Li Qing and the others were currently busy dealing with the sudden situation. In the midst of their struggle, no one immediately noticed that Yan Wei, who had orchestrated everything, was hiding around the corner.
Yan Wei glanced at the situation and then withdrew his gaze, pulling out a few wet wipes from the storage section of his information panel. He meticulously wiped away the smudges from the morning’s classes—he still had to wait a while longer.
At the entrance of the archive room, the NPC student guarding it was still focused on playing with a Rubik’s Cube, while Moonlight had already engaged in a fight with Morning Star, Broken Scythe, and Yan Mingguang.
Li Qing spun his Curved Blade to block an attack from a Morning Star player, cursing loudly, “You Broken Scythe are so untrustworthy! Aren’t you afraid that the players in the building will see your disgraceful performance in the projections?!”
He seemed genuinely furious, and as he spoke, he threw a one-time use attack item, causing a wound to appear on the Broken Scythe player in front of him.
Killing each other was prohibited in the building. In these kinds of clue disputes, players would fight each other but could not cause fatal harm, so players often used methods that would injure opponents without killing them. As long as they could render their opponent temporarily incapable of fighting, it was fine; whether the incapacitated opponent would be killed by monsters afterward… many players even welcomed that outcome.
Li Qing’s method was clearly lethal.
The Broken Scythe player was momentarily stunned, glancing at his wound, clearly not expecting the “acting” Li Qing to be so serious. His expression darkened, and he immediately shifted from a conservative fighting style to one that was completely ruthless.
Although the Broken Scythe player had openly declared his betrayal, the leader of Morning Star was still somewhat confused. However, this situation seemed favorable for them; they were originally going to deal with Moonlight, and having Broken Scythe turn against them was just perfect. Moreover, since everyone was already entangled in battle, they could only pick up their weapons and fight.
As for Yan Mingguang, Lin Zhen, and the others, who were specifically targeting Moonlight, they were even less concerned about anyone else—Broken Scythe and Morning Star had no previous grievances with them.
As a result, the four members of Moonlight quickly found themselves at a disadvantage.
Following Yan Wei’s instructions, Lin Zhen unleashed a barrage of Black Arrows from behind, targeting various parts of Li Qing. Yu Feizhou and Zhou Tian focused on attacking the Moonlight players, while Yan Mingguang seemed to be wielding his Long Whip, but was actually inching closer to the direction where Yan Wei was hiding.
In just a few moments, the remaining four players of Moonlight had sustained varying degrees of injury.
Li Qing had been injured on his forehead during the fight, blood trickling down and adding a sinister edge to his already delicate features. He lost grip of his Curved Blade, which was instantly knocked away by his opponent.
The Broken Scythe players were taken aback.
They had subconsciously assumed that Yan Wei was already one of Moonlight’s members, and their rationality, slightly dulled by self-interest, had led them to not question the authenticity of this so-called “Li Qing’s plan.” But in just a short time, it was clear that Li Qing was serious; how could they not sense something was off?
Someone exclaimed in surprise, “Why aren’t you leaving yet?!”
Li Qing laughed in anger, “Do you think that if you drive us away, Morning Star and Yan Mingguang will let you benefit from it? Fool!!”
“Brother Li!” One of the Moonlight players hurriedly supported him, “Shouldn’t we retreat? We can’t possibly take on so many of them.”
At this moment, Yan Mingguang had completely crossed to the other side of the stairs, where Yan Wei was, and Lin Zhen and the others silently retreated under Yan Wei’s command.
Li Qing let out a sinister laugh, saying, “Now everyone knows that whoever’s clues are ahead is most likely to obtain the Legendary Item. Since you want to prevent me from getting it, why not let everyone miss out?”
With a flick of his right hand, he opened his palm, and the Curved Blade that had fallen to the ground returned to his hand, instantly emitting a dazzling light.
The players from Morning Star were momentarily stunned by this action, while the Broken Scythe players were horrified: “Are you going to use a Self-destruct item? Li Qing, are you crazy? A Self-destruct item will severely injure us, and you’ll be hurt too!”
Although this Curved Blade item was certainly not comparable to a Legendary Item, it was still quite rare, and none of the players present were high-level. Once it self-destructed, those affected would undoubtedly be gravely injured.
“If I can’t have it easy, neither will you.”
Before his words had even faded, Li Qing immediately threw the Curved Blade, the brilliant light tracing a long arc.
