Chapter 278: Are you really blind, or just faking it?
Inside the gallery, seeing the tension between the two sides escalating, the villa owner stepped in to mediate.
After all, everyone was here to help him find the treasure. He didn’t need these people fighting amongst themselves.
At least, not at this time.
The raspy-voiced old man, having been given an out, just snorted and said nothing more.
But you could tell he was very unhappy with the loli girl.
Finally, to encourage everyone, the villa owner said, “As agreed, if you want, you can take anything here, but the prerequisite is that you help me find the treasure.”
The chosen ones, listening to the conversations since they entered, also knew that these were genuine articles.
But the villa owner really didn’t seem interested in these so-called ‘valuable’ paintings.
His tone also made it clear: everyone present could take these paintings, but first, they had to help him find what he wanted.
Otherwise, they might not be able to leave.
He didn’t say it explicitly, but the chosen ones could more or less guess that the villa owner wouldn’t let anyone leave here easily.
As the plot progressed to this point, Zhang Yangqing began to gather more information.
Remember when the villa owner came in, two guests were standing and two were sitting.
The two who had just quarreled seemed to represent different factions.
Based on what the raspy-voiced old man just said, he had some connection with the previous owner of the house.
When the villa’s current owner entered, he was standing.
By the same logic, the long-haired onee-san who was sitting across from Zhang Yangqing might have a similar connection.
Perhaps because of this connection, they both needed to show respect to the current villa owner.
As for the loli girl and the middle-aged man with the nasal, raspy voice, they were sitting, which proved their status might not require them to show the current villa owner any face.
Zhang Yangqing just couldn’t be bothered to stand, so he sat there.
Other chosen ones had made different choices at the time too.
After the villa owner agreed to his request to touch the paintings, Zhang Yangqing didn’t stand on ceremony and started feeling them.
Even though the raspy-voiced old man felt some heartache and anger, and even looked at Zhang Yangqing with resentment in his eyes.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t really care about any of that; he could almost filter out his stares.
The raspy-voiced old man was probably thinking that if the current villa owner weren’t here, he would definitely teach Zhang Yangqing a lesson.
But he was overthinking it. If the villa owner weren’t here, whether he could even breathe would be the question.
The raspy-voiced old man had a temper because he had the skills; he thought he was very strong.
Every guest who could come here had some special skills.
Only when he met someone stronger would he lose that illusion.
The best examples on site were the loli girl and the long-haired onee-san.
After being slapped by Zhang Yangqing, they didn’t dare to comment on anything he did, because they didn’t want to get slapped a second time.
In the horror game world, any horror or native who had been hit by Zhang Yangqing knew how strong he was.
As Zhang Yangqing touched these paintings, he felt a strange sensation.
Perhaps due to humidity, there was an oily feel on the paintings.
Not to mention Zhang Yangqing, other chosen ones seemed to feel this too.
And it felt very familiar, as if they had touched it before.
Besides that, each painting seemed to have an odor, and the oil seemed to be masking that smell.
“How strange. When I first entered the banquet hall, I also smelled a cleaning agent, as if something had happened in this villa and then it was cleaned up.”
Kim Jeong-ki, the chosen one from the Stick Country, was deducing internally.
“Could it be that I need to find a room that hasn’t been cleaned to get the answers I’m looking for?”
It could be said that the paladin Sidney, having a physical body, still possessed excellent judgment.
After touching a few paintings, Zhang Yangqing stopped.
Because he seemed to have guessed something too.
“If that’s the case, then whether this person who claims to be the villa owner is actually the real owner is still up for debate.”
Because various signs indicated that he didn’t seem to care about anything in the villa, only the treasure inside.
Zhang Yangqing reviewed all the rules. The seven rules presented this time didn’t mention anyone’s identity information.
In other words, the rules didn’t say he was the homeowner, and the identities of others were just claims they made themselves.
That meant that perhaps figuring out the identities of these people would be helpful for clearing the game.
After all, the conversation between the raspy-voiced old man and the loli girl had already revealed some things, suggesting that neither the previous owner nor the raspy-voiced old man were very good people.
Next, the villa owner took the guests to the second floor.
The chosen ones followed clumsily, unable to see.
Luckily, there were maids to help support them, otherwise going up the stairs would have been a problem.
At this stage, the advantage of the superhumans was fully displayed. Other superhumans couldn’t locate by sound as terrifyingly well as Zhang Yangqing, but they could still keep up with the guests’ pace while walking.
Most chosen ones had a realization during this time: they needed to forget that they could see and treat themselves as blind people.
Because the rules made everyone play the role of the blind, it suggested that this was likely an incurable condition.
Relying more on other senses was the key to clearing this stage.
An interesting scene also appeared on the big screen in the Dragon Kingdom.
The loli girl and the long-haired onee-san kept looking back at Zhang Yangqing as they walked.
Their eyes were full of surprise.
Zhang Yangqing’s eyeballs were silver-white, which was the hallmark of a blind person.
But he walked at a steady, unhurried pace, as if he could see.
Other chosen ones playing blind people were all stumbling and bumping into walls and knocking over decorations.
