Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 729 - 727: Devouring

As for the description of the monster, Judy Cecil, who covered her face with a fan, had only heard about it from committee members; she hadn’t witnessed it herself. Regarding the true nature of the Dolphin Hotel and the purpose of its staff, various theories circulated within the committee. Some speculated the Dolphin Hotel was an alien experimental base in outer space, designed to study and analyze humans. The evidence cited was that the hotel housed guests from different eras, a feat only Aliens could achieve. Furthermore, the hotel’s doors and windows were tightly sealed, preventing guests from seeing outside—perhaps into the vastness of the Starry Ocean of outer space.

Others guessed the Dolphin Hotel was an intermediate layer between heaven and hell. Its inhabitants were all deceased individuals whose merits weren’t enough for heaven, nor their sins enough for hell. Thus, they were exiled to this place, enjoying hotel amenities while suffering constant, nightly torment.

Another theory proposed the Dolphin Hotel was an experimental site secretly funded by the Pentagon or some other deep state agency. Its purpose was to study and decipher terrifying paranormal events. After all, the United States has a history of illicit experiments on its own people, like the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the MK Ultra project. Its credibility wasn’t high, making it plausible as the hidden hand behind everything.

Beyond these, there were theories about an alien reality show, divine punishment, and an air crash (where all inhabitants were victims who fell into a shared dream due to high-altitude asphyxiation), but no one could say for sure.

Judy Cecil claimed she had never seen Carter Murphy. Guests at the Dolphin Hotel constantly came and went. Newcomers often appeared to follow the advice of old-timers but secretly harbored their own agendas, breaking rules on their first or second night in an attempt to escape. Old residents were long accustomed to this and didn’t bother getting to know new people.

However, her description of how she died again—at night, inside her room—matched Carter Murphy’s story. She hadn’t been asleep but was reading in bed. The hotel staff provided a few paper books, but information like the publisher, publication date, and reprint details were torn out. Current materials like newspapers weren’t provided.

At that moment, she heard a faint explosion from upstairs, which was odd given the hotel’s excellent soundproofing. She got out of bed, picked up the shotgun beside her (most hotel residents had a weapon for self-defense), and walked barefoot to the door. Peering out through the Cat’s Eye, she saw several panic-stricken hotel staff run past in the corridor.

She had a bad feeling. Just as she was about to open the door to flee with them, the corridor to her left suddenly dimmed. From left to right, the lights went out one by one, and darkness engulfed the hallway.

After that, she knew nothing. Her only vague memory was of Li Ang forcibly making her drink seawater. Several former deceased residents floated in Room 0508, not just Judy Cecil. After witnessing Li Ang’s actions that day, the other languid Spiritual Bodies seemed to shrink back. They didn’t instinctively attack on subsequent nights as they might have before.

When she narrated this part, her tone sounded a bit strange. Perhaps she regretted her own recklessness and fearlessness.

In any case, that was all Judy Cecil knew. After some thought, Li Ang decided not to kill her for reward points. His attempts to study her were fruitless. Judy Cecil naturally dissipated when the curfew ended, not appearing to die but reverting to a dazed Earthbound Spirit state.

The note received by Mule read, "Don’t get killed." She had encountered an attack by many unintelligent Earthbound Spirits in her room. However, with the help of a Divine Light Bomb and a Catastrophe Mechanical Golem, she managed to survive, successfully killing two Earthbound Spirits and earning a reward. She, too, had hoped to capture them and extract information. Unfortunately, the Earthbound Spirits were unaffected by any sealing Formation, and their attack power was fearsome, so she had no choice but to eliminate them.

Wanli Fengdao was also attacked by Earthbound Spirits. The spirits in his case weren’t corporeal humanoid monsters but the room itself. Traps continuously emerged from the walls of his Room 0208: fire, flying knives, sawteeth, poison darts, quicksand, mercury... Little Brother Dao deftly navigated through the numerous traps, barely making it through the night.

Lastly, 13MARK reported that at 12:09 AM, he heard noises on his floor. He sent a puppet to scout the corridor and encountered an old woman in red infiltrating the eighth floor. After a fierce battle, 13MARK’s puppet gradually lost ground, sliced up by a Naginata and almost completely destroyed. With his puppet on the verge of annihilation and his own Spiritual Power drained, 13MARK, still in his room, decisively used a stealth skill. He deployed a cloaking screen in the corridor, then opened his door and dashed into the elevator; before that, he had used a mechanical finger to reach across the corridor and press the elevator button. He hit the ascend button.

Among this group of players, the only one 13MARK could trust was Bai Haozheng, an Intelligence Analyst from the Special Affairs Bureau. He didn’t trust anyone else. So, upon encountering the unusual situation, he naturally went to the 14th floor to seek aid.

It was uncertain whether the cloaking screen had worked or if the old woman in red had satisfied her desire to kill. She didn’t tear through the screen to chase him, nor did she follow the elevator up. Eventually, 13MARK safely reached the 14th floor, met Bai Haozheng, and sought his help.

