V3C14

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Everyone fell silent. Even Zhang Jia, who had been ceaselessly pestering Lilith, was stunned and looked towards that mysterious player.

He seemed to be familiar with being stared at and continued calmly, “Not just you, I’m familiar with everyone here. It’s pretty hard to ignore missing person cases of over ten people every ten years; even if each incident was pushed down, the students spread word of it as a school myth. Out of curiosity, I checked out the incidents and as expected, discovered a lot of interesting things.”

The advantage of time- the term suddenly jumped into Lin Jue’s mind. This group of players from 2022 held the advantage of time; whether it was out of curiosity or for other reasons, they had already looked into the unusual disappearances in the school during 2002 and 2012 before entering the game. As the same thing had happened twice, the group from 2022 had realized that it was probably not a coincidence.

In contrast to the fake real world, all the dead players here had been deliberately hidden so that every ‘person’ apart from the surviving players had forgotten about them. In the higher dimension real world though, their existence had not been erased, but rather turned into disappearances.

Did that mean they entered the game with their real bodies? Then their corpses…

Lin Jue looked at the dancing bodies around him with an almost appalled expression. They swung mindlessly to the sound of the music; whether it was their decaying faces or their missing limbs, they were all so vivid and realistic. Did that mean that these corpses weren’t illusions or remnants of deleted data, but rather real people? Lin Jue immediately felt their putrid smell become even more disgusting, and his stomach convulsed.

“Allow me guess the names of my masked seniors, starting from 2002. Zhang Jia, second year of clinical medicine. Your girlfriend Zou Lili entered the game with you but it looks like she’s already dead. Mm, there must be some untold stories related to that. The stout and muscular friend next to you should be Du Chen; as expected, you’re the same as your profile, but I don’t think street fights and drag racing are good forms of exercise, haha… That lady in white must be one of your girlfriends, perhaps Bai Lushuang? I remember you had another girlfriend called Su Tian, but she’s already dead isn’t she? As for the other two, I apologize but I’m unable to connect your names just from your physiques. Would you like to introduce yourself later?”

The five players from 2002 all felt a wave of discomfort. Du Chen, who was also the first who had called Zhang Jia back from Lilith said coldly, “Zhang, you better be careful!”

“I’m not the only Zhang here, you know.” The Zhang from 2022 chuckled and elbowed the tall man next to him. “Mr Bodyguard, I’ll have to trouble you later.”

The man being teasingly referred to as Mr Bodyguard didn’t say a word and only looked coldly at Du Chen. Lin Jue had only seen that expression filled with cold malice on Lu Ren before. Dangerous, this man was extremely dangerous!

Zhang was finished with the 2002 team and turned to the group from 2012. “The six from 2012 are much easier to recognise, but what’s with the sisters, I don’t remember there being a pair of twins in the missing list? Isn’t that the trademark of our 2022 team?”

He turned and smiled at a pair of girls holding hands. The two sisters in the 2022 team, one smiling like a flower, the other cold as ice, wore masks made of twisted black and white wire. Because of their structure, their young and pretty faces could still be seen through the gaps. They didn’t mind their faces being seen by their potential enemies; beautiful, youthful girls were always keen to show off their extraordinary charms, especially when they had the power to protect themselves.

“Not sisters, even sisters wouldn’t have the same skills,” the one with a black mask grinned and pointed out.

“Fake,” the one with a white mask said simply, her voice clear yet cold like a pearl falling into a jade plate.

“Alright, then let me keep guessing. The tall and charismatic lady behind Mr Song is Gu Fengyi, quite the famous person from the dance department. I was very impressed with your performance and I hope to have the pleasure and opportunity to buy you a drink. I heard that you had a best friend named Liu Qingqing who refused to be separated from you, she must be one of those two, right? Miss Liu is a woman with many stories, you must not underestimate her. The gentlest women are the scariest, especially when they are vicious enough,” Zhang said meaningfully.

“This isn’t the place for you to jabber on, stop stirring up trouble.” Gu Fengyi snickered and looked at him provocatively. “Or do you have nothing else to do except to file through trash and stalk people like the press?”

“To be so misunderstood by such a beautiful lady, I am deeply sorry,” Zhang sighed and looked at Lu Ren who was standing in the back looking around carelessly. “You must be Lu Ren…”

Lu Ren huffed lightly. “Oh? You know me?”

“How could I? I’ve only seen your profile, that’s all.” Zhang looked now towards Lin Jue. “But I really don’t recognize the one with the spear beside senior Song. There are only so many notable people after all, but plenty of normal ones. Forgive my poor eyesight, but I cannot guess who you are.”

“…” Even though Lin Jue knew logically that he was right, that he was never some outstanding person and before entering the game had had just been another uni student waiting for each day to pass, it was still infuriating to have it pointed out like this- especially when he stood next to Song Hanzhang who was brilliant enough to be recognized instantly.

Song Hanzhang’s finger lightly patted the back of his hand, pressing on his tally marks. It was like the pain of a burn, or the tingle of a tickle. Lin Jue’s fingers curled up slightly and understood what Song Hanzhang meant.

Unless he had another plan, Song Hanzhang would never allow someone else to take control. Compared to dancing to someone else’s tune, Song Hanzhang would always prefer to write his story with his own hands.

This player Zhang didn’t recklessly comment on the players from the other teams because he was talkative, but rather because he wanted to create pressure. He wanted to show them his advantage and mention his knowledge of them while meaningfully hinting that he knew even more, whether it was their personality, their powers, or their secrets.

This advantage of being a ‘prophet’ appeared useful on the surface but its actual use was quite limited, not even close to the forceful suppression brought about by a single Lu Ren. So he chose to use this ‘prophetic advantage’ to engage in psychological warfare with them, rather than hiding his secret and using it to trap his opponents in the future.

Song Hanzhang calmly gave his verdict- he was a sly enemy, but unfortunately, he had already revealed a secret that he didn’t want others to know, a secret that Song Hanzhang had realized from the get-go. Even though he had been extremely careful, almost deliberately avoiding it, sometimes there was only a one word difference between a secret and a truth.

He said: my surname is also Zhang.

|TOC|

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