Although several of them felt some confusion about Lin Zhen’s situation, they all understood that dealing with the people behind them was the most important task. After Yan Wei spoke, Lin Zhen and the others had no objections and followed him down another path.
The entire castle had three or four levels, with corridors branching off in all directions, creating a complex terrain. There were several paths leading in the same direction, and the complexity was no less than that of the Jungle Maze outside the castle. It wasn’t difficult for Yan Wei and the others to make their way back; they just needed to follow the direction they had come from and use their perception to roughly explore another route.
Yan Wei casually chose a path that didn’t overlap with the previous one, leading Yan Mingguang, Lin Zhen, and two Yu Feizhou back.
They had just left the scene when another person appeared there.
“Yan Wei” glanced at the five players lying on the ground, bloodied and severely injured, then walked over to Lin Zhen’s corpse. He slowly crouched down, looking at the obvious mark on the corpse’s forehead where an arrow had pierced through, his expression darkening.
This corpse could not possibly be the True Self of Lin Zhen.
If it were the True Self of Lin Zhen, given his character, even if he had failed to control the situation and allowed a companion to die, he would never abandon a fallen comrade. No matter how dire the conditions, he would have taken Lin Zhen’s body with him.
So this could not be Lin Zhen.
Yet the wound on Lin Zhen’s forehead was clearly made by an arrow.
And those five players, with their tongues cut out and unable to move…
After a moment, “Yan Wei’s” eyes flashed, and the confusion and contemplation on his face vanished.
—So that’s how it is.
He looked around and saw some weapons lying on the ground, presumably those used by the five players earlier. He had no interest in one of them, so he left it there. “Yan Wei” picked up one of the daggers and returned to Lin Zhen’s corpse, unhesitatingly stabbing the dagger into the wound on the forehead, completely covering the arrow’s entry point.
Afterward, he stood up with bloodied hands, slowly walked over to the five players, and then did nothing but stand by, lost in thought for a moment.
Before long, the perception he radiated allowed him to sense someone approaching—those were the people he had followed earlier. Because he had used the Moon Wheel to pass through another barrier left by a different Yan Wei, they had ended up behind him.
As soon as he sensed their approach, “Yan Wei” pretended to bend down, raising his hand as if to lift one of the players.
At the end of the corridor, two identical women appeared.
They wore long black dresses that reached their ankles, each holding a black staff and a black card, their pupils a very light color, their expressions a mix of smiles and something else.
“Yan Wei” exchanged a glance with them, and in the next moment, he took out the Moon Wheel. As the staffs in the hands of the two women swung, the Moon Wheel divided the space they occupied, leaving a brief barrier.
He glanced once more at the five players on the ground, feigning a look of regret, before turning and quickly running in another direction.
“Yan Wei” had already consumed a considerable amount of his illusions to create the previous obstruction, so the barrier he left this time was not difficult to break. In less than a minute, Xu Miaomiao successfully dismantled the obstacle.
They hurried to the place where Yan Wei had just been, also getting a close look at the five players and Lin Zhen’s corpse with a dagger in its forehead.
One of the Xu Miaomiao examined it for a moment and said, “The person who died with a dagger in his forehead is a companion of that guy from earlier. So it was them—the first team to reach the castle last night.”
“It looks like they had quite a fierce fight.”
“If it was two against five, they must have fought hard. Although they were strong and ultimately won, they still lost one person. And the one who survived cut out the tongues of these people, intending to take them to the Stargazing Platform to see if they could score.”
“And then when he saw me, he ran.”
The two Xu Miaomiao exchanged glances and smiled simultaneously.
One took out a communication Item, connecting with their teammates, saying, “It’s me. I’ll send you my location; come over here. I have some free points to collect, so send someone to take these useless players to the Man in Black Robe.”
The other side immediately agreed and asked, “Miaomiao, will you wait for us?”
“No, I’ve already drawn half of the castle’s terrain map, and I’ve buried half of the Blockers. It’s better to finish it all at once.” She smiled and slowly walked forward, her long dress swaying. “The one who plotted against me last night has run away. If you see a young man in a gray trench coat with a gray scarf, capture him—don’t kill him or send him to that soulless Meat Grinder. Leave him for me to play with first.”
“Okay.”
“Yan Wei” ran a distance before stopping.
His perception value was already high, and although he was alone now, he deliberately avoided areas dense with players, so he was still relatively safe.
He found an empty room, went in, and washed the blood off his hands in the bathroom. Looking up, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror.
In this instance, there were two people with such a face.
Whether he was the True Self or a Benevolent Automaton, it no longer mattered; pondering the Benevolent Automaton was meaningless now. But… why did Lin Zhen’s Benevolent Automaton die? He had fought against another version of himself and had the most intuitive sense of being unable to defeat himself.
