Since entering this instance, Yan Wei felt overwhelmed for the first time.
His deduction had a basis, and it wasn’t hard to prove. In just a day or two, as long as someone tried to capture a living player for the Man in Black Robe, whether it was a real player or a fake one, they could immediately verify the situation of the Virtuous and Malevolent Puppets.
But this step was just the beginning.
Leaning against the cold wall of the castle, Yan Wei could feel the chill even through his clothes. The corridor was occasionally filled with noisy sounds, mixed with the “whoosh” of the cold wind.
The pain from his earlier injury still lingered, and Yan Wei’s complexion was slightly pale, his lips losing much of their color. At this moment, he felt even colder than usual. He pulled his windbreaker tighter, lowering his head to bury the lower half of his face in his scarf.
Yet he did not feel cold.
He could only maintain indifference towards everything unrelated, but that didn’t make him a completely rational sage. In a situation where no one could be trusted, if he were alone and still clueless about how to break the deadlock, he might also feel lost.
But the moment Yan Mingguang discerned the truth, Yan Wei suddenly felt that even if everyone else misjudged him, there was still a Yan Mingguang by his side.
There was nothing to fear.
Suddenly, he felt warm.
“Ice Cube.”
“Hmm?”
“I’ll continue. Besides fighting the Malevolent Automaton and other players who want to score points, we also have to contend with the Benevolent Automaton. Before you arrived, I had some exchanges with my Benevolent Automaton, and I found that he…”
Yan Wei furrowed his brow, his expression growing more serious: “He doesn’t think he’s fake; on the contrary, he believes I am the fake one. This means that after the Benevolent Automaton was created, it possesses everything identical to us, including cognition—they think they are the players entering this castle to play the game, while we are the counterfeit Benevolent Automaton.”
Then, the Benevolent Automaton would also think about “scoring points.”
Even if their original bodies were captured, the Benevolent Automaton would instantly turn into a Malevolent Automaton. No one could tell who was who; the cognition of these Benevolent Automaton could never shift from “I truly exist” to “I am a counterfeit.”
They had three enemies: the Malevolent Automaton, other players, and the Benevolent Automaton.
Yan Wei slowly stood up and said, “Let’s go find Lin Zhen and the others.”
Yan Wei’s communicator item was already destroyed, but Yan Mingguang contacted Yu Feizhou and the others to ask for their location, and the two began heading in the direction where Lin Zhen and the others were.
After walking a few steps, without saying a word, Yan Mingguang picked up Yan Wei, carefully avoiding Yan Wei’s injury.
In this situation, Yan Wei did not refuse, feeling justified as he lay on Yan Mingguang’s back, leaning close to his ear, saying, “If we encounter my Benevolent Automaton, he shouldn’t hold back against us. If he can’t capture us, he should just kill us; we would rather not score that point. I know myself; as I analyze the situation, he must be doing the same. He might even encounter others—Lin Zhen and Yu Feizhou, or their corresponding Benevolent Automaton, or even your corresponding Benevolent Automaton… I know myself; he will be a significant problem. And your Benevolent Automaton…”
For some reason, the man’s footsteps seemed to slow down at that moment.
“Your Benevolent Automaton is hard to defeat, right? The rules of this instance/dungeon limit our Benevolent Automaton to have exactly the same strength as us. We can only draw with our Benevolent Automaton; you can’t kill yourself, and it’s difficult for others to defeat you. He is quite tricky…”
“Not necessarily,” Yan Mingguang suddenly said, “This instance/dungeon is full of hidden talents. Our base data here is too ordinary; there might be people who can defeat me.”
He paused for a moment, unusually chatty: “Maybe someone has already killed him.”
Yan Wei chuckled lightly: “You aren’t afraid of such rules, are you? Worried about encountering another you? You’re talking more than usual, Teacher Yan.”
Yan Mingguang fell silent.
Yan Wei: “…”
They had just taken a few steps when a notification sound suddenly rang in Yan Wei’s mind.
[Players have obtained the first ranking Points for this instance/dungeon. The ranking board has been updated, and players can check their current scores in real-time. The first organization player to obtain Points will receive corresponding rewards; subsequent scores will no longer be notified. Players should check the ranking changes themselves.]
[The instance/dungeon will end in seven days. Once the time is up, everything still in the instance/dungeon will be directly erased from the players.]
[Players are encouraged to actively participate in the game and strive to find the Stairway to leave.]
Yan Mingguang did not stop his pace, and Yan Wei, lying on Yan Mingguang’s back, had his eyes glimmering.
“You are right; this instance is full of hidden talents.”
But he did not expect that someone would so quickly abandon their humanity.
The Benevolent Automaton had not appeared for long; it must have been those who encountered both the Benevolent and Malevolent Automaton that could guess these things. After making such guesses, they would need to immediately capture a Benevolent Automaton and send it to the top-level stargazing platform.
Where would they find a Benevolent Automaton to capture so quickly?
Yan Wei did not believe anyone could not only deduce this in such a short time but also capture a Benevolent Automaton and deliver it to the Man in Black Robe.
—It could only mean they sacrificed their own people directly.
After entering the castle, the instance/dungeon distributed players who had failed in the gambling tower to each team based on their organization, even Blackbird had two lower-tier players added to their team.
Some currently popular organizations even gained four or five such players at once.
