Chapter 2997: Wang Xiaohui's Shadow Person
The female player's condition was more severe than Sutton's; if delayed any longer, she might truly have lost her life. Since she had already awakened, recovery was possible.
Over there, Sutton had already dragged the corpse out of the lake water—only one body, because the other few had silently disappeared into the water during their conversation.
Sutton opened the corpse's head and examined it. Although the data from a dead body wasn't as intuitive as that of a living person, the instrument still provided the closest possible readings.
At the very least, this person had suffered severe brain damage before death. The brain structure exhibited some strange deformities, like burst blood vessels, with certain cellular tissues of the brain showing an overly fluffy state. It looked more like exploded cotton candy, or tofu cut into a mushy paste.
Realizing that this instance's mental interference no longer merely plunged people into cognitive confusion leading to death, but directly killed the spirit or the brain, Sutton's expression shifted multiple times before he finally let out a sigh. "At least this way of dying doesn't involve much pain."
By now, the female player had fully regained consciousness. She stared at the corpse with its opened skull, her face very grim. "I still don't understand what just happened. How did he and the others die?"
"Who can really figure it out?" Sutton said. He actually believed that Xu Huo understood how the shadow person killed, but given the instance's characteristics, understanding it too clearly might lead to falling into a trap, involuntarily following the shadow person's methods of thinking.
The female player turned her gaze to Xu Huo, about to say something, when suddenly a splash came from the lake. Wang Chengren, who had repeatedly appeared during meals, emerged from the water.
He floundered for a moment, spotted Xu Huo, and immediately shouted in surprise, "Brother Xu, save me, save me! It's me!"
Xu Huo moved his hand, and a Space Ray directly lifted the man over. From the feel of it, it was close to a real person.
Wang Chengren knelt on the ground, both frightened and relieved. "I just saw myself, several of myself, and they all came to kill me. Luckily, I'm quick on my feet!"
Xu Huo looked down at him. "Quick on your feet? Your shadow person in the instance is much younger than you."
Wang Chengren quickly waved his hand. "My body now is even better than when I was young. I've even participated in competitions and won awards!"
Assuming for now that his body was indeed better, Xu Huo asked again, "Besides your shadow person, did you see anyone else? What about Wang Xiaohui?"
"I saw a few people I didn't recognize. I don't know if they were real or not, so I didn't dare talk to them." Wang Chengren's memory was somewhat confused; he only remembered the gist, unable to recall more details. But when Wang Xiaohui was mentioned, a complex emotion appeared on his face. "Xiaohui... Xiaohui might already be dead..."
Xu Huo walked up to him. "Tell me in detail."
"I saw Xiaohui's shadow," Wang Chengren said. "Her shadow was different from others'. Her shadow wasn't a real person—it was just a human-shaped black monster, without a face or features. When I ran into it while escaping, I was scared out of my wits, but it felt very real when touched. Don't other shadow people disappear like mist anytime, anywhere?"
Wang Chengren wasn't stupid. He had interacted with his own shadow person more than anyone else, making it easier for him to notice changes in the shadow people.
"You're really lucky," Sutton observed, scrutinizing him. "At the dinner table, your shadow person was already very lifelike—could talk and laugh—but it didn't come to kill you first."
"That's because I'm lucky!" Wang Chengren said matter-of-factly. "I've been lucky my whole life. When I was young, my family wasn't well-off, but kind people sponsored my education. When I took exams, I did just average, but then my school merged with another, and my degree got upgraded. When I went job hunting, I accidentally helped someone, and they gave me a cushy job."
"Before I got married, Xiaohui's parents struck it rich, and I entered the Wang family company as management without suffering at all..."
"And today too—I was originally coming here to see Xiaohui, but I got stuck in traffic halfway. By the time I arrived, the estate had already turned into an instance!"
"But you still ended up in the instance," the female player cut him off. "That means your luck isn't that good."
Wang Chengren, suppressing his disgust and fear, glanced at the nearby corpse. "I'm still alive!"
That was true. Although not all of the Wang family employees and estate workers had been killed, someone like Wang Chengren, who had repeatedly shuttled through the shadow world and still came out bouncing, was currently unique.
"You really are lucky," Xu Huo said, studying him. "You haven't been invited to the dining room yet, have you?"
Wang Chengren shrank his neck under Xu Huo's gaze. "What... what dining room..."
Xu Huo smiled. "After running for so long, aren't you hungry?"
The Wang family estate had plenty of fruits and vegetables, but Wang Chengren was too timid to wander around alone, so he could only endure the hunger. He hadn't yet reached the point of eating anything, or else the flowers and grass in the garden would have been fair game.
After a pause, Wang Chengren cautiously changed the subject. "Have you run into Xiaohui?"
Having been in the instance for so long, the players had a good grasp of the basic situation. In essence, the shadow person was a form condensed from spiritual power—a materialized spiritual force. This force was influenced by the people it mimicked, which was why Xu Huo's shadow person was exceptionally strong. Despite forming not long ago, it could skillfully use its power to breach others' mental defenses.
To some extent, the shadow person was also a projection of a person's spirit. Its existence involved both the special substances provided by the instance site and its own formation rules, as well as a certain spiritual projection from the player being mimicked. The combined forces from these three sources created the shadow person.
It was precisely because of the player's spiritual projection that Xu Huo's shadow person could quickly master the ability to manipulate spiritual power that other players lacked.
As for Wang Xiaohui, it was likely the same situation. The shadow person she subjectively projected was just a mass of energy in human form.
She was among the first to enter, so her shadow person should have been very mature. That was why Wang Chengren could encounter a physical entity. However, Wang Xiaohui's whereabouts were unknown, and her shadow person seemed to have lost its target, wandering aimlessly around the estate.
"Does your wife, Ms. Yao, have any personal belongings left in the estate?" Xu Huo asked Wang Chengren.
"No," Wang Chengren answered very firmly. When the couple was kicked out of the estate, the staff even tore off their bed sheets and covers and threw them out. Wang Xiaohui certainly wouldn't have kept their room.
"We used to live in the master bedroom, but now it's been converted into a study."
Xu Huo gestured for him to lead the way.