Chapter 111

Chapter 111

Ning Shuo’s meaning was obvious: there was a fix in the Star Zone Arena Match.

Inside the System, the System had the final say-by now, that was practically a belief rooted deep in every Player’s mind.

But Ning Shuo had just reminded them of one thing: inside the System, the System wasn’t omnipotent. The rules were.

Otherwise, the System wouldn’t have had to shatter several Scripts after the Zone F Team used the rules to bring them crashing down.

Multiple Scripts being shattered was something many Players had witnessed with their own eyes. It hadn’t only happened in Zone F.

If the System itself were truly omnipotent, couldn’t it have simply forced the Scripts to become whatever it wanted them to be?

That was why, from the moment they learned the Arena Match’s livestream cameras couldn’t be turned off, Zone F had blocked the System from outside the arena and devised this plan:

Expose the System’s business to everyone.

As Ning Shuo spoke to the audience through the camera, he thought back to when he had just cleared his first Script and entered the Rest Area for Overworked and Overrun.

Back then, he had met a Player who took on all kinds of commissions to earn tiny amounts of Heat. Her name was Li Ziqian, code name Qianqian.

Li Ziqian had told him that there had once been a Big Shot who forcibly made every Player at the time learn about the Hidden Rule. Afterward, the System completely erased all information about that Big Shot, leaving no way to find out anything about them.

Looking at it now, by using the Arena Match’s livestream cameras to reveal the fact that items couldn’t be used, he had somehow achieved the same effect by different means.

If he hadn’t known that Big Shot had a Player identity, he might really have thought it was his own…

At that thought, Ning Shuo paused.

He looked at Ning Wang and thought that maybe it being himself wasn’t entirely impossible after all.

For now, the only task left was to clear this Script. Ning Shuo only said those few lines about the System rigging things. He left the rest for the Players to imagine for themselves, and there was an enormous amount of room for them to stir up trouble.

Of course, the System was both a follower of the rules and the maker of the rules. A little unrest like this probably wouldn’t be enough to stump it.

But Ning Shuo and the others had never intended to stump it with such a small matter in the first place-

As long as the Players no longer firmly believed every rule the System told them, that was enough.

After that, they didn’t need to worry about how big a storm his veiled accusations about the System’s rigging would cause outside. All they needed to do was continue making progress toward clearing the Script.

Song Zhu said, “There’s one more thing. Didn’t we know Fan Jiangnan would go to that teaching building? Willow and Nan-ge went to that building under the pretext of a chemistry experiment and ran straight into Chen Qu’an and Gu Qi.”

“They worked extremely hard to hide the Murderer on their Team, which actually proves that the dead Yan Xingyi most likely wasn’t the Murderer.”

“But Willow said he had a feeling. He thinks the Players from Zone B only know Yan Xingyi isn’t the Murderer, but they don’t know who the Murderer on their own Team is.”

Ning Shuo glanced at Ning Wang. The latter had skin thick enough to be bulletproof and showed not the slightest hint of guilt.

Ning Shuo said, “Looking at it that way, the conditions for killing on their Team must be pretty strict too.”

And unlike their Team, no one in Zone B cared about being ranked dead last.

On the other hand, Zone B’s captain, Yu Min, studied like he had gone insane. Willow shared a dorm with him, and even when Willow got up to use the bathroom at two in the morning, he could still see Yu Min’s light on.

Right now, on the Elite Ranking List, Yu Min’s grades were almost the same as Fan Jiangnan’s. He would probably take first place after this week’s weekly exam.
If their team’s kill condition was to complete a Murder Case with the help of the top-ranked student…

Ning Shuo said, “It’s Qi Yu.”

If Willow’s intuition was right, then the Murderer in Zone B could only be Qi Yu.

After all, their mission only required them to hold out until the college entrance exams ended. Unless the Murderer Mission demanded it, there was no need for anyone to work so hard to charge toward first place.

But judging from Fan Jiangnan’s grades, if someone really wanted to become number one, then unless they controlled their score perfectly, they would most likely surpass 667.

And 667 was an unsurpassable score at A High School.

—

Once the intel was shared, whether the school tyrant wanted to skip class was up to him. Ning Shuo, however, had to go back with Song Zhu.

Ning Wang grabbed his wrist. “Wait.”

Ning Shuo turned back and studied his expression, frowning. “Did you remember something?”

Ning Wang pressed his lips into a tight line. “I’ll tell you when I get the chance.”

“Then are you coming back with us now?”

“Okay.”

The moment the bell rang to end evening class, Ning Wang shot out of his seat as if he couldn’t sit still a second longer. He even bumped into Ning Shuo as Ning Shuo was standing up, sending the books in his arms scattering all over the floor.

Ning Wang reached out and quietly steadied Ning Shuo by the arm, but to the NPCs, it looked more like he had lost his own balance and was using Ning Shuo for support. “Bro, if you can’t even stand steadily anymore, then you don’t need to fight me for the family fortune, right?”

Ning Shuo slapped his hand away and, in the same motion, took a paper ball from him. “If there’s something wrong with your brain, go see a doctor.”

The next second, a book came flying out of nowhere toward Ning Wang’s head. Ning Wang barely dodged it. “Seriously? My luck is trash.”

Ning Shuo frowned. At last, he remembered something he had forgotten ever since entering this Script.

After Ning Wang left, he gathered up his books, then lay over his desk and started writing.

[When that fragment is in your hand, the chance of a verbal jinx triggering drops by a lot.]

And that item had been blocked by the System. Which meant that when Ning Shuo said there was something wrong with Ning Wang’s brain just now, a book really did fall from the sky trying to smash a problem into Ning Wang’s head.

Since the System already knew that almost all the members of Zone F were recovering their memories and even wanted to deal with it, there was no need to keep hiding things anymore.

They might as well go Open Wolf.

But no matter how openly they played, they couldn’t go Open Wolf right in front of the NPCs. Ning Shuo finished writing the note, avoided the NPCs, and passed it to Rao Lin. Then he took a test paper and went to find Yu Min.

His pen pointed at the test paper, but his words were aimed at the person. “Murderer, want to have a chat?”

Yu Min only glanced at him before lowering his eyes and continuing to work through the questions.

Ning Shuo thought he wasn’t going to admit it. Unexpectedly, the other party simply wrote an answer on his answer sheet and said lightly, “The Swordsman is the Murderer on your team, isn’t he? Why don’t you have him talk to me?”

The NPCs were still there, so Ning Shuo also lowered his head and started doing the questions. “Since both sides have found their wolves, what difference does it make who talks to whom?”

“Then since the wolves have been found, what difference does talking or not talking make?”

“A huge difference.” The NPCs had left. Only the two of them remained in the classroom.

Ning Shuo pushed up his glasses with affected confidence and smiled. “For example, I can help you control your score.”