Chapter 224: Tongueless Player

Xu Huo turned to look at Pan Siming, but Pan Siming gave him a smile in return, instead carefully examining the portrait from earlier."What's wrong with that painting?" Fan Shiji said hesitantly, "Did we miss something?"

"I didn't notice anything," Xu Huo said. "With so many paintings here, even if there are fakes, they wouldn't put them right at the entrance."

"You make a good point," Fan Shiji nodded, then paused before adding, "We'll cover more ground if we split up."

As he spoke, he secretly made a hand gesture indicating he would check on the progress of the other players.

Xu Huo didn't stop him, instead leisurely lighting a cigarette and examining the paintings one by one.

"Got an extra one? Give me one," the leather jacket woman who had left earlier approached him.

Xu Huo handed her the cigarette case and offered to light it for her, but the leather jacket woman just took a cigarette and waved him off, "I have a lighter. Thanks."

After getting the cigarette, she immediately walked away.

Xu Huo continued looking at the paintings.

The general situation was pretty much as the headband-wearing man had described - eighty-two paintings, with sixty-one of them having content. The types varied, including oil paintings, sketches, and even a few photographs. The subjects in the paintings also differed, featuring portraits, group photos, objects, and landscapes. Additionally, the artistic styles varied greatly - some lacked color, with black and white creating a depressing atmosphere, while others used heavy, vivid colors that were almost blindingly bright.

In short, these sixty-one paintings expressed eeriness in various forms, and each painting had an electronic timer beneath it, with countdowns ranging from five hundred hours to two hundred hours.

There were also twenty-one empty frames containing blank white paper, scattered across different giant pillars.

Unlike the frames with paintings, these blank ones didn't have electronic timers underneath.

After spending over two hours searching without any results, the players gradually gathered under a standalone human statue placed in the center of the art gallery.

"What do these countdowns mean?" Ni Tian said, rubbing her eyes, "My eyes are getting blurry, but I still can't tell which one is the fake."

"I tried taking down a few paintings to test them, but it didn't trigger any game prompts," Xie Man said.

Other players had obviously tried removing paintings too, with equally fruitless results.

"I think we might have misunderstood the direction," Deng Yu said. "The fake the game mentions might be different from what we understand as fakes. Look, among these collections there are even a few black and white group photos - these can't really be called paintings."

"I already tried the photos earlier - no reaction," Pan Siming frowned. "This means at least the photo category isn't fake."

"Are you saying that among all the paintings, there might be several with common characteristics that are all fakes?" the leather jacket woman chimed in, her circular earrings swaying as she turned her head, "That's impossible."

"If that were the case, this game would be way too simple. All the paintings here have very distinct styles, making categories easy to identify. If just one person finds a fake painting, wouldn't that lead to discovering a whole series of them?"

"But we haven't found any fake paintings yet," Fan Shiji said cautiously. "We haven't found a single one, so isn't it a bit early to be discussing the characteristics of fake paintings?"

"Fake cleverness," the gloomy man sneered, though it wasn't clear who he was referring to.

"Then what clues do you have?" Xie Man stared at him, "While others are talking, you're here pretending to be profound. If you've got real substance, show us something."

The gloomy man coldly replied, "No need to provoke me. I do have some thoughts, and I can share them with you."

"Speak quickly!" Deng Yu urged.

The gloomy man tapped on a nearby electronic timer, "Don't you think this timer is strange?"

"It's a countdown, but why would there be countdowns on art gallery collections?"

"Remaining exhibition time for the collections?" Ni Tian suggested.

The gloomy man's face darkened when she spoke, "If you want to listen, then don't interrupt."

Ni Tian's face flushed red, and she immediately pressed her lips together.

"Stop keeping us in suspense, just say it," Pan Siming said.

"Since none of the paintings we've touched so far are the ones required by the mission, and the fake paintings are definitely among them, plus these countdowns, it's very likely that we can only identify or select the fake paintings during specific time periods," the gloomy man said.

"So what time would that be?" a soft, delicate voice spoke up. Everyone turned and realized it was the maid-outfit girl speaking.

Meeting everyone's gaze, she smiled shyly and cautiously touched the tall, strong man's hand before saying, "Lu Gang can't speak, but don't be scared by his appearance - he's actually very well-behaved."

Lu Gang, who stood three heads taller than the girl, rolled his eyes at this, his triangular eyes slanting sideways.

The girl reflexively trembled slightly, then forced a smile and said, "My name is You Huanhuan, I'm a White Player, and Hundred-Person Art Gallery is my first dungeon."

Xie Man and the others nearby showed subtle changes in their expressions but didn't say anything more. However, the gloomy man said bluntly, "I've met plenty of women in the game who pretend to be weak and delicate - they look harmless but are actually black-hearted!"

You Huanhuan's eyes reddened, and she instinctively grabbed Lu Gang's clothes, but the next moment he flung her to the ground. Lu Gang's eyes turned bloodshot as he single-handedly grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up.

You Huanhuan kicked her legs and rolled her eyes until she was nearly out of strength. Only then did Xie Man and the leather jacket woman step in to stop Lu Gang, with the two women holding You Huanhuan while Pan Siming and others pulled at Lu Gang.

Unexpectedly, Lu Gang became extremely violent, shaking off the others and roaring at them, but only producing indistinct, garbled sounds.

"He has no tongue!" Fan Shiji exclaimed in shock.

The players present were all startled and stepped back, but after roaring twice, Lu Gang charged toward one side and began wildly smashing at the art gallery walls!

"I've never seen such an abnormal player in the game before," Xu Huo observed his retreating figure.

Meanwhile, You Huanhuan, with Xie Man's help, caught her breath while coughing and said, "Actually, you can't really blame him. It seems his tongue was cut out in a previous dungeon. He wasn't quite normal when I met him."

"Then why do you stay with him?" the leather jacket woman pointed at the finger marks on her neck, "Aren't you afraid he'll go crazy and kill you?"

But You Huanhuan shook her head, "Because he saved me, and although he's a bit rough, he won't actually hurt me."

The players present looked at her with subtle expressions, and just then Lu Gang, having vented his anger, walked back and sat directly beside You Huanhuan, staring straight at the gloomy man.

The gloomy man narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "The specific time was just my guess - I can't be sure. If you're willing, you can try testing it out periodically."

"The game prompt said not to wander around after the lights go out," the headband-wearing man looked around nervously, "Is it safe to come out?"

"This might actually be the key to the game," Pan Siming said thoughtfully. "Whether the approach is right or not, we have to give it a try."

"However, nighttime is dangerous in any dungeon, so it's best to go in pairs."