Let's give space a touch of Chinese horror!

Chapter 25, Fifth Corpse

Splash... splash...

The recurring sound of water coldly pounded against the tense nerves of everyone present.

In the end, Tian Baiwei calmed down first and found her voice: "Let's... let's get the person out first..." At least, that would stop the strange sound of water.

Surprisingly, Yan Junchi didn't object to Tian Baiwei's suggestion; he silently stepped forward. Gao Yang, however, swallowed hard, his expression showing some resistance.

"This, this isn't really necessary, is it..." Gao Yang's voice was hoarse. "It's fine to let Fang Haoyu stay in that water tank, isn't it?" The main reason was that he really didn't want to go near the central water tank, nor did he want to move that strange-looking corpse.

Anyway, this is a game, the corpse will be... it should be refreshed soon.

"You know this is a game..." Tian Baiwei rolled up her sleeves. "Then what are you afraid of?"

Moreover, precisely because this is a game, and the corpse might be refreshed, they need to hurry up and get the corpse out to investigate what exactly happened to Fang Haoyu.

Having no other choice, Gao Yang staggered to the water vat. Avoiding the viscous "water," they grabbed Fang Haoyu's soaked collar and sleeves and carefully "lifted" him out of the vat.

The clothes were damp, cold, and slippery; even through the fabric, one could feel the stiffness and coldness of the body below. Blood slowly dripped from Fang Haoyu's body, carrying a strong, pungent odor that made everyone frown uncomfortably.

Tian Baiwei suddenly regretted suggesting that the game developers add the sense of smell. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to smell anything right now, and they wouldn't be feeling so suffocated.

Finally, after much difficulty, they managed to pull the person out of the water...

"Isn't this weight... a bit off?"

Only after Fang Haoyu's body was completely out of the water did Tian Baiwei's brows furrow even more.

So light...

It didn't feel like it was supporting the body of an adult male; it felt more like it was supporting a hollow plastic doll, making the whole thing seem light and airy.

"It's probably because the blood has dried up," Geng Yao guessed from the side. "Let's check where the wound is..."

The body was laid flat on the muddy ground to the side.

Without the blood concealing his appearance, Fang Haoyu's condition was clearly visible. However, one question remained: "Where is the wound?"

Fang Haoyu's clothes were completely undamaged, and his exposed skin was deathly pale, but there were no visible wounds. Yan Junchi and Gao Yang even pulled open his clothes to examine him.

There was no disembowelment, no puncture wounds, no strangulation marks, no signs of violence... not even a scratch or bruise.

"There are no wounds... but it's bled dry?"

"How could this happen?"

This conclusion was even more terrifying than seeing Fang Haoyu's corpse floating on its own in a water tank. At this point, no one even considered whether it was a bug in the game.

Yan Junchi's brow remained furrowed: "I'll go ask Fang Haoyu what exactly happened on his end..."

Fang Haoyu had definitely logged off (in the game), but that didn't matter. He could contact Fang Haoyu outside the game and ask him what had happened. He dragged out the game interface and clicked "Exit Game".

A pop-up message appeared:

[Friendly reminder: Each game can only be played once. Your game progress will not be saved after exiting the game.]

Are you sure you want to exit the game?

【whether】

"I can't save my game?!"

Yan Junchi looked at the notification box and wanted to curse "trash game" again.

In other words, once he quits the game, it's as if he's "dead" in that game; even if he re-enters the game, he'll be starting a new game and won't be able to re-enter the game that Tian Baiwei and the others were playing.

He originally came here with a group to mock Tian Baiwei, so what's the point of him creating a separate (game) file to play by himself?

Yan Junchi could only close the game interface. Just as he was about to tell the others about this, he saw Geng Yao and Tian Baiwei holding a bamboo pole, standing around the water vat where Fang Haoyu's body was, stirring something in the water vat.

"What are you doing?"

Geng Yao turned around briefly: "Oh, are we checking if there's anything else in this tank?" She was genuinely curious about why Fang Haoyu's body was floating in the water.

Unfortunately, all they found was a piece of red cloth—the same one that had been covering Fang Haoyu's body before, the surface of which had been pushed aside by Yan Junchi, but a large part of it was still submerged in the water vat—and nothing else inside.

"Since we can't ask Fang Haoyu, what should we do next?" Gao Yang asked.

"There shouldn't be any other clues here..." Geng Yao raised the bamboo pole in her hand, making it easier for Tian Baiwei to pull the red cloth still soaking in the water vat out and wring it dry. She said, "Let's go back after Baiwei puts the cloth away..."

"What are you doing with that thing?" Gao Yang asked, his face showing disgust as he saw Tian Baiwei wringing out cloth with blood dripping from her hands.

"Take the red cloth..." Tian Baiwei said matter-of-factly. "Didn't the note the village chief gave us say we needed to prepare red cloth?"

"Then why did you have to choose this particular area?!"

Gao Yang just thought Tian Baiwei was out of her mind. There were so many red cloths next to the water vat, yet she chose the one that had wrapped Fang Haoyu's corpse. Even if this was a game, Fang Haoyu's corpse was just data, and it was... well, really unlucky, okay?

Tian Baiwei rolled her eyes: "I don't live in the same room as you, and I can't put it in your room, so why do you care which one I choose?"

Gao Yang was speechless after being rebuked and could only shut his mouth awkwardly.

The group returned to their lodgings in the dark.

However, when Tian Baiwei passed by the house where three—no, now two—boys lived, she kindly suggested, "Why don't you change houses?"

She raised her chin and pointed to the wooden box on the table in Yan Junchi's room, "That thing is a bit dangerous. There are other empty rooms nearby, you can choose another room without a box..."

Before she could finish speaking, Yan Junchi interrupted her rudely, "There's no need!"

He was already annoyed because Fang Haoyu died and was kicked out of the game for the first time, feeling that Fang Haoyu had embarrassed him. Now, hearing Tian Baiwei's words, he felt even more that Tian Baiwei was taking the opportunity to mock them for being useless.

"It's just a box."

He looked down at Tian Baiwei, as if mocking her cowardice: "How dangerous can it be..."

"Okay." Tian Baiwei smiled slightly and didn't argue with him.

Perfect timing! She wanted to see what would happen if someone actually stayed overnight in a room with boxes. Now that some fool was willing to be a guinea pig despite all the advice, she was more than happy to agree.

She took Geng Yao and Liang Lexuan back to the room she had carefully chosen, a room without any boxes, and ignored those two self-righteous fools.

"Two idiots—no, I mean, Yan Junchi snorted coldly as he watched Tian Baiwei's retreating figure, then raised his chin and went into the house with Gao Yang."

The game's "night" wasn't meant for players to actually sleep in the game. But Yan Junchi genuinely didn't expect that after everything that had happened, he would actually fall asleep in the game.

When he opened his eyes, it was already the morning of the next day, and it was quite bright outside.

"What time is it?"

Yan Junchi rubbed his temples and subconsciously asked Gao Yang, who was sleeping next to him.

The room was quiet, without any response.

"Gaoyang?"

Yan Junchi looked at himself with some confusion. He turned his head to look at his side.

Then, without warning, he met a face with wide-open, unseeing eyes.