Chapter 2754: Cherish Life
The sound of throat bones breaking was clearly audible. No one expected the butler to suddenly burst out and kill someone, and at the same time, before the others could react, he sank directly into the wall, even dragging the player in front of him along!
The closest player, a woman in green, immediately released a prop, coating a protective film over the other walls except for the butler's arm. The captured player got stuck on the prop for a moment, then forcibly pulled himself free from the butler's grip.
Thanks to the prop and evolution, his neck wasn't torn off on the spot. He stepped back against the wall, quickly downed a bottle of self-healing agent with the special logo of Stellar Pharmaceuticals, and the wound on his neck visibly recovered. He pinched his throat bone back into place himself; though he couldn't speak for now, it was no longer a serious injury.
But at this moment, no one had time to care about him, because after the butler disappeared, all the lights in the manor went out. The starlight from outside couldn't penetrate, and with vision and perception severely compressed, everyone felt their hair stand on end!
"Quick, get into the room!" someone said, followed by the sound of a door being slammed open. But only the vibrating thud of the door panel hitting the wall was heard—the players who entered the room had vanished without a trace!
"Don't panic!" the scholar said loudly. "Don't wander around..."
Before he could finish, a splash of hot blood sprayed onto his face. His voice cut off abruptly, and all the players fell into instant silence!
They couldn't keep up with the killer's speed. Even when the killer approached, they had no time to react. They could only judge the attack range by those who disappeared around them, but that was already too late. Death followed like a shadow, and everyone could die in the next second!
Suddenly, light shone from behind them. The crowd couldn't help but turn around—it was Xu Huo using a lighting prop.
In fact, in this situation, having light or not didn't matter much. The others didn't understand his intention in illuminating the area, but seeing him carrying the prop toward the stairs, they followed anyway.
In the garden earlier, although the players hadn't personally witnessed Xu Huo's fight with the shadow, they could tell from the commotion in the sea of flowers that he had definitely appeared there before the shadow left. The botanist was dead, and only he remained in the garden. It wasn't that the shadow had kindly spared him; his survival meant he had the strength to survive under the shadow's attack.
It was known that the shadow had incredible speed, had undergone secondary evolution, and should be equipped with a high-level space prop. Ordinary space-type defenses were useless, and physical defense props couldn't fully protect either. Looking at the player whose throat was nearly torn out by the butler, it was clear that when death occurred, props would generally be destroyed along with it.
With speed and attack power maxed out, a group of B-rank players were nothing in front of them!
In fact, the shadow's strength was far more than that.
Leaving aside the space entity Xu Huo himself controlled, the tangent net formed by "Time-Space Hand" had no killing power, meaning the opponent had a time-space prop of the same level. The two props interfered with each other, causing the space tangents to fail. So this was a cannibal player who was already strong enough and also possessed top-tier props.
"You're going to the fifth floor?" the gourmet asked in shock. "Upstairs is where Mr. Wen moves around."
And they had just fallen out with the butler. The entire manor was as quiet as if no one was alive. Going straight to Mr. Wen would be like walking to their deaths, wouldn't it?
Xu Huo didn't answer. He looked straight ahead. The childhood personality and the teenage personality were respectively on the stairs and corridor ahead. They were not only helping to broaden his field of vision but also conducting advance reconnaissance, and at the same time, telling the person upstairs that he was coming.
The other players moved lightly, so only Xu Huo's footsteps echoed on the stairs. The light from the lighting prop, squeezed by the surrounding darkness, only covered a range of two to three meters. That shadow seemed ready to emerge from the darkness at any moment.
When he reached the fifth floor, he suddenly stopped.
The teenage personality and the childhood personality disappeared from the corridor. That dangerous gaze closed in like a shadow. He stared at the empty corridor, waiting in silence.
After a few seconds that felt infinitely stretched, the pressure from the other end of the corridor vanished. Xu Huo let out a slight sigh of relief, picked up the lamp again, and walked forward.
Arriving at Mr. Wen's bedroom door, he raised his hand and knocked.
There was no response from the bedroom, so he kept knocking until Mr. Wen came out to open the door.
The moment the door opened, the lights in the corridor came on. The butler, who had disappeared, reappeared, stepping past the crowd to support Mr. Wen. He said to everyone, "You shouldn't disturb Mr. Wen's rest."
Mr. Wen raised his hand to stop him, his voice weak as he asked, "What is it that you need me for so late?"
"Someone just died," Xu Huo said. "That botanist, in a terrible state. And the manor's lights went out at the same time. I was worried there might be danger, so I came up to check."
Mr. Wen's expression turned somewhat sorrowful. "Everyone should cherish life."
Xu Huo's brow twitched slightly. He was about to say something more, but the butler beside him spoke first. "Sir, you're not well. Go rest first. I'll handle the rest."
"Leave the funeral to you," Mr. Wen said finally, not adding anything else, and turned back inside.
The butler closed the door, put on a smile again, and told Xu Huo that they would have to wait two days because they needed to find a way to notify the deceased's family. If there was no family, the manor would handle the funeral.
After what had just happened, the remaining players didn't press further. But the death alert was temporarily lifted, and they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
"Was it really Mr. Wen who did the killing?" the gourmet asked after they went downstairs.
Who could know that? Right now, they had to figure out how to survive.
"Let's just squeeze into a room for the night," the woman in green suggested, glancing tentatively at Xu Huo.
Xu Huo couldn't yet determine Mr. Wen's attitude, so he nodded and said, "Let's go to the study. It's more spacious there."
The group moved to the study. After sitting down, they analyzed the situation in the manor, one after another.
The shadow's strength was beyond doubt. The problem lay in the basic conditions of the instance.
The shadow was a person. In the manor, the only one who fit the criteria was probably Mr. Wen. Given how the butler had acted, it was highly unlikely to be him.
But this instance only had one assassin at a time. One player going up against Mr. Wen? That didn't make sense no matter how you looked at it.
"Could there be someone else in the manor that we don't know about?" the photographer asked.
"Very unlikely," the woman in green said. "The assassin's target is Mr. Wen."
"It seems like the assassin is opposed to the other players, and the chance of completing the mission is very low. But from another angle, if the other players only need to kill the assassin, the chance of clearing the instance is quite high. And with good luck, they might clear it in a very short time. Whether the clearance succeeds or fails, this is a time-limited instance, so the remaining people might still have a chance to get out alive."
"Looking at it this way, the instance actually reduces the direct conflict between most players and Mr. Wen to some extent."