Players, Please Board the Train

Chapter 236: The situation is on the verge of breaking out

Actually, he had seen Deng Yu fiddling with that group photo before. When he got up today, he discovered that the painting Da Xiong had torn was also gone. Moreover, when the first prompt sounded last night, he indeed saw a man's figure returning to the right corridor, but he didn't see which room he entered.

So even though he didn't know how the fake painting appeared, his intuition told him that the two missing people and the two vanished paintings were related. That's why he incited Li Weiran to take the sketch, but he never expected Li Weiran wouldn't take the bait!

He hadn't cleared the stage and couldn't leave the dungeon. If he didn't come up with something substantial soon, he would die here!

"It's Xu San!" he shouted loudly. "Actually, I noticed he was acting strange yesterday! During the day yesterday when we were looking at paintings with Da Xiong, he kept staring at the painting 'Silent Umbrella' in front. I secretly observed it today and discovered that painting is actually moving!"

"He must have noticed something. He was definitely one of those who cleared last night!"

"Didn't Gao Jun also say he came out last night?"

"That still doesn't prove you're not one of the players who cleared," the Gloomy Man said. "The first announcement and Pan Siming's death are definitely connected to you."

"Absolutely not me!" Fan Shiji swore vehemently. "If I had successfully cleared, there would be no reason for me to stay! If you don't believe me, go look—that 'Silent Umbrella' painting really moves!"

Gao Jun seemed somewhat swayed. "Indeed, during the second announcement, Xu San should have been outside."

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. This Gao Jun had no idea whether he had gone out or not, otherwise he wouldn't have said that Xu Huo was outside during the game announcement."I never went out," Xu Huo denied. "Fan Shiji killing Pan Siming is right before your eyes. How can you believe his words?"

"Whether you believe it or not, why not just go check?" Fan Shiji immediately countered. "Although I have items, that doesn't prove other players don't have similar items."

"Just excuses!" Li Weiran said coldly, addressing the others. "I don't trust him. No matter what you think, I'm determined to kill this person!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Fan Shiji suddenly flung out steel wires that caught on a door barrier post. Seizing the opportunity, he swung over the players' heads and landed directly in front of the paintings. Turning back to the players chasing after him, he said, "If you don't believe me, you can..."

But before he could finish his sentence, the Gloomy Man suddenly struck, kicking him backward!

"Smack!" Fan Shiji crashed into "Silent Umbrella," but he fell to the ground along with the painting frame!

The one who attacked was the Gloomy Man. Li Weiran behind him, and further back Gao Jun and Xu Huo all showed varying degrees of surprise, but they quickly regained their composure because the monsters in the art gallery had awakened again!

The first to be attacked were Xu Huo and Xie Man, who were standing at the back.

"The painting got damaged, and the monsters appeared again!" Xie Man shouted. "What should we do?"

"Back to the rooms," Xu Huo said. He had basically figured out the monster's behavior patterns. If paintings were damaged during the day, it would knock on doors and kill people at night. If it absorbed players and turned them into counterfeits, it would go berserk in the exhibition hall. And just earlier, when he completed the second task by restoring a counterfeit to a genuine piece, it suddenly quieted down. Now that Fan Shiji had damaged another painting, it awakened again.

Whether it killed indiscriminately or specifically targeted Fan Shiji who had damaged paintings twice, the exhibition hall was no longer safe. There was no point in staying any longer!

Ni Tian followed him. "That's it?" She hadn't even passed the first stage yet!

Xu Huo completely ignored her. He had already tried—players couldn't be absorbed into blank paper to become new paintings. Therefore, he had no ideas about the third task [Create a Collection Piece] for now, and could only focus on surviving the current situation first.

Pointing casually at the wall, the Painting Woman who had been lingering in the exhibition hall flew over and scurried along the wall up to the dome ceiling.

On the other side, the monster attacked the other players. Gao Jun, seeing the sculpture covering cloth that had shortened by half, suddenly realized: "This monster transformed from a statue!"

The Gloomy Man was beaten to his knees by the monster's cane, and the paper fan in his hand was torn. Gritting his teeth, he let go and threw himself to the side, then scrambled and crawled toward the corridor to escape!

Under the monster's assault, no one could spare attention for Fan Shiji. After Gao Jun and the others fled, Fan Shiji also seized the opportunity to run toward the right corridor. However, Li Weiran was close behind him!

Li Weiran had been tricked into a painting before. She clearly understood that these paintings could consume people. The moment she was pulled out of the painting, she had roughly guessed how the fake paintings came to be. Though she found it strange that Fan Shiji wasn't pulled into the painting earlier, this only proved that not every painting consumed people. She couldn't be sure about other paintings, but that sketch definitely could!

Fan Shiji was fleeing for his life when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg. He fell forward, then felt his other leg being pulled up. Looking back and seeing Li Weiran standing behind him, he screamed, "I'm not Extra!"

Li Weiran pressed his leg into the sketch on the ground. As one leg was consumed, his entire body began to sink in...

[Congratulations to player Graveyard Dancing for finding a counterfeit and completing the dungeon's first task.]

The few people running ahead turned back in surprise. Seeing Li Weiran alone at the back, Gao Jun and the Gloomy Man simultaneously changed course and ran toward the right corridor, while Lu Gang still returned to the left side.

The sculpture monster that had been chasing players began wildly smashing things in the room again after the counterfeit appeared.

Li Weiran was the last to reach the corridor. When she arrived, she saw Lu Gang carrying You Huanhuan's corpse back into the exhibition hall.

No announcement sounded. A few seconds later, Lu Gang opened the first room on the right and said to the people inside, "Dead people don't work."

Inside the room, the remaining seven players were all present.

"Fan Shiji might have killed Pan Siming, but he wasn't one of the players who cleared," Li Weiran said first. "'Concealer' and 'Extra' are still among us."

At this point, everyone present basically understood how to complete the first stage, and they each had their guesses about the identities of the three players who cleared. Although they couldn't be one hundred percent certain, with only seven people left, it was almost clear who they were.

Currently leading in progress was Xu Huo, having completed two tasks, with the third task unlocked.

Next were "Concealer" Gao Jun and "Graveyard Dancing" Li Weiran, having completed one task each, with their second tasks unlocked.

The Gloomy Man, Xie Man, Ni Tian, and even Lu Gang who just tried using a corpse, had not yet passed the first task.

Xu Huo looked over these six people. Gao Jun was undoubtedly the "Concealer." Although both he and Li Weiran had completed the first task, probably only Li Weiran knew the method to pass the second task.

The Gloomy Man suddenly attacking and pushing Fan Shiji into the painting proved he had already figured out the first task. Subsequently, Lu Gang also understood, which is why he found You Huanhuan's corpse after Li Weiran.

As for Xie Man and Ni Tian, the former seemed to have guessed his identity, while the latter had noticed his pushing action earlier and looked at him with more wariness than the others.

The seven people were scattered in different positions around the room, the situation ready to explode at any moment!