Chapter 108: Inheritance
No other accidents occurred in the second half of the night. Only when the sky began to lighten did Lu Jinzhao dare to slightly relax her vigilance.
Ever since that shadow standing by the window left, she had been pondering what it could be.
There were several guesses in her mind, but due to a lack of evidence, she couldn’t fully confirm them.
Today during the day, she would definitely have to leave the room and go out to take a look.
At a time like this, a lack of information was also quite fatal.
After daybreak, Lu Jinzhao glanced at the human skin still drying, stuffed the unassembled shadow puppet into the toolbox and locked it separately, slung it diagonally over her body, and then left the room.
The first place she went was Fu Xuesheng’s room.
Among the four teammates, the only one she was somewhat familiar with was Fu Xuesheng, and she had only reached cooperation with Fu Xuesheng, so at a time like this, she naturally could only go to her first.
If last night’s anomaly hadn’t only happened outside her door, then Fu Xuesheng would also want to exchange this information with her right now; if last night’s anomaly had only happened outside her own door, then Fu Xuesheng would want to know even more.
Perhaps due to some tacit understanding, on the way to Fu Xuesheng’s room, Lu Jinzhao ran into her, and judging by the direction she came from, she was probably also heading to her own room.
The two made eye contact, and confirmed in each other’s eyes that they were probably there for the same thing.
“Shall we go check Master’s room and talk on the way?” The dark circles under Fu Xuesheng’s eyes had become even more severe than before; it seemed she hadn’t rested all night either.
Lu Jinzhao nodded, not speaking for the moment.
Actually, from the moment they met, some questions no longer needed to be asked aloud, so Lu Jinzhao directly asked something else.
“What do you think that thing was?”
Fu Xuesheng thought for a moment: “Hard to say. We need to confirm the others’ status first.”
Hearing her say that, Lu Jinzhao knew her thinking was probably the same as her own.
They both believed that the thing last night was, first of all, definitely not a normal living person, and secondly, very likely another player.
This could be heard from Fu Xuesheng’s words about confirming the others’ status.
This was one of the many possibilities Lu Jinzhao had thought about last night.
Although she didn’t know the personalities and abilities of the other teammates, in the current situation, someone would always be unable to resist trying.
But this was still a Class B Platform, and a mission where no absolutely fatal crisis had appeared before.
In a place like this, she herself wouldn’t dare to even think about succeeding just by trying once.
In Lu Jinzhao’s view, the greater possibility was death upon trying.
But this was just the view of someone like Lu Jinzhao, whose style leaned more rational; her thoughts couldn’t represent everyone’s thoughts.
There were always those with a more aggressive style.
Among her many guesses, there was one that the thing that appeared outside the window last night was “Master,” one that it was a ghost from other possibilities, and naturally, she inevitably thought it might be a passenger who couldn’t wait to complete the shadow puppet but had an accident.
If it was a shadow puppet, the shadow was too tall; if it was a person, the movements were too stiff.
Combining the feeling she got when making the shadow puppet before and touching the human skin, Lu Jinzhao had a guess in her heart: perhaps the moment the shadow puppet production is completed, it would devour the maker.
They, the ones making the shadow puppets, were too much like puppets being manipulated by the mission.
The mission was urging them step by step, just to make them produce the shadow puppets faster.
However, the things they made with their own hands would take their lives the moment they were completed, and then, the dead objects would gain living people’s skin and bones, while they would be forever trapped here, becoming new shadow puppets.
After all, weren’t the materials they used to make the shadow puppets taken from a “person”?
And they, who completed the shadow puppet production, might also become such things?
Last night, someone had taken a step toward completing the mission, but was guided and led by the mission toward death.
This could explain why the shadow outside the door looked like a human in build, but its behavior and movements were like a stiff shadow puppet.
But these were just Lu Jinzhao’s guesses; even with various signs supporting them, they still lacked the most direct evidence.
—A passenger who had completed making the shadow puppet and died.
“I feel like we need to prepare ourselves mentally for the train being hard to board.” Lu Jinzhao said jokingly.
But Fu Xuesheng understood her joke.
“Maybe we won’t even see the train coming.” Fu Xuesheng sighed and said something very discouraging.
Their guesses had already been confirmed to be mostly the same through a few looks and simple words, and if their guesses came true, then all passengers would have to make shadow puppets to pass, and making shadow puppets would mean the arrival of a fatal crisis.
At that time, how many passengers would die?
How many “revived” shadow puppets would there be?
Would those shadow puppets just be ordinary ghosts?
Even if they passed the mission, luckily survived after completing the shadow puppet production, found the missing Master, and waited for the train to arrive, would those shadow puppets that had become ghosts just stand motionless watching them board?
Just thinking about it made Lu Jinzhao feel a heavy weight on her chest; the oppressive atmosphere was suffocating.
No matter how you looked at it, the chance of survival was too low.
But the only one saying discouraging words was Fu Xuesheng; even understanding that the odds of survival were low, Lu Jinzhao had no thoughts of giving up in her mind.
While talking, the two had already arrived outside Master’s door.
The door was still open, the stench had spread into the corridor, and looking inside, that pile of minced meat had even grown maggots.
The sight was truly disgusting, but Lu Jinzhao only frowned slightly, focusing more on whether the room had any changes from before.
“Seems like no changes.” After looking for a while, she confirmed.
“Indeed. Looks like the problem isn’t here.” Fu Xuesheng nodded. “Let’s go check if the others are awake.”
Even at a time like this, Fu Xuesheng still had the mind to say some jokes; it seemed her real mindset wasn’t as discouraged as her words suggested.
“Where to first?” Lu Jinzhao asked.
She didn’t mind listening to her senior’s suggestion at a time like this.
“Let’s check on Ji Xiangchen first.” Fu Xuesheng quickly decided, and this decision was also what Lu Jinzhao wanted.
However, on the way to Ji Xiangchen’s room, they ran into another person.
Huo Ye.
He looked like he was also heading to Ji Xiangchen’s room.
The three made eye contact; as experienced players, they all naturally understood the current situation.
“Looks like something happened on your side too.” Fu Xuesheng remarked.
Huo Ye nodded slightly; his expression wasn’t good, perhaps because he had a fate, his senses were stronger, but even with a trump card the others didn’t have, Huo Ye’s expression at this moment was terribly grave.
Lu Jinzhao could tell that even he found the current situation quite tricky.
