Chapter 25: Digging Up Graves
"Reason?" Xu Huo didn't rush to refute his words.
"I've read all the reports and investigations about the Headchopper. His methods are very seasoned—most victims die in one blow, with no wounds except on the neck. The person who attacked me yesterday was very flustered; they didn't even pick the right moment to strike." Huang Junjie seemed quite confident. "In most of the murder cases, the victims died silently, only to be discovered later."
"What about the small number of cases where the victims had incomplete limbs and fought violently before death? That doesn't match what you're saying." Xu Huo asked after listening.
"Copycat crime." Huang Junjie asserted firmly. "Cases like that are too rare."
"If what you're saying is true, why did he pick you as his first target?" Xu Huo pressed further. "I think Du Lanlan would have been an easier mark."
Huang Junjie's face showed regret. "I shouldn't have confronted Wan Zhikang yesterday."
If a player wanted to use the Headchopper's identity to kill other players, the easiest targets would indeed be female players or white players. But there was one exception—when someone absolutely had to die first. It was precisely because he had shown off his skills that he had been targeted.
"If the person who attacked me fell for the diary's trick, tonight's targets are among you, me, and Xia Guo." Huang Junjie extended an invitation. "How about we join forces and catch them in the act?"
Xu Huo bit his cigarette. "According to your theory, there's still a Headchopper in the manor. Maybe they'll kill someone tonight too."
"Depends on who's unlucky." Huang Junjie shook his head.
The three of them continued walking toward the wooden cabin while talking.
"I went to the cabin, first to lure out the person who attacked me, and second to keep my distance from other players. If I don't catch them, I can at least deduce their identity through the others later." After saying this, Huang Junjie asked, "What are you going to the cabin for?"
Yuan Yao shook his head and looked at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo stopped walking and pointed his chin at the person who had already put a rope around his neck and was standing on a pile of firewood. "I came to see if he'd hang himself."
Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao's expressions changed, and they immediately moved to stop him. But Xu Huo blocked them. "He's going to hang himself at night anyway. Maybe he's possessed by a ghost. If you go over there, what if he picks you as his replacement? You're not NPCs from the manor—you won't respawn if you die."
That was true.
The three didn't approach the woodcutter. Instead, they circled around to his front. Xu Huo stood on a tree stump, raised his hand, and greeted him. "Hey, hanging yourself, huh?"
The woodcutter's eyes trembled. He thrust his neck forward, and his body hung from the tree.
Xu Huo just watched until his hands and feet stopped moving, then said, "Take him down. It's getting dark. I'll look in the cabin for some lighting tools."
After a while, candles were lit in the cabin, and the woodcutter's corpse was laid back on the bed.
Huang Junjie stared at the brightly lit manor in the distance and muttered to himself, "It's not time yet..."
Behind him, Xu Huo thoroughly examined the woodcutter's corpse, then took a hemp rope from the cabinet to tie him up. He also grabbed a shovel.
"Xu... Brother Xu, what are you doing?" Yuan Yao stared at the woodcutter's pants, which Xu Huo had pulled down but not fully up, his voice trembling slightly.
"I'm going outside to dig a hole." Xu Huo spun the shovel, his eyes still on the woodcutter. "Let's see if he can come back to life after being buried in the ground."
Yuan Yao's smile was particularly strained, and Huang Junjie's expression was complicated. He couldn't understand why Xu Huo was so fixated on messing with an NPC.
Xu Huo really did go outside to dig a hole. While digging, he also excavated the new grave.
The elderly female corpse that the woodcutter had claimed was his daughter was thrown carelessly in the dirt, not even wrapped in cloth. There was a rope mark around her neck—she had been strangled.
Turning the female corpse over, there was a string of white numbers on her back, which hadn't rotted yet.
After covering the grave again, he dug up two more nearby graves. One corpse was headless, and the other had also been strangled—one a cannibal player, the other a black player.
"He's killed quite a few." Xu Huo didn't bury them back. He dropped the shovel, sat down on the spot, and lit a cigarette while staring at the manor.
The drizzling fog continued to fall, making the manor's lights hazy and dim. But they were still relatively noticeable in the night, so when the lights suddenly went out, all three near the cabin took notice.
Xu Huo had just walked out of the graveyard when he heard a piercing scream.
"Something's happened over there!" Huang Junjie sprinted out. "I'm going to check it out."
"Yuan Yao, go with him." Xu Huo didn't move. "I'll stay here."
Huang Junjie shot him a suspicious glance but didn't ask any more questions before hurrying off.
"Brother Xu, how about I stay here with you?" Yuan Yao quickly said. Judging by the commotion, someone had definitely died in the manor. Whether it was the Headchopper or a player impersonating the Headchopper, he didn't want to face either.
Xu Huo gave him a cold stare.
Yuan Yao swallowed his saliva and, without another word, turned and chased after Huang Junjie.
Once he was sure Yuan Yao was gone, Xu Huo entered the cabin. Stepping on the edge of the bed, he took down the phone he had placed on the beam, stopped the video recording, and flipped through the previously recorded footage. After watching for a moment, he suddenly laughed and said to the "corpse" on the bed, "Stop pretending. I know you've come back to life."
The "corpse" didn't move.
Xu Huo shoved the phone into his pocket, grabbed the woodcutter by the back of his collar, and dragged him outside. "I told you, if you die, I'll bury you. I've already dug your grave. Since you don't want to wake up, I'll do a good deed early and let you rest in peace."
Without mercy, he threw the "corpse" into the pit—the same one that had held the other bodies. Xu Huo picked up the shovel and started filling it with dirt.
As the foul-smelling soil covered his face, the "corpse" finally moved. He opened his eyes blankly, first surveying his surroundings, then realizing his situation, and immediately started shouting, "Help! Someone help! Murder!"
"Shut up." Xu Huo grabbed a handful of grass, roots and all, and stuffed it into his mouth. "Everyone's in the manor, as you well know. No one's coming to save you."
"Since we have time, let's talk about something else."
"Are you the Headchopper?"
The woodcutter looked as if he had heard a joke, a sneer spreading across his face. But Xu Huo's next words made his expression change drastically.
"Not the Headchopper, huh? Then you're just a stranded player from the previous game."
"Playing the hanging game in front of players—you wanted them to think you were part of the manor's setup."
"The corpses you killed are at different stages of decay. You've encountered at least three batches of players here, but the number of new graves is clearly insufficient. I'm guessing the game didn't clean up the players you killed, so you had no choice but to bury them here."
"The manor is only so big. Secretly burying them would be hard to cover up, so it's better to show them openly."
"But the manor had a big fire a few years ago and was closed for half a year for renovations. Even the wooden cabin was built later. Saying you've always lived here doesn't quite add up, does it?"
"And your 'daughter'—add a few more years, and she could be your aunt. When you buried them, didn't you think someone might dig them up?"
Pulling the grass out of his mouth, Xu Huo gestured for him to speak.