Chapter 25: Grave Digging

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"Reason?" Xu Huo didn't rush to deny his statement.

"I've read all the reports and investigations about the Beheading Demon. His methods are very sophisticated; most of the people were killed in one blow, and aside from the neck, there were no other injuries. The person who attacked me yesterday was panicked, and didn't even choose the right moment to strike."

Huang Junjie was very confident, "In most of the murder cases, the victims died silently, not discovered until later."

"Then there's a small number of cases where the victim's limbs are incomplete, and they had a fierce fight before death, which does not align with what you're saying," Xu Huo asked after listening.

"Crime imitation," Huang Junjie said with conviction: "Such cases are too rare."

"If what you're saying is true, why did he choose you as the first target?" Xu Huo asked again, "I think it would be easier to attack Du Lanlan."

Huang Junjie's face showed regret, "I shouldn't have confronted Wan Zhikang yesterday."

If a player wanted to kill other players using the identity of the Beheading Demon, the easiest targets would indeed be female players or White Players, but there is an exception, which is that this person must be the first to die.

It was precisely because he had shown his hand that he was targeted.

"If the person who attacked me falls for the diary ruse, the target tonight will be among you, me, and Xia Guo," Huang Junjie suggested, "Why don't we join forces and catch him red-handed!"

Xu Huo, biting his cigarette, said, "According to what you've said, there's another Beheading Demon inside the villa who might also murder tonight."

"It's all about who's less fortunate," Huang Junjie shook his head.

As the three of them talked, they continued towards the cabin.

"I'm going to the cabin not only to lure out the person who attacked me but also to distance myself from the other players. If we don't catch anyone, we can deduce his identity through the others later."

After finishing, Huang Junjie asked, "What are you going to the cabin for?"

Yuan Yao shook his head and looked towards Xu Huo.

Xu Huo stopped, pointed his chin at the person now standing on the firewood pile with a noose around his neck, "I'm here to see if he hangs himself."

Huang Junjie and Yuan Yao's expression changed, and they immediately wanted to intervene, but Xu Huo stopped them, "He'll hang himself by evening; maybe he's possessed by a ghost. If you go over there, what if it decides to seek a replacement through you? You're not NPCs of the villa; you won't come back to life if you die."

That made sense.

The three didn't approach The Woodcutter but circled around to his front. Xu Huo stood on a stump and waved to him, "Yo, getting ready to hang yourself?"

The Woodcutter's eyeballs trembled, his neck thrust forward, and he hung from the tree.

Xu Huo just watched until he stopped moving completely before saying, "Take him down; it's getting dark. I'll go to the cabin to see if there's any lighting equipment."

After a while, candles were lit in the cabin, and The Woodcutter's body was laid back on the bed.

Huang Junjie, looking towards the villa with its bright lights, muttered to himself, "It's not time yet..."

Behind him, Xu Huo, after having turned The Woodcutter's body over several times and checked it, took a rope from the cupboard and tied the body up tightly, then picked up a shovel.

"Xu, Brother Xu, what are you doing?" Yuan Yao stared at The Woodcutter's pants, which Xu Huo had pulled down but not all the way up, his voice trembling a little.

"I'm going out to dig a hole," Xu Huo spun the shovel, his gaze still fixed on The Woodcutter, "Let's see if he can come back to life if he's buried in the ground."

Yuan Yao's smile was particularly forced, and Huang Junjie also had a complex look; he didn't understand why Xu Huo insisted on making trouble with an NPC.

Xu Huo really went outside to dig a hole, casually digging up the new grave as well.

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The weathered corpse of the woman, claimed by The Woodcutter to be his daughter, was just thrown in the ground without even a cloth to wrap her, a ring of hemp rope marks on her neck, indicating she had been strangled to death.

Turning the corpse over, there was a string of white numbers on her unrotten back.

After recovering the grave, he dug up the two adjacent graves; one of the bodies was headless, the other had also been strangled to death, one a Cannibal Player, the other a Black Player.

"There's quite a few people killed," said Xu Huo without burying the bodies back. He tossed aside his shovel, sat down on the spot, and smoked, all the while staring towards the villa.

The drizzling fog kept falling, making the lights of the villa hazy and dim, but still quite visible in the night. So when the lights suddenly went out, all three people on the side of the wooden house noticed.

Xu Huo had just walked out of the graveyard when he heard a shrill scream.

"Something's happened over there!" Huang Junjie sprinted out. "I'll go check it out."

"Yuan Yao, go with him," Xu Huo said without moving. "I will stay here."

Huang Junjie glanced at him suspiciously but didn't ask any more questions before hurrying off.

"Brother Xu, how about I stay here with you?" Yuan Yao said quickly, sensing from the situation that someone must have died in the villa; he did not want to face either the Beheading Demon or a player impersonating the Beheading Demon.

Xu Huo looked at him coldly.

Swallowing nervously, Yuan Yao turned without another word to follow Huang Junjie.

Once he was sure Yuan Yao had left, Xu Huo entered the wooden house, stepped on the bed to retrieve the phone from the beam above, turned off the video recording, and reviewed the previously recorded video. He suddenly laughed and said to the "corpse" on the bed, "Stop pretending, I know you've come back to life."

The "corpse" didn't move.

Xu Huo pocketed his phone and dragged The Woodcutter by the collar, dragging him outside, "I told you, dead means buried. I've already dug a hole for you. Since you don't want to wake up, let me do a good deed and let you Rest in Peace early."

Without a sliver of mercy, he threw the "corpse" into the same grave where a body had been before and took up the shovel to fill it with dirt.

As the foul-smelling dirt covered his face, the "corpse" finally moved, opening his eyes in confusion, first surveying his surroundings before realizing his predicament and screaming, "Help, somebody help! Murder!"

"Stop shouting," Xu Huo said as he stuffed a handful of grass along with the dirt into his mouth. "Everyone is in the villa; you know that no one will come to rescue you."

"We have some time now, let's talk about something else."

"Are you the Beheading Demon?"

The Woodcutter looked as though he had heard some joke, a mocking expression on his face, but what Xu Huo said next changed his expression dramatically.

"If you're not the Beheading Demon, then you're simply a player left over from the last game."

"Playing the hanging trick in front of the players, you wanted others to think of you as part of the original setup of the villa."

"The people you killed were at different levels of decomposition; you've encountered at least three groups of players here, but there aren't enough new graves. I surmise the players you killed weren't cleaned up by the game, so you had no choice but to bury them here."

"The villa is only so big. Rather than bury them secretly and risk detection which would be difficult to cover up, it's better to bury them openly for all to see."

"Moreover, the villa had a big fire years ago and was closed for renovation for half a year; even the wooden houses were built afterward. Saying you've been living here all along is quite the tall tale."

"Also, your daughter, she's old enough to be your aunt, didn't you think someone might dig up and see when you buried her?"

Removing the grass, Xu Huo motioned for him to speak.

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