The player in front of the Stairway had already taken the person he caught, who he thought was a Benevolent Automaton, up the stairs.
The Man in Black Robe watched as the person disappeared around the corner of the staircase, presumably heading to the Stargazing Platform on the fourth floor. Only then did he turn back, silently standing there. The black hood obscured his face, and the enormous black robe covered him entirely, making it impossible to discern any details.
Yu Feizhou tilted his head slightly under the black robe and glanced in the direction of Yan Wei and the others.
Yan Wei nodded at him.
Lin Zhen asked, “I can’t hear your communication through skills. What are you guys doing?”
“He asked if I want to stay there directly,” Yan Wei replied.
Yan Wei’s answer was affirmative. His method was actually quite simple, even bloodless, but the difficulty lay in the blind spots of thought. This instance danced around the rules, distinguishing between truth and falsehood, with everyone focused on the Puppets and players. Even if they thought of the coins, it was merely about how to protect their own coins or seize others’ coins.
As for impersonating an NPC?
First, they wouldn’t think of it; second, they wouldn’t know what to do by impersonating—except for Yan Wei, who had deduced that Xue Wan was at the Stargazing Platform and intended to counter her indirectly.
So as long as Yu Feizhou didn’t expose any flaws, no one would suspect the authenticity of this Man in Black Robe.
“Why did Yu Feizhou only take one coin? Isn’t he being too stingy?”
“……” Yan Wei sighed, “Look at this person. His movements in capturing are very skilled, his clothes are covered in blood, yet he has no injuries. Clearly, he’s a player who has scored quite a bit. Such a person has some strength and is cautious; he wouldn’t take all his coins alone. He only caught one prey he thought was a Puppet, so he would only take one coin.”
“Alright, you make a good point. But if this person goes up, won’t he see another Man in Black Robe? Then when they meet Xue Wan, she’ll know immediately,” Lin Zhen rolled up his sleeves, “I mean, why complicate things? Just fight.”
Yan Wei shot him a glance.
Lin Zhen reluctantly smoothed out his sleeves.
“It all depends on Yu Feizhou’s judgment. The people going to the Stargazing Platform fall into two possibilities: one is that Xue Wan thinks the people going are not fat enough, so she’ll hide and let the Man in Black Robe deal with them normally. The other is that they are players worth taking action against, in which case Xue Wan will set the Man in Black Robe aside and take action herself.”
So their method, while easy to describe, was difficult in practice, particularly because Yu Feizhou needed to judge whether the incoming players were high-scoring players.
“In the first scenario, Yu Feizhou can’t intercept them, because if he does, those people will see another Man in Black Robe when they go up, and Xue Wan won’t act against them. Our plan would leak out. In the second scenario, Yu Feizhou must take all their coins, so when those people go up, they won’t see another Man in Black Robe, but Xue Wan instead. At that point, she will act to capture those people, only to find they have no coins.”
“At that time, even if someone says the coins were given to the Man in Black Robe, Xue Wan will just think those people are lying to save their lives.”
Lin Zhen scoffed, “But you can’t fool too many people. Xue Wan shouldn’t be brawn over brains, right?”
Yan Wei raised an eyebrow, “That’s exactly the point; we don’t need to fool too many people.”
“What do you mean?”
“What we need to do is lure Xue Wan down without actually collecting coins.”
Lin Zhen, usually too lazy to think through convoluted plans, wasn’t stupid. Upon hearing Yan Wei’s explanation, he understood and didn’t ask further.
Even if Xue Wan discovered something was off after a few rounds, the fact that he had no coins would already be established. By that time, Xue Wan would have captured quite a few Puppets but would be unable to hand over those suspected Puppets to the Man in Black Robe for points due to the lack of coins. Thus, Xue Wan would face two issues—gaining more coins and dealing with those who were manipulating things behind the scenes, namely Yan Wei and his group.
To achieve these, some strong players would need to come down.
