Chapter 1375: A Night Wandering Through the Restaurant
Dai Song did not reply, but Zhou Donghe sent a second message asking if he was safe.
Xu Huo ignored this message and flipped through the promotional booklet on the desk.
It was unclear exactly how many players had not found rooms, but judging by the commotion earlier, at least a few dozen people were still wandering outside. After twenty minutes, all voices disappeared.
The nighttime restaurant's scope was not small. Without obtaining a room, the best option was to find a place to hide, whether to avoid unpredictable danger or for other reasons.
Silence invaded the entire space, and even the room itself became oppressively quiet for a time.
About ten minutes later, a rhythmic "thump, thump" sound came from one end of the corridor. From a distance, it sounded like a ball bouncing on the ground. Each sound was spaced about five seconds apart, and the distance moved was not long. It paused briefly outside Xu Huo's door before heading toward the direction directly opposite the main entrance.
Directly opposite Xu Huo's room was a warehouse. To his left and right were connecting corridors. The left side was closer to the restaurant, and the situation on the right was unclear. However, the warehouse directly ahead was much more spacious than the right corridor.
So Xu Huo heard the sound begin moving back and forth in the warehouse. When it encountered stacked cargo boxes, there was a subtle sense of shifting—it was like a normal person walking, going around obstacles, yet there were no footsteps audible.
Perhaps the warehouse was too large. This back-and-forth sound continued for nearly ten minutes without disappearing. Just as the players in their rooms were transitioning from tense vigilance to boredom, a scream suddenly erupted from one corner of the warehouse, but it was cut short midway. Then came the sounds of choking and kicking, which only lasted a few seconds before stopping.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
Loud pounding sounds came from the other end of the warehouse, mixed with hurried footsteps. The two sounds intertwined and arrived at the previous location before stopping. After a few seconds of silence, there were two dull thuds, then the footsteps faded away with a new dragging sound. The initial rhythmic patting sound resumed, gradually moving to the other end of the warehouse before disappearing.
The area outside the room fell silent again. After a long stillness, low knocking sounds occurred successively near Xu Huo's position—one to the left front and one to the right. But there was only that single knock, followed by the sounds of heavy objects falling and dragging—the two knocking and dragging sounds were less than five seconds apart.
"Slap!" Something rolled and bumped against the door panel.
Standing behind the door, Xu Huo gripped the handle with one hand. He first used the communicator to play the sound of a door opening. The area outside remained calm. After a while, he played the sound of knocking again.
Although he couldn't investigate the situation outside through the door panel, he could still hear faint breathing passing by. Of course, what sounded faint inside the room might not be so faint outside.
But the moment the knocking sound played, someone appeared at the door, showing their speed.
After waiting quietly for three minutes, Xu Huo played the door-opening sound again. This time, there was still no movement. He tried turning the door handle, and just as he opened it a crack, he heard the "thump, thump" sound coming from across the warehouse again.
"Slap!" Room 42 on the left side quickly closed its door. On the closed door panel and the wall were complete splashes of blood, and there were bright red dragging marks on the floor. They came from the right, passed in front of Room 172, then went past Room 42, heading toward the opposite side of the warehouse.
Xu Huo picked up a round, hollow prop that had rolled to his door, covered in blood. As he bent down, he saw a woman crouching under a cargo box about ten meters directly in front of the door.
She must have used an item or ability, so she hadn't been discovered immediately. But looking down, it was unavoidable to see her. Her expression was terrified, her face covered in sweat, and she silently mouthed two words: "Help."
The sound was approaching. Xu Huo glanced toward the stacked cargo boxes and saw an elongated shadow already appearing on the wall. He raised his index finger to his lips, gesturing for the woman to be quiet, then gently closed the door.
The slapping sound lingered in front of the door for a moment before moving away. But the outside didn't quiet down. From somewhere unknown came the sound of a blade being sharpened, as if wandering through the restaurant. It quickly passed by the door and then instantly went far away.
A moment later, the woman outside made a faint sound—perhaps from fright, perhaps accidentally, or maybe her prop's duration had expired. But with the sound, the distant sharpening noise returned to Xu Huo's door:
"Help!!!"
"Hel..."
Two words, four syllables, never fully shouted. All that remained was the woman's piercing scream, which quickly faded away with the sharpening sound.
Over the next ten minutes, several more screams or cries of agony came one after another. Like the woman, they were taken away by the source of the sound before they died.
The area outside the room briefly calmed down. Xu Huo opened the door again. The dragging bloodstains in front of the door had disappeared, replaced by scattered drops of blood. He looked up and saw that both the warehouse and corridor ceilings were covered with tracks. Because the distance was too far and the lights couldn't reach them, they were easily mistaken for architectural structures and overlooked.
It seemed the moving sharpening sound from earlier was actually made by this sliding track.
He fished a piece of ore from the luggage compartment and flicked it through the crack in the door toward Room 42 across the way. Xu Huo's intention was to lure out the killer, but unexpectedly, even after the stone landed, there was no movement.
He frowned slightly and closed the door.
So far, it seemed there should be three killers wandering through the restaurant at night. One was responsible for cleaning up, and was also the slowest of the three, appearing for the longest time.
The second, who made footsteps and likely killed the knockers, might be the same person. Both of them had the action of dragging bodies.
The third was the one using the tracks. Of course, this might not be a division of labor; it could just be an automatic prop in the restaurant for selecting prey.
But there were quite a few people in the kitchen, and the Bauhinia Restaurant was a place that used humans for food, so for now, let's count it as one person.
The three could appear separately or simultaneously. They were very sensitive to sounds outside the rooms, especially knocking, which could almost instantly locate the knocker. And the players had no chance to resist.
Most C-level players should have one or two life-saving props, but the two knockers were killed on sight. That meant the killers were not only fast but could directly destroy C-level or above props.
If they had just one of these two traits—speed—it would already be terrifying. If ordinary props were useless, then facing the killers in the restaurant meant certain death upon encounter.
Thinking this, Xu Huo played another recording of knocking inside the room.
(Chapter End)