Chapter 200
Chapter 200
“All right.” Jian Fan finally spoke.
That answer let everyone breathe a small sigh of relief.
Just then, a series of heavy thuds came from upstairs-bang, bang, bang, as if something massive were slamming into something else.
Everyone immediately huddled together and looked warily toward the upper floor. As soon as Qin Nan realized the others were gathering around, he abruptly stuffed the tablet into his clothes.
He still remembered their earlier plan. They couldn’t expose Lu Jing.
“Something’s happening upstairs,” Yellow Hair said. Then he looked at Jian Fan and asked, “What do we do?”
Jian Fan didn’t hesitate. “Go up and take a look. Be careful.”
There were six of them, so they were bound to have the advantage in numbers. Besides, the strange noise from above might not necessarily have been caused by a Player.
The group of six immediately headed toward the Stairs.
Lu Jing walked at the very front to scout the way, followed by Yellow Hair and Lin Junruo. Jian Fan and Qin Weiyi came after them, while Qin Nan stayed at the back to cover their rear.
But just as he stepped onto the Stairs, the tablet sounded another notification.
The people ahead heard it too. Jian Fan immediately stopped and turned to Qin Nan. “Look.”
Qin Nan instantly opened the WeChat interface. It was still a message from Little Princess, and what she had sent was…
“Ah, another one died.”
Qin Nan froze. Then he looked up, swallowed, and spoke with some difficulty. “Another one is dead.”
Two Players killed in such a short span of time. This person… Everyone’s guard shot to the highest level.
Jian Fan also frowned, but the expression quickly smoothed away. “Go up.”
The group continued upward.
They reached the Second Floor and lingered by the Stairs for a moment. Seeing no movement, they immediately headed higher. At the entrance to the third floor, they lingered again for a while and were just about to keep going when Mu Xin happened to come down from the fourth floor.
When Mu Xin saw Jian Fan and the others, joy flashed through her eyes. She immediately quickened her pace and moved closer to the team. “I finally found you.”
“Mu Xin, are you all right?” Lin Junruo asked worriedly. Mu Xin had been alone just now, and two Players had died. Lin Junruo was truly afraid that something had happened to her. Although Mu Xin was still alive right now, Lin Junruo couldn’t completely relax.
Mu Xin shook her head. “I’m fine. It was a false alarm, and the result was pretty good.”
Jian Fan’s gaze fell on Mu Xin. There were still some bloodstains on her clothes. The discovery made Jian Fan’s brows knit tightly, but for the moment, he gave no reaction.
“We heard some noises while we were downstairs just now. Do you know what happened?” Qin Nan asked.
Qin Weiyi’s gaze on Mu Xin also carried some suspicion, but since Qin Nan had already spoken, he simply remained silent. He wanted to hear how Mu Xin would answer.
When Mu Xin heard Qin Nan’s question, the smile on her face faded a little. “I know. Let’s find a place first, and I’ll tell you slowly.” As she spoke, she paused slightly, then added, “Xia Zeqin was on the fourth floor just now.”
A trace of surprise flashed through Jian Fan’s eyes, but he still gave no reaction.
“Let’s sit over there,” Qin Weiyi said, pointing toward a small lounge on the third floor.
No one objected.
The group sat down in the small lounge. Lin Junruo sat beside Mu Xin and took her hand. She froze for a moment, then asked, “Mu Xin, why are your hands so cold? And on your clothes… is that blood?”
Jian Fan and the others had naturally noticed the bloodstains, but none of them had asked. Yet when it came to Mu Xin, Lin Junruo seemed as if her intelligence had gone offline. She didn’t think that far at all and simply blurted the question out as a matter of course.
Mu Xin nodded somewhat helplessly and said, “I killed someone just now.”
“Huh?” Lin Junruo froze on the spot.
Jian Fan raised an eyebrow slightly, then finally spoke his first words since reuniting with Mu Xin. “One person?”
“Mm.” Mu Xin gave a helpless little smile. “To be precise, two people died. They killed each other, and I… while defending myself, basically picked up the leftovers.” As she spoke, Mu Xin briefly explained what had happened after she came out: how she had run into Xia Zeqin, then those two men, and how she had bluffed her way into turning the tables and killing one of them.
Aside from Jian Fan and Qin Weiyi, the other four were all stunned speechless.
Yellow Hair gave Mu Xin a thumbs-up on the spot. Badass.
Mu Xin smiled bitterly. “What’s so impressive about that? If I hadn’t been pushed to the point of no return, I never would have wanted his life.” She paused, then asked, “How much do you all know about this game world?”
Jian Fan did not answer. Instead, he asked, “You found some new clues?”
Mu Xin nodded. “Sort of. After I killed that person, my card upgraded. Killing a Player lets you obtain the other person’s card face. Two R cards can be synthesized into one SR, but as for how many cards it takes to synthesize an SR into an SSR, I’m not sure. Also, even though the card upgraded, the skill didn’t get stronger, and no new skills appeared.”
When Mu Xin had appeared covered in blood, Jian Fan had been on guard, even though she was a teammate he had once personally extended an olive branch to and recruited.
But after Mu Xin laid out all this information in full, Jian Fan could not help feeling somewhat ashamed.
Mu Xin had no intention of attacking them.
“We found some clues too,” Jian Fan said. “Some of the information overlaps with what you’ve guessed.”
Qin Nan picked up where Jian Fan left off and continued, “First of all, your idea that you have to upgrade to SSR to leave this world is correct. And only one Player can do it.”
“One?” Mu Xin was a little shocked, but she quickly laughed. “Good thing I didn’t do anything stupid.”
Qin Nan smiled as well, then continued, “We found this tablet in the villa and got in touch with someone whose WeChat nickname is Little Princess. She should be the female lead of this game. She already has several male leads, and what she needs to do now is choose one person from among the twelve people assigned the title Player to become her new male lead. She gave us a very direct method for winning: kill every Player. If we overlap that with the information you provided, then in simple terms, killing people can raise your card’s rank. On our end, we also found a way to upgrade skills. Imitating the pose on the card face can upgrade the skill, though for now it seems it can only go up by one level. Whether it can be upgraded further after that is still impossible to determine.”
Hearing this, Lin Junruo cut in, “Since the card itself can upgrade, then after the Character Card Upgrade, the skill level should probably be able to increase too. That’s based on the rules of those card games.”
Qin Nan did not argue. He nodded. “Very likely.”
“Now, although we’ve confirmed one way to clear this world, the price of that method is too high. Since we’ve gathered here, it’s obvious everyone wants to find another way. As for this other way… what do you all think?” Qin Nan looked at everyone and asked.
What did they think?
Yellow Hair scratched at the yellow hair on his head and blew out a breath.
What he thought was-he had no thoughts at all.