Most of those coming down would likely be Xue Wan and other capable players from Morning Star, as both tasks were not easy. As for whether there would be two Xue Wans, Yan Wei wasn’t worried at all. From his current deductions, Xue Wan was somewhat similar to Lin Zhen; such a person would never collaborate with a Puppet or True Self. The existence of a Benevolent Automaton would not only fail to help but could also pose a risk.
So there could only be one Xue Wan up there; they just needed to draw this one away. Once Xue Wan and the others came down, the Stargazing Platform would be empty, allowing Yan Wei to go up. By then, the castle’s top level would only have the remaining Morning Star players who were no match for Yan Mingguang and the captured “prey,” along with a real Man in Black Robe.
Yan Wei’s thoughts were clear in his mind as he said, “I’m thirsty.”
On the other side, Yan Mingguang had already taken out a bottle of purified water he had exchanged, unscrewed the cap, and handed it to Yan Wei. Without any hesitation, Yan Wei instinctively took the water, naturally drank a few sips, and then returned it to Yan Mingguang.
He had been focused on the situation with Yu Feizhou ahead and didn’t notice that after Yan Mingguang took the water, he didn’t screw the cap back on. Yan Mingguang glanced at him, then at the water bottle in his hand, as if he too felt thirsty, and leisurely took a sip before finally capping it and putting it away.
Lin Zhen noticed this scene and frowned, feeling that something was off.
Meanwhile, Yu Feizhou waited for a while, and the players who went up did not come back down.
As Yan Wei had said, players who were clearly “fat sheep,” whether they were Benevolent Automatons or not, Xue Wan would not let go. And since Xue Wan was going to take action, he wouldn’t leave the Man in Black Robe there. If this person went up and didn’t see the Man in Black Robe, he would be captured by Xue Wan instead, and naturally, there would be no suspicion about the Man in Black Robe. Xue Wan just wouldn’t be able to obtain coins, and everything would remain calm.
Before long, another person arrived. This person was dragging a suspected Puppet, moving rather clumsily, and wasn’t very familiar with the route here. At first, he even took the wrong staircase to go upstairs.
This time, however, Yu Feizhou hid aside and did not show himself.
After this person took the suspected Puppet upstairs, it wasn’t long before he came back down safely.
Lin Zhen clicked his tongue in amazement, “How did you guess all of that?”
Yan Wei ignored him and simply said, “A few more people will come soon, get ready. Lin Zhen, you’re good at ranged attacks, so you’ll act as bait to draw Xue Wan away—remember, don’t get into a prolonged fight; just lead him away.”
The Stargazing Platform.
Xue Wan looked at the fourth player they had captured, smiling, but his tone was very low, “—Still no coins?”
Another Morning Star player said awkwardly, “I really searched, but there’s none. Since the first night, coins can’t be placed in the Black Ring anymore; these people really don’t have a single coin on them.”
“This… Xue Wan, we used up our coins earlier. How can we exchange points with these people who have no coins? This person also said his coins were given to the Man in Black Robe, but isn’t the Man in Black Robe here with us? This excuse is…” The speaker glanced at the Man in Black Robe standing in the center of the Stargazing Platform.
Xue Wan stepped forward and kicked the player who had just been captured hard.
The already half-dead player let out a cry of pain from Xue Wan’s kick.
Xue Wan smiled and said, “Are you stupid? One person saying it’s a lie, two people saying it’s a coincidence, three people saying it’s true. Someone is intercepting below, using this method to deceive coins. Really clever, which organization’s player has such thoughts? Xu Miaomiao?”
“What should we do then…”
“Anyone who dares to do this must have the capability to think of it. Their strength isn’t low, and their numbers won’t be few. I must go down to deal with them. You two—” Xue Wan casually pointed to a Benevolent Automaton and a True Self, “come down with me and deal with these manipulators. And you, go find coins first. The other two, keep an eye on this place, and on that black fellow.”
After he finished speaking, he didn’t seek his teammates’ opinions, picked up the Serrated Long Blade, and turned to leave. The True Self and Benevolent Automaton he pointed to didn’t dare to be careless and quickly followed.
