HI Chapter 64

As soon as Yan Wei spoke, apart from Yan Mingguang, who remained expressionless, the other four exchanged helpless glances at him.

“I have a way that can let us enter the archive room first and also keep Moon’s limbs missing,” Yan Wei said.

Lin Zhen nodded, “You really are full of ideas. But I like this kind of twist. What do we do? We need to hurry, or they might negotiate and enter the archive room hand in hand.”

Yan Wei pointed to another staircase not far away, “High school buildings always have staircases on both sides. The Broken Scythe people are guarding this side, and there’s no one on that side because going to the archive room from there would inevitably pass by Li Qing and the others, so there’s no need to guard it.”

Yu Feizhou nodded, “That’s true, but if we go up from the Broken Scythe side, it looks like we only have to deal with three people. However, it will still attract the attention of Moon and Morning Star, and we would still have to face sixteen people at once. If we go from Li Qing’s direction, we would directly confront Moon and Morning Star’s people.”

“So we split up.”

“Split up?” Yu Feizhou was taken aback, “Isn’t that the same? Their numbers are two or three times ours, and splitting up still leaves us at a disadvantage. Our strength lies in our individual combat ability being stronger than theirs, but their overall equipment level is definitely higher than ours. After all, Yan Wei isn’t a combat type, and Gao Ming just accidentally ended up here.”

Yan Wei chuckled lightly, “I meant I would split up from you.”

Five minutes later, standing alone at the bottom of the staircase guarded by Broken Scythe, Yan Wei received a reply from Yan Mingguang and the others—Yan Mingguang and his team were already prepared by the other staircase.

Yan Wei used his perception to communicate with Yan Mingguang alone: [Wait for my signal, then take them into action, and let Gao Ming hide.]

Yan Mingguang: [Okay… Be careful.]

[I’m not going to die today. It would be a shame not to take out this bunch of useless people. But this time, I still need to rely on that new skill you got from Three Times Lifting the Building.]

[Okay.]

Yan Wei withdrew his perception.

He had originally unzipped his school uniform for convenience, and the sleeves of his jacket were rolled up in a rather rebellious manner, giving off the vibe of a boy skipping class.

But at this moment, Yan Wei suddenly stood up straight, adjusted the hem of his uniform, zipped it back up, and let his sleeves fall. His sharp and cunning eyes instantly became clearer, filled with a well-behaved aura.

With that, Yan Wei confidently walked upstairs.

When he reached the staircase one level below the top, he naturally encountered the three players from Broken Scythe guarding there.

The three turned sharply to look at him, weapons at the ready. Once they recognized Yan Wei’s face, they froze for a moment, slightly relaxing as they asked, “Is it you?”

Yan Wei blinked, his amber eyes reflecting the afternoon light.

He spoke in a compliant tone, “Brother Li sent me. It was chaotic after getting the School Card just now, and I lost track of the others for a moment, so I took a detour…”

He rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a walkie-talkie with the Moon insignia—given to him by Li Qing on the first day of class, saying, “Brother Li just told me through the walkie-talkie to come here and sneak up from this side.”

Yan Wei paused, and even though there were only the four of them present, he seemed quite guilty, deliberately lowering his voice, “Let me go to make up the numbers.”

The Broken Scythe players exchanged glances and then returned their gaze to Yan Wei.

With the combined numbers of Moon and Broken Scythe, they reached a balance with Morning Star, and the equipment and basic stats of both sides were not significantly different, which led to the current stalemate. Both Moon and Broken Scythe were well aware that if they abandoned each other and instead collaborated with Morning Star, they could resolve this deadlock. However, once one side was eliminated, whether it was Moon or Broken Scythe, their cooperation with Morning Star would be at a disadvantage, so they wouldn’t do that.

Thus, the need for negotiation arose.

And Yan Wei’s statement about “making up the numbers,” while not explicitly stated, hinted at one point—having one more person increases the possibility of breaking the balance, and the advantage lies with the side that has more people. Perhaps when they entered the archive room, they would still need manpower to search, so having one more person would be beneficial.

