chapter 17

He already had a theory.

“I saw it last night.”

The two of them were in the middle of talking about Li Ergou when Chu Yue suddenly dropped that line, giving Shen Yubi a fright.

His expression froze. Guilty, he blurted out, “Weren’t you already asleep then?”

He was sure Chu Yue’s breathing had evened out back then. There was no way he could have seen the Monster return from outside.

Chu Yue’s suspicion was piqued by Shen Yubi’s nervous reaction. “When did I ever-”

Halfway through the sentence, Chu Yue stopped. His gaze sharpened like a knife as it swung to Shen Yubi. “You stripped my clothes again while I was sleeping last night?”

Huh?

Shen Yubi blanked for a second, then realized they weren’t talking about the same thing at all.

“How could I! You can’t see anything in the middle of the night-what would I undress you for?!” he denied in a hurry. “And I told you, I wasn’t stripping you. I was straightening your collar.”

Chu Yue’s eyes were still full of doubt. It was obvious he didn’t believe that nonsense.

Standing on the sacrificial altar, Shen Yubi held up three fingers, his small face the picture of sincerity. “I swear.”

Chu Yue stared at him for a few seconds, snorted coldly, and decided to let it go.

“I meant, I’ve already found Li Ergou’s Butcher Knife.”

Shen Yubi dropped the goofy grin; his eyes flashed with surprise. “So it really was the one in that Monster’s hand.”

Chu Yue nodded. “Yeah.”

When that Monster had swung the blade at them last night, he’d kept his eyes locked on it.

There were characters carved on that massive Butcher Knife. On the handle, one character had been etched in.

“Li.”

Exactly as Li Ergou had described.

So there was no doubt-that was the Butcher Knife Li Ergou was looking for.

With that, he was even more certain of the theory in his heart. He even faintly felt as if everything was starting to link together.

He figured Shen Yubi had probably reached the same conclusion.

At a time like this, there was no need to hide anything between the two of them. Chu Yue just asked outright.

“Last night, you said the deal between Li Ergou and the Town Chief couldn’t be that simple. Then what do you think their deal actually was? What’s the answer you’ve got in your head?”

The question was within Shen Yubi’s expectations. From the moment Chu Yue mentioned the knife, he’d known.

“I think the two of us are thinking the same thing.”

A gust of wind blew by, and Chu Yue tugged at the hem of his pajamas.

The tall one and the small one faced each other, voicing their conclusion at almost the same time.

“I think the Monster at night is Li Ergou.”

“The Monster at night should be Li Ergou.”

Identical answers. Neither of them was surprised.

It sounded absurd, but it was the most reasonable explanation they had.

Li Ergou had made a deal with the Town Chief. The Town Chief and the residents of the town agreed to let Li Ergou’s Wife, an Outsider, live in this little town. But in return, Li Ergou had to offer sacrifices to the townspeople.

Maybe the exact terms weren’t precisely that, but it wouldn’t be far off.

What Li Ergou had to do was simple: whenever Outsiders came to this town, unless they completed their commission and left on their own, within that time he needed to get rid of as many Outsiders as possible.

In one of the two diary pages they’d read last night, Li Ergou had written that the conditions the Town Chief offered weren’t hard for him to fulfill. That was because Li Ergou was a butcher by trade.

He carried a heavy baleful aura and was used to seeing blood. From a certain angle, there was no real difference between killing people and slaughtering pigs for him-especially in a remote mountain village that took pleasure in eating human flesh.
Later on, for some reason, Li Ergou during the day only remembered that he’d made some kind of deal with the Town Chief, but had forgotten what the deal actually was.

Most likely, the tranquilizers the Town Chief gave him had gone wrong somehow, so that in the days that followed, Li Ergou and his wife lived on as ordinary townsfolk by day.

But in contrast, Nighttime Li Ergou was secretly active, carrying out his deal with the Town Chief. Whenever Outsiders arrived, he would go and get rid of them.

“‘Find Li Ergou’s Butcher Knife’ was a quest issued by Li Ergou during the day, but in reality the knife was never lost. It was with Nighttime Li Ergou,” Chu Yue said.

“Daytime Li Ergou has always thought his wife went back to her parents’ home, but Nighttime Li Ergou very likely knew that Li Ergou’s Wife was already dead.”

Because the Butcher Knife had supposedly gone missing the same day Li Ergou’s Wife “went back to her parents’ home,” it was highly likely that Nighttime Li Ergou had used Daytime Li Ergou to exploit a bug in the System.

This time Shen Yubi did not argue; that really was a possibility.

The System could only detect whether the person issuing the quest was deliberately cheating. Anything deeper than that was much harder to pick up.

Of course, it was also possible that the System had detected that this didn’t qualify as a scam at all, but rather as a very entertaining game.

Only, if that was the case, another problem arose.

Why would Li Ergou issue a quest like that?

What was his purpose in slaughtering players?

Shen Yubi looked at the altar around them. “As for that, I have a feeling we’ll be figuring it out very soon.”

The remaining unsolved mystery was the Three Days and Nights of Prayer.

What kind of ritual were the town’s residents actually conducting here in this Plaza? What exactly did they pray for, three days and three nights straight?

The residents of the town had eaten Li Ergou’s Wife alive. Did Nighttime Li Ergou really not want revenge?

And what form would that revenge take? The next three days would be crucial.

The two of them turned these clues over in their minds, and only when the two people behind finally drew close did they exchange a glance.

A dagger pressed against Chu Yue’s waist. “Don’t move.”

A soft, androgynous male voice sounded from behind him. The voice was so distinctive that Chu Yue knew who it was without turning- the quiet man from the 2nd Floor.

He turned his head slightly. In the same situation behind Shen Yubi was, unsurprisingly, the other one.

“You two little brothers, I’ve had my eye on you for quite a while. We don’t exactly want things to get bloody. If you’ve got any tricks for staying alive, why not share them? We all get out of this alive, wouldn’t that be perfect? If possible, whatever clues you’ve uncovered so far, we’d like you to share those too. We can see if our theories line up anywhere.”

As he spoke, the dagger in his hand prodded Chu Yue’s waist, then slowly slid upward until it was laid horizontally against Chu Yue’s throat.

The cold metal touched his warm pulse, adding a tangible edge of danger.

Chu Yue didn’t move. His voice was steady. “What method? I’m just a newbie. This is an Instance with a hundred-percent mortality rate. Even if you kill me, you’re not getting out of here.”

“Heh.” The man let out a couple of chilly laughs. “An Instance with a hundred-percent mortality rate?”

There was open mockery in his tone now. “You think I’m that idiot Wang Meng? Instances with a hundred-percent mortality rate are rare, but it’s not like they’ve never appeared. And there is a chance of survival. The one ranked number one on the Mercenary Ranking once made it out of one. As long as I can complete the quest, not even the System can keep me here.”