Chapter 749: A Permanent Solution Is the Optimal Choice
Back in the corpse-hiding hotel, if the footsteps they had heard were those from the mirror hotel, they wouldn't have been so steady and rhythmic.
As for Peng Fengnian's firm assertion that no players had entered before them, that remained to be verified. It wasn't that Xu Huo didn't trust these people, but rather that this was inherently a difficult thing to confirm.
However, the footsteps heard in the mirror hotel could intersect with the movement trajectories of players outside… This suggested that the "footsteps" heard before entering and after entering were not the same kind, which also aligned with the fact that while footsteps in the corpse-hiding hotel could lead people into the mirror hotel, hearing "footsteps" in the mirror hotel offered no way out.
Assuming this fact held true, players were completely trapped in a dead end—the mirror hotel truly was a one-way entrance with no exit.
"We speculated before that maybe we just hadn't heard the right footsteps in the mirror hotel," Lin Zhenhuai said. "We can't wander around randomly in the mirror hotel. Perhaps footsteps might appear on other floors…"
"That doesn't hold up," Xu Huo said directly. "The footsteps in the corpse-hiding hotel follow the player. You've tracked the outside footsteps in the mirror hotel, and you've verified with other players the overlap between footsteps and movement trajectories. The duration of footsteps in the corpse-hiding hotel varies—long and short—so you should have encountered outside footsteps at least once."
"Unless you were extremely unlucky every single time and never ran into them, then it means the outside footsteps actively avoided the players in the mirror hotel."
"That… isn't necessarily true," Gao Xiaoyue said. "We've never encountered players where the two sets of footsteps overlapped."
Previously, they would still risk searching for players who had entered earlier. But by now, the greatest kindness Peng Fengnian and the others could offer was to tell newcomers that hiding in rooms was relatively safe.
"Never encountering them is also very telling," Xiao Ling said. "Maybe it's a restriction specifically targeting players in the mirror hotel."
No matter how they discussed it, they always circled back to the starting point—the footsteps heard by players in the mirror hotel held no real significance.
"So we're just supposed to wait to die?" Peng Fengnian couldn't hide his disappointment.
"Not necessarily," Xu Huo said. "Looking at it from the opposite perspective, if the footsteps heard in the mirror hotel are meaningless, then that fact itself carries significant meaning."
"You mean the mirror hotel itself has a flaw?" Xiao Ling reacted quickly, pondering for a moment before saying, "That makes sense. If the footsteps heard inside were truly different from those outside—actual sounds of players walking—it would be strange for them to be able to penetrate in here."
"So what's the conclusion?" Sun Bo finally couldn't help but ask. "Still follow the footsteps?"
What difference did that make from what they had been doing?
Xu Huo ignored his comment and pressed further for more details about that monster.
Although Peng Fengnian and the others hadn't checked every room, they were surprisingly certain that the mirror hotel contained only one such monster. Whether due to sensitivity to sound or a particular fondness for people walking outside the rooms, whenever they went out, that monster would appear quickly. When personnel were scattered, the monster would only target one side.
Peng Fengnian and his group had once tested this by spreading out across different floors, and using this method, they had searched most of the rooms.
As for a nest or a place where it excreted, they hadn't found any. But given that they couldn't leave the mirror hotel, the monster's nest might very well be outside.
"It's not hard to verify that," Xu Huo said, pausing before asking about the sunrise and sunset times in the mirror hotel.
The expressions of Lin Zhenhuai and the others remained unchanged, clearly indicating that they had already carefully noted these key points before. Now Xu Huo was asking, merely retracing their old steps.
The mirror hotel and the outside world shared the same day and night cycle. Not only sunrise and sunset, but even the timing of sunlight and the angles of light and shadow had been measured and compared.
The data was so detailed that Xu Huo was slightly surprised. Xiao Ling said directly, "You guys don't have a screw loose, do you?"
Lin Zhenhuai smiled good-naturedly. "Without exceptional intelligence, we have to make up for it with meticulousness."
With that, he turned his gaze to Xu Huo, as if hoping he would offer a different conclusion.
The mirror hotel, or rather the Sun Museum City, had very long daylight hours—from six in the morning to nine at night—leaving the remaining nine hours in deep darkness. This was especially true for the corpse-hiding hotel, or the mirror hotel.
"As it stands, we only have one path: wait for the next time the footsteps appear," Xu Huo said. "And it's best to conduct another thorough search of the entire hotel."
"Search everything again?" Peng Fengnian said hesitantly. "But that monster…"
"Then kill it first," Xu Huo said without hesitation.
Sun Bo chuckled beside him but said nothing.
Peng Fengnian hesitated for a moment before saying, "You should have seen that monster just now. It's not easy to deal with. Its recovery ability is especially strong. Wounds caused by props heal very quickly. Unless you hit a critical spot, it won't even shed two drops of blood."
After experiencing two battles, they had mostly just held the monster off, unwilling to waste props in a desperate fight.
Xu Huo hadn't directly fought the monster, so he couldn't judge, but he still said, "Even if we can't kill it, it's best to severely wound it and see if it truly cannot leave the mirror hotel."
"I don't see the point of this," Gao Xiaoyue said. "Even if it can get out, so what? The outside is also a mirror world. Going out wouldn't mean anything to us."
"The main purpose of this is to find its nest and its excretion site," Xu Huo said. "It's a living creature; it must have a place to excrete. If it's not in the hotel, and it can't leave the hotel, then where could that place be?"
"That would be a place that exists in this space but that we can't detect," Xiao Ling laughed. "Maybe if we wound it badly enough, it will return to its lair on its own."
Xu Huo didn't think following the monster would allow them to cross through space and leave the mirror hotel. The theory of multiple spaces was still unconfirmed; they needed to verify it first before proceeding.
"What do you all think?" he asked Lin Zhenhuai and the others directly. "Why don't you go back and discuss it with your companions before deciding. Dealing with that monster won't be easy. We need enough manpower, so everyone has to participate."
Yes, Peng Fengnian and the others were already in a poor mental state. It wouldn't be fair to have some risk life and death while others sat back and reaped the benefits.
"I'll go ask," Lin Zhenhuai said.
Sun Bo prepared to go with him.
Xu Huo added at this point, "I imagine you've tried every method you could think of. Since none worked, you have to take other paths. Taking risks is inevitable."
Lin Zhenhuai said nothing more this time and climbed out with Sun Bo.
Peng Fengnian, who had previously placed great hope in Xu Huo, now seemed somewhat dispirited. "To find the nest, we don't really need to take such a big risk. We could lure it away while others search."
Xu Huo didn't explain much, only saying, "A permanent solution is the optimal choice."