V3C19

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After leaving through the wooden door, Lin Jue found himself near the dormitory gates where Lu Ren had committed his murder spree just before the beginning of the game. Song Hanzhang had also returned here. It seemed like they had been automatically teleported to where they were when the game began.

But Lu Ren, who had also entered the game here, was nowhere to be seen. After going through Team 2022’s metal door, chasing after the cloaked figure during the corpse promenade, he was nowhere to be seen.

“We’re back? Xuezhang, where are we going now? The plaza?” Lin Jue took out his phone and looked at the time. That midnight ball had only gone for about twenty minutes, it was now 0:22. He still remembered that they had promised Team 2022 to rendezvous at the plaza.

“Mhm.” Song Hanzhang was still deep in thought, a little distracted.

Lin Jue instinctively felt that he was in a bad mood and asked carefully, “Is something wrong?”

Song Hanzhang, who felt that everything was wrong, glanced at him. “No.”

Lin Jue forced himself back and kicked the red-splashed ground in depression. Song Hanzhang would never tell him anything he didn’t want to, even if he was about to die. He could only change his question. From the many questions crowding his brain, he picked out the most urgent one. “Then who do you think Judas…”

The problem of Judas had always troubled Lin Jue. Was it Dan Liang, Liu Qingqing, or even Gu Fengyi? Apart from Song Hanzhang and Lu Ren, he was suspicious of everyone, and in the end, he was wavering between Dan Liang and Liu Qingqing. He desperately wished it was Dan Liang, but before killing the Judas and revealing the Judas’ Rule, he couldn’t be sure.

“It’s most likely Liu Qingqing,” Song Hanzhang said.

Actually, he had only just become certain. Before coming to this conclusion, he had doubted many people, even including Gu Fengyi – he had suspected that the first person to die was Gu Fengyi, and that Liu Qingqing had helped her hide her identity, the two working together to weave a perfect plot. He had also suspected Dan Liang, mainly because Liu Qingqing’s very first explanation was incredibly misleading, and him writing down ‘she is Judas’ was also very fitting of Judas’ attribute of sowing discord. But in the end, he still placed his doubt on Liu Qingqing. Even though she didn’t come across as a dedicated Judas, he still doubted her.

“Huh? But just then at the wish fountain, she gave Gu Fengyi a crossbow. Judas wouldn’t do something like that, right?” Lin Jue couldn’t help but speak up for Liu Qingqing.

“Maybe it’s to convince us to lower our guard. Compared to Dan Liang, she is more suspicious,”Song Hanzhang said.

“Why?” Lin Jue asked. He still felt that Dang Liang was more suspicious, and from an emotional point of view, he also wanted Judas to be Dan Liang and not Liu Qingqing.

“In terms of power, before regaining their skills, Liu Qingqing is at an absolute disadvantage. Even though Dan Liang may not appear strong, the fact is that he managed to escape from us multiple times, proving that he is not as weak as he seems. With the small difference in the strengths of the opening monsters, she has the highest probability for dying. That is my first point.

“My second point is Liu Qingqing’s explanation. In the plaza, she claimed that she had killed Dan Liang who had been hurt, and promised to take us to Dan Liang’s corpse – on the surface, it might have appeared as if she was extremely confident, but it could also explain her taking us to a puddle of blood left behind by some unknown person and fearfully stating that Dan Liang’s corpse was gone. When Dan Liang appeared again later, he would undoubtedly be the resurrected Judas, and no matter what he said, they would be taken as words to cause distrust. But the issue is that she knew that any dead player’s corpse could be resurrected into Judas, yet she left after killing Dan Liang. If I was her, I would definitely bring some ‘souvenir’ with me, such as removing Dan Liang’s head like Lu Ren, or even just cutting off an ear. That way, everyone could be certain that Dan Liang was dead, and would not be fooled again after meeting Judas.”

“…Xuezhang, you have such high expectations for normal humans. Qingqing is a girl, I’m afraid she might not have the courage to do something like that, and she didn’t have a knife either. She only carried a crowbar she picked up on the way to the plaza,” Lin Jue smiled bitterly.

“But if we assume that Liu Qingqing had already been resurrected as Judas and think of it from reverse, we can get a logical story,” Song Hanzhang said.

“What story?” Lin Jue’s curiosity was overwhelming as he looked expectantly at Song Hanzhang for him to continue.

Song Hanzhang pursed his dry lips and felt a little thirsty. It was there again, that urge to prank Lin Jue. Every time he wanted to do something like that, the habits he had developed forcefully overtime would always correct him, stopping him from doing something so pointless just to delight himself.

But this time, Song Hanzhang was unexpectedly keen to indulge himself. Just this once, it was nothing big, right?

“Nevermind, it’s too much trouble to explain. You just need to remember to be careful of Liu Qingqing.” Song Hanzhang suddenly ended the conversation without a warning, going on strike right after piquing Lin Jue’s curiosity.

