The plump chef shrank back slightly, as a pair of legs appeared in front of him.
“Now—can we talk nicely?”
He did not dare to raise his head and nodded furiously.
Lin Ya glanced at the two who were frozen in place, then turned away casually, waiting for the plump chef to speak.
“You said that every year a female guest goes missing—what does that mean?”
The plump chef lay trembling on the ground, muttering, “…For the past ten years, every year a female guest staying at the hotel has gone missing. I don’t really know the specifics…”
“After a new female guest goes missing each year, the boss makes me deal with the body of the previous one. To avoid getting discovered, I can only turn the flesh into dishes…”
Upon hearing this, Su Ziyi, Wu Yun, and Lei Guang turned pale; they had eaten the dishes made in recent days…
Could it be…?
“Ugh…” Wu Yun covered her mouth, her gaze becoming unfocused. Although she had harmed other players for her own life, the thought of cannibalism still struck a chord with her.
Su Ziyi pursed his lips, looking rather unwell.
“Could it be… these past few days…” Lei Guang’s voice trembled, his face turning white. He unconsciously glanced at Lin Ya, since he had eaten as well.
“Not really.” The food these days was indeed not made of human flesh; he had mostly ordered vegetarian rice and noodles and hadn’t eaten much meat. Besides, he had checked, and it genuinely wasn’t human meat.
The plump chef shook his head vigorously and explained quickly, “It was only on those few days that the body was in my hands today!”
After he said this, everyone stared at him.
The plump chef quickly covered his mouth, suddenly realizing he had let something slip.
If today hadn’t happened, perhaps they would have eaten human flesh today.
Wu Yun breathed a sigh of relief but then suddenly felt anxious again.
“But… these past few days, apart from us, everyone else is an NPC…”
Su Ziyi suddenly tensed and slowly uttered two words, “…Li Yu.”
Only she had not died in front of them.
Another girl had died in the ballroom; she had been burned before their eyes, and corpses that die in the instance disappear quickly.
What the plump chef mentioned about the boss acquiring new female guests every year led them to a certain possibility.
“Are you saying that the boss might be a skinwalker?” Lei Guang’s mind flashed with a certain supernatural tale.
“Every year, a new one replaces the old. This means that this time, it swapped out Li Yu’s body.”
Su Ziyi nodded, “It could be possible.”
Lin Ya ignored their discussion and instead thought about the original book, which stated at the end that Sister Bella suffered severe burns, and the ending was abruptly concluded.
No one knew what happened to Sister Bella after that; whether her severe burns were healed or if she died remained a mystery.
However, according to the medical standards of that era, the outcome of severe burns was likely death.
Lin Ya pondered silently, so was the hotel owner really Bella?
And what about the woman who opened the ball on the first day…
Qin La…
He could only wait until the ball started to observe more closely.
Unfortunately, the illusion-breaking talisman would become ineffective by the afternoon of the second day; otherwise, things would be much easier to resolve.
After this incident, the group lost all appetite for dinner and could only wait until the ball began to eat some cake to satisfy their hunger.
Lin Ya returned to his room and, after a while, decided to visit the reading room again.
There might still be some clues left there.
He searched the reading room thoroughly but found nothing, so he gave up and went back to examine the paintings in the corridor.
This time, however, the woman in the painting had changed her appearance.
Though heavily made up, she still faintly resembled Li Yu. Lin Ya had only seen her a few times, but he remembered fairly well that Li Yu had a small mole at the corner of her lips.
Now, the woman in the painting had the same.
She smiled sweetly, her hair elegantly styled at the back, and no matter the angle, her eyes seemed to watch any outsider, subtly carrying a hint of provocation. The elegant black dress she wore contrasted vividly against a background of purple lavender.
Lin Ya stood still in front of the painting, smiling softly after a while.
At exactly 7 PM, the ball officially began.
As the lights dimmed, only one spotlight remained on stage, and in the ensuing silence, the sound of high heels approached slowly from the darkness.
As Lei Guang stuffed cake into his mouth, he looked up and saw the woman on stage, suddenly pounding his chest in disbelief, managing to swallow hard. He pointed at the woman, whispering incredulously.
“That’s! Li Yu?!”
Lin Ya took a sip of water without speaking, while Su Ziyi and Wu Yun eagerly followed by his side, staring in shock at the woman.
Su Ziyi glanced at her, “That’s not Li Yu; that’s a ghost wearing her skin.”
Wu Yun shuddered violently; if she hadn’t managed to unfasten it quickly that day, the one on stage would have been wearing her skin.
“Thinking back, the ghost on the stairs also seemed to be aiming at you.” Su Ziyi recalled how, after Lin Ya left, a ghost claw appeared suddenly, trying to grab Wu Yun, reasonably suspecting that the boss might have taken a liking to her.
“Enough!” Wu Yun took a deep breath, her eyes suddenly turning fierce, “I’m even more certain of one thing now.”
To survive in the instance, if she needed to step on the stepping stones, she would do so, shedding any lingering guilt and hardening her heart further.
Lin Ya watched the woman on stage and scanned the surroundings, realizing someone was missing.
Qin La.
Chapter 50: Infinite Flow Instance Survival (Part Six)
The flowers on the table had been replaced with lavender today.
The same flowers as in the background of the painting.
“Welcome everyone to my banquet. First, let’s clear out the little bugs that snuck in…”
“I have a bad feeling about this…” Lei Guang mumbled, tightening his grip on the bead bracelet.
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