Chapter 25: Grave Robbing

“Reason?” Xu Huo did not rush to deny his words.

“I’ve read all the reports and investigations regarding the Headless Killer. Their technique is extremely seasoned; most victims die from a single blow with no wounds anywhere else but the neck. The person who attacked me yesterday was very panicked—they couldn't even choose the right moment to strike.”

Huang Junjie appeared very confident. “In most homicide cases, the victims die silently, only discovered later.”

“Then there are a small number of cases where the victims have incomplete limbs and had fought violently before death. That doesn't match what you're describing,” Xu Huo asked after listening.

“Copycat crime,” Huang Junjie said with certainty. “Those types of cases are too rare.”

“If what you're saying is true, why did he pick you as the first target?” Xu Huo continued. “I think it would have been easier to target Du Lanlan.”

Huang Junjie showed a look of regret. “I shouldn't have confronted Wan Zhikang yesterday.”

If a player wanted to use the identity of the Headless Killer to kill other players, the easiest targets would indeed be female players or white players. However, there was one exception: when that person was determined to die first.

It was precisely because he had shown his hand that he had been targeted.

“If the person who attacked me fell for the diary's trap, then tonight's target lies somewhere between you, me, and Xia Guo,” Huang Junjie issued an invitation. “Why don't the two of us team up and catch them red-handed!”

Xu Huo bit on his cigarette. “According to your theory, there is still a Headless Killer in the villa. Perhaps he intends to kill someone tonight as well.”

“We'll see who runs out of luck,” Huang Junjie shook his head.

As the three spoke, they continued toward the wooden cabin.

“I'm going to the cabin for two reasons: first, to lure out the person who attacked me, and second, to distance myself from the other players. If we don't catch the person, we can still deduce their identity through others later.”

After saying this, Huang Junjie asked, “What are you two going to the cabin for?”

Yuan Yao shook his head and looked at Xu Huo.

Xu Huo stopped in his tracks, gesturing with his chin toward the person standing on the woodpile with a rope around their neck. “I'm going to see if he hangs himself.”

Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao's expressions changed instantly, and they moved to stop him, but Xu Huo held them back. “He hangs himself every night. He might be possessed by a ghost. If you go over there and he decides to target you as his substitute instead, what then? You aren't NPCs of this villa; you won't respawn when you die.”

That was true.

The three did not approach the woodcutter directly but circled around to his front. Xu Huo stood on a tree stump and raised his hand to greet him. “Yo, hanging yourself again?”

The woodcutter's eyeballs trembled, his neck thrust forward, and he hung from the tree.

Xu Huo watched like this until the man's limbs hung motionless before saying, “Get him down. It's almost dark; I'm going to the cabin to see if there are any lighting tools.”

A short while later, candles were lit in the cabin, and the woodcutter's corpse was placed back on the bed.

Gazing at the bright lights of the villa, Huang Junjie muttered to himself, “It's not time yet...”

Behind him, after Xu Huo had turned the woodcutter's corpse over repeatedly to inspect it, he took a piece of hemp rope from the cabinet to bind the man into a roll, and picked up a shovel.

“Xu... Brother Xu, what are you doing?” Yuan Yao stared at the woodcutter's pants, which had been pulled down by Xu Huo but not all the way, his voice trembling.

“I'm going out to dig a hole.” Xu Huo twirled the shovel, his eyes still on the woodcutter. “I want to see if he can also respawn if he's buried in the dirt.”

Yuan Yao's smile was incredibly forced, and Huang Junjie's expression was equally complex. He didn't understand why Xu Huo insisted on making things difficult for an NPC.

Xu Huo actually went outside to dig a hole, and while digging, he happened to dig up that new grave.

The aged female corpse, claimed by the woodcutter to be his daughter, was simply thrown in the dirt without even a cloth to cover her. There was a ring of hemp rope marks around her neck; she had been strangled to death.

Turning the female corpse over, there was a string of white numbers on her back, which had not yet decomposed.

After re-covering the grave, he dug up two more adjacent graves. One corpse had no head, and the other had also been strangled—one a red player, one a black player.

“Quite a few people have been killed.” Xu Huo didn't bury them back. He dropped the shovel and sat down on the ground, staring toward the villa while smoking.

A drizzling mist continued to fall, making the villa's lights appear hazy and dim, but they were still quite prominent in the night. So, when the lights suddenly went out, all three men by the cabin noticed.

Just as Xu Huo walked out of the graveyard, he heard a piercing scream.

“Something happened over there!” Huang Junjie sprinted out. “I'll go check it out.”

“Yuan Yao, go with him,” Xu Huo said without moving. “I'll stay here.”

Huang Junjie gave him a suspicious look but didn't ask anything and hurried away.

“Brother Xu, how about I stay here with you?” Yuan Yao said hurriedly. Judging by the situation, someone in the villa had definitely died. Whether it was the Headless Killer or a player pretending to be him, he didn't want to face it.

Xu Huo looked at him coldly.

Yuan Yao swallowed hard and, without another word, turned to chase after Huang Junjie.

Once he was sure the other had left, Xu Huo entered the cabin. Stepping on the edge of the bed, he retrieved the phone placed on the beam, turned off the video recording, and then flipped through a previously recorded video. He laughed suddenly and said to the "corpse" on the bed, “Stop acting. I know you've come back to life.”

The "corpse" did not move.

Xu Huo shoved the phone into his pocket, grabbed the woodcutter by the back of his collar, and began dragging him out. “I said, if you die, I'll handle the burial. I've already dug the hole for you. Since you don't want to wake up, I'll do a good deed in advance and let you rest in peace.”

Relentlessly throwing the "corpse" into the dirt pit—the same one where the bodies had been buried earlier—Xu Huo picked up the shovel and began filling it with soil.

As the stinking mud covered his face, the "corpse" finally moved. He opened his eyes blankly, first surveying his surroundings and then his predicament, before suddenly screaming, “Help! Someone help! Murder!”

“Stop screaming.” Xu Huo grabbed a clump of grass, roots and all, and stuffed it into his mouth. “You know everyone is in the villa. No one is coming to save you.”

“Since we have the time, let's talk about something else.”

“Are you the Headless Killer?”

The woodcutter looked as if he had heard a joke, a mocking expression appearing on his face, but Xu Huo's next words caused his expression to change drastically.

“If you're not the Headless Killer, then you're simply a player left over from the previous game.”

“Playing the hanging trick in front of players—you wanted others to believe you were a natural part of the villa.”

“The victims you killed have different levels of decomposition. You've encountered at least three batches of players here, but the number of new graves is clearly insufficient. I guess the players you killed weren't cleared by the game, so you had no choice but to bury them here.”

“The villa is only this big. Rather than burying them secretly and worrying about the aftermath if you're discovered, it's better to show them off openly.”

“However, there was a major fire in the villa a few years ago, and it was closed for renovation for half a year. Even the wooden cabins were built later. Saying you've lived here all along is quite a stretch.”

“And your daughter—if she were a few years older, she could be your aunt. When you were burying people, did you never think someone might dig them up to look?”

Pulling out the grass, Xu Huo signaled for him to speak.