Chapter 9: The Returner on a Snowy Night (3)
Yingjun was dead, and Yingjun was alive again. He smiled good-naturedly, but he was a mute.
Everyone watched as the waitress welcomed him in as if nothing had happened, and watched as Li Yingjun nodded at them friendlily, ran to the back door to drop off the firewood, and it wasn’t until the waitress ran into the kitchen to cook noodles for Li Yingjun that the place exploded.
Qian Wei expressed his astonishment with a string of “holy shits,” and everyone exchanged dismayed looks. Just then, Tang Cuo suddenly said, “The corpse.”
Peng Mingfan’s expression suddenly changed.
Zhang Zhiqiu, Zhao Ping, and the others also reacted, immediately darting toward the second-floor bathhouse like cannonballs. The thud thud thud of their footsteps was deafening. The group rushed to the lockers, pulled open the door, and looked—
The corpse was gone.
Peng Mingfan immediately opened the adjacent locker and took out a bronze statue from inside; the bronze statue was still stained with blood. The corpse was gone, but the bronze statue was still there—why was that?
Evident worry hung on Zhao Ping’s face: “So this Yingjun can resurrect? He resurrected last night, killed Qu Li, and then came in through the front door bright and early as if nothing happened?”
Zhang Zhiqiu said, “It’s probably more than just that. What did that waitress say?”
An Ning came in right at that moment. Hearing his question, she answered, “I asked. The waitress named Xiao Yuan completely doesn’t remember Li Yingjun’s corpse being hidden in the locker yesterday. She said Li Yingjun comes to deliver firewood every morning at six o’clock, and he even came yesterday. There’s no mistake.”
“Happy Death Day,” Peng Mingfan suddenly muttered a phrase.
“What?” Qian Wei asked.
“A movie. It’s about a female college student who, after being murdered, returns to the morning of the day she died, trapped in a time loop,” Peng Mingfan said as he walked downstairs. He remembered a perpetual calendar hanging on the wall behind the counter.
He ran very fast and was back downstairs in no time, but staring intently at the perpetual calendar, he discovered the time was moving forward.
When they arrived yesterday, the time displayed on the wall was December 21st. Today is December 22nd.
But if it wasn’t a time loop, how could they explain Li Yingjun rising from the dead while Xiao Yuan remembered absolutely nothing? This was a deduction instance; everything that appeared shouldn’t just be for the simple sake of creating a horror atmosphere.
Unable to figure it out for a moment, Peng Mingfan’s peripheral vision swept over Qian Wei and the others who had followed him down, and he abruptly noticed Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng were gone. He hurriedly asked where the two went, but everyone shook their heads.
Finally, Li Shuangshuang timidly pointed behind her: “I was standing at the back just now, and I saw them heading towards the back door.”
Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng arrived at the utility shed again.
Li Yingjun was currently stacking firewood here. He neatly stacked the newly gathered firewood and took some of the old wood, placing it in a bamboo basket. Though the weather was cold, his hands and feet were nimble; at a glance, one could tell he was used to doing manual labor.
It was just dawn.
Li Yingjun picked up the basket, turned around, and saw Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng. He smiled and nodded in greeting. Despite being a tall, burly man, every movement he made exuded a foolish air.
“Where are you taking your firewood?” Tang Cuo asked.
“Ah, ah.” Unable to speak, Li Yingjun pointed in the direction of the kitchen. He seemed to want to tell Tang Cuo that the firewood was for cooking and boiling water, but his gestures were always imprecise, making him a bit anxious.
Tang Cuo waited for him to finish gesturing and then asked, “When did you chop this firewood?”
Li Yingjun pointed to the sky and gestured wildly with a series of “ah ah ah”s.
Tang Cuo: “At night?”
Li Yingjun nodded.
Playing dead during the day and chopping wood late at night. Alright, the one who died yesterday was definitely you.
“Can you take me to see?” Tang Cuo asked.
This time, Li Yingjun shook his head, waving his hands and shaking his head simultaneously, his entire body screaming refusal. He seemed to want to express that it was very cold and dangerous outside, trying desperately to dispel Tang Cuo’s idea.
When Tang Cuo asked him again about chopping wood, he only repeatedly mimed the action of splitting and chopping wood, unable to vocalize anything.
