Chapter 724: 1/6 Progress
"Whether it counts or not is up to the Wax Museum to decide." Xu Huo continued walking forward while using "Escape from Death" to check the escape probability of the Wax Museum, which had already returned to the surface.
Sure enough, after going through the entire venue, the greatest escape opportunity still lay with the giant wax figure at the entrance, which had now risen back to 65%.
Bai Wenxian must have known earlier that the giant wax figure was the exit of the Wax Museum, which was why he attacked it in frustration after discovering the museum had returned underground and the entrance's escape probability had dropped.
Now that the Wax Museum was back on the surface, no horror story characters appeared, but the melting wax on the walls hadn't stopped, meaning they were still trapped inside the venue with no way out.
Xu Ruosi and Long Aotian split up to strike the venue's walls, failed, then regrouped to analyze how to get out.
"Maybe we have to wait until tomorrow morning?" Long Aotian suggested.
Xu Ruosi checked the time. "It's not even midnight yet. If we want to verify that, we'll have to survive until then."
"Since we've already discovered the bodies, maybe we can fill in the missing pieces of the disappearance mystery," Xie Ling mused. "Riddles don't just have a main body; they also have causes and consequences, right?"
"It's nothing more than the Wax Museum turning living people into wax figures. That's hardly a difficult puzzle to solve," Xu Ruosi said. "If that were the answer to clearing the instance, we would have received the game notification the moment we saw the bodies."
Xu Huo walked back from the entrance to stand beside the three of them and began to supplement the information about the Wax Museum:
"First, the Wax Museum is a closed space that, in coordination with the Horror Story Room, turns characters from horror stories into wax figures."
"Second, the Wax Museum tells a story about a disease that caused a large number of deaths. People entering the venue might be defaulted to an infected state, and sealing or burning them might be to prevent the spread of the epidemic."
"Third, the Wax Museum enters a cleaning state at night, clearing out living people inside and remaking wax figures."
"In other words, the reason so many bodies are buried beneath the Wax Museum is due to the legitimate reason of epidemic prevention and control."
After stating these three points, Xu Huo paused. When he didn't receive a game notification for a while, he was about to add a fourth point when he saw the instance task on his game panel change to "Solve the Disappearance Mystery (1/6)."
At the same time, the task information for Xie Ling and the other two also changed. All three looked incredulous, while Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "The answer was that simple?"
"Simple?" Long Aotian reacted the most. "I never even thought of that. Even if I had to guess a murder motive, I would have gone straight to a psychotic killer. Why did you think of epidemic prevention and control? Does the Sun Natural History Museum have anything to do with this?"
"You all saw the forms of the wax figures in the venue during the day. It's a complete story," Xu Huo said. "The Natural History Museum conducted human experiments in its early years, but no one knows exactly what kind of experiments they were."
"However, the evolution of nature is very wondrous. Some viruses or bacteria can survive and even reproduce under extremely harsh conditions, even achieving immortality."
"If I were a person dying of illness, I might take the risk and try it."
But this wasn't something a simple merchant could accomplish. How the Natural History Museum was built in the first place was still unclear.
Xu Ruosi went to test the front door. The giant wax figure was still melting, sealing the entire door. "Still can't open it."
"What do you mean? We solved the disappearance mystery and still can't get out?" Long Aotian pulled out a prop, ready to force his way through.
Xu Huo checked the "Escape from Death" probability, which had risen to 80%, and said, "Don't you see the wax has stopped melting? The Wax Museum is now rebuilding itself. We might really have to wait until tomorrow morning to get out."
Although he said that, he wasn't entirely certain, because the Wax Museum had turned into a large-scale prop and was now reshuffling itself. It was hard to say if there would be any changes.
"The air doesn't smell as bad as before either." Xie Ling took a deep breath. "It feels like the venue has been ventilated!"
"So we just wait?" Long Aotian put his prop away and slapped his thigh. "Zone 009 just merged into the game. There might be props in the new instances. Since we have nothing to do, why don't we go look for some?"
Xu Huo waved his hand to indicate he wasn't interested, and Xie Ling also said, "Those wax figures are each more dangerous than the last. I think it's better to stay put."
Xu Ruosi was clearly still shaken by what had happened earlier and also said he wanted to stay in the entrance hall to keep checking if the door had opened.
Long Aotian felt a bit awkward and ultimately didn't go.
The four of them rested in the hall. Long Aotian sat still for a while and wanted to play cards. Xu Huo closed his eyes to rest, while Xie Ling and Xu Ruosi were clearly not as calm as he was and had to resort to playing cards to ease their inner anxiety.
Just as the atmosphere was relaxing, the sounds of a child running and jumping, along with "clack clack" footsteps, came from inside the venue again. This time, it was much more realistic than the vague sounds before.
Xie Ling paused to listen. "Could it be that Bai Wenxian isn't dead yet?"
"Dead as a doornail." Xu Huo didn't even open his eyes. "Besides, the thing he used to confuse people was just an E-grade prop with no offensive capability."
The other three found his calmness a bit strange, but since the wax figures weren't coming to the front hall, they could pretend they hadn't heard anything. They would know for sure by morning.
If the Wax Museum weren't a large-scale prop, Xu Huo might have gone back to check. But since it was a prop, killing the wax figures was meaningless unless the prop itself was destroyed.
He just didn't know if this venue counted as an ownerless prop.
The four of them endured until dawn. Suddenly, all sounds inside the Wax Museum ceased. The wax clinging to the front door quickly melted and fell to the ground, and the door reappeared.
Xie Ling and the other two immediately stepped forward. After confirming the door could be pushed open, their faces lit up with joy. They turned back to call Xu Huo to leave.
Xu Huo walked out and couldn't help but glance in the direction of the Beheading Cemetery. There, three shadows—one tall and two short—were silently running and quickly disappeared into the hazy morning light.
Xu Ruosi noticed his gaze and followed it but saw nothing.
Xu Huo stepped out of the Wax Museum and said, "I wonder how the other players are doing."