In an instant, the expressions of everyone in the room varied.
Yu Zhengqing and Lin Qiao merely glanced at Yan Wei, remaining seated and waiting for him to enter on his own.
Zhong Bufan, who had annoyed Lin Qing to the point of being expelled from the Blackbird organization, naturally had a thicker skin than even Lin Zhen. His embarrassment lasted less than a second before he smiled and said, “Ah, hello.”
Then, Zhong Bufan quickly moved to sit next to Song Cheng’an, seemingly ready to continue annoying him.
However, Song Cheng’an was already standing straight.
From the moment Yan Wei pushed the door open until now, Song Cheng’an had been nervously watching the entrance. He usually walked without even looking at the path, and other Players would show him respect when they saw him. Newcomers and juniors would flatter him, seeking advice on high-level experiences. It had been a long time since he had felt this kind of unease.
Like many others who had once Ascended the Tower with Yan Wei, Song Cheng’an had initially been unconvinced.
But as he watched Yan Wei go further and faster than anyone else, even challenging the Tower’s authority while Song Cheng’an was still struggling with Ascension, he was left with nothing but awe.
Even after everyone said that v had disappeared, likely dead in a top-floor instance, Song Cheng’an still felt he couldn’t compare to Yan Wei.
Among their group, excluding Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang, who was always by Yan Wei’s side, Song Cheng’an could have held absolute authority. Although Yu Zhengqing was more experienced, he wasn’t as strong as Song Cheng’an.
But now, seeing this familiar figure in the instance, and knowing Yan Wei was on the same side, Song Cheng’an immediately put away his arrogance and decided to hand over the authority of their faction to Yan Wei.
…But the others in their faction were dropping the ball one after another.
Song Cheng’an still carried the demeanor of a high-level Player. He straightened his expression and walked slowly to the door, saying, “Come in and sit. Yu Zhengqing said the Blackbird organization has five members this time, and the other three…”
Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang walked into the side hall one after the other. Yan Wei smiled and said, “I just notified Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou to come over. They’re at the Guanyin Academy across the way, and it won’t take them more than a few minutes to get here. We haven’t been able to contact Lin Qing yet. I couldn’t find any trace of him in Guanyin Town. Either he hasn’t reached his entry point in the instance yet, or his assigned identity is somewhere else and hasn’t returned to Guanyin Town.”
Song Cheng’an naturally walked behind Yan Wei and closed the hall door for him.
Yan Wei casually found a cushion to sit on, while Yan Mingguang silently sat close to him.
With the door closed, the light from outside and the brightness of the snow were slightly dimmed. Beams of light filtered through the paper windows, illuminating the floating dust in the air. In the center of the hall stood the statue of Guanyin, casting a shadow as it overlooked everyone in the dust-filled room.
Yan Wei’s gaze met the statue of Guanyin, and as he looked at this lifeless object, a faint discomfort rose in his heart. This feeling came from his intuition honed through countless life-and-death instances and the feedback from his high Perception.
The Guanyin Temple, whether judged by its bustling incense or the myths surrounding it, was a place of positivity. So why did he feel a slight sense of foreboding every time he looked at these statues?
This feeling was faint, so faint that Yan Wei only felt a momentary discomfort, while the others in the side hall had been there for a while without sensing anything.
Could there be a connection between the Guanyin Temple and the Black Sea Ghost? And could that connection be the three missing instance-specific Items?
Song Cheng’an had already returned to his seat, deliberately turning his back to Zhong Bufan before saying, “I’ve compared the tasks of everyone here, and they’re completely different from the directions of the others we’ve encountered. If everyone’s thoughts are correct, the division into factions is almost certain, and we’re likely on the same side. We just don’t know what Lin Qing’s task is.”
Yan Wei said, “It’s almost certain he’s on our side.”
Yu Zhengqing said in a deep voice, “If you and Lin Qing don’t have any personal grudges, he’s definitely on our side. When the instance divides factions, it seems to consider the relationships between Players.”
Zhong Bufan, still clinging to Song Cheng’an, chimed in, “Not ‘seems,’ but definitely. The design of this instance’s tasks from the start ensures that Players will have a life-and-death competitive relationship. If it placed two acquaintances in different factions, and one of them thought the other was more important than the outcome of the instance or their own life, then that person would become a willing sacrificial pawn, making it easier for the other side. So even if Old Lin hasn’t arrived yet, as long as he’s not just a surface-level friend, there won’t be a problem.”
“There’s no issue between us and Lin Qing,” Yan Wei said slowly. “Not like Yue Mang, who’s two-faced and ended up splitting their own organization into two factions.”
