chapter 7

By the time the two of them got back to where they were staying, the sky was already darkening, and a light rain had started up again outside.

The remaining eight people had all returned and were sitting in the Hall waiting.

No one was talking. Those with phones sat there silently absorbed in their screens; those without just sat and spaced out.

When he saw the two come back, Wang Meng was the first to greet them.

“We’ve all been running around all day, so I’m sure everyone’s hungry. Let’s eat first. Whatever we need to talk about, we’ll do it after dinner.”

They ate in near silence. No one had much of an appetite. Once they were finished, the group moved back into the Hall.

“Let’s consolidate the clues we found during the day. This isn’t a solo-clear Instance. If we want to get out of here alive, we have to work together. I hope no one hides any clues they’ve found.” Wang Meng was, as usual, the first to speak. He looked around at the others. “I’ll start us off.”

No one objected, so he continued, “Today the two of us went to Li Ergou’s house. The odds were low, but we still turned the place over from top to bottom. We can confirm he wasn’t lying.

“We took a look around. There were only men’s clothes and a few scattered women’s clothes in the house. His wife wasn’t there.

“There were plenty of knives in the kitchen, but not the one he told us about.

“Overall, there weren’t many clues at Li Ergou’s place. The only useful thing was that we saw a brief history of the town in his study.

“I didn’t bring the book back, but it basically talked about how the town developed, and it specifically emphasized that the assembly is extremely important in this town. So I’m thinking, if we don’t fulfill Li Ergou’s wish before the assembly, there’s a high chance he’ll lose control. The closer it gets to the assembly, the more agitated he’s likely to become.”

An NPC losing control was terrifying. A berserk Monster could ignore all constraints within the Instance and kill at any time, day or night. It was extremely dangerous.

He went on, “After that, we went to the house of the woman who’d argued with him, but no one answered, even after we knocked for a long time.

“There were hardly any people on the street. Almost every household had their doors shut tight. There’s definitely something fishy there, but before we could look into it further, it was already getting dark, so we had to come back.”

Wang Meng hadn’t gathered much information. This was his first time encountering this type of Instance.

He didn’t even know where to begin investigating; after an entire day, they still hadn’t gotten anything really useful.

Next up were the two high school girls. They just said they’d been with Wang Meng the whole time, then skipped their turn.

The other two men gave accounts similar to Wang Meng’s, but added a bit about the assembly, mentioning the Three Days and Nights of Prayer.

“We don’t have many clues either,” said the woman in her twenties they’d seen that morning at Li Ergou’s shop, “but we did discover one thing.”

As Chu Yue watched her finish, the woman in her thirties sitting beside her suddenly went pale again. She shot to her feet, clamped a hand over her mouth, and rushed out.

“What’s wrong with her?” someone asked.

Chu Yue glanced over as well, curious what exactly they’d found.

“She’s probably feeling a bit nauseous,” the younger woman said, pushing her glasses up, her expression calm. “Because when we went to Li Ergou’s butcher shop during the day, I told her that what Li Ergou sells is human meat.”

The Hall instantly fell silent.

Chu Yue froze. Back then, he’d still been leaning by the window asking Li Ergou about that meat.

He glanced back at Shen Yubi. As expected, there wasn’t a trace of surprise on his face.

Chu Yue lowered his voice. “You already knew?”

Shen Yubi replied just as quietly, “I figured it out later.”

Hearing that, Chu Yue couldn’t help thinking of the limbs they’d seen at the Plaza-how all the flesh had been stripped clean…

After a brief silence, someone questioned, “How can you be sure that meat is human meat?”

“Yeah, is that really something you can tell so easily?”
The woman glanced at them and said calmly, “Because I’m a Forensic Doctor.”

No one said anything after that. A Forensic Doctor worked with corpses all the time; recognizing what kind of meat that was wouldn’t be hard.

But when they thought of the braised pork and other dishes on the table earlier, a few faces darkened.

Everyone couldn’t help thinking of the Fat Man who died last night.

His corpse had disappeared.

Then it was Chu Yue and Shen Yubi’s turn.

Shen Yubi tugged on Chu Yue’s sleeve and shrank behind him, clearly telling Chu Yue to speak.

“We found a Plaza to the East of the Town,” Chu Yue repeated everything the two of them had seen, hiding nothing.

The listeners’ expressions shifted in all sorts of ways. This time, no one doubted it anymore-what Li Ergou had sold them as meat was definitely the Fat Man.

Today was only the first day. The clues everyone had found were few, and without exception, none of them had anything to do with the Butcher Knife.

The Hall fell into silence. Outside, the sky had already gone dark; it was eight in the evening.

The shadow of death hung over everyone’s heart. Night had come again.

They still hadn’t figured out why the Fat Man had died last night. Staying in a Single Room clearly wasn’t the Death Condition.

Without knowing the Death Condition, no one had any way to avoid it. All they could do was bet on their Luck Value.

“Will someone die tonight? Isn’t there going to be a warning like yesterday?”

“The warning only exists for the first night.”

Which meant they had no idea whether anyone would die tonight.

Wang Meng held a lighter in his hand, clicking it on and off with a “kada, kada.”

Just as everyone was on edge, someone suddenly spoke up: “That Monster went to your room last night, didn’t it?”

It was the man who shared a dorm room with Wang Meng.

He turned his head to look at Chu Yue, eyes sharp. Calling it scheming might be too much, but there was definitely no goodwill in them.

“You survived under that Monster’s nose. Don’t tell me you’ve got some trick? I hope you won’t be stingy and can share it with everyone.”

Chu Yue sat with his arms crossed, feeling all sorts of probing gazes fall on him. He didn’t even lift his eyelids, just said lightly, “I don’t know.”

That was the plain truth.

But the man clearly didn’t believe him. “How could you not know? I remember that Monster stayed in your room for a long time before it came out.”

“Maybe it’s because my brother is good-looking.” Shen Yubi poked his head out from behind Chu Yue and said timidly, “Xiao Yu is very cute too. Maybe that Monster is a face-obsessed pervert. After all, the one who died last night was the ugliest uncle.”

“You brat, I’m talking to this pretty boy. You shut up!”

“You’re the one who should shut up!” Wang Meng turned his head and glared at him fiercely. “We’re all grasshoppers tied to the same rope right now. What’s the point of infighting?”

“Brother Wang is right.” A man from the 2nd Floor cut in. He looked at Chu Yue. “We’re all grasshoppers on the same rope now. Brother Chu, if you really have some way, teach everyone.”

The two seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girls also looked over, their eyes filled with foolish greed, as if they’d already decided he really had a method.

Chu Yue took one look around. From the way they were acting, if he didn’t hand over some so-called method, they looked about ready to gang up on him.

“I’m just a newbie,” Chu Yue said, voice calm and cool. “I haven’t even figured out the basic rules yet. You’re asking me for a way to avoid the Monster-don’t you think that’s ridiculous?”

“The Monster did come last night, but I don’t know what really happened either. Maybe I triggered something unconsciously, or maybe I was just lucky.”

With that, he stood up and took Shen Yubi’s hand. “Excuse us. We’ll head upstairs first.”

No one stopped them. What had happened last night was strange, but even Wang Meng didn’t really believe he had some guaranteed way to dodge death.

They’d only been testing him a little.