With communication proving fruitless, Tang Cuo watched Li Yingjun leave, then turned and walked outside the kitchen window. Xiao Yuan in the kitchen was humming a song while cooking. Suddenly seeing a face appear in the blinding blizzard outside—even though the face was very handsome—she was still so startled she almost cut her finger.
“Guest, why did you run outside?” Xiao Yuan exclaimed through the glass.
“Catching the breeze,” Tang Cuo replied.
Xiao Yuan kindly reminded him to be careful not to catch a cold, then smiled and unexpectedly went back to cooking as if nothing had happened. She was making noodles, boiling chopped Napa cabbage and beef inside. It looked much more delicious than the plain white porridge cooked for the guests in the morning.
Not a shady inn, but better than one.
Returning to the lobby, everyone was present.
Zhang Zhiqiu looked over and asked, “Where did you go?”
“To look at the firewood.” Tang Cuo sat down nonchalantly, poured himself a glass of water, and said, “Li Yingjun said he chops wood at night. The location shouldn’t be far from here. I want to go take a look; anyone want to come?”
Qian Wei: “Could we also look for Qu Li? She might just be missing, maybe she’s waiting somewhere for us to rescue her. With it being freezing cold, if we go a bit later she might actually be dead.”
Zhao Ping: “This…”
Some were eager to try, some hesitated.
Li Shuangshuang nervously gripped the hem of her clothes, her gaze sweeping to fellow female An Ning, only to see her eyes shining brightly. She stood up and said, “I support going outside to take a look. The waitress said heavy snow blocked the mountain, but since Li Yingjun can chop wood, it means there’s still a path to walk. Even if we can’t go to the outside world, the place where he chops wood should belong within the instance area; maybe there are some clues.”
After a pause, she added, “Someone is missing; we can’t just not look.”
At this moment, Jin Cheng suddenly interjected: “Actually, there’s no need for so much trouble.”
Peng Mingfan cast a glance at him: “What do you mean?”
“Kill Yingjun, of course.”
“Hm?”
A flash of inspiration hit Qian Wei: “That’s right! Isn’t the mission of this game to kill Yingjun? Since Yingjun is alive now, wouldn’t it be fine if we just killed him? The reason we didn’t clear the stage before when Yingjun died might be because we didn’t kill him that time, so it didn’t count.”
Zhang Zhiqiu agreed: “The most important thing is still to clear the stage.”
“Then you guys murder, I’ll go outside and take a look.” Tang Cuo had no objections.
Qian Wei felt an inexplicable chill from these words. Where did this big brother come from? Talking about the word ‘murder’ as casually as slaughtering a pig.
He secretly tugged at Peng Mingfan’s clothes. Just as he was about to speak, he heard Zhang Zhiqiu pondering and making arrangements: “Then let’s split up. Regardless of whether we kill or not, someone has to stay in the hostel to keep an eye on Li Yingjun and Xiao Yuan. Let’s leave one person from each group, how about that?”
Zhang Zhiqiu made sense, and the others had no objections, but Qian Wei still muttered softly. Seeing this, Peng Mingfan shot him a look and immediately said, “I’ll stay, Qian Wei will go.”
The outcome for Zhao Ping and Li Shuangshuang was obvious; Li Shuangshuang was too timid, and her combat power looked lacking. Of course, this was a Zone F instance, full of panicked and reckless people; Li Shuangshuang being a bit timid was nothing out of the ordinary.
“Then I’ll go.” An Ning seemed completely unafraid, her pretty almond eyes staring unabashedly at Zhang Zhiqiu: “It’s just the two of us left without partners. I’ll go, you stay.”
Zhang Zhiqiu had no objections.
Qian Wei couldn’t help but remind her: “The blizzard outside is huge, it’s very dangerous.”
“Indeed.” Jin Cheng suddenly interjected, yet his eyes were fixed on Tang Cuo, the eyes beneath the mask holding a smile: “How about I go out and you stay?”
Sitting with his arms crossed by the tea table, Tang Cuo glanced at the puzzle Jin Cheng had laid out again and asked bluntly, “Is the puzzle not fun?”
Jin Cheng shrugged, looking very innocent.
The personnel arrangement was thus finalized. Tang Cuo, Qian Wei, Zhao Ping, and An Ning would go out to investigate. The rest would stay in the hostel to keep an eye on Li Yingjun and formulate a murder plan.
