The seventh copy

Flag Mountain.

The dark and steep mountains were painted with rich colors in the night, like a dormant beast. And on the back of this beast, a string of spots suddenly lit up.

Only when you look closer can you see that it is the light from the torch.

The leader was the servant who took Du Ming to Xu's house on the first day, but this time there were many people between him and the other party.

Wang Dabao, whose appearance had completely changed, was probably tired and stayed in the sack without moving.

The group went up Qishan overnight.

When he reached the top of the mountain, Du Ming saw that someone had been waiting there for a long time.

So many familiar faces...

Du Ming looked sideways and found that it was the eldest prince and others.

But I didn’t expect that even the second prince was there.

Among them was a short man who hid behind the second prince, only occasionally peeking out, looking very innocent.

Du Ming frowned and thought for a while, then his eyes suddenly widened.

This...could this be the seventh prince who appears throughout the entire plot but never shows up?

[Congratulations to the player for discovering the key character in the plot—the Seventh Prince.]

The system prompt sound directly confirmed Du Ming's idea.

Someone's eyes lit up instantly, and he looked at the Seventh Prince with such eagerness and concentration that it even attracted the other's attention.

The Seventh Prince looked at him curiously, then turned back to the sack when he saw nothing unusual.

At this time, Du Ming heard a woman crying.

His eyes darkened. It was Wang Xiaocao.

This woman had managed to hold on until now on her last breath. When she arrived at her destination and saw her 'son' in a tattered cloth bag, her legs and feet suddenly became weak and she fell to her knees.

She wanted to pounce on him but Wang Laichang pushed her back immediately.

"Don't move!"

The ceremony began at this time. The servant opened the cloth bag and pulled out Wang Dabao's head, and behind the crowd walked out a man with his face covered in paint.

He first muttered to himself in the air, then took out a bowl of water from the box, burned a handful of Wang Dabao's hair, and then threw the hair that turned black and gray into the water.

Several servants pressed Wang Dabao down and made him drink the bowl of water.

The others stared at the scene, as if waiting for a miracle to happen.

Only one person had passed the system's appraisal early on, and it turned out to be nothing more than a bowl of ordinary water. So, he took advantage of this opportunity and slowly approached his target person - the Seventh Prince.

As expected, when Du Ming was less than one meter away from the Seventh Prince, Wang Dabao suddenly went crazy and started biting people.

Many people stepped back in shock, but Wang Xiaocao stepped forward. Her tears stopped the moment she rushed forward and hugged Wang Dabao.

She was dazed for a moment, then was thrown out and fell not far away. The pain brought her back to her senses.

Wang Xiaocao suddenly stood up and rushed towards Wang Laichang, "Village Head! This is not my son! This is not my son!"

However, Wang Laichang was so focused on the monster, afraid of being bitten, that he had no patience to pay attention to what the other party said. He just responded perfunctorily with "hmm".

Of course, even if he heard it clearly, he would just think that Wang Xiaocao was too frightened and talking nonsense.

Meanwhile, several princes were moving to a safe place under the protection of their guards.

Unfortunately, it was pitch dark and we were in the mountains, so it was impossible to tell the road clearly. Plus, the monster was chasing us from behind, so we were in a panic.

The accident happened at this time.

Du Ming heard a scream from the front, and then saw the seventh prince step on empty air and fall off the cliff.

Du Ming: “!!!”

Afterwards, Wang Dabao was also dealt with.

A monster and a farce. It would have been fine if only the monster died, but an accident happened on the way and a prince's life was lost.

The eldest prince, who was in charge of investigating the matter, had a face so gloomy that water could drip out of it.

After a moment, he signaled to the guards around him with his eyes, and the men behind him silently drew out their knives.

Du Ming felt his life was in danger and immediately chose to reload the game.

After that, Du Ming tried a few more times and found that in the current branch, the seventh prince would definitely die.

Obviously this is a fixed plot, and its purpose is probably to facilitate the progress of other branch lines.

However, someone was not reconciled.

The plot gave so many clues about option C's identity as a prince, but the current branch line is so small that it seems to be just a filler to tell a complete story.

So Du Ming chose option A again and followed the plot.

Finally, when he chose the identity of Wang Shitou again, Du Ming understood everything from the second prince's reaction.

The seventh prince did not fall off the cliff accidentally, but was pushed down by the eldest prince. This scene happened to be seen by the second prince.

The story ends here, and Du Ming decisively chooses to verify it with option B.

Option B is the child of a wealthy businessman.

As expected, the moment Du Ming opened his eyes, he saw the face of Mr. Xu.

This time, he is the eldest son of Xu Shan's family. Because his family has a relationship with the eldest prince, he is promoted to the prince's mansion and given an important position.

During his tenure, Du Ming did learn quite a few secrets, such as how Madam Wei Lian and the Crown Prince were so close, and what happened after that day.

Half a month passed in a blink of an eye, and it was the second prince's birthday.

Du Ming looked at the young man in the bronze mirror, then turned around to look at the birthday gift he was required to deliver, feeling very emotional.

