Chapter 233: Someone Else Was Killing

All the players present were stunned. You Huanhuan stared at the towering man in front of her, shocked. “Impossible... you can’t...”

But Lu Gang obviously didn’t want to hear the rest. He clamped his hand around her throat and slammed her hard onto the floor!

The sound of bone hitting tile was unmistakable. You Huanhuan’s jaw dislocated, yet she instantly grabbed his arm with both hands, twisted hard, tore his grip away, flipped him over, and thrust two fingers toward his eyes!

“I knew you were trouble!” Gao Jun, nearby, kicked her hand aside and tossed out a red bouncing ball. When it hit the ground it sprang up and shot ropes in all directions. The moment the ropes touched You Huanhuan they bound her tightly!

“Those damn gadgets again!” Using arms and legs, You Huanhuan tore the ropes apart one after another!

Gao Jun’s expression changed; he instinctively retreated. But You Huanhuan seemed to have found his weakness. She leapt off Lu Gang, using the hand that exposed the knuckles to jab at his throat!

Gao Jun failed to dodge; his neck was grazed. He swung a short blade with his other hand. Judging by the distance, it wasn’t meant to kill You Huanhuan, but as she tilted backward that short blade suddenly elongated—the newly grown edge sliced the top of her head, shearing off a layer of hair!

She had dodged the fatal blow—partly because You Huanhuan reacted quickly, but more because of her short stature: a small bend of the knees was enough to avert death. Seeing her hair fall, her features contorted into a feral snarl!

Gao Jun sensed danger and pulled back at once, but You Huanhuan kicked his knee. His inertia threw him forward; he twisted violently to the side but still couldn’t avoid her. At that moment a kitchen knife flew in from behind, forcing You Huanhuan to dodge aside!

Gao Jun immediately scrambled behind a pillar. You Huanhuan was forced onto the central line of the gallery, surrounded by Fan Shiji and Li Weiran and the others who had thrown the knife!

“So many of you ganging up on me, resorting to ambushes and dirty tricks—how dare you, you big men!” You Huanhuan backed away cautiously.

“Player-Eaters stopped being human the moment they started eating people. They’re worse than beasts. Don’t talk to me about honor,” Li Weiran charged forward first. She opened up a pair of huge scissors, splitting the tool into two halves, each hand wielding a half, spinning and slashing. Instantly, You Huanhuan’s fighting space shrank!

At the same time, the Gloomy Man, Xie Man, Fan Shiji, and Xu Huo circled from both sides. Trapped, You Huanhuan had no choice but to flee toward the museum entrance—only to be cut off by Lu Gang jumping out from the front-left and blocking her with a kick!

Li Weiran’s giant scissors slashed into You Huanhuan’s leg. She crouched and had nowhere to dodge as Lu Gang stamped her in the face. As she toppled backwards, he pinned her legs!

Li Weiran closed the scissors and cut off You Huanhuan’s left arm. Fan Shiji stomped and snapped her right arm. Before a scream could escape, Lu Gang raised his blade and plunged it in a dozen times!

In mere seconds, You Huanhuan’s thighs, chest, and abdomen were full of bloody holes. She spit blood-foam from her mouth, utterly powerless, lying on the floor. But Lu Gang wasn’t satisfied—he stood, moved forward, and stamped her head, foot after foot, until her facial bones shattered and her face blurred beyond recognition!

A pool of unidentifiable liquid spread across the tiles, and no other players stepped forward.

“This guy is a bit off,” Fan Shiji murmured.

Xu Huo thought it all looked perfectly deliberate. Lu Gang had been restrained by You Huanhuan; now that players had intervened, how could he miss this chance for revenge?

Previously, every time Lu Gang lost his temper in the gallery, You Huanhuan did a little tug on her clothes—this must have been a signal to him. But You Huanhuan clearly hadn’t expected this big man to be playing dumb.

After a while Lu Gang finally stopped. He scraped his shoe on the floor beside the body and spat on the fallen woman. At this point You Huanhuan’s head had been pulverized into a smear; it no longer resembled a human head.

“You Huanhuan cut out my tongue and forced me to join dungeon runs,” Lu Gang read from the text he typed into his phone. “I’m a normal person; I had to pretend to be mentally deficient.”

Everyone fell silent for a moment. Lu Gang added, “If you hadn’t helped, I couldn’t have escaped her. I have no grudge against you. To show my thanks I’ll tell you one thing.”

“Pan Siming didn’t get killed by You Huanhuan. Last night she didn’t open her door. Someone else was the killer.”

Killing one Player-Eater deserved a small celebration, but Lu Gang’s claim that You Huanhuan wasn’t the murderer put everyone back on edge.

“You’re lying,” Fan Shiji challenged. “You Huanhuan is a Player-Eater—of course you’d say that to save yourself.”

Lu Gang tugged at his clothes to reveal a black number on his shoulder.

“Numbers can be faked,” Ni Tian immediately said. “Who knows if you’ve used a color-changing item? What if you change your own color and then change someone else’s? You could pin it on anyone.”

Lu Gang bristled with anger. “Is there such a gadget?”

“Not seeing it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist!” Ni Tian stepped back. “Better to keep some distance from you.”

Lu Gang opened his mouth, then typed quickly on his phone. “I have evidence.”

He played a video—footage of the two of them alone. They’d returned to their rooms early, so when the monster knocked they were already in bed. The video captured noises next door, the monster passing their door twice, and clear sounds of doors opening and closing.

That evidence did prove he wasn’t lying. The viewers, however, had a single thought: the monster is right outside—and you lot aren’t in a hurry to find the paintings; you have time for a leisurely debate.

“You Huanhuan is very strong in combat. I’d be no match for her one-on-one. She planned to wait until the last two days to pick the peaches—meaning once someone cleared a dungeon she could take their train ticket and return ticket. Where she went didn’t matter,” Lu Gang added.

That made sense.

“So who actually ate people?” Xie Man scanned the companions who’d just fought together and fell into puzzled suspicion.

Excluding You Huanhuan and Lu Gang, the only one left was Fan Shiji.

“You’re not going to suspect me, are you!” Fan Shiji cried, pulling open his collar in panic. “I’m a White Player—look!”

“White Players can still eat people,” Ni Tian said suddenly. “Honestly, judging someone by their number to determine whether they’re good or evil is totally unreliable. Some players became Red Players because they ate people during their initial evolution in a confused state. After regaining clarity, they could survive by eating corpses. I’ve also seen Black Players who were mixed in with Player-Eaters.”

“Why would they eat people?” Xie Man couldn’t believe it. “Ordinary Players have evolution agents. There’s no need to boost evolution rate that way, right?”