Chapter 188

Chapter 188

As a media content creator, Qin Nan had to dabble in an extremely wide range of movies, TV shows, and novels. Some of those works were terrible, some were good, but there were always a few with bizarre, outlandish settings. That meant Qin Nan had far more possibilities stored away in his head than the others could ever think of.

Their knowledge came from established reality. Qin Nan, on the other hand, had absorbed a vast amount of information from works built on top of reality-and the Realm of Death was clearly something that had broken away from reality.

This was Qin Nan’s greatest advantage in the Realm of Death.

Qin Nan had no idea what was going through Jian Fan’s mind. After hearing Jian Fan’s question, he thought hard for a moment.

What could a fragrance do?

As a die-hard Player of film and television, Qin Nan immediately gave an answer. “Poison? Knockout drugs?”

Yellow Hair, standing off to the side, heard this and practically had question marks popping out of his head. Lin Junruo, however, instantly understood Qin Nan’s point and added, “We’re all fine right now, so it probably isn’t a lethal poison. We haven’t passed out either, so it shouldn’t be some kind of knockout smoke. Ah, could it be… hallucinations?”

Qin Nan snapped his fingers. “Right, hallucinations. The fragrance contains a hallucinogenic substance, causing us to see illusions.”

With Qin Nan and Lin Junruo bouncing ideas back and forth, they quickly pieced together an answer.

Although he did not understand why the mixed fragrance of several flowers would cause hallucinations, Jian Fan looked at the sea of flowers before him, and several possibilities gradually connected in his mind.

“The problem isn’t the greenhouse,” Jian Fan suddenly said.

Qin Nan and the others all looked over.

They had been saying there was something wrong with the greenhouse this entire time. They had searched for so long, and now they had even deduced that there was something wrong with the fragrance. How had the greenhouse suddenly become fine?

Everyone looked bewildered. Apart from Jian Fan, only Qin Weiyi’s brain was still online. He looked at Jian Fan, waiting for him to say the next part-the real key.

“The problem is the entire courtyard, including the villa,” Jian Fan said seriously.

The four people other than Jian Fan and Qin Weiyi were collectively dumbfounded.

“Huh?”

Jian Fan’s brows drew together slightly. He was clearly thinking about how to explain the current situation to them in the simplest terms possible. Seeing this, Qin Weiyi gave a small laugh and took over the task.

“What he means is that this sea of flowers we’re seeing is real. Qin Nan was right-this greenhouse really is as big as a sports field. And Jian Fan and I were also right when we said the greenhouse looked small from the villa. We didn’t see it wrong. It’s because we were under a hallucination. We thought the greenhouse was only as small as what we saw.”

Lu Jing: “???”

What are you even saying?

“To put it simply, the Realm of Death created this greenhouse and planted all kinds of flowers inside it. Using their fragrances, it created a scent that can make people hallucinate. Then it released that scent outside the greenhouse. Everything we saw outside the greenhouse was an illusion, not reality.”

“As for why we can determine that the greenhouse is real and the outside is the illusion, the key lies in this fragrance-and what the fragrance is used for.”

Following Qin Weiyi’s explanation, Qin Nan thought it through and suddenly understood.

What they saw inside the greenhouse was different from what they saw outside it. That alone undoubtedly proved one thing: either the inside of the greenhouse or the outside of it had a problem. Inside the greenhouse, the fragrance disappeared, and it was just an ordinary greenhouse. There was no need at all for it to make them hallucinate. By comparison, it was clearly much more likely that the outside of the greenhouse was the illusion.

Because the moment they stepped outside the greenhouse, they entered the hallucination. That was why no matter which door they left through, they ended up in the exact same scene.
Because what they had seen in that moment had all been illusions.

But…

Qin Nan raised a question. “If everything outside the greenhouse is an illusion, then why were we able to run into each other after going out through two different doors?”

The identical scenery could be explained as an illusion, but he and Jian Fan had gone out through a different door and still seen Yellow Hair at the other entrance. That wasn’t something a simple “illusion” could explain away.

“A combination of spatial and illusion elements,” Jian Fan quickly concluded.

Yellow Hair frowned as well. “If everything outside is an illusion, then… what is the Realm of Death trying to accomplish?”

All sorts of possibilities had already surfaced in Qin Nan’s mind. He gave a bitter laugh and said, “Anything tied to illusions is never good. From what I can think of, it might show us the things we’re most afraid of, or it might simply create illusions to make us kill each other.”

Thinking about each of their skills, Qin Nan felt the latter was more likely.

Jian Fan, however, said lightly, “Perhaps both.”

Qin Nan: “???”

All of a sudden, he really didn’t want to leave this greenhouse anymore.

But life was always found beyond danger. If they stayed in the greenhouse for the sake of safety, they would never be able to leave the Realm of Death. In fact, staying in the greenhouse might not even be safe. Once the other teammates started killing each other in the illusion and eventually reached the greenhouse, it would be impossible for them to coexist peacefully. They would inevitably attack, trying to get rid of Qin Nan’s group.

But the thought of walking into that illusion still filled Qin Nan with dread.

No matter how smart or strong someone was, once they entered an illusion, they could only be led around by the nose.

Qin Nan couldn’t help looking at Jian Fan.

Jian Fan’s answer was obvious.

He would never choose to run away or sit and wait for death. But how they should enter the illusion, when they should enter, how to protect themselves to the greatest extent possible, and how to solve the puzzle with the fewest losses-these were all things Jian Fan needed to start considering now.

The sad part was that the information they had obtained so far was extremely limited.

Seeing the mood grow so heavy, Lu Jing voiced his confusion. “But we wandered around outside for so long just now, didn’t we? And nothing happened.”

Qin Weiyi said helplessly, “Nothing happened just now, but that doesn’t mean nothing will happen later. We can’t exactly pin our hopes on the Realm of Death suddenly showing mercy, letting us safely find clues, and only then starting to mess with us, can we?”

“Then what do we do?” Lu Jing asked.

Qin Weiyi couldn’t answer that question.

Jian Fan suddenly spoke. “Half an hour.”

“What?” Qin Nan didn’t understand.

Jian Fan began explaining his plan. “Half an hour will be the limit. After half an hour, we must return to the greenhouse. And before we leave the greenhouse, we use up all our skills.”

“Use up our skills?” Lin Junruo asked, confused.

Qin Nan understood.

“Without skills, we won’t be able to attack any Player. Even if we fall for an illusion, we won’t accidentally hurt our own teammates. We don’t have knives or anything, so at most we’ll just get into a fistfight and come away with a few injuries.”

Qin Weiyi laughed. “I only have fifteen minutes, you know. You trust me that much? And then there’s Lu Jing’s combat ability…”

“No one in our group would attack you two. If you see any of us attacking you, then either we’ve fallen into an illusion and mistaken you for enemies, or you two have fallen into an illusion,” Qin Nan replied immediately.

Qin Weiyi shrugged. “That gives Lu Jing and me the advantage. I have no reason to refuse.”

Jian Fan looked at Qin Weiyi, his brow furrowing.