Although Yu Zhengqing hadn’t mentioned it, the moment Yan Wei opened the door and saw only two people from Yue Mang inside, he immediately guessed that the other two from Yue Mang had gone to a different faction.
Yu Zhengqing, who had already been impatiently waiting for Yan Wei, was further provoked by his words and said coldly, “So what are your Items?”
Yan Wei raised an eyebrow but didn’t speak.
Song Cheng’an remained calm on the surface but cursed Yu Zhengqing’s lack of tact in his heart.
He understood why Yan Wei didn’t answer. Even if the factions in this instance were almost certain, they had no public list of factions. The group gathered here claimed to have similar tasks and shared goals, but it was all based on their own words. No one could see the actual tasks of the others. Even with Items, if a Player casually took out one of their own Items and claimed it was from the instance, no one could immediately verify it.
How could someone like Yan Wei expose information in such an ambiguous situation?
Song Cheng’an watched Yan Wei for a few seconds, confirming that the young master had no intention of guiding cooperation, and then said, “I only roughly compared tasks with them and didn’t go into detail about Items. When the other two from Blackbird arrive, we can go over it together?”
Although Yan Wei had left a deep psychological shadow on Song Cheng’an, talking to him wasn’t too burdensome—Yan Wei had a naturally gentle and obedient face that made it hard for anyone to feel too much fear. Most people, like those who had once followed Yan Wei, respected him deeply but interacted with him as usual.
But Song Cheng’an spoke carefully, mainly because of the cold-faced Yan Mingguang beside Yan Wei.
When Song Cheng’an had first seen Yan Mingguang in a previous instance, the man had always been by Yan Wei’s side. He rarely spoke, and it seemed he could accomplish anything. Song Cheng’an didn’t know where he came from or what kind of person he was. Even during the time when the code name v was known throughout the Tower World, Yan Mingguang’s name was never mentioned. Yan Wei never brought it up, and others didn’t dare to either.
Yan Mingguang stood nearby, leaning slightly against a pillar in the hall, silent.
But Song Cheng’an felt as if needles were pressing into his back, the pressure immense.
He added, “As for my task, I pretty much finished explaining it when we met the other day.”
Yan Wei smiled at him. “Let’s wait for Lin Zhen and the others.”
Song Cheng’an breathed a sigh of relief.
But Yu Zhengqing wouldn’t let him rest easy, suddenly saying, “When the Blackbird members arrive, we’ll have nine people in total. How do we confirm that no one will listen to what others say and then adapt their own story to pretend they’re on the same side as us? And what if someone is actually from a different faction? If we all reveal our tasks and Items now, even if we identify someone from an opposing faction, that person would have already heard all our information. If they escape and share that information with the other faction, we’d be at a disadvantage.”
This time, Yan Wei wasn’t bothered by Yu Zhengqing’s skepticism.
What Yu Zhengqing said was indeed a problem. What they were likely dealing with was related to these Items, but if they were to verify each other’s factions and Items, someone would have to speak first, and someone else would follow. If the latter simply copied the former’s story, couldn’t they easily blend into the faction? Or if someone from an opposing faction listened in, wouldn’t they immediately gain all the information?
But this wasn’t too difficult.
Yan Wei said, “We could—”
But before he could finish, Zhong Bufan had already launched into a long explanation: “This problem is easy to solve. Why are you all so reckless? Some things just need a different approach. What we’re afraid of is someone infiltrating and hearing everyone’s answers. Actually, we just need to not say it out loud in front of everyone. When everyone arrives, the nine of us can form a circle based on our relationships, with people we’re not familiar with sitting next to each other—for example, Yu Zhengqing can sit next to me, and I’ll sit next to Lin Qiao, which prevents collusion. Once seated, we’ll each write down our tasks and Item information and pass it to the person on our right. This way, everyone will have the information of the person to their left.”
Zhong Bufan stood up, completely disregarding the Guanyin statue in the center of the hall, and swaggered over to the incense burner in front of the statue, scooping up some incense ash.
Then, he walked back to the group and used the ash to draw a circle on the ground, roughly arranging each person’s position.
As he said, everyone was seated next to someone they weren’t familiar with, preventing collusion.
“This way, we only need to read the task and Item information of the person to our left and determine if it aligns with our own direction and if the prompt’s style is the same. Everyone just needs to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ and not everyone will know the others’ tasks. Since each person’s task information is already passed to the person on their right, there’s no time to copy answers. Even if someone infiltrates, they’ll only know the task and Item information of the person to their left, which won’t have much impact.”
