Before entering the game, all players believed that in the face of life-and-death horror threats, everyone was equal.
No matter how rich or beautiful one was in reality, or how high one stood in the social hierarchy, it had nothing to do with the game.
On the contrary, personal primal advantages such as physical strength, intelligence, courage, and the ability to maintain clear judgment in the face of fear were the essential requirements for clearing the game.
However, at this moment, several players could only regret that their parents hadn’t given them a better face.
How long had it been? From the afternoon they entered the game until now, it had barely been twelve hours. This guy had flirted around so much that even ghosts were tempted, and he actually managed to ask for favors during the life-and-death segment at night?
Faced with Lu Qingjia, who had indeed saved them once but whose methods were suffocating, the players wore expressions of astonished awkwardness—
The bespectacled player said, “Dude, I want to learn too. Is there a sign-up channel?”
Now that the female ghost had left, the atmosphere relaxed a bit, and the speed at which this bespectacled player had fled was met with disdain.
A female player scoffed, “Come on, the same words from a handsome guy and from you, a loser, are not the same thing.”
“Yeah, if I were the female ghost, I wouldn’t look at a coward who pulls up his pants and runs away.”
“Bro, just forget it, okay? You can learn the tricks, but can you talk to a female ghost without wetting your pants?”
After this round of ridicule, the bespectacled player couldn’t lift his head. The small group that had previously subtly followed him immediately turned their backs and gathered around Lu Qingjia, trying to curry favor.
Lu Qingjia’s ability to clear the game had completely convinced everyone; at least his ability to appease the female ghost was enough for them to flatter him.
Lu Qingjia didn’t expect these players to be of much use, but he did ask them to spread out during the day starting tomorrow to observe every move in the villa.
Although he had already confirmed that the key to the chain reaction was likely with Manager Hao, the details would only become clear with time.
After sending a few players back to their rooms to rest, they asked Lu Qingjia to arrange another room for them since their previous one had just been haunted. Lu Qingjia agreed.
The atmosphere in the restaurant the next morning was very oppressive; most people looked dispirited, eating breakfast in a daze.
At this moment, the blizzard had sealed off the mountain, turning the entire villa into an island. The already unsettling environment had now resulted in a death, leaving few people able to remain unconcerned.
After breakfast, many people had no desire to entertain themselves outside and mostly returned to their rooms to catch up on sleep, making the entire villa eerily quiet.
Lu Qingjia hadn’t slept much the night before; although he felt fine, he didn’t plan to overextend his energy. Plus, with him watching from the side, certain private transactions couldn’t proceed, so he also returned to his room.
When he woke up, it was already noon. The restaurant should have been serving lunch, but when Lu Qingjia came down, the staff were just starting to set the tables, and the kitchen had only just begun cooking.
He raised an eyebrow and called over a staff member, saying, “What’s going on? The guests hardly left their rooms this morning; it shouldn’t take this long to serve lunch, right?”
The female staff member, upon seeing Lu Qingjia, looked as if she had found her anchor and said with grievance, “It’s Manager Hao. This morning, he suddenly called everyone together, saying that a guest’s valuable items were stolen from Room XX, and it had a very bad impact, so he’s questioning everyone one by one.”
“There weren’t many guests outside this morning, right? Everyone was free and basically knew where everyone was. During the time Manager Hao was asking, everyone had alibis in other places, except for Xiaomei, who stammered and couldn’t explain, so she was taken away by Manager Hao, which is why it’s delayed until now.”
After hearing this, a schadenfreude voice appeared in Lu Qingjia’s mind: [Ha! You missed quite a bit of the plot while you were sleeping, didn’t you?]
Lu Qingjia smiled, finally understanding why, as the boss of a horror game, everyone liked to bully it. It was just so stupid to bump into him; how could he not take advantage of it?
He conversed with the game in his mind: “Isn’t Room XX the one where that Manager Hao sneaked out in the middle of the night last night? That room seemed empty to us players.”
“But think about it, even if they were a couple, they couldn’t let someone lie in bed with a corpse, right? The hotel, aside from moving other frightened guests to different floors, would definitely have to arrange a new room for Mrs. Li’s husband.”
“Mrs. Li’s husband isn’t part of this cycle; he’s out there enjoying life. So if that room had someone in it back then, it’s clear who was living there.”
“Last night, I casually bluffed and probably made it clear to Manager Hao that he knew the truth behind Mrs. Li’s death, but he chose not to expose Mrs. Li’s husband and instead kept it hidden, opting to negotiate with him behind the scenes.”
“What he’s planning is obvious; that guy intends to extort some money, so naturally, he wouldn’t care about possibly losing his job after the blizzard stops.”
“However, I’m sure the two didn’t reach an agreement last night; otherwise, things would have ended at this point and wouldn’t have affected everyone. So I put pressure on Manager Hao, and with his guilty conscience, he naturally had to avoid me to continue bargaining with Mrs. Li’s husband. That’s when the unexpected happened.”
“So—it’s not that I woke up to find the situation out of control, but rather that I slept to allow the game progress to reach 80%.”
