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Chapter 542 - 539 - ’I am the mole.

Chapter 542: Chapter 539 - ’I am the mole.

1223.

The year displayed on the calendar was five years ago.

It seemed that there had been no living people here five years earlier, so no one was around to change the calendar.

Beside him, Lu was meticulously examining a corpse in the corner.

"Look, these bodies... don’t they look like those who died from the curse?" Lu said.

These bodies were covered in asphalt-like sludge, identical to the sludge in Qiongdi.

"Preliminary judgment... this place must have been a laboratory of outsiders, they were experimenting on the cursed people of Qiongdi," Lu said. "Now there are two hypotheses: one is that the outsiders were extracting a virus from the people of Qiongdi. The second is that the curse of the people of Qiongdi came from an external virus infection."

"Eliminate the second hypothesis," Su Ming’an said.

The curse of the people of Qiongdi came from their faith in deities, communication with the void, and this was an established fact.

"Then let’s consider the first hypothesis," Lu said. "The ambition of the outsiders is not small; they are conducting some kind of biochemical experiment... But with the Black Wall being impregnable, after they entered Qiongdi and extracted the virus from the people, how could they take this bioweapon out?"

"—What if the Black Wall collapses one day?" Su Ming’an said.

At this point, his heart suddenly skipped a beat.

...Right, what if the Black Wall collapsed one day?

Then these already extracted lethal viruses would be carried out into the outside world like Pandora’s Box...

But clearly, the researchers here were no longer around, perhaps due to a mishap during their operations, they didn’t survive to see the day the Black Wall collapsed, having already either died or disappeared.

"Boom— booming—"!

At that moment, a violent noise erupted, as if something was drawing near.

"This way!" Lu rushed toward a small door.

The space here was too cramped; once the Curse Black Beast caught up, its size could fill the room, leaving them with no place to escape.

Following Lu, Su Ming’an hurried along, and after several twists and turns, they quite coincidentally barged back into the kitchen they were in before.

In the kitchen, the aroma of fried chicken wings filled the air; Noel and Bei Wang were actually there savoring the chicken wings. One was sitting directly on the stove, legs crossed, while the other leaned against the cabinet, gnawing on a drumstick.

The body of Mocha, who had died of poisoning, lay on the ground.

Su Ming’an didn’t expect Noel and Bei Wang to get along so well, given that the two hadn’t had much interaction before.

"There’s a Black Beast behind us," Su Ming’an said.

"Ah, it’s fine; this area counts as a Safe Zone. I’ve tested it, the Black Beast can’t get in," Noel said with greasy hands from eating. "By the way, are you two real people?"

Su Ming’an took out the 29 feathers he had collected along the way; Lu had gathered 24.

With a flick of the wrist, Noel showed his collection of 30 feathers, while Bei Wang had 21.

"So it turns out none of us is the insider," Noel said. "An insider wouldn’t bother collecting feathers so diligently; they’d be looking to kill players."

As he spoke, he patted a clay pot on the side.

"Come and eat; for some reason, I got hungry out of the blue, and you must be hungry too," Noel said. "This is the clay pot soup I just found, still hot. The kitchen in this ancient castle is quite modern; they even have a microwave..."

Seeing Su Ming’an and Lu standing motionless, he gave a knowing smile.

"Ah, alright." Noel scooped a spoonful: "I’ll drink first... see, it’s fine. I’ve tested it, the food in the backpack doesn’t satisfy the hunger, but the food here does; drink up."

"Some poisons take a minute to take effect," Su Ming’an said calmly.

"Do you still think I’m the insider?" Noel asked.

"Noel isn’t the insider," Bei Wang shook his head from the side. "He hasn’t made a move against me, not once."

Bei Wang’s way of speaking was always concise and to the point, not because he didn’t respect others, but because he was mute before the World game began and still wasn’t accustomed to speaking even after being cured.

"We’ve just exchanged a few words, and we can’t differentiate whether any of us is the inner ghost, right." Noel jumped down from the stove and said, "Since that’s the case, why not introduce ourselves and see if there’s any discrepancy with the real information? I believe there must be a way to crack this kind of decoding game; it won’t just let us find the inner ghost by blind luck."

"We don’t know each other to begin with, so who would know if you lie?" The kitchen door was suddenly opened, and the somewhat unruly Herbert with brown hair walked in.

He must have been hungry to come to the kitchen.

