Chapter 235: Who Is the Passerby
Aside from the commonality that the two missing paintings might have both been damaged, the other players spent the entire day searching the art museum without finding any more clues. However, everyone seemed more wary than before. As the lights-out time approached, no one intended to return to their rooms; instead, they scattered to various positions throughout the museum.
Li Weiran stood beside the sketch she had touched earlier. Gao Jun was not far to her right, while Xie Man was across from her.
To the left were Xu Huo and Ni Tian, positioned at the midpoint between Li Weiran and Fan Shiji. Fan Shiji was near the main entrance of the museum, but instead of standing directly under "Frozen Time," he chose a pillar nearby, allowing him to keep a distant watch on Xu Huo and Li Weiran.
The gloomy man stood opposite Fan Shiji, with Lu Gang beside him.
The eight players maintained these positions until the lights went out.
But only after the lights were extinguished did the players realize that the small lamps on the pillars could only illuminate a tiny patch of ground directly beneath them. Any area away from the lights was almost entirely shrouded in darkness. Coupled with the dim yellow glow, even the areas near the pillars were hard to see.
With the sudden loss of light, it took some time for their eyes to adjust to the darkness. Even after adaptation, they could barely make out faint shadows nearby. Instinctively, the players looked toward the light sources.
Xie Man was on Li Weiran's side. Looking up, she saw a hand reaching out near the light source, likely trying to grab a painting. But the next second, the lamp on the pillar shattered, followed by a series of cracking sounds. From Li Weiran's position to the row of pillars in front of Fan Shiji, all the lamps burst in succession, extinguishing a quarter of the light in the entire library!
"Li Weiran!" Xie Man rushed to the opposite side and called out. Receiving no response, she reached out to touch the painting on the pillar—the sketch was indeed gone!
"Someone took the painting!" Almost simultaneously, Gao Jun came over from the right. He raised his voice to alert the players in the museum and moved toward Xu Huo. But at that moment, he felt a gust of wind rushing at him from the side. He instinctively stepped back as a long, dark shadow slammed into the ground, then immediately lifted and swept horizontally toward him!
Xu Huo saw Gao Jun and Xie Man forced back by the monster before he sheathed the Crimson Sword. The sketch that had absorbed Li Weiran was already in his hand. The second task required a counterfeit, and now he had one. To restore the counterfeit to the original, he likely needed to bring the person out of the painting. But at that moment, the hunched monster in the sketch suddenly reached its hand out of the paper to grab him, emitting an eerie, unsettling hissing sound.
"What is that noise!" It wasn't just this sketch—all the paintings in the museum seemed to come to life at once, filling the exhibition hall with a cacophony of strange and complex sounds.
Xu Huo held the painting farther away and nodded to the Painting Woman. She stepped forward and grasped the hunched monster's hand, letting it pull her into the painting. Within seconds, the hunched monster shrank into a ball in the painting, and from the large shadow, a hand extended—it was Li Weiran's hand.
Turning the painting over to face the back of the frame, Xu Huo stepped back while using the String to tie around her hand and pull her out of the frame. Then, he casually tossed the painting to Fan Shiji, who had turned back.
As the painting frame clattered to the ground in front of Fan Shiji, Li Weiran fully emerged from the sketch. The moment they spotted each other, the game issued its third notification:
Congratulations to player Passerby for completing the second task of this instance.
With this announcement, the vast art museum suddenly fell silent. The sounds surging from the paintings abruptly ceased. The monsters that had driven Gao Jun and Xie Man to the end of the corridor also stopped their attacks, slowly retreating toward the center of the exhibition hall, just as they had done on the previous two nights after lights-out, walking slowly back to their rooms.
"It's you!" At that moment, Li Weiran shouted in sudden fury, raising her large scissors to strike at Fan Shiji!
Fan Shiji recognized her voice and quickly said, "Li Weiran, it's me!"
"I'm killing you, Passerby!" Li Weiran gritted her teeth. "I really underestimated you. You tricked me into taking the painting just to complete the second stage, didn't you? It seems you're the one who killed Pan Siming!"
Fan Shiji dodged her attack and quickly explained, "I'm not Passerby! You've got it wrong! I only came over because I heard Xie Man and Gao Jun talking!"
"You're lying!" Li Weiran shouted. "Didn't you tell me from the start that the damaged paintings were counterfeits? Didn't you say we should each take the paintings we ruined? Why didn't you go for 'Frozen Time'?"
"Because he wants to clear the instance!" The gloomy man and Lu Gang appeared near the two, joining forces to attack Fan Shiji. He raised his voice, "Passerby, right? Spill your method for clearing the instance!"
Fan Shiji was at a loss for words. At that moment, Gao Jun also came up from behind to assist Li Weiran.
Hearing the commotion ahead, Ni Tian looked back uneasily at the shadow behind her, only to be bumped by him, knocking her against the painting frame on the pillar. She said in slight annoyance, "Watch it!"
"I have night blindness." Xu Huo didn't spare a glance at the empty painting frame on the ground. He turned on his phone's flashlight and shone it forward.
The sculpture monster Xu Huo had seen on the first night had already returned to its original position. Li Weiran and the others had cornered Fan Shiji near the front door. As the beam of light hit him, Fan Shiji saw all the players facing him and his expression darkened. His gaze fell on Li Weiran, and he suddenly snapped back to reality, pointing at her and saying, "You! You're the Passerby!"
"I only turned back because I heard a sound, but the moment we met, you wanted to kill me. It's because I caught you clearing the instance, isn't it!"
But the other players ignored him. Li Weiran attacked head-on, while Lu Gang and the gloomy man flanked him from left and right. The three of them nearly surrounded Fan Shiji. Just as the large scissors were about to clamp around his legs, a white steel wire shot out from Fan Shiji's hand, wrapping around a chandelier. As the wire retracted, he flew upward!
"It really is him!" said the gloomy man. "At that height, it would be hard for us to get up there, let alone place a body. He's the one who killed Pan Siming!"
Li Weiran's expression flickered, but she was now certain that the person who had pulled her out of the painting was Fan Shiji. She said, "Don't let him escape! Force him to reveal the clearing method!"
"The museum is only this big. He can't run far!" Gao Jun looked up at the man suspended in midair. "Fan Shiji, a wise man submits to circumstances. Do you think you can take on all of us by yourself?"
"Are you all stupid?" Fan Shiji shouted angrily. "If I were the one clearing the instance, would I still be here being hunted by you?"
"That's not necessarily true!" Xu Huo shone the light on his face. "You're the only one who has passed two stages. The third stage is right in front of you. Would you be willing to leave?"
Fan Shiji was blinded by the flashlight. He retracted the wire and jumped down, his gaze shifting between Li Weiran and Xu Huo. Then, with a look of sudden realization, he said, "I know who the clearing player really is!"