Fifth time now. Xu Xi sat up, helplessly rubbing his temple.
He wasn't clear what had caused his death this time.
But this death wasn't as painful—he just felt a wave of weakness through his body before he kicked the bucket.
Since he had restarted anyway, Xu Xi stopped dwelling on it and instead pulled out the drawing book from under the pillow, flipping to the page with that scribbled portrait.
He already had some vague suspicions in his mind, and after cross-referencing them with the conversation at the door, his conjectures became clearer.
On Tong Binbin's 9th birthday, Tong Guoliang—that is, Father Tong—domestically abused Mother Tong. Combined with the messy liquor bottles on the coffee table, it was most likely alcohol-fueled domestic violence. The ferocious-looking red-faced man in the drawing was probably Father Tong, drunk and violent.
Auntie Wang in the conversation used two phrases: "every few days" and "every day," proving this domestic violence wasn't a one-time thing. Mother Tong, long subjected to abuse, likely felt utterly hopeless and hanged herself. So the hanging stick figure next to the red-faced man was probably Mother Tong.
As for the childish note at the bottom, Xu Xi guessed that every time Mother Tong was abused, she would pacify Tong Binbin with excuses like "Dad works hard." And after Mother Tong hanged herself, Father Tong would brush him off with "Mom will be back soon."
Xu Xi felt he had connected all the clues found in this instance so far. The instance's background should be roughly as he had guessed earlier. But now that the background was figured out, what was the clearance condition?
He knew most of the background and clues, yet he was still completely clueless about how to clear the instance.
This instance currently seemed to have only two key themes: domestic violence and birthday.
The domestic violence happened on the birthday, and most likely, Tong Binbin's birthday was forcibly interrupted before it finished.
Could it be... to finish celebrating the birthday?!
Xu Xi's excitement surged like finally solving a puzzle after tremendous effort—he had never felt so brilliant before!
Action now!
So in the eyes of the new viewers entering the live stream, they saw this rookie player casually pull out a drawing book from under the pillow, which contained a creepy drawing that was obviously a clue. Then he started staring blankly at the drawing. After spacing out for a while, he seemed to have thought of something, rushed excitedly out of the bedroom, ran to the dining table, and started searching for something.
[Am I still asleep? Can someone tell me what this rookie is doing?]
[Probably looking for clues? (unsure.jpg)]
[Don't tell me he actually figured something out from just one drawing?]
[It's possible, but why does he seem so familiar with this house?]
[It can't be his own home, right?]
[Maybe, haha.]
[So what exactly is he trying to do? Usually, rookies should observe the environment first, then cautiously search for clues. Why isn't this guy following the usual script?]
[He seems... to be celebrating a birthday???]
After searching for a long time, Xu Xi finally found a lighter in a cabinet. After lighting 9 candles, he started following the common birthday procedure: closing his eyes to make a wish, then blowing out the candles.
He hadn't wanted to make a wish initially—after all, it wasn't his birthday, and who would know if he made a wish or not?
But then he thought, what if making a wish was part of the clearance process and the game could detect whether he made one?
It was just making a wish; it wouldn't take much time. So he mimicked what Tong Binbin might wish for and made a wish for a peaceful home.
After making the wish, Xu Xi blew out all the candles in one breath.
He expected to receive the clearance notification, but instead, that familiar weakness washed over his body again, and he once again lost consciousness.
Leaving only the live stream viewers utterly bewildered.
They had initially thought this rookie was a rising star since he found clues right away. But then he spaced out inexplicably over the clues, ran off inexplicably to light candles and celebrate a birthday, and finally died inexplicably after finishing the birthday.
They just felt their heads were full of question marks.
...
Waking up for the sixth time, Xu Xi was quite composed now.
He leisurely crossed his legs, ready to start reviewing.
His first death was because he heard strange noises from the living room ceiling fan, turned back and walked closer, then was suddenly crushed by the falling ceiling fan.
His second death was because he heard chopping sounds in the kitchen, turned around to leave the kitchen, but got his head chopped off.
His third death was because he lost his sanity, ran madly out of the house, and was swallowed by the darkness outside.
The fourth was because he wanted to return to the guest bedroom to get that drawing book, but the moment he opened the door, he felt a wave of weakness and died.
The fifth was because he tried to finish the birthday celebration, but the moment he blew out the candles, he felt the same weakness and died.
Except for the third death which was worthless, the fourth and fifth deaths were identical in manner.
Although the first and second deaths were different, they seemed somewhat connected.
Thinking this far, Xu Xi slowly gained some insight.
Both the first and second deaths happened because he heard strange noises. In the first, he not only turned his head but also turned his body and walked back. In the second, he directly turned his body. So one of the death rules must be: don't turn your head AND turn your body!
As for why the fourth and fifth deaths were both from weakness, he had no clues for now.
He had thought he had gathered enough clues, but organizing them like this made him realize he had inadvertently overlooked the source of the strange noises and the locked master bedroom.
Xu Xi couldn't help but sigh.
Even though he died after blowing out the candles the fifth time, he still felt the clearance method must be related to celebrating the birthday somehow. Perhaps he was missing certain conditions that made the birthday process incomplete.
But what exactly was missing?
Xu Xi had no direction at all now. After pondering for a while without any ideas, he had to give up. Instead, he pulled out the drawing book from under the pillow and walked out of the bedroom again.
He hadn't noticed before, but during the fifth attempt, he realized that whenever he left the guest bedroom, the bedroom door would close. It probably closed in the previous attempts too after he left, but he hadn't paid attention to such details.
After all, once he left, he couldn't get back in temporarily, so it was better to take all valuable clues with him.
Xu Xi didn't dare sit on the sofa. Even though he knew the ceiling fan crushed him because he heard strange noises and turned back, he still had a shadow over it, afraid of being crushed again. So he sat on the chair by the dining table.
Not knowing how to break the situation for the moment, Xu Xi unconsciously let his thoughts wander while looking at the birthday cake on the table.
This God Hunt game was really challenging. If he didn't have this ability to revive after death, he would have been completely dead after being crushed by the ceiling fan the first time. He didn't think heaven would be kind enough to let him transmigrate again.
He had even died five times already, yet he was still helpless against this instance.
Xu Xi didn't dare imagine how players without revival abilities survived these perverted instances.
But because of that, most players who could survive probably had real skills and shouldn't be underestimated.
After random thoughts, Xu Xi suddenly felt that familiar wave of weakness.
Alright, continue dying.
Before losing consciousness, Xu Xi caught a final glimpse of the wall clock.
He suddenly realized something, but what awaited him was only darkness.
This time, very few viewers remained in the live stream. Xu Xi's actions—first sitting cross-legged to review, then spacing out by the dining table—made them think he had given up on clearing the instance and was just waiting to die.
Not many people wanted to watch such a negative rookie player. In the end, the last two or three viewers, without waiting for any reversal, only saw the live stream go black. They muttered a few words to themselves and left too.