Yan Wei turned around and quickly stepped out from the corner, using his perception to swiftly communicate with Yan Mingguang and the others: 【Now’s the time!】
At the same time, the Broken Scythe players shouted, “Didn’t you secretly tell us to temporarily cooperate with Morning Star and Yan? You—”
The Curved Blade suddenly exploded among them.
Yan Mingguang’s dark eyes flickered. After entering the building, he activated the Skill – Short-range group teleport—Yan Wei, along with the already retreated Lin Zhen and others, vanished in an instant. Just before disappearing, Yu Feizhou, holding a dagger, forcefully slashed his own arm, activating his Skill-based protection.
—They suddenly appeared at the card-swiping location.
Yu Feizhou’s protection enveloped all five of them completely, and Yan Mingguang swiftly took out the School Card and swiped it at the card reader!
As the Curved Blade exploded, the Broken Scythe players, who had been closely aligned with Moonlight for the sake of acting, were now blasted away, crashing into the railing or the wall on the other side. Blood flew everywhere, and Li Qing was hit the hardest, his insides shaken violently as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
One player was even blasted to the stairs, losing his balance and rolling down to the next level. Before he could stand up again, a pair of Ghost Hands suddenly reached out from the floor, gripping his throat tightly—falling down the stairs triggered death!
In a moment, a crisp sound of bones breaking echoed, and the Ghost Hands slowly retracted back into the ground. The player’s head hung down, his eyes wide open in disbelief until the very end.
In front of the archive room, several nearby players from Morning Star were also somewhat injured.
Although Yan Wei and the others were quite far away, Yu Feizhou, who was maintaining the protection, turned pale, clearly having expended a significant amount of energy.
The NPC student who had been on duty at the archive room and playing with the Rubik’s Cube finally lifted his head, looking at Yan Mingguang and the others as they quickly swiped their cards.
All of this had been anticipated by Yan Wei. Yan Mingguang swiftly swiped all five student cards, pulling Yan Wei into the archive room. The players from Morning Star, having sustained the least damage, were the first to notice the anomaly and immediately swiped their cards to follow.
However, just as three of them entered, the fourth player rushed forward to swipe his card, only to suddenly collide with a hard wooden board.
—It was the door to the archive room.
Just moments ago, the archive room had been open, with an NPC student sitting at the entrance and a machine for swiping School Cards. But now, the large door to the archive room was suddenly locked tight.
This archive room could only accommodate eight people at a time.
The players from Morning Star realized they had missed their chance. The leader, decisive, understood that there was no hope for the archive room and prioritized finding other clues. He glanced at the severely injured Moonlight and Broken Scythe players, then turned without looking back, leading the Morning Star players away swiftly.
Within minutes, the remaining Broken Scythe players, who had received the news and rushed over, arrived on the scene and immediately took away their injured members.
Only the Moonlight members remained at the closed door of the archive room. Li Qing, filled with rage, had harmed his enemies while injuring himself, his body covered in wounds and drenched in blood.
After a long while, he finally managed to shakily support himself against the railing and stand up.
Recalling the moment when the item self-destructed and Yan Wei suddenly appeared, Li Qing suddenly understood something.
He gasped heavily, gritting his teeth in hatred, “Yan Wei.”
The other Moonlight members also slowly got up.
In his current state, the Moonlight members, who usually feared and respected him, had lost all reverence and retorted, “Li Qing, what dealings do you have with Broken Scythe to drag us into this?”
“Have you gotten so bold as to speak to me like that?” Li Qing shouted angrily, “I haven’t said anything to Broken Scythe, and they turned against us! Are you so stupid that you can’t see that? Didn’t you notice that neither Broken Scythe nor we got in in the end?!”
As soon as he said this, the least injured of the remaining three Moonlight members stepped forward and grabbed Li Qing by the collar.
“Then why did Broken Scythe do this? Who knows if you didn’t care about our lives and secretly made a deal with Broken Scythe or even Morning Star to take the benefits for yourself?”
Li Qing was yanked forward, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth, his body drenched in blood.
He was a seed player cherished by Moonlight; when had he ever been in such a predicament? Now, being pushed around by his subordinates, he used all his strength to shove the person to the ground, shouting, “Doubting me? I see you’re looking for death! We’re all members of Moonlight; why would I harm you?!”
The person, already injured, was pushed down by Li Qing and cried out in pain.
Someone blurted out, “You’ve harmed us before; how did Yue Wenxing and the others die? We all saw it!”
At this moment, Li Qing had completely lost the will to hide his hypocritical facade. His face twisted in rage as he glared at these fools, ready to unleash a torrent of curses. But upon hearing the name “Yue Wenxing,” he froze, his expression stiffening as his eyes widened slowly.
