Chapter 678: The Locals' Unusual Behavior
It was too normal for players to go missing—didn't players also disappear from the hotel?
The difference was that in the hotel, players preyed on other players, while staying in a homestay allowed one to use the locals as a buffer.
"You're staying at a homestay today?" Tian Kunwen walked over and asked Xu Huo and Yi Pei.
Yi Pei hadn't revealed last night's events to Tian Kunwen and the others, but since they were staying so close, Tian Kunwen and Fu Danhong both knew that Yi Pei had left Xu Huo's room very late.
Fu Danhong looked at Yi Pei with some disdain, while Tian Kunwen showed no reaction. However, Wei Xian beside him gave Xu Huo an extra glance.
"Someone came knocking again last night. I'm probably being targeted, so staying at a homestay is safer," Xu Huo explained.
"Homestays aren't necessarily safe either," Tian Kunwen added. "Someone went missing over there last night too."
So far, the players weren't really sure how many people had actually arrived in this county town. The hotel had a registration book to check, but it was hard to keep track of the homestays. With several hundred households here, if players didn't come out, it wasn't possible to investigate door to door.
The two groups parted ways, and Yi Pei asked Xu Huo which homestay he planned to stay at. "I'll go to the one I chatted with Fu Danhong about yesterday."
Xu Huo nodded. There was a man in that household with a shifty gaze, but to a player, he was just an ordinary person. Yi Pei had her reasons for choosing that place.
The two walked down the street and happened to run into the player they had met yesterday—not the one who had been throwing punches, but the one who had taken his companion away from Xu Huo.
Yesterday, they had come and gone together; today, only one remained.
That person gave Xu Huo a cold look and walked past him expressionlessly. But just a few steps after they passed each other, the player silently circled behind Xu Huo and shot a white light from his palm!
"Bang!" The white light, as if solid, struck the moving metal. The next second, Xu Huo vanished from his spot and reappeared in front of that player!
The other player showed surprise and instinctively stepped back, but when he looked down, he found that his legs seemed to have detached from his body.
In that instant, Xu Huo quickly tapped him on the shoulder and then distanced himself.
Powder rustled down from the man's clothes. His expression changed drastically as he looked up in shock.
Having melted the metal protective suit the other wore under his clothes, Xu Huo smiled and said, "Did your friend go missing?"
The other player's gaze darkened, and he immediately slapped his leg hard, breaking free from the restraint. He leaped two zhang high onto the nearby courtyard wall, raised a hammer with both hands, and smashed it down toward Xu Huo!
The hammer didn't look big, but the airflow it stirred up formed a pressure surface several times larger than itself. Even Yi Pei, standing nearby, felt her shoulders sink.
"Ding!" Xu Huo stood still, his lighter flickering toward the player opposite.
The person who had been soaring through the air with overwhelming momentum just a second ago instantly turned into a firebird. He crashed to the ground with his prop and rolled around continuously!
The screams attracted several players and nearby residents. Xiao Yun squeezed through the crowd and said urgently, "What are you standing around for? Hurry up and save him!"
Only then did the people around start moving, pouring bucket after bucket of water onto the burning player.
A sudden blaze covering three square meters might not severely injure a player, but it could certainly make them suffer if they didn't have defensive props protecting their bodies.
Under Xiao Yun's direction, everyone scrambled to lift the person onto a stretcher. Someone asked, "How could a perfectly fine person just catch fire like that?"
"Maybe he did something that deserved divine punishment," Xu Huo said. "Perhaps he offended the gods you worship."
"Slap!" The stretcher that had just been lifted was thrown back to the ground in an instant. The residents gathered around stared down at the person on it—different faces, but the same look in their eyes, as if they were looking at a dead man.
"Is it just me," Yi Pei walked over to Xu Huo and lowered her voice, "or do these people seem a bit more sluggish than the day before yesterday?"
Just as she finished speaking, several middle-aged women nearby spat at the burned player and shouted curses, "You ignorant little beast, you deserve to be burned! Tonight, the gods will come and take you away!"
The injured player had no way to defend himself, nor was there any point in explaining. He glanced at Xu Huo, who stood a few meters away, then got up and ran off.
One of the women chased after him, yelling, "Everyone remember this little bastard! Don't let him stay in any house!"
The man turned back to glare hatefully before hurrying away.
Once he was gone, the people around started gossiping again—how well they slept last night, what they had for breakfast this morning, how their disobedient children got a beating... topics like that.
But if you looked closely, you'd notice that even though they were chatting, their eyes kept darting toward the nearby players.
It was an extremely unsettling stare. Often, if you turned your head, you'd see several people staring straight at you. But in the blink of an eye, they would return to normal, as if you had imagined it.
Yi Pei only had a vague feeling. "Still staying at the homestay?"
"The hotel isn't necessarily safe either." Xu Huo glanced at the gray sky. "It might rain later."
Yi Pei frowned. "Rain in an instance is never good."
Xu Huo nodded and parted ways with her. He went to the small courtyard of the elderly man and his granddaughter from yesterday, placed a stack of white notes and a bag of snacks on the table.
The little girl showed no interest in the white notes but stared at the snacks, swallowing her saliva.
The old man's expression was reluctant. After hesitating for a long time, he said, "My house doesn't have a good room for you to stay in."
"Staying in the main hall is fine. I just need a place to rest." Xu Huo glanced at the side door, which had been replaced and locked again, then gave the little girl another hundred notes. "Go to the restaurant and buy some dishes. I'll treat you to a meal."
This time, the little girl didn't wait for her grandfather to nod before grabbing the money and running out.
The old man sat at the door, silently sighing, then continued with his work. The small courtyard was quiet inside and out, with only the rustling sound of a file scraping against wood.
After lunch, Xu Huo planned to go out for another walk. The old man looked at him and said, "Don't go near the forest pond. That's where the dead are buried. It's unlucky."
Xu Huo turned back to thank him, then opened his umbrella and strolled slowly toward the woods.
The drizzle was dense, the light dimmer than in the morning. Large clusters of dark clouds gathered in the distance, threatening to bring heavier rain.
Not far into the woods beyond the end of the hotel, he was surrounded by several players. The leader was the curly-haired player Fang Penghui.
"Something wrong?" Xu Huo looked at him.
"The couple who just arrived yesterday are dead," Fang Penghui said. "They followed you into the woods."
"Were you friends with them?" Xu Huo asked back.
"No," Fang Penghui said. "I'm not here to pick a fight either. I just want to know what happened here last night and how you managed to get out alive."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "You seem pretty sure I didn't kill them?"
Fang Penghui paused. "They died horribly."
(Chapter End)