Players, Please Board the Train

Yu Shuai narrowed his eyes. ”Suspect me of lying? Since we need to find the killer among us, You Qiwen and Liu Zhengping just came down from the third floor, didn’t they?”

”We went to the third floor to look for clues,” Liu Zhengping immediately said.

”Did you find anything?”

”We came down as soon as we heard the noise, we didn’t have time,” You Qiwen replied.

Yu Shuai sneered.

”Speaking of suspicion,” Li Chao pointed his flashlight at the twins, ”one of you two was the last to arrive, right?”

Chen Tu and Chen Nan, with their identical faces, made the same expression. The former said, ”Don’t turn things around. Why don’t you tell us what you did on the first floor after the blackout!”

”And you, Fleischer,” Chen Nan then pointed the spear at Fleischer, ”You and Fang Min had a private connection, right? I saw you two whispering in the garden. There were no signs of a struggle in Fang Min’s room. She must have been caught completely off guard to die so cleanly. Couldn’t it be someone familiar?”

”Me, kill Fang Min?” Fleischer acted as if he’d heard a joke. ”She attached herself to me willingly. Why would I kill her?”

”Who knows? There are so many perverted murderers in the games,” the twins said shamelessly.Fleischer looked angry. Li Chao spoke up then, ”Let’s just say we all have our own motives. But we signed a cooperation contract. Why kill each other?”

”Isn’t that what you guys started?” Yu Shuai sneered.

The others turned their gazes toward Xu Huo and the Ma couple.

”What were you two doing just now?” You Qiwen asked.

”Having fun, of course,” Mrs. Ma threw a flirtatious glance his way. ”We don’t need to report that to you, do we, kids? Don’t overstep.”

Warned, You Qiwen’s expression remained unchanged as he looked at Xu Huo.

”A spider got into the room,” Xu Huo said calmly. His earlier words weren’t meant to sow discord among the players, but to observe their reactions.

Of course, none of these people were honest. Even Li Chao, who seemed to have brawn but no brains, was rough on the outside but sharp within.

”I can vouch for him,” Wei Landeng said. ”There were sounds of a fight in his room, and they continued until I left my room.”

”Who attacked you?” You Qiwen pressed.

”A spider,” Xu Huo answered honestly, but the other players clearly didn’t believe him.

”If he doesn’t want to say, then forget it. Let’s not force him,” Liu Zhengping said sarcastically.

”Instead of wasting time speculating, you should think about how to save your own skins,” Mrs. Ma said with a smile. ”If Fang Min wasn’t killed by another player, then the killer is someone from the castle. There wasn’t a single sound. Even a fool knows the other party must be very powerful.”

It was obvious, everyone could see it. The players had no intention of avenging Fang Min. The reason they were arguing here was because they all had their own agendas.

”I’d rather believe Yu Shuai’s words,” Wei Landeng said. ”I think the person who killed Fang Min didn’t go far. He might have intended to kill me too at the time, which is why I didn’t notice the maid coming upstairs at all. And don’t you find it strange? It’s been so long since the incident happened, yet Mr. Dong and the other servants haven’t appeared at all.”

As soon as she said this, the castle seemed to instantly return to normal. There were servants moving and talking downstairs. Mr. Dong was having someone check the circuits, and Hu Shan said she was coming upstairs to take a look.

The players came out of the room one after another, making way for Mr. Dong and Hu Shan who were approaching. You Qiwen secretly revived the fainted maid in the background.

The maid opened her eyes and lunged at Hu Shan. ”Murder! Murder!”

”Nonsense!” Hu Shan sternly pushed her away, hurried into the room, reached out, and grabbed the lower legs on the coffee table. She then heaved a great sigh of relief. ”Aren’t these just a pair of ceramic pieces?”

She scolded the maid, ”A pair of fake legs is enough to make you scream? Get up! You have no manners at all!”

Wei Landeng and the others were startled. When Hu Shan walked over and they looked at that pair of lower legs again, they were indeed made of ceramic.

”The blood all over the floor couldn’t possibly be fake, could it?” Liu Zhengping immediately said.

”Couldn’t it be a prank?” Hu Shan retorted. ”Where did that Miss Fang go?”

The players found it simply unbelievable. How could she so brazenly turn things around?

Could it be that Fang Min really isn’t dead?

”I think we should still call the police,” Xu Huo said.

The players looked at him in astonishment. Was he stupid? After a dungeon opens, communication with the outside world is usually cut off by default. What good would calling the police do besides possibly provoking the people in the castle?

However, Xu Huo smiled slightly and said, ”Regardless of whether someone died or not, the fact is Fang Min is missing, and she disappeared in the castle. Shouldn’t we give some explanation to others?”

Hu Shan’s gaze shifted from him to Wei Landeng and the others. ”I will contact the police.”

Hearing her say this, Xu Huo’s eyes changed slightly.

The follow-up matters could only be left to the castle’s people to handle. The players returned to their respective rooms.

”Mr. Xu, would you like me to change your room?” Mr. Dong offered upon seeing the devastation in Xu Huo’s room.

”We’ll talk about it tomorrow. I’m tired and want to rest early,” Xu Huo said before closing the door.

Turning to look at the mess inside the room, he was now certain of three things.

First, Fang Min was indeed dead.

Second, the one who killed her was not the Spider-Man.

Third, although Rose Castle was a dungeon location, it was not completely cut off from the outside world.

What Wei Landeng found was undoubtedly part of Fang Min’s corpse. The reason it turned into ceramic was because of Hu Shan. Wearing the ”Peeping Eye,” he witnessed the corpse turning into ceramic in her hands. This Hu Shan was also a player.

Judging from the state of Fang Min’s blood, she probably died while he was fighting the Spider-Man. The Spider-Man had brushed against the ashes from the burning curtains and had also been outside Fang Min’s room, so it could be ruled out.

Furthermore, his suggestion to call the police wasn’t because he actually wanted to. Even if he secretly made a call himself, or asked a servant to call, or tried other methods, they might not succeed. Of course, even if they did, that wasn’t his goal either.

The clever part was that the station where Rose Castle was located was a place with a very high degree of gamification. The people in the castle acknowledged ”calling the police” and the law. This indicated that the law here also had a restraining effect on the dungeon.

However, Fang Min’s death also illustrated another thing: finding part of a player’s corpse did not meet the requirements of the first task. Combined with what happened at the banquet, the difficulty of the first task might lie in ”the entire corpse” or ”the living guests.”

If it was the latter, then the primary target of the first task should be the players in this dungeon. It was still too early to conclude anything definitively. At the very least, they needed to go look for the corpse first.

It rained again during the night. Because of the incident with Fang Min, none of the players rested well, so their expressions were all quite poor when they came downstairs the next day. This was especially true after hearing Hu Shan say she had already reported to the police, but because the river outside the castle had swollen and the bridge was flooded, there was no way in or out.