# Chapter 236: The Situation Is About to Explode
In fact, he had seen Deng Yu fiddling with that photo before. When he got up today, he discovered that the painting Big Bear had torn was also gone. Moreover, when the first prompt sounded last night, he did see a man's figure returning to the right corridor, but he just didn't see which room he went into.
So even though he didn't know how the fake painting appeared, his intuition told him that the two missing people and the two missing paintings were related. That's why he instigated Li Weiran to take the sketch painting, only he didn't expect Li Weiran to actually fall for it!
He hadn't cleared the instance and couldn't leave the dungeon. If he couldn't come up with some real information, he would only die here!
"It's Xu San!" he shouted loudly. "Actually, I noticed he was abnormal yesterday. During the day yesterday, when we were looking at the paintings with Big Bear, he kept staring at the painting *Silent Umbrella* in front. I secretly paid attention today and discovered that the painting is actually moving!"
"He must have figured something out. He must have been among those who cleared last night!"
"Didn't Gao Jun also say he came out last night?"
"That still doesn't prove you're not a clearance player," the gloomy man said. "The first notification and Pan Siming's death are inseparable from you."
"It's absolutely not me!" Fan Shiji swore an oath. "If I had cleared the instance, there would be no reason for me to stay. If you don't believe me, go look—that *Silent Umbrella* really does move!"
Gao Jun wavered a little. "Indeed, when the second notification came, Xu San should have been outside."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. This Gao Jun had no idea whether he had gone out or not, otherwise he wouldn't have said that Xu Huo was outside when the game notification came.
"I haven't been outside," Xu Huo denied. "The fact that Fan Shiji killed Pan Siming is right in front of us. How can you believe his words?"
"Whether you believe it or not, just go see for yourself!" Fan Shiji immediately said. "Although I have items, that doesn't prove that other players don't have similar items."
"Just an excuse!" Li Weiran's expression was cold. She said to the others, "I don't believe him. No matter what you think, I'm definitely killing this person!"
The moment she finished speaking, Fan Shiji suddenly swung out a steel wire that caught the door pillar. Taking advantage of the gap, he flew over everyone's heads and stood directly in front of the painting. Turning back to the pursuing players, he said, "If you don't believe me, you can—"
But before he could finish, the gloomy man suddenly attacked, kicking him backward!
"Smack!" Fan Shiji crashed into *Silent Umbrella*, but he fell to the ground together with the painting frame!
The gloomy man who had struck, Li Weiran behind him, and Gao Jun and Xu Huo further back all showed varying degrees of surprise, but they quickly recovered because the monster in the art gallery had awakened again!
The first to be attacked were Xu Huo and Xie Man, who were standing at the back.
"The painting is damaged, and the monster has appeared again!" Xie Man shouted. "What should we do?"
"Go back to the rooms," Xu Huo said. He had basically figured out the monster's behavior pattern. If someone damaged a painting during the day, it would come knocking at night to kill. If a player was absorbed into a fake painting, it would go berserk in the exhibition hall. Just now, when he completed the second task—restoring a fake painting to its original state—it suddenly quieted down again. Now that Fan Shiji had damaged another painting, it had awakened once more.
Whether it indiscriminately killed everyone or specifically targeted Fan Shiji, who had damaged two paintings, the exhibition hall was no longer a safe place. There was no point in staying any longer!
Ni Tian followed him. "That's it?" She hadn't even passed the first level yet!
Xu Huo completely ignored her. He had already tried earlier—players couldn't be absorbed into the white paper to become new paintings. So for the third task of creating a collection item, he had no leads for now. He could only focus on surviving the immediate situation first.
Casually pointing at the wall, the painting woman who had been wandering through the exhibition hall flew over, scurrying along the wall up to the dome.
On the other side, the monster attacked the other players. Gao Jun saw the draped cloth of the shortened sculpture and suddenly realized: "This monster is a statue that transformed!"
The gloomy man's walking stick was knocked to the ground, and his paper fan was also broken. He gritted his teeth and let go, rolling to the side, then scrambled toward the corridor to escape!
Under the monster's attack, no one had time to care about Fan Shiji. After Gao Jun and the others fled, Fan Shiji also seized the opportunity to run toward the right corridor. However, Li Weiran was hot on his heels!
Li Weiran had been tricked into a painting before. She knew very well that these paintings could eat people. The moment she was pulled out of the painting, she had roughly guessed how the fake paintings came about. Just now, when Fan Shiji wasn't pulled into the painting, she found it strange too, but that only meant not every painting ate people. She couldn't be sure about other paintings, but that sketch painting definitely could!
Fan Shiji was running for his life when he suddenly felt a pain in his foot. He fell to the ground and felt his other leg being lifted. Turning back to see Li Weiran standing behind him, he shouted, "I'm not Passerby A!"
Li Weiran pressed his leg into the sketch painting on the ground. As one leg was eaten, his entire body began to sink...
Congratulations to player Grave Disco for finding a fake painting and completing the first task of the instance.
The several people running ahead turned back in surprise. After seeing Li Weiran, who had fallen behind alone, Gao Jun and the gloomy man simultaneously changed direction and ran toward the right corridor, while Lu Gang still returned to the left.
The sculpture monster that had been chasing players began to go on a rampage in the room again after the fake painting appeared.
Li Weiran was the last to reach the corridor. When she arrived, she saw Lu Gang carrying You Huanhuan's corpse back to the exhibition hall.
No notification sounded. A few seconds later, Lu Gang opened the first room on the right and said to the people inside, "Dead people won't work."
In the room, the remaining seven players were all present.
"Fan Shiji might have killed Pan Siming, but he wasn't a clearance player," Li Weiran said first. "'The Hidden One' and 'Passerby A' are still among us."
At this point, everyone present basically understood how to complete the first level. The identities of the three clearance players were also subject to various guesses. Although they couldn't be one hundred percent certain, with only seven people left, whoever it was didn't matter much.
Currently, Xu Huo was in the lead, having completed two tasks with the third unlocked.
Next were "The Hidden One" Gao Jun and "Grave Disco" Li Weiran, each having completed one task with the second unlocked.
The gloomy man, Xie Man, Ni Tian, and even Lu Gang, who had just tried using a corpse, had not yet passed the first task.
Xu Huo looked over these six people. Gao Jun was undoubtedly "The Hidden One." Although both he and Li Weiran had completed the first task, only Li Weiran should know the method to pass the second task.
The gloomy man's sudden attack, knocking Fan Shiji into the painting, proved that he had already figured out the first task. Lu Gang had also understood afterward, which was why he had found You Huanhuan's corpse after Li Weiran.
As for Xie Man and Ni Tian, the former seemed to have guessed his identity, while the latter had noticed his earlier action of pushing people. She looked at him with more wariness than the others.
The seven people were scattered in different positions in the room. The situation was about to explode!