# Chapter 770: Refreshing Quadruple Kill
"You're not a player from Zone 009, are you?" Lu Zhen looked at him with a hint of envy. "Zone 009 just merged with the game district. I heard the instances are filled with items and potions everywhere, just waiting to be picked up. Unfortunately, my player level is too low, so I don't dare go to the already public fixed instances."
"Just pick them up?" Xu Huo smiled. "Do you see any items here?"
Lu Zhen exhaled. "I guess you're right."
Their conversation paused briefly, and footsteps sounded in the hallway outside: the first temporary owner had been chosen.
Lu Zhen immediately stood up nervously, quickly walked to the door, and pressed her ear against the door panel to listen carefully. "Coming from the left..."
Before she could finish speaking, she couldn't help but lean back, abruptly retreating to the side of the door, conjuring an axe and raising it high in her hand.
But the person outside only paused at the door for a moment before walking on.
Lu Zhen breathed a sigh of relief. Hearing the footsteps outside fade away, she pressed herself against the door again and listened for a long while. When there was no follow-up, she couldn't help turning back to ask Xu Huo in a silent mouthing: "What's going on?"
"Maybe they thought it through and decided killing wasn't worth it, so they went back," Xu Huo said.
Although the temporary owner seemed to have privileges, they actually faced significant restrictions. On the day they became the villa's owner, they had to maintain the villa's cleanliness and couldn't damage the original structure. Even though they could go out at night and had the authority to kill one player, with two players living in each room, it was hard to avoid accidents entirely.
The instance notification rules targeted both temporary owners and guests separately, but it was hard to say whether the rights and obligations of both parties overlapped.
Conversely, although this instance seemed to have many rules, the best way to be a good temporary owner was to hide one's identity and behave for a day. As long as one didn't cause trouble, that day would make them a "qualified owner."
Lu Zhen understood too. "But will others think that way?"
If every player thought like that, the instance wouldn't have such a high mortality rate.
By the next morning, deaths were inevitable. Both players in the second room on the left on the second floor were dead, and one person had died in each of the rooms opposite Xu Huo and to his right.
It was easy to understand why both people in one room were killed simultaneously—after all, to avoid exposure, the "temporary owner" would be better off taking out both at once. But only one dying was abnormal. Although the instance hadn't explicitly stated whether the remaining guest after a roommate's death violated the first guest rule, players wouldn't risk attacking their roommate first as a precaution.
The room opposite belonged to the female player who had opened the door yesterday. The room to the right housed two of the eight who had arrived first at the villa. The survivor was a buzz-cut man. His expression grim, he said, "I've already checked the bodies. They were poisoned to death."
"Isn't that the same way those two died?" A baby-faced female player standing behind the raincoat man pointed at a nearby room.
The two in the first room on the left had traveled with Lu Zhen. Unexpectedly, they were killed on the first night. Lu Zhen examined their bodies and found a pair of blood holes on their necks. "It looks like they were bitten to death by a snake."
All four players died the same way, leaving everyone puzzled. "Could there be venomous snakes in the villa?"
"What venomous snakes?" The seductive female player twirled her hair, her electrifying eyes roaming over the group. "Do you think several players couldn't spot a venomous snake? That's underestimating them too much. It must have been a player's doing."
"The killing method is quite unique, but it fits perfectly in this game." She laughed. "Everyone, be careful."
As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly attacked the red-haired player standing beside her: "Lush Waterweed!"
Like a ribbon, a large mass of green, water-laden plants burst from a small sphere, wrapping around the red-haired male player like an octopus. The red-haired man only had time to let out an angry shout before being engulfed by the waterweed. As he tore through the waterweed to counterattack, the raincoat man suddenly kicked him into the nearby room.
With a "crackling" sound of shattering, a table in the room was broken.
"What the hell!" The red-haired man flipped out, but the raincoat man easily dodged his punch and said calmly, "Don't be so angry. As long as you weren't last night's temporary owner, breaking something doesn't matter."
The red-haired man froze, finally realizing why the two had targeted him. He said angrily, "You think I killed them!"
"There's no helping it," the seductive female player smiled at him. "I heard footsteps coming from your direction last night, and the person staying with me died without a sound. I'm really scared."
The red-haired player was furious, but facing the suspicion of the other players, he didn't dare to truly fall out with these two. After all, he was only "suspected" right now. If he actually fought, he would immediately confirm it. To avoid a ticking time bomb, the players would join forces to kill him—a temporary owner who damaged the villa violated the rules the owner must follow, making them unqualified to be a good owner and naturally unable to clear the instance.
"What's so hard about faking footsteps?" he said. "Besides, the person staying with me also died. What benefit would I get from killing him?"
"That's why we didn't actually kill you," the baby-faced player said with a grin. "If the footsteps were fake, wouldn't we have fallen for someone else's scheme? If you're not the temporary owner, everyone's happy. If you are the temporary owner, we're happy."
The red-haired man had nothing to say but was helpless.
"Wouldn't having one less person in the room violate the first guest rule?" Lu Zhen spoke up. "If they became the villa's temporary owner, taking that risk is huge."
"They're afraid of their identity being exposed," said the young player playing with a dagger. "How could a temporary owner go out to kill without avoiding their roommate?"
He stared coldly at the seductive female player and the red-haired man. "Looking at it this way, you two are the most suspicious."
The atmosphere turned awkward. Then Xu Huo spoke: "Maybe someone did this deliberately to cause infighting among the players. After all, the more people die, the less risk for everyone else. Instead of discussing who was last night's temporary player, maybe we should consider how to guard against such dangerous items."
"But guests can't go out at night, and there's no peephole on the door, so we can't see what's happening outside. I doubt last night's situation will repeat tonight. What we should worry about is whether someone will take advantage of the chaos during the day."
"How about we find last night's player first?" someone suggested. "Since the temporary owner can't damage the villa, we can test everyone one by one!"
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes turned to him.