Chapter 100
Chapter 100
“What… what do you mean?” Li Yao’s frown deepened, and she could not hide the wariness in her eyes.
Xiao Huai slowly walked toward her, one step at a time. He looked down at her without a trace of emotion in his eyes.
“What mistake did you outsiders make to be chosen?” He tilted his head slightly. “Do you understand when I put it that way?”
Li Yao’s eyes widened. She understood. Of course she knew what Xiao Huai meant.
But why was he asking? Why did he want to know about the mistakes they had once made?
Did a single mistake have to follow someone for the rest of their life?
All at once, she wanted to run. She wanted to escape the room and get as far away from Xiao Huai as possible.
It felt as though one more moment beneath his gaze would expose every dark secret buried inside her.
Li Yao pressed her lips together and simply refused to speak.
Then Xiao Huai’s lazy voice drifted into her ears, raising goose bumps over her entire body.
“You’re a liar.” He looked at Li Yao. “If I were the witch, I would cut out your tongue.”
His fingertip stopped less than two inches from Li Yao’s lips and remained there for three seconds.
Li Yao’s pupils shook violently, and her entire body trembled. It was as though she had been dragged back to that night…
That night, the witch had said the same thing to her.
“Your punishment is to have your tongue cut out.”
When Li Yao heard those words, she had gone mad with desperation. No matter the price, she only wanted to survive, whole and unharmed. She would even sell her soul!
Even if it meant harming every other player, she was willing.
And now, Xiao Huai had said the same thing.
“Ahhh! No, no!” Li Yao suddenly clutched her head with both hands and screamed in agony.
“Don’t cut out my tongue! I’ll do anything! Anything! I don’t need my soul! I want to live! I want to live!”
Li Yao’s reaction was typical of post-traumatic stress.
Even without questioning her further, Xiao Huai could already guess what she had experienced.
Perhaps… the witch had thought exactly as he did.
“Then tell me what Xiaoxue did in the past.” Xiao Huai crouched, pointing at her with one hand while propping his chin on the other.
Li Yao’s eyes were red and brimming with frightened tears. “I can’t say it… I can’t force the words out…”
Considering that she had been willing to drug all the players’ food, Xiao Huai had already suspected that someone was controlling her.
Not through simple control like a puppet, but through a deeper threat.
“Will you die if you tell me?” Xiao Huai blinked lazily.
Li Yao trembled. What did he mean?
Was he forcing her to reveal everything? Should she speak or remain silent?
Her voice shook. “She… she’s right beside us! I can’t escape her sight! She’ll kill me! She’ll kill me!”
Li Yao had assumed Xiao Huai would continue interrogating her, forcing the truth from her if necessary. But then something completely unexpected happened.
Xiao Huai stood and stretched.
He said lightly, “Forget it. I can’t be bothered to ask anymore.”
Li Yao froze, uncertainty still in her eyes.
That was it?
He would not keep asking?
There would be no torturous punishment?
She watched Xiao Huai walk toward the door and asked in a quiet, hesitant voice, “You… aren’t going to force me?”
Xiao Huai cast her an icy glance from the corner of his eye and lifted his chin slightly.
“No. I simply realized something: I won’t believe you.”
He turned sideways and looked at her. “Because you’re a liar. You didn’t just deceive your friend. You betrayed yourself as well.”
Just like the boy who cried wolf, a child who lied constantly would not be believed even when he finally told the truth.
But Li Yao’s habit of lying was not the only reason Xiao Huai no longer wanted to listen.
She was also an opportunist who changed sides with the wind.
To survive, she could harm her teammates and ignore everything happening to her best friend.
She had failed to notice Xiaoxue’s suffering, just as she had failed to notice that she had already lost her humanity.
Yet she could still play the victim so convincingly that everyone regarded her as one.
As a liar, she was remarkably successful.
At the very least, she had even deceived herself.
The human instinct for survival was powerful. If life was at stake, what did it matter if one had to stand on a companion’s corpse?
Xiao Huai had seen it all too often. He was accustomed to facing such darkness, dealing with people like her, and sifting the few fragments of truth from mountains of lies.
When he finished speaking, Xiao Huai grasped the door handle.
The instant he turned it, he heard Li Yao’s low voice behind him.
“We… stole things.”
Xiao Huai did not turn around, ask for more details, or spare Li Yao another glance.
He stepped out and left the room.
* * *
Night fell. Every player had gone outside to search for treasure. Even those merely pretending had at least made themselves look busy.
That was the nature of a collective mission. As long as one person found the treasure, everyone else would be safe.
And so, some people began to slack off and go through the motions.
People were always like this. Until death stood directly before them, they could keep leaping into the same pit again and again.
Those loafers did not understand that the game was watching their every move.
Once the rules had been set, how could the game fail to know who was neglecting the search?
The lazy players returned to their rooms early, preparing to sleep straight through until dawn.
They always believed disaster would strike someone else and that they would be the lucky survivors.
They were indeed lucky. Anyone who had reached the third floor was already far more fortunate than the many players who died on the first two.
But luck had carried them all this way. Without those fortunate chances, they were nothing.
If Xiao Huai had not secretly manipulated the group, their hearts would have fallen into chaos long ago, and they would have become sacrifices on a stronger player’s path to growth.
Xiao Huai sat in the lobby as steam curled from his tea. He had no interest in whether the others died, much less whether they worked hard to complete the mission.
As long as they did not interfere with him, he did not care what they chose to do.
He had absolutely nothing in common with a Holy Father and had no idea why the game had assigned him that role.
The reason he had not abandoned these people was exceedingly simple.
He did not want to die from pain. If he had to choose a way to die, he would never choose an agonizing death. If death came, he preferred it clean and swift.
Xiao Huai’s fingertip lightly touched the rim of the hot teacup and rubbed against it.
He was waiting…
waiting for what he had missed the previous night: the witches’ nightly roaming.
Only a few oil lamps illuminated the entire lobby. It was merely nine at night, yet Xiao Huai was already the only person left there.
The other players knew what happened when the witches roamed. They did not want to experience that terror up close in an open place like the lobby.
When frightened, most people liked to hide beneath their blankets.
They believed demons and monsters would not be able to see them there.
But in a horror game, being in a bedroom or asleep would never save anyone from a monster’s pursuit.
Xiao Huai raised the teacup to his lips, his gaze resting on the clock.
The hour hand reached nine.
It was time.
It was about to begin.