Players, Please Board the Train

The night passed relatively peacefully, but the next morning, the players discovered Li Chao was missing.

When asked, Mr. Dong said he wasn’t sure, but Hu Shan told them that Li Chao had urgent business and left the ancient castle early, informing her before he departed.

Liu Zhengping was immediately ready to flip out. Without a sound, three players were already gone, and The Vanished Guests hadn’t been found. Rather than sitting around waiting to die, it was better to fight back, to simply storm the Dungeon Boss’s lair.

However, before he could act, a hand reached out from each side to press down on his shoulders. One was You Qiwen, which wasn’t surprising given their closeness, but the other was Xu Huo.

At that moment, Mr. Dong spoke up, ”Mr. and Mrs. Ma also left last night.”

The players’ reaction was muted. The Ma couple had little connection with the other players and were most likely Player-Eaters, so their death was actually a good thing for them.

Hu Shan, however, shot a glance at Mr. Dong, her face clearly showing emotion, ”When did they leave?”

”Midnight.” Mr. Dong had just finished speaking when he heard the maid calling him. He gave a slight bow to the players and left.

Hu Shan had never had a good attitude towards the players, not even bothering to maintain surface-level courtesy. She warned them sharply, ”The third floor contains valuable items. It’s best if you don’t wander up there for no reason. Otherwise, if anything goes missing, it will be blamed on you!”

If they hadn’t seen the rooms on the third floor, the players might have scoffed. But those were rooms full of potions and collected items. Anyone would covet them. Hearing her words, even the ill-tempered Liu Zhengping didn’t dare to retort.Fleischer’s expression was grim, ”Li Chao was probably killed. He went to the third floor last night.”

”Why would he go to the third floor? Didn’t I say we shouldn’t go up there for now...” You Qiwen trailed off as he realized, ”He went to steal things?”

”Is he insane? The dungeon mission isn’t even completed, what’s the point of stealing anything?” Liu Zhengping found it hard to believe. A normal person would at most try to grab something when they were sure they were leaving. Otherwise, needlessly offending the Dungeon Boss was just asking for death.

”He seemed very confident he wouldn’t get caught.” Fleischer sighed.

The others fell silent. After a few seconds, You Qiwen spoke again, ”It seems the Ma couple is dead too. By now, we can basically confirm that the ones killing people in the ancient castle include at least Hu Shan and Mr. Dong.”

”Wait.” Liu Zhengping interrupted him, looking at Xu Huo, ”If you want to join in, you need to provide valuable information.”

When Fleischer had invited everyone to cooperate using the contract earlier, Xu Huo had refused. Now, he shouldn’t get to share the information they risked to obtain.

”Fine,” Xu Huo was also straightforward, ”I can tell you one definite piece of information: there are non-mission players in this dungeon. The Ma couple were among them.”

Everyone present looked at him. Wei Landeng said, ”So you were deliberately trying to warn us? And the earlier banquet too?”

”How can you prove what you’re saying is true?” Fleischer frowned.

Xu Huo took out four invitations, ”The signed invitations are given by the game. The unsigned ones are ones I took from a Player-Eater.”

”On the first day, the Ma couple actively sought me out, probably because the umbrella I was carrying had the scent of a corpse, and they thought I was one of their kind.”

”Did they say who invited them?” Liu Zhengping hurriedly asked.

”They didn’t know either.” Xu Huo put the invitations away, ”This should be enough to prove my identity.”

”You could have said so from the beginning, no need to be secretive,” You Qiwen said.

”What difference does saying it make?” Chen Nan spoke up, ”Whether they are mission players or non-mission players, haven’t people died from both groups?”

”Then I don’t understand,” Liu Zhengping said, ”Shouldn’t the non-mission players’ involvement be targeting us? Why are they being killed too?”

Fleischer looked at Xu Huo, ”Did you kill the Ma couple?”

”Of course not,” Xu Huo said, ”I’m also a D-level player. How could I possibly take on two at once? They might be like Fang Min.”

The Chen brothers glanced at him.

”Is there someone in the castle helping us?” Wei Landeng asked in surprise.

”Not necessarily helping us,” You Qiwen wasn’t that optimistic, ”The possibility of indiscriminate killing is greater.”

”Let me sort this out,” Fleischer said, ”So, right now, someone in the castle deliberately invited non-mission players to muddy the waters, and someone else is killing players indiscriminately... Are they the same person?”

”Hard to say.” Xu Huo asked, ”Have you found any clues about The Vanished Guests?”

”We’ve searched everywhere we could outside. We also went to check the annex behind the garden maze,” You Qiwen said, ”There are no conditions for hiding a body. When we visited the third floor yesterday, I roughly measured the interior and exterior lengths. There are no hidden compartments within the walls.”

”What’s left are the few rooms He Pu commonly uses. The focus is on the bedroom, the lounge, and the music room.”

”But those places are also the most dangerous. To go up, we’d need to lure He Pu down.”

”How do we lure him? He’s up there all day long,” Liu Zhengping said.

”Dinner. He comes down for dinner,” Wei Landeng said, ”We have half an hour to an hour.”

”But during that time, we can’t just leave the table casually,” Chen Tu said, ”Even if we leave, we probably can’t avoid Mr. Dong and Hu Shan.”

”I can go,” Xu Huo said, ”I’ve been having my meals in my own room these past two days. Making a trip shouldn’t be a big problem.”

”However, I was attacked the night before last. Haven’t any of you encountered danger these past few nights?”

”No,” Wei Landeng looked around, ”We all stayed in our rooms.”

”We didn’t either,” Chen Tu said.

Xu Huo nodded to show he understood, then added, ”During dinner, you’ll need to find a way to keep Hu Shan and Mr. Dong occupied.”

You Qiwen and the others indicated it wouldn’t be a problem.

”Is there still a non-mission player among us?” Fleischer asked hesitantly.

After Xu Huo provided concrete evidence earlier, the players had all been avoiding this question.

”Actually, figuring out who the non-mission players are is simple. Just check the invitations,” Chen Tu said calmly, ”But right now, the non-mission players are in the same boat as us. There’s no need for infighting.”

”I agree,” You Qiwen said, his dark face extremely serious, ”Every instance of internal conflict greatly increases the risk of failing to clear the dungeon. Moreover, this dungeon has clearly exceeded the difficulty level it should have.”

The others naturally didn’t object. With one player confirmed dead and four others missing, sticking together for warmth was the only way out.

”Then it’s decided.”

After the group made a simple plan of steps, Wei Landeng took out a pair of squeeze-toy chicks the size of steamed buns. ”This item can transmit simple information. As long as the toys are held by different people, squeezing one end will cause the toy at the other end to automatically deflate. One squeeze means ’go’, two squeezes mean ’retreat’, three squeezes mean ’danger’.”