Chapter 23: The Child

"If there is a real person pulling the strings behind the scenes," Yang Liuqing said, "what could possibly be so special about a little boy to them?"

"Perhaps they harbor a deep hatred for him."

Yang Liuqing smiled faintly. "There are plenty of hateful people in this village. If a group of people singled him out for such intense hatred, there must be a specific reason."

Shen Si added, "And we have proof that the River God is a fraud."

"What proof?"

"The River God appeared by the bridge on the same day the deaths occurred at the temple. If that’s the case, the River God by the bridge is likely in league with the child who committed the murders at the temple."

Yang Liuqing mused, "If so, their numbers seem a bit high. You’d need one group to carry out the murders at the temple and another to play-act as gods by the river. Where would they find so many children?"

"Children?!"

An old woman shrieked, "You saw children at the temple?"

Liang Dan and the others rushed over. Liang Dan asked urgently, "Is your child missing?"

The old woman wept bitterly, "Many children have gone missing in our village, so many girls! My granddaughter is gone too!"

Liang Dan crouched down gently. "Don't cry. Tell us slowly."

The middle-aged man on the platform spat out the scissors he had been holding in his mouth and cursed, "So it was those little wenches playing god in the temple! If I ever get my hands on them, I won't let them off!"

Shen Si lunged back toward him. Yang Liuqing grabbed Liang Dan’s wrist, while Shen Si tightly gripped the middle-aged man’s throat. "I've caught you now. I'll choke the life out of you first!"

Liang Dan turned back, ignoring the man's screams, and continued to question the old woman: "When did your granddaughter and the other children go missing?"

The old woman calmed down, though her voice still trembled. "It was when the village... when the village started building the bridge. That was when the children vanished. I thought they had run away as a group. I never imagined they were hiding in the temple all this time!"

Yang Liuqing asked, "Were they all girls?"

The old woman nodded. "All girls."

"Why? In such a large village, why is there only one boy?"

"I don't know why," the old woman said. "Maybe it's some kind of curse on our village. The boys born to our women never survive; they die the moment they are born. That’s why Little Zhang is the only boy in the village."

"You don't know why?" Shen Si, standing nearby, sneered. "You people in this village know exactly why."

The old woman’s eyes darted around, and she began to wail, her mouth twisted in grief. "We don't know, we really don't know! Oh, what a sin! My sweet granddaughter, Grandma misses you so much!"

Shen Si shouted, "Stop crying!"

The old woman pressed her lips together and fell silent.

Shen Si said, "We have another question for you, and you must answer truthfully. There is a dilapidated building outside the village that has collapsed. What was that building used for?"

The old woman’s mouth fell open. "That—ah!"

Liang Dan looked up abruptly just as an arrow flew toward her. She shoved Yang Liuqing aside.

"Ah!"

"Help—"

The villagers' screams erupted one after another. In the blink of an eye, only the three of them—Liang Dan, Yang Liuqing, and Shen Si—remained alive, surrounded by pools of blood.

Liang Dan’s body trembled violently. "There’s someone behind the ruins."

The three of them dashed toward the back. The collapsed houses had become piles of rubble, perfect for concealing someone's tracks. They circled behind the ruins, but the area was empty. On the ground lay a short message spelled out in stones:

"Thank you very much for the important information. The NPCs are no longer of any use, so I’ve killed them."

Shen Si let out a roar of rage. "Damn them!"

Yang Liuqing gripped her axe, her hand trembling slightly.

Liang Dan laughed in her fury. "Who said the NPCs were useless? We haven't even found half the important clues, and they think they've unraveled the truth?"

Yang Liuqing sighed. "The enemy is in the shadows while we are in the light. That they didn't kill us is a mercy in itself."

Shen Si felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her, and she calmed down. She crouched on the ground to inspect the spot from where the arrow had been fired.

Liang Dan and Yang Liuqing joined her. The ground was scattered with dirt from the ruins, off-white wall plaster, dust, and bits of dry sand.

Shen Si looked at Liang Dan. "Did these fall off someone's shoes?"

Liang Dan replied, "They look different from the color of this particular ruin, but since it's just common sand and soil, we can't be entirely certain."

Yang Liuqing said, "Judging by the vigilance of those two women, they are likely not newcomers. Therefore, the probability of them possessing such weapons is high."

Shen Si stormed back and crouched beside the pile of corpses.

Yang Liuqing and Liang Dan followed. Liang Dan looked at the bodies strewn across the ground, her heart heavy with complex emotions. "Rest in peace."

Shen Si said, "So now, there isn't a single person left in the village."

She turned back. "I truly don't understand why a player would kill NPCs."

Yang Liuqing said, "Because of us."

Liang Dan added, "This player's mission might be to uncover the truth or find something through these clues. She killed the NPCs to stop us from gathering more information. She doesn't want us to complete the mission before her."

"But," Shen Si hung her head, "our mission is clearly just to survive here for seven days!"

"But others don't know what our mission is."

Shen Si looked up. "But these are so many lives! Even if they were wicked people, their lives shouldn't be ended by a player."

Yang Liuqing said, "When I first entered this place, I was just like you, thinking every NPC was a living soul."

Shen Si asked, "Aren't they?"

"Once you get used to it, you'll realize they are just game data, not what you call 'lives'."

Yang Liuqing smiled. "If they truly were living souls, such actions might actually be more appropriate."

Liang Dan didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

"In this world, whether it's a false world or reality, there are always places that the light cannot reach. In those places, perhaps only vigilante justice can console the lost victims."

Liang Dan remained silent. Shen Si said, "But now that the villagers are all dead, our leads are broken."

Before Yang Liuqing could speak, Shen Si continued, "I know, you're going to say our mission is to survive for seven days, not to uncover the truth behind the village. But we've already come this far. Don't you really want to go further and know more?"

Shen Si stood up. "As for me, I want to find out what that building was, why the children ran away from home, why they hid in the temple and committed murder, and whether the River God even exists!"