Song of the Wanderer Arc
Great Demon King 16
When the sound disappeared, the light in the room that the boy entered also turned on.
Xīn Lán speculated that the source of the sound was likely the owner of the hand – a seventeen or eighteen-year-old youth who had experienced some unpleasant events in that room before.
His implication was that he had been dismembered, and his body parts were hidden. Their task was to find all the scattered body parts and piece them together within one day.
Several points were noteworthy. The boy mentioned ‘he’ or ‘she,’ and it couldn’t be determined if the person he referred to was a male or female – likely the one who imprisoned the boy and subjected him to cruel treatment. More intriguingly, the boy specified a time limit.
He said within one day, but this three-layered game usually allowed seven days. They had only used one day on the ground floor to clear that part. If it took them one day for the first floor, it meant they had five days left for the third floor. Does this imply that the game on the third floor is more challenging?
This must be a group game because if it were a game of finding items, with only a few people in the same space, it would be impossible for one person to find everything while others came up empty-handed. Moreover, they are not searching for trivial things but human body parts.
If they don’t cooperate, assuming no one can complete the game within one day, then none of them can proceed, and everyone will die.
However, looking at it from another perspective, they currently have four people, but only three can go up. The essence of forcing people to harm each other remains, but on the surface, it compels them to cooperate.
Assembling the body parts, the first part should be that hand. However, when Xin Lan turned on the living room light, the hand pressing the switch was gone.
“What about the other two people?”
Xin Lan asked.
“They’re dead.”
Pi Tianzi twirled her umbrella on the ground, seemingly unconcerned, with a faint smile on her face.
She didn’t take the few people in front of her seriously. One had glasses, another held a violin, and the third wore a green hat. What skills could they possibly have?
She had already dealt with three people, so why should she fear these remaining three? She was certain to be the ultimate winner.
Qi Haolin and Xin Lan were not surprised by her attitude, but Ren Difei quietly distanced himself.
Among the four people now, including himself, Ren Difei probably had the lowest chance of winning.
Boss Lady is impossible to defeat. Pi Tianzi has already killed three people; she is no longer a normal person and probably acting out of uncontrollable rage. As for the man with the green hat over there, although he appears formidable, he’s been locked onto by Boss Lady, so he’ll probably die here.
If he wants to get out, he has to get past both Pi Tianzi and Boss Lady.
Moreover, he’s worried that he might starve to death here before he can escape.
The room was illuminated as Xin Lan walked in again, not paying attention to the door she had kicked in earlier.
There were two lamps in the room, not far from each other, controlled by the same switch. The room was brightly lit, so bright that it couldn’t hide any filth.
Ren Difei felt a sharp pain in his body when he saw the philosophical instruments in that cabinet. It was hard to imagine how those things would feel when used on a person.
Some of them might be for adding amusement, but others seemed truly inhumane, making one feel uncomfortable just by looking at them.
For instance, there was something like a baby’s arm’s thickness, wooden horses, whips, and other items, forming a whole alphabet scene.
For most people, seeing such things would trigger intense embarrassment, and they would be hesitant to look further. But was Xin Lan an ordinary person? Not only did she approach to take a closer look, but she also observed carefully and clicked her tongue.
She, personally, didn’t object to consensual hobbies, as long as they were confined to self-indulgence and beneficial for their physical and mental well-being. However, this clearly didn’t seem like a consensual situation.
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Ren Difei put on his glasses and saw a different scene from the current situation.
It looked like an abandoned room that had been neglected for a long time. The walls were in a decaying white color, with pieces of wallpaper fallen on the ground, giving it a sense of aging.
The wooden floor had a large area of bloodstains, with evident signs of dragging. Ren Difei felt a bit nauseous looking at it.
The scene reminded him of passing by a meat stall in the market, where there were settled bloodstains on the chopping board, and some flies buzzing around, making his stomach churn. He was already feeling extremely hungry, which only made him feel even more uncomfortable.
He approached and stopped at the point where the chain was attached to the wall.
The chain had five rings – one for the neck and four for the limbs.
Just the thought of it felt humiliating.
The inside of the chain also had a dark red color, not much, probably stained from struggling.
The room felt very oppressive, even without glasses, but when he put on his glasses, he could feel the pain more intensely.
But feeling it didn’t do him any good. He was already in agony, and on top of that, they expected them to piece together this poor person’s corpse within one day. Just thinking about it gave him goosebumps.
“Let’s split up and search. This floor isn’t very large, and with the four of us searching separately, we should be able to find it within one day.”
Qi Haolin suggested, and Pi Tianzi nodded in agreement. Ren Difei then looked at Xin Lan.
Xin Lan didn’t have any objections; after all, even if Qi Haolin wanted to escape, there was nowhere for him to go.
Seeing that Xin Lan didn’t voice any opposition, Qi Haolin took the lead and walked out.
He really didn’t want to stay in the same space with this woman. Every second felt unbearable. She seemed to have transformed from a innocent girl into a flesh-eating monster.
