Chapter 41 Trick or treacherous scheme "Trick or tre..."
If it weren't for the need for the two of them to act together, Liang Jun felt that Gu Keke could have rushed out any second.
She was so anxious that she wrung her hands in place, "Of course I'll go! There's no reason not to go!"
"Don't rush," Liang Xun pressed her hand down, signaling her to calm down first. "Besides confirming the girl's current situation, we also need to observe the current state of office workers."
Hearing that other people were involved, Gu Keke was somewhat puzzled.
Why do you still need to look at him?
“He is the only player we know of who has used the invisibility cloth item,” Liang Jun pondered. “Whether he successfully escaped, and whether it will have any physical effects after use—these are all things we need to know.”
"That makes so much sense..."
Gu Keke secretly made another note in her mind—
Sister Han is truly amazing!
After a brief discussion of their plan, the two began moving from Zone C to Zone B, hugging the inner wall of the parking lot.
Before officially entering Area A, they would first pass through that secluded corner of Area B. Thinking about her parking space, which she had enclosed with a protective shield, Liang Jun felt a little uneasy.
She directed Gu Keke to turn into a corner first.
"Let's go check out our props."
The pale purple Rubik's Cube remained in its original spot, its faint metallic sheen radiating a chilling aura.
It appears that there are no signs of unauthorized alteration.
The two women were not restricted from entering or leaving the protective barrier. They went in again to check carefully, and only after confirming that everything was in order did they come out.
Crossing the main driveway in the middle, Liang Xun and Gu Keke moved to one side of the wall in the main area of Zone B.
They were at the very front of the boundary, separated from Area A by only one wall.
The familiar sounds of hiding and arguing, both long-lost and familiar, came from Area A.
Liang Xun bent her arm back and shielded Gu Keke behind her.
“Don’t act rashly,” Liang Jun lowered her voice, “first observe what the situation is like in Area A, and then we will analyze the specific problems on a case-by-case basis.”
Gu Keke nodded and stood side by side with Liang Xuan against the wall.
"clear."
The two clung tightly to the partition wall, peering into area A.
The pumpkin head, originally orange-yellow, has evolved into a dark golden color through continuous hunting and upgrading, making it even more conspicuous in the already dimly lit parking lot.
The shadowy figure was difficult to locate, but the pumpkin head was always right.
Liang Jun quickly scanned the pumpkin heads visible throughout Area A.
There are five in total.
Since their brainwaves were on the same frequency, Gu Keke first confirmed the number of demons.
"Sister, all five demons are here."
Liang Jun hummed in agreement.
Moreover, she noticed that the five demons didn't even seem to want to leave Area A.
Area A is the first parking area, but its area is smaller than that of the additionally expanded Areas C and D, and even smaller than that of the transitional Area B.
Hunting in such a confined space, the phenomenon of "several demons sharing a single player" could be quite common.
Even so, the demons still chose to linger here, showing no intention of leaving.
It was as if they had been drawn here by something.
Liang Xun instantly realized that this matter was not so simple and should be related to the dungeon mechanism.
But they can't stay here any longer.
Liang Xun could only keep this question to herself for the time being and continue to observe the relevant developments in Area A.
Among the several red parking lights, Liang Jun finally spotted the blue-eyed girl.
She unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, the person is still alive.
However, the current situation for girls with blue eyes is not very good.
The carefree and unrestrained spirit she displayed before the dungeon began was nowhere to be found in her again.
Her high ponytail had become loose, with her long hair tangled and scattered on both sides of her ears, but she no longer combed it neatly.
She seemed oblivious to the uncomfortable bumps; the blue-eyed girl was completely slumped over the front desk. If it weren't for the slight rise and fall of her chest, Liang Jun wouldn't even be sure of her current state.
Liang Xun's gaze remained fixed on her, and the already alert girl seemed to have noticed this as well. She slowly raised her heavy head and looked towards the entrance of Area A.
When their eyes met, Liang Jun couldn't bear it and looked away.
