Chapter 21: Flying Axe

"Bang... bang... bang..."Intermittent knocking sounds came through the fog, amplified endlessly in these deep mountains, piercing clearly into their ears.

"The cabin door was latched," Xu Huo said.

The small cabin used an old-fashioned latch lock. After carrying the body inside, the players had secured it on their way out—showing respect for the dead by preventing wild animals from disturbing the corpse. But now someone was banging on the door.

"G-g-ghost?" Yuan Yao stammered.

"Would a ghost need to knock?" Xu Huo circled to the door. As he pulled it open, a crashing sound came from inside along with Zhang Xiong's roar.

Several players had already emerged upon hearing the noise. They rushed to Zhang Xiong's room, where the Rich Kid kicked the door open without hesitation.

The lit room revealed shattered glass everywhere. Huang Junjie leaned against the wall, sweating profusely as he pressed his left hand against his right shoulder. Blood gushed continuously through his fingers, forming a small pool on the floor.

Zhang Xiong supported him while pouring healing potion into his mouth.

"What happened?" Wang Wei pushed past Xu Huo to help. Huang Junjie freed a hand, his face deathly pale. "It's The Headhunter Demon!"

Everyone's expressions changed.

"You were attacked by The Headhunter Demon?" Xu Huo asked. "Did you see him?"

Huang Junjie shook his head. "I'd just finished checking the outer wall and was returning to my room when an axe flew at me from outside the courtyard. I dodged just in time—otherwise my head would've been chopped off. When I turned to look, I only saw a black shadow running past outside the wall."

Xu Huo glanced at the courtyard. The hot spring resort had open-air baths separated from rooms only by floor-to-ceiling windows, surrounded by green plant walls standing over two meters tall. Even if Huang Junjie only saw a head, The Headhunter Demon must be at least two meters tall.

"Bullshit!" The Rich Kid said. "The outer wall is two meters high. How could you see anyone?"

"At least 2.3-2.4 meters," Huang Junjie added. "I saw clearly—he wore a black mask."

"Could it have been your imagination?" Du Lanlan asked. "It's so dark out."

"No mistake," Huang Junjie said firmly.

"Where's the axe?" Xu Huo scanned the stone ground for blade marks. "If you were attacked with an axe, it should be in the courtyard."

"That's what puzzles me—the axe flew back out," Huang Junjie said, as if sucked away.

Flew back out?

"It's true, I saw it," Zhang Xiong quickly added.

"Impossible!" Yuan Yao cried. "You're saying there's a 2.5-meter-tall maniac wielding a flying axe wandering the resort?"

Xu Huo's gaze shifted from the wall to the mess on the ground. This crude method didn't quite match the game's description.

"Maybe not human..." Wang Wei looked up. "This is a game world—ghosts wouldn't be strange."

"Did we enter a ghost dungeon?" Xia Guo rubbed her arms. "And that knocking earlier definitely came from the cabin. We checked—no one was there. If not a ghost, was it the corpse coming back to life?"

Abel clutched the cross around his neck. "My first dungeon...is this normal?"

"Who the hell knows!" The balding middle-aged man Wan Zhikang snapped. "We're all first-timers!"

The game prompt hadn't mentioned ghosts. They'd assumed The Headhunter Demon was a human murderer hiding in the resort. Humans could be dealt with—but how to fight ghosts?

"What knocking sound?" Zhang Xiong asked.

Du Lanlan quickly explained. They'd come so fast precisely because of the noise—they'd already been planning to investigate.

"It seems to have stopped now." She looked hopefully at Huang Junjie.

"Probably a wild boar or similar beast," Huang Junjie said weakly.

"You're scaring yourselves," Liu Yuanyuan said while reapplying lipstick with a compact mirror. "Ghosts and monsters? More likely The Headhunter Demon trying to scare us. As for height—platform shoes with lifts could make me nearly two meters tall. It's pitch black out there. You wouldn't see a wire attached to the axe either."

Put that way, it made some sense.

"Should we go check?" Yuan Yao looked at Xu Huo.

"Too dark, and the resort has no lights. We'll look tomorrow," Xu Huo said.

"Right." The Rich Kid gave him an approving glance. "No use crowding here panicking. Tomorrow we'll turn this place upside down—can't possibly miss one Headhunter Demon."

He left with Liu Yuanyuan arm-in-arm. The other players exchanged glances, too afraid to venture out, and returned to their rooms.

"Stay with us tonight," Xu Huo suggested. "In case The Headhunter Demon circles back?"

"Good idea!" Zhang Xiong helped Huang Junjie up while Yuan Yao assisted.

The four relocated to one room. Xu Huo gave the bed to Huang Junjie and took the small sofa.

"Thank you," Huang Junjie said sincerely.

Xu Huo nodded with a smile and slept against the sofa.

The night passed peacefully. Near dawn, Xu Huo awoke to a "crack-crack" sound. He sat up and went outside, following the noise.

Coincidentally—the cabin again.

"What's that sound?" Huang Junjie had woken too. "Was this what you heard yesterday?"

"No." Xu Huo wiped his face and headed to the lobby.

Wan Zhikang and Abel were already there. Abel clutched his cross, muttering, "Amitabha, Hallelujah, Amen..."

"Your foreign gods can't handle our local ghosts," the Rich Kid said, emerging. Listening carefully, he added, "Doesn't sound like knocking."

"Chopping wood," Xu Huo said. "There's an axe among the logging tools by the cabin."

"Would The Headhunter Demon come out in daylight to chop wood instead of hiding?" Liu Yuanyuan asked.

"Only one way to find out," Wang Wei said.

After Du Lanlan and Xia Guo joined them, the group headed toward the cabin.

Dawn hadn't fully broken—or perhaps the thick fog limited daylight. Taking a forest path around the main entrance, they spotted a figure by a stump, raising an axe to split a log.

"That clothing looks familiar..." Du Lanlan shivered.

Hearing them, the figure turned—revealing the face of the man who'd hanged himself before them yesterday!