After saying this, Lu Qingjia couldn’t help but mock, “Hey? I thought as an all-powerful god, my thoughts should have been anticipated by you long ago. Turns out you’re so slow?”
The thrill of mocking the newcomer hadn’t lasted two seconds before it was met with a counterattack, and after being ridiculed for his integrity, he was also mocked for his intelligence.
Although this wasn’t the first time, it still made him furious, his fur bristling, and his blood boiling.
He wanted to say something harsh but felt that arguing with a newbie was beneath him—mainly because he was afraid he wouldn’t win, so he could only sulk away.
Manager Hao had taken away the female staff member named Xiaomei, and evidently, during their bargaining, she had accidentally overheard some deadly information.
The female staff member was aware of this, so she hurriedly fled to avoid being recognized by Manager Hao immediately, needing to find an excuse to expose it.
Lu Qingjia recalled that employee; she was a shy, introverted room service staff member, and according to the information, she was from a nearby rural area with a low education level. It wasn’t easy for her to find this job.
Lu Qingjia signaled the staff to continue preparing lunch and went to Manager Hao’s office.
Unlike the staff dormitory on the lower floors, the management offices were on the top floor. Manager Hao, having been the boss here, naturally had his own separate office.
Lu Qingjia knocked on the door but received no response. He tried to open the door but found it locked from the inside.
Someone was inside!
Lu Qingjia smirked, knocking on the door repeatedly, his voice haunting—
“Manager Hao, are you there? Manager Hao? If you are, open the door. Manager Hao, the restaurant is short-staffed; are you sure you want to hide in your office?”
His knocks echoed like a debt collector, making the person inside feel their heart racing and sweat pouring down.
After an unknown amount of time, Lu Qingjia finally seemed to confirm that there was no one inside and stopped knocking, leaving the top floor.
The atmosphere in the restaurant was slightly better than in the morning. To soothe the guests’ emotions, Lu Qingjia specifically had the kitchen upgrade the quality of the meals.
After lunch, guests finally began to come out for leisure activities.
Around two in the afternoon, Lu Qingjia finally saw Manager Hao again.
With a half-smile, he said, “Manager Hao, your healthy work routine, no matter how busy it is outside, doesn’t interfere with your afternoon nap.”
Manager Hao smiled awkwardly, “Wasn’t it the commotion from last night? I took a nap and ended up sleeping.”
Lu Qingjia continued, “I just went to your office to find you, but the door was locked. Were you inside at that time?”
“No, no!” Manager Hao hurriedly replied, “It must be that the lock is broken.”
“Hey, we’ve reported quite a few things for repair, and the maintenance department has been dragging their feet. If that bathroom door hadn’t been broken, that kind of accident wouldn’t have happened.”
Lu Qingjia nodded, noncommittal, “I think it’s still too early to conclude it was an accidental death.”
“What do you mean?” Manager Hao’s face grew increasingly unnatural.
“The cleaning solution that was just replaced half a month ago might have reacted with the one the guest brought, the bathroom door lock happened to be broken and couldn’t be opened from the inside, and Mrs. Li wouldn’t have touched the hotel cleaning solution, which was knocked over, while her husband was at the bar, leaving poor Mrs. Li to call for help in vain.”
“So many coincidences happening at once, statistically speaking, it’s probably comparable to winning five million in the lottery, right?”
Lu Qingjia patted Manager Hao’s shoulder, sensing his stiff body, and smiled slightly, “Of course, as long as the probability isn’t zero, even the smallest chance can happen.”
“However, in the spirit of rigor, I believe it will still be necessary to inform the police of this line of thought.”
Manager Hao’s face turned pale, and he seemed dazed, as if something that was once within reach had not only become convoluted but was now likely to turn into a mirage.
His gaze towards Lu Qingjia darkened, but he heard the other say, “Oh? Did what I just say offend Manager Hao?”
“You look like you’re contemplating killing me right now.”
Seeing Manager Hao’s face twist in discomfort, Lu Qingjia patted his shoulder again, “Just kidding; after all, Manager Hao is only negligent in the supply area, it’s not such a heavy burden.”
“Hahaha, you must not have had lunch yet. I had the kitchen save some for you; go on.”
“Okay, okay!” Manager Hao almost stumbled away from Lu Qingjia, glancing back at him around the corner, his eyes already filled with murderous intent.
But the day didn’t pass peacefully. Before dinner, a guest’s child mischievously opened a window, and when the guest went to close it, they discovered something human-shaped on the ground outside.
Several male staff members braved the snow to bring the thing inside, only to find it was the employee named Xiaomei, who had been called away by Manager Hao in the morning.
She now resembled an ice sculpture, her hair, eyelashes, and face covered in ice shards, with blood on the back of her head, as if she had fallen down the stairs and cracked her skull.
Several guests in the nearby rooms gasped and covered their mouths, saying, “I heard a few cries in my room before lunch, but at that time, I thought it was the sound of the blizzard.”
“So someone fell down?”
This meant that the person had been frozen to death in agony.
In an instant, a suffocating emotion enveloped the entire villa, and several people who had clearly heard some sounds but thought they were imagining things suddenly broke down.
At this moment, the situation in the villa had, in a sense, spiraled out of control.