Zhong Bufan clapped the incense ash off his hands and looked at Yan Wei, saying, “This is a method I learned from v’s instance where Ghosts infiltrated Players. It’s the most effective way to prevent information from being stolen by opposing factions. You seemed to have a method in mind earlier, why don’t you share it? But, of course, it couldn’t possibly be better than v’s method.”
Yan Wei: “…”
Song Cheng’an couldn’t bear to watch and turned his head away.
Yu Zhengqing snorted so hard it seemed he was about to speak through his nostrils: “v’s method is naturally the best, no need to waste time listening to some newcomer’s ideas. Some people shouldn’t think that just because they got their hands on the Moon Wheel that v once scattered, they are v.”
Song Cheng’an sighed silently.
He had really tried.
Yan Wei carefully looked at the circle Zhong Bufan had drawn with the incense ash and said, “Fine. Who’s this?”
He pointed to the position next to his own in the circle. Next to Yan Wei’s name were two people: “Song,” which he recognized as Song Cheng’an, and another marked with “Zhong,” which he didn’t recognize.
Zhong Bufan: “…That’s me.”
“Who are you?”
Zhong Bufan was momentarily speechless. Although he was considered a newcomer among high-level Players, in the entire Tower World, his name was known to most. It had been a while since he’d encountered this question, and he paused for a moment, about to answer, when Yan Wei simply tapped his name and said, “Switch positions. I know Song Cheng’an.”
Song Cheng’an nodded: “I’ll sit between Lin Qiao and Yu Zhengqing.”
Yu Zhengqing, Lin Qiao, and Zhong Bufan all looked surprised—did Song Cheng’an really know Yan Wei? Before entering this instance, these two could be considered worlds apart, with no chance of entering the same instance together. How could they know each other?
And it seemed Song Cheng’an was being quite polite.
Yu Zhengqing had been in the Tower World for a long time and had never seen Song Cheng’an show him such courtesy. He was furious.
“Fine,” Zhong Bufan said. He had originally wanted to explain to Yan Wei who he was, but then thought better of it. He wasn’t about to make a fuss with a newcomer. After all, they would likely be working together soon, and this Yan Wei didn’t seem to have any objections to his method.
The side hall fell into silence as they waited for Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou to arrive.
Zhong Bufan couldn’t stay quiet. He glanced at Yan Wei and then at Song Cheng’an, who seemed perpetually annoyed. On one hand, he wanted to ask the newcomer to show him the Moon Wheel—after all, it was a Legendary Item that v had once scattered in the higher levels—and on the other hand, he wanted to pester Song Cheng’an about the missing records.
In the end, the oppressive aura around Yan Mingguang made Zhong Bufan choose to continue annoying Song Cheng’an.
He picked up his cushion and moved next to Song Cheng’an, saying, “Come on, Old Song, think about it. The Player mutual verification method I mentioned earlier was from your instance. I remember there was a Ghost that infiltrated the Players, and v used this method to identify the Ghost, but then there were two identical Players, and the perspective closed—how did you figure out who was fake and kill that thing to break out of the instance?”
Song Cheng’an, who hadn’t wanted to recall being outclassed by Yan Wei earlier, now didn’t want to recall being outclassed in front of the very person who had outclassed him.
He simply said coldly, “Shut up!”
“From your expression, it’s not that you don’t remember, but that you don’t want to say,” Zhong Bufan, who was adept at reading subtle expressions, immediately noticed the slight change in Song Cheng’an’s demeanor. “So you do remember. Tell me, I’ve simulated many ways to break out of that situation, and now I just need you to tell me how v did it so I can compare and see if I could have done better. I don’t believe I could never match him.”
Song Cheng’an gritted his teeth, really wanting to tell Zhong Bufan to go ask that person himself if he wanted to know who was better.
Fortunately, Yan Wei came to his rescue this time.
“In that instance, the Ghost disguised itself as a Player who had already died,” Yan Wei said slowly. “Both were actually fake, but the Ghost hid the fact that the Player had died long ago.”
Zhong Bufan suddenly looked at Yan Wei: “How do you know?… Old Song, you lied to me. You said you didn’t remember, but you’ve already told this newcomer about the instance, and you wouldn’t tell me.”
Song Cheng’an denied it: “I didn’t.”
Zhong Bufan didn’t believe him: “Liar. That part of the instance, the other Players were somewhere else. It was just you and v at the time. If you didn’t tell him, was it v?”
Song Cheng’an chose to remain silent.