Even though they weren't very close, Liang Jun could still clearly see the terrible state on her face.
The wound hadn't fully scabbed over, and streams of blood flowed from beneath her distinctive gray-blue eyes. A layer of dirty yellow dust covered her once-fair skin, so thick that the print of a shoe sole could be discerned on her delicate flesh, crudely mingling with the blood.
Those grey-blue eyes, which seemed to hold countless stars, had forgotten how to breathe.
The blue-eyed girl turned her lifeless eyes away, no longer looking at Liang Yun.
how so……
Liang Jun was trembling uncontrollably.
She knew what the blue-eyed girl had gone through just by looking at the terrible state on her face.
I know Leung Chung all too well.
She will never forget it in her life.
Despite struggling and wrestling with others, once their physical strength is exhausted, they ultimately cannot overcome the power of the majority.
Losing their balance, they were shoved to the ground. Sharp pebbles would cut their cheeks, dust kicked up by the wind would choke them, and the suffocating feeling would force them to open their mouths to get more oxygen, only to be met with an even bigger mixture of dirt.
Countless shoe prints will be left on your body. The shoe prints will seek out the softest places, such as the lower abdomen and the face. The shoe prints have no sense of weight; they only trample indiscriminately to vent their emotions. Those deep, brand-like marks are their proudest medals.
When the silent revelry finally ended and the audience dispersed, all that remained was the noisy dust and the huddled bodies.
"Sister Yao...Sister Yao..."
Gu Keke dragged Liang Xuan, whose eyes were glazed over, back to a corner of Section B and shook her body repeatedly.
"Liang Jun! What's wrong?"
Coming to her senses, Liang Jun shuddered and immediately took in her surroundings and the people in front of her.
Seeing Gu Keke's worried expression, Liang Xun breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m fine,” she waved her hand, wiping the cold sweat from her forehead. “I’m probably just a little hypoglycemic.”
Upon hearing this, Gu Keke began searching all her pockets. But after turning them all over, she still couldn't find any emergency chocolate.
She was clearly at a loss. "What should we do? Can you still hold on?"
She knew her own body best, and Liang Jun knew that "low blood sugar" was just a pretext for her to get away with it.
Not wanting Gu Keke to worry too much, she forced a smile at her.
"Don't worry, it's not too serious. I'm much better now."
But it was clear that the other party had not put their mind at ease.
After confirming that she could move around normally, Gu Keke finally relaxed completely.
"Looks like I'll need to bring a few more chocolates when I go into dungeons in the future," Gu Keke leaned against the cement wall in the corner, "just in case."
Liang Jun leaned against the wall and stood up.
"Why are you back?"
"I just noticed you weren't doing well!"
Gu Keke put her hands behind her back and said, "You suddenly started swaying next to me, looking like you were about to fall. I was afraid that if you fell, it would attract the attention of those people in Area A, so I quickly helped you back."
Liang Xun coughed awkwardly twice, then changed the subject, "Did you get any information?"
Gu Keke immediately became interested when this was mentioned.
Ignoring the mess on the ground, she plopped down right in front of Liang Jun.
Do you remember those rainbow-haired girls we saw when we first entered the venue?
Liang Xuan was deeply impressed by them. "I know."
Gu Keke nodded. "Of all those people, I bet only the red-haired kid is left."
"Red-haired...kid?" Liang Jun chuckled.
Gu Keke really knows how to come up with nicknames.
“Don’t worry about the details,” she waved her hand. “That guy looked much younger than me and had a head of hair like a flamingo. Calling him Red-haired Boy is quite fitting.”
"Okay, please continue."
"Besides that, Zhang Weiming and the other three are all still alive and well."
Gu Keke spoke a few seconds faster, "I saw that office worker too. He was perfectly normal, nothing seemed amiss. It seems the invisibility cloth really did help him withstand that attack completely."
Listening to the clues Gu Keke had gathered, Liang Xun concluded, "That's good. If we encounter an emergency, we can use the invisibility cloth with peace of mind."
