Chapter 26: Interrogation

“I have nothing to say.” The woodcutter said with a grim face. “I don't know anything about players or staying behind. I've lived here my whole life.”

Xu Huo let out a "tsk." His face was obscured by the shadows, making his expression unreadable, but in the next second, the sharp edge of a shovel was pressed against the man's throat. His tone was cold: “If players have some strange special traits, then let's see if you can also rise from the dead after I cut your throat.”

Only then did the woodcutter panic. He hurriedly said, “You can't kill me! If you kill me, don't even think about clearing the game!”

“Didn't you just say you didn't know?”

The woodcutter forced a smile. “I can give you a hint for clearing it, on the condition that you don't tell the other players about this...”

The shovel pressed down mercilessly.

Blood flowed down his neck, and the woodcutter let out unmelodic, choking sounds. His eyes stared fixedly at Xu Huo, and after struggling for a moment, he was forced to yield: “I... I'll talk...”

Xu Huo released his grip and stuffed a half-finished cigarette butt into the man's mouth. “Speak.”

The woodcutter swallowed the cigarette butt hard before he began to tell his story.

He had entered the Hot Spring Mountain City Station two and a half months ago. Before this, he had already gone through two E-rank dungeons, making him somewhat of a veteran. However, he hadn't expected that the players he encountered in his third dungeon would all be abnormal. Aside from those who died at the hands of the Decapitator, almost all other players died through mutual slaughter. He had only managed to save his life by handing over all his items.

He had saved his life, but when the dungeon ended, he had neither obtained a ticket nor a return ticket. Unable to leave, he was stuck in the mountain villa.

To obtain a ticket from subsequent players, he had disguised his identity and lived here by the wooden cabins.

With the normal physical state of an Evolver, he could have easily killed players to snatch tickets using his head start. But after staying in the villa for half a month, green pustules began to appear on his body, his frame grew thin, and his physical stamina plummeted back to the level of an ordinary person.

Dozens of players had come and gone, but he only dared to target those who looked the weakest. As it turned out, these people were even worse than him—forgetting tickets, they had no items or potions at all. Furthermore, when they died, their corpses did not disappear with the dungeon refresh, forcing him to bury them near the cabins.

“Is the illness on your body because you're missing dungeons?” Xu Huo asked after listening.

“How should I know?” the woodcutter said irritably. “The first time I didn't participate in a dungeon, the game informed me that I would be forcibly teleported into a B-rank random dungeon in three months. The more absences, the higher the danger level of the dungeon. I barely survived the E-rank dungeons; wouldn't a B-rank dungeon just be certain death?”

“But if I can't get a ticket, I have no choice. Do you think I want to kill people? Who isn't a law-abiding good person before entering the game...”

“What is your game mission?” Xu Huo interrupted him, unmoved.

The woodcutter gritted his teeth. “Protect our heads.”

Xu Huo frowned slightly. The dungeon mission was the same, and the woodcutter had successfully lived until the end of the dungeon, yet he hadn't obtained a return ticket. This meant he had not cleared the game.

Therefore, simply surviving until the end of the mission time did not count as clearing it.

“How long has it been since you last took an Evolver Potion?” he asked again.

“Three months...” The woodcutter suddenly realized. “So it's because of the Evolver Potion! I got this strange disease because I didn't take it!”

Xu Huo ignored his wailing, his mind occupied by something else.

Combining the time the woodcutter entered the dungeon, the symptoms appeared at least one month after he stopped using the Evolver Potion. Players with an evolution rate below 10% must take one bottle of Evolver Potion every month. Was this a side effect of the low-grade potion, or a weakness inherent to the evolution itself?

If it were merely a problem with the potion, finding a higher grade would solve it. But if the dependency on the potion was caused by the evolution itself, then players could never escape the control of the potions for the rest of their lives.

This game really was full of traps for Evolvers.

However, he could set this matter aside for now; completing the dungeon mission was the priority.

If he couldn't clear the game and get a return ticket, his only option besides being stuck in the game would be to go directly to the next dungeon.

He asked a few more details about the dungeon until the woodcutter could no longer provide any useful information, then he decisively sent him on his way.

【Congratulations, Player Passerby A, for killing a Black Player. You may obtain the deceased player's assets, items, and tickets. Please receive the player's remains below.】

The moment the woodcutter breathed his last, the game's prompt rang in his mind. Xu Huo opened his personal panel, which listed the woodcutter's player information.

【Player Nickname: Professional Talent】 【Player Type: Black Player】 【Class: Mourner/Actor】 【Player Level: E】 【ID Number: 285471】 【Evolution Rate: 8%】 【Assets: None】 【Trait: Rise from the Dead】 【Items: ① Sunny-Rain Belt ② Levitating Balloon】 【Ticket Holder: Empty】

The player information was simplified; except for assets, items, and the ticket holder, all other categories were greyed out and could not be selected for viewing.

The trait he was most interested in had no detailed description, but since he couldn't acquire it, it wasn't very important.

He took out the items, and his own item bar immediately gained two realistic images

【Sunny-Rain Belt (Note: A belt forecast more accurate than the weather report. Please pay attention to the smile on the buckle; a big smile means a big sunny day!)】

【Levitating Balloon (Note: A balloon that loves the sky, but it cannot leave the blower more than a hundred meters away. A perfect item that is passionate, ambitious, and loyal.)】

A weather belt with zero precision and a positioning balloon with a limited range—these were indeed two useless items that had little practical use in combat. However, small trinkets had their own small uses.

After collecting the items, Xu Huo buried the corpse and returned to the villa.

According to the woodcutter, the Decapitator never appeared after the dungeon opened and before the players arrived at the villa. Although the woodcutter was also a player, after experiencing several dungeon resets, the Decapitator seemed to ignore him as an outsider, never actively attacking him.

He believed this was because he did not belong to the current dungeon's player pool, allowing him to kill outside the rules. However, the reality was different; he merely happened to prove that the Decapitator was likely among the players each time.

In the murders occurring in the villa, most deaths involved decapitation, while some victims were missing limbs. Huang Junjie believed this was due to players mimicking the crime, where the hunters and the hunted were evenly matched, leading to struggles and fights.

This hypothesis made some sense, but Xu Huo's thought was different: the missing limbs were merely another way to conceal an identity.

In addition to Black and White players, there were also Red players. It was simply that the player playing the Decapitator happened to be a Red player. To hide the traces of feeding, they intentionally hid those limbs, which is why there was a period where corpses with missing limbs appeared in clusters, following the dungeon's time patterns.

He looked up toward the villa.

The lights over there had gone out once, but they had turned back on after Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao returned. If the Decapitator had appeared, there should be some sign by now.