Free Web NovelEvening came, and Yi Pei remained here without returning to her own room.
During this time, Xu Huo sat by the window, observing the outside through a gap in the curtain.
There wasn't much to see out there, anyway. The hotel sat at the dead end of a fork in the county road; a few more steps forward led to bare, flat terrain on both sides, with the forest further in the distance.
Directly across from the main entrance were a few households running businesses, but they had all closed up shop as soon as darkness fell.
There was a streetlight in front of the hotel, with the next one about twenty meters away. Now that it was just dark, the areas between the lights were already becoming indistinct, and no one was moving around.
The locals had long since shut their doors one after another, and the players wandering outside had also returned to the hotel.
As the night deepened, fog began to gather outside.
Yi Pei sat near the door. After enduring two hours of silence, she finally couldn't help herself. "It's almost midnight, isn't it? We probably can't see anything out there now."
Xu Huo shook his head at her, signaling her not to speak.
About three minutes later, someone knocked on his door.
Yi Pei shot to her feet and instinctively looked at Xu Huo. He walked to the door, stopping her from moving to check the peephole, and gripping the Sound-Muffling Figurine, asked, "Who is it?"
"It's me." The Administrator's voice came from outside. "I'm here to collect the payment."
Xu Huo stood behind the door, a silent smile crossing his face. "How do you prove you're who you say you are?"
There was a pause from outside. "How else can I prove it? Can't you just look?"
Yi Pei thought it was her turn to act and edged forward slightly, but before her hand could even touch the peephole cover, Xu Huo suddenly yanked the door open and dragged the Administrator inside!
The shock on the Administrator's face instantly twisted into terror, but when he turned back to look, the door had already closed without a sound, and Yi Pei stood blocking his path.
"What do you two think you're doing?" The Administrator blustered, his voice fierce but his resolve weak. "You've already caused me enough trouble during the day! Don't you know when to quit?!"
"Don't be nervous." Xu Huo didn't seem as agitated as he had been during the day. Instead of resorting to violence, he let go of him. "I just want to ask you a few simple questions."
"I don't know anything!" The Administrator shouted for Yi Pei to move. "If you don't back off, I'll call for help!"
"If I were you, I wouldn't scream." Xu Huo's voice came from behind him. "If the other players find out you're the one knocking on doors at night, you won't survive."
The skin on the Administrator's face twitched. He tried to play dumb and bluff his way out, but Yi Pei grabbed the back of his neck and shoved his face toward the peephole. "Since that's the case, how about you take a look yourself?"
She made a move as if to open the peephole cover, but the Administrator had already instinctively shut his eyes the moment she pressed him forward, screaming, "I'm from Sifang Palace! I'm blessed by the god! If you dare to treat me like this, you'll die! And those people from today! They'll all die!"
"Crack!" Yi Pei snapped his shoulder bone with one hand. After he finished screaming in agony, she said, "Call on your precious god to save you then."
The Administrator's face was slick with sweat, and he trembled like a leaf in the wind, but he didn't back down verbally, repeatedly chanting words like "god" and "punishment."
Xu Huo signaled Yi Pei to let him go. Looking down at the man who had gone weak at the knees and collapsed to the floor, he said, "The people of Sifang Palace are so tight-lipped about the god they worship. This can't just be a matter of being timid or afraid to die."
"You worship a god yourselves, but you're afraid to look at it, and you're terrified of mirrors. This god of yours must have something to do with eyes, right?"
"You don't have to tell me the truth. I'll ask, and you just nod or shake your head."
The Administrator huddled against the door, clutching his arm. "I don't know anything... Don't ask me..."
Xu Huo grabbed his head and lifted it, staring into his face. "Besides the tourists who come here, quite a few locals from Sifang Palace have died too."
"That means even without visitors, people still go missing around here."
"Whether it's an outsider or one of your own, anyone can become a target. It's better for outsiders to die than your own people, right? That's why you trick guests into your homes and hotels—so they'll see the statue and take your place, isn't it!"
The Administrator's pupils contracted, his face shifting through several shades of color.
Seeing this, Xu Huo let out a cold laugh. He dragged the man straight into the bathroom and slammed his head—covered with a towel—against the mirror, with just enough force to crack the surface but not shatter it.
"Stop! Please stop!" the Administrator screamed in panic.
"Is the statue hidden behind the mirror?" Xu Huo pressed down harder.
The Administrator didn't dare open his eyes, begging nonstop.
Xu Huo's eyes darkened. He reached out to pull away the towel. Sensing the movement, the Administrator cracked open his eyelids, and then his eyeballs started twitching wildly. "I'll die! I'll die! I'll die...!"
Within seconds, veins bulged on his forehead, his eyes were bloodshot, and his gaze went rigid as he stared straight ahead. A look of sheer terror spread across his face, and then he suddenly wrenched himself free from Xu Huo's grip and lunged toward the wall!
Xu Huo wasn't about to let him die so easily. He knocked him unconscious and laid him flat on the floor.
Even though the unconscious Administrator had blood on his face, he looked much more normal than before.
Yi Pei couldn't hide her surprise. "The locals aren't allowed to speak the truth about it... No wonder those people couldn't spill a single useful thing, even when dying at the hands of players."
"I didn't expect this god to be so powerful. It's making me a bit curious about what the statue actually looks like."
As she spoke, she actually started moving toward the mirror.
"What are you doing?" Xu Huo quickly slapped her hand away.
Yi Pei hesitated. "I'm just curious. Besides, don't you want to know what this so-called god really is?"
"The situation is different now," Xu Huo said in a grave tone.
The danger level of the god worshiped in Sifang Palace far exceeded his expectations.
The guesthouse requiring solo check-ins—that was actually a form of self-protection for the locals. They were absolutely no match for the players. If more than one person stayed in a room, there was a chance that one would fall victim while the other didn't. As long as one person survived, the locals would never get off easy. But with lone-wolf players, even if they disappeared, no one would immediately come looking for trouble.
Of course, this was also a way to avoid the statue. Just like the players staying at the hotel, a lone person would vanish without a trace after being targeted, not dragging anyone else into it.
The hotel's layout was different. Apart from the peephole, the mirrors and relief sculptures could all cause multiple players to be affected simultaneously.
That sounded impossible on the surface. If the "trigger condition" for the dungeon's killing mechanism was "seeing" the statue, then simply "not looking" should be enough—close your eyes, avert your gaze. Even if you were in the same room, it wouldn't be that hard to avoid it.
But there was a catch. Would simply "closing your eyes" or "averting your gaze" really mean you "didn't see" the statue?
It wasn't about seeing it in the literal sense. Perhaps the statue itself had the power to draw one's gaze, or merely being exposed in the same space could satisfy the condition of "seeing." It was the same principle as an item.
You Jun and Wei Xian had been in the same room. The former had vanished while the latter remained unharmed. It wasn't impossible that Wei Xian had a high-level item, but if there was something in that room that couldn't be seen by two people at the same time, the only candidate was the peephole.
