The veteran players discreetly sized up the others when they heard this, while the newcomers who had only entered a few instances looked eager to volunteer.
Tang Cha looked at Ji Xun, hoping to ask his opinion with a glance, only to see Ji Xun give an almost imperceptible shake of his head.
Seeing that none of the veterans responded, a newcomer named Wan Mingfei told the butler, "I can help!"
The butler sighed in relief and smiled. "Wonderful. Sorry for the trouble."
When Wan Mingfei heard the notification announcing that he had accepted a side quest, he was so excited he almost bounced on the spot.
He figured a side quest in a B-rank instance couldn't be that hard. Once he received the reward and sold it to the Abyss, he wouldn't have to risk entering instances for quite a while.
Wan Mingfei followed the butler into the kitchen with his head held high, not forgetting to mock the cowardly veterans.
"Chickens."
A veteran named Gu Rui shot back without hesitation, "Idiot."
Su Rang had once said that the penalties for failing side quests were extremely severe, and even if you completed them, the rewards were barely worth having.
Take the skullcap still gathering dust in Ji Xun's inventory.
Or little Hei Hei, who had gone off to play and still hadn't returned.
Wan Mingfei had been eagerly expecting to complete the side quest without a hitch, but once he entered the kitchen, the cook gave him a cold glance and frowned in distaste.
The butler smiled. "Thank you for your help."
With that, he left the kitchen. Wan Mingfei cautiously approached the cook and ventured, "What do I need to do?"
"Fine, this will have to do." The cook grabbed his wrist and pinned it against the chopping board.
Wan Mingfei immediately sensed trouble and tried to break free of the cook's grip.
But the cook's grip was far too strong. Wan Mingfei felt as though his wrist was about to be crushed.
Then, under Wan Mingfei's terrified gaze, the cook picked up the cleaver beside the chopping board and brought it down hard on his wrist!
"Aah-!"
Wan Mingfei's scream rang out from the kitchen.
The players sensed that something was wrong and hurried inside.
They found him rolling on the floor in agony, his hand cleanly severed at the wrist.
The culprit was holding the severed hand, smiling in satisfaction. "Now I have enough hands."
Tang Cha's pupils abruptly contracted. So that was what he had meant by being "short-handed."
Ji Xun looked at the butler, whose expression hadn't changed in the slightest. The man returned his gaze with an untroubled smile.
"Use an item," Gu Rui couldn't help reminding him.
The intense pain had dulled Wan Mingfei's reactions, but his survival instinct drove him to frantically search the shop for medicine that promoted limb regeneration.
It didn't work.
This was the penalty for failing the side quest.
He had no choice but to buy medicine to stop the bleeding and ease the pain, barely escaping that inhuman torment.
His face deathly pale and his forehead dripping with cold sweat, Wan Mingfei struggled to his feet and hurried to stand as far from the cook as possible.
The thought of eating food prepared by this man sent nausea churning up from every player's stomach.
Ji Xun observed the cook for a moment. He hadn't used Wan Mingfei's severed hand in the food; after chopping it off, he had placed it in a draining basket nearby.
Whether he wanted to drain the blood or had some other purpose was unclear.
Aside from that, all the ingredients he used were normal.
"The cleaver," Fang Rui said quietly.
According to the butler, the mistress had been killed with a cleaver.
Did that mean the cook was the murderer?
When it came time to choose rooms, the veterans were the first to claim spots on the third floor. After discussing it, Ji Xun and the others decided that all four of them would squeeze into one room and make do.
After all, no one knew whether something strange might get right in their faces and kill them during the night.
The quicker players had already claimed most of the second-floor rooms. Only one remained, beside the stairs on the right.
They pushed open the door and were greeted by an elegant European-style double bed.
Since Fang Rui was a woman, they decided she would sleep in the bed, Ji Xun would sleep on the floor, and Tang Cha and Lu Jiancheng would squeeze onto the sofa.
Originally, Tang Cha was supposed to sleep on the floor, but he had vehemently objected, declaring that underneath the bed was every ghost and monster's favorite haunt.
To this, Fang Rui said flatly, "This is a mystery-solving instance. There are no ghosts or monsters."
There was still half an hour until lunch.
Fang Rui took out her little notebook again. "What has everyone found?"
Tang Cha raised his hand. "I think the cook is highly suspicious."
Lu Jiancheng agreed. "Three people died, and only the cook and the butler survived. It's hard to say whether those two might have coordinated their stories."
Ji Xun said nothing, so Fang Rui asked, "Ji Xun, what have you found?"
Ji Xun thought for a moment and said, "I think... there's something wrong with the butler."
Tang Cha was taken aback.
Although they had considered the possibility that the butler and the cook might have coordinated their stories, deep down, they felt the butler was the least suspicious.
Ever since they entered the Thinking Forest Mansion, the butler had been unfailingly courteous and handled everything with great care.
Knowing there was a woman among them, he had even made a point of bringing over a brand-new nightdress.
Fang Rui asked, "How so?"
"Something feels off." Ji Xun frowned slightly. "Why did he ask a player to help the cook?"
The butler had always given them the impression of someone who behaved appropriately, so why would he ask guests visiting for the first time to help with the work?
"All right, I'll write that down."
Ji Xun's performance in the Uninhabited Village had long since made him the backbone of their group of four, so Fang Rui wrote, "The butler's behavior is inconsistent with his persona," in her notebook.
"The mistress was hacked to death with a cleaver. We can tentatively assume the cleaver belonged to the cook, but that doesn't necessarily make him the murderer. The master had no obvious external injuries and was found lying in the pool of blood beside the mistress. Generally speaking, there are only two possibilities for the cause of death: external injuries or internal injuries."
Tang Cha asked, "Then the master might have died from internal injuries?"
Fang Rui nodded. "But there are many kinds of internal injuries, too. Internal bleeding, organ failure, poisoning... we can discuss that later."
"There's also the maid who died on the iron soldier's spear. But maybe she just lost her footing?" Lu Jiancheng pointed out.
Fang Rui said, "Let me give you an example. If I were writing a murder mystery, I would decide who the real murderer was in advance, then work backward from the killer to design little plot details or loose ends that fleshed out the story."
Ji Xun understood. "You mean the maid's death was also part of the murder plan? Perhaps one of those 'loose ends.'"
Fang Rui nodded. "How could a maid responsible for cleaning the mansion lose her footing on the second-floor stairs and land precisely on the iron soldier's spear?"
Tang Cha suddenly understood. The system had told them to find the mistress's murderer, so they had unconsciously focused all their attention on her.
Perhaps the maid was the thread that would unravel the mystery.
Ding-ding-
It wasn't a system notification.
"Dear guests, it is time for lunch. Please come to the dining room on the first floor to enjoy the feast our chef has carefully prepared."
Before you continue