Before heading out, the group scoured the hostel again, finding military coats, compasses, climbing ropes, flashlights, and a bunch of emergency supplies. But no one was as fierce as Tang Cuo; he directly grabbed a small rechargeable chainsaw from the utility shed.
Qian Wei’s eyes widened: “Big brother, what are you doing?”
Tang Cuo plugged it in on his own, confirmed the chainsaw was fully charged, and then nonchalantly pressed the switch to test the feel. Amidst the roar, he turned to look at Qian Wei: “Chopping wood.”
If you’re chopping wood, don’t point the chainsaw at me!
Qian Wei couldn’t help but blink frantically at Peng Mingfan—Are you sure I’ll be fine going out with him?
Peng Mingfan glanced at Zhang Zhiqiu and discreetly made a gun gesture. Qian Wei understood; a gun kills much faster than a chainsaw. Staying here wouldn’t necessarily be safe either.
After all, there was still a non-player among them.
“You must come back within two hours. If you encounter any emergencies, send a signal. Qian Wei has something that can send a signal; as long as he sends it, I will receive it.”
Amidst Peng Mingfan’s instructions, the exploration squad plunged headfirst into the blizzard, walking quickly. Only Tang Cuo turned back to glance at Peng Mingfan. He felt that Peng Mingfan’s last sentence was meant for him.
Qian Wei had a signal transceiver on him, which could save lives at a critical moment, so he had to at least guarantee Qian Wei’s safety.
The exploration squad chose to go out when the wind and snow were at their lightest. But even so, the biting cold wind and snow over their knees still made their speed as slow as a crawling turtle.
Tang Cuo walked at the very front, wearing a military coat over his trench coat, a Lei Feng hat on his head, a bright red chainsaw on his back, and a hiking backpack—a fashionable look. An Ning and Qian Wei walked in the middle, and Zhao Ping brought up the rear. The three called out Qu Li’s name as they walked, but unfortunately, no one answered.
In front of the hostel was a small path leading down the mountain. Li Yingjun had come from this direction. If Qu Li had run out by herself, she should have also headed this way, rather than plunging into the forest in the back mountain, which looked eerie and terrifying at first glance.
However, as they walked, the four discovered the path led to a dense black forest. Because it was snowing, the sky was very dark, and the forest looked gloomy as well. The canopy seemed to connect with the sky, dull and oppressive.
“This is where Li Yingjun chops wood?” Qian Wei felt it was not good: “He chops wood in a place like this late at night?”
Zhao Ping yelled Qu Li’s name a few more times. The shouts shook the snow off the branches of nearby trees, but there was still no answer. He took a breath, fighting a shiver, and said: “This place is very wrong. There isn’t a single bird, and it’s cold. The temperature has dropped too much; I don’t think we should risk it.”
Before Tang Cuo could speak, An Ning voiced her objection: “We’ve already come this far, how can we turn back?”
Qian Wei was also freezing, and looking at the forest ahead made him a bit fearful, but An Ning was right—they had already come this far. Based on the usual style of missions, if Qu Li was still alive, she was most likely in the forest.
Whether dead or alive, they had to find her. Otherwise, everyone would be like headless flies, and this game would be unplayable.
“Brother Tang?” Qian Wei had already started using honorifics because this bro surnamed Tang, despite his face being frozen bloodless, was actually walking as fast as if he were flying, without a single shiver.
Tang Cuo didn’t speak, just kept walking forward.
Qian Wei and An Ning hurriedly kept up. Zhao Ping couldn’t very well go back alone. Seeing even a young girl like An Ning taking large strides forward, he fiercely wiped his nearly frozen face and struggled to keep up.
The wind and snow grew heavier.
Meanwhile, inside the youth hostel, the four-person stay-behind group was still discussing the hundred and one ways to kill Yingjun. Of course, strictly speaking, only Zhang Zhiqiu and Peng Mingfan were talking.
The two men didn’t hold much hope for Li Shuangshuang. As for Jin Cheng, the words “unsociable” were blatantly written on his face.
And the subject of their discussion, Li Yingjun, was currently sitting on a small folding stool at the kitchen door, eating noodles. Whenever someone looked over, he would give a good-natured smile.
This was already the third bowl of noodles he was eating.
Because of this, Peng Mingfan concluded: “Poisoning is the simplest.”
Zhang Zhiqiu nodded, but then said, “He can rise from the dead; will poisoning really kill him?”
