Chapter 675: The Conditions for Disappearance
"What problem?" Xu Huo raised an eyebrow.
"Those carvings on the wall!" Cao Dong lowered his voice and said, "Those carvings all came to life. When I was sleeping last night, I felt like several pairs of eyes were staring at me! You might not have noticed because it was daytime... At night, at night you'll know how serious it is!"
Xu Huo smiled slightly. "The reliefs and patterns in the hotel rooms are specially arranged to exert mental pressure on people. Under high tension or fatigue, it's not unusual to experience mild hallucinations. As long as you don't look at them, it's fine."
Cao Dong was visibly startled, then frowned and shook his head. "Impossible, I've tried, but I simply can't control myself!"
Hearing this, Xu Huo's expression turned slightly more serious. "Have you tried damaging the wall?"
"Scratching up the wall didn't work either." Cao Dong looked at him with a kind of 'brothers in hardship' expression. "The only difference between me and the others is that I came to the woods yesterday and touched the stone carvings."
"I don't believe that," Xu Huo said. "Maybe it's the hotel manager playing tricks."
Since their opinions differed, there was nothing more to say, and they parted ways to leave the woods.
When Xu Huo returned to the hotel, he found that the bus had brought another eight players—four men and four women. These people didn't look for homestays but came straight to the hotel.
They were noisy while booking rooms. A long-haired player with an artistic flair invited two fashionably dressed female players to stay with him. "It seems I'll have to be the flower guardian. Would the two beautiful ladies do me the honor?"
Beside them, two people had bruises on their faces and looked at the trio with lingering anger, while the remaining three appeared completely indifferent.
The one man and two women were bickering, and the manager interrupted them with a displeased expression. "There aren't many rooms left. Are you booking or not?"
The eight of them took five rooms.
The long-haired man shared a room with one of the fashionable female players, the two injured players each had their own room, and among the remaining three, there was a couple, leaving a baby-faced female player to take a single room alone.
Just like when Xu Huo and his group arrived yesterday, the other players barely came out. The newcomers wanted to buy information but had no way to get it, as the other players were tight-lipped.
"If only those who offend the statue disappear, the other players wouldn't need to be so defensive," Yi Pei said, bringing some food for Xu Huo.
"People can die even without triggering the instance's killing conditions. That's why players dig traps and guard against each other," Xu Huo replied.
Players who had been there for a day or two probably had a rough idea.
First, seeing the statue, offending the so-called god, or violating the rule that 'outsiders cannot bully locals with faith' would make someone the primary target for disappearance.
Second, even without meeting those conditions, people still disappeared, meaning no matter what, someone had to die every night. So the disappearance criteria might be artificially selected.
Third, rooms with more than one occupant carried a higher risk.
When Xu Huo and his group checked in yesterday, someone had left, likely because they, like Cao Dong, had discovered something fishy on the walls. And Liu Shiyan on the first floor saying the hotel was safer might not have been entirely false.
At the hotel, the manager wouldn't stay on duty at night—at least not openly—while players staying alone in homestays had to deal with the townspeople, who eagerly invited them to stay, not necessarily just for the meager earnings.
"Did you hear knocking last night? Did you look outside?" he asked Yi Pei. "Did you see anyone pass by?"
Yi Pei paused for two seconds before saying, "I didn't dare look outside."
"Is your eyesight poor, or are you completely blind?" Xu Huo suddenly asked.
Yi Pei was first surprised, then showed an 'I knew it' expression. "You really figured it out. Yesterday at the station, suddenly standing behind me, then going with me for the interview, and later borrowing the recording pen—it was all to verify whether I'm blind."
"On the surface, you look no different from a normal person, but my eyes are just a bit sharper," Xu Huo said.
No matter how well someone disguised it, someone with poor eyesight would show signs. Yi Pei probably wasn't completely blind and had an item to assist her vision, so she could move without issue, but she was slightly slower in particularly narrow spaces, and her reactions were delayed when there was no sound at close range.
The most revealing moment was during the interview. Because she couldn't see clearly, she could only get basic information from the residents' words—things visible at a glance, like how every household didn't use mirrors, how doors were uniformly locked, and the differences in the carvings.
Yi Pei had clearly realized this too. She couldn't completely avoid interacting with other players, and when she sensed Xu Huo might have seen through her, she didn't call it out but instead proactively showed goodwill.
"My eyes aren't good. I can only see the general outline," Yi Pei said. "But that doesn't affect my abilities. Even so, I've survived up to a D-level instance."
With inherently worse conditions, surviving this long proved she was more capable than the average person.
She emphasized this as a warning as well.
"I'll keep it a secret," Xu Huo said, returning to the topic. "Did you open the peephole last night?"
"No," Yi Pei said. "Since I can't see clearly anyway, but I did hear footsteps outside the door. That was before You Jun opened his door. After he opened it, I didn't hear any footsteps until you came up."
"Wei Xian didn't speak up immediately after You Jun disappeared."
"He's not trustworthy." Xu Huo's focus wasn't on Wei Xian. "Can you make out the reliefs on the wall?"
"Not in too much detail." Yi Pei hesitated slightly. "Do you think those reliefs are problematic?"
"Not just the reliefs—the mirrors and the peepholes are also problematic," Xu Huo said. "When someone knocks on the door, in most cases, players have two reactions: ignore it or check through the peephole."
"That hotel manager has been working here for over three months, which means no one has discovered him knocking at night."
"There are knocking sounds and footsteps. It's impossible that no one ever looked out. The fact that he's still alive means that those who hid behind the door to look also became missing persons."
"So last night, even rooms that weren't knocked on had people disappear!" Yi Pei paused, then added, "Why the peephole? It's also possible that the person knocking tampered with something outside the door."
"There might be more than one person knocking. The earlier players might have figured out how to trigger the conditions."
"That's not hard. We can test it," Xu Huo said. "Tonight, the manager will come knock on my door."
Yi Pei understood that this information wasn't given for free. "You want me to test the peephole for you?"
"Don't force yourself. Even if you refuse, I won't tell anyone about your eyes," Xu Huo said. "I can find someone else to test it."
Yi Pei showed hesitation, then made up her mind after a moment. "I'll do it. This instance is related to eyes—the statue can't be looked at, the locals don't like using mirrors, and the reliefs also target the eyes. Maybe the missing players saw something special."
"If I trigger the condition but nothing happens, it proves that the primary factor is 'seeing,' which would greatly reduce the risk."