Chapter 224: The Tongueless Player
Xu Huo turned back to look at Pan Siming, but Pan Siming merely smiled at him and instead began examining the portrait from earlier.
"Is there something wrong with that painting?" Fan Shiji asked hesitantly. "Did we miss something?"
"I didn't notice anything," Xu Huo said. "There are so many paintings here. Even if there's a fake, they wouldn't put it right at the entrance."
"That makes sense." Fan Shiji nodded, then paused before adding, "Let's split up and look faster."
As he spoke, he discreetly gestured, indicating he would check on the others' progress.
Xu Huo didn't stop him. He leisurely lit a cigarette and began examining each painting one by one.
"Got another one? Give me one." The leather-clad woman who had left earlier walked over to him.
Xu Huo handed her the cigarette pack and even offered to light it for her, but she just took a cigarette and waved her hand. "I have a lighter. Thanks."
After getting the cigarette, she left.
Xu Huo continued looking at the paintings.
The general situation was similar to what the headband-wearing man had described. Of the eighty-two paintings, sixty-one had content, but they varied in type—oil paintings, sketches, and even a few photographs. The subjects also differed: portraits, group photos, objects, and landscapes. The styles varied greatly as well; some lacked color, their black-and-white tones emphasizing oppression, while others were thick with paint, their colors glaring and intense.
In short, these sixty-one paintings all expressed eeriness in various forms, and each had an electronic timer beneath it, counting down from anywhere between five hundred hours to two hundred hours.
There were also twenty-one blank frames containing white paper, scattered across different giant pillars.
Unlike the framed paintings, these blank frames had no electronic timers beneath them.
After wandering for over two hours without results, the players gradually gathered beneath a single, standalone statue of a person placed in the center of the art museum.
"What do these countdowns mean?" Ni Tian rubbed her eyes. "My eyes are about to go blurry, and I still can't tell which one is the fake."
"I also took a few paintings down and tried, but nothing triggered a game prompt." Xie Man said.
The other players had apparently tried taking paintings down as well, with no success.
"I think we might be misunderstanding the direction," Deng Yu said. "The 'fake' the game mentioned might be different from what we think of as a fake. Look, there are even a few black-and-white group photos among these collections. Those can't really be called paintings, can they?"
"I touched the photos earlier, and nothing happened," Pan Siming said with a frown. "That means at least the photo category isn't a fake."
"You mean, among all the paintings, there might be several with a common characteristic that are all fakes?" The leather-clad woman picked up the thread, turning her head, causing the circular earrings dangling from her earlobes to sway. "That's impossible."
"If that were the case, this game would be too simple. All the paintings here have very distinct styles. It would be easy to pick out categories. If one person found a fake, wouldn't that just pull out a whole string of them?"
"But we haven't found a fake yet," Fan Shiji said cautiously. "We haven't found a single one. Isn't it too early to discuss the characteristics of the fakes?"
"Pretending to be clever." The gloomy man let out a sneer, though it was unclear who he was referring to.
"Then what clues do you have?" Xie Man stared at him. "While others are talking, you're here acting all profound. If you've got something, show us some real material."
The gloomy man replied coldly, "You don't need to provoke me. I do have some ideas, and I don't mind telling you."
"Then speak up!" Deng Yu urged.
The gloomy man tapped on a nearby electronic timer. "Don't you think this timer is strange?"
"It's a countdown, but why would the collections in an art museum have a countdown?"
"Remaining time for the exhibit?" Ni Tian suggested.
The gloomy man pulled a face at her interruption. "If you want to hear, don't butt in."
Ni Tian's face flushed, and she immediately clamped her mouth shut.
"Stop being mysterious and just say it," Pan Siming said.
"Since the paintings we've touched aren't the ones the task requires, and the fake is indeed among them, combined with this countdown, it suggests that we can only identify or select the fake painting at a specific time," the gloomy man said.
"And what time would that be?" A soft, delicate voice sounded. Everyone turned to see that it was the maid-dressed young girl speaking.
Meeting everyone's gaze, she smiled shyly, carefully touched the back of the burly man's hand, and said, "Lu Gang can't speak, but don't let his appearance scare you. He's a very gentle person."
Lu Gang, who was a full three heads taller than the young girl, rolled his eyes at her words, his triangular gaze slanting to the side.
The girl flinched instinctively, then forced a smile. "My name is You Huanhuan. I'm a white player. The Hundred-Painting Art Museum is my first instance."
The eyes of Xie Man and the others flickered slightly, but they didn't say much. The gloomy man, however, was blunt. "I've met plenty of women in games who act weak. They look harmless, but their hearts are blacker than anyone's!"
You Huanhuan's eyes reddened, and she instinctively grabbed the edge of Lu Gang's clothes, but the next second, he flung her to the ground. Lu Gang's eyes were bloodshot as he grabbed her throat with one hand and lifted her up.
You Huanhuan kicked her legs and rolled her eyes back until her limbs were almost out of strength. Only then did Xie Man and the leather-clad woman step in to stop Lu Gang. The two women grabbed You Huanhuan, while Pan Siming and the others tried to pull Lu Gang away.
Unexpectedly, Lu Gang was extremely agitated. He flung them off and roared at the group, but the sounds he made were garbled and unclear.
"He has no tongue!" Fan Shiji exclaimed in shock.
The players present were all startled and backed away. But after roaring twice, Lu Gang charged to one side and began wildly smashing the museum wall!
"I've never seen such an unstable player in a game before," Xu Huo remarked, observing his back.
On the other side, You Huanhuan, with Xie Man's help, caught her breath. While coughing, she said, "Actually, you can't really blame him. It seems someone cut out his tongue in a previous instance. He wasn't normal when I met him."
"Then why are you still with him?" The leather-clad woman pointed at the finger marks on her neck. "Aren't you afraid he'll go berserk and kill you?"
You Huanhuan shook her head. "Because he saved me. And although he's a bit rough, he won't really hurt me."
The players present looked at her with somewhat ambiguous expressions. At that moment, Lu Gang, having vented his anger, walked back and sat down directly next to You Huanhuan, staring fixedly at the gloomy man.
The gloomy man squinted his eyes and said coldly, "The specific time was just my guess. I can't be sure. If you want, you can try testing it every now and then."
"The game hint said not to wander around after lights out," the headband-wearing man said, looking around. "Is it safe to go out?"
"This might be the key to the game," Pan Siming said after a moment of thought. "Regardless of whether the idea is right or wrong, we have to try."
"But night is a dangerous time in any instance. It's best to go in groups."