I Became the Most Popular Character by Acting as a Villain in the Manga

Chapter 20

It seemed Qiao Zhanpeng was thoroughly dead.

It was like a dog that accidentally tore up the house, bringing the shredded pillow it had chewed to you, squatting in front of you, looking at you with those cute, pitiful puppy eyes, then lowering its head to admit guilt. What could I do? Of course, I forgave it.

With Qiao Zhanpeng dead, the Marine amusement park would also be doomed soon. Now, even if I found Qiao Zhanpeng's private cooperation documents with Jiang Yunyi, they would be useless.

At least I couldn't use them to threaten Jiang Yunyi.

Even if I handed the documents to the Old leader, Jiang Yunyi could brazenly twist the facts, claiming they were forged. After all, Qiao Zhanpeng was already dead and couldn't pop out to refute.

Still, it was better than nothing. At least I could examine the documents to see what Jiang Yunyi wanted to do.

Bai Xuechao couldn't help but sigh softly, quickly replying: [Is Qiao Jing crazy?? Never mind, if he's dead, he's dead. You execute Task 3.]

Although Qiao Jing ate people, he wouldn't go so far as to eat his own father, would he?

Bai Xuechao put down his phone, tucking it into the leather belt, and suddenly felt a glance at him. Following the gaze, he saw Ling Feng retracting his eyes.

According to my feeling, Ling Feng probably didn't see me sending a message; he only saw me tucking away my phone or adjusting my leather belt. But I wondered if such a small detail would make Ling Feng suspicious of me again, because while everyone was shocked by the corpse, I actually made small movements, as if I was indifferent to human life.

Especially since that person was just an innocent ordinary person, disemboweled and dead in a tragic manner. Even special ability users who had killed mutated species and were accustomed to bloody scenes would show expressions of reluctance.

Ah, it was hard enough to make Ling Feng lower his guard against me... But what was Ling Feng suddenly looking at me for?

Bai Xuechao looked at the expression on Ling Feng's face; he didn't seem uncomfortable with my behavior. His eyes only held pity for the innocent person who had died, so it should be fine.

"Oh, my dear guests. I don't have enough magic flowers for my magic potion. I'll go gather some. Please wait a moment." The Witch looked at them with a smile, waved at them, picked up a hoe, and left through the back door of the wooden house.

As soon as the Witch left, the little girl began to cry softly: "I can't take this anymore, will I also die here...?"

"Hot-pot, Ling Feng, let's quickly find the blind boxes." Xia Xiaoxi patted the sobbing little girl, took a deep breath, and looked at the corpse on the ground. "We can only wait until this situation is handled before we can come back to collect her body."

"Mhm," Zhou Chenhao responded with a serious expression.

Ling Feng silently began searching for blind boxes with the Kunpeng Marine Floating Island Park logo inside the house and quickly found one.

Bai Xuechao also joined them in searching for blind boxes. He saw the magic potion recipe written on a parchment scroll next to the magic cauldron. The description at the bottom stated that drinking this potion would result in immediate death. The instructions were placed there for tourists to find, allowing them to decide whether to drink it in the subsequent plot, but now, of course, they couldn't drink it.

The three tourists did not move to search. Instead, they all, by unspoken agreement, huddled in the spot furthest in a straight line from the corpse, watching the protagonist group and Bai Xuechao search for blind boxes.

As a simple interactive plot, the blind boxes were not difficult to find. Zhou Chenhao found the first blind box, and there were still about two minutes until the Witch returned.

Only the area near the corpse hadn't been searched.

Bai Xuechao voluntarily walked towards the horribly deceased corpse, rummaging through the clutter near it. The bloody smell continuously assailed his nostrils, making him frown slightly.

"Ugh," Xiao 6 displayed a 'vomiting rainbow beans' emoji, and thoughtfully asked, "Host, do you need it pixelated?"

Bai Xuechao said: "No need."

Xiao 6: "...Awesome!"

The protagonist group didn't leave him to search alone. They all came over, each taking responsibility for an area, perfectly covering one side.

Bai Xuechao glanced at the three tourists huddled on the side, seemingly inadvertently saying, "Speaking of which, those two staff members outside said they heard strange noises inside."

"Yes," Xia Xiaoxi was the first to respond, flipping open a stack of miscellaneous books.

"It should be the sound of special ability creatures moving."

"Not necessarily," Bai Xuechao lowered his blood-red eyes, staring at the corpse's fingernail cracks embedded with bloody wood chips. "She must have struggled before she died and would have called for help. And this wooden house is only about ten meters from the entrance. Even with good soundproofing, they should have heard her cries for help, right?"

"You mean—" Zhou Chenhao's eyes widened.

