Chapter 171

Chapter 171

Qin Nan looked at Qin Weiyi, then at Jian Fan, and realization dawned on him.

Yellow Hair was thinking too. Following their train of thought, he began trying to reconstruct the whole truth.

“In other words, Zhao Yingguo threw us into a virtual space she created. She wanted us dead, but she also left us a slim chance of survival, along with some clues. Why did Zhao Yingguo say that string of numbers on the Surveillance? Because it was fake. Zhao Yingguo made it up out of thin air… No, that’s not right. She made certain changes based on the facts.”

“In reality, she was indeed bullied, but she never said that string of numbers. In the virtual space, she wanted us to be able to open the Metal Box, so when she was being bullied, she reported that string of numbers. The Overlapping Time-Space was also Zhao Yingguo’s doing. She wanted us to go back to the past and learn the truth about everything.”

“She put the decision in our hands. Killing her doesn’t mean killing her inside the virtual space. It means cracking this world?”

Some of Lin Junruo’s earlier doubts gradually cleared up as Yellow Hair analyzed the situation. After thinking it over, she tried to make the final deduction. “Zhao Yingguo couldn’t make the decision herself, so she handed the final choice to us. If we fail to find the truth and fail to leave this virtual space, then we’ll die here, and Zhao Yingguo will continue existing as a vengeful ghost and keep killing people. But if we solve the puzzle and leave this virtual space, then once we return to the real space, Zhao Yingguo will die. She doesn’t need us to do anything at all. As long as we leave, she’ll die? Is that right?”

That was why Zhao Yingguo had never written down how to kill her.

By the time she finished, Lin Junruo had grown somewhat excited.

Jian Fan looked at Lin Junruo in surprise.

Under his gaze, Lin Junruo’s excitement immediately faded. A little nervous, she asked, “Did I say something wrong?”

Jian Fan shook his head, then smiled.

That smile was because of Lin Junruo.

“You’re right,” Jian Fan said.

Jian Fan felt that sometimes, he still took things too much for granted. Back then, he had looked down on Lin Junruo and had never imagined that one day, Lin Junruo could become a qualified Partner.

But at this moment, through the journey of her own life, Lin Junruo had taught Jian Fan a lesson.

Perhaps she had once been lost. Perhaps she had made the wrong choices. But as long as she did not give up on herself, she still had a chance at survival.

In this world, there had never been any born fools. What was truly beyond saving was not stupidity, but choosing to sink into depravity and exile oneself.

When Lin Junruo realized she had to rely on herself, she began frantically absorbing the information and experience around her. Her improvement was rapid. Of course, that was rapid by Lin Junruo’s standards.

If it were Jian Fan, perhaps he would only need the span of one instance to do even better than Lin Junruo was doing now.

But Lin Junruo was only Lin Junruo.

Given her own aptitude, she was doing wonderfully.

When Lin Junruo saw Jian Fan smile at her, she was practically overwhelmed by the honor.

After Qi Shuping left, the most capable person among their group was obviously Jian Fan, followed by Qin Weiyi. Being acknowledged by Jian Fan made Lin Junruo’s confidence soar.

She felt that escaping the Realm of Death by relying on herself might not be impossible after all!

“Then how do we leave this place?” Qin Nan raised the key question.

Lin Junruo’s smile froze. That excitement quickly faded. What was the use of figuring all this out? They still did not know how to leave this place.

“The numbers,” Jian Fan said again.
“What do you mean?” Shi Chen asked as well.

Jian Fan looked at Qin Nan and said, “This string of numbers definitely isn’t as simple as just a password. In other words, if Zhao Yingguo used this string of numbers as her password, there has to be some meaning behind it.”

And the meaning behind that string of numbers was very likely the key to their leaving this virtual space.

Qin Nan understood the logic, but he just couldn’t figure out why Jian Fan was saying it to him.

Wasn’t Shi Chen the one who had asked?

Qin Nan wasn’t the only one confused. The others also found it strange.

Qin Weiyi asked directly, “Why are you looking at Qin Nan?”

Jian Fan’s expression froze for a moment. He said, “I thought he might come up with some unexpected surprise.”

Qin Nan: “???”

Did he really think that highly of him?

Still, since Jian Fan had that much faith in him, Qin Nan began searching his mind as hard as he could, trying to see if there was anything that could correspond to a number.

Besides a password, what else could a string of numbers be? The entire background of the story was already clear, so this number probably didn’t mean something like the date on that previous newspaper. Then what could it be?

Right now, they needed to find the boundary point between the virtual space and the real space. Where would that boundary point be? How much did it have to do with this string of numbers?

All kinds of questions filled Qin Nan’s mind. And when he thought of that, he suddenly froze.

“I think… I really did think of something,” Qin Nan said, his tone a little complicated.

“What did you think of?” Jian Fan asked.

Yellow Hair urged him too. “If you thought of something, hurry up and say it. Why are you keeping us in suspense?”

Qin Nan swallowed and replied, “Coordinates.”

Jian Fan: “???”

“Latitude?” Jian Fan frowned, asking in confusion.

Qin Nan shook his head. “Coordinates on a game map.”

“125, 274?” Yellow Hair reacted immediately.

Qin Nan gave Yellow Hair a look that said, you get me.

He continued, “This number is a coordinate. It’s very likely the boundary point between the virtual space and the real space. If we treat the dorm building we’re currently in as a map, then the place we’re looking for is the coordinate point given by the numbers.”

“But we don’t know which point corresponds to which coordinate. If that’s the case, we still need a map,” Yellow Hair said.

Jian Fan thought for a moment, then suddenly said, “The mirror in Dormitory 6103.”

“Huh?” Yellow Hair didn’t react right away.

But Qin Nan understood what Jian Fan meant.

“Are you saying there might be a map hidden behind the mirror?” Qin Nan understood, but he still wasn’t sure.

Of course, Jian Fan couldn’t be certain either. It was only a guess, but-

“If what you said is true, then the map we need must be hidden in a key location. Right now, of all the clues we still haven’t figured out or could still use, I can only think of two.”

Listening to Jian Fan, Qin Nan quickly picked up where he left off. “Why was the key hidden behind the mirror? And where did the missing Half of the Mirror go?”

“And- the Hair Ribbon?” Lin Junruo once again picked up the Hair Ribbon she had kept hidden.

Qin Weiyi nodded. “Out of the six time-spaces we crossed through, if we exclude the one with the Hair Ribbon, the rest are already enough to connect the entire incident together. In that case, the time point involving the Hair Ribbon is dispensable. But if it exists, there has to be a reason. Thinking about it that way, that time point may not have been there to tell us the plot at all. It was there to tell us that the Hair Ribbon is an important prop.”

“What is it used for?” Lu Jing immediately asked.

Qin Weiyi choked, then spat out three words. “I don’t know.”