After Xue Wan took the two identical teammates down, another player from Morning Star also communicated with his teammates and went down to the fourth floor to complete the task of seizing coins.
At the third-floor Stairway.
Lin Zhen put on the long robe that Yu Feizhou had used to impersonate the Man in Black Robe, covering his face with the hood.
Yan Wei cautiously spread out his perception, and his heightened senses picked up the sound of footsteps coming from above the staircase. He silently curled his lips, using the Perception Burst skill to say: 【They’re coming down, Lin Zhen…】
【Really can’t fight? He’s known for being good at fighting. It’s one thing for Yan Mingguang not to let me fight, but Xue Wan can’t either?】
【If you fight him now, we might not make it out alive.】
【Fine.】
While they were conversing, three figures had already appeared.
The leader was a very young man, handsome in appearance, but his brows seemed stained with blood, exuding a fierce aura. Even though Yan Wei had never seen this person, he could tell from his demeanor that this was Xue Wan from Morning Star.
Lin Zhen exchanged glances with Yan Wei and the others, smiling as he twirled the bow in his hand. The moment Xue Wan and his companions stepped down, he suddenly shot an arrow!
Yan Wei and the others had already hidden in a nearby room, the Moon Wheel dividing a small space, enveloping them to ensure that Xue Wan and his group wouldn’t sense their presence.
As Lin Zhen shot the arrow, Xue Wan and the two people with him immediately reacted. Xue Wan watched Lin Zhen’s figure quickly disappear around the corner and said, “As expected, it’s a disguise as the Man in Black Robe. Chase!”
Yan Wei watched through the crack in the door as the three were led away by Lin Zhen.
Not long after they were led away, another Morning Star player came down. However, this person didn’t search around nearby but immediately left.
Yan Wei speculated that this person was likely responsible for coming down to find coins in the Morning Star team. After all, since Xue Wan had captured so many, having no coins was all in vain. If people or Puppets were left unprocessed for too long, it could lead to problems, so they naturally needed to quickly obtain enough coins.
Once this person had completely left, Yan Wei finally withdrew the Moon Wheel’s barrier and led Yan Mingguang and the two Yu Feizhou out of the room.
He shook his head, “Xu Miaomiao is too clever for her own good, and Xue Wan, being bold and skilled, is more likely to fall into a trap. People shouldn’t be too self-satisfied.”
Yu Feizhou sighed, “So, do we go up?”
“Up we go.”
Yan Wei roughly calculated that four had come down, including the Benevolent Automaton that could cooperate with the Morning Star players, so there should be at least one or two people left above. They made no noise but cautiously and stealthily approached the entrance to the fourth floor.
Sure enough, near the Meat Grinder, there were two obvious members of Morning Star guarding it, and on the ground lay a row of tightly bound people and Benevolent Automatons. The Man in Black Robe stood in the center of the Stargazing Platform, just like the last time they came, draped in black, head bowed, showing no emotion.
Yan Wei maintained his connection through perception, and the group hid in the corner. Yu Feizhou communicated with him through perception: 【Yan Wei, we should be able to take down these two with all our strength. It’s just a matter of time. I’ll deal with those two, and I can help you take the others.】
【What do you want to take the others for?】
【Huh?】
Yan Wei’s eyes sparkled with cunning as he said: 【Players can’t kill each other, and Xue Wan can’t distinguish between who is True Self and who is Benevolent Automaton. Neither would dare to kill; they can only rely on handing them over to the Man in Black Robe to “dispose” of these people. Since Xue Wan can’t take action to kill, why should we go through so much trouble to take so many people? We can’t get points, and it’s easy to delay time and cause accidents.】
【Then you…?】
【I’m asking you, is it easier to prevent a class of consistently high-scoring students from getting good grades, or to directly kidnap the teacher who grades their papers?】
Yan Mingguang replied calmly, “The teacher who grades the papers.”
Yan Wei smirked, raised his hand, and pointed at the Man in Black Robe in the center of the Stargazing Platform.
【We rush out and fight them. Yu Feizhou, you block those two, Ice Block, you go directly and carry the “teacher” away.】