As soon as she finished speaking, the image of the blue-eyed girl reappeared in Liang Xuan's mind.
She couldn't bear it. "Coco, have you noticed that girl?"
Gu Keke was taken aback. "Ah, I remember, but she was slumped over her seat and didn't seem to be feeling well, so I didn't pay much attention after that."
Gu Keke did not see the despair hidden in her eyes.
Liang Jun stammered, "I'm a little worried about her condition..."
She briefly summarized the other party's situation.
Regarding the potential violence, Leung Chun did not elaborate, but instead said, "She might have been bullied by that group of people."
Gu Keke really wanted to explode on the spot, but her rational mind was still controlling her emotions.
She took several deep breaths and finally calmed down.
"Is there any way we can save her?"
The blue-eyed girl was already in very bad shape. If she were left alone in the environment of Area A, she might not survive until the end of the dungeon.
But Leung Chun still felt that they couldn't act so easily.
"I'm wondering now, why did all five demons choose to gather in Area A?"
"Maybe it's because all the players are in Area A?"
Gu Keke blinked. "We're almost at the end of the dungeon now, and only a few players are still active in Area A. And since the demons automatically track players, that's why they're concentrated in areas with high player density..."
The underground ventilation system was still running, and fine dust on the ground was blown up by the wind, covering Liang Yun's trousers with a layer.
She lightly brushed the soil aside. "But we didn't see any demons when we were active in Zones C and D, did we?"
Gu Keke was speechless.
"If the monsters track all players, then the NPCs will naturally come to capture us as well. We're not lucky enough to be able to precisely avoid every hunt."
Liang Jun analyzed objectively, "I think there must be some kind of mechanism that allows NPCs to locate or prioritize the capture of a certain type of player, and we just happen to be outside the scope of that type of player—that might explain it."
This dungeon run lasted a total of three hours, and now that the game is nearing its end, the number of times they have been captured by demons is also very few.
In most cases, the monsters spotted them while tracking other players; the remaining few were simply unlucky enough to sit on the monsters' patrol route.
It seems I've never actually encountered a situation where a monster attacks me on its own initiative.
Gu Keke suddenly understood, "Then how are these types of players distinguished? If we just take that girl and stay away from these types of players, we can directly avoid the devil's pursuit!"
Finally, there's a walkthrough!
Her eyes shone as she stared intently at Liang Jun.
Sister Jun is so smart, she must have already figured it out—
"have no idea."
Liang Jun uttered three words crisply.
The light in Gu Keke's eyes dimmed slightly, but her eyes still held admiration.
Her arrogance was not dampened at all; on the contrary, she was full of fighting spirit.
"Then let's go investigate!"
She crossed her legs, pushed off with her ankles, and stood up directly from the ground.
"Since the demons prioritize hunting these types of players, we just need to go to Area A and see which players are constantly being chased by the demons. Once we can identify their similarities, we can use this information to bypass this hidden rule!"
Liang Xun gave Gu Keke an approving look.
When she heard her mention the "hidden rules," Liang Jun's lips twitched slightly.
She hadn't heard any new hidden rules in a long time.
Or perhaps they've simply forgotten about the existence of rules.
In a world governed by rules, the most taboo thing is to act in a way that disregards the rules.
Thinking of this, Liang Xun's gaze sharpened.
Gu Keke, who had already reached the entrance, turned around and saw that Liang Xun hadn't followed her. She asked curiously, "What's wrong? Are you still not feeling well?"
"No, I'm thinking about the rules."
Leung Yung told the truth.
This instance only provides players with four ambiguous known rules.
They were already familiar with the first and second rules.
But there are two left...
"The bat's mission is to destroy evil..."
Liang Jun closed her eyes and recalled those seemingly unrelated sentences in her mind.
"Does the demon only harm evil players?"
Just when they thought they had found a crucial clue, Gu Keke poured cold water on their hopes.
"But what is evil?"
If you were to ask the world's greatest philosopher this question, he probably wouldn't be able to find the real answer.
