The villa was in a mess.
Bullet holes from the gunfight added a bloody tinge to the printed wallpaper.
The burly man with the tattoo on his arm grinned as Soul walked in: "You worry too much."
Soul raised an eyebrow.
The man with the tattooed arms sneered, "What do you mean by not hurting the innocent people who come to the banquet? Nothing here is simple."
Hearing this, Suer looked at the other trainees who were forced into the corner and shivered.
"We were all instigated by Lin Qian to come and help." One of them hurriedly testified.
Su Er raised the corner of his lips: "What can I help you with?"
The person who had spoken fell silent, naturally helping to kill. When one's identity is newly awakened, one always feels pretentious and eager to associate with powerful forces in an attempt to secure a bright future.
Ignoring him, Sur looked around and finally saw the hired hacker youth at the bay window.
"It's not Lin Qian who's connected to the three major forces," the young man said, jumping down from the bay window. "It's Chairman Wan Baolin's second son, Lin Chenghe."
Su Er was not surprised that Lin Qian was just a cover. This was evident from the fact that she never tried to hide her true intentions and was eager to attract all the attention.
After thinking for a moment, he walked over. At this moment, his porcelain doll-like face had a forced calmness.
Su Er opened his mouth and exposed the other party's plan: "You want to delay time so that you can wait for rescue."
Lin Qian subconsciously pursed her dry lips.
Su Er's voice was very gentle: "Tell me everything you know, and I will let you go."
"Xiao Qian, he's lying to you!" Lin Qian's sister Lin Su immediately shouted, "Don't be fooled!"
"We're good at forcing confessions." The man with the tattooed arms asked, "Remove the arm or the leg?"
Su Er shook his head: "They want to kill me. I only asked you to come here to protect myself."
The man with tattooed arms scoffed disdainfully, "What a frivolous kindness."
Su Er half-knelt before Lin Qian. "Gunfight, the chairman's daughter... these words are bound to be hot news. With such a big fuss, the news of your recent brutal assault on students and teachers will sooner or later be exposed."
Lin Qian's eyes flickered.
Su Er: "Do you think the person behind the scenes will use the name of rescue to kill without any evidence?"
Chairman Wan Baolin's eldest son is from his first wife, while the remaining three children are from his current wife. Their relationship is acrimonious. Lin Qian is well aware that if the inheritance falls to her eldest brother, her future will be difficult. Therefore, she always obeys her second brother's orders.
"It was Second Brother," Lin Qian said after a long silence, closing her eyes tightly. "It was Second Brother who told me to do this."
Lin Su tried to stop her sister, but failed every time she tried to rush over.
Soul: "Why?"
Lin Qian shook her head. "I don't know. My second brother only said he wanted to protect Wan Baolin's assets." After a pause, she continued, "But he did mention that he would lead Wan Baolin to new heights of glory."
Su Er took out the deceased player's information and pointed at the host: "Who killed this person?"
Lin Qian whispered, "My sister and I are only responsible for dealing with..."
"Xiao Qian!" Lin Su scolded: "Are you crazy?"
After the shock, Lin Qian's face was filled with indifference. "He's right. Second Brother will send someone to kill us when the opportunity arises."
That person values Wan Baolin more than anything else and will definitely try his best to kill all the kidnappers and hostages.
"We are only responsible for dealing with students. My second brother hired someone to kill the teacher."
Carefully observing every change in her expression and making sure that the possibility of her lying was very small, Soul stood up.
Who killed the host? That was the game's assigned task. I still hadn't received a notification, which meant the game still required me to find the actual perpetrators.
Su Er tended to think of a similar siege tonight on Mr. Pu Liu, when several forces led by vampires joined forces to attack. Unfortunately, in this copy he did not dare to be as cunning as he would have been in randomly guessing the real culprit of the stamp ghost murder.
Games also have a bottom line. It is better to restrain yourself after being warned once.
After pondering for a few seconds, he walked to the door and called Ji Heng to explain the situation.