He had seen ghosts before, knew the unscientific things, and he was certain that the soul inside Xin Lan’s body was definitely not the same as before.
He had been with Xin Lan for several years, and he knew her personality well. There was no way she could make a complete 180-degree turn to become this way. She had turned into a formidable demon, not easy to provoke or defeat.
But he didn’t want to die here. He wanted to take the money and get out alive.
The person wearing Xin Lan’s skin harbored a great animosity towards him, even though he hadn’t done anything wrong. He pursued Xin Lan, and they were together willingly, right? He didn’t force Xin Lan to support him financially; taking the money at the end might be unethical, but he needed it. After being with Xin Lan for so long, what’s the big deal about taking her money? She could always earn more.
Moreover, there was no need for the person wearing Xin Lan’s skin to beat him up and keep him around. He still had some lingering fear from that beating he received.
After Pi Tianzi and Qi Haolin went out, Ren Difei described what he had seen to Xin Lan. Xin Lan didn’t say much and began to observe the room.
Ren Difei didn’t wander outside either. Seeing that everyone else had deadly props like killing umbrellas, and though he wasn’t sure what the green hat’s purpose was, he guessed that the guy with the green hat on his head wouldn’t be weak. He didn’t want to go out and confront anyone, so he firmly stuck by Xin Lan’s side.
Xin Lan instructed Zero Nine to activate the search function, but as expected, they found nothing.
Even the hand they had seen earlier was nowhere to be found.
Xin Lan found it strange. It just didn’t make sense.
You said you wanted someone to find the body parts and piece them together, and now that hand has appeared. Why not just leave it as the first part instead of hiding it for this game?
But the existence of this game itself is irrational. Xin Lan started searching for the body parts in the room.
In the center of the room, there was a sofa facing the direction of the chain.
The sofa was large and soft, looking very comfortable.
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Xin Lan could almost imagine that there was someone sitting on it, calmly observing the struggles of the people not far away.
One by one, they are all perverts.
Xin Lan searched the sofa and then kicked it open, revealing something underneath.
It wasn’t any body part; it was just a pair of shoes.
A pair of white ballet shoes, not large in size, probably around a size 30. If a slender boy wore them, they would fit perfectly.
Ren Difei didn’t want to look at the props in the cabinet or the ones placed outside, so he went straight to check the toilet.
He lifted the lid, and there was indeed a surprise inside.
He pinched and took out a piece of an arm, placing it on the ground before wiping his fingers on his clothes.
The piece of arm seemed to be a forearm, both sides were bald, looking extremely eerie.
He then lifted the water tank lid, taking out a wet glass bottle.
“Why is this bottle empty?”
Ren Difei shook his hand, but there was indeed nothing inside the bottle.
Suddenly, he felt as if something had grabbed his hand, but there was nothing in front of him.
He reflexively tried to let go of the bottle, but just as it was about to hit the ground, he managed to catch it again.
He let out a sigh of relief, feeling an instinctive sense that if he were to smash the bottle, something terrifying might happen. He gently placed it on the ground and walked away from it.
At the moment he set down the bottle, the chilling sensation that had been entwining him suddenly vanished.
Ren Difei quickly walked to Xin Lan’s side and told her about what happened with the bottle.
Xin Lan looked at the empty bottle with curiosity but didn’t pick it up.
Yu Wan Yan followed closely by Xin Lan’s side, and she clearly saw the figure squatting on the ground, holding the bottle.
It was a young boy with a beautiful appearance, so much so that his gender seemed ambiguous, making it difficult to determine.
The young boy raised his head and looked at Yu Wan Yan with some caution.
“That’s his treasure.”
Yu Wan Yan said to Xin Lan.
Xin Lan raised an eyebrow. An empty glass bottle was considered a treasure?
But nothing was impossible; perhaps there was some special symbolism behind it.
Xin Lan didn’t look at the glass bottle again and continued to scan the cabinet.
As Xin Lan continued to scan, she indeed found something suspicious.
Among a row of items, there was one that seemed particularly lifelike.
“You, come here and take that down to have a look.”
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Xin Lan instructed Ren Difei, who promptly obeyed. But as he saw the item Xin Lan asked him to take, he couldn’t help but shudder and feel a slight discomfort below.
His fingers trembled as he took down the indescribable item from the cabinet. The item had a very neat incision, causing his scalp to tingle.
As a male, he felt really uncomfortable.
After holding it in his hand, he immediately felt like he was holding a hot potato and hastily placed that part on the floor, pulling his hand back and vigorously rubbing his palm against his pants’ seam.
“Is it real?”
“Yes.”
“But it’s not soaked in preservative fluid. How does it stay fresh? It’s kind of magical.”
Xin Lan pondered; after all, this flesh would eventually decay once it was separated from the body.
“I don’t know.”
He didn’t really want to know either.
Besides, isn’t this focus a bit strange? Why would anyone be concerned about its shelf life, for heaven’s sake!