Chapter 30
Chapter 30
“Why blame me for something you stole? Don’t you know lying can get people killed? It had to be you!”
“What did you say? I stole it? How dare you accuse me without proof?”
The argument pierced Xiao Huai’s ears. His eyelids fluttered before slowly opening.
A whistle shrieked, followed by the mournful wail of the locomotive.
The train sped onward, its carriage swaying gently. A cold wind slipped through the window.
It howled through the compartment, carrying a snowflake that landed on Xiao Huai’s neck.
The bitter cold made his body shudder.
He had barely begun to tremble when a man’s low, magnetic voice sounded beside him, pleasing to the ear.
“You’re finally awake. Everyone thought you were dead.”
Xiao Huai looked up toward the voice and lost focus for a moment.
That face was almost absurdly beautiful.
It seemed like a masterpiece carved by heaven itself. No amount of poetic praise could compare with the wonder of seeing it firsthand.
The man watched him with a faint smile. Beneath thick black lashes, ink-dark eyes looked deep and mysterious. A tiny mole rested on the bridge of his nose, gleaming like a star in the night sky.
His features were exquisitely sculpted, and his skin was as pale as jade, radiating an innate nobility.
Beautiful.
Yet that beauty had nothing to do with gender. It simply drew the eye and made it linger, embodying the kind of beauty the soul instinctively yearned for.
Xiao Huai looked away. He had been staring, which was rather awkward.
The man extended a hand. “Lu Yuanshi. Game player.”
Xiao Huai furrowed his brow. He did not accept the hand, though he did answer. “Xiao Huai.”
Unlike Hui Yulian, Lu Yuanshi did not simply withdraw. He seized Xiao Huai’s hand and squeezed it tightly.
Xiao Huai frowned. Lu Yuanshi’s grip was too strong. He tried to pull free but lacked the strength.
Only after his hand had been squeezed red did Lu Yuanshi release it.
Xiao Huai winced and snatched his hand back. Irritated, he shifted farther to the side to put more distance between them.
“Finally awake? Damn, I thought I’d have to listen to these NPCs argue all afternoon. My ears are killing me.”
The speaker was a tall, broad man in his thirties, with brown skin and a Cantonese accent.
“Mom, it’s so cold. I want to go home…” A girl in a short-sleeved shirt sat at the very front, rubbing her arms constantly as her lips turned white.
Xiao Huai looked ahead. A man and woman were still arguing. The man had brown hair, while the woman was blonde.
They had Western features, yet argued in fluent Huaxia.
According to the brown-skinned man, both of them were NPCs.
Xiao Huai had not spent all seven days resting in the standby world. After only five, he entered the second-floor game lobby.
It contained many different games, and players chose among them based on the clues they possessed.
Generally, the more clues they had, the more confident they felt.
Anyone who reached the second floor was no longer a complete novice. Though fear still marked the players here, there was less confusion in their eyes than among those on the first floor.
Xiao Huai approached the nebula for *Diamond Magnate*. His system interface indicated that the team was currently assembling.
*Diamond Magnate* was a newly released instance that had been online for less than a week.
Xiao Huai recalled the clue Loki had given him: Beauty Is Justice.
One clue was better than none. Since Loki had given him the clue and left him with that message, escaping this encounter was probably impossible anyway.
So with little hesitation, he selected *Diamond Magnate*.
Only seven players had entered *Diamond Magnate*, and Xiao Huai was the last to wake.
The brown-skinned man said, “Handsome, see if your System Shop works. That little girl is about to freeze to death.”
Xiao Huai nodded, only to discover that his System Shop was locked. He could not buy anything.
“Mine doesn’t work,” he replied.
The brown-skinned man sighed. “What kind of damned instance is this? Being newly released doesn’t excuse bugs. We’re surrounded by ice and snow, the window won’t close, and we can’t leave the carriage. Is it planning to freeze us to death right here?”
Xiao Huai asked, “How long have they been arguing?”
“They were already at it when I woke up. I was the first one conscious, so it’s been almost half an hour,” the brown-skinned man answered.
“A cutscene.” Xiao Huai lazily closed his eyes and rested his head against the seat. “They’re acting out the opening plot. Now that I’m awake, the team has finished assembling. An NPC will appear soon to assign our mission.”
The brown-skinned man froze and was about to respond when the door that had refused to open suddenly swung inward. A short-haired redheaded woman in a black beret appeared before them.
Like the other two NPCs, she possessed distinctly Western features.
“Dear God in heaven, you still haven’t found the culprit?”
Resentment colored the redheaded woman’s voice. She turned to the players. “What are you standing around for? The Count didn’t hire you to watch the show. If you can’t recover the rough diamond, every one of you will suffer. Or would you prefer to fill the shortfall with your own corpses?”
[Ding! Timed Mission activated: Find the stolen rough diamond. Time limit: one hour.]
The mechanical female announcement rang throughout the carriage.
[Penalty for failure: Death.]
When the system announced the penalty, every player widened their eyes in disbelief, wondering whether they had heard correctly.
Even the girl who had been complaining of the cold let out a loud curse.
Was this truly a second-floor instance? How could it assign a timed mission the moment they arrived and make death the penalty?
When the system fell silent, the redheaded woman’s lips curved into an eerie smile.
Her gaze settled on Xiao Huai and Lu Yuanshi, and one eyebrow rose. “It seems the Count hired two exceptionally handsome temporary workers this time. I hope neither of you is the diamond fiend who stole from him. You have one hour. If you haven’t recovered the rough diamond by then, heh-heh, none of you will live to meet the Count.”
The countdown began as soon as she finished. The redheaded woman left the carriage, locking it again so the culprit could not escape.
The compartment fell silent.
Then a girl dressed like a student began to cry. “I don’t want to die! Who is the culprit? The mission can’t possibly be this hard. Finding the criminal in one hour is impossible.”
The brown-skinned man cursed under his breath. “What the hell? Could the culprit be one of those two NPCs?”
They had to identify the culprit first, or everyone might die when the hour ended.
Just then, Xiao Huai laughed. The brown-skinned man looked at him. “What are you laughing at?”
“I’m laughing because none of you know how to read the question.” Xiao Huai opened his system interface.
[Timed Mission: Find the stolen diamond.]
He said casually, “Both the system and that woman asked only for the rough diamond. The redhead also revealed a hidden condition: ‘Fill the shortfall with your own corpses.’ So as long as we kill one person among us before the mission ends, we can clear it that way too.”
The train entered a tunnel. Faint light inside the carriage fell upon Xiao Huai’s dark red eyes, lending them a wicked gleam.