It was a bit noisy over there, and Ji Heng's voice sounded a little unclear.
Soul: "Where are you?"
"Lincheng and home." Ji Heng: "I got some interesting information from Zhao Banjin."
Su Er: "It seems I am a step late."
Ji Heng: "You can think of it as hiring me to do something."
Su Er said "Oh", and expected that with the other party's methods, he just had to stay quietly in the villa and wait for the result.
Before hanging up, Ji Heng asked, "Where were the other players sent?"
"Another city." Su Er said calmly, "I won't be back for a while."
His purpose was very clear when he hired the helicopter rescue. The greatest benefit when the points were settled must be in the hands of himself and Ji Heng.
If there is something good, share it with everyone. This is not allowed in the dungeon.
·
After hanging up the phone, the smile on Ji Heng's face disappeared the moment he turned around: "Are you not going to tell me yet?"
Lin Chenghe is a cruel and ruthless person, and he will not be easily frightened.
Ji Heng did not come alone. Lin Chenghe's residence was impregnable, and it would be difficult for him to break in alone. Seeing that the other party was ready to fight to the death, he simply gave Mr. Pu Liu some space to play.
Mr. Pu Liu also had little interest in the interrogation and looked into the shadows outside the window.
A laughter that sounded like both sadness and joy was heard.
The loyal tomb-guarding servant suddenly appeared in the villa, his eyes red as he excitedly said, "I'm good at it!"
The fingers turned into withered vines and drilled into the tendons and veins. Lin Chenghe let out a howl, feeling that even being cut into pieces by a thousand knives would be better than this.
The shrill screams continued, but the interest in the tomb-guarding servants gradually faded. Thinking back to when they had helped Su'er remove his eyeballs, they had deliberately let the branches wander around that person's heart, causing Su'er to faint from the pain without even a cry.
That's interesting!
This one in front of me... is really useless.
"I say." No matter how cruel the pampered young man was, he could not stand this kind of torture. He gritted his teeth and weakly uttered two words.
The loyal servant guarding the tomb retracted the spreading branches.
Lin Chenghe's face was pale, with large drops of cold sweat sliding down his cheek. "Sanhua and Qiye from the Vampire Family, Cheng Guo from the Werewolf Organization, Wang Ying from the Illuminati, and Qian Xiaohu all participated in that siege."
The loyal tomb-guarding servant had a strange smile on his miserable face: "Are you sure there's nothing missing?"
Lin Chenghe shook his head exhaustedly.
At the end, he suddenly sneered, "What have I done wrong? According to the original prophecy, Wan Baolin's treasure would be stolen, and the stock price would plummet as a result, leading to an unprecedented crisis."
In the intermittent images he saw, he vaguely heard some people discussing words like "mission" and "stealing food from the tiger's mouth"... A group of strange outsiders, who caused property crisis for the purpose of stealing, didn't they deserve to die?
Zhao Banjin, who had been forcibly brought here and suffered torture, now slumped in the corner like mud. Hearing this, he sneered, "I was inexplicably dragged into this game. To gain freedom, I'm collaborating with you to fight against the 'evil forces'. Is that wrong?"
If this were put in a history textbook, he would be written as the first person to blow the horn of freedom and sacrifice himself!
Lin Chenghe fell silent.
After getting in touch with Zhao Banjin, I learned some secrets about the game. The winner is the king and the loser is the bandit. There is really nothing much to say now.
From the first day he entered the dungeon, Ji Heng hadn't spent any time dwelling on right or wrong, winning or losing. He was more concerned with gaining valuable benefits. He listened silently to the two's expressions, then suddenly turned his sharp gaze to Zhao Banjin: "How did you two get together?"
Zhao Banjin was silent for a moment, then took a deep breath and said, "In the foreseeable future, we'll see him and I discussing a collaboration. Although it's only a snippet, once you get Wan Baolin's information, you can easily search online and find out who he is."