The guests found this quite amusing.
But Zhang Yangqing, playing a blind person, not only didn’t stumble, he walked even more steadily than a normal person.
It even confused the natives of the horror game world.
In the gallery, if he hadn’t spoken up to tell the villa owner that he couldn’t see and wanted to touch the paintings, the raspy-voiced old man and the middle-aged man with the nasal, raspy voice wouldn’t have known he was blind.
On the second floor, there was a weapon collection room, filled with ancient cold weapons.
It was packed with a dazzling array of weapons, every type and every era imaginable.
Needless to say, they were more items collected from various places.
Without exception, when the chosen ones touched the weapons, they could also feel a layer of oil on them.
So Zhang Yangqing asked the maid about it. The maid glanced at the villa owner, and after he seemed to nod, she replied, “This is a special coating to prevent decay. Many things in the villa are coated with it.”
Hearing the maid’s explanation, another mystery was solved in Zhang Yangqing’s mind.
If this woman isn’t lying to me, then it should be about that.
This time, he was touching weapons, and the raspy-voiced old man didn’t say anything else.
Zhang Yangqing wasn’t the only one observing; other guests were also fiddling with things in the weapon room.
After observing for a while, the guests expressed their opinions, but for now, they couldn’t determine the relationship between these weapons and the treasure.
Just then, the villa owner said, “If you fancy any weapon, you can take it for self-defense, but you can only take one.”
This startled the chosen ones. Did the villa owner know what was going to happen tonight?
Otherwise, why would he remind the guests about self-defense?
But thinking about it, since he was the owner here, he must have encountered some difficulties too.
At least for him, there were still many mysteries unsolved in the house.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have invited so many people to help him solve the puzzles.
Most chosen ones chose a dagger for self-defense.
The chosen ones had their considerations here. Although the villa was very large, swinging long-handled weapons wouldn’t be advantageous.
Only a dagger like this could give them a significant advantage.
But Sidney, the superhuman from the Raman Noodle Country, felt the dagger and then put it back.
It wasn’t that he was exceptionally skilled and brave; it was because he suddenly thought of something.
Because the key to clearing a horror game world is mainly judgment, not physical strength.
In the last game, many superhumans of a similar level to him had fallen.
Remember, Sidney wasn’t as strong as Gregori.
Gregori had received a holy baptism and obtained a major resource.
And he still ended up in such a miserable state.
During the process stage of the last game, Gregori’s initial approach was to try to forget that he was a superhuman.
That’s why his judgment was so accurate. Now, Sidney speculated that if he were an ordinary person, what good would taking a dagger do?
This was a six-and-a-half-star horror game world. The maids might be several times stronger than an ordinary chosen one. Apart from the head maid, the others should be at the ordinary horror level.
Not to mention the guests and the villa owner, who should be at the fierce horror level.
With eyes open, even an ordinary person with a weapon couldn’t beat a horror, let alone when blind.
“Could there be a trap here?”
As soon as his thoughts reached this point, Sidney chose not to take a weapon.
Most other chosen ones who didn’t take a weapon thought similarly.
Their self-definition was that in this villa, they definitely weren’t playing combat-oriented roles, so taking a weapon would be of little use.
If they didn’t take a weapon, then others wouldn’t be overly wary of them, since the chosen ones were all blind.
Even if trouble arose, say a guest was attacked, others wouldn’t suspect the chosen one did it.
Zhang Yangqing was much simpler; he just couldn’t be bothered to take one.
After visiting the weapon room, it was time for free exploration.
According to the villa owner, guests could explore on their own or be guided by the maids.
However, the guest room areas were not included in the self-guided exploration. If you wanted to visit them, you needed to ask the owner’s permission.
The wording wasn’t absolute. It could probably be understood as: I don’t recommend you visit other people’s rooms. If you get killed, don’t blame me.
Because the villa owner didn’t say it was forbidden, just that he didn’t recommend it.
The villa was huge, like a castle, with long hallways stretching tens of meters before the next turn.
Zhang Yangqing had followed the villa owner and the other four guests through three locations.
He could basically confirm that none of the people present were the person mentioned in Rule 3, the one who likes roses.
If they really liked roses, they would definitely come into frequent contact with them and would surely carry the scent of roses on them.
But Zhang Yangqing had been in contact with them all and hadn’t detected the smell of roses.
There were two possible inferences here.
Ordinary chosen ones could only infer the first point.
That was, none of these people were the person mentioned in the rule, so the chosen ones needed to find someone else.
Zhang Yangqing could infer the second point.
That was, the person who likes roses won’t harm the chosen ones. So, in reverse, it could be inferred that everyone else around him might kill the chosen ones.
Every single one of them, including the maids, needed to be treated with caution.
The time approached around 11 p.m.
The process was over, and the chosen ones had more or less found some clues.
Next was the search for the information they wanted.
The focus was on finding the person who likes roses, the location of their companion, and how to rescue that companion.
There was also a very important prerequisite: they had to be back in their rooms before 12 o’clock.
That meant the chosen ones had one hour to explore the villa.
