Mu Qin really felt that he had broadened his horizons. He impatiently wanted to ask Zhou Yue about the abilities of the other Tarot cards as well as the difference between upright and reversed tarot cards, but before Mu Qin could ask, the two people suddenly heard at the same time the sound of movement coming from outside.
Because the night rain had already stopped, the surroundings had become serene and silent. Any slight noise was very obvious. Thus, Mu Qin and Zhou Yue both instinctively fell silent and turned their heads to look out the door.
Earlier, Zhou Yue carried Mu Qin up to the third floor of the apartment building. The sound of movement now seemed to be coming from downstairs.
Zhou Yue stealthily walked to the entrance and bent his ear to listen closely for a bit. He turned his head back and quietly told Mu Qin, “Darling, I don’t want to let you leave at all, but it would be best for you to not stay with me now. Go look for the others. I’m going to act alone.”
Mu Qin was somewhat reluctant, “But…”
Zhou Yue still smiled at Mu Qin, “You can try to protect the other people, but I will not hesitate to kill them. Other than you, all the other people in this orphanage must die.”
When he said this sentence, Zhou Yue was smiling. Perhaps it could also be called an evil grin. His attitude was very serious. He seemed to have this awareness… this awareness of becoming an executioner who slaughtered people like flies. And because of this kind of enlightenment, he could give up his principles and beliefs without worry.
“What are the criteria for the game system to obliterate you? Will you die if you don’t kill everyone, or do you only need to kill a portion of people? And… if the person isn’t killed by you, how does the system judge it?” Mu Qin wanted to know these specific details.
Zhou Yue gave a simple answer, “Less than two, I will die. Exactly two meet the criteria, but I won’t have any reward points to take. If a person dies but I didn’t kill them, then it counts for me as half a head.”
Mu Qin was a bit uncomfortable hearing this. He bit his lower lip, “This is forcing you to kill people.”
“The system forces me to kill people, but you don’t have to do this.” Zhou Yue seemed to be hinting something at Mu Qin, “I don’t want you to deliberately betray others in order to help me. Mu Qin, if you feel it’s difficult to bear, in the following time, please do your best to help your teammates and stop me.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Mu Qin didn’t speak. He fixedly watched Zhou Yue for a while, his heart complicated and in turmoil. After hesitating for a long time, he ultimately sighed silently and said to Zhou Yue, “I understand. No matter what, if we meet once more after separating, I won’t acknowledge you again.”
“Aera ilxf atlr.” Itbe Tef rboais jcv ufcais rjlv, “Ktlcx bo wf jr jc fcfws. Ze Hlc, P vbc’a wlcv, yea P ilxf sbe. P… gfjiis, gfjiis ibnf sbe.”
Ze Hlc mbeivc’a mbcalcef ilrafclcu ab Itbe Tef rqfjx. Lf qlnbafv tlr tfjv jcv kjixfv klat j ibcu raglvf jcv ojra rafqr bea bo atlr cjggbk jcv rwjii gbbw, ifjnlcu atf gbbw atja tjv Itbe Tef.
When Mu Qin left, Zhou Yue’s gaze followed his receding back until Zhou Yue could no longer see Mu Qin’s figure. Zhou Yue lowered his head and continued fiddling with his Death card that had been disguised as a Fool card. After, he suddenly took another tarot card out of his pocket. Carefully looking, you would discover the tarot card newly taken out by Zhou Yue was a card that looked kind of dirty. Moreover, the card’s face was the Reverse Fool. This card was the one previously thrown away by Han Li and later retrieved by Zhou Yue.
Following, Mu Qin went to the stairwell on the third floor and quickly walked downstairs. While going down the stairs, he did not deliberately suppress the sounds of his footsteps. Instead, he quickly thumped downstairs, so he soon met the person who had been making noises downstairs earlier.
As Mu Qin expected, it was Xu Fu.