In fact, Zhao Banjin had always had doubts in his heart. Except for the last scene of Soul leaving the game, which was predicted by his own ability, the other clips were all seen in dreams.
In his dream he saw a female ghost, and then he discovered more useful information.
...Is it possible that those things in the dream were deliberately shown to me by someone in order to strengthen my belief in cooperation? But what was the purpose of doing so?
Zhao Banjin's pupils trembled suddenly, and he suddenly thought of Su Er's words -
I was brought into the game by the Prophet.
He was courting his own death, which made it seem as if Sur and Yugi were on the same front. Once he failed, it meant that his ability of prophecy would not have much impact on Yugi.
"So that's how it is..." After figuring it out, Zhao Banjin's body trembled, and he opened his mouth to reveal everything.
"As a traitor, the game will definitely make you disappear," Ji Heng's voice came at this moment, neither light nor heavy. "But you will most likely die in the next dungeon. You still have a chance to return to the real world and arrange your funeral."
He patted the other person's shoulder and said with rare care and comfort: "Take advantage of this time to spend more time with your family."
Zhao Banjin felt a chill in his heart. He knew what this sentence was implying... In this dungeon, there was no restriction on fratricide. He would surely die at Ji Heng's hands before he could tell everything. But if he remained silent, he could see his family one last time.
His nails almost dug into his skin, Zhao Banjin clenched his fists and finally chose to remain silent.
The loyal servant guarding the tomb smelled something fishy and came over: "What were you about to say?"
Noticing that Zhao Banjin unconsciously glanced at Ji Heng, he quickly said, "Tell me and I can keep you safe."
"If I tell you the truth, you'll just kill me, and then smile and say you actually believe what the host said."
Even though he was exposed on the spot, the loyal servant guarding the tomb was not embarrassed at all and was thinking of other ways to make people talk.
Ji Heng didn't give him the chance and repeated the list of people to be killed that Lin Cheng had given him earlier.
The game prompt sound came soon——
[The main quest of 'Who killed the host' has been completed. Thank you for your support of the game.
The transmission will be automatically carried out in ten seconds——
nineteen...]
As the countdown began, Zhao Banjin raised his eyelids and looked at Ji Heng: "No wonder you didn't go to the villa with Su Er just now."
I'm afraid he knew long ago that he might leak information that would be detrimental to Suer.
"It's a pity that I can't see it. What will be the final outcome for people like you?"
Just as Ji Heng said, there was no way he would come out alive from the next copy.
·
A transit station can sometimes give people the illusion of salvation.
Coming out of the dungeon and standing at the transfer station again, Sur felt a little relieved.
However, it lasted only three seconds before he noticed a number of people standing around him, all looking at him unkindly. One even mocked him, saying, "You're worthy of being a game 'slacker'. You always manage to walk out of the dungeon unscathed."
Su Er took a look and confirmed that he didn't recognize him.
The person who spoke became increasingly indignant as he spoke: "Do you know that this kind of behavior will only encourage more people to kowtow to the game for profit? If this continues, what will be the result?"
No one would think of resisting, just like a child abducted by a bad person, who would sell out other children who wanted to escape in order to get a good meal.
Sur raised his eyebrows and was about to speak, but someone beat him to it.
"Fang Rongzhi." A voice came from not far away: "It's a good name."
Ji Heng came closer from afar.
Fang Rongzhi's eyes faltered for a moment, but he quickly insisted, "Why would Guifen take in a black sheep?"
Ji Heng didn't answer. He looked around, smiled, and said, "Are you all here to 'uphold justice'?"
They were all smart people, and no one jumped out immediately.
"That means they're here to watch," Ji Heng defined it for himself, smiling. "It just so happens that there are so many people here right now, so there's no need to post individual trades. I'm offering an item. Anyone who can find a way to deal with Mr. Fang in the dungeon can claim it for free."
No matter how useless the item is, if used properly it can save your life in the dungeon.