After a brief discussion, 13MARK stayed temporarily in the 14th-floor elevator hall. At 1:11 AM, the two took the elevator downstairs to see if any other players needed help. Upon checking, the old woman in red on the eighth floor had vanished. They happened to stop at Room 0608, where they aided the Plague Doctor, who was under attack by decaying elderly creatures. The three of them then returned to the 14th floor for refuge and did not go downstairs again.

Throughout the night, the players didn’t hear the Dolphin Hotel’s announcement that "one less person" was present, nor did they see the figure with the Bamboo Hat.

Surprisingly, Ω, who lived on the first floor, still died. Or rather, disappeared.

At this moment, the players gathered in Room 0108, where Ω had once stayed. The door was open, the furniture inside was scattered, and numerous battle traces were clearly visible. Ω wasn’t there, and no notes were left in the room.

"These are signs of sulfur fire scorching." The Plague Doctor, crouching, lightly scraped the charred bloodstains on the carpet with his white-gloved fingers. With an unpleasant expression, he continued, "It’s indeed Ω’s method. He excels at refining the souls of ordinary lives into liquid Energy; his attack power far surpasses players of the same level."

The Plague Doctor had already told the other players that he and Ω were both members of the Devil Scientist Alliance. Both had entered the script solo, met by chance, and pretended not to recognize each other to gain an intelligence advantage. He hadn’t expected Ω to meet with misfortune so soon.

"There’s a faint, residual aura of a Spiritual Body here—crazy and strong, but orderly," Mule observed from within her horse-head mask, after an audible inhale. "It’s unlike the chaotic Earthbound Spirits in the hotel, nor is it like vengeful spirits full of hatred... It’s somewhat like... Shikigami from the Japan Islands?" She turned her head toward the Plague Doctor. "Would Ω summon Shikigami to assist in battle?"

"Shikigami?" The Plague Doctor frowned. After some thought, he hesitated and shook his head. "In the Devil Scientist Alliance, I’ve only heard of Ω as someone who uses the Soul Currency Power Type. Our relationship was nothing more than a nodding acquaintance. I don’t have more detailed information—delving into other players’ power types is taboo in a killing game, especially in an organization like the Devil Scientist Alliance, where villains outnumber heroes. He might use Shikigami, but I’m not entirely sure."

"Is that so..." Mule slowly nodded, murmuring, "There are no notes in the room, yet the person has disappeared... Either Ω triggered a note, but the Earthbound Spirit that appeared in Room 0108 was too powerful, killing him, destroying his body, and the battle’s aftermath also obliterated the note—we’ve tested it; the notes are ordinary paper and easily torn. Or, Ω didn’t trigger a note, but he was attacked by something else..."

"You mean the old woman in red?" Wanli Fengdao, a band-aid on his forehead, frowned. "It’s indeed very strange for her to actively attack players before curfew... By the way," he looked towards Li Ang, "in the hallway aberrations Judy described, was there an old woman in red?"

"There wasn’t," Li Ang said, spreading his hands. "But she hadn’t been at the hotel long, and many of the hotel’s eyewitness records are full of omissions and contradictions. An unrecorded aberration wouldn’t be surprising. What puzzles me more is the old woman in red’s attack method. In Danfei’s earlier sighting, the old woman was empty-handed. But in 13MARK’s account, she was holding a rather rare Naginata..."

The Black Holy Son took a deep breath, pulled out a pen and paper, scribbled a few strokes, and handed it to 13MARK. "Is the Naginata she used like this one?"

"Huh?" 13MARK took it, his eyes instantly widening. He pulled out a sketch of the red-dressed old woman from his inventory, compared the two, and stated confidently, "That’s right, this is it."

Yesterday, after 13MARK met with Bai Haozheng, Bai Haozheng had used his Nen ability to extract the corresponding memory from 13MARK’s mind and depict the scene on paper.

"...Ghost of Hidden Eye." The Black Holy Son fell silent for a moment, then slowly exhaled. "This Naginata... it’s the one used by the Ghost of Hidden Eye. Summoning Shikigami is also one of the Ghost of Hidden Eye’s moves."

"What?!" Wanli Fengdao unconsciously gripped the sword at his waist. "Wasn’t the Ghost of Hidden Eye already taken away by the Bamboo Hat aberration? Are you saying..."

"The old woman in red," the Black Holy Son said softly, his lips tightly pressed, "it’s very likely she has the ability to devour players. Danfei, Kafei, the Ghost of Hidden Eye, Bob, Ω... all of their bodies have disappeared. I previously thought they died in the hallway and their bodies were refreshed, or taken by the Bamboo Hat aberration, leaving no trace. But now it seems... perhaps that old woman in red devoured them and gained all their powers."

"This is impossible!" Wanli Fengdao shook his head vehemently. "Danfei and Kafei were skilled players, Lv15 and above. What would it mean for her to consume five players and acquire their equipment, items, and skills? The old woman in red could easily crush us; there’d be no need to kill us one by one."

The Black Holy Son’s expression was grim. He spoke in a low voice, "Maybe the power Kafei and Danfei provided wasn’t enough to satisfy her. Last night, 13MARK demonstrated enough combat ability to make her consider him a threat. So, she went down to the first floor to attack Ω. Ω must have inflicted enough damage on her that she now needs to hibernate again to slowly digest..."