At this moment, Gu Xinghe continued walking on this seemingly barren wheat field.

As he walked, misty tentacles emerged from Gu Xinghe's shadow.

They quietly devoured and plundered the black beetles that remained in the wheat field.

After grasping its target, these tentacles quickly retract and disperse, disappearing back into Gu Xinghe's shadow.

They were examining the surface to look for traces of insect infestation left in the wheat field.

Meanwhile, he secretly ate "snacks" behind everyone's back.

Gu Xinghe felt as if he were secretly enjoying afternoon tea while others were working diligently.

It gives you that thrill of sneaking snacks in class when you're in school, behind the teacher's back.

This is probably the best way to legitimately slack off at work.

However, Gu Xinghe looked at Blanco and Sandy, who were standing to the side, having almost completely given up.

And Chu Liang, who always stayed close by his side as if facing a formidable enemy.

Now it seems that what's unexpected is—

Even when he was slacking off, he was still considered the most diligent workaholic.

Seeing this, Gu Xinghe felt that his excuse for slacking off was even more reasonable, and he began to enjoy the "afternoon tea" even more unscrupulously.

After all, compared to the various pollutants we've ingested before, this is much better.

These insects are nutritious foods that taste like a low-fat, healthy fitness meal.

This also makes it easier for the tentacles to absorb nutrients and for them to become nutrients for their evolution.

Meanwhile, Gu Xinghe was walking around the pattern on the wheat field, observing it as he went.

However, he also sensed very serious pollution residue on this ground.

This pollution wasn't just coming from the strange patterns on the wheat field.

It gives the impression that it is not just a pattern floating on the surface of the wheat field.

Pollution has long since penetrated deep into the soil, penetrating the surface.

Like a giant tree, its height above ground is already awe-inspiring.

But beneath that unknown surface, in the soil, lie roots that are even more intricate and intertwined than those on the surface.

Even if you pull out the wheat stalks again and again, and flatten the wheat field again and again, so that the strange patterns on it disappear from the ground.

But the power of pollution has long been accumulated layer upon layer, like toxins settling beneath the soil, impossible to eradicate.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this that when the insect infestation first occurred in this wheat field.

At that time, after the swarming insects finished feeding, they sowed seeds of pollution across the field.

Then, they wait for the insects to mature before harvesting them again and again, unleashing a plague of insects.

Although it is currently impossible to determine the meaning or the existence that this strange pattern on the wheat field represents.

Even so, Gu Xinghe still had no intention of empathizing with the crop circles on the ground.

Rather, it could be said that if this pattern does indeed symbolize some eerie existence, and the other party is indeed alive.

When he tries to discover the existence of the other person, his own existence will inevitably be discovered by the other person as well.

Clearly, he had no intention of revealing his existence and offering himself up.

Gu Xinghe withdrew his gaze from observing the crop circles.

Over the next half day.

Blanco and Sandy followed Gu Xinghe and Chu Liang around the town, seemingly working tirelessly and collecting information.

For Gu Xinghe, it was essentially just confirming what he had heard from everyone's thoughts.

However, for Chu Liang, he gained a more accurate understanding of this game instance.

Meanwhile, as the group moved, the sky gradually darkened.

At roughly the same time as their arrival yesterday.

At this moment, Mayor Blanco spoke to Gu Xinghe and Chu Liang.

"Thank you both for your hard work today, detectives. I am confident that you will be able to perfectly resolve the insect plague that has been troubling our town for so long."

However, in order to reduce the burden and pressure on the two detectives, we also hired two other private detectives.

I believe that the cooperation between the four of you detectives will go very smoothly in the future.

"And later, it's our agreed meeting time. Why don't we go and wait for them to arrive?"

"Okay, sure."

Upon hearing Blanco's invitation, Gu Xinghe simply nodded in agreement.

Upon hearing this, Chu Liang looked at Gu Xinghe with some confusion—

[I wonder if those two detectives are real detectives in this world, or just players like us?]

[They saw us calmly investigating clues in the small town and felt we weren't making any contribution.]

Do you want to bring in two more people to intensify the competition between us?

"No way? Who wants to compete in this cutthroat environment? I just want to slack off!"

Chu Liang, who had watched Gu Xinghe's live stream, obviously knew the situation, just like before at the Dawn Boarding School.

It's not impossible for new players to join midway through a game instance.

But compared to Chu Liang's current thought about whether the visitor was a real detective or a player, this was a different matter.

Gu Xinghe was quite certain that the two newly arrived detectives were most likely players, just like them.

If it's a normal relationship between a detective and a client.

If something like this happens, it might only make the detective feel that the client is questioning his or her ability to handle things.

Then it might lead to the outcome of "You look down on me? You actually need to hire someone else? Watch me show you what I'm capable of."

But for Wheatfield Town, which had hired the detective with ulterior motives by offering only a rather "special" reward, this was a different story.

It's obvious that any detective willing to come for such low pay is clearly up to no good.

Rather, it's more like they were attracted by the low pay.

There's no need to overthink it; most of them are just resentful players randomly assigned by the game system.

At this point, they arrived at the entrance of the town with Blanco and Sandy.

Gu Xinghe and Chu Liang saw the newly hired detective they had mentioned.

But the instant he saw the two female players, Gu Xinghe thought to himself—

It's confirmed.

Regardless of gender, the potential requirement for entering this game instance is probably high looks.

The two female detectives who came this time were indeed very beautiful.

At this moment, accompanying Gu Xinghe's thoughts was Sandy's familiar inner voice.

At this moment, Gu Xinghe also recalled Sandy's thoughts when she saw him and Chu Liang earlier—

The two male detectives who came this time were indeed quite handsome.

Wait, this idea is so familiar...

Could it be that there weren't so many twists and turns at all? Could Sandy, the deputy mayor, just be a pure looks-obsessed person?