Chapter 34: The Poison Village 33

"It’s the seventh day of the instance, and we still haven’t found any clues." A player paced anxiously in a corner. "What exactly is the true name of the God of Gu..."

Zhou Zhou quickly perked up her ears. She clenched her hands, preparing to eavesdrop; the soundproofing in these dilapidated village huts was poor.

Although the players, emboldened by the fact that Zhou Shan had left and only a foolish NPC remained, didn't bother to lower their voices, the girl was still a fair distance away. She could only catch faint, indistinct fragments of their conversation.

*No, no, this won't do.*

Zhou Zhou hurriedly threw on her clothes and ran outside.

Thanks to her status as a fool and an NPC, none of the players were on guard against her. Even when she ran outside, no one paid her any mind. She crouched nearby, her beautiful little face blank, and continued to eavesdrop openly.

The players glanced at her. The girl was still impossibly beautiful, as if she didn't belong in a perilous horror instance, but rather in a castle from a fairy tale. Compared to her, they were like desperate vagrants.

This thought made their mood complex, yet they couldn't bring themselves to feel any malice toward her. She was just an innocent, pitiful NPC with a cognitive impairment.

"The Escape Game wouldn't give us an unsolvable problem," a female player with short hair muttered. "But we didn't find anything last night, and the instance Boss stayed with this girl all night; he never left."

"Is she the key to the instance?"

"I don't know." Another player looked at the woman, his voice steady. "The only thing we know for sure is that the God of Gu should have a pair of golden eyes."

"And that line of blood-red text beneath the giant python carved into the cave wall."

*Golden eyes...* Zhou Zhou gripped her fingers tightly. She thought of Zhou Shan, she thought of Ke Zhi... the giant python...

Everyone in the Gu village could be parasitized.

An incredible answer began to form in her mind.

"Hmm..." The short-haired female player fell silent for a moment. "What about the other villagers? Was there anything strange last night?"

"No."

The player's gaze suddenly went blank, and then he spoke loudly.

His tone was so categorical that it startled the woman. She looked directly into his eyes, her tone serious. "Are you sure? Or is it that you saw something but didn't pay attention to it?"

The player blinked. The woman's eyes were like a vortex. Under her gaze, he carefully recalled the events of the previous night, and his expression shifted.

"My memory had a lapse just now." He broke out in a cold sweat, his voice hoarse. "Yesterday, I saw... the villagers of the Gu village transporting Gu insects and the corpses of tourists."

"Large batches of corpses and dead insect carcasses were dragged to a blood-red cave entrance. It was carved with patterns I couldn't understand, as if they were trying to summon something... My head hurt more the longer I looked at it... and the villagers seemed to notice my presence..."

"I—I was so scared... I intended to tell you all as soon as I got back, but for some reason, my memory failed me, and I forgot all about it."

"It's fine."

The other players looked at him deeply, their eyes filled with caution and coldness. His mental stability must have plummeted significantly to have caused such a lapse.

"The pattern must have had some kind of mental pollution; it's normal that you forgot," someone said.

The atmosphere among the players grew quiet. Suddenly, someone spoke up, "We can't just sit here and wait for death, can we?"

"The instance Boss must have gone to that cave. If he really intends to summon the God of Gu, we should follow and see for ourselves, right?"

The person was right. Staying here wasn't a solution, and they couldn't turn back now. Even if they survived seven days, failing to complete the system's task and not knowing "His" true name would still mean death. It was hard to say which was more terrifying: dying in the instance or being erased by the system.

The players nodded and prepared to leave. No one paid any more attention to the NPC in the corner.

Zhou Zhou had heard enough. Putting on a show of being foolish to make her persona more convincing, she skipped over and pushed open the door to the room next to her.

The system watched expressionlessly. *You really have become a child.*

But the moment she entered the room, she wrinkled her beautiful face and twitched her nose. Zhou Zhou’s sense of smell had always been sharp, and she truly felt something was strange. And it was familiar, though she had always been in a daze...

After a brief moment of thought, she subconsciously avoided that line of reasoning.

*...Is it blood?*

Zhou Zhou's beautiful, lustrous eyes darted around, landing on a crumpled ball of paper on the table.

Seeing her reach out to take a look, the system was startled and spoke rapidly, *Don't open it!*

But it was too late; Zhou Zhou had already unfolded it.

A man's voice rang out behind her. "What are you doing?"

It was Chu Mingxiu.

Zhou Zhou was startled, and her hand subconsciously loosened, causing the paper ball to drop to the floor.

When Chu Mingxiu saw the paper ball that had been curled up now lying open, his expression finally changed. His features were exquisite, his jawline sharp and pointed like a blade. At this moment, his dense eyelashes trembled, carrying a cold, icy edge.

His voice was uncontrollably strained. "...You were holding that?"

He had just stepped out for a moment, and upon returning to the door, he had sensed someone inside. The aura was so sweet, carrying a faint, delicate, and seductive vitality. It was the scent of the girl who had kept him awake all night.

Chu Mingxiu had pushed open the door, and sure enough, it was Zhou Zhou. However, she had been standing with her back to him, acting furtively, and he had asked a casual question, never expecting her to be holding *that* thing.

"Do you know what that is?"

The expression on the man's face was complex and obscure. He stared at her with a look Zhou Zhou couldn't decipher, filled with an emotion that made her uneasy. It was as if some thick, viscous desire had been suppressed to its limit; his eyes were like those of a fierce and beautiful beast.

"I—I don't know..."

Zhou Zhou lied subconsciously; her intuition told her not to say those words.

Chu Mingxiu didn't know whether to believe her or not, but he let out a soft chuckle.

"You'll know soon enough."

The girl’s body began to tremble.

*Zhou Zhou, don't be afraid,* the system said coldly. *Run—run out the door.*

Zhou Zhou finally showed some wit. Realizing what a terrifying action she had just committed, she followed the system's advice and bolted toward the door.

But she was grabbed.

"What are you running for?"

Chu Mingxiu's cold eyes fell on the girl with what could almost be called greed.

"Didn't you like my room? Sneaking in while I wasn't looking..."

"...And you dared to wave that thing in front of me... do you really not know, or are you just pretending not to?"

"I—I really don't know..."

Zhou Zhou refused to admit it, her voice trembling. Her face had turned deathly pale.

"Oh," Chu Mingxiu’s lips curled up, a rare sight. "Then be a good girl, and you might suffer less."

"After all... my things,"

"You might not be able to handle them."

Zhou Zhou instinctively flushed red. "?"

*What do you mean?*

The system sighed. *...Ignore him, just go.*

Zhou Zhou obediently followed instructions.

"Move aside. I just accidentally ran in..."

She steadied her voice, trying to sound cold and firm. Ignoring the trace of surprise in the man’s eyes, she shook off his hand and ran quickly toward the door.

"...Don't try to stop me!"

"You say don't, so I won't?"

Chu Mingxiu picked her up by the waist, his voice hoarse.

"You aren't going anywhere."