# Chapter 346: The First Player to Die
"Shhh—!" The iron chain tore open another curtain, carving a groove in the wall as it wrapped around a wardrobe and hurled it toward Xu Huo!
"Bang!" Xu Huo raised his sword and split the wardrobe apart, saying, "You don't have to kill me, you know. Why not sit down and have a chat?"
The Spider-Man ignored him, dragging another long whip from one of its other limbs, moving so flexibly it nearly swept across half the room.
Although Xu Huo had the strings, the space left for him to maneuver was still very small. He dodged the chains that came whipping at him one after another, flicked his lighter, and set the curtain on the floor ablaze!
The Spider-Man seemed to fear fire, immediately retreating backward. Its central torso was now completely suspended in the air, with three limbs protecting its front while two more hooked the edge of the curtain, folding the flames and tossing them out the window.
Unfortunately, the speed of extinguishing couldn't keep up with the speed of igniting. The lighter clicked crisply, and the carpet on the floor also caught fire.
The Spider-Man spun its body, quickly crawled up the wall, and used its leaping advantage to pounce at Xu Huo!
Although the opponent was faster, Xu Huo relied on his enhanced environmental processing abilities from Super Evolution and his props to barely hold his ground. After dodging the spider leg attack for the fifth time, he lunged forward, pulled down the remaining half of the huge curtain still hanging, threaded it through with his strings, and covered the Spider-Man entirely!
With a "ding," the fire erupted, instantly illuminating the dark room. But the next moment, the curtain was torn to shreds by the limbs pushing outward.
Xu Huo was prepared. He threw half of his remaining stock in one go, and the flames spread instantly with the splashing alcohol, turning the entire room into a sea of fire in the blink of an eye!
He retreated to the window and turned back, only to see the Spider-Man stab two of its limbs into its own chest. Then the flames in the room extinguished, and all the broken items—including the carpet and the unburned remnants of the curtain—began to flow backward along their original trajectories, as if time were reversing. The wardrobe that had been thrown out and shattered reassembled in midair, the overturned sofa and table returned to their original positions, and even the damaged curtain pieces gathered back toward the window!
The speed of object restoration varied. Xu Huo frowned as he retreated to the balcony, only to see the Spider-Man also backing out of the room, maintaining this reversed motion as it crawled backward up onto the roof.
Xu Huo didn't follow. Instead, he swung his sword at the lamp that was in the process of being restored.
The lamp, which had been nearly repaired, had its process interrupted and immediately fell back to the floor, shattering again.
He glanced at the other items around him—some already restored, some still in progress. They weren't really restored, though. The burned curtain couldn't be pieced back together and still lay on the ground with missing corners and chunks. The seemingly restored wooden cabinet was merely a crude reassembly that would fall apart at the slightest touch.
In the span of two breaths, a scream pierced the night sky. He quickly pulled open the door and stepped out, running into the Ma couple, who were holding up their phones.
Mrs. Ma, clinging to Mr. Ma's arm, said with schadenfreude, "Quite a commotion. You okay?"
Xu Huo glanced at her and first headed toward Fang Min's room. Two players were already standing at that door, and other players were walking over with them.
"What's going on?" Liu Zhengping asked.
The one who had screamed was a young servant. She spoke incoherently: "I went to the bathroom... saw a light on the second floor... and then I saw Miss Fang had an accident... she was in her room!"
The servant was pointing at Wei Landeng, whose face was sickly pale.
Standing at the door earlier were Fry and Li Chao. Now Liu Zhengping, You Qiwen, and Yu Shuai walked over. Just one look, and the three of them changed expressions.
"Holy shit!" Liu Zhengping reflexively turned his head away.
Xu Huo had already reached the door. With one glance, he took in the situation in the room.
Fang Min was dead. Not just dead—she had died horribly.
There was no light in the room; only the light from the doorway illuminated it. The beam extended from the entrance to the large coffee table in the center of the room, where two clean, snow-white calves were placed side by side. The rest of her body was missing. The floor around it was covered in still-uncongealed blood and fragments of organs. The brutal contrast with the clean coffee table was physically nauseating.
"Is this Fang Min?" Mrs. Ma craned her neck to look from behind.
"Someone's there!" Yu Shuai, who was inspecting the room, suddenly shouted. He raised his arm and made a shooting gesture toward the balcony, and a bullet-sized hole silently appeared in the brick wall!
Fry was the first to rush to the balcony. He looked left and right, then shook his head. "Nothing there."
"I saw a pair of red eyes," Yu Shuai said with a frown. "I think I hit them."
"Even if you hit them, they might not be injured." You Qiwen knocked out the panicked servant and placed her in the corner, then stepped forward and asked, "Confirmed it's Fang Min?"
"It's her, no doubt," Wei Landeng said. "Her calves were especially beautiful. Especially..."
"Symmetric," Xu Huo finished.
The players inside and outside the room all looked up at him. Ignoring their gazes, Xu Huo went straight to the balcony. Wearing the "Peeping Eye," he caught sight of a few black spots on the outer wall—probably ash.
The Spider-Man had left his room and come to Fang Min's room. It was probably also attracted by the servant's scream.
By now, You Qiwen and the others were questioning Wei Landeng about what happened before and after she discovered Fang Min's accident.
"I have a habit of staying up late. The power hadn't come back for a while, and with all the noise next door, I wanted to come out and check. I didn't expect Fang Min's door to be ajar. When I came in, I saw this..." Wei Landeng looked pained, averted her gaze, and said, "I was about to go notify you all when this servant came up silently."
Her story was full of holes.
Even if the reason for leaving her room was somewhat plausible, when she saw the gruesome scene in Fang Min's room, wouldn't her first instinct be to go find the other players? Why would she stay in a place that could be very dangerous?
A servant came up silently behind her? Footsteps, the light from a hand lantern—wouldn't those have alerted her? Unless this servant was also a player, but it was obvious to everyone that she wasn't.
Liu Zhengping asked bluntly, "Did you kill Fang Min?"
"It wasn't me." Wei Landeng's face darkened. "Believe it or not, that's what happened."
"Little girl, I think you'd better tell the truth," Mrs. Ma said flatly. "Unless you want to become everyone's enemy."
Fang Min had died too quickly, and her death was too gruesome. The players couldn't afford to lower their guard against Wei Landeng, who was the most suspicious. They might even kill her on the spot to eliminate a future threat.
"She's not the only one under suspicion." Xu Huo had already walked around the room. Now he said, "From the servant's scream to when Mr. Ma, Mrs. Ma, and I came out, there was a five-second interval. The three of you didn't come out of your own rooms. Killing someone and coming back would have been tight on time."
He was referring to Liu Zhengping, You Qiwen, and Yu Shuai.
The others turned to look at the three of them.
"That's right, I wasn't in my room," Yu Shuai said, spreading his hands. "But you can't pin this on me just because I went out. I saw a pair of red eyes just now."
"Only you saw them," Fry said, staring at him.