Chapter 22: The Curse
The hunched back was much shorter than the dangling corpse from yesterday, but the face was indeed the same one whose tongue had been stuffed back into its mouth. The bluish complexion now looked no different from a normal person's.
There was a heartbeat, breathing—he was alive.
The noose still lay discarded to the side, and the lock on the wooden door was broken.
Even Xu Huo found it hard to believe. He had checked yesterday—the man was definitely dead. Yet after one night, he had resurrected himself.
The woodcutter paid them no mind, turning his head back to continue splitting firewood.
"Is he human or a ghost?" Abel raised his cross high.
"He's human, I think. He has a shadow," Wan Zhikang said hesitantly.
"I think he's the Headchopper from last night. Damn it, still trying to play tricks!" Zhang Xiong clenched his fists, ready to charge over. Huang Junjie frowned and held him back, his gaze sweeping over the woodcutter.
The rich kid sneered, picked up a piece of firewood, weighed it in his hand, and exchanged a glance with Liu Yuanyuan. The two of them walked toward the woodcutter, whose back was turned to them.
"Old man, how long have you lived here?" Xu Huo suddenly cut in from the side, interrupting the two as they tried to strike up a conversation with the woodcutter.
The woodcutter turned his head, hesitated when he saw the cigarette offered, then took it. Using Xu Huo's lighter, he lit the cigarette, took a couple of puffs while sitting on a stump, and said, "Quite a few years. Been here since the villa was built."
"I can see the villa's been around for a while. No one lives here now. Don't you get bored living here alone? Ever thought about going out for a stroll?" Xu Huo sat down beside him.
"What's the point of going out? Never left even when I was with my family. Now that I'm dying of illness, I don't have the strength."
Xu Huo glanced at his neck. "Medical technology is advanced now. Even terminal illnesses can be cured."
The woodcutter pointed to a new grave not far away. "My daughter went for treatment. She still died. The whole family is buried here. I'll be buried here sooner or later too."
"Keeping the whole family together is the most important thing." Xu Huo nodded. "I'll be staying here for a few days. If you die, I'll bury you."
The woodcutter stared at him expressionlessly. After a couple of seconds, he continued, "You're here for the adventure too, aren't you? I suggest you leave quickly."
"Old man, do you know the legend about this villa?" Xia Guo leaned in. "I heard there's a Headchopper here. Aren't you afraid?"
"What's there to fear for someone about to die?" The woodcutter shook his head. "You young people have the biggest guts, doing anything for thrills. Let me tell you, this villa is cursed. Anyone who comes looking for the Headchopper will die."
"I remember a few young people came not long ago. In the end, their bodies were taken away by the crematorium."
Two audible gulps sounded in the air. Xia Guo pressed further, "No one did anything? They just called the crematorium to take them away?"
The woodcutter's eyelids drooped. "Couldn't even find the heads. Where else would they go but the crematorium?"
"You've lived here long enough. You must know plenty of stories about the Headchopper. Tell us about them." Xu Huo waved over Yuan Yao and stuffed the half-pack of cigarettes he had hidden on him into the woodcutter's hands.
The woodcutter reluctantly accepted them, seemingly oblivious to the players' wary gazes, and slowly began recounting the tales of the Headchopper.
Fifty years ago, before this place was developed, there were still some residents. At the time, the previous owner of the villa had bought this hill to build a leisure resort. Those few households refused to leave and clashed with the workers sent to cut down trees. Somehow, one of them ended up hitting an axe, and his head, along with his neck, was chopped clean off.
After settling the compensation, the project, which had been shelved for a while, restarted. But strange things kept happening. Among the workers, designers, even the cook and the driver delivering supplies, more than a dozen people reportedly saw a headless figure carrying an axe lurking nearby.
The previous owner hired a master to perform rituals and spent a fortune erecting a stone statue to suppress the evil. But on the very day the ritual ended, a worker died—coincidentally, one of the workers who had clashed with the deceased. The body was found lying on a stump, the head missing.
Then came the second and third victims, all dying the same way: the body left behind, the head mysteriously vanishing. When officials searched the mountain for the heads, they once saw a black shadow carrying an axe placing a rotting head on its shoulder. But the mountain was thick with fog, and the shadow vanished in an instant. Only a few heads were eventually recovered. The rumor that the villa was cursed by the Headchopper spread like wildfire.
The investigation fizzled out. The master hired by the previous owner said the deceased kept looking for his head and that was why he killed—he wasn't satisfied with any other heads. In a stroke of inspiration, the previous owner had a mask carved. Placing this headless, faceless statue actually calmed things down.
Later, the previous owner's business failed, and he sold the villa to the current owner.
When the new owner renovated the villa, he accidentally broke off the head of the Headchopper statue. Not long after, a guest at the villa died in the hot spring. The pool was filled with blood, but the head was gone.
After learning the full story, the new owner tried to find the statue's head but couldn't. From then on, people died in the villa from time to time—first guests, then exorcists hired to drive out the evil, then detectives and police officers investigating the truth.
Word spread that anyone who entered the villa would be cursed by the Headchopper. The commotion grew so loud that no one dared come anymore. Even the staff quit. The owner simply closed the villa, never expecting that it would instead attract thrill-seekers unafraid of death.
"Have you seen those bodies?" Xu Huo touched his neck. "Really headless?"
The woodcutter stared at him darkly. "Not just headless. Some bodies weren't even complete."
"How terrifying!" Du Lanlan hugged her arms, then said to Huang Junjie, "You're really lucky."
The players nodded in agreement.
With this story, the missing background of the Headchopper instance in the game introduction was now filled in. Since the events started fifty years ago, it proved that the possibility of human intervention was very slim. There had to be supernatural forces at play.
As for this woodcutter, he looked old, but fifty years ago, he was just a child. Even if he had lived in the villa all along, he couldn't be the Headchopper.
On the contrary, his inexplicable death and resurrection actually proved the existence of supernatural forces.
If it had nothing to do with the Headchopper, there was no need to kill him.
The players exchanged glances and decided to head back.
"I saw you hanging yourself yesterday," Xu Huo suddenly said.
The players, including the woodcutter, all turned to stare at him.
Xu Huo grinned and stubbed out his cigarette. "Aren't you curious how you ended up locked in that wooden hut?"
"How did someone who was clearly dead come back to life?"
The players present both admired his boldness and looked at the woodcutter with great curiosity. Maybe the NPC's resurrection was the key to dealing with the Headchopper!
The woodcutter suddenly flew into a rage. "Nonsense! What resurrection from the dead! So it was you bastards who locked me in that room while I was sleeping! Get lost!"
"Don't get so worked up, patient," Xu Huo said lazily as he stood up. "Dying from anger wouldn't be worth it."
The woodcutter raised his axe. "Get out!"