Xu Fu seemed to have come to the infirmary on the first floor of the apartment complex to find some medicine. His leg was injured like how Mu Qin thought it would be, and he seemed to have used a wooden board to clamp it in place. Now, there were already white bandages wrapped around it.
When Mu Qin and Xu Fu met, Xu Fu had just walked out of the infirmary. He may have already noticed the chaotic bloody marks covering the ground as well as the inside of the infirmary that had been rummaged through and turned into a mess and heard the sound of Mu Qin’s urgent footsteps as he descended the stairs. Mu Qin didn’t know what Xu Fu was thinking internally. Right now, Mu Qin’s mind was filled with thoughts of Zhou Yue who was still upstairs.
Mu Qin thought of what the other person had said when he and Zhou Yue had separated and forced himself to calm down after taking a deep breath. At this time, Mu Qin needed to pretend he had never met Zhou Yue and didn’t know about Zhou Yue’s identity as the killer. The Mu Qin at this moment from the beginning thought Xu Fu was the actual killer, so…
After Mu Qin saw Xu Fu, he quickly assumed a defensive stance, because Xu Fu was standing right at the foot of the stairs. Mu Qin couldn’t go up the stairs and could only stand on the steps and eye Xu Fu in a predatory manner.
Xu Fu did not advance to attack Mu Qin but also stood in place and looked face-to-face at Mu Qin. After the two people watched each other for a while, Xu Fu took the initiative to speak, “Calm down a bit. I have something I need to discuss with you.”
Mu Qin unceremoniously shot back, “Discuss how to kill me?”
“I’m not the killer.” Xu Fu defended himself, “You guys are all newbies. There are still many things you don’t understand about this game. I’ll tell you all the information. It won’t be too late for you to make a decision after listening.”
Mu Qin did not compromise so quickly. Compromising too hastily was very unnatural, so he frowned and looked at Xu Fu, “You just killed Cheng Guoxu, yet now you actually still want to quibble that you’re not the killer? I don’t believe everything you’ve said. If you’re going to act, then you’d better do it now!”
Xu Fu probably knew that it wouldn’t be that easy for him to convince the other person, trying to patiently say, “In this game, players that aren’t the killer killing each other will get rewards points deducted.”
“This sentence of yours verifies your killer identity even more!” Mu Qin made his defensive attitude more obvious. He retreated a few steps backwards.
Xu Fu’s head seemed to hurt. He rubbed his temples and said, “What I mean is… I think you should already have noticed. The players who entered this game basically all have a history of committing a crime. In other words, the people who have entered this bizarre universe are all sinners. In addition, one more thing in common is that you all have a connection to this orphanage.”
After Mu Qin finished listening to what Xu Fu said, he slightly revealed a thoughtful expression and lowered his defensive attitude. Mu Qin replied, “Yes, that’s right. I’ve also discovered this point… what? Do you want to ask what sin I committed in the past?”
“What crime you committed before has nothing to do with me.” Xu Fu sized Mu Qin up as he said this and continued, “However, I know what crime Cheng Guoxu committed. This guy is a serial killer who abused and killed children. He specifically targeted and acted on the orphans in this orphanage. Among the children he put his hands on, one was my younger sister. Previously, my little sister had been kidnapped and trafficked away by people, but after, the human-trafficking gang was uncovered by the police. Ten-something children who were trafficked were rescued. The police didn’t immediately find my sister’s birth parents and birthplace, so they could only temporarily send her to the orphanage. No one could have expected that when my family searched until they reached here, my younger sister had already been killed by this murderer.”
Xu Fu said a long string of words. In the end, he appeared to be gnashing his teeth a little, “My parents, after seeing my sister’s body, were both angered until they died of illness one after another. For over ten years after, I’ve constantly been investigating the traces of this murderer. However, because of a falling out with others during that time, we started fighting, and I lost control and accidentally beat someone to death and thus went to prison. Thinking of how my sister’s killer hadn’t been found yet, I was burning with impatience. Finally, I acted and tried to break out of prison, but I didn’t succeed and was directly shot to death by the police.”
