# Chapter 355: Indiscriminate Killing
The night passed relatively peacefully, but the next morning, the players discovered that Li Chao was missing.
When they asked Mr. Dong, Mr. Dong said he didn't know, but Hu Shan told them that Li Chao had urgent business and left the castle early, having informed her before leaving.
Liu Zhengping immediately wanted to turn hostile. Three players had already disappeared without a sound, and the vanished guests hadn't been found either. Rather than waiting for death, it was better to take a gamble and simply tear apart the instance boss's lair.
But before he could act, a hand reached out from each side to press down on his shoulders. One was You Qiwen—the two of them were close, so that wasn't surprising—but the other was Xu Huo.
At that moment, Mr. Dong spoke up, "Mr. and Mrs. Ma also left last night."
The players didn't react much. The Ma couple had little connection with the other players and were likely cannibal players anyway. Their deaths would be a good thing.
Hu Shan, however, shot Mr. Dong a glance, her face clearly showing emotion. "When did they leave?"
"In the middle of the night." Mr. Dong had just finished speaking when he heard a servant calling for him. He gave the players a slight bow and left.
Hu Shan had never had a good attitude toward the players, barely maintaining even the pretense of courtesy. She warned them sharply, "The third floor is full of valuable items. You'd better not go wandering up there unless you want to be blamed for anything that goes missing!"
If the players hadn't seen the rooms on the third floor, they might have dismissed her words. But those rooms were filled with potions and collected items—anyone would covet them. Hearing her say this, even the hot-tempered Liu Zhengping held his tongue.
Frey's expression wasn't good. "Li Chao was probably killed. He went to the third floor last night."
"What was he doing on the third floor? Didn't I say we shouldn't go up there for now..." You Qiwen stopped mid-sentence as realization dawned. "He went to steal something?"
"Is he crazy? He hadn't even completed the instance task, and he wanted to steal something?" Liu Zhengping found it hard to believe. A normal person would only grab something when they were sure they were leaving. Otherwise, offending the instance boss for no reason was just asking for death.
"He seemed very confident he wouldn't get caught." Frey sighed.
The others fell silent. After a few seconds, You Qiwen spoke up, "It looks like the Ma couple are dead too. At this point, we can basically confirm that at least Hu Shan and Mr. Dong are among those killing people in the castle."
"Wait." Liu Zhengping interrupted him and looked at Xu Huo. "If you want to join us, you need to provide valuable information."
Earlier, when Frey had invited everyone to cooperate using the contract, Xu Huo had refused. Now he shouldn't be sharing the information they had risked their lives to obtain.
"That's fine," Xu Huo said readily. "I can give you a definite piece of information. There are non-task players in this instance, and the Ma couple are among them."
The people present looked at him. Wei Landeng said, "So you were deliberately warning us? And the dinner the other night?"
"How do you prove what you're saying is true?" Frey frowned.
Xu Huo took out four invitation letters. "The signed invitations were given by the game. The unsigned ones I took from a cannibal player."
"On the first day we arrived, the Ma couple came to me on their own. Probably because they smelled the scent of corpses on the umbrella I was carrying, they thought I was one of them."
"Did they say who invited them?" Liu Zhengping asked quickly.
"They didn't know either." Xu Huo put away the invitations. "This should be enough to prove my identity."
"You could have said so from the beginning. There was no need to hide it," You Qiwen said.
"What difference does it make whether I said it or not?" Chen Nan spoke up. "Whether they're task players or non-task players, aren't they all dying?"
"Then I don't understand," Liu Zhengping said. "If non-task players are involved, shouldn't they be targeting us? Why are they being killed too?"
Frey looked at Xu Huo. "Did you kill the Ma couple?"
"Of course not," Xu Huo said. "I'm only a D-level player. How could I take on two at once? They might have ended up like Fang Min."
The Chen brothers glanced at him.
"Could there be someone in the castle helping us?" Wei Landeng said in surprise.
"It might not be helping us." You Qiwen wasn't so optimistic. "It's more likely indiscriminate killing."
"Let me sort this out. So now, there's someone in the castle deliberately inviting non-task players to muddy the waters, and someone else indiscriminately killing players... Are they the same person?" Frey said.
"Hard to say." Xu Huo asked, "Have you found any clues about the vanished guests?"
"We've searched everywhere we could outside. We also checked the annex building in the back." You Qiwen said, "There's no condition for hiding bodies. When we toured the third floor yesterday, I roughly measured the interior and exterior lengths of the rooms. There are no hidden compartments in the walls."
"The remaining places are the rooms He Pu frequently uses, mainly the bedroom, lounge, and music room."
"But those places are the most dangerous. To go up there, we'd need to lure He Pu down."
"How do we lure him? He's up there all day," Liu Zhengping said.
"Dinner. He comes down for dinner," Wei Landeng said. "We have between half an hour and an hour."
"But we can't leave the table casually during that time," Chen Tu said. "Even if we do leave, we probably can't avoid Mr. Dong and Hu Shan."
"I can go," Xu Huo said. "I've been eating in my room for the past two days. Going up once shouldn't be a problem."
"But I was attacked the night before last. Haven't you encountered any danger these past few nights?"
"No," Wei Landeng looked around. "We've all been staying in our rooms."
"We haven't either," Chen Tu said.
Xu Huo nodded to show he understood, then added, "During dinner, you'll need to find a way to keep Hu Shan and Mr. Dong occupied."
You Qiwen and the others said that wouldn't be a problem.
"Is there anyone else among us who's a non-task player?" Frey asked hesitantly.
After Xu Huo had provided concrete evidence, the players had all been avoiding this question.
"Actually, it's simple to find out who the non-task players are. Just check the invitations," Chen Tu said calmly. "But right now, the non-task players are in the same boat as us. There's no need for internal conflict."
"I agree." You Qiwen's dark face was extremely serious. "Every time we have internal conflict, it greatly increases the risk of failing to clear the instance. And this instance has clearly exceeded its intended difficulty."
The others naturally didn't object. With one player confirmed dead and four others missing, sticking together was the only way out.
"Then it's decided."
After making a simple plan, Wei Landeng took out a pair of squeeze toy chicks the size of steamed buns. "This item can transmit simple messages. As long as the toys are held by different people, squeezing one side will cause the other toy to automatically deflate as well. One squeeze means 'move,' two squeezes mean 'retreat,' and three squeezes mean 'danger.'"