chapter 15

“B-Bro, we can talk this out. We’re teammates, at least-we’re teammates!” Qin Nan felt like there was still a chance to salvage this.

Jian Fan didn’t say a word.

Seeing Jian Fan didn’t move to strike right away, Qin Nan hurried on. “What’s the point of clearing this world anyway? Unless you can get back to the real world, it’s just a difference between dying sooner or later. Jian Fan, you’re smart-you’re not the type to only stare at a few petty short-term gains, right? You and Xia Zeqin don’t get along. Mu Xin and Qin Weiyi each have their own Partners. Are you seriously planning to go solo and fight everything by yourself?”

Jian Fan stayed silent.

“No, seriously, Brother Fan-can you give me something here?” Qin Nan’s head was starting to hurt.

Jian Fan didn’t answer, but he did let go of Qin Nan.

The moment Qin Nan realized he was free, he jumped a full step to the side, widening the distance between them. He stared at Jian Fan with pleading eyes. “Jian Fan, I saved you before, you…”

Not far away, Lu Jing and Qin Weiyi happened to pass by. Qin Nan abruptly shut his mouth.

Only after the two of them had left did Qin Nan look back at Jian Fan and continue. “We’ve been through life and death together. I’m telling you…”

Jian Fan looked at him, raised the dagger in his hand, and suddenly drove it into his other palm.

The moment the dagger touched his hand, it shrank straight in.

Qin Nan: “…”

A toy dagger?

“What the hell is wrong with you? Scaring people is fun?” Qin Nan felt like a clown. The stuff he’d just said out loud now sounded especially harsh.

Jian Fan frowned. Qin Nan was just about to think he’d apologize, or coldly toss back a “So what?”, when Jian Fan instead spit out three words-“Brother Fan?”

Qin Nan froze.

In the heat of the moment, he’d blurted out the nickname he’d given Jian Fan.

“I think compared to giving someone a nickname, what you just did is way more out of line,” Qin Nan said stiffly.

The corner of Jian Fan’s mouth twitched. “Bored?”

“Coming up with a nickname took, what, a blink-an idea hit me and it was done in seconds. You’re named Jian Fan, so I just took the ‘Fan’ and added ‘brother’-Brother Fan. That’s it,” Qin Nan argued. “But your little joke? That took us several minutes. If we’re comparing, I’d say you’re the bored one.” He was still hung up on what had just happened.

Jian Fan tossed the dagger straight at Qin Nan.

Qin Nan hurriedly caught it. “What are you doing?”

“Found it in my room,” Jian Fan replied.

Qin Nan glanced at the dagger. “A doctor keeps a toy dagger in his room?” He paused, then pressed on. “And what does that have to do with what you just did?”

“You suspected I was the killer,” Jian Fan said.

Qin Nan rolled his eyes. “Anyone would suspect you if you held a dagger to them like that.”

“I believe what you told me before,” Jian Fan suddenly said with a smile.

That smile threw Qin Nan off for a moment. It took him a while to come back to himself. “What did I tell you?”

“Long-term Partner,” Jian Fan replied.

Only then did Qin Nan fully get it. Jian Fan had done all this to test him-to see how Qin Nan would act if he thought Jian Fan was the killer, especially with other Players passing by.

If Qin Nan had never intended to keep working with Jian Fan, he would’ve called for help. And Jian Fan had also been testing this: if the two of them ever truly ended up on opposing sides, would Qin Nan still choose to cooperate with him, or would he betray that cooperation just to clear the world in front of them.

Qin Nan had passed.

Jian Fan was in a good mood.

“Aren’t you afraid I was just acting for you, and then I’d turn around and sell you out?” Qin Nan asked. “They were pretty far away just now-maybe there wouldn’t have been time to call for help at all.”
Jian Fan stared at Qin Nan like he was an idiot.

“Don’t think I won’t call you out just because I’m easygoing. And stop looking at me like that-save that look for other people.” Qin Nan sounded annoyed, but he didn’t actually take Jian Fan’s earlier move too much to heart.

He could understand Jian Fan.

In an environment like this, whether you could trust your teammates was a crucial factor. Maybe Qin Nan just hadn’t been through enough yet-still carrying a bit of naïveté-so he was willing to trust Jian Fan. But Jian Fan…

Jian Fan was extremely familiar with Xia Zeqin, yet the two were at each other’s throats. Qin Nan guessed Jian Fan had probably been betrayed by teammates more than once. In that case, being cautious wasn’t him being difficult-it was him taking responsibility for himself. And from Qin Nan’s perspective, having a Partner like that was actually more reliable.

“I’ll try,” Jian Fan said, withdrawing his gaze. Then he changed the subject. “You can try getting in touch with Xu Tian.”

Qin Nan blinked. “Xu Tian? I thought you’d pick Qin Weiyi.”

“Qin Weiyi and Lu Jing’s two-man team is solid,” Jian Fan said, speaking far more than he had earlier. “When a relationship is already stable, they may not be willing to change it. Compared to that, Xu Tian is the one who most urgently needs a companion right now.”

Qin Nan thought it over. “True. But at the start, Xu Tian already sided with Xia Zeqin.”

Jian Fan shook his head. “No. She didn’t choose any side.”

Thinking back to how Xu Tian had looked just now-and how no one on Xia Zeqin’s team reacted-Qin Nan figured Jian Fan was probably right. Still, he didn’t understand. “If you want to bring Xu Tian over, why are you telling me to do it?”

Jian Fan fell silent for a moment. “You’re better at that than I am.”

Qin Nan laughed. “At least you’re self-aware.”

Jian Fan shot back, “That’s called putting the right person to the right job. And making full use of resources.”

“Fine. But if we want to pull in Xu Tian, isn’t the best chance when she’s breaking down?” Qin Nan said. When someone was falling apart, offering a little warmth usually meant they’d latch on and join.

Jian Fan shook his head again. “Whether she can be our teammate is the first test. If she can’t even clear that, Qin Nan, what we need is a long-term teammate, not a temporary one.”

Qin Nan shrugged. “Alright, you test her first. Then she can choose us. We’ll see how it goes-if she stabilizes, I’ll go talk to her.” He paused, then asked, “What about Mu Xin?”

Jian Fan hesitated, then asked, “Want the truth?”

“Of course,” Qin Nan replied.

Jian Fan’s tone was matter-of-fact. “I don’t like this kind of sneaking around.”

That was it? Typical Jian Fan.

If he didn’t like something, then it couldn’t be a teammate. A Partner, at the very least, had to be someone you could stand to look at-no obvious issues.

After they finished that, Qin Nan’s thoughts drifted back to the original question. He looked Jian Fan up and down, then probed carefully. “So… are you the killer?”

“No,” Jian Fan answered flatly.

Qin Nan nodded. “Makes sense. With how things are right now, even if someone is the killer, they probably don’t know it themselves.”

“No.” Jian Fan disagreed. “I think another possibility is more likely.”

“What?”

“The killer hasn’t been fully decided yet,” Jian Fan said.

Qin Nan froze. “The killer hasn’t been decided yet?”

Jian Fan nodded with certainty, then said something that sounded completely unrelated to the topic of the killer. “Qin Nan, other than picking an Identity Card, we haven’t made any choices at all.”