This question is too subjective; it seems everyone has a different interpretation of "evil."
However, a rule-based world is an open world. The system cannot treat such a vague concept as a rule to constrain players.
Liang Jun clenched her fist and then relaxed it.
"Let's go see what's going on."
Practice makes perfect.
The two returned to their previous hiding place, peering out to observe the current situation in Area A.
Just like the first time they watched it, there were still only a few people left in the audience.
The blue-eyed girl was in better condition than before, but she still looked listless and her body language was clearly distancing her from the other players.
The red-haired boy ran around the entire venue, relying on his agility to manage to slip into the correct seat at the crucial moment several times.
Zhang Weiming and his three companions continued to operate methodically. They had already occupied most of the available seats in Section A, and all they needed to do was collect the props.
The positions of the six people in Area A changed in real time as the demon acted.
Liang Jun noticed that the blue-eyed girl was deliberately keeping her distance from others, so she kept moving towards the outer edge of the circle.
Zhang Weiming and his three companions always stayed together, and even when there weren't enough seats on one bus, they would sit next to each other.
The red-haired kid was alone, positioned between the two groups, but closer to Zhang Weiming and his group.
"There are four demons around Zhang Weiming and his group, and another one will occasionally go to the red-haired boy's side."
Gu Keke leaned against the wall, providing a live update on the battle, "Luckily, that girl is far away from them and won't be affected by the demons..."
As soon as Gu Keke finished speaking, Zhang Weiming, who had just frozen several demons, grabbed his group of men and ran towards the empty seat next to the blue-eyed girl.
Her seat was still not undone, so she could only watch helplessly as the men surrounded her.
"What are they doing...?"
"Attracting the devil's attention."
Liang Jun's fingertips dug deeply into the wall. "Most of the seats have been taken up by Zhang Weiming, and there will only be fewer and fewer available seats in Area A. He probably realized that the demons would prioritize tracking them, so he wanted to move to the positions of other players, trying to make the demons attack other players and buy himself more time to hide."
Gu Keke looked in the direction of the girl with blue eyes again.
As expected, most of the demons were drawn there. After Zhang Weiming and the others fled the area, the blue-eyed girl was naturally attacked as well.
Unlike them who comfortably settled into their assigned seats, she had to recheck and identify the seats with green headlights within a brief half-minute freeze.
Watching the blue-eyed girl lean over her seat to observe the light and shadow, Liang Jun's right eyelid twitched.
Doesn't she have a flashlight?
Why not use a flashlight? The inspection would be much faster that way...
With too much chaotic information piling up in her mind, Liang Xuan felt a splitting headache and urgently needed to reorganize the clues.
She pulled Gu Keke, who was also suffering from a headache, back to the corner of Block B.
"It's confirmed. Apart from her, everyone else will be prioritized for tracking by the monster."
Liang Xun sighed and paced back and forth in front of the parking space. "So, as long as the blue-eyed girl keeps her distance from them, she'll be fine. The farther away she is, the more likely she is to save her life."
Fortunately, she was already aware of this.
Similar to Liang Xuan, Gu Keke was also tormented by this information.
"What do they have in common?" Gu Keke asked, scratching her hair in frustration. "Besides being all men, I can't think of any other similarities."
She pouted and looked up at Liang Yun.
But Liang Yan continued pacing, her shoes covered in a layer of mud.
"These rules are so annoying!"
Round after round of tedious brain-teasing reasoning felt like Gu Keke was back in the school exam hall, giving her a sense of resignation.
"What 'destroy evil' and 'trick or treat'? What kind of nonsense rules are these!"
She grumbled and plopped back down on the ground, but couldn't help but keep glancing at the outside.
Trick or treat.
This is a classic Halloween phrase. It appears as frequently as "Happy Chinese New Year" during the Spring Festival.
But Leung Yung doesn't really celebrate Halloween.
She had always believed that this was just a marketing tactic used by the amusement park.
Her understanding of Halloween was limited to short reading passages in English class and writing continuation essays after class.