Otherwise, when the horrors descended, this villa would become their playground.
Since all the chosen ones were blind, exploring on their own would just be a waste of time. So the more cautious chosen ones, following the villa owner’s suggestion, asked a maid to guide them.
The smarter chosen ones, like Kim Jeong-ki from the Stick Country, politely asked the head maid to guide them.
Because from the information gathered earlier, the head maid surely knew more.
The even smarter and bolder ones, like Sidney and his type of superhumans, asked the villa owner to guide them personally.
They all thought the villa owner would definitely know a lot.
Unfortunately, the idea was good, but the villa owner refused, citing ‘being busy’.
Then he instructed the head maid to take good care of Sidney.
In this case, the head maid’s attitude was much better than that of the other maids.
Because there’s a difference in her mental state between being asked for a favor by you and being assigned to you by the villa owner.
If Kim Jeong-ki asked the head maid for a favor, she might find it troublesome but be too embarrassed to refuse.
When introducing the villa, she wouldn’t be as diligent.
If the villa owner instructed her, then it was her task, and to some extent, the head maid would take care of Sidney.
That was the so-called difference.
Even more outrageous was a chosen one like Zhang Yangqing.
Zhang Yangqing asked the loli girl to guide him.
After all, the guests were very familiar with the place.
But perhaps because his favorability with her wasn’t high enough, or because she bore a grudge over the slap just now.
So the loli girl politely refused.
But when Zhang Yangqing’s nasal cavity emitted an “Hmm?”
The loli girl immediately changed her tune and agreed to guide him.
Hearing that she was so sensible, Zhang Yangqing nodded with satisfaction.
Remember, I’m not asking for your opinion.
I’m just telling you that you are still useful to me.
Other chosen ones also tried asking the guests for help, but they were all refused without exception.
So they had no choice but to continue following the process.
Why did Zhang Yangqing want her to guide him? The reason was actually quite simple.
Because she was the only human present. She knew which places humans couldn’t go and which things humans couldn’t touch.
For example, in the banquet hall, she could tell what she could and couldn’t eat.
Following this line of thought, asking her was definitely right.
There was actually one biggest drawback here: she might intentionally try to get Zhang Yangqing killed.
After all, the loli girl was not like the one-eyed boy from the last game.
The one-eyed boy and Zhang Yangqing were on the same side; he had no reason to betray Zhang Yangqing.
This loli girl had been slapped by Zhang Yangqing and was forced to guide him.
Not to mention favorability, her anger level had stacked up considerably.
The reason Zhang Yangqing dared to let her guide him was simply because he was highly skilled and bold.
The door to the weapon collection room opened, and the guests walked out.
Some carried items with them, some did not.
These guests knew the way and left without needing maids. In fact, they found the maids to be a burden.
“Where do you want to visit?”
The loli girl’s very reluctant voice sounded.
She really wanted to take Zhang Yangqing somewhere secluded and kill him.
Her idea was good, but she wasn’t confident she could handle Zhang Yangqing, so she decided to take it one step at a time.
“Just take me around.”
Zhang Yangqing didn’t say much. He just wanted to leave this place because it was crowded and noisy.
He constantly felt like eyes were watching him. Ever since he came out of his own room, he had felt this way.
After they had walked some distance, the loli girl began to skip along.
As she walked, she also kept observing Zhang Yangqing.
“Are you really blind, or just faking it?”
She said this while waving her hand in front of Zhang Yangqing’s eyes.
She even made some strange little gestures to test if Zhang Yangqing could see.
She seemed like an innocent and naive young girl.
Dealing with such an innocent and naive young girl, Zhang Yangqing naturally gave her another big slap.
When a red, swollen mark appeared on her face, her little antics subsided a bit.
She had a pitiful look on her face, wanting to get angry but not daring to.
As for the loli girl’s question, Zhang Yangqing couldn’t be bothered to answer.
The remaining one hundred-plus big screens showed different scenes.
Basically, each chosen one had a different chosen route, walking speed, guiding maid, and so on.
This led to them all being at different stages.
Some, like Sidney, were more meticulous, exploring room by room.
Because superhumans like Sidney were fast, they could explore more rooms.
He was able to identify some of the bizarre rooms inside.
Some rooms contained antiques, others hid gold, silver, and jewels.
And the feel of them didn’t seem like fakes at all.
“My God, this isn’t a den of thieves, is it?”
Sidney complained wildly because the loli girl had once called the raspy-voiced old man a robber.
Some of the smarter chosen ones, finding their search progress too slow, taking five to ten minutes to search one room.
And unable to find useful clues, they asked the maid or head maid to take them to places where strange phenomena had occurred.
For example, rooms where people had died, inexplicable sounds appeared, or figures occasionally showed up.
Maybe those rooms held the clues they were looking for.
If Zhang Yangqing knew they were doing this, he would definitely say, “See? This is what inexperience looks like.”
If Gregori were here, he wouldn’t play like this.
Because any chosen one with more experience knows that this is just a waste of time.
What most chosen ones are currently exploring is what the horror game world calls ‘redundant information’ or ‘distracting information’.