Those two staff members outside actually heard their colleague's cries for help, but perhaps they were too scared and didn't dare to come in and check?

The three tourists shivered. Someone let out a whimper.

"It's just a guess," Bai Xuechao opened a box printed with several bloody handprints, saw the long-strip shaped box inside, and said, "I found it."

The three blind boxes were placed together, varying in size and shape. Some were big, some were small, some were cubes, some were rectangular prisms, and their openings were all sealed with tape.

"Will this one be a weapon?" Zhou Chenhao pointed at the long-strip shaped blind box.

Just as he was about to pick it up, the back door opened with a "bang." He subconsciously recoiled his hand, and everyone except Bai Xuechao tensed up.

The Witch walked in, holding a bunch of purplish-black flowers: "I'm sorry, I hope my guests haven't waited too long~"

The Witch scattered the flowers aside, picked up the magic potion recipe that Bai Xuechao had seen earlier, and started adding ingredients according to the order written on it. One of the ingredients in the recipe was liver, so the Witch picked up the fresh, bloody liver from the plate and put it into the cauldron.

　　Whose liver was it?

Looking at the disemboweled corpse nearby, everyone had an answer in their hearts.

The tourists couldn't help but gag. The male tourist without glasses directly rushed towards the back door they were supposed to leave through later. He tried to push the door open, but after forcefully twisting the door handles several times, he despairingly found that the door wouldn't open.

The Witch poured half a basin of water into the cauldron and looked at him: "My dear guest, what are you trying to do?"

"N-nothing," the tourist quickly retreated a few steps, returning to the group.

The little girl next to him couldn't help but roll her eyes.

The protagonist group exchanged glances. Zhou Chenhao covered his mouth with his hand and whispered, "I just wanted to try if I could just run away."

Bai Xuechao stood behind the protagonist group, took out his phone, and looked at the messages.

　　[Stars: Seems so.]

　　A seemingly disjointed sentence.

Bai Xuechao looked at the previous message and locked the answer to the question "Is Qiao Jing crazy??" He had just casually cursed (?) or rather, expressed speechless exasperation.

Duan Xingzhi, however, thought he was asking a question and answered seriously.

But if even Duan Xingzhi thought he was crazy, what must he be like?

Bai Xuechao replied: [Is Qiao Jing downstairs? Is he holding the Special ability energy crystal?]

In just that short time, before the cauldron was even hot, the Witch took a spoon and began scooping her brewed potion into small bowls. Her ancient voice was laced with pleasure: "My magic potion is ready, guests, you may drink."

Xia Xiaoxi shook her head at the tourists, gesturing to them to, as previously agreed, not agree to drink and instead initiate the chase.

The Witch, holding the potion, first walked towards the tourist who had just tried to escape.

That person was currently standing at the very edge of the group, and thus was the first to be asked.

The Witch revealed a stiff, terrifying smile: "Will you drink my magic potion?"

That tourist looked at the Witch's face, then glanced at the hoe standing by the door. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to see bloodstains on the hoe. He was silent for a few seconds, then actually took the bowl containing the potion, trembling: "I'll drink it!"

"Hey!" Xia Xiaoxi stepped forward, reaching out to try and stop him.

Unexpectedly, that tourist gave no time for anyone to stop him and directly poured it down his throat with his eyes closed!

He didn't want to initiate a chase with the Witch and chose to drink such a bowl of something that no one would drink even if it weren't poisoned, let alone with raw liver inside.

"Ugh—" The tourist immediately started dry heaving after drinking it, his face turning red from the retching. Then, his eyes suddenly glazed over, and he collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The little girl beside him screamed and darted to the side.

After that tourist collapsed, purplish-black blood continuously gushed from his mouth, as if all his internal organs had melted into bloody water, and a pool of it quickly formed.

On that side, the Witch had already scooped the second bowl and walked towards the little girl: "Will you drink my magic potion?"

Zhou Chenhao, with a hearty smile that subtly carried anger, walked towards the Witch. If this were a manga, black mist would probably be billowing behind him. He actively took the potion that the Witch was offering to the little girl, his voice clear: "It's so delicious, you should drink it yourself."

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly raised his hand, gripped the Witch's chin, and poured the potion into the Witch's mouth.

Xia Xiaoxi and Ling Feng immediately followed. One swiftly used vines to trap the Witch's limbs, and the other stepped forward to help hold down the Witch, who possessed astonishing strength. Xia Xiaoxi's vines were instantly snapped, and Zhou Chenhao and Ling Feng were also flung aside by the enraged Witch, rolling on the ground.

The Witch picked up the hoe standing by the door, raised it high, and opened her mouth to let out a hoarse roar.

At that moment, a ball of water, encapsulating the potion, flew into the Witch's open mouth.

