Free Web NovelIt was only natural for players to go missing—didn’t the hotel have missing players too?
The difference was that at the hotel, players preyed on each other, while staying at a guesthouse meant you could use the locals as a shield.
“Are you two staying at a guesthouse today?” Tian Kunwen walked over and asked Xu Huo and Yi Pei.
Yi Pei hadn’t told Tian Kunwen and the others about last night’s incident, but since they were staying so close, Tian Kunwen and Fu Danhong both knew that Yi Pei had left Xu Huo’s room very late last night.
Fu Danhong cast a disdainful look at Yi Pei, while Tian Kunwen showed no reaction. Next to him, Wei Xian shot Xu Huo an extra glance.
“Someone came knocking again last night. I’m pretty sure I’m being targeted, so staying at the guesthouse is safer,” Xu Huo explained.
“The guesthouse might not be safe either,” Tian Kunwen added. “Someone went missing over there last night too.”
So far, the players didn’t even have a clear idea of how many people had actually come to this county town. The hotel had a registration book they could check, but the guesthouses were impossible to track. With at least a few hundred households here, if players didn’t come out, there was no way to investigate door to door.
The two groups parted ways, and Yi Pei asked Xu Huo which guesthouse he planned to stay at. “I’m going to the one I chatted with Fu Danhong about yesterday.”
Xu Huo nodded. That place had a man with shifty eyes, but for players, he was just an ordinary person. Yi Pei had her reasons for choosing that one.
The two walked down the street and happened to run into a player they’d met yesterday—not the one who’d been throwing punches, but the one who had taken his companion away from Xu Huo.
Yesterday, they’d been sticking together, but today, only one remained.
That man gave Xu Huo a cold glare, then walked past him expressionlessly. But the moment they were just a few steps apart, the player silently circled around behind Xu Huo and shot a beam of white light from his palm!
“Boom!” The white light struck the Moving Metal as if it had physical mass, and the next second, Xu Huo vanished from his spot, reappearing right in front of the player!
The man’s face showed shock as he instinctively tried to retreat, but when he looked down, he realized his legs seemed detached from his body.
In that instant, Xu Huo had already tapped him on the shoulder and then distanced himself.
Powder poured from the man’s clothes in a steady stream. His face paled as he looked up in shock.
Having melted the metal protective suit under the man’s clothing, Xu Huo smiled and asked, “Did your friend go missing?”
The man’s gaze darkened. He slapped his leg hard, breaking free from the immobilized state, then scaled the nearby courtyard wall in two steps. Leaping two zhang high, he raised a sledgehammer with both hands and brought it crashing down toward Xu Huo!
The hammer wasn’t large in size, but the airflow it stirred created a crushing pressure field several times its own mass. Even Yi Pei, standing nearby, felt her shoulders weighed down.
“Ding!” Xu Huo remained in place, raising his Lighter toward the opponent.
In the blink of an eye, the man who had been soaring through the air just a second ago turned into a firebird, crashing to the ground with his item still in hand as he rolled endlessly!
His screams drew several players and nearby residents. Xiao Yun squeezed out from the crowd and urged urgently, “What are you standing around for? Save him!”
Only then did the people around snap into action, tossing bucket after bucket of water onto the player.
The raging flames that had erupted three meters in an instant might not have seriously injured the player, but they would give him a harsh lesson if he lacked defensive items protecting his body.
Under Xiao Yun’s direction, everyone scrambled to carry the man away. Someone asked, “How could a perfectly healthy person just catch fire like that?”
“Maybe he did something that invited divine punishment,” Xu Huo said. “Could be he offended the god you all worship.”
“Smack!” The stretcher that had just been lifted was dropped back to the ground in a second. The surrounding residents stared down at the man from above, different faces, yet the same gaze—like they were looking at a corpse.
“Is it just me, or...” Yi Pei stepped closer to Xu Huo and lowered her voice, “Do these people seem more sluggish than they were the day before yesterday?”
Just as she finished speaking, a few middle-aged women nearby spat at the burned player and cursed at the top of their lungs, “You clueless little beast! You deserve to be burned! The god will come for you tonight!”
The injured player couldn’t defend himself, and there was no point in trying. He glanced at Xu Huo, standing a few meters away, then got up and ran off.
One of the women chased after him, shouting, “Everyone remember this little brat! Don’t let him stay in any house!”
The man cast one last hateful look back before hurriedly disappearing.
As soon as he was gone, the people around started gossiping again—how they’d slept last night, what they’d had for breakfast this morning, how their naughty kids had gotten a beating... All those mundane topics.
But if you looked closely, you’d notice that even as they chatted, their eyes kept darting toward the nearby players.
It was a kind of gaze that made you deeply uncomfortable. Just turning your head, you’d catch several people staring at you with unwavering focus. Yet in the blink of an eye, they’d snap back to normal, making you wonder if you’d imagined it.
Yi Pei only had a vague sense of it. “Are we still staying at the guesthouse?”
“The hotel might not be safe either.” Xu Huo glanced at the gray sky. “It might rain later.”
Yi Pei frowned. “Nothing good ever happens when it rains in a dungeon.”
Xu Huo nodded and parted ways with her. He went to the old man and his granddaughter’s courtyard, setting down a stack of White Bills and a bag of snacks.
The little girl didn’t care much about the White Bills, but she stared at the snacks, swallowing hard.
The old man’s expression was pained. After a long hesitation, he said, “I don’t have a good room for you to stay in.”
“I’ll take the main hall. I just need a place to rest.” Xu Huo glanced at the side door, which had been locked again, and gave the little girl another hundred bucks. “Go buy some dishes from the restaurant. I’m treating you to lunch.”
This time, the little girl didn’t wait for her grandfather’s nod before grabbing the money and running out.
The old man sat at the doorway with a silent sigh, then continued his work. The courtyard was quiet inside and out, filled only with the rasping sound of a file scraping against wood.
After lunch, Xu Huo planned to head out again. The old man glanced at him. “Don’t go near the pond in the woods. That’s where they bury the dead. It’s bad luck.”
Xu Huo thanked him over his shoulder, opened his umbrella, and strolled leisurely toward the woods.
The drizzle came down densely, the light dimmer than in the morning. In the distance, large masses of dark clouds were gathering, threatening to make the rain heavier.
He hadn’t gone far into the woods past the end of the hotel when several players surrounded him. The leader was the curly-haired player, Fang Penghui.
“Something wrong?” Xu Huo looked at him.
“The couple who just arrived yesterday is dead,” Fang Penghui said. “They followed you into the woods.”
“Were you friends with them?” Xu Huo asked in return.
“No,” Fang Penghui said. “And I’m not here to pick a fight. I just want to know what really happened here last night and how you managed to walk out alive.”
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. “Looks like you’re pretty sure I didn’t kill them?”
Fang Penghui paused. “They died in a terrible way.”
