Chapter 354: Night Walk
[Congratulations, player, for killing two red players. Please collect the players' belongings.]
The game notification lit up. Xu Huo gave it a quick glance. This couple was quite poor—basically no potions, only a few hundred white notes each in their pockets, and three items.
[Fair Wallet: Although there isn't much money in the wallet, losing it is still an annoying thing. Dark psychologist Qiqi Lu once said that the best way to soothe a loss is not to recover what was lost, but to make others suffer along with you.]
[Note: Throw the wallet at an unlucky passerby, and they will randomly drop one item (a poor bastard with no items will drop something else). Can only be used three times per day.]
[Luxury Single Room: A steak knife that can instill fear in an opponent. Note that its function is intimidation, not harm, but causing psychological trauma to others still carries the risk of imprisonment.]
[Armguard of the Beauty Goddess: A beautiful and sturdy armguard, suitable for women with slender arms.]
Three items. The last two were basically useless. Only the wallet had some use.
However, if the opponent was stronger, the wallet could likely only be used once. The dropped item would literally fall to the ground, buying only a second or two of time.
But for an Evolver, one or two seconds was enough.
The Ma couple's evolution rates were both above 35%. It seemed they had traded all the money and unimportant items they obtained for evolution potions.
With an evolution rate 15% higher, and being cannibal players, Xu Huo could feel the gap in physical ability. It seemed finding the Perfect Evolution Potion was urgent.
He picked up the wallet, glanced out the window, took off his coat to cover the Ma couple's heads, then went outside to retrieve the Crimson Sword.
When he came back inside, the two corpses were gone, and his coat was left on the ground.
Pausing for a moment, he picked up his coat and went to the external study.
He turned on the light, and the room brightened.
Scanning the room, he walked to the shelf beside the fireplace.
It was filled with photos and medals, all related to spiders. Aside from some honorary awards for cultivating rare breeds, the rest were trophies from spider beauty pageants in different game zones, medals from spider web-weaving competitions, and even gold awards from spider taming contests.
The events were boring, but the trophies and medals were quite substantial.
However, Xu Huo noticed that although the award photos all featured He Pu and Mr. Dong together, the recipient of these awards was Mr. Dong.
In the main building, there weren't many photos of He Pu and Mr. Dong together, and those that existed were at least five years old. The same was true for these award photos. Judging from the pictures and trophies, He Pu and Mr. Dong once had a very good relationship. As the master of the castle, He Pu accompanying his butler to spider beauty pageants across different regions showed they weren't just employer and employee—they were at least close friends.
But from what he had observed over the past two days, Mr. Dong seemed less concerned about He Pu than he was about the castle's furnishings. He even went out of his way to annoy He Pu in small ways, like using cheap paint or not serving food according to He Pu's preferences.
It wasn't just a falling out.
Using five years ago as a dividing line, He Pu's change was too drastic. Five years ago, He Pu was a talented, knowledgeable man with a wide range of interests. Over the past five years, He Pu claimed to be ill, abandoned all his former hobbies and research, and even the handwriting in his potion research notes had changed—completely unlike the same person.
Mr. Dong wasn't an ordinary butler. He was most likely an Evolver like Hu Shan. He would certainly notice the difference. If his relationship with He Pu hadn't been so good before, the current He Pu being able to remain the castle's master would make sense. But the annex was kept spotless, and many items representing their relationship were stored there, showing that Mr. Dong still had feelings for He Pu.
If that was the case, why did he tolerate the current He Pu?
In an instant, multiple possibilities flashed through Xu Huo's mind. He overturned his own deductions and started over, eventually returning to this line of thought.
Unless he completed the task early, he couldn't leave the castle before the instance ended. He had already guessed most of the truth behind the missing guests, but completing the first task would inevitably put him at odds with He Pu, Hu Shan, and Mr. Dong—making it the most dangerous option.
Mr. Dong was a very key figure.
Cleaning the bloodstains from his clothes, Xu Huo walked out of the annex. Holding an umbrella, he circled the entire building. When he came back around from the rear, Mr. Dong was already standing in the rain.
He instinctively entered a state of alert but quickly relaxed.
In the darkness, Mr. Dong's eyes were red. He spoke through ventriloquism: "Mr. Xu, it's not safe to walk at night. The rain is so heavy. You should go back early."
Xu Huo put on a smile. "I was looking for Mr. and Mrs. Ma."
"They've already returned to the main building." Mr. Dong made a gesture for him to proceed.
Xu Huo walked forward under his umbrella and added, "So it turns out it wasn't Mr. He who liked raising spiders, but you, Mr. Dong. You and Mr. He were close friends in the past, weren't you?"
"He was a respectable senior."
Mr. Dong followed silently behind him, his eyes fixed on the person under the umbrella.
Xu Huo acted as if he hadn't noticed, continuing to bring up topics related to He Pu during the walk back.
Arriving safely at the main building, Xu Huo nodded to Mr. Dong before returning to his room.
The Chen brothers were waiting for him. Chen Nan spoke first: "We went to Hu Shan's room. We didn't find any clues, and there were no human-shaped ceramics."
This was what Xu Huo had instructed them to do during the day—not to go to the third floor at night, but to lure Hu Shan away and search her room instead.
"You suspect she turns people into ceramics?" Chen Tu asked. "Is it because of Fang Min?"
Xu Huo nodded. "Hu Shan should be one of the truths behind the missing guests."
The two brothers exchanged a glance. Chen Tu continued, "We planned for one of us to lure Hu Shan away while the other entered the room. But when we got there, Hu Shan wasn't in her room, and she still hadn't returned by the time we left."
Xu Huo paused in wiping the rainwater off himself. "She might have been lured away by another player."
"Who could it be?" Chen Nan blurted out. "She hasn't been turned into a ceramic, has she? If she were turned into one, it could be smashed and buried anywhere—there'd be no way to find her."
Xu Huo didn't speak, lost in thought. Chen Tu's gaze followed him to the sofa. "Hu Shan is one of the truths. With that truth, we should be able to complete the second task. All we need to do next is find the bodies?"
"Finding the bodies is the most dangerous step," Xu Huo said. "The fact that non-task players appeared in the castle means the instance boss wants to exploit a loophole in the game to kill all the players."
Chen Nan looked around. "Besides the Ma couple and me, who else do we need to watch out for?"
"The Ma couple is already dead," Xu Huo said. "There's no need to guess who the non-task players are. The day after tomorrow's music appreciation session is what matters."
If it were him, he would definitely wrap things up by then.