Chapter 2777: I Might Have to Call You Auntie
This was a room used for storing items. Standing cabinets lined three walls, each shelf filled with things—either transparent glass jars soaking different organs, or clothes and accessories of various styles. One cabinet held all kinds of medicines, some of which had paper marked with an "X" pasted on them. Xu Huo spotted NS biological agent among them, also bearing the same sticker.
The door quietly closed. The little girl stood in front of the desk at the center of the room, her back to the door, saying, "Didn't they say you adults are supposed to have compassion? Why can you watch a child get beaten and remain unmoved?"
As she spoke, she turned around and looked at where Xu Huo was standing. "Uncle, are you a bad person?"
Xu Huo removed the invisibility item covering him. "Whether I'm a bad person or not doesn't matter. You can skip the 'uncle' part."
"How could it not matter?" The girl circled behind the desk, climbed onto the chair, knelt on it, and leaned forward to hug a glass jar on the table. Inside the jar was a pair of eyes. She shook it and said, "Uncle, look, these eyes are really beautiful."
"These are the eyes of the uncle who hit me last night. His eyes were very pretty, but he was a very bad person. He even tried to trick me with candy."
Xu Huo stared at her for a moment before continuing, "You want eyes like these?"
The girl laughed. "No, I don't want them. But I want to collect all beautiful things."
Xu Huo pointed to the glass containers on the nearby shelf, soaking women's breasts. "So that's what you wanted?"
The girl tilted her head and stared at him, her smile faltering. "Uncle, why do you think I would want that?"
"Just a guess," Xu Huo said. "Your attention to adult women surpasses everyone else. That woman in the manor isn't the Archon's lover—she's what you want."
"Wow!" The little girl stood up on the chair and clapped. "Uncle, you're amazing! Not only did you not fall for it, but you also figured out so much! How did you know? Did you get it out of their mouths?"
"Their mouths are completely unreliable. I shouldn't have taken their eyeballs—I should have cut out their tongues."
She was referring to the other children in the manor.
"You're different from the other children in the manor," Xu Huo said calmly. "Though the other kids also put on performances, they all watch your expression. Were you using this method to trick players?"
The little girl nodded honestly. "Staying here is way too boring. I wanted to see whether those adults were stupid or smart. Unfortunately, most of them are idiots, and they're also very bad. I seriously doubt they survived the game because the game pitied them."
Xu Huo smiled. "Pitied them? It would rather pity you."
The little girl's eyes curved into crescents as she laughed. "Uncle, you're really interesting. How about you stay here and play with me? I'll be good to you. But you can't say no. Otherwise, you'll end up like those three from yesterday—locked in a dark room until you die."
"The three players from yesterday are most likely still in the instance. Before the instance ends, they can't leave this district. To force a departure, they'd have to cross districts or wormhole points."
"Items and game reward devices don't work within the effective range, so only large-scale devices that cross districts or wormhole points could teleport them out of this district."
"If your ability can't bypass the game to send instance players to another space, then I think the probability of you killing me is very low."
"Of course, if I really did end up in another space, getting out wouldn't be hard either—unless that place is outside the game."
"You're so confident!" The little girl looked at him. "You always squat in my house watching the show, and that makes me very unhappy. The reason I came in here was to trap you."
As she spoke, darkness surged beneath her feet like something tangible, like a mouth, swallowing her whole as she sank down rapidly.
The disappearance of the three players yesterday had warned him. Xu Huo was prepared. The moment she tried to escape, he summoned time power. But unexpectedly, the single thread of time power fell into that darkness and was directly devoured, failing to penetrate the girl's body at all!
Instinct outpaced thought. He lunged forward in one stride, grabbed one of the girl's arms, and was swallowed into the darkness along with her!
The sensation of crossing a space barrier was very clear, but it wasn't enough to cross districts. Xu Huo held on without letting go, and the next second, the darkness spat them out into a certain room in the manor.
The little girl struggled but couldn't break free. Then she stepped back into the darkness, crossing space to another room. This was a room Xu Huo hadn't seen in the manor before—likely one of those completely sealed rooms. Inside were some player corpses, and of course, a few living people, though they looked like they'd been locked up for a while and weren't very lucid.
The air had a pungent smell. Xu Huo looked down at the little girl, who was covering her own mouth and nose, and asked without changing expression, "Still running?"
The little girl glared at him, then began darting rapidly through the darkness while trying to pry his hand off. But after running up and down dozens of times, she still couldn't break free. Finally, exhausted, she had to beg for mercy. "Uncle, I know I was wrong. You're hurting me. Can you let go first?"
"I already told you, you can skip the 'uncle' part," Xu Huo said. "I wouldn't dare say I'm older than you. I might even have to call you auntie."
The little girl stopped pretending to be a child. She stared at him coldly. "Then let's die together!"
Xu Huo sank with her into complete darkness. He didn't know what kind of space they were in, but they didn't come out for a long time. Even though his senses were blurred, he didn't loosen his grip. Instead, he said, "Are you willing to trade your own life for mutual destruction?"
Feeling the air grow thin, he put on a mask and continued, "You kill people here, and even the Archon doesn't dare to interfere. I've investigated the major disappearance cases over the past ten-plus years. Every time, they happen in early autumn, and the local government handles the aftermath in much the same way."
"What a coincidence. Recently, the 022 District Grand Archon's youngest daughter had a birthday. It seems that every year, the Grand Archon's youngest daughter orders the same cake and drinks from the same shop—full of childlike fun."
"The Grand Archon's household hasn't heard happy news in a long time. They can't produce a younger daughter every year. So, was he celebrating your birthday?"
"I heard that the Grand Archon himself is a victim of genetic editing. The consequences of genetic editing might not be obvious on him, but it's hard to say about the next generation... How old are you this year? Do you envy those women who grew up normally? They have perfect female characteristics, can fall in love under the influence of hormones, can freely embrace the men they like, and can display their feminine beauty at any time..."
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" The little girl screamed. She abruptly stopped in a certain room, grabbed her small knife, and stabbed at Xu Huo!