Chapter 2998: The Core Existence of the Instance
The group of four arrived at the study.
This was originally part of the master bedroom's configuration, so it was divided into two floors. The upper floor held the bedroom and study, while the lower floor had a reception room and a small dining area. Now, several rooms on the second floor had been converted into a single large study.
There were indeed no traces of Wang Chengren and his wife's lives here, but the books placed here were quite interesting.
Most of the books here were medical texts. Aside from anatomy, there were many rare editions on herbal medicine and acupuncture.
Xu Huo casually pulled one out. Many places had notes written in them, especially regarding the treatment of legs. Besides detailed information, there were also some records of trial experiences.
It seemed Wang Xiaohui had never given up on her legs, which was why, when game potions proved ineffective, she tried other methods.
Over on the other side, Wang Chengren was also rummaging around. He wasn't interested in medical books, so he pulled out a photo album from a corner. However, when he opened it, his face immediately twitched in fright. Inside were several folded blueprints, and on those blueprints were drawings of him and Ms. Yao. Both were naked, but with their chests and abdomens split open, their internal organs, muscles, bones, and even meridians clearly marked, as if they had actually been dissected!
"Look on the bright side," Xu Huo glanced over. "She might have just wanted to learn, and happened to choose you two as her targets."
Wang Chengren felt a chill run down his spine, and at the same time found it hard to believe. "She hated us to this extent?!"
"What's so strange about that?" The female player looked at him. "The strange thing is that she became a player and didn't kill you."
It was too easy for a player to make two people disappear. Not just killing them, but locking them up and torturing them inhumanely without anyone interfering. In fact, in many people's eyes, if they had been treated the same way, they would definitely retaliate once they had the power. Having seen so much death in the game, taking revenge on one's enemies, even without any limits, was understandable.
Wang Chengren looked at the blueprints again. He could understand Wang Xiaohui wanting to kill him, but these drawings looked more like she wanted to skin him alive and pull out his tendons. Was she really that hateful?
Sutton had done some research before entering the instance and knew a bit about the Wang family's situation. He patted Wang Chengren on the shoulder. "If someone who lived a good life thanks to my parents tried to steal my inheritance and abused me after my parents died, I would slice off their flesh piece by piece and feed it to the dogs."
"What did the dogs do wrong?" Xu Huo closed the book and put it back on the shelf. He then walked to another bookshelf. The books on this shelf were all placed with their spines facing inward, so the titles couldn't be seen from the outside. But a quick scan showed they were all about seeking immortality and enlightenment, as well as books on training mental strength or consciousness.
Unlike the game's experience with mental evolution, these books focused more on internal mental cultivation, concentrating on the self, and the manipulation of the external world through mental power.
He casually opened a few and saw some notes inside. Xu Huo roughly guessed why Wang Xiaohui's mental projection of herself was a humanoid black shadow. Because of her childhood experiences, she had somewhat dissociated from the concepts of "self" and "person." To maintain self-consistency, she actively learned things to comfort herself. She might not be trapped in the pain of the past now, but her understanding of the mind had changed.
Usually, a person would concretize their self-image. Wang Xiaohui had separated her body and mind, so her mental projection was a nearly solid humanoid black shadow. This also meant that even without special mental evolution, her mental strength was much stronger than the average person's.
Given that there were no records of her secondary evolution, the strength of her shadow person was more likely reflected in her mental defenses.
The shadow people in the instance were good at learning. Whether it was Xu Huo or her, they were ready-made learning targets. No wonder they could easily break through the mental defenses of other players.
The shadow people of Ms. Yao and Wang Xiaohui were special existences in this instance. Last time, Xu Huo attacked Ms. Yao, causing the shadow world to fluctuate rapidly. Perhaps they couldn't decide the instance's survival, but they were still key core elements.
Perhaps attacking them would prevent the shadow world from being as stable as it was now—the biggest problem currently was the inability to freely open passages between the two spaces. As long as they could catch up to the shadow people, the subsequent problems would naturally be solved.
"Click." Xu Huo put the book back and walked out from behind the bookshelf. "Your wife, Ms. Yao, didn't enter the instance, but she repeatedly appears during meal times. She might be the key to clearing the instance. Think about it. Was there anything special about her when she lived here?"
Hearing this, Wang Chengren stopped caring about how much Wang Xiaohui hated him and immediately racked his brain. While thinking, he muttered: "My wife... I married her after I got rich. Her family favored boys over girls. I felt sorry for her and gave a considerable bride price. But those bloodsuckers in her family still managed to coax and cheat a lot of money out of her..."
"She especially loved this manor. I didn't really want to live in the place that belonged to Xiaohui's parents. The manor was so big, living in a dead person's room felt unlucky. But she insisted. She felt that only by moving in could she truly be the master of the manor."
"This house is an inheritance. Even if Xiaohui was gone, we couldn't get it. Only with Xiaohui here could it be ours. I also told her to be nicer to Xiaohui, but I don't know what she was thinking. She tried every way to drive Xiaohui away."
"I think she was a bit stupid. If she drove Xiaohui out and let her be killed by her mother's relatives, what would happen? Wouldn't all this property just be handed over to someone else?"
"A cuckoo occupying a magpie's nest has to drive out the original owner to feel at ease," the female player said sarcastically.
"That's not right either," Sutton said, crossing his arms. "With Wang Xiaohui here, you could hold onto the property. If Wang Xiaohui died, wouldn't the property go to someone else? She cared so much about this manor. If she were thinking straight, she wouldn't do something that cuts off her own retreat."
"It seems like she was only targeting Wang Xiaohui."
The female player seemed to have made a connection. She sized up Wang Chengren. "You're average-looking."
Wang Chengren didn't see a problem. "Money and talent can increase personal charm. Even if she didn't like my looks, she liked my money. What's wrong with that?"
Pretending not to care but actually very bothered, he continued: "Besides, apart from spending money lavishly and occasionally subsidizing her family, she had no other bad habits. She was beautiful, gave me two sons, and was especially gentle and considerate..."
"Was Wang Xiaohui's father good-looking?" The female player delivered a soul-searching question.
Wang Chengren's eyes widened. Before he could recover from the shock, he heard Xu Huo ask: "How was Ms. Yao's relationship with Wang Xiaohui's mother?"