“We won’t know until we try.”
“Do you have poison?”
Peng Mingfan really wanted to refute this sentence, but he did indeed have poison, so he just nodded without going into details. Yong Ye City’s props were varied; there were thousands of types of poisons alone, a blend of East and West, ancient and modern.
Prying into other people’s equipment is immoral and unwelcome. Zhang Zhiqiu wisely didn’t ask further, but he suggested: “Let Li Shuangshuang administer the poison. She’s a girl and can approach the waitress more easily, making it convenient to poison him. And since it’s just poisoning, she should be up to the task.”
Peng Mingfan didn’t speak.
Hearing this suggestion suddenly, Li Shuangshuang looked resistant and instinctively glanced at the door, but Zhao Ping and the others hadn’t returned yet. She really wanted to refuse because she had seen too many people die in the game from acting rashly. But Zhang Zhiqiu’s words seemed to make sense, and she couldn’t possibly do absolutely nothing and reap the rewards.
After a moment of silence, she gritted her teeth. Just as she was about to speak, she was interrupted by Peng Mingfan.
“Let’s not rush it,” Peng Mingfan pushed his glasses up. “What if she fails? Li Yingjun is the boss of this instance. If he goes berserk, there are only four of us here.”
Zhang Zhiqiu’s expression remained unchanged as he said, “I just think poisoning is much easier than engaging in combat. Asking Li Shuangshuang to do this isn’t harming her.”
Peng Mingfan offered no comment.
Li Shuangshuang was fraught with anxiety.
Jin Cheng was still doing his puzzle. He still felt that putting the puzzle together was more interesting. Occasionally, he would glance out the window, sighing about when Tang Cuo would return—it was quite boring.
At this moment, Tang Cuo was logging.
The chainsaw was running at maximum power. Amidst the roar, sawdust and snowflakes flew together. Qian Wei had never imagined that being a lumberjack could look so cool. Wielding the chainsaw with wide, sweeping motions, Tang Cuo finished with a kick. Crack. The severed tree trunk crashed down, scattering the white snow.
Tang Cuo’s expression remained unchanged.
If this game were just a lumberjack competition, Qian Wei sincerely wished it were so.
“Did you guys hear any sounds?” An Ning suddenly said.
“What sound?” Qian Wei and Zhao Ping both looked up. Tang Cuo was still inspecting the tree he had cut down. This entire forest was filled with this type of tree: black, twisted, and grotesque. Because it was cut with a chainsaw, the cross-section of the tree was very smooth, but it felt greasy to the touch. Once exposed to the air, it also emitted a faint, peculiar fragrance.
Tang Cuo placed his finger under his nose to sniff carefully, still unable to identify the scent, but without a doubt, this was the type of tree Li Yingjun chopped.
“There really is a sound!” Zhao Ping finally heard it, and soon Qian Wei also figured out what the sound was. The expressions on all three of them changed simultaneously. An Ning shouted: “It’s a bear! Climb a tree, quick!”
Fortunately, there were trees everywhere, and because they grew in strange shapes, the difficulty of climbing was drastically reduced. The three climbed up large trees in three different directions. Looking back, their hearts almost leaped out of their throats.
Two massive black bears, standing fully five or six meters tall on their hind legs, were charging straight towards them. If a tree blocked their way, they would snap it with a single swat. Wherever they passed, it was like a hurricane sweeping through, leaving nothing untouched.
Thud, thud, thud. The earth trembled. The black bears roared wildly, their bloody maws terrifying and chilling.
Run!!!
No need for bullshit; the three immediately abandoned the trees and fled. With bears this big and tall, climbing trees was completely useless; a few more rams and any tree would fall. However, only after fleeing did the three realize that the fierce guy who had chopped the tree had already run away long ago.
Why did you run so fast!
It’s all your fault for chopping the tree!
Bear Alpha and Bear Beta are both here!
Qian Wei roared internally. The howling wind cut his face like a knife. Hearing the increasingly closer bear roars, he hurriedly used his equipment—Zulijian Running Shoes.
These shoes actually had no special use other than making you run fast. With every step taken, the soles would light up and play music. The Top 100 Nostalgic Hits, take your pick.
“There’s already too much right and wrong in love, coming to a joyous occasion~”
Zhao Ping stumbled and almost fell flat on his face.
