“You don’t need to worry about me.” Fatty waved his hands, “My heart is bigger than you think.”
“Is that so…” Chen Ran narrowed his eyes at Fatty. The latter moved his eyes away. The pressure exuded by Chen Ran was not lower than that of the Doctor. As for why the Doctor was doing this, Fatty had a brief idea. The Doctor was worried that Chen Ran might ambush him from behind when he was studying the clues, so he dragged Chen Ran along.
Su Xiaoxiao's words were a bit inaccurate. There was more than one painting on the stone pillar. There were many paintings. They depicted different scenes but were interconnected. Fatty’s attention was drawn to them instantly. The carving was done hastily, but it didn’t eclipse the carver's innate talent. Every painting had a clear construct. Overall, Fatty felt that the carver was in great fear, or they were forced to complete the painting under certain conditions.
There were nine paintings, and they were spread out in a web manner. The first eight paintings could be examined freely, but the last painting… Fatty blinked. It was only carved halfway.
Two-thirds of the incomplete painting was blurred out. Only the lower right corner could be seen. Fatty swallowed. He walked around Chen Ran to take a closer look. It was… a person. A person in a strange outfit. The person was curled up and hiding in a small corner. It should be a woman.
At that moment, Fatty shivered involuntarily. He was instantly reminded of the old lady hiding inside the lighthouse. However… when he focused his attention and looked at the last painting, the curious sense of familiarity disappeared. The carving of the human only consisted of a few strokes. Their outfit and gender couldn’t be discerned. However, in that split second, Fatty confirmed the person in the carving was the aged woman. Why?
Fatty gasped for air. His large body also shuddered. He tried to control himself from acting too strangely, but it was hard to do.
He had no idea when the carving was created. However, based on the damage from corrosion, it was at least several hundred years ago. So, that aged woman… How could she…
Has she existed since then?
Fatty instantly wanted to warn the Doctor about the woman, but Chen Ran was right there. He couldn’t openly talk about it. The Doctor and Chen Ran were attached to each other like a pair of Siamese twins.
“Did Brother Hao discover something?” Chen Ran narrowed his eyes to ask.
Jiang Cheng stood up and thought for a while. “I still can’t be sure. I think we better go upstairs to check first.”
When he heard that, Fatty’s hair stood on end; he felt like Su Xiaoxiao’s bet had failed. Su An was probably dead. Or rather, he had disappeared mysteriously with the biker woman and Liang Long. All of that had to do with the aged lady.
Once the suspect was confirmed, everything that confused him before had a reasonable explanation. Earlier, he discussed with the Doctor why the aged woman was the only survivor when all of them were caught in a shipwreck. Plus… based on the Doctor’s understanding of the nightmare, everyone’s chance of survival when first entering the nightmare should be close to each other. How could there be a player who entered the same map for the second time?
None of them made sense according to the mechanism of the nightmare.
However, Fatty found the answer.
The aged woman was not a player. To be more accurate, she should be a very special NPC who could attack the players indiscriminately.
Thinking back to how the aged woman was glaring at him the night before and the red tongue that licked her lips, Fatty started to shiver again. His legs were about to buckle.
The next second, Fatty jumped comically into the air. When he recovered and turned around, he saw Jiang Cheng’s left arm around Chen Ran’s neck and his right… poked Fatty’s waist.
“Move.” Jiang Cheng ordered, “We’re going up to look. You… can follow behind us.”
“Okay.” Fatty obediently walked behind Jiang Cheng and Chen Ran. He finally had a clearer understanding of the contest between the two. Jiang Cheng’s arm that was draped around Chen Ran’s neck was bulging with muscles like he’d snap the latter’s neck in the next second.
It was the same for Chen Ran. His hand looked intimately curled around Jiang Cheng’s waist. However, Chen Ran was clearly applying force based on the veins that popped on his skin.
Fatty took a deep breath and tried to focus. It was only a matter of time until they turned on each other. The battle would be ended in a moment. After all, once the Doctor lost, he wouldn’t be Chen Ran’s match.
The staircase was dark. They couldn’t find the torches they had dropped earlier. Fatty followed them carefully. The stairs went up in a spiral. The middle was a hole that fell straight down. Everyone tried their best to stick closer to the wall. Fatty was considering the possibility of helping Jiang Cheng shove Chen Ran down the middle.
The fake interaction came to an end. Chen Ran and Jiang Cheng slowly moved up the steps. Neither of them spoke. The atmosphere was tense.
As they approached the lighthouse, Fatty’s blurry illusion about the truth was clarified. When they returned from Black Stone Town the night before, the Doctor shared with him the issues he had discovered.
Back then, Fatty had no idea. However, at that moment, Fatty realised how scary the Doctor was. Of the issues brought up by the Doctor, a few left a deep impression on him.
The Doctor said that when they were brought to share the table with the mayor, there were still four more empty spots. In other words, the people from Black Stone Town assumed there’d be seven ‘guests’. How did they come to that conclusion? Was it a mere coincidence?
After all, when the travellers first met the people from Black Stone Town, the townspeople had only seen six of them. The second time, they only saw the Doctor, Fatty, Chen Ran and Liang Long. In the end, only three of them accepted the invitation to Black Stone Town.
However… what if the people from Black Stone Town managed to figure out their overall number through some records or unknown channels?
In fact, the townspeople not only knew how many travellers there were in total but also that one of them wasn’t a human. It was why they didn’t prepare her share of food.
Thinking back to how the aged woman was looking at him greedily, Fatty’s pupils shrunk, and a horrifying thought appeared in his mind.