planning to go out again." Huang Junjie lay down directly to rest.

Yuan Yao paced around the room a few times before finally sitting down as well.

Just as the two were dozing off, the electric light suddenly flickered with a buzzing sound, flashed on and off twice, and then plunged into complete darkness.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Xiong from the opposite room cursed as he slammed his door open and came out. "Tripped again! Can't you turn off a couple of lights at night? Nothing but looking for trouble!"

The sounds of doors opening and footsteps followed one after another. After waiting a while with no sign of the lights coming back on, Huang Junjie shot up. "Not good!"

The electrical panel was in a small storage room near the warehouse. When Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao ran over, Zhang Xiong and the rich second generation were standing in front of it with ugly expressions.

"What's going on?" Abel asked as he arrived later.

Several more people came over one after another. Huang Junjie's eyes locked onto them. "The wires have been cut. Who came out just now?"

"What do you mean? Suspecting one of us did it?" Wan Zhikang retorted sarcastically. "You'd better clean up your own mess first. How can you prove you didn't do it?"

The veins on Huang Junjie's forehead bulged. "Zhang Xiong and the others saw with their own eyes that I came from the direction of my room."

"The interval after the power outage was long enough for you to run out, do the deed, and run back to play the hero." Wan Zhikang sneered, crossing his arms.

"Could it be the Head Chopper Demon?" the university student asked. "Why would a player cut the wires?"

"If it were the Head Chopper Demon, that move would be way too low-class." Liu Yuanyuan curled her lip.

Huang Junjie suddenly came to his senses. "Who's missing?"

Everyone looked around. After a few seconds, Wang Wei said, "Du Lanlan and Xia Guo haven't come out!"

"Damn! They haven't been killed by the Head Chopper Demon, have they!" Yuan Yao exclaimed.

As his words fell, footsteps suddenly sounded from outside.

Footsteps heavier than a woman's were approaching the storage room, accompanied by the sound of something being dragged and scraping against the ground.

Listening to the sound getting closer, the players couldn't help but swallow. The rich second generation and Wang Wei each grabbed a mop and crept toward the door, one on each side.

Holding their breath for three seconds, they heard the sound nearing the entrance. Just as they were about to strike, a beam of strong light shone in first—the people inside were nearly blinded. Then the person at the door asked, "Why is everyone here?"

"What about Du Lanlan and Xia Guo?"

The crowd recognized Xu Huo's voice and breathed a sigh of relief at first, but then came the sound of furniture collapsing from the direction of Du and Xia's room!

The flashlight beam swept quickly and headed outside. The players hurriedly followed, nearly tripping at the doorway. Holding up a lighter, they saw it was a branch of plums, growing as lush as grapes. A kick sent it sticking to a shoe.

"Psycho!"

Several players cursed in unison.

Xu Huo, who was in front, had already violently broken down the door. The floor-to-ceiling windows in the room were wide open. As the air circulated, a thick smell of blood rushed toward them.

The room was empty. The group rushed straight to the courtyard outside. Under the flashlight's beam, they saw two people lying by the pool. Judging by their clothes, they were Du Lanlan and Xia Guo. They were face down at the edge, their shoulders and above completely blocked by rocks, blood flowing down their bodies into the hot spring pool.

Huang Junjie and a few others walked over one after another, but after just one look, they quickly averted their eyes, their expressions somewhat shattered.

Knowing about the Head Chopper Demon was one thing; seeing two headless corpses lying before them, with blood still gushing from the severed necks, was another. They didn't even have the courage to get closer.

"It's the Head Chopper Demon! It must be the Head Chopper Demon!" the university student stared at the blood-stained hot spring water, retreating in fear as he shouted. "It killed two players in the blink of an eye. We're no match for it! We're all going to die!"

Huang Junjie turned around and slapped him across the face. "Calm down! The Head Chopper Demon only dares to strike during a power outage, which means it's not confident it can take all of us at once!"

His words pulled the other players, still in shock, back to reality. Wan Zhikang forced himself to stay calm and said, "That's right. We just heard Du Lanlan and the others' voices. If it weren't afraid of us, the Head Chopper Demon wouldn't have run!"

Xu Huo glanced at him. "It might not necessarily be the Head Chopper Demon's doing."

The players turned to stare at him. Huang Junjie signaled him with his eyes not to say anything, but Xu Huo pretended not to see and said directly, "Besides the Head Chopper Demon, there are other people in the villa."

"Right, right!" Zhang Xiong suddenly remembered. "Wasn't there someone living in the wooden cabin?"

"Didn't Huang Junjie say that guy hanged himself again tonight?" Wang Wei hesitated. "Did he come back to life?"

"It's not him." Xu Huo crouched on a rock beside the corpse and lit a cigarette for himself, taking in the faces of all the players through the smoke. "I killed him."

The players' expressions changed drastically. Before they could press him for details, Xu Huo explained, "When he came back to life, he saw I was the only one there and tried to attack me. I sent him on his way."

He pointed to the mud on his shoes. "He's already buried. There's no way he's coming back to life."

Perhaps because his expression was too matter-of-fact, not like someone who had just been through a life-or-death struggle, the other players felt a bit unsettled. The looks they gave him were no longer as dismissive as before.

"Besides the Woodcutter and the Head Chopper Demon, aren't there still all these players in the villa?" Xu Huo took a deep drag on his cigarette. "What was everyone doing before and after the power outage?"