# Chapter 741: The Role Reversal of Perpetrator and Victim
(To be revised later) After failing to find anyone twice in a row, this player also began to doubt himself. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Maybe I really did see it wrong."
The boat continued forward. The few of them silently passed through the tombstone area. At the next turn, the players who had been facing forward all turned around at the same time, and sure enough, they saw a shadow flash past at the stern of the boat!
"There really is someone!" The two players at the stern immediately gave chase.
There weren't many people in total. Xu Huo had killed two earlier, two had just left, leaving three behind.
In the game, it's best not to be alone. The three of them stopped the boat in the waterway. Just as they were about to turn around, the boat was suddenly overturned by a powerful force. Then several figures leaped out from the water. One of them, with his head wrapped, lunged ferociously at the nearest player, roaring, "Bullying the few with numbers, here you come again!"
When that player saw him, he sneered. Pressing his chest, a large donut-shaped shield popped up in front of him. Long Aotian was bounced back a meter or two, but he grabbed onto the stone wall to stop his momentum and swung his blade back in a counterattack!
That player was on guard and immediately used a defensive tool to block the strike. However, while protecting his front, he didn't notice his back. Xiao Ling used a toy car to knock one player away, then turned around and fired a non-discriminatory short arrow. The arrow ricocheted back and forth in the narrow waterway, making its trajectory unpredictable and leaving no chance for preemptive defense. In chaotic fights, this kind of prop often had unexpected effects.
The player fighting Long Aotian, after his companion dodged the short arrow, was pierced through the chest by it. Immediately afterward, a mechanism activated and tore open his stomach!
Unpleasant-looking things flowed out from the wound. The player tried to hold them in with one hand, but Long Aotian wouldn't miss this opportunity. He stepped in with a finishing blow and kicked the man into the waterway.
One dead. Of the remaining two, one was a puppet. The player controlling the puppet used it to block Xiao Ling's blade, then climbed up the stone wall like a gecko, crawling along the ceiling toward the entrance of the Styx.
A thin thread flew after him, piercing through the stone wall and tearing off large chunks of stone like ripping cloth. The escaping player lost his grip, flipped over, and fell. Yu Guangnan, who had been chasing across the water surface, blocked him and landed a punch to his chest and abdomen.
Yu Guangnan was wearing a special pair of gloves. When he struck, the powerful force bursting from the back of his hand even shattered the clothes the player was wearing. As the cracking sound of bones was heard, the player flew several meters back and fell into the water.
Long Aotian could no longer hold back. Flipping his knife, a cold light cut through the water surface toward that man. However, the opponent reacted quickly, turning in the water to dodge, then hurriedly fled forward.
Long Aotian wanted to give chase, but the man hadn't run more than a few meters before he suddenly sank underwater, as if something had dragged him down!
Yu Guangnan's trait props were related to water, which was how the three of them had managed to hide underwater and wait for an opportunity. When they had gone down earlier, aside from some bones, they hadn't found anything else.
But to be safe, the three exchanged glances and simultaneously returned to the boat.
There was no movement underwater for a long time. Just as they suspected the opponent had escaped, bloody water churned up, carrying chunks of flesh and body parts.
Yu Guangnan poked at it with a stick. "There are signs of biting by a large beast. Could there be crocodiles raised underwater?"
"A crocodile approaching should be something we'd notice." Xiao Ling frowned. "Never mind, let's go first."
The three continued toward the entrance of the Styx. Before they had gone far, they encountered another corpse. Long Aotian said, "They're from the same group. Six people, now only one left."
"They came in chasing someone. There must be other players ahead who passed through. The ones who turned back were killed, and more came down from behind." Xiao Ling said.
"Be careful." Yu Guangnan warned.
The three walked a bit further along the waterway. When they turned again, they saw the remaining player stumbling against the stone wall—it looked like he was hanging in midair, or perhaps fleeing.
The light in the waterway was too dim. They could barely make out his shadow and his abnormal movements. By the time Yu Guangnan used a lighting prop, the man had already turned into a corpse, falling stiffly into the water. At the same time, a ghostly shadow flashed past the corner of the stone wall.
"What was that thing? With that appearance, it shouldn't be a living person, right?" Long Aotian also saw it. "Could it be a prop from the venue?"
Having experienced the Wax Museum and the Doll Uprising, anything moving in the Natural History Museum now wouldn't be surprising. The key was how dangerous this thing was.
"Maybe it's another player's prop."
But since they had come this far, there was no turning back. Just as the three were about to continue, a twisting ribbon of light suddenly swam through the waterway. Before they could move, the small boat was rapidly pulled toward it. Yu Guangnan's nose twitched, and his expression immediately changed. "It's those people from last night."
Compared to the ones just now, the players who had ambushed them last night were truly formidable. The reason they had retreated was entirely because the player fighting Xu Huo had sent a signal.
"Go!" Xiao Ling quickly turned around and attached a small propeller-like prop to the stern of the boat. A burst of force rapidly propelled the boat back. However, the winding waterway made it difficult to use the prop freely, forcing them to go in stops and starts.
"There's no way forward either. Aren't we trapped underground?" Long Aotian said.
*
This waterway had only an entrance, no exit.
Having been inside for so long, Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan had had enough time to thoroughly explore the waterway. But when they reached the end, they found it was a dead end. To get out, they had to go back.
Of course, there was also the option of breaking through from above. But they weren't sure what was above them in the corresponding locations. Breaking through recklessly might bury them.
Still, this was currently the best option, as long as they found a suitable spot.
The tour map showed the layout of the above-ground buildings. If they chose an open area, they could go up.
But the layout map was only approximate. The safest approach was to find a larger venue, ensuring they wouldn't hit any structural supports of the building.
Just as they were looking for a way out, Xu Huo had almost reached the end of the waterway. Aside from a few narrow cavities underwater at intervals, this waterway was basically free of danger. The only information he could gather was from the stone tablets carved into the walls.
The names on these tablets didn't overlap with the names of patients and doctors in the Infectious Disease History Hall, so it was impossible to determine whether they had died in the epidemic.
But having individual tablets here proved they had some connection to the Sun Natural History Museum.
There were men, women, and children. His first thought was of family relationships—for example, the merchant mentioned in the game background had many children. But the ages didn't match. It was slightly more plausible if they were the merchant's clan relatives.
However, judging by their ages, this group of people at least hadn't been afflicted by the infectious disease.
Them, combined with the doctor surnamed Shang in the History Hall, implied the possibility that the story of the infectious disease might not be true.