Chapter 98 Hopeless Sea (22) Vice – sin

A group of players, led by Liu Yuhan, carried the angel corpses scavenged from the kitchen and walked slowly toward the seaside.

These people initially thought clearance was imminent and, in an atmosphere of revelry, used the feathers from their own bodies to make wings. It wasn’t until they had processed all the feathers that they realized the quantity was insufficient; they were still one set short.

Liu Yuhan stepped forward at the right moment, calling on them to storm the kitchen, seize the angel corpses, and throw them into the sea to feed the fish, in exchange for more feathers that met the requirements.

In truth, she had long known that the total number of feathers needed to make the wings was double what they could grow themselves. She hadn’t told the other players only because she feared they would shirk the hard work and abandon the plan to fly off the island for clearance.

The wooden boat could only take four people to clearance, which was far from enough compared to the total number of people. Only by using both methods simultaneously could the majority be saved.

Liu Yuhan had completed many clearance guides, and combined with those old instances she had explored repeatedly, she had over a hundred instances of experience and understood the psychology of players well.

Therefore, she hid all her plans in her heart, not even telling Zhang Hongfeng, and quietly guided the players to eat the food in the hotel, making them invest significant sunk costs step by step.

In this way, the players felt psychologically close to success, so they would naturally ignore the difficulties and dangers and dare to carry out the subsequent plans meticulously.

The angel corpses dripped golden-red blood along the way. As they got further from the hotel and closer to the seaside, they began to emit a strong, fishy stench.

The short man suddenly pointed at an angel and exclaimed, “Holy shit! Look, how did it turn into this?”

The players looked over together. Where were the angels? What they were carrying was clearly a human corpse wearing modern clothes. Judging by the face, it was the player who had disappeared yesterday!

“Don’t mind it; it’s just a glamour cast by Yuna,” Liu Yuhan said indifferently. “I thought you knew he wasn’t a real angel. Otherwise, Yuna could have taken feathers from it, and we could have done the same.”

“If he were an angel of the island, it would actually be harder to deal with. The rule stated: do not take anything from the island.”

Seeing her so certain, the players calmed down.

The short man joked, “I just thought Yuna needed a pair of wings; one each from Gao Musheng and Xu Maochun would be enough. Plucking feathers from an angel also has bad connotations…”

The sea was right before them, and a row of dead fish was already lying on the shore, their origin unknown. The players looked at each other, but still threw the corpses into the sea and waited quietly.

Blood stained a small patch of the sea, and more fish were washed onto the shore. The players rushed over excitedly to harvest the feathers on the fish fins. The fish blood splashing out soaked the beach, with orange-red seeping into the golden-yellow.

The bell chimed for the seventh time. Everyone returned fully loaded, walking back along the path they had come through the coconut grove toward the hotel.

The angel engraved on the distant Clock Tower had its eyes wide open, its face twisted as if it were enduring immense pain. More and more fish bones were scattered on the sand, and they all completely resembled feathers.

Shadows stood deep in the coconut grove, looking like statues of fish-men with deformed wings growing on their backs. Without exception, they faced the players, their pupil-less eyeballs turning with the players’ footsteps, palpably malicious.

“It’s almost over,” Liu Yuhan said.

Yes, it was almost over. All the terror would have nothing to do with them anymore. The players thought with a mix of relief and lingering fear.

The group marched out of the coconut grove and entered the open door of the hotel. Upon seeing the chaotic mess in the lobby, they all froze in their tracks.

Lu Li, sitting in the corner, sighed softly, “Just after you left, another Puppet appeared…”

…

On the other side, Chang Xu dragged the skeleton he had brought down from the top of the Clock Tower, moving through the coconut grove.

His brain automatically began to peel away the layers, reviewing the words Qi Si had said when they parted ways.

“Sera’s configuration for official instances is generally three people per group, which means there are two Puppets left.”

“When I die, I’ll have plenty of time to catch up on sleep.”

“I’ve already been targeted; whether I can survive this instance is up in the air.”

Scene after scene replayed before his eyes, and an ominous premonition welled up.

Chang Xu instinctively felt that something unsolvable was about to happen. He and Qi Si were on the edge of a cliff, held by a withered branch, ready to fall into the abyss at any moment.

It was getting late. Chang Xu placed the skeleton in the forest, turned around, and walked toward the hotel.

The coconut groves on both sides went from dense to sparse, and the view before him became open. The two-story wooden building stood quietly in the open space, silent as death under the dim yellow sky, just like the few minutes before rain on a cloudy day.

Chang Xu walked over with long strides.