"Since we’re all gathered here, it wouldn’t hurt to talk a bit more!" Noel said with a smile, "Together, our feathers already exceed 100, we can just hand them over at noon on the third day."

"I agree, it’s best to exchange information." Lu Wen agreed amiably.

Herbert didn’t speak anymore.

"Identity, wishes, dreams, we can all share, how nice it would be for everyone to express their true hearts!" Noel said happily, "—We are a loving family, why should we give up understanding each other just because of a game?"

"..." After he finished speaking, no one talked for a while, and the atmosphere turned somewhat awkward.

"Then let me start," Noel said. "I come from the New World Guild, an adventurer who longs for adventures. My wish... is to play better games and go on interesting adventures..."

The others listened quietly, and Su Ming’an suddenly spoke.

"Is that all?" he said.

"Ah, Su Ming’an, we’ve signed a contract at the amusement park, right? I want to create a beautiful ’New World’ with you, where everyone can play together happily..." Noel said.

Su Ming’an didn’t speak again.

Next, it was Lu’s turn.

"Peak Alliance." Lu turned his head to look at him. "Only the two of us know about this, Su Ming’an, you remember, don’t you?"

"Mm."

"You must have preliminarily accepted my analysis just now and recognized that I am Lu, right?"

"Barely accepted."

"Good," Lu said. "I come from Australia, a very ordinary arms dealer. I believe everyone knows my identity, so no need to elaborate. My wish is to create a favorable future environment so that after the World game, there can be peace and stability."

Then it was Bei Wang’s turn. Bei Wang didn’t say much; after all, aside from Lu, they didn’t know much about him.

Herbert simply stated his background and name and then shut his mouth.

"With this, both of you are very suspicious," Noel said.

"...Boring, continue playing house," Herbert turned around. "I’m going to see if the Curse Black Beast outside has left..."

"Hiss hiss hiss..." A faint sound of silken threads arose.

Before Herbert had the chance to leave, his figure suddenly stalled!

The next moment, his body was suddenly ripped apart, sliced open by the threads. Large splashes of blood burst forth, startling Bei Wang.

The Noel who had suddenly killed someone had cold eyes.

"It seems Herbert was the inner ghost," Noel said. "He’s a smart man, so he should have known—such behavior, turning and walking away, would be suspicious, yet he still chose to do it."

"With that said, the standard for judging the inner ghost is—whether they feel guilty." Lu said, "After all, the ghost knows they are the ghost—even if they mimic the players perfectly, they must know they are the ghost, that’s the only difference between the two."

This was the question he had posed before the start of the game.

[Does the inner ghost know they are the inner ghost?]

At this moment, this simple question played an exceptionally important role in determining identities.

"I see," Su Ming’an said.

At this time, Yuan Shuangshuang’s walkie-talkie suddenly came to life:

[Yuan Shuangshuang: I really want to eat chicken wings.]

[Yuan Shuangshuang: Before you come to rescue me, can you bring me some chicken wings?]

[Su Ming’an: ...Okay.]

...

Su Ming’an grabbed a chicken wing, not knowing if it was poisoned or not, and stuffed it into his inventory; Yuan Shuangshuang seemed very happy.

[Yuan Shuangshuang: Thank you.]

[Yuan Shuangshuang: But I’m still so sleepy... My body feels so weak...]

[Su Ming’an: Do you know anything else?]

[Yuan Shuangshuang: I’m just underground, not far. Come find me in the laboratory quickly.]

[Su Ming’an: Alright.]

Apparently, the chicken wings were not poisoned.

Su Ming’an also sent her some earthenware pot soup to drink, still no poison.

"Who are you sending stuff to?" Noel asked in confusion: "Aren’t you eating?"

"Of course, I am." Su Ming’an ate half a chicken drumstick—Yuan Shuangshuang had tried the other half; she was quite a useful poison tester.

"By the way, have you noticed that all the windows in this castle are nailed shut and the mirrors are shattered?" Su Ming’an suddenly said.

"This means..." Noel said, "that the Black Beast is afraid of mirrors?"

"..." Su Ming’an: "It means there’s something wrong with the glass."

"Ah, is that so..." Noel said.

They walked into a room.

In the room, there was a display screen that wasn’t lit.

After staring at the display screen for a second, Su Ming’an suddenly swung his blade backwards!

The eradication power of the Black Python Authority coated the blade edge, and Noel’s abdomen was pierced with a huge gash in an instant.

"What are you doing!" Noel exclaimed in shock.