He understood!
He finally understood!
From the very beginning, last night’s bell net, Yan Wei had exploited his way of handling things, leaving a hidden danger between him and the other members of Moonlight.
Perhaps Broken Scythe had also been played.
This should have been an easily discernible situation, but because of this hidden danger, they had developed mutual distrust and could not see through the discord.
The young man they had initially thought was a burden, trailing behind Yan Wei, was actually the new player Yan, who continuously drew the attention of players in the building and repeatedly broke the dungeon records.
From the moment he had arrogantly brought Yan Wei into this mobile dungeon, every move he made and every possible decision had been completely anticipated by Yan Wei, who effortlessly used them. He thought he was clever, but in reality, he had been sewing clothes for others, handing over everything he gained.
All along, Yan Wei had been… calculating everything perfectly.
Li Qing let out a weak, desolate laugh, intending to clarify Yan Wei’s strategy to the others and plan for the long term when a sudden chill swept through the corridor.
A cold sensation crept up the back of Li Qing’s neck, and a haunting voice suddenly echoed from behind him.
“…How can you push a classmate?”
“…How can you push a classmate?”
“…How can you push a classmate?…”
This repetitive voice was right next to his ear, and something was standing behind him, an icy feeling enveloping him.
—Being shoved in the corridor was also a trigger for death!!
But he had already lost his basic fighting ability and could not resist, not even able to turn his head to look.
A suffocating sensation instantly overwhelmed Li Qing, as something cold gripped his throat and pressed down on his head.
He struggled to open his mouth, speaking in a slurred and intermittent manner, “…No, no… huff… underestimate Yan—”
“Crack—”
His body collapsed weakly to the ground.
In the gambling area.
In front of the projection of the death school building, aside from the Xuan Bird, players from other organizations ultimately did not dare to bet on Lin Qing’s determination. After Moonlight took the lead, they all left the scene.
Even the lone wolf players who were watching the projection from the outermost circle and not participating in the fight were driven away cleanly at Lin Qing’s request.
Now, only the players from Xuan Bird remained.
Lin Qing’s expression remained unchanged, his face revealing no joy or anger, simply watching the projection.
“Are you not going back?” someone beside him asked. “I remember you said there were many things to handle, just coming to clear the field and then leaving.”
Lin Qing continued to gaze intently at the projection, a faint smile appearing as he said, “I’ve changed my mind.”
He did not elaborate, and his subordinates did not dare to ask further, standing silently beside him as they continued to watch.
On the projection, the perspectives of several other Moonlight players simultaneously showed Li Qing being killed by the pale ghost behind him.
In the footage, Li Qing exerted all his effort to utter his last words: “…No, no… huff… underestimate Yan—”
A glimmer of amusement flashed in Lin Qing’s eyes. He muttered to himself, “…Someone like you doesn’t even have the right to underestimate him.”
Inside the dungeon.
Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang rushed into the archive room, but what lay before them was not the densely packed shelves they had seen from the outside, but a dizzying scene where everything had changed.
What lay before them was not an archive room filled with documents, but a playground with indistinct boundaries!
The light was dim, resembling a night illuminated by a hint of moonlight, vaguely revealing the shape of the playground. It looked exactly like the playground of Morning Dawn High School, but it was not large, and the boundaries were even blurred, resembling a fabricated space.
And this familiar atmosphere of space…
Was just like the Ghost Hand space.
As soon as Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang steadied themselves, Lin Zhen, Yu Feizhou, and Zhou Tian appeared one after another, along with three players from Morning Star, making a total of eight people.
Once all eight players had appeared, a strong smell of blood surged forth, and what had once been a very empty playground was now filled with bloody heads appearing all around. Their necks still had blood vessels attached, their faces pale and bloodied, and their eyes bulging wide, all showing only the whites of their eyes.
Yan Mingguang immediately shielded Yan Wei behind him, his Long Whip poised for action.
However, these heads did not attack them immediately; one of the heads even slowly cleared a path.
Amidst the dimness and bloodiness, a student in a school uniform, holding a Rubik’s Cube, slowly walked toward them from that path—it was the duty student. This student appeared to be walking forward, but in reality, his legs showed no movement, merely gliding toward them.
As he drew closer, the student’s face suddenly turned ghostly pale, his eyes, like those of the heads, reduced to nothing but eerie whites.
A chilling laughter suddenly echoed.
This student—no, this thing laughed and said, “To enter the archive room… you have to play a game with me first.”
“If you win, I’ll let you in.”
“If you lose… then you’ll die.”