Lin Jue was immediately anguished. “Say it, I want to hear it!”

Song Hanzhang glanced at him. Lin Jue’s expression reminded him of one time he had accidentally kicked a neighbor’s young pup as he hurried somewhere. That white little puppy whined with droopy ears, looking all angry and resentful, yet all it could do was bite at his shoelaces in a non-threatening manner to vent its fury.

Of course, Lin Jue didn’t know what Song Hanzhang was thinking behind that expressionless mask. He tried his hardest to make himself appear extra sincere, like an outstanding audience member with his heart all on the story, hoping that his genuineness would convince the storyteller to continue. It was more apprehensive than a man kneeling in front of his girlfriend and offering her a diamond ring.

Song Hanzhang took out a water bottle, twisted open the lid, and took a leisurely sip. “Do you want a drink?”

No, I want to listen to the story, Lin Jue thought. But Song Hanzhang had already passed the water bottle to him and Lin Jue could only take a sip, only to suddenly remember that Song Hanzhang had just drank from it – he immediately looked at the bottle guiltily and snuck a glance at Song Hanzhang; he didn’t appear to have noticed anything. Lin Jue didn’t know what made him take another silent sip.

“Think back to Liu Qingqing’s explanation. She said that she had killed a monster in an illusion and after leaving the illusion, she had met Dan Liang, who had also killed a monster but had been wounded – she said that there was a marking on Dan Liang’s hand – and took the opportunity to kill him before arriving at the plaza. Upon arriving at the plaza, the survivor number was five, and she had a marking on her hand, so it all seemed very logical, correct? But I realized just now that the timing was wrong.”

“Huh?” Lin Jue didn’t notice there was anything off at all.

Song Hanzhang patiently analyzed it for him. “Gu Fengyi was the first to arrive at the plaza. I confirmed with her that the survivor number was already five when she arrived there. This meant that the player’s death was before Gu Fengyi’s arrival, and from the experiences of the previous two rounds, the remaining safety time on the plaza started counting down from after the arrival of the first player. I arrived at 20:13 with 52 minutes remaining, which meant that Gu Fengyi had arrived at 20:05. Within five minutes of the game starting, this player had already died.”

Lin Jue couldn’t help but nod. What Song Hanzhang said was easy to understand and anyone could come to his conclusion if they had paid some attention, but the reality was that players were often disoriented by the fearsome monsters and disregarded those few minutes of time difference.

“When Liu Qingqing took us to see Dan Liang’s corpse, I didn’t exactly time the route, but I still had a general concept of it. We didn’t walk very fast, but even that normal walking speed took at most seven minutes! If we changed it to running or striding, it wouldn’t have taken even five. Liu Qingqing was the fourth to arrive at the plaza at 20:15, which meant that even if she had strolled leisurely to the plaza after killing Dan Liang, she still wouldn’t have started traveling before 20:08! But as I have said before, the first player died before 20:05. Then, where did those three minutes go?”

Lin Jue shivered. Indeed, according to Liu Qingqing’s explanation, unless she had quickly killed the monster after the start of the game, and happened to meet Dan Liang who had also quickly killed off his monster, and then was delayed for some reason before heading off to the plaza, the timing made no sense!

But apart from Lu Ren, who would deliberately stay and not go to the plaza? Unless she was forced into a second illusion, but to leave the second illusion required her to kill the monster in it, which meant that she needed at least two markings on her hand! But there was only one marking on her when she had arrived.

The only possibility was that Liu Qingqing lied.

“Then… what do you think really happened?” Lin Jue asked Song Hanzhang.

“Liu Qingqing died from the very start. She never got a mark and was resurrected as Judas after the illusion lifted. After resurrecting, Liu Qingqing met Dan Liang. Maybe he guessed her identity from her lack of mark, or maybe he had witnessed her resurrection, or perhaps she was the one to propose a plan for them, but the two agreed to work together.

“Liu Qingqing, who was now Judas and unable to kill Dan Liang, asked him to pretend to have been killed by her. When she brought us over to see the corpse, only to find that it was gone, it would be easy to conclude that Dan Liang’s corpse had been resurrected as Judas. Dan Liang most likely agreed; don’t forget, last round he had witnessed Judas resurrecting and had killed it on the spot, only to create chaos within the team himself, proving himself more dedicated to the job than a true Judas. Liu Qingqing believed that he was willing to take the blame and shift our focus onto him, making it easier for her to do her things within the team as none of us would believe Dan Liang, but at the very least Gu Fengyi somewhat believed in her.