"Trick or treat."
Liang Xuan spoke up unconsciously.
Gu Keke stopped scratching her head halfway through. "What did you say?"
"Ah, it's nothing..."
Remembering that Gu Keke wasn't doing very well in school, she smiled a little guiltyly, "It's just the English translation of the phrase 'trick or treat'."
But Gu Keke's thirst for knowledge was extraordinary, or perhaps she wanted to divert her attention, she continued to press, "That thing you mentioned..."
"Trick or treat."
Liang Jun repeated it again.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Gu Keke nodded repeatedly, “What does ‘trick’ mean?”
This word is very basic, and its meaning is not difficult for Liang Jun.
"It is often used in a negative sense, meaning scam, fraud, and trickery..."
Liang Xuan's voice grew softer and softer as she explained, and by the latter half, Gu Keke, who was sitting on the ground, could barely hear her.
She pushed herself up with her hands and stood up. "What's behind the scam? I didn't hear you..."
Fraud.
trick.
Does the fourth rule need to be analyzed by breaking it down into its English form?
“The terms ‘evil’ and ‘good’ in Rule 3 correspond perfectly to the English translation of Rule 4.”
Liang Xun quickly moved to Gu Keke's side. "Evil corresponds to the word 'trick,' and 'trick' also means to scheme or frame someone."
Her speaking speed gradually increased.
"Does this mean that the demons are hunting down players who are skilled at using schemes and tricks to frame others?"
Although Gu Keke didn't understand English very well, she was still able to quickly follow Liang Xuan's analytical train of thought.
“Zhang Weiming could lure his teammates to their deaths right in front of us, let alone his insidious deeds behind the scenes.”
Gu Keke calmly judged, "The person who killed his own wife and daughter is even more despicable. Birds of a feather flock together—those who can form a team with them are probably not good people."
While we shouldn't condemn everything outright, given the current situation, it's indeed better to reject it entirely.
Just as they were pondering the true classification criteria, the system's notification sounded after a long absence.
[Hidden rule triggered.]
2. The soul originates from the rainbow. The rainbow is beautiful. The soul is evil.
To their surprise, the hidden rule that was triggered did not originate from either rule three or rule four, but from rule two, which they had long overlooked.
That makes sense.
The NPCs' mission is to hunt down players who have framed others. Even if these players choose the correct rainbow seats to protect themselves, they will still be unconditionally located and tracked by the monsters.
It is unforgivable that their evil souls have tainted the beautiful rainbow.
Players like Liang Yan who don't do bad things are recognized by the system as "kind people".
As long as kind people stay away from evil spirits, they will not be killed by bats for no reason. And if they are accidentally tracked, they only need to find the rainbow seat to protect themselves and they can escape unscathed.
The true meaning of Rule Four lies in connecting all the rules together.
The huge problem was finally solved, and the two of them felt much lighter.
Liang Xun breathed a sigh of relief, "As long as we avoid the other five players besides that girl at the last moment, we can ensure our safety."
Gu Keke chimed in, "Besides, we still have our last defensive seats."
She pointed to the inside of the corner, where a pale purple light flickered in the darkness.
[Ten minutes remaining until the dungeon ends—]
[Successfully surviving by following the rules will allow you to clear the level. Keep up the good work!]
The dungeon is now in its countdown phase.
Liang Xun wiped the lingering smile from her lips and hurriedly pulled Gu Keke's hand.
"Come on, let's get in the car."
But Gu Keke stood still and refused to move.
"Aren't we going to save her?"
Her eyes welled up with tears. "That blue-eyed girl, she can't hold out for more than ten minutes in Area A. We know her situation, so leaving her alone among that group of people, doesn't that count as abandoning her to her death?"
Seeing that Liang Jun remained silent, Gu Keke sighed.
"If we don't save her, will we also become 'evil souls'?"
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Author's note: After waking up, I'm going to take some photos with my friends!
Tomorrow is Mint's birthday, I'm slightly looking forward to it!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