In an instant, Fang Rongzhi felt the covetous gazes of the people around him, and his expression changed: "You..."
Ji Heng interrupted him, his smile faded: "He only raises the butcher knife against his own people. He will only be a disaster if he is kept here."
There's competition within dungeons, sometimes even limited spots, and this life-or-death struggle makes it impossible for players to unite. But if a truly powerful player emerges who can challenge the game, players will naturally have new considerations.
As for whether to kneel down and "lick" or not, it has no effect at all.
To put it bluntly, if you can get an item by kneeling down and kowtowing, all players will rush to kneel down.
Survival is the first priority.
The atmosphere was so tense that someone finally stepped in to smooth things over. "He was just angry for a moment," he said with a smile. "Young people tend to get angry quickly."
"Angry?" Ji Heng glanced at Fang Rongzhi.
The latter's eyes flinched somewhat during the contact.
"I think he's been blinded by jealousy."
The person who came out to smooth things over stepped aside awkwardly, unable to refute this statement.
As a newcomer, how could Suer not be envied for getting so many achievement points?
Especially for some players who are still struggling in the dungeon, it is inevitable that their mentality will be unbalanced.
Ji Heng turned around and said calmly, "The promises I made have always worked."
Fang Rongzhi yelled angrily, constantly accusing Shuimu Lisu of kneeling down and "licking" the game, but this time everyone moved away at the same time.
"No need for sympathy," Ji Heng walked up to Su Er and said, "This guy wants you to become a living target for other players to attack in the dungeon."
He just changed the target.
"I also have props." Facing those calculating eyes on the other side, Fang Rongzhi said hurriedly.
After finishing speaking, he realized that he had said the wrong thing. Isn't this inviting people to take advantage of the game for props?
Why is this happening?
According to his idea, it should be Su Er who experienced these couples!
For a few minutes, Su Er had not paid attention to Fang Rongzhi and suddenly covered his chest with his hands.
Ji Heng frowned: "Uncomfortable?"
Sur shook his head, clearly feeling that his heartbeat was too fast at the moment he was protected.
In the past, he would never have paid attention to such a small detail, but the phrase "an unintentional act of planting a willow tree may lead to a forest of willows" kept lingering in his mind.
Mr. Pu Liu suggested that the game play the dog-licking speech as a promotional video, which led to him being targeted. At the critical moment, Ji Heng appeared, and his heart began to beat fast...
It seemed as if everything had come true.
Su Er took several deep breaths, reminding himself that everything was a conspiracy and he must keep himself under control.
Ji Heng saw his expression was changing unpredictably and asked, "What happened?"
Surla took the man aside and told him everything he had just considered.
Ji Heng was stunned at first, then he couldn't help but chuckle and said, "So you have such a cute idea."
After saying that, his eyes fixed, and he actually praised someone for being cute?
Their eyes met, and Su Er quickly grasped the other's wrist tightly: "Hold on! We must not fall for Mr. Pu Liu's trick!"
It was so loud and clear, as if a shocking conspiracy had been uncovered.
Ji Heng looked up at the sky...even more adorable.
The gray sky suddenly changed color. The moment the dark clouds gathered, Ji Heng's expression returned to normal. He narrowed his eyes and said, "Maybe the game will give me the achievement points I owed from the last dungeon."
"...Can I refuse?"
Most of the achievement points are related to the host, but neither reporting nor being rescued from the police station is a glorious deed.
The cruel reality once again proves that matter cannot be changed by will.
A cold yet familiar mechanical voice rang out the moment the sky was completely covered by cumulus clouds:
[Congratulations to player Su'er for achieving the achievement point 'Report Zhou Paopi by Real Name'.]
Seeing that the dark clouds had not dissipated, Su Er's heart skipped a beat. Sure enough, the next moment the prompt sound continued:
[Congratulations to player Su'er for achieving the achievement point 'Just give birth, don't worry about raising'.]
[Congratulations to player Su'er for achieving the achievement point 'Rich Socialite'.]