It turned out that the conversation he had overheard as the Eighth Prince was the same conversation he had with the Second Prince's attendant in his current identity.

And the birthday gift was not a real gift, but a threatening letter.

The eldest prince probably suspected that the second prince had actually seen it that day but was just pretending not to know, so he simply sent a letter over.

But what Du Ming was struggling with was whether he should choose to attack the eldest prince or the second prince.

Although he has been collecting information and following the plot, he is different from ordinary players.

Ordinary players aim to clear the level, but Du Ming aims to find the central figure in the dungeon, causing the other party to be mentally disturbed, and then stab the black feather given to him by Cassia into the other party's heart, thus successfully obtaining the core of the dungeon.

In instances like "Left or Right," the core of the instance is usually a key character in the plot, sometimes the protagonist, sometimes the villain. This is because these characters are extremely powerful.

By comparison, it is obvious that in the current copy, the most likely key figures are the eldest prince and the second prince.

Unfortunately, Du Ming only has one chance.

He thought about it and finally replaced the threatening letter with a fishtail-shaped key.

The things were packed and the box was sealed. It was getting dark outside, so Du Ming straightened his clothes and went to the banquet.

Following the example of Xu Yuan (the name of Xu Shan's eldest son), Du Ming specifically stopped the second prince's attendant and repeated what he had said.

But this time he added, "The eldest prince has specifically instructed that His Royal Highness the second prince take a good look at the contents tonight."

The attendant nodded in understanding and led Du Ming to the guest table.

After someone expressed his gratitude, he found that no one around him recognized him, so he pretended to be invisible with peace of mind.

After the banquet, Du Ming found a quiet place, put on an invisible cloak, and successfully slipped into the second prince's room while no one was paying attention.

At this time, the second prince was sitting by the bed with drunken eyes, waiting for someone to help him wash up.

Without Du Ming approaching as the 'Eighth Prince', only the attendant stood by the bed.

Following Du Ming's specific instructions, the attendant picked out the gift box from among the many birthday gifts, and then walked to the side of the Second Prince and whispered a few words.

Yu Shaoqian was stunned for a moment, and after a while he waved away the attendant and chose to open the gift box alone.

The fishtail-shaped key was placed quietly in the middle of the gift box, revealing some jade-like colors under the slightly dim candlelight.

At first, Yu Shaoqian was a little confused.

When he touched the tail of the fish, his hazy drunken eyes suddenly widened. It was obvious that he remembered whose warehouse key it was.

Each prince had a fishtail-shaped treasury key, but they were all different. The difference lay in the arrangement of the scales on the tail.

This is the key to Seventh Brother’s warehouse!

"This key... How did this key appear here?!" He clearly buried the key...

Yu Shaoqian was so frightened that he stepped back repeatedly, with beads of sweat the size of beans running down his forehead.

Du Ming hid behind the man, blew a breath into his ear, and then whispered, "Of course it's because I came to see you, Second Brother~"

Yu Shaoqian screamed immediately.

In a flash, Du Ming acted decisively and stabbed the opponent in the back with the black feather before the person outside rushed in.

The scene in front of him suddenly became blurry, with only the core of the copy exposed at the back shining brightly.

The moment he was forced to leave the copy, Du Ming's face was filled with frozen joy, so much so that when he returned to the Monopoly copy, his expression was still the same.

He couldn't help rubbing his face, and just as he stopped, he saw Cassia appear in front of him.

When the current Demon King saw his expression, he finally let go of the worry that had been hanging in his throat.

Cassia smiled and said, "It seems to be successful."

Du Ming responded with a smile, "Indeed." Then he frowned, "How come you've lost so much weight?" As he said that, he hugged the person in his arms.

Cassia said, "Maybe I've been too busy lately." He didn't mention his worries at all.

Fortunately, Du Ming knew him, hugged him comfortingly, and thanked him for his hard work.

The two of them then got down to business.

From Cassia, Du Ming learned that after he was locked in the Monopoly copy, the previous demon king launched several tentative attacks. Although no obvious results were achieved, it also caused panic among the people.

"Especially your companions, it seems that the situation is not very good." Cassia mentioned.

Du Ming immediately realized that this was referring to the people from the Divine Legion.

Come to think of it, many team members were trapped in the dungeon at the beginning. Although they still had some strength outside, they definitely could not hold on under the siege of everyone.

Even though Du Ming later rescued most of the members, he himself was trapped in the copy again.

Having lost their own support and unable to contact Casillas, the situation is likely to inevitably take a turn for the worse.

However, the fact was just as Du Ming thought. After he was trapped in the copy, the Brave Legion waited outside the copy for a few days.

It was only after I found that I couldn't get in touch with him that I realized the seriousness of the matter.

In order to prevent the former Demon King from learning the specific information about Du Ming, Cassia temporarily cut off contact with the Brave Legion.

So one can imagine the situation of the Brave Legion.

If it weren't for the Monster Archives as a new retreat, the entire legion would have been swallowed up long ago.

Of course, even if it had not been annexed, the situation would not be much better.

The members of the Divine Legion, led by their leader Qi Qiang, are now engaged in a fierce battle in their original base camp.