"You don't need to consider me," Fatty waved his hands hurriedly. "My heart is bigger than you think."

"Is that so..." Chen Ran narrowed his eyes at Fatty, who immediately looked away. The pressure from Chen Ran's eyes was no less than the doctor's.

Fatty roughly understood why the doctor was doing this.

The doctor was worried that Chen Ran would suddenly attack him from behind while he was observing the clues, so he simply pulled Chen Ran along to watch with him.

Su Xiaoxiao was a little inaccurate.

There wasn't just one painting on the stone pillar, but many, depicting different scenes that were interconnected. Fatty became engrossed in watching them.

The strokes used to depict the people were relatively rough, but it was still possible to see that the artist had a certain foundation. The composition of each painting was very clear and easy to understand.

Overall, Fatty felt that the artist had completed the series of paintings under extreme fear or urgency.

There were a total of nine paintings, arranged in a grid. All the first eight paintings were clear, but only the ninth... Fatty blinked. It seemed like it was only half-painted.

It was an incomplete picture.

Roughly two-thirds of the area on the upper left side of the painting was missing, but in the lower right corner, Fatty swallowed and walked around Chen Ran to take a closer look. There... was a person.

A person dressed strangely.

Curled up, hiding in a very small corner.

And... it should be a woman.

The moment this impression appeared, Fatty couldn't help but shiver. He immediately thought of the crazy old woman hiding in the lighthouse.

But... when he concentrated and looked at the last painting again, that strange sense of familiarity actually disappeared.

The painting representing the person was just a few strokes, not even as good as a kindergarten child's stick figure. You couldn't even tell the gender from it, let alone the clothes.

But just a moment ago, he was sure, he confirmed that the person in the painting was the old woman.

How is that possible?!

Fatty breathed heavily. His large body trembled. He subconsciously tried to control himself from swallowing, but he couldn't.

He didn't know when this painting was left, but judging from the degree of wind erosion, it must have been at least several hundred years old. That old woman... she... how could she possibly...?

Could it be that she had already appeared at that time?

Then... is she still human...?

As soon as Fatty came back to his senses, he wanted to remind the doctor about the old woman, but he couldn't speak clearly with Chen Ran around. Now the doctor and Chen Ran were arm in arm, like conjoined twins.

"Brother Hao, what have you found?" Chen Ran asked, narrowing his eyes.

Jiang Cheng stood up, thought for a moment, and said, "It's not clear yet. I think we should go upstairs and take a look."

Hearing that the doctor planned to go upstairs, the hairs on Fatty's back stood on end. He could almost predict that Su Xiaoxiao's entrustment had failed. Su An was probably gone.

No, he had mysteriously disappeared like the biker girl and Liang Long.

These were all related to the old woman.

Once the train of thought was opened, there was a feeling of complete understanding. The things he couldn't figure out before now seemed to have reasonable explanations.

He and the doctor had discussed why only the old woman survived the shipwreck, and... according to the doctor's understanding of nightmares, everyone should have had a similar chance of survival when they were selected for a nightmare mission.

How could there be a second-time player?

This was inconsistent with the deduced nightmare mechanism.

Now there were answers to these questions.

The old woman wasn't a player at all. In a more accurate sense, she should be a very special NPC, so special that she could indiscriminately attack all players.

Thinking of the way the old woman stared at him the night before, and the scarlet tongue that licked his lips, Fatty couldn't help but tremble again. His two sausage-like legs were about to give way.

"Ouch!"

The next second, the frightened Fatty jumped half a meter high.

When he came back to his senses and turned around, Jiang Cheng's left arm was around Chen Ran's neck, and his right hand was extended... still in the motion of poking Fatty.

"You..."

"Let's go," Jiang Cheng said casually to Fatty, "Let's go up and take a look. You... just follow behind us."

"Okay... okay."

Following obediently behind Jiang Cheng and Chen Ran, Fatty now had a clearer understanding of the struggle between the two. The streamlined muscles on Jiang Cheng's arm around Chen Ran's neck bulged, as if he could strangle the latter's neck in the next second.

Chen Ran was about the same, with one hand seemingly intimately around Jiang Cheng's waist.

But judging from the veins that appeared on the back of his hand, it was clear that he was hiding his strength. If he suddenly exerted force, it would probably be no less powerful than the palm strike on Su Xiaoxiao.

Taking a deep breath, he also secretly perked up. It was probably only a matter of time before the two sides tore off their masks, and the victory or defeat would be in an instant.

After all, once the doctor was defeated, as long as Chen Ran had a breath left, it would be difficult for him to be his opponent.

The stairs were relatively dark. He didn't know where the previous torches had been thrown. He followed cautiously behind the two. The stairs were spiral, with a dark abyss in the middle. Everyone tried to stay as close to the wall as possible.

Fatty was also seriously considering the possibility of joining forces with the doctor to throw Chen Ran, this time bomb, down.

The hypocritical pleasantries came to an end. Jiang Cheng and Chen Ran just walked forward slowly and steadily together, neither of them speaking again.

The atmosphere was a bit tense for a while.

As they got closer to the lighthouse, the vague illusion of the truth in Fatty's heart lessened a lot.

On the way back from Black Rock Town the night before, the doctor had told him some of the problems he had discovered.

But at that time, Fatty didn't have any ideas, so he just listened out of curiosity. It wasn't until now that Fatty realized how terrifying the doctor was.

Among the questions raised by the doctor, a few were the most memorable to him.

According to the doctor, after they were invited to sit down in Black Rock Town, there were 4 empty seats besides the blond man who was the town chief.

In other words, the "people" in Black Rock Town defaulted to having 7 "guests".

How did this number 7 come about?

Was it just a coincidence?

After all, the old woman and the biker girl stayed in the lighthouse, and there were only 6 people who had appeared in the townspeople's eyes.

The second time, there were only the doctor, himself, Chen Ran, and Liang Long.

In the end, only the three of them kept the appointment.

But what if... the people in Black Rock Town learned about their total number through some kind of record, or some unknown means?

To guess even deeper, the townspeople not only knew their total number, but also... knew that one of them was not a human, so there was no question of preparing food for her.

Thinking of the old woman staring at him greedily, Fatty's pupils shrank, and a guess slowly emerged in his mind.

It was very terrifying.