Chapter 23: The Statue
"Why did you deliberately provoke that NPC?" Huang Junjie asked on the way back to their lodging.
"Pure curiosity," Xu Huo said. "I could tell he wasn't stupid. Maybe I could've gotten something out of him."
"In the end, you got nothing and made an enemy instead." Wan Zhikang cast a disdainful glance at him. "You don't use your head when playing games either."
"We're going to search the manor and find some food. Want to come along?" Du Lanlan came over to invite them, mainly asking Huang Junjie.
Xu Huo didn't plan to go with them and left with Yuan Yao first.
The manor was large, but there were only a few places they could search: the rooms, the dining hall, and the warehouse. Aside from these three areas, the surroundings were all dense greenery, making it hard for anyone to walk through smoothly.
Xu Huo roughly measured the distance from the manor to the wooden cabin from afar, then went to check outside Huang Junjie's courtyard. Apart from the fresh footprints left by players who had come to investigate, there were no other traces.
Circling back to the front lobby, he picked up a handwritten guest registry from behind the counter and flipped through it from start to finish.
"Brother Xu, what's there to see in the registry? All unfamiliar names." Yuan Yao failed to turn on the old computer and said disappointedly, "I was hoping to find some news on it. If we could bring our phones in, maybe we could look up some info."
"Even if you brought your phone in, there'd be no signal. The game won't let players exploit loopholes." Xu Huo put down the registry and headed to the warehouse. Earlier, when Wang Wei came back from there, he mentioned it was piled with junk the guests hadn't taken.
It was basically worthless stuff like clothes and shoes left by deceased guests—due to the special nature of the cases, some personal items had no one to claim them and were just dumped in the warehouse.
The warehouse was in a mess. Books, notebooks, and other written items that might contain useful information had all been rifled through by players and were now scattered on the floor.
In a corner of the warehouse was a pile of moldy newspapers. Xu Huo went straight over and started digging through them.
Yuan Yao followed and flipped through some for a while but couldn't stand the smell, so he switched to picking through the leftovers other players had discarded.
"There's actually a diary here." Yuan Yao held up a green notebook, flipped a few pages, and was about to toss it. "It's incoherent. No idea what it's saying."
"Let me see." Xu Huo looked up.
Yuan Yao quickly handed the diary over.
The diary started off normally. The person writing it was a relative of the current manor owner, full of ambition when they first started working, wanting to make a mark. But after the Headchopper appeared, those good hopes were completely shattered.
The rest of the content was basically the gruesome details of each death and their fear that they too would one day be cursed and killed. Toward the end, the pages were filled with words like "curse," "kill," and "death," the content chaotic, clearly showing the writer's mental state had deteriorated.
"Find the newspapers with reports about the Headchopper," Xu Huo said.
"Fifty years' worth, front and back. How can we go through that many..." Yuan Yao's voice trailed off, and he said in surprise, "There really aren't that many about the Headchopper."
"The manor was renovated a few years ago after a fire. The newspapers on the floor are all from after that," Xu Huo said.
Besides, the bundled newspapers that were delivered had never been read and were just dumped here.
The newspaper content couldn't be too detailed, but some information matched the diary.
"Brother Xu, what exactly are you looking for?" Yuan Yao couldn't hold back and asked.
Xu Huo said, "Some of the people killed by the Headchopper only lost their heads, while others had missing limbs. Just looking at the timeline, there's a certain pattern."
"What does that mean?" Yuan Yao's face suddenly changed, and he slapped his thigh. "The Headchopper doesn't eat people, does it!"
Xu Huo glanced at him, and Yuan Yao sheepishly said, "You go ahead, you go ahead."
Xu Huo picked up a pen and, imitating the diary owner's handwriting, added a few lines in the text.
"Anyone who touches the statue will die..." Yuan Yao watched him add words to the diary and said in surprise, "Why do that?"
"Double insurance." Xu Huo tucked the diary under his arm. "Come on, let's go find the Headchopper's statue."
In the cafeteria, the other players were resting.
They had spent half a day turning the manor inside out, checking every possible hiding spot, even confirming that the mirrors and wardrobes in the rooms had no secret passages or hidden compartments.
"Good thing there's a small supermarket near the dining hall, or we wouldn't have any food." Liu Yuanyuan slurped her noodles. "I think the Headchopper is probably hiding in the woods outside."
"I think so too." Abel held a cross. "Let's go into the woods later."
"You go if you want. I'm not going." Wan Zhikang patted his belly, full and satisfied. "The Headchopper has killed so many people and never been caught. It's definitely not something ordinary people can handle. Anyway, the game only asks players to survive five days. Why take the risk?"
"That's true." Wang Wei pointed at the fog outside. "It looks like night even in broad daylight. What if we run into the Headchopper?"
"Scared of what!" Zhang Xiong slammed the table. "There are over a dozen of us. Can't we take on one Headchopper?"
"Evolution is one thing, but you've seen it—the Headchopper instance has supernatural elements. If it were that simple to fight him, the game wouldn't give a survival task." Wang Wei turned to Du Lanlan and Xia Guo. "Two female players living alone isn't safe. Don't mind Wan Zhikang. It'd be better for all of us to stay together tonight."
"Can you talk right?" Wan Zhikang sat up abruptly. "I'm not picking a fight with two women, and you think you can push me around? I don't have the time to babysit two dead weights... Isn't there an elite here? If he's so capable, let him handle it."
Huang Junjie's face darkened. "We're all in the same boat. Do you have to make things this tense?"
"Pah!" Wan Zhikang's anger flared. "Who's in the same boat as you? The Headchopper will kill you first. You must've touched some taboo and gotten cursed. You, and those two women—don't think you're sharing a room with me!"
Just as an argument was about to break out, the cafeteria door suddenly swung open from outside, and Xu Huo walked in carrying a large bluestone slab.
"What are you doing, messing around and moving rocks?" Wan Zhikang was in a foul mood and started lashing out at everyone.
"This isn't an ordinary rock." Xia Guo, who was closest, stepped forward as soon as the stone was set down and brushed off the moss. "Looks like a statue!"
"A statue?" The players crowded around. Sure enough, though it had no head, the patterns on its clothing could be seen from the front, and an axe hung by its feet.
Everyone fell silent for a moment, then Wan Zhikang shouted, "This isn't that cursed headless statue, is it!"
"Where did you find it?"
"Why bring that thing here!"
Xu Huo had just lit a cigarette and said slowly, "It was at the intersection where we came in yesterday. At first glance, it looked like a stone post."
"Oh, and I found a diary too." He opened the notebook. "It says anyone who touches the statue will die."