Chapter Twenty: Vacation Villa

Her interruption made him swallow his complaints.

"Based on the clues I have so far, yes," he replied, then added, "Though I admit, it sounds a bit hard to believe."

It wasn't that unbelievable—at least Su Man didn't find it absurd. She simply offered him four words: "The human heart is unfathomable."

The real problem now was that Zhou Bin was already dead, and Xiao Liang knew nothing more.

He had only stumbled upon a basement beneath the villa, and in that basement, he found a note that read, "If I die, it must have been Zhou Bin who killed me."

That was all—there was nothing else.

"But actually, if you wanted to question Zhou Bin, it's not entirely impossible," Xiao Liang said, catching Su Man's attention once again.

"After all, this is a horror game. Using some kind of spirit summoning technique isn't over the line, is it?"

Su Man's expression was blank. It was over the line—because she didn't know how.

"I do know how," Xiao Liang admitted, "but this spirit summoning is not something to use lightly. Once I use it, I won't be able to move for two hours. My life would be at risk. I... It's not that I don't trust you, but... well..."

He trailed off, certain Su Man would understand his meaning.

"Then teach me. I'll do it," Su Man said. It wasn't that she trusted Xiao Liang, but she had a resurrection card. If she could pick up a new skill and useful information at the same time, she felt it was a fair trade.

"You wouldn't be able to learn it even if I taught you," Xiao Liang protested, exasperated. "It's a reward from the game. When you complete the game, you'll get a skill—it doesn't need to be learned."

He himself hadn't learned it.

"Just teach me anyway. We're supposed to be working together, aren't we? Summoning Zhou Bin's spirit would benefit you too, wouldn't it?"

She made such a compelling case that Xiao Liang couldn't think of a way to refuse.

"I'll draw it out for you, then. Watch if you like," he said, and began sketching something on the floor out of thin air.

At first, Su Man thought he was making a fool of her, but gradually, something truly began to manifest on the ground.

"Phew, that was no small feat," Xiao Liang said when he finished, plopping to the floor and panting hard. "Just drawing the summoning circle, without even activating it, took half my strength. All you have to do is place the name of the person you wish to summon in the center. If you have something of theirs, even better—it makes the process more efficient."

"You've got his identity card, right? For the last step, put the identity card on the circle and drip a bit of your blood onto it. Whether it works or not is up to fate."

Seeing Su Man's puzzled look, he added, "I forgot to mention, it's not guaranteed to work. You could go through all this trouble and still get nothing—it's all luck."

That was another reason he didn't like using this technique—it was too unreliable and often useless.

He joked, "Just put your identity card there, and if you get killed while you're paralyzed, at least someone will know who you were."

But Su Man ignored his nonsense and simply asked, "Does the circle have to be this big? What did you use to draw it?"

"Mental energy. You wouldn't understand even if I explained. It doesn't have to be this big, but if it's too small, you can't draw it precisely."

"Could it be simplified?"

"Of course not! This is the method given by the game!"

Su Man made no comment, but inwardly, she disagreed. If you don't try, how will you know what's possible?

"You should go back and rest a bit," she said. "It looks like things will be quiet for a while."

She sent Xiao Liang back to his room and settled into the living room to scribble and sketch.

But she didn't know how to harness mental energy and couldn't even draw the most basic pattern.

In the end, she simply took a notebook and a pen and started sketching there.

When dawn broke, Xiao Liang emerged from his room and was startled by the pile of discarded sketches. "You were trying to draw it in a notebook? That's just a waste of time. There's no way that will work," he said, then hesitated. "Right?"

"It didn't work," Su Man replied lightly, tossing the notebook aside as she headed out. "Let's split up to look for clues. Be careful."

"By the way, Su Man, where's that man named Zhou Yan? I haven't seen him at all," Xiao Liang asked, scratching his head as he finally remembered the neglected Zhou Yan. "Come to think of it, since last night, no one's seen him."

"He left."

"What? He really left? How? Are you serious?"