The three players from Broken Scythe clearly understood this reasoning. One of them brazenly sized up Yan Wei from head to toe, chuckling lightly, “With your timid appearance, you can only make up the numbers.”

Another said, “Alright, step aside. You useless one, when you go upstairs, tell Li Qing to hurry up and deal with whatever nonsense is taking so long.”

Yan Wei timidly nodded.

The three Broken Scythe players stepped aside, and Yan Wei pretended to tiptoe upstairs.

When he reached the top floor and was about to turn the corner to the archive room door, he suddenly stopped—he had no intention of appearing at that moment.

Although his physical stats were only slightly above average, his perception was exceptional. At this moment, he completely concealed his presence, hiding around the corner. Li Qing and the others were in a standoff, completely unaware of Yan Wei’s presence.

In front of the archive room door, a student in a school uniform sat at the card swipe station. Like other NPC students, he had a very neutral expression and showed no interest in the standoff between Li Qing and the others at the door, merely lowering his head and fiddling with a Rubik’s Cube.

Yan Wei listened carefully.

Li Qing’s voice was unpredictable: “…Although we have driven away the other players, we can’t guarantee that someone won’t come back for a surprise attack. How about this, we each take a step back. Moon can send one person in first, and then you Morning Star can send one in, taking turns. I’ll keep Broken Scythe in check and let them go in last.”

It turned out that this place had already been cleared by the three organizations, and after clearing it, they had disagreements that led to the current situation.

Broken Scythe was still helping Li Qing guard the staircase, probably not realizing that Li Qing had already sold them out completely.

As soon as Li Qing finished speaking, someone from Morning Star said, “Then why should Moon go in first?”

“Whoever finds the clues is just adding to the end of this instance, right?”

“But there’s only one Legendary Item, Li Qing, do you think we’re fools?”

With words not aligning, the two sides began to argue again.

Yan Wei stood at the corner for a while, not attracting Li Qing and the others’ attention, and directly turned around to head back down the staircase he came from.

The three Broken Scythe players were still guarding there. When they saw him come down after a while, they were quite surprised, “Why are you back down?”

Yan Wei’s expression was even more panicked at this moment. He slowly lowered his head and stammered, “After I went up just now, Brother Li found a chance to quietly tell me that he discovered Morning Star’s people are actually secretly collaborating with Yan’s group.”

The faces of the three Broken Scythe players suddenly changed.

From their unseen angle, Yan Wei slowly curled his lips, but his tone was filled with fear, “Now those from Morning Star are just stalling us while waiting for Yan. As soon as Yan appears, they will team up against us, and then in the archive room, neither we Moon nor you Broken Scythe will get anything. So Brother Li thought of a plan…”

“What is it?”

“Since we are destined not to beat them with so many teaming up, why not wait for Yan to appear, and when the fight starts, you pretend to tear your face with us Moon and switch sides to Morning Star and Yan. We can fight a bit and then pretend to give up and retreat. At that time, you can go in with them, and if there are any benefits to secretly note down or take, just take them. I, along with Brother Li, will split it with you—after all, the other Moon members don’t know the current plan. With fewer people to share, won’t everyone get more benefits?”

His words flowed smoothly, and by the end, his tone even had a hint of persuasion.

However, the three Broken Scythe players did not immediately notice any flaws, and instead, their expressions slightly brightened.

Yan Wei caught a glimpse of their expressions out of the corner of his eye and knew that this plan had already succeeded.

While they were secretly observing downstairs, Yan Wei had relied on his memory to compare the members of Broken Scythe when they first entered the instance. Excluding the deceased players, Broken Scythe did not only have three members left; they had clearly split into two groups, and the leader of Broken Scythe was not among this group.

This meant that these three Broken Scythe players were just ordinary players on the eighteenth level.

This made them easier to deceive—because of human nature.

