"Quite quick to arrive," the man with a crew cut remarked, stepping out of the bathtub after them, he walked to the corner of the room and gathered several small girls in his arms.
Tan Xinger only noticed another person then, and seeing the girl made her even more shocked. The girl, dressed in a green chiffon dress, looked to be barely ten years old. She waved at them with a smile, holding a bucket of ice cream in her arms.
Tan Xinger was taken aback. What was this combination?
"This is my sister Xiaoxiao. You can call me Abu. My sister has already helped you unlock the instance. No need to thank us," Abu said as he left with Xiaoxiao in his arms. Everyone watched them leave, all equally surprised.
Even after they were gone, the astonishment on Jiang Qiqi's face had not faded.
Tan Xinger surveyed the entire bathroom, which was spacious and modern, with a luxurious double bathtub bearing two footprints. On the side shelf were some toiletries.
Thinking of the sound of water in the audio, Tan Xinger walked to the sink and turned on the tap. The gushing water matched the sound she had heard.
Stepping back, her gaze fell on the vanity, noticing something missing. Only a glass vase remained on the bottom shelf.
The overlapping sounds of breaking and running water made her imagine a scene of struggle.
In this very bathroom, Kang Shu pushed the woman to the vanity. The glassware on it fell and shattered as he struck her with an object. When she tried to flee, he pushed her to the edge of the tub, choking her neck until she couldn't breathe, accidentally hitting the faucet in the struggle. The sound of water drowned out her cries for help.
The woman was slowly choked to death, her hands hanging limply until her body became stiff.
"After strangling the woman, Kang Shu went downstairs to find a knife, an axe, and other tools, then dismembered the body and hid the pieces separately," Gu Jingyong summarized the plot of the first audio clip.
Thinking of the sound of chopping bones, there must have been a tool similar to an axe. Then, there was the sound of water.
"Did you notice what the last sound of water was?" Tan Xinger felt it didn't sound like flowing water; the flow wasn't smooth enough, but she couldn't pinpoint it.
"What kind of person do you think Kang Shu is?" Gu Jingyong asked, looking at Tan Xinger with inquiry.
"A scholar in public, a devil in private," was Tan Xinger's first impression upon seeing Kang Shu.
"Perhaps it's more appropriate to describe him as a butcher now," Gu Jingyong's tone was light, but his words were chilling, reminding Tan Xinger that this was still a crime scene, sending shivers down her spine.
"A butcher slaughters, starting with cutting the throat," Gu Jingyong's words seemed to unveil the dark veil that had been covering her imagination. Tan Xinger almost instantly pictured the scene.
Kang Shu dragged the woman's body into the bathtub, then used the kitchen knife to cut her throat, maybe even directly decapitating her, watching as the blood slowly flowed out.
Drip, drip, drip.
It was hard to imagine that this pristine bathtub had once been filled with blood. The footprints left behind by Abu seemed to uncover the filth beneath the purity.
"Could there be body parts hidden here?" Jiang Qiqi looked around, but besides the vanity, there wasn't a suitable place to hide anything.
"If there were, Abu wouldn't have left so easily," Tan Xinger thought of Abu. Even if someone wanted to hide their true intentions, it was hard to avoid slipping up.
Just like Jiang Nan's attempt to create a friendly facade, but the feeling of wanting to push herself off the car didn't feel wrong.
Abu was the same. Seeing them approach, the ferocity he showed at first was quickly replaced by a feigned surprise.
Even when he went to hug Xiaoxiao, it was probably just to prove that their group had no ill intentions.
Tan Xinger had no time to sigh. Since the instance had been unlocked, the next step was to search the villa.
The three of Jiang Nan's group stood outside, seemingly waiting to reap the benefits. Seeing them leave, they also had no intention of entering and instead went downstairs before them.
"Shall we go to the third floor?" Tan Xinger suddenly remembered the NPC who had been stopped. No other players seemed to have gone up there yet, so it might be worth checking out.
"Sure," Gu Jingyong had no objections. Jiang Qiqi and Gao Xin naturally agreed. The four of them ascended the stairs.
The luxurious villa was spacious, and the third floor seemed noticeably quieter. The beautifully decorated corridor had three rooms in total, one of which was a bathroom, but upon inspection, there was nothing there.
Tan Xinger's target was the so-called "fishing room," and her intuition told her it was the last one. Pushing open the heavy wooden door, everything inside was clearly visible.
It turned out that the "fishing room" mentioned by Kang Shu was filled with things he used for fishing.
On one entire wall hung various types of fishing rods, while on another wall, shelves were filled with what seemed to be fish bait.
What caught everyone's curiosity was the three wooden barrels placed in the center of the room. They weren't very large, only knee-high, and were tightly covered with black cloth, emitting a pungent smell.
"Could there be body parts inside?" Jiang Qiqi was both shocked and scared, with a hint of excitement. If there were indeed body parts, that would be perfect.
Gu Jingyong took down a fishing rod from the wall and slowly uncovered the black cloth on the wooden barrel. As the cloth slipped off onto the ground, everyone nervously watched what was inside the barrel.
The stimulating sensation of hoping for body parts yet feeling disgusted overwhelmed everyone. Tan Xinger almost couldn't bear to look and averted her eyes at the last moment.