Fortunately, An Ning was passing by just in time and pulled him up. The two narrowly escaped from under the bear’s paw, glared fiercely at Qian Wei, and continued to run for their lives. An Ning seemed to be using a skill, leaping nimbly from one tree to the next in a curved path, but her speed was very fast.
Zhao Ping, on the other hand, was a bit more ragged. He didn’t have these life-saving techniques, but he had an ability.
Deep blue light gathered in Zhao Ping’s palm. The wind and snow swirled to form a large snowball, which was expanding rapidly. Zhao Ping gritted his teeth and exerted force while running. In the blink of an eye, he braked hard to steady his body, raised the snowball over his head with both hands, and smashed it backward.
“Bang!” The snowball hit one of the black bears, hindering it slightly. But the other black bear was still charging forward. It looked even angrier, letting out a long roar to the sky, which almost made Zhao Ping stumble again.
At this time, Tang Cuo had already fallen to the very back, which was also the reason why he ran first.
He was a rookie, a genuine rookie.
Fortunately, he was very good at fighting.
When the black bear roared and lunged over, Qian Wei and the others had just discovered Tang Cuo was at the back. Caught up in their shock, they simply had no time to rescue him. And at this critical moment, instead of retreating, Tang Cuo advanced. While running desperately without slowing down at all, he reached out to grab a tree trunk on his side, quickly rounded the tree to turn back, and then executed a low sliding tackle, sliding right between the black bear’s legs.
“Roar—” The black bear pounced, its force so great it directly swatted the tree down, but Tang Cuo had already arrived behind it.
“Cough, cough…” A mouthful of cold wind made Tang Cuo cough uncontrollably, his face turning slightly paler. But he didn’t delay for a moment, quickly getting up from the ground. While running, he took out a rope from his backpack, swiftly tied a loop, raised his hand, and threw it.
A direct hit on a half-exposed tree root protruding from the snow five meters away.
This lassoing skill left the other three dumbfounded. And right at this moment, the black bear counterattacked again. Tang Cuo also changed direction once more. In the instant the black bear lunged like lightning, he rolled to dodge without caring about his image, simultaneously pulling the rope in his hand tight with force.
Swish— The rope pulled taut instantly, perfectly tripping the black bear’s striding right leg.
Although the black bears were massive and fast, their movements were not agile. Judging from their posture of charging recklessly and only knowing how to lunge forward, their IQs weren’t very high either.
A small climbing rope might only be able to block it for a moment, but that one moment was enough.
Losing its balance, the black bear crashed to the ground. Furious, it bared its fangs at Tang Cuo, its paws swinging forcefully, almost scraping Tang Cuo’s face. In a few seconds, it would be able to get back up from the ground and tear this hateful human to pieces.
However, at this moment, a “brick” suddenly appeared in Tang Cuo’s hand—no, accurately speaking, it was a book. Taking advantage of the opening when the black bear opened its bloody maw to lunge at him, he viciously jammed it into its mouth.
“Arooo—” The hard corner of the book hit the inner wall of the oral cavity, instantly slicing a wound and lodging in its throat. This provoked the black bear into a frenzy, its eyes turning scarlet, its paws thrashing wildly. Tang Cuo, being too close, was swatted on the back by a paw, crashing into the snow five meters away.
“Cough, cough cough…” He coughed up blood as he moved, the bones in his entire body feeling like they were falling apart.
The other black bear arrived right at this moment.
“Brother Tang!” Fortunately, Qian Wei’s trio finally arrived albeit late. Each displaying their own abilities, they joined forces to block it. Meanwhile, the black bear with the Survival Report stuck in its throat was frantically stuffing its claws into its mouth, attempting to dig the report out.
Tang Cuo then raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
“Bang—!”
The black bear exploded. The deafening explosion almost drowned out the black bear’s agonized scream. Flesh and blood flew everywhere like snowflakes, and the shockwave from the explosion was strong enough to blow everyone away.
Tarot Card, The Magician, Fireball Spell.
Over a hundred small fireballs, hidden inside the Survival Report evaluation Tang Cuo had extorted from Zhang Xing, were compressed into a narrow space and detonated rapidly. It was simply perfect.
The only thing not perfect was Tang Cuo’s HP—5%.
Suggestion: Commit suicide immediately.
__
Author’s Note:
Yong Ye City’s strongest equipment—The Survival Evaluation Report.