In the instance, Yan Wei’s previous impression in front of all players had not yet been overturned, and Li Qing did not have the face to shout about it everywhere, so until now, these people still looked down on him, thinking he was still on Moon’s side.

Therefore, what he said would not raise too many suspicions among them, as they thought he was too weak to pull off any tricks.

Moreover, the temporary cooperation between Moon and Broken Scythe was entirely driven by interests, making it too easy to dismantle—by the same interests. Compared to the current superficial cooperation with Moon, directly confronting Morning Star, Yan Wei’s suggestion to pretend to switch sides was a win-win situation.

They could eat from both sides while having fewer people to share the benefits, so why not?

Human nature instinctively believes in things that are beneficial to themselves.

But he couldn’t drag it out.

Players who could reach this point were not easily fooled idiots; delaying even a little might lead them to gradually realize something was off.

Yan Wei ensured that these people were hooked and did not delay any longer, saying, “Then, can I go up? You three must remember, when Yan and the others come out, pretend to switch sides to help—”

“Help Morning Star deal with you Moon, and then you Moon pretend to escape, and we go in with Morning Star to gather information. Got it, hurry up and go.”

Yan Wei repeatedly agreed.

He turned around and stepped up the stairs, raising his eyes as his perception spread out.

[Answer the call.]

[……]

Yan Wei stepped up the stairs, reaching the corner where he had concealed himself earlier, glancing at the Moon and Morning Star players still negotiating, and said to Yan Mingguang: [It’s time to start.]

As soon as his voice fell.

“Whoosh—”

A black arrow suddenly shot through the air in front of the archive room, passing between the player from Morning Star negotiating with Li Qing and Li Qing himself.

Both Moon and Morning Star players present were startled and quickly retreated to the sides. Then several arrows were fired in succession, and Yan Mingguang, Lin Zhen, Yu Feizhou, and Zhou Tian rushed in from the other staircase.

Li Qing reacted extremely quickly, drawing his Curved Blade, and the remaining players from both organizations drew their weapons, heading towards the staircase where Yan Mingguang and the others had come from. Thirteen people directly confronted Yan Mingguang and the others, blocking the way!

Li Qing glared at them ominously: “Yan Mingguang! With just this few of you, you dare to come and seek death?”

Yan Mingguang slightly raised his eyelids, merely glancing at him, and with a flick of his Long Whip, he repelled several players rushing forward.

At the same time, the three players from Broken Scythe guarding the other staircase were startled, one of them said, “Is it Yan and them?”

“Go, follow Li Qing’s plan!”

They drew their weapons and quickly ran up to the top floor.

Yan Wei still hid around the corner. When the Broken Scythe players went upstairs, he deliberately shrank back to hide. The Broken Scythe players were in a hurry and did not notice his presence, nor did they realize that Yan Wei was missing from the crowd entangled together.

In the narrow corridor, Yan Mingguang’s four people collided with the members of the three organizations at the same time. However, his Long Whip was aimed only at the players from Moon.

Li Qing’s Curved Blade had just been repelled by Yan Mingguang’s Long Whip, and seeing that the Broken Scythe people had also come up, he sneered, “Yan Mingguang, I see you still—”

His voice suddenly halted.

Behind Li Qing, the newly arrived Broken Scythe players unexpectedly turned on him. Caught off guard, Li Qing’s back was slashed by a blade, leaving a half-meter-long wound.

In pain, he turned back and shouted angrily, “What are you doing!?”

As Yan Mingguang and the others moved closer to the players from Morning Star during his questioning, the three Broken Scythe players directly stood with Morning Star, one of them disdainfully said, “What are we doing? Of course, we are no longer cooperating with you. Morning Star and Yan should be more than happy to temporarily let Moon be out of the game, right?”

Lin Zhen immediately chimed in, “Wise move!”

Not far away, in the corner, Yan Wei had one hand in his pocket, casually rubbing the Swallow Coin he had placed inside.

Seeing things unfold easily according to his plan, his eyes brightened, and he silently curled his lips.