How did Lin Zhen manage that?
Moreover, from the traces at the scene, there were identical bloody footprints on either side of Lin Zhen’s corpse, which, based on their length and disarray, should belong to Yu Feizhou, who had panickedly run past. This meant that, up to this point, both his True Self and Benevolent Automaton, as well as Yu Feizhou’s True Self and Benevolent Automaton, were still alive, and Lin Zhen’s True Self had just encountered his Benevolent Automaton, with the True Self killing the Benevolent Automaton.
…What about Yan Mingguang?
Why was there still no trace of another Yan Mingguang?
The biggest unknown and variable for them right now was the other Yan Mingguang. But this could only be prepared for unexpected situations at any time; no matter how much he deduced, he couldn’t preemptively respond.
As for the others…
The other him should now be the one lying in wait like a yellow bird.
That woman would not let go of five free pieces of prey; she would have someone take those five players to the Man in Black Robe. There would be someone waiting for the catch at the Man in Black Robe’s side, and if those five had even a couple of points, that woman’s team would surely score a lot as well. The ones waiting for the catch would most likely—not just likely—definitely not let the person delivering the prey go.
At that time, that woman’s team would likely suffer losses. After a day, the other him would have laid out Blockers throughout the castle, gaining the advantage of being able to read the number of Puppets within three hundred meters while also having the entire castle’s terrain. The castle’s terrain was a significant advantage because very few teams had the confidence to spend time walking around; most were busy searching for “prey.”
And opponents who were progressing at a similar pace would fully realize everything that had happened during the day…
At that time, the most efficient method for that woman’s team would be to capture their team members directly, gaining control over the Blockers they had buried, thus reducing the number of people familiar with the terrain.
By then, the other him would have a lot of information and would likely be able to deduce what to do next to break the situation. Meanwhile, what he needed to do was to keep that team occupied.
What could disrupt a team with excellent deduction abilities and combat strength?
“Yan Wei” felt a shift in his expression and glanced at his face in the mirror again, then lowered his head to wash his face.
Afterward, he opened the leaderboard, his gaze locking onto the fourth place, “Disorganized”—a team formed by players without any organization in this game, unexpectedly ranking fourth.
This ragtag group had reached this level, indicating that there must be a dark horse player capable of coordinating the overall situation among them. They had many members, but most of them were weak, making it difficult to obtain useful information, and they were the best prey for Seeded Players. For them, the longer time dragged on, the worse it would be, because even if they had a dark horse player, the gap in data and Items between them and the large organization Seeded Players was insurmountable.
What did this group need the most?
Advantages, information.
What did the woman’s team have?
Advantages, information.
If this group of scattered soldiers knew that the woman’s team possessed the entire castle’s terrain map and mistakenly believed that the woman’s team could read the number of Puppets… would they want to take a gamble?
For such an ad-hoc organization, they were not afraid of death; they were more willing to take risks.
“Yan Wei” glanced at the fourth place on the leaderboard again, his eyebrows slightly arching as he smiled silently.
The best method was to let others fight over the spoils.
Yan Wei and the others were right behind the two Xu Miaomiao.
He searched around here and found the Blocker that Xu Miaomiao had hidden, unhesitatingly taking it and replacing it with his own.
“Swapping roles is really comfortable,” Lin Zhen stretched lazily and said, “Just follow along; they’re clearing the way for us up front.”
After Yan Wei finished everything, he shot a glance at him, unsure whether to scold or laugh. It was Lin Zhen who had just encountered trouble, yet he seemed the least concerned.
He said, “Let’s just follow along; the next steps are relatively certain. I have a rough idea of what the other me will do. Right now, I’m more concerned about…”
Before Yan Wei could finish his sentence, the two Yu Feizhou and Yan Mingguang, like him, turned their gazes to Lin Zhen.
Lin Zhen paused in his movements. “What? Want to fight?”
“What do you think?”
Lin Zhen choked, saying, “I’ve said it several times—I really didn’t feel anything. The moment I saw him, I just wanted to fight. Who told that idiot to be just like me? After fighting for a while, I jumped back and drew my bow. I really did use all my strength when drawing the bow, but I didn’t even think I would actually kill him. I’ve told you all before, my special skill…”
He lowered his voice: “Is that I and my brother… tsk, but I didn’t use that skill at all back then.”
“No other feelings?”
“None. If I had to say something, it’s that I felt he was weaker than me. All the power I could mobilize and the potential to break through my limits, he couldn’t match.”
Yan Wei was taken aback.
Was this a flaw in the instance, or was there another reason?
“You—”
“We should go,” Yan Mingguang, who usually wouldn’t interrupt Yan Wei’s thoughts, unexpectedly cut him off, urging, “Xu Miaomiao is getting far away.”