Just as his hand was about to touch the doorknob, the door was pulled open from the inside.

The person who opened the door was the short man. Upon seeing him, it was as if he had encountered some dangerous person; he took a step back, his eyes full of disgust and wariness.

Chang Xu seemed not to notice and looked around the entire first-floor lobby.

Including him, there were only eight people in the lobby, and there was no sign of Qi Si.

Everyone’s expression was unusually grave, staring straight at him, conveying a message of alertness.

Chang Xu quickly realized that something related to Qi Si had likely happened while he was away.

A man sneered, “Ye Linsheng is dead, do you know that?”

Chang Xu remembered that “Ye Linsheng” was the long-haired youth who was always by Lu Li’s side.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and just as he was about to speak, he heard the short man shouting, “Don’t talk nonsense, let’s attack together! He and that Si Qi were glued together as soon as they entered the instance, they’re probably in cahoots!”

The players stood up one after another, grabbed their weapons, and surrounded him, glaring like tigers.

Of course, they were all just putting on a show and didn’t act immediately.

—No one was willing to take risks, get hurt, or even die for an unrelated person.

Chang Xu’s back instinctively tensed. A blue faint light lit up on the fingertips of his left hand, slowly condensing into a black playing card.

【Name: Fate Poker】

【Type: Skill】

【Effect: You can use it as an ordinary cutting weapon, or use it to predict or even rewrite the fate of others (awaiting evolution, specific operation methods to be explored)】

【Note: Your fate is not within the compilation of the world line, so naturally you cannot receive the favor of the God of Fate. Good luck is nowhere to be found, and bad luck follows like a shadow; the gods are absent, the divine seats are vacant, so to whom can the late believer pray?】

A dozen playing cards floated around him in a protective formation. He observed the expression of everyone in front of him, knowing in his heart that Qi Si had likely met with misfortune, and felt a chill in his heart.

A flying knife flew out from somewhere and stabbed toward his face. Chang Xu activated the cards, a blue light flashed, and he split it in two.

A chaotic battle was on the verge of breaking out. No matter how hesitant the players were, they had to move.

Countless figures were painted in various colors in Chang Xu’s eyes. The landing points and paths of weapons and attacks were marked with red lines, crisscrossing and cutting through the entire spatial scene rendered in pale gold.

The lines presented colors of varying intensity according to the estimated severity of the damage. The Fate Poker met the most lethal attacks and exploded in mid-air the moment it blocked them.

Blue, glowing light spots scattered like snowflakes, and fragments of light of various colors flickered continuously.

Chang Xu dodged the deep red lines, leaped, and collided with a large area of messy water-red.

Blood splattered, seeping into his black clothes, making it unclear.

He quickly analyzed the situation and rushed silently toward Lu Li, who was sitting behind the crowd.

“Bad! Protect Professor Lu!”

Some players realized something was wrong, but it was already too late.

The blue light, carrying the scattered blood droplets, flew to the corner. Chang Xu stood firmly in front of Lu Li like a tombstone, holding the playing card against his neck.

The players’ movements all stalled, as if the pause button had been pressed. They cautiously crowded around, waiting for an opportunity to make further plans.

Blood seeped from Chang Xu’s black clothes, leaving a shallow circle on the ground, but his voice had no fluctuation at all: “Where is Si Qi?”

Lu Li looked up into his eyes and asked, “What is your relationship with Si Qi?”

“He is my friend,” Chang Xu said. “Although he acts without scruples, I don’t think he would voluntarily harm others.”

Lu Li smiled, “He is a Puppet; he killed Ye Linsheng, did you know?”

Qi Si is a Puppet? How is that possible?

In Rose Manor, he was clearly unfamiliar with the name of the Sera Guild, and even now, he wasn’t interested in their philosophy…

Chang Xu thought of many things in a second, too complicated to figure anything out. He stared into Lu Li’s eyes and remained silent.

Lu Li acted as if he had just realized something, “Oh, right, Hans, Si Qi, plus you, that’s exactly three Puppets, found them all.”

“I am not a Puppet,” Chang Xu said coldly. “I suspect you are. You are eager to seize the leadership position and intentionally guide our puzzle-solving process, which is very suspicious.”

“Still trying to quibble?” the short man sneered. “You’re the only one who has been in contact with Si Qi, if it’s not you, then who is it?”

The bell rang without warning, the overlapping vibrations intertwining, enveloping the entire island from high above, chiming nine times, unhurriedly.

All voices were scattered by the vibrations. The players pursed their lips in unison, maintaining silence.