Everyone froze for a moment. Then the protagonist group realized it was Bai Xuechao who did it.

The Witch immediately dropped the hoe in her hand, anxiously clawing at her throat, but then stiffly collapsed to the ground. Purplish-black blood gushed from her mouth just like from the previous tourist, and then her entire body disintegrated into blood-red light particles, dissipating into the air.

So, this was the scene when creatures created by special ability died.

"That's awesome!" Zhou Chenhao turned and rushed over to embrace Bai Xuechao, happily patting him twice on the back with force.

Bai Xuechao, unable to bear the force, "Cough cough cough..."

"Be gentler!" Xia Xiaoxi slapped Zhou Chenhao on the back. "Can't you see he's uncomfortable?!"

Zhou Chenhao let go and apologized with a laugh: "My apologies, I got too excited."

"It's fine, cough cough," Bai Xuechao was still gently coughing.

Ling Feng said: "Let's get ready to go."

The group picked up the three blind boxes they had found. As they prepared to leave, Xia Xiaoxi couldn't help but look at the tourist's corpse on the ground, a hint of self-reproach in her eyes. Perhaps she felt that if she had been a little quicker, she could have prevented him from drinking it.

Watching someone die right in front of her was indeed making her feel somewhat distressed.

Bai Xuechao walked to Xia Xiaoxi's side, his pigeon-blood ruby-like eyes cast on the tourist's corpse, his long eyelashes lowered, his face expressionless.

His clear, cold voice, like crisp spring water in the chill of early spring, was pleasant to the ear yet held a hint of coldness. His tone was like an unruffled water surface: "Good advice is wasted on those destined to die. He didn't follow the plan you told him, so what happened now is his own doing."

Hearing this, Ling Feng looked at him.

Bai Xuechao's lips curled slightly, and he asked with a faint smile: "Was what I said wrong?"

"...No," Ling Feng said. "Let's go."

Of the seven people, six remained. They left through the back of the wooden house, passing through the Witch's Back Garden towards the second floor.

Along the way, many venomous snakes, lizards, and spiders crawled on the ground or in the trees. However, they were only slightly larger than normal, looking more frightening, but they weren't stronger or anything, so the protagonist group easily led the people through the garden and arrived at the staircase leading to the second floor.

As they walked upstairs, Xia Xiaoxi explained: "The second floor is the Vampire's Cemetery. After going up, there are coffins everywhere. We need to open them to find the key to the next floor. Coffins might reveal vampires, or they might reveal silver objects, which can be used against vampires. If we can't find it, we can also use the Witch's prop blind box."

The little girl added: "There are many bat props inside, which will probably also turn real."

Bai Xuechao followed at the very back, replying to messages.

[Stars: Downstairs. Didn't take it.]

Bai Xuechao raised an eyebrow.

Qiao Jing didn't take the Special ability energy crystal? Then how could he raise his level?

He thought for a moment, then replied: [He didn't take it? Did he eat it?]

The group reached the second floor. As soon as they went up, cold wind blew in gusts. The entire floor was pitch black, with windows sealed off by thick black cloth. On an iron art shelf at the staircase entrance, there was a candle-shaped lamp emitting a faint light. Several unlit candle lamps were placed nearby, all for tourists to use for illumination.

Zhou Chenhao directly used his phone's flashlight for illumination.

"We might have to open many coffins to find the key later, and a vampire might appear first," Xia Xiaoxi suggested. "How about we open a prop blind box first?"

Ling Feng also agreed: "Mhm."

Zhou Chenhao had wanted to open a blind box for a long time. Hearing this, he pointed at the long-strip shaped one that Bai Xuechao had found: "Then I'll open that one! Looking at its shape, it might be a weapon or something."

"Alright, let's open that one," Xia Xiaoxi took out the long-strip shaped blind box separately.

Bai Xuechao was messaging.

[Stars: I don't know. I heard Qiao Zhanpeng ask Qiao Jing if he couldn't adapt to the Special ability energy crystal, and to take it out quickly. Probably.]

Bai Xuechao thought, if what Duan Xingzhi heard was correct, then Qiao Jing must have eaten the Special ability energy crystal.

In that case, Qiao Jing was the first person to eat a Special ability energy crystal.

Could Qiao Jing's madness and eating Qiao Zhanpeng be a side effect of eating the Special ability energy crystal?

Just as Bai Xuechao was thinking, he suddenly heard Zhou Chenhao let out a sound: "Whoa!"

He looked over.

Zhou Chenhao was holding a star magic wand full of girlish charm. When he pressed the button on the wand, the star emitted a bright light, and the sound effects of a magical girl transforming in an anime played.

Bai Xuechao: "..."