Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Everyone inside the tent and all the viewers in the Livestream Room followed Yu Lingling’s train of thought.
If this oil lamp could protect them from the unknown horrors outside at night, and the rate at which it consumed oil depended on the number of people present, then what would happen if the lamp oil couldn’t be replenished?
Zhao Peng set aside all his other thoughts and schemes and stared at the oil lamp in the middle of the tent.
Xu Chao and Sun Jian crowded closer as well.
Yu Lingling and Tongyu, on the other hand, stepped off to the side.
On the way back, Zhao Peng had been more focused on their surroundings and the matters he’d discussed with Wu Bin, so he hadn’t paid any attention to the oil lamp. When he first heard Yu Lingling’s words, he hadn’t wanted to believe her. But after checking the lamp oil for himself, he had no choice but to accept it.
Xu Chao looked at Zhao Peng. “Did they mention this to you?”
Zhao Peng’s expression darkened. “I don’t know.”
No longer caring whether he exposed anything, Xu Chao asked, “Do the Vice Guild Leader and the others know?”
Them?
From that single question, Yu Lingling had already reached a conclusion. Not only had these two never met before, but Xu Chao didn’t know the slightest thing about Zhao Peng.
Zhao Peng, however, knew about Xu Chao.
Xu Chao had been sent by the Vice Guild Leader. So what about Zhao Peng?
Zhao Peng probably wasn’t part of the Guild Leader’s faction. Yu Lingling also suspected that their missions were different. It seemed the internal situation of the Abyss Guild was quite complicated.
Yu Lingling had already set up Wang Hao’s group, and what she planned to do next would most likely offend the Vice Guild Leader. She had to make sure the Abyss Guild wouldn’t come after her afterward. Otherwise…
Sometimes, Yu Lingling truly hated the existence of the Livestream Room. After becoming a Full-fledged Player, the first thing she’d researched was how to shut it down.
Unfortunately, there was no way to close it. Only certain special items could temporarily block the user from its view.
Yu Lingling didn’t know what the other players thought, but to her, the Livestream Room seemed more like a safeguard for players – a check on the entity the Special Department referred to as the Horror Game’s Main God.
Zhao Peng replied with certainty, “No. Before this, the only rule was that we couldn’t leave the tent at will after dark. There had never been any issue with lamp oil.”
Sun Jian’s voice trembled. “Why is this happening?”
Zhao Peng knew perfectly well why, and Xu Chao had his suspicions, but neither of them said a word.
As far as they were concerned, Sun Jian was already a discarded pawn. After killing Chen Xue and the elephant, he no longer had any chance of surviving this instance.
Zhao Peng turned to Yu Lingling and met her seemingly all-seeing gaze. “Want to work together?”
Since Yu Lingling had revealed these clues, it was clear that she intended to cooperate.
Zhao Peng had a feeling that Yu Lingling already knew how to clear the instance. She simply lacked the strength to protect herself and her younger brother among all these players, so she had been revealing information bit by bit to choose the right people to work with.
Yu Lingling looked at Zhao Peng’s outstretched hand, then placed her own in it.
Just as Zhao Peng suspected, what Yu Lingling lacked was strength.
However, Yu Lingling had anticipated this before entering the instance and had begun laying the groundwork long ago.
The Ghost Infant swarm Suisui had hidden in the shadows was Yu Lingling’s ace in the hole.
The individual members of the Ghost Infant swarm weren’t particularly strong. When spread out, they were so weak that even their supernatural aura was nearly impossible to detect. But together, they could suppress an entity a full tier stronger than themselves.
Yu Lingling was counting on the Ghost Infant swarm’s inconspicuousness. At least so far, no one had discovered its existence.
The Ghost Infant swarm hid in shadows and darkness. Even after following Suisui and the others through online elementary school lessons, they could relay only a limited amount of information. That meant Yu Lingling had to analyze those scattered scraps and draw her own conclusions.
For anyone else, handling all this at once might have been difficult. But Yu Lingling still had several alternate personalities, and she was long accustomed to splitting her attention between multiple tasks.
Yu Lingling and Zhao Peng’s hands clasped only briefly before parting. In full view of the Livestream Room and Xu Chao’s group, they exchanged information without anyone noticing.
Zhao Peng had traced the letter C on Yu Lingling’s palm, while Yu Lingling had written one word on his: fake.
Wu Bin’s information was false. Under the effect of the item, supernatural entities truly couldn’t lie, but they could still give misleading information.
Zhao Peng forcibly suppressed the thoughts churning in his mind and looked at Xu Chao. “Want to work together?”
Xu Chao was about to point out that they were already members of the same guild, but he quickly realized what Zhao Peng meant. Zhao Peng wanted to cut Wang Hao and the others loose – which meant asking Xu Chao to betray the Vice Guild Leader. For a moment, Xu Chao hesitated.
Zhao Peng naturally noticed. “We need to survive the instance before we can worry about what comes afterward.”
Xu Chao had already made his decision. Just as Zhao Peng had said, if Wang Chao and the others were treating him as a disposable pawn, then no one could blame him for making his own choice.
“All right.”
Sun Jian hurriedly said, “I’ll work with you too.”
Xu Chao was about to speak when Zhao Peng beat him to it.
Zhao Peng looked at Sun Jian. “You know it too. If they had only told you to kill Chen Xue, there might still be room to turn things around. But they told you to kill the elephant.”
Sun Jian was indeed uneasy. He clutched his goat tightly. “But I have an animal.”
“Didn’t that so-called performance make it obvious?” Zhao Peng sighed. “Those supposed animal trainers are all supernatural entities, while the animals performing for them were most likely previous players. As for why they turned into animals, it may have happened because they failed to clear the instance.”
Yu Lingling had reached the same conclusion. But Zhao Peng could say such a thing while she could not. She was too weak, and speaking recklessly might only draw trouble to herself.
Beneath the dim yellow glow of the oil lamp, Sun Jian collapsed to the ground.
Zhao Peng’s voice remained calm. “The creatures in the audience below might also be previous players and their animals. As for why they became like that…”
He paused. His next words were meant not only for Sun Jian, but also for Yu Lingling and Tongyu.
“In a Horror Game Instance, especially a low-level instance like this where the goal is to find a way to clear it, the more the instance wants us to do something, the more we must resist. We can’t give in to our desires.”
That was easy to say, but much harder to do.
From the moment they entered the instance, the supernatural entities had been sowing discord among the players. Then they had repeatedly tempted them to kill one another and harm the animals they had chosen.
Zhao Peng had been observing everything. “The last time this instance opened, there were exactly enough animals to go around, and none of them were injured this badly.”
As he spoke the final sentence, Zhao Peng looked at the animals in Yu Lingling’s and Tongyu’s arms.
He had just revealed information belonging to the Abyss Guild. Wang Hao and the others presumably knew it as well, yet they had never mentioned it.
Zhao Peng’s meaning was already perfectly clear. He watched Sun Jian, whose face was ashen and whose eyes held a twisted look.
There was always a certain kind of person in an instance: once they realized they had no hope of clearing it, they became like drowning ghosts, determined to drag every other player down with them. Sun Jian was clearly that kind of person.
A thought stirred in Zhao Peng’s mind. He hesitated, wondering whether he should deal with Sun Jian first.
Just then, Yu Lingling suddenly spoke.
“Actually, there may still be a chance.”