“Therefore, you killed Cheng Guoxu in this game and finally avenged your sister!?” Mu Qin deliberately frowned and expressed disbelief, “A family member of the deceased tracking down the murderer and the murderer appearing in the same game and in the same map, this kind of coincidence seems like something out of a fantasy. Do you think I would believe it?”
“I don’t know why it’s like this,” Xu Fu earnestly said to Mu Qin, “but it’s true. A large portion of the maps in this game are a reference of the real world’s buildings or scenery. Moreover, the people who entered this map are all absolutely related to the map. I don’t know if it will also be like this later on. I’ve only experienced two game cycles.”
Mu Qin suddenly thought of Zhou Yue. Did Zhou Yue also have a relationship with this orphanage?
Or perhaps it was only because Zhou Yue and Mu Qin had a relationship, so due to this associated relation, he was sent along with Mu Qin to enter this orphanage map. Just like Qiu Zijia’s situation. Qiu Zijia also didn’t have any direct relationship with Iris Orphanage. It was only because the older brother that Qiu Zijia caused the death of was an orphan from this orphanage, so he also entered.
“Why does everyone have a connection to this map. Don’t tell me you don’t have a single clue?” Mu Qin seemed to have been convinced by Xu Fu’s words.
At once, Xu Fu talked about his speculation, “I think… the game system is probably deliberately creating contradictions.”
“Creating contradictions?” Mu Qin suddenly understood what Xu Fu meant, “You mean that this game purposely let people who have connections with the map enter, not only to let the killer kill them, but also to let them kill each other?”
“I think it’s so. If there is contradictions and conflict among us, then we will mutually distrust each other, mutually suspect one another, and even mutually kill each other. The game reduces the chances of us uniting and unanimously dealing with the killer. Maybe it’s for the sake of balance between the two sides… After all, there’s only one killer, and we have five people.”
“Alright, then.” Mu Qin said, “Thank you for telling me this information, but didn’t come up with actual proof that you aren’t the killer. Even if you did kill Cheng Guoxu due to personal grudges, could it be that the corpse that died in this stairwell wasn’t killed by you?”
“Corpse?” Once Mu Qin said it, Xu Fu seemed to have thought of something. He suddenly started observing the stairwell up and down, “That dead body is gone!?”
“You didn’t know?” Mu Qin feigned surprise, “I thought someone had dragged the body away, so I went upstairs to look for it for a bit just now, but I didn’t see any people…”
“No, it wasn’t dragged away by someone!” Xu Fu looked at the tangled and disorderly bloody footprints on the ground… and then looked at the series of footprints in the infirmary. Strings of footprints were linked together until they basically couldn’t be distinguished. Some had even become fainter due to being washed away by the rainwater. However, Xu Fu could still make out clues, “That guy walked away by himself!”
Mu Qin slowly guided the topic in the direction he wanted it to go and conveyed his consternation to Xu Fu, “A dead body can stand up and walk by itself!?”
“You don’t understand!” Xu Fu was somewhat fretful, “In the game, only the killer has the ability to resurrect.”
Mu Qin’s face was full of disbelief, “You said… the killer can resurrect!?”
Truly Oscar-worthy acting from Mu Qin there. It’s so sad to see Zhou Yue and Mu Qin part already.
Thank you for the chapter ❤
Right? Mu Qin is such a good actor! And Mu Qin and Zhou Yue are so cute!! Even though Zhou Yue is a bit insane….. Meh, it’s good when the gong is a bit insane, makes things more interesting
I wonder if they’ll have connections to the locations in future instances too….
Thanks for the chapter! 🙂
Mu Qin is a superb actor.
If Zhou Yue must kill him, Will he be able to do it? I don’t think so.
Thanks for the chapter!
Mu Qin and his actor skills
Damn our mc is a good actor
Haha!! Mu Qin should’ve become an actor instead!