Chapter 778: Dying Quietly and Silently
Before lights out, all players had to return to their rooms.
"Everyone, I hope tonight will be a peaceful night." Xu Huo was the first to stand up.
The others followed suit, and as Liang Chong went upstairs, he said to Xu Huo, "Good luck, Brother Xu!"
The lights in the villa soon went out. Two hours later, Xu Huo finally left his room. He didn't hide his footsteps, letting the other players hear him go downstairs.
After checking the first-floor rooms, he returned to the second floor and began inspecting each room one by one from the end of the hallway, knocking on any occupied doors.
First were the Raincoat Man and the Baby Face. The two opened the door, and Xu Huo walked straight in, briefly checking the windows and doors before stopping.
"Do you have to check every room?" the Raincoat Man asked.
"Not necessarily, just to be safe." Xu Huo casually closed the door behind him and said to the two, "Get some rest early."
Next was the room of the two players who had bullied Zhao Xiaojing. He stood at the door and knocked. Someone inside responded, "Come in yourself."
Xu Huo grasped the doorknob and gave it a light turn, but then immediately let go. He smiled before turning toward the Seductive Female Player's room.
The female player was much more straightforward. She hadn't prepared any props to greet him. When he opened the door and went in, the woman was lounging sideways on the sofa in her sleepwear. It wasn't a deliberate pose; she was simply enjoying a pre-bedtime drink in a very relaxed manner.
Seeing Xu Huo stand by the window for a moment and then walk over to sit on the edge of the bed, the female player said, "Do you know why I couldn't clear the instance?"
"Killed someone and didn't dispose of the trash in time." Xu Huo said flatly. "If you'd only killed one person, it would have been fine—within your rights. But you killed too many."
The female player shook her head with a sigh. "I only thought of that the next day. I thought the temporary owner had so much authority, but it turns out I still have to do the cleaning work. Does that even count as being the owner?"
"You have to clean up at home too," Xu Huo said. "Unless you hire a maid."
The female player thought of something and let out a "pfft" laugh, then said, "Before I became a player, I didn't have a maid. But afterward, I made my old boss come clean my house. Not only did I not have to pay her wages, she had to pay me instead."
"Oh?" Xu Huo pressed his hand down on the bedsheet. "Aren't you afraid she'll poison you?"
"What decent poison could she get her hands on?" The female player's gaze slid lightly over his arm. "Besides, I hold the lives of her entire family in my hands. Being a player is so convenient. Chronic poisons that were absolutely impossible to get before are now within easy reach. Just raise a hand, and plenty of people will bring them to you."
"Making things easy for others is making things easy for yourself." Xu Huo looked up. "Blocking others from clearing the instance will only bring you trouble."
The female player's expression shifted slightly, and her posture changed. "What do you mean?"
"I went to check the bodies the Raincoat Man threw outside the villa. One of them was a fake. He actually did quite well last night. Although he didn't kill anyone, the damage caused by one player should have been within the allowed range. So the biggest reason he couldn't clear the instance is that you swapped the real corpse with a fake one." Xu Huo patted the bed beneath him. "The un-cleaned trash corpse was placed inside the bed."
"I heard you're good at magic tricks," he said with a slight smile. "Get the corpse out, and we'll leave each other alone. Otherwise, tonight, my kill quota will have to be used on you."
The female player's face first turned cold, then she laughed. "You really think I'm afraid of you!"
"Close-up magic!"
With a wave of her hand, the large bed moved as if on springs, rapidly sliding and carrying Xu Huo toward the sofa. The female player rose smoothly, lifted her long leg, and her high heel came down like a sword or blade!
A string looped around her ankle, suspending her leg in midair. Xu Huo, who should have been sitting on the bed, was now standing behind her, his five fingers reaching for her throat. "Don't disturb others' sleep late at night."
The female player's hair stood on end. After a backflip in midair, she crouched on the ground and threw out a matchbox-like prop. "Performer in position!"
The matchbox projected a transparent, glass-cabinet-like object into the air. But in reality, the material was soft. It expanded and quickly trapped Xu Huo, falling to the ground like an upright coffin.
Watching the person struggling inside the box, the female player stood up with a smile. With a flick of her fingers, three long swords appeared in her hand. Without any extra words, she lunged forward and stabbed the glass cabinet and Xu Huo's body through in one go!
"Long nights breed trouble. Let's just get this over with. Don't worry, I'll make sure you die quickly. Then I'll stuff you into the mattress, and your corpse will stay in this instance forever, until it completely rots."
She stabbed twice more, making sure she had pierced the heart and both lungs. Only then did she walk to the bedside, lightly tapped the mattress, and a corpse was spat out.
The mattress itself showed no signs of damage, so an ordinary person would never think a corpse was hidden inside. That was why the Raincoat Man had been fooled.
The female player waited for Xu Huo to breathe his last. But she only saw him spit blood, and the game notification never came. She realized something was wrong, but before she could act, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her neck.
The glass cabinet and the severely wounded, dying Xu Huo had all vanished. Only the corpse taken from the mattress remained on the floor. At the same time, her hands, feet, and tongue all lost sensation. She couldn't move or speak.
"This toxin won't cause you too much pain." Xu Huo slowly circled around to her front and spoke softly. "But in the two minutes before death, you should feel no less despair."
The female player stared at him, the muscles around her lips trembling. She didn't know if she was trying to beg for help or mercy. But Xu Huo laid her down on the bed, then simply sat on the sofa, watching her without blinking, until she breathed her last.
Dying quietly and silently, without damaging any facilities in the room or dirtying the bedsheets.
After restoring the bed to its original position, Xu Huo carried the two corpses to the back door of the villa and threw them over the garden wall. The old dumping spot—the same place where the Raincoat Man had left his bodies earlier.
Someone on the third floor was watching. He looked up and waved. The two companions of the Raincoat Man responded with stiff expressions.
After dealing with the female player, Xu Huo went to knock on the next door.
The two players who had bullied Zhao Xiaojing had been lying in ambush behind the door, waiting for him to open it and deliver himself. Unfortunately, they had already activated their props. Who would have thought Xu Huo would open the door halfway and then go to the female player's room instead!
The two were full of regret. Some props had very long cooldown times, and such props were usually extremely powerful. They had treated them as ultimate moves, only to have them wasted before even meeting the enemy.
So when Xu Huo came to knock a second time, the two were very cautious. They approached the door, props in hand, staring at the lock, determined to only use them when the door was fully open.
This time, the door really did open. But as soon as a crack appeared, it was quickly shut again. The two stood behind the door, a thousand words converging into one: "Holy shit!"