As it turned out, Tan Xinger avoiding looking was the right decision. The next moment, Jiang Qiqi's retching could be heard.
"Ew—"
Jiang Qiqi was both stimulated and disappointed at the same time.
"Darn it, why are there maggots!"
Maggots?
Tan Xinger supported Jiang Qiqi with one hand and mustered the courage to look into the barrel. By now, Gu Jingyong had already uncovered the next barrel.
Inside was a dark mass, squirming under the light, the wriggling of the maggots made Tan Xinger's skin crawl.
Tan Xinger hadn't expected to find countless live earthworms inside the barrel!
Surrounded by soil, the earthworms clung to each other, wriggling together. When they moved, their surface texture and skin stretched, almost causing Tan Xinger to gag the next moment.
The other two barrels contained a type of red worm, seemingly also used as bait for fishing. Dense and fine like strands of hair, just a few more seconds of looking would have made her vomit.
"So this guy doesn't like fish soup but likes fishing?" Tan Xinger finally managed to recover from her disgust, thinking of the conversation mentioned in the audio clip, she felt Kang Shu was a bit weird.
"Let's get out of here quickly. Not only is this disgusting, but it also stinks," Jiang Qiqi covered her nose. As long as the black cloth remained in place, the entire room would be filled with the smell from the barrels.
Tan Xinger didn't have the courage to look at the barrels again. Supporting each other with Jiang Qiqi, they were about to leave. But before they could take a step, they heard Gu Jingyong speak up.
"Wait, something's not right about this smell."
Gu Jingyong looked at the barrels with a stern expression. Tan Xinger was somewhat surprised to hear him mention the smell.
"The smell?"
"Cultivating earthworms and red worms requires soil and water, but the rotten smell inside doesn't resemble the scent of fermenting soil. It's more like the smell of a corpse."
As Gu Jingyong spoke, everyone incredulously looked at the barrels. Inside, the earthworms and red worms were crawling along the sides of the barrel, with several almost falling out.
"Are you saying the smell of a corpse means there are body parts inside?"
Tan Xinger found it hard to imagine that beneath those worms lay human corpses. Just thinking about it made her stomach churn, which she suppressed with a frown.
"Now that you mention it, these smells do seem a bit like the odor of decaying zombies," Jiang Qiqi said, invoking Tan Xinger's memory and sense of smell.
It did seem like there was a faint resemblance.
Gu Jingyong approached and used the fishing rod in his hand to clear away the layer of earthworms on the surface, revealing soil underneath.
He then exerted a bit more force and probed into the barrel, only to find it was just mud.
Next, he uncovered the red worms in the second barrel. The nail-sized red worms wriggled quickly, climbing up the fishing rod, only to be shaken off by Gu Jingyong.
In the second barrel, there was also only mud. The attention of everyone then turned to the third barrel. As Gu Jingyong lifted the red worms on top, what lay underneath slowly revealed itself.
Tan Xinger hadn't had a chance to see what was at the bottom when a blue light flashed, and a card floated in mid-air.
Gu Jingyong reached out and grabbed the card. The moment he touched it, an electronic broadcast sounded.
"Congratulations to player 54 for obtaining a fragment."
"You're 54!"
"So this is the fragment?"
Two distinctly different voices appeared in the room.
Tan Xinger looked at Jiang Qiqi, who wore a shocked expression, and even Gao Xin looked surprised as he glanced at Gu Jingyong.
When Tan Xinger's eyes met Gu Jingyong's calm gaze, it seemed as if she was the one who was trying to scare them.
"You don't know who he is?" Jiang Qiqi was shocked again, and Tan Xinger's puzzled expression was too obvious to ignore.
"He's Gu Jingyong."
"He's 54!"
"Who is 54 anyway?"
"54 is Gu Jingyong!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Let me explain."
Gao Xin couldn't stand it anymore and stepped forward, looking at Gu Jingyong before saying, "Player 54545, entering the top ten of the leaderboard with just three dungeons and then holding the top three positions for a long time. Some speculate that this player is the newly appointed president of the Western Association, but because we don't know the specific name, we use '54' to refer to him. There's another player in the top ten who only has a code name, which is—"
"Congratulations to player 45454 for obtaining a fragment."
"Oh my goodness!"
Jiang Qiqi suddenly exclaimed, her shocked face contorting in disbelief. Tan Xinger felt like her ideal image of Jiang Qiqi was shattered!
"Let's call that player '45.'"
Gao Xin finished the rest of his words.
Tan Xinger pursed her lips. So who could that person be?
"Could it be Jiang Nan? He's capable of controlling mental power, isn't he?" Jiang Qiqi said excitedly, looking a bit too enthusiastic.
"Jiang Qiqi, shouldn't you be worried right now?" Tan Xinger raised an eyebrow, implying something.
"Why?"
Jiang Qiqi didn't catch Tan Xinger's meaning.
"Because with such powerful players in the dungeon, our clearance rate will significantly decrease, won't it? Their little brothers have big brothers to guide them, but we can only rely on ourselves."
After Tan Xinger finished speaking, Jiang Qiqi slowly turned to look at Gu Jingyong, then back at Tan Xinger, her eyes seemingly sharp as knives.
Oh, almost forgot, she also has a big brother to guide her.