Chapter 61

Chapter 61

“What?” Qin Nan asked.

Mu Xin also looked toward Jian Fan.

She could guess about as much as Qin Nan had, and Qin Nan had even speculated a bit more than she had. She was curious about the one point Jian Fan was referring to.

“If they were turned via the Embrace, they would have simply changed from normal humans into vampires. Given that this is a game world, Players might be erased immediately after turning. However, to maintain logic, the two who became vampires should have continued their previous patterns of behavior. But they didn’t,” Jian Fan pointed out a crucial detail.

Qi Shuping nodded in agreement. “Their behavior felt more like they possessed memories of this world. They were trying hard to rely on those memories to mimic how the original two acted so they wouldn’t arouse my suspicion.”

“Wang Hao might have been directly replaced by a vampire; that makes sense for him. But for the other person, it wasn’t just a simple Embrace,” Qin Weiyi followed up on Qi Shuping and Jian Fan’s line of reasoning.

“Even though this is a vampire world, it doesn’t mean the setting is exactly the same as our common understanding. Perhaps this is another method of the Embrace,” Jian Fan concluded.

Qin Nan went over all the information and proposed a hypothesis: “In other words, in this world, once someone is turned by a vampire’s Embrace, they don’t just transform from a normal person into a vampire. Instead, they are directly replaced by a vampire? But if that’s the case, wouldn’t vampires just be swapping bodies? Their numbers would never increase.”

“The Embrace produces a new vampire,” Jian Fan added.

Qin Nan paused, then spoke with a look of disbelief. “It can work like that?”

According to conventional logic, a normal person who receives the Embrace becomes a vampire. In this world, because a Player dies immediately upon being turned, the consciousness inside that body is no longer the Player. If things followed conventional logic, the Player’s body-now a vampire-would still act according to the Player’s consciousness.

However-

“Human consciousness is the hardest thing to replicate,” Jian Fan said.

Because the consciousness of a deleted Player cannot be perfectly copied, this world automatically compensates. When a Player dies after the Embrace, a brand-new vampire is generated within their body. This new entity receives all of the Player’s memories regarding this world, but it possesses its own way of doing things.

This was the unique trait of the vampires in this specific world.

Qin Nan silently gave Jian Fan a thumbs-up.

The boss is still the boss.

Lu Jing listened with a dazed expression, feeling as though he shouldn’t even be there.

As for Qian Xing, he was likely the most shocked person in the group.

He had only just learned that this was a vampire world and that Players could become their enemies. Then he learned how to deal with these vampires, and now, he was listening to them deduce the fundamental mechanics of the vampire setting.

Things were developing too fast; his ability to process it all couldn’t quite keep up for a moment.

By the time he had digested most of it, he had already led the group to the stairwell.

“It’s right here.” Qian Xing stopped, trying his best to keep his emotions steady. “I looked around nearby; there are no lights for the stairs.”

Qin Nan looked up.

He could only see the first few steps in front of him. Beyond that was total darkness. Seeing this, Qin Nan felt a shiver run down his spine.

“This couldn’t be the vampires’ Lair, could it?” Qin Nan blurted out.

Qian Xing and Lu Jing both immediately turned to look at him.

“Don’t vampires love the dark?” Qin Nan added quietly, meeting the stares of Qian Xing and Lu Jing.
Upon hearing this, Qian Xing looked toward Jian Fan, while Lu Jing looked toward Qin Weiyi.

“Qin Nan’s theory makes a lot of sense,” Qin Weiyi replied, providing an answer for his teammates.

Qin Nan didn’t feel any joy at having his idea validated. He swallowed hard and asked, “So… are we still going?”

Jian Fan looked at Qin Nan. “Why wouldn’t we? It’s daytime.”

Vampires couldn’t make a move against them at this hour. Wasn’t this the perfect opportunity to investigate?

Qin Nan paused. A fleeting thought crossed his mind, but looking at the experts before him, he silently swallowed his doubts.

No one had actually said a Vampire couldn’t act during the day; after all, all their settings were just guesses. To be cautious, they should probably avoid this place. But as the saying goes, ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained.’ Besides, with so many experts present, they surely understood the situation better than he did.

Qin Nan felt a bit more at ease.

“I’ll lead the way,” Jian Fan decided quickly.

That was how their three-person team usually operated. When Qin Nan heard Jian Fan speak, his eyes widened slightly. Surely they wouldn’t make a total newcomer like him bring up the rear?

“Lu Jing, you and Qin Nan take the rear,” Qin Weiyi instructed. Then, he looked at Qin Nan and offered some comfort: “Lu Jing’s combat prowess is very high, so don’t worry. If you two are taken out that quickly, none of us are getting away anyway.”

Qin Nan’s expression was complicated.

Thanks, he thought. He didn’t feel comforted at all.

In the end, Jian Fan led the way while Qin Nan and Lu Jing brought up the rear. After all, among the remaining people, Qi Shuping was an elderly woman, Mu Xin and Xu Tian were young girls, and Qin Weiyi was just a child. As for Qian Xing, he wasn’t one of their own; no one felt comfortable with the possibility of being stabbed in the back.

Qian Xing followed behind Jian Fan, followed by Qi Shuping and Xu Tian, with Mu Xin and Qin Weiyi behind them.

The group of eight slowly began to climb the Stairs.

After the first few steps, everything ahead was shrouded in darkness.

Even with a group, the atmosphere was enough to cause panic. This was especially true when, after walking for a long time, they still hadn’t reached the top. That sense of dread gradually began to spread.

“Um…” Qian Xing was the first to buckle under the pressure and spoke up.

Jian Fan had been moving forward, but upon hearing Qian Xing’s voice, he stopped immediately and hissed a low reprimand: “Shut up!”

Qian Xing was still moving forward and suddenly collided with Jian Fan. The people behind hadn’t expected the front to stop so abruptly either, and they continued upward one after another. Jian Fan had barely spoken when a wave of momentum pushed forward.

Despite his caution throughout the climb, being hit by such a sudden force caused him to stumble several steps before he could steady himself.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Jing, walking at the very back, saw everyone stop suddenly. Hearing the edge in Jian Fan’s voice, he immediately called out to ask.

Because of his fear, Qian Xing’s voice had been very soft, and Jian Fan’s reprimand was a low whisper. Lu Jing, however, fully demonstrated the booming voice of a grown man.

Jian Fan knit his brows tightly.

He finally had to admit that climbing these Stairs had been too reckless. They might be about to face some serious trouble.

It was still pitch black before them, but because of that, their sense of hearing became even more acute.

Crackle, crackle.

It sounded like the grinding of bone joints, echoing in everyone’s ears.

Lu Jing’s shout had acted like a switch, opening up an entirely different world for them.