Chapter 28: Suspicion

“What do you mean by that?” The rich heir frowned at him. “When the power went out, everyone was by the circuit breaker. You came over because you heard the noise yourself—who could have split themselves in two to go kill someone?”

“I checked,” Xu Huo said. “What fell just now was likely the storage rack next to the hot spring pool. Du Lanlan and Xia Guo were killed without even a cry for help, which makes it highly probable that there was a massive disparity in strength. There weren't many signs of a struggle around the area either.”

“You think that rack fell on its own?” Wan Zhikang looked at him as if he were calling him an idiot.

“It could have been knocked over by accident, or perhaps by the wind. There are so many variables; how can you be so sure someone was there when the rack fell?” Xu Huo said meaningfully. “One can use game props to manufacture an alibi.”

The crowd froze, then the realization hit them. That was right—there were several minutes between the power outage and the discovery of Du and Xia's bodies. Since the two were killed without a cry for help or any sounds of fighting, the sudden falling of the rack seemed highly irrational. It felt as if it had been staged specifically for the players to see.

“Maybe it was a coincidence,” Abel said. “The equipment here is old and soaked in steam; it wouldn't be strange if it wasn't stable.”

“Coincidences are one thing,” Huang Junjie said. “But we must first confirm that no players are suspects. Otherwise, how can we work together to deal with the Headless Demon?”

“That’s true.” The rich heir spoke up first. “I was with Liu Yuanyuan the whole time before the power went out. When I went to check the breaker, I ran into Zhang Xiong.”

Zhang Xiong nodded. “He had just come out when I was walking through the corridor. I also saw Liu Yuanyuan smoking.”

Liu Yuanyuan corroborated this. “Zhang Xiong did indeed pass by the door.”

“When Zhang Xiong came out, Yuan Yao and I heard a noise,” Huang Junjie added.

Before this, Zhang Xiong had been in a room with Wan Zhikang and Abel; the three of them could vouch for one another.

Wang Wei had arrived at the storage room with the college student, but he hesitated before speaking. “But before the power went out, he went out for a while.”

The college student’s expression turned visibly panicked. “It wasn't me! I didn't kill anyone! I had already returned to my room before the power went out! I even called out to you right when the lights went out—you were still in the bathroom then!”

“It doesn't necessarily mean they died after the power went out!” Huang Junjie looked at him warily. “You killed them first, then cut the power to lure everyone out, and then pretended to come out with Wang Wei.”

“It wasn't me!” The college student suddenly screamed. Before he could explain further, Zhang Xiong landed a punch to his abdomen. He curled up on the ground, kneeling with tears of hatred in his eyes. “I said it wasn't me! If Du Lanlan and the others died before the power went out, then all of you were in your own rooms at that time. No one can prove anything!”

Zhang Xiong grabbed him by the collar. “Are you saying we conspired to kill them?”

“If it wasn't the Headless Demon, who has the ability to kill someone silently? Unless it was a group effort!” As the student struggled, a fruit knife suddenly fell from behind his back.

Wan Zhikang snatched it up and demanded furiously, “What is this?”

Before the student could speak, he took two more punches. Zhang Xiong looked like he intended to beat him to death. Xu Huo stepped in to stop him. “The murder weapon wasn't a fruit knife.”

Both Du and Xia had violent hacking marks on their necks; a fruit knife could never have achieved that.

“So what?” Wan Zhikang said. “As long as he can't explain what he was doing before the power went out, he is the prime suspect!”

The college student was now bruised and swollen, his eyes squinting at Zhang Xiong and Wan Zhikang. “You are the only ones in the villa with axes.”

“I hid the fruit knife for self-defense! I found it in the restaurant during the day, but I didn't take it because I was afraid others would see. I only went out at night to get the knife!”

“How could a fruit knife hack off a head!”

Almost all the players had arrived empty-handed. To kill someone, they needed a tool, and only Wan Zhikang had an axe he had snatched.

“How dare you frame me!” Wan Zhikang lunged to strike him, but was held back by the rich heir and Wang Wei. The latter said, “You’ve had it in for those two for a long time, haven't you?”

The color drained from Wan Zhikang's bloated face. “You suspect me?”

The crowd watched him in silence, clearly believing the student's words. He, along with his roommates Zhang Xiong and Abel, were all suspects.

“Bullshit!” Zhang Xiong erupted in rage. “I never lay a hand on women!”

“Absolutely not!” Abel added hurriedly. “I am a Buddhist; I do not kill living beings!”

The rich heir sneered. “You foreigner, do you even know what Buddhism is? Only you guys have axes, and the victims were killed with an axe. If it wasn't you, then who?”

Drenched in sweat, Wan Zhikang's eyes darted around frantically. In his panic, he suddenly pointed at Xu Huo. “What about him? And him! He was the only one not in the villa just now, and he just came back from the outside. He’s the biggest suspect!”

“I only met Zhang Xiong and Abel after entering the game. Even if I had a conflict with those two women, how could I convince them to kill with me? What would I gain from players dying? I can't even fight the Headless Demon!”

“He's right. You haven't appeared since the first power outage. You were the only one outside!” Zhang Xiong immediately shifted the target.

The others turned their gaze toward Xu Huo. Huang Junjie looked at him with doubt. “Why did you stay in the wooden cabin alone?”

Under normal circumstances, no one would want to be isolated in such a dangerous place, yet Xu Huo had chosen to stay even when he had the chance to return to the villa with them. This was inherently suspicious.

“I already gave my reason. I was simply curious to see if that person would come back to life again,” Xu Huo said calmly, unperturbed. “I went through a life-and-death struggle and had to dig a hole to bury a body. In that short amount of time, no matter how fast I moved, it would be impossible to travel between two locations and kill three people.”

“By the way, I picked those wild plums from the forest. I must say, there are quite a lot of fruit trees here.”

The players were confused.

The college student seemed excessively weak; he couldn't even take a single punch from Zhang Xiong. It was a stretch to say he could have killed someone silently and taken their head alone.

Furthermore, convincing others to join a conspiracy wouldn't be easy. Having only one axe didn't prove much, because by that logic, the players in other rooms were also suspects. No one could determine if the players in other rooms had already formed an alliance.

As for Xu Huo, his time was clearly insufficient. He hadn't returned with Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao during the first power outage, and he was busy killing and burying a body at the cabin. The interval between the two power outages wasn't that long.

For a moment, it seemed as if every player was a suspect, yet as if every player was innocent.

“You're all overthinking this,” Liu Yuanyuan spoke up from the side. “There is a Headless Demon in the villa, and instead of suspecting that, you're looking for a killer among your own people?”