The abandoned villa deep in the mountains, in which the Players were trapped, consisted of three levels—two floors with rooms and the flat, open-air rooftop area.
Now that they understood the rules of the game, their search efforts proceeded at a much snappier pace than before.
In a breezy two hours, they swept the second floor and the rooftop. Every nook and cranny in the building was thoroughly inspected by the two teams, led by Bai Zhi and Mustachio, respectively.
Their search yielded several more body parts to add to the two they had already found—the head they had found in the refrigerator and the arm under the bed.
Nevertheless, when they reconvened in the living room on the first floor, they discovered that they were still one body part short of a full cadaver. The head, the torso, left leg, left arm, right leg, and... those were all the parts they managed to find. The missing right arm was nowhere to be seen.
After looking at each other for some minutes in awkward silence, it was Late Night Kitty who raised her hand and meekly offered a suggestion.
"Uh... Could our dead friend have been disabled before... you know? Maybe they lost an arm in a car accident, or... they were born a bit… disadvantaged?"
"Nonono, if we want to summon Exodia the Forbidden One, the Sealed Right Arm is absolutely necessary." Bai Zhi looked grave as he carefully lifted the lid on his cup ramen.
"Ex-who-dia? What are you talking— Hey! Where'd you get that cup ramen?!" Temperance Gentleheart had turned to find Bai Zhi coolly slicing some hot dogs into his noodle broth, and it was her turn to stare agog, just as Late Night Kitty had done earlier when he conjured up the popcorn.
"Using brainpower burns calories. I have a weak Constitution, so I need to replenish my energy regularly." said Bai Zhi calmly as he tapped the side of his head. "And Exodia the Forbidden One is a super-special win condition that can only be achieved if you collect five specific cards."
"If it's replenishing energy you want, you should be eating high-calorie foods like a nice chocolate—all this cheap swill contains is empty calories, how do you expect to replenish anything from it?!" Temperance Gentleheart exclaimed.
She was feeling quite distressed, not least because of the incident on the rooftop. While she and Mustachio had been conducting their search there, a bolt of lightning had lit up the sky at the worst possible time and caused her to clearly see her reflection in a nearby puddle of rainwater.
One of Mustachio's Bamboo Doll clones had taken the fatal hit, saving her life, but a new set of black finger markings had surfaced on her left calf. It was a chilling sight.
Meanwhile, the stubborn black markings that resisted any attempt to remove them were having other detrimental effects on her. For example, her Constitution stat, which had been 10, now showed the numbers 10 (-2)." The negative number was increasing at a steady rate of one point every hour.
If they did nothing to stop it, when the negative number reached "-5", Temperance Gentleheart would lose control of her limbs. It did not take much imagination to know what would happen to someone who couldn't run in that deathtrap of a villa.
Daybreak was still four hours away. In other words, Temperance would be paralyzed during the last hour of this quest, which, as everyone knew, was when survival quests like this were at their deadliest. It was only natural for her to be in a bad temper.
"I hate candy," said Bai Zhi disdainfully as the last of his hot dog went into the noodle broth. "More importantly, it's now clear that the challenge in this quest lies in locating the missing Right Arm of the Forbidden One. I have some knowledge of human anatomy—learned it all myself online—and judging from the cross section of the cut and the degree of damage to the bone, the deceased was dismembered by a rather dull axe. Therefore, the missing right arm does exist."
Late Night Kitty raised her hand. "Uh... Can I just say how weird it is to randomly go online and learn about human anatomy?" She was hugging the portable speaker, seemingly trying to embed herself into the couch from the way she sat. It made her look small and helpless.
"I was bored out of my mind." Bai Zhi said with a straight face.
Mustachio coughed gently to establish his presence. "The black markings on Temperance's neck and calf appear to be made by a right hand. Perhaps we missed a spot in our search. I propose we do another sweep, but in her current condition, it's extremely dangerous for Temperance to risk another attack. Hence, Kitty, you stay here with Temperance in the living room while I—" He hesitated briefly. "—that is, Black&White and I take another stab at searching the villa. I have two more Bamboo Doll clones on me and a Constitution of 11, so even if we get attacked, we'll survive."
"11?! Sheesh, I only have 8." Late Night Kitty looked green with envy as she sank deeper into the couch.
"Oh..."
Bai Zhi looked at Late Night Kitty's petite frame, then looked at his own scrawny 6 points of Constitution and wisely decided to keep his mouth shut, except to slurp more noodles.
"It's not difficult to grow your basic stats! Nothing to get jealous about." Mustachio shot a glance at the suddenly quiet person busily eating his cup noodles, and he decided to start a lecture of his own.
"As Players, we can have two types of attribute points, or stat points—basic stats and growth stats. Basic stats can be quickly improved through daily training, while growth stats are the bonus points awarded upon leveling up."
"Ah... even so, we only get one point per level up, so isn't that like I'm starting several levels below you?" Late Night Kitty said morosely. "I know we can improve our basic stats through diligent training, but that takes forever! It's been three months since Players came into existence, right? Even if I were the first Player and I spent all my time training, three months is hardly enough time for my body to achieve peak human performance... I'm sure my stats must be the lowest among everyone here."
Bai Zhi kept his head down and ate his noodles in silence.
Mustachio grinned. "Verified Players need worry about no such thing. After reaching Level 2 and becoming Verified, Players get access to the Shop, as you know. Of the ten items in the Shop that get refreshed every month, one is always the same item, a temporary buff that increases the basic Strength, Dexterity and Constitution of a Player up to the maximum value humanly possible, in exchange for some Coins. With it, forget someone with 8 Constitution like you, even a half-cripple with 6 points of Constitution can enjoy being at 15 for a time."
At this, Bai Zhi, who had seemed absorbed in his meal, paused just to give Mustachio a piercing stare.
