Chapter 2440: Disappearance
Xu Huo's train of thought was interrupted by Chi Cai. This man, who looked honest and sincere, continued, "You're not an instance player, so there's no conflict between us, and we won't have any disagreements. That's better than living with other players or being alone."
"There's no more room," Xu Huo said.
Chi Cai seemed genuinely eager to gain a sense of security from this arrangement and offered to pay for the room in exchange for the chance to stay together.
His attitude even struck the Painting Woman as strange. She deliberately walked over to him and asked, "Aren't you afraid we'll trick you?"
Chi Cai smiled confidently, unconcerned. "I might not be able to beat many people in a fight, but I'm very good at escaping. It's hard for others to kill me."
The Painting Woman immediately became interested. "Show me!"
Chi Cai looked a bit troubled. "Unless it's a critical moment, it's better not to waste the item..."
Before he could finish, he shot away from his spot like a cannonball, moving so fast the naked eye couldn't track him. He crashed through several trees in succession before being stopped by a defensive barrier erected by two players who suddenly appeared from another direction.
Then, the next second, he bounced back along the same path and landed right back in front of the Painting Woman.
The Painting Woman, who had only been threatening him with a small knife, immediately applauded at this display. Chi Cai understood what had triggered his passive defense, but he had no time to argue with her. All his attention was now focused on the two players who had arrived.
"We've been looking for you for a long time. Didn't expect to run into you here." The two players who arrived were a man and a woman, both appearing to be around forty. The man was missing half of his right ear, while the woman had striking green hair. But that wasn't the most surprising thing—what was astonishing were her pupils. They weren't perfectly round; the edges were missing, as if the color had been erased or chewed away by insects, blending indistinguishably with the whites of her eyes.
"You two actually teamed up!" Chi Cai's face fell. These were the two players he had encountered separately before. In a forest this vast, the two people trying to kill him had somehow managed to find each other.
The newcomers didn't attack recklessly. Instead, they looked at Xu Huo. "Are you his companions?"
Xu Huo pointed back toward the village. "That's Zhongmu Village up ahead. Let's go there first. Some players have already arrived."
The two hesitated. Seeing this, Chi Cai quickly said, "Even if you kill me, what good will it do? Aside from a few more items, it won't help you clear the instance at all. Instead, you might attract the attention of the real Hidden Friend. Maybe you'll be fine for a day or two, but you still have to stay here for over twenty days. Can you guarantee it won't come for you?"
"You called out to me in the woods," the green-haired female player said. "Impersonator or Pretender—pick one."
When players scatter and then meet up again, such misunderstandings are easy to create. Some players worry that the person calling them is a real Impersonator, while others fear that being targeted might lead to unforeseen consequences. So they simply resort to killing, brutal and direct.
Chi Cai took two steps back. "I'm not picking either."
With that, he turned and ran without looking back toward the village.
The green-haired female player wanted to chase, but Bubble Bean and the others from that side had already noticed the commotion and were coming over. There were too many of them, so she had to give up.
When the group gathered, aside from making the atmosphere even worse, there was no other gain. And with the implication of mutual surveillance, they still chose to squeeze into the two wooden huts. Those who couldn't fit simply used location items to set up camp nearby, just in case one of them was the "Hidden Friend" and tried to kill someone in the chaos.
But unexpectedly, nothing happened among the players. Instead, something happened in Shangmu Village.
Three villagers from Shangmu Village came looking for people, saying that Granny Yi's granddaughter had gone missing. They had been searching all the way here.
As soon as the people of Zhongmu Village heard this, they all gathered. Leaving a few to watch the children and the elderly, the other able-bodied adults prepared to form teams and go out to search.
"Are you so sure she just got lost?" the green-haired female player said coldly. "Maybe she was called away by the Hidden Friend."
"Impossible!" the villagers immediately retorted. "No child has ever been taken by the strange figure!"
Indeed, all the protagonists in the stories were adults.
"Let's help out," Xu Huo suggested. "If a child really got lost in the woods, it's too dangerous."
Bubble Bean and the others who had arrived earlier looked at his expression, hesitated for a moment, and then decided to join the search party.
The green-haired female player and the missing-eared player also followed, but like Yang Tian and Chi Cai, they chose to stick with Xu Huo's group.
With several players in one team, there was no need for so many locals. They only kept a young man to guide them.
Along the way, everyone made marks as they walked. Although they had divided up rough search areas, to avoid wasting time, they agreed to use the marks to determine which areas had already been checked.
Xu Huo carved a mark into a tree trunk with his knife and casually asked the young man if he knew "Tuotuo."
"Tuotuo?" The young man thought for a moment before saying, "Didn't Tuotuo's little sister get married? I even went to her wedding feast. She lives in Xiamu Village, which is very far from here."
"I stayed at Granny Yi's place for two days before and heard her granddaughter mention Tuotuo. She seemed to miss her a lot and kept wanting to see her. Could it be that she secretly went to Xiamu Village to find her?"
The young man immediately dismissed this possibility. "In these woods, without stamina and being unfamiliar with the area, forget about visiting relatives—just going a little far from home could make you lost. How old is Granny Yi's granddaughter? How would she dare to go to Xiamu Village alone? I think she probably went out to pick wild mushrooms, got lost, wandered too far, and couldn't find her way back."
He tried to reassure himself. "It's fine. The villagers are all very familiar with this area, and with so many of us searching together, we should find her soon."
The young man led the way ahead. Chi Cai followed behind Xu Huo and whispered, "The child went missing yesterday. The people from Shangmu Village couldn't find her. It's almost certainly the Hidden Friend."
Xu Huo glanced at him. "Are you so sure the Hidden Friend definitely exists?"
"It definitely exists. If it were just rumors, this place wouldn't have formed an instance," Chi Cai said. "Have you noticed? There are very few elderly people in Zhongmu Village. Most are young adults and children. Generally speaking, the richer a person's life experience, the easier it is for them to get caught up in past emotions, including past friends and family. Older people have lost more relatives and friends."
"The young people in Zhongmu Village don't seem to have had much contact with the Hidden Friend. When a child goes missing, their first reaction is that she got lost, not that it might be related to that strange figure. Doesn't that exactly match what I'm saying?"
"The friends the Hidden Friend takes away are probably mostly elderly people."