They only needed to see these low-tier players appearing alongside the Benevolent Automaton, see two identical teammates appear, deduce the issue of the Virtuous and Malevolent Puppets, and directly send both identical teammates to the Man in Black Robe, easily verifying this point and scoring points. They didn’t even need to be teammates; as long as they were those dragged in from the gambling tower who survived until now, they could use them.
To score points so quickly, they only needed to exploit the dependency and trust of these low-tier players towards the high-tier players in their organization, casually tying a player to their corresponding Benevolent Automaton and sending them to the stargazing platform.
Yan Wei scoffed: “I disdain them. I don’t believe this is the only way to break the deadlock. Lou always uses the darkest methods to obscure the most fundamental winning edge; this handling is too crude.”
“Not capturing them?”
“Let me think—”
Yan Wei’s voice suddenly paused.
In front of Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang, several people unexpectedly appeared from an unknown corridor.
There were four of them, and they were covered in the stench of blood, as if they had just walked out of some hellish battlefield.
One of them said, “… So that’s how that strange fellow deals with captured Benevolent Automaton; I found it quite thrilling.”
“Such a disgrace,” a refined-looking man with a slow speech said disdainfully, “to crush someone alive is the most brutal method of killing. I have countless ways to make someone die painfully without shedding blood…”
His voice paused.
They clearly noticed Yan Wei and the other two.
Compared to the four players reeking of blood and exuding hostility, Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang looked utterly unthreatening. One was carrying the other, and the one being carried had thick bandages wrapped around his shoulder, his complexion pale, clearly injured and lacking combat ability.
The refined-looking man raised an eyebrow, sizing them up: “I remember you two—the organization that arrived at the castle first? It seems to be… Blackbird, right?”
Another person said, “Blackbird… that mysterious leader has disappeared, and now they are hiding every day, afraid to show themselves. They are already at the point of sending dozens of layers of players in to die?”
“Gentlemen, how about we send you to that Man in Black Robe and see if we can score some points?”
As they spoke, they were already brandishing their weapons, slowly approaching Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang.
Yan Wei understood.
They were currently in a corner on the second floor, next to an old Stairway that should lead up to the third floor and then to the stargazing platform. It was just that this place was relatively remote, and most players were moving around at other Stairways; they hadn’t encountered anyone until now.
The reason these people appeared here… was because they had just received Gold Coins and Points from the Man in Black Robe.
They were the organization that had thrown two identical players to the Man in Black Robe.
From their conversation, it was clear that whether it was a Benevolent Automaton or a real player, as long as they were handed over to the Man in Black Robe, they would be thrown into a giant meat grinder, crushed alive to death.
Yan Wei had initially dismissed their provocation, but at this moment, he felt a surge of killing intent towards these people—directly choosing to kill players for profit without even attempting to find a way to break the deadlock. Such people, while not top-tier in strength, had minds that were exceptionally malicious.
He lowered his head, leaning his face against Yan Mingguang’s neck, his eyes glinting with a hint of cunning.
Silently, he pressed down on Yan Mingguang’s hand, remaining on his back, slowly raising his head to look at the four who were about to strike, suddenly exclaiming, “It’s you!”
He looked at the refined man, his voice slightly weak from his injury, but his tone was filled with surprise: “Weren’t you just saying you were going to find your teammates, from over there—”
Yan Wei raised his hand, pointing in another direction, saying, “You went that way. I was being chased by a Puppet; you saved me a bit while looking for your teammates, but after I said I didn’t know, you left. If it weren’t for my teammates arriving, I would have been dead.”
As he spoke, seemingly to match his injured state, his voice grew softer, as if he had truly almost lost his life from the earlier attack.
After finishing, Yan Wei poked Yan Mingguang’s back, a bit displeased: “Hey, Ice Cube, hurry up and carry me back to rest.”
In this manner, he had not considered that other players might be enemies, appearing completely unaware of the truth behind the Virtuous and Malevolent Puppets.
At the same time, Yan Wei used the skill Perception Burst to connect with Yan Mingguang’s Perception, saying: [Dead Ice Cube, I can feel your speechless emotions; you need to act a bit better, don’t show them that expression.]
[… Okay.]
In front of Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang, the four paused, the refined man looking at him in confusion, then suddenly spoke in a deep voice: “Did you see my Benevolent Automaton?”
Yan Wei was taken aback, his light brown eyes clear and innocent: “Your Benevolent Automaton? What do you mean? I don’t know if I’ve encountered a Benevolent Automaton; I did encounter a Puppet, but I don’t know if that was a Benevolent Automaton or a Malevolent Automaton. I almost got killed by that Puppet; didn’t you see? You just stood by and did nothing…”
“And you described the appearance of your teammates; isn’t it just the three of them? I matched them up. I just don’t know why you were behind earlier and now you’re in front…”
He complained as if, and the refined man seemed to ponder even more.
He seemed genuinely considering where his Benevolent Automaton might have gone and whether he had done something earlier.
However, beside him, the expressions of his other teammates shifted from confusion to the same contemplation, and then they surprisingly revealed a look of vigilance.
—This refined man said that what Yan Wei encountered was the Benevolent Automaton, right? They had separated for a while after coming out of the room to regroup; who knew if this person beside them was their teammate or if the one who said he was looking for teammates was their teammate?
Yan Wei blinked, subtly scanning the expressions of these people, knowing that his plan had succeeded.
In his mind, he used Perception to communicate with Yan Mingguang: [Teacher Yan, it’s my turn to be the teacher today. Just wait for the show.]
