Lust for Blood

Chapter 29: Lust for Blood

"Du Lanlan and Xia Guo died so horribly. Who among us could have done that?"

"Head Chopper Demon's been appearing and disappearing without a trace. Maybe he deliberately used a smoke bomb to confuse us and make us turn on each other!"

"You've forgotten that anyone who touched the Head Chopper Demon Statue gets cursed. Xia Guo died tonight, too. Doesn't that prove anything?"

Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao instinctively glanced at Xu Huo. He only said, "I don't think Du Lanlan ever touched it."

"So what? Head Chopper Demon just happened to get a double kill." Liu Yuanyuan inspected her nails, utterly unconcerned. "You grown men have nothing better to do than try to reason with a murderer?"

"Did any of you notice what Du Lanlan was doing?" The rich second-generation heir looked around at everyone, then fixed his gaze on Wan Zhikang.

Wan Zhikang wiped his sweat. When he saw everyone staring at him again, his face fell. "Why are you looking at me? I'm no peeping tom. How would I know what she did?"

The others all shook their heads, and the courtyard suddenly fell silent.

"Since that's settled, let's split up. A few people can stay and take care of Du Lanlan and Xia Guo, while the rest go fix the wiring." Huang Junjie brought the round of mutual suspicion to an end and volunteered to deal with the bodies.

The other players looked at one another. They kept their thoughts to themselves, but each had their own calculations.

In the end, Zhang Xiong, two others, and Wang Wei went to fix the wiring. Xu Huo and Yuan Yao stayed behind to help, while the rich second-generation heir left with Liu Yuanyuan. The college student stayed crouched off to the side, not moving.

With their heads gone, Du Lanlan and Xia Guo couldn't be buried as they were, but they couldn't be left beside the hot spring pool, either. Xu Huo and Yuan Yao lifted the mattress and laid the bodies on the wooden boards, then covered them with bedsheets.

Glancing back at the college student, who sat on the threshold wiping away tears, Xu Huo frowned. "Why are you crying?"

"Why does everyone pick on me? Do I really look that easy to bully?" The college student said bitterly, "I hid a knife so I could survive. I didn't kill or hurt anyone. What gives them the right to bully me?"

Yuan Yao patted his shoulder in sympathy. "What can we do? We're weak. This game is so cruel that one careless mistake can cost you your life. It's only natural for people to be cautious."

The college student glanced fearfully at the bedsheet on the bed, now damp with blood again, and fell silent.

Huang Junjie called Xu Huo out into the courtyard and got straight to the point. "How can you be sure Head Chopper Demon didn't do it?"

Xu Huo stared at him without answering.

He stayed silent for so long that Yuan Yao and the college student looked over, then followed his gaze to Huang Junjie.

Huang Junjie suddenly caught on. "You suspect Yuan Yao and me!"

"Brother Xu!" Yuan Yao cried out.

"Relax." Xu Huo took out his lighter but didn't pull out a cigarette. "I trust Yuan Yao."

Yuan Yao breathed a sigh of relief, immediately moved behind him, and glared at Huang Junjie as if they were united against him.

Huang Junjie gritted his teeth. "Then you should know if you ask him that I didn't have time to kill anyone."

Xu Huo grinned and reached out to pat his shoulder, but hit his wound instead. Huang Junjie instinctively knocked his hand away, his face turning deathly pale as he eyed Xu Huo warily.

"I'm joking." Xu Huo confirmed that the wound was real and that Huang Junjie hadn't used any special potion to heal it. Only then did he ask, "What do you think of Head Chopper Demon's strength?"

"Of course he's powerful," Huang Junjie said. "He knows this mountain villa better than anyone, appears and disappears without a trace, and kills without making a sound..."

His voice trailed off. He stared at Xu Huo, suddenly understanding, his expression complicated. "So that's it."

Yuan Yao scratched his head in confusion. "Brother Xu, what does that mean? Head Chopper Demon's powerful, so what?"

"If it were Head Chopper Demon, there'd be no need to touch the electric switch," Huang Junjie explained. "The first time the power went out wasn't an accident, either. Everyone reacted strongly and went straight to the main hall to meet up."

"The second time the power went out, we also assumed the switch had tripped. We waited a while before anyone came out. Then we met near the storage room, and finally, the sound drew us to this room."

"Exactly." Xu Huo nodded. "The biggest danger in this dungeon is Head Chopper Demon. It's no surprise when someone dies at his hands. There's no need to prove he exists. The power outage and knocking over the storage rack were only meant to prove that a certain player had been with the others."

"Isn't that just overcomplicating things?" Yuan Yao smacked his forehead.

"Who do you suspect?" Huang Junjie asked hurriedly.

Xu Huo turned toward the college student. The latter had been listening intently, and jumped when he suddenly met Xu Huo's gaze. "It really wasn't me! I came back with the knife before the power went out. Ask Wang Wei if you don't believe me. I went out while he was showering, and he must've heard me come back to my room. I even waited for him before leaving the room!"

"Did anyone see you hiding the knife during the day?" Xu Huo asked.

The college student hesitated. "I'm not sure. Everyone was looking for food then. If they'd seen me, would they have let me take the knife?"

"You suspect Wang Wei?" Huang Junjie thought there hadn't been enough time, since the college student was already back in his room when the power went out. Wang Wei had been in his room then, too.

"I'm not sure." Xu Huo continued, "But someone is killing people in Head Chopper Demon's name and deliberately gathering all the players together. They're trying to divert our attention and make us think the danger is coming from outside, not from another player."

This approach could work. Given the dungeon's setup, players would assume Head Chopper Demon was responsible when they saw a corpse. Even if they later began to suspect one another, the fact that they had all seen the body together would temporarily shore up that assumption. Players wouldn't readily turn on each other. By the time they realized what was going on, they might already have lost several players. Keep suspecting one another after that, and it would be hard to say if anyone would survive.

But if they assumed Head Chopper Demon was among the players, then every player would be a suspect. Players who could vouch for one another would form groups, and amid all the mutual suspicion, attacking someone who was alone would be difficult.

So next time, Head Chopper Demon would either appear in a group or take on several players at once. Either way, the situation would become clearer. At least it wouldn't be so easy to hide in the shadows and kill people anymore.

"There's another problem with that," Xu Huo said. "Someone might guess that Head Chopper Demon is one of us."

"What's the problem?" Huang Junjie asked, confused. Then he added, "Wait, are you saying there's no Head Chopper Demon at all?"

"That can't be right," Yuan Yao said. "The dungeon description says Head Chopper Demon has been here for decades."

The college student clutched his head, looking lost. "What are you talking about?"

"Head Chopper Demon is most likely a player." Xu Huo turned the lighter in his hand. "If you knew that, what would you do to complete the dungeon mission?"

Huang Junjie opened his mouth, then fell silent.

"Exactly." The lighter clicked alight, illuminating Xu Huo's face and dividing it into light and shadow. "I'd kill every other player."