“Afterwards, Liu Qingqing delayed herself a little to hide the fact that she didn’t have a mark and entered another illusion. After getting it, she arrived at the Time Plaza. If Dan Liang hadn’t left behind that line written in blood, she would have basically gotten off the hook as we would have been too focused on Dan Liang hiding behind the scenes, instead of suspecting Liu Qingqing who had already been proven to be innocent – I too didn’t think this deep at the start. It seems like we really have to thank Dan Liang’s horrible personality of wanting to cause chaos,” Song Hanzhang said. He had also considered another possibility, that Liu Qingqing had met Dan Liang after meeting the illusion, was killed by him, and was then resurrected in front of him. Judas was not allowed to directly kill players, so she had to work with Dan Liang, only to be betrayed by him later. But that way, her timing still could not be explained, so he preferred to think that Liu Qingqing had died from the start, and that she had spent some time afterward to earn her mark.

“…But if Dan Liang agreed to work with Liu Qingqing, why did he betray her?” Lin Jue didn’t understand.

Song Hanzhang lightly looked at him. “It would be stranger for Dan Liang to not. He clearly has some sort of a personality disorder. Judging by his actions, he is extremely keen on deception and betrayal. He would never let go of a chance to torture Judas.”

Lin Jue opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say. Now he finally understood why Dan Liang managed to make Liu Qingqing give up with just one sentence during the ball after changing into her. She even had to protect him, as once he was dead without revealing the Judas’ Rule, it was the same as telling everyone that she was the real Judas.

“Then we’d better tell Gu Fengyi soon.” Lin Jue began to worry for Gu Fengyi as she was always with Liu Qingqing and was in the most danger.

“Gu Fengyi has probably already made a decision. But if Liu Qingqing is Judas, there are still many questions left unanswered…” Song Hanzhang lightly sighed. “Just what is Judas? If it can inherit a player’s skills and partially inherit their memories, then would it end up being controlled by the player’s emotions? I lean towards believing that Judas is like Lilith.”

Song Hanzhang remembered that Lilith had once said that she was once like them from before, them from now, and them from the future. He knew now that Lilith’s body was a dead player from 2002, so he could understand the ‘them from before’ part. ‘Them from the future’ could be interpreted as after a player’s death, they would become a part of ‘Lilith’, and she would have their memories and even their bodies. But what could be made of ‘them from now’? Does it mean that the different ‘Liliths’ were still part of the game like the players? Or were parts of them still part of the game – like Judas?

“My head’s starting to hurt. I wonder if other teams are this troubled by Judas…” Lin Jue slapped his head and felt that it go messier the more he tried to sort through the information.

“It’s hard to say. Because of the small number of players this round, it is easy to locate Judas at the very start of the game and get rid of them. It is possible that there are teams that have not lost a single player yet as well, so Judas wouldn’t even have appeared – the time between the start of the game and their arrival in the square is the most appropriate time for them to blend in. If they appear later, it would be almost pointless. No matter which team it is though, there won’t be a lack of internal issues,” Song Hanzhang said.

“Team 2002 looks a little problematic, but Team 2022… they’re all good fighters and seem pretty close to each other, they might be a bit hard,” Lin Jue said with a bitter face.

“So we need to take advantage of our cooperation and deal with some of them first.” Without changing his expression, Song Hanzhang said something that startled Lin Jue. But even through his shock, Lin Jue felt that it was to be expected.

“Who do you want to get rid of?” he asked. He was a little shocked that he was able to talk so calmly about killing others. It seemed that the previous two rounds had completely altered his morals. It wasn’t the first time he would kill a living human. Even though there were reasons forcing him to do so before, some things were no longer a problem after being done once.

‘Our priority is Zuo Linyuan. If that’s too difficult, the sisters are fine as well. Those three are the main power output of the team.”

“I thought you would deal with Zhang Sijia first,” Lin Jue said, since Zhang Sijia looked like the leader of team 2022.

“If you want to kill Zhang Sijia, you’ll have to deal with Zuo Linyuan first,” Song Hanzhang said.

Lin Jue suddenly laughed and said a little proudly, “So like if someone wanted to kill you, they’d have to step over my dead body? It looks like they have a very good relationship.”

“Mhm.” Song Hanzhang suddenly glanced at him, his expression giving Lin Jue a sense of foreboding as Song Hanzhang continued, “Their relationship is quite good. After all, they’re friends with benefits.”

“… Huh? Huh! What? Friends, friends with benefits?” Lin Jue felt as if he had been hit with a hammer and was so shocked he started stammering. This strange feeling of shock didn’t come from only the relationship between Zuo and Zhang, it also came from – what, Xuezhang just said ‘friends with benefits’! He knew the term ‘friends with benefits’?

“It is clear that there is a physical relationship between them, there were too many small gestures as they interacted. Even the closest friends wouldn’t be that close. But it’s not exactly a pure physical relationship; at the very least, Zuo Linyuan likes Zhang Sijia. Zhang Sijia’s attitude towards Zuo Linyuan is a little strange; he trusts him, but is resisting something.”

Lin Jue felt as if he was sitting on pins and felt an inexplicable wave of embarrassment. He reminded himself sorrowfully not to stare at them after arriving at the plaza. Even though they were enemies, he should still maintain basic manners.

|TOC|

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