In the stagnant stalemate, Lu Li forced a smile. His voice, mixed with the lingering echoes of the bell, added a sense of solemnity: “We cannot jump to conclusions. Perhaps Chang Xu was also deceived by Si Qi and, like us, is a victim.

“The Puppeteer is good at performing and calculating human hearts; he can easily mold any face to launch fraud and layouts. Puppets are controlled by him and naturally inherit these abilities of his.

“The current situation might be part of Si Qi’s calculation, so we would suspect each other and consume our numbers.”

These words were spoken with certainty and were well-founded. Chang Xu’s eyes darkened a bit.

He suddenly realized that he could not actually rule out the suspicion that Qi Si was a person from the Sera Guild.

In “Rose Manor,” Qi Si had laid out a plan that included both him and Lin Chen, and he had the ability to act from beginning to end without letting him see any clues.

How could he be sure that Qi Si’s performance this time wasn’t deliberate disguise and deception?

The short man asked hesitantly, “How do we determine if a living person is a Puppet?”

Lu Li stroked his fingers and said indifferently, “Puppet Threads must be tied to the Puppet’s right little finger. As long as you cut off the little finger and see if it turns into wood, it will be clear at a glance.”

His voice was unhurried, and he indeed provided a feasible plan. Compared to one’s life, a little finger seemed to be just a dispensable sacrifice.

Chang Xu glanced at his right hand. With a thought, a black playing card condensed out of thin air and slashed downward.

The pale little finger rolled onto the ground, its edges reddish, and the whole thing presented a fleshy color.

Blood flowed out from the wound, dripping onto the ground, covering the dried bloodstains Lu Li had left last night.

The short man bent down to look at the finger on the ground and apologized sheepishly: “Chang Xu, I’m sorry, we misunderstood you.”

Lu Li also smiled bitterly, “The Puppeteer is still so good at playing with human hearts. If I hadn’t dealt with him before, I’m afraid we would have accidentally hurt our companion again this time.”

The players feigned apologies and condolences, without much genuine feeling.

The decisions made by the group were dispersed to each person, and the remaining responsibility was minimal.

Chang Xu seemed to feel no pain from the wound at all, maintaining the posture of holding Lu Li hostage, and asked calmly, “Can you tell me what happened now?”

Lu Li sighed, “Si Qi killed Ye Linsheng. By the time I reacted, it was already too late. He almost killed me too, but fortunately, an item on Ye Linsheng’s body played a role and controlled him… That’s when I knew he was actually a Puppet of the Sera Guild.”

Lu Li placed an item that looked like papyrus on the table.

Chang Xu picked up the paper with two fingers and scanned the system prompt that appeared on the surface.

【Name: Code of Hammurabi (Damaged)】

【Type: Item】

【Effect: After suffering a fatal attack and losing life, there is a 10% probability of returning the attack to the source】

【Note: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth】

Is it probability again?

Chang Xu felt that he seemed to have discovered some suspicious points, but he could not connect them through logic.

Sentences of indistinguishable truth and falsehood revived in his memory.

“In the collective decision-making of irrational individuals, the probability of accidentally killing a good person is over fifty percent.”

“Next, you may encounter many things that you cannot understand, and I don’t expect you to trust me without reservation.”

“Brother Chang, if everyone determines that I am the mastermind behind the scenes, would you believe it?”

The situation was indeed palpably weird, and Qi Si seemed to have anticipated this long ago.

Should he trust Qi Si and believe that he was misunderstood?

Chang Xu’s mind was in chaos, his brows slightly furrowed: “Where is Si Qi? I want to go see him.”

Lu Li took a deep breath and let it out, saying, “On the second floor, in Ye Linsheng’s room.”

Chang Xu got the information he wanted, let go of Lu Li, and walked up the stairs quickly.

He returned to his room, reached under the pillow of his bed, and felt around; the Idol was already gone.

His heart was cold, and following his memory, he walked into the room Lu Li had mentioned.

The pale corpse of the long-haired youth lay across the big bed, like a dead fish with its belly up.

The youth in the white shirt was lying in the corner, wrapped in countless blood-stained threads, presenting a weird posture.

Chang Xu dragged a long trail of blood, passed the bed, walked straight to the corner of the room, and looked down at the corpse on the ground.

The youth’s eyes were dull, and his skin had the texture of wood. From top to bottom, he no longer looked like a human, looking exactly like a Puppet that had been dead for a long time.

Seeing is believing. All previous doubts and entanglements were settled here. Chang Xu’s mood was unprecedentedly calm.

—He had been deceived, and the person who deceived him was dead.