"Shouldn’t your first reaction be that I’m the internal traitor?" Su Ming’an said.

"...How could that be, you don’t seem like it." Noel said.

"No, I am the internal traitor." Su Ming’an said: "I am going to kill you all."

Silver light flashed in Noel’s hand as he thrusted a sword at Su Ming’an’s throat, shouting:

"—Can anyone hear me? Su Ming’an is the internal traitor! He’s trying to kill me—!"

The sound echoed in the empty castle, reverberating in the ghostly stillness of the space.

Bei Wang and Lu Wen were alarmed when they saw this and immediately stepped forward to help Noel—

"Boom—!"

Su Ming’an directly collapsed the ceiling of the corridor; boulders fell in front of them, silencing Noel.

Su Ming’an glanced at his san value, which hadn’t increased; maybe Noel wasn’t dead.

He certainly wasn’t the internal traitor.

He just wanted to see Noel’s reaction.

Seeing this—Noel’s first reaction was to ’kill’ him after the attack—confirmed that Noel was indeed the internal traitor.

"—Su Ming’an is the internal traitor! He’s attacking Noel!" Voices of Lu Wen and Bei Wang came from beyond the boulders, but Su Ming’an did not pursue; he heard the footsteps of the Curse Black Beast.

The door had been blocked by the boulders; he stepped inside the room to observe it.

This was a conference room, with chairs upturned and scattered, and several indistinct black corpses on the floor.

When he saw his own reflection on the display screen showing no one behind him, he knew that these people behind him couldn’t possibly be real players.

...No wonder they sealed all the windows and mirrors in the castle.

They had one thing in common.

They reflect.

And when they reflect, the true image is visible.

He walked inside the room and suddenly found a black-haired girl sitting across the table, swinging her legs.

"Who are you?" Su Ming’an asked.

"This time, you didn’t recognize me at first." The girl said.

"You are... Yuanyuan?" Su Ming’an said.

"Mmm." The girl smiled.

Su Ming’an immediately raised his hand and harshly slashed himself.

Amidst severe pain, he saw the smiling black-haired girl slowly disappear.

The hallucination of Yuanyuan made him realize that he was indeed in a low san state, and the ones he had killed could not have been real players.

His hand touched the room’s display screen, seemingly hitting a switch, and the screen began to autoplay.

[April 13, 1223, recorded at the Qiongdi Eastern Ancient Castle, speaker Dr. Sass.]

On the screen, a bald man in protective clothing, with the conference room as a clean backdrop, appeared.

This was a recording from five years ago, here in this location.

The middle-aged man smiled at the camera, his voice resonant:

"Until now, our team, at 6 p.m. yesterday, through experiments on the bodies of the people of Qiongdi, found a scheme to extract the virus."

"A natural disaster is about to erupt in Qiongdi. We have observed the risk of a volcanic eruption here, and we are about to evacuate, waiting on the edge of the Black Wall."

"We have activated the Canopy Curse through the launchers—during the crisis of world extinction, people’s faith increases greatly. Our long-shaped Bai Shen will definitely appear."

"At the same time, we have made a ’Faith Extraction Instrument’—’Faith’ is not so mystical, it’s just an energy, similar to electrical and wind energies. As long as it is properly used, it too can be shared and utilized on a large scale. Once Bai Shen appears, we can draw from its faith energy to overthrow the Black Wall. We will take the virus weapon back to the outside world."

"We believe that war is not something to be despised or an act of slaughtering life; it is a necessary means to maintain peace. We are using virus warfare to eradicate the heretics and tyranny to ensure peace. Please, everyone, support President Kalcha’s campaign..."

"Oh, wait, what’s that sound outside?"

The screen suddenly started to shake, becoming bloody.

The Researchers responsible for recording began to vomit blood abruptly.

"Why are you vomiting blood? The protective measures are in place; how could you be contaminated by the curse..." the middle-aged man said, beginning to vomit blood himself.

He stared fiercely at a certain angle, as if looking at someone who had suddenly intruded.

"The first experiment subject? Wasn’t she locked up? How did she break in? Security... where is security?" he screamed in terror.

"Bang!"

Clouds of blood suddenly burst forth, turning the screen to a translucent red.

The people in the footage fell one by one, quickly rotting, melting into black sludge. Various tissues exploded in front of the camera, drop by drop of dark blood slid down the screen.

A purple-haired girl entered the frame, her clothes marked with "Number One".