Chapter 63
Chapter 63
In the passenger cabin, Xu You glanced at the private chat interface on her watch, her expression grave.
The message was from Wei Sen.
Wei Sen was bound by the rules and couldn’t leave the cockpit, so she had asked Xu You to help with something.
Xu You had already had a vague suspicion, but it had seemed far too unbelievable, so she had never been able to confirm it. Now, after seeing Wei Sen’s message, she finally realized she wasn’t the only one who had come up with that idea.
What Wei Sen wanted her to do just so happened to explain the doubts in her mind.
Why had four people died so far, yet their deaths looked different?
Maybe… Lin Xiaoxue was still alive!
With that thought, Xu You stayed in her seat and waited for the time being.
Twenty minutes later, the plane was flying steadily.
Xu You unfastened her seat belt and walked straight toward the Blonde Woman at the rear of the plane.
“Let’s talk,” Xu You said without preamble.
The Blonde Woman looked at Xu You warily. “You’re from Group A.”
“Yes.”
“Then I have nothing to talk about with you,” the Blonde Woman said with a sneer.
“You don’t want to hear how to clear this, either?” Xu You raised a brow slightly.
The Blonde Woman asked suspiciously, “If you know how to clear it, why don’t you try it yourself? Why come looking for me?”
“I’m missing a little something. I need to ask you about it.”
The Blonde Woman weighed it for a moment, but in the end, she decided to hear what Xu You had to say. She stood and went with her to the rear of the cabin.
“Talk,” the Blonde Woman said, arms crossed over her chest, still wary of Xu You.
“You’re the leader of Group B, so you should know at least something about your members’ situations,” Xu You said. “I only have one question. Answer me honestly, and I’ll tell you how to clear this.”
The Blonde Woman narrowed her eyes slightly and tested her. “This method you’re talking about – don’t tell me it’s killing the Doom Beast.”
“Oh, so you already know about that.”
At that, anger colored the Blonde Woman’s face. “Are you messing with me?!”
Xu You shrugged with a smile. “Of course not. Answer my question first. The person in your group who broke the rules by drinking red wine – before he entered the Instance, did he have an Anomalous Artifact on him?”
“What does that have to do with clearing it?” the Blonde Woman shot back.
“It does.”
The Blonde Woman considered it, then said in a low voice, “Yes. He had a Life-Saving Anomalous Artifact.”
“Then that makes sense.” The corners of Xu You’s mouth lifted.
If that was true, then Xiaoxue was still alive!
The Blonde Woman frowned in confusion. “What makes sense?”
“The man from your group and the girl from ours didn’t die. They cleared it! As for the two from your group and ours who exploded into chunks of flesh, they really are dead.”
“Cleared it?! Impossible! The Clearance Condition is clearly to kill the Doom Beast. They didn’t kill anyone, so how could they have cleared it?!”
“Didn’t kill anyone?” Xu You asked in return.
The Blonde Woman seemed to realize something all at once. She stared at Xu You in disbelief and said blankly, “You mean… they killed themselves!”
“Yes. Otherwise, how do you explain four people all breaking the rules, yet dying in different ways? The only explanation is that the two who turned into chunks of flesh didn’t have a Life-Saving Anomalous Artifact, so they died outright. But those with a Life-Saving Anomalous Artifact turned into Doom Beasts after breaking the rules. After becoming Doom Beasts, they must have realized it too, so they chose to kill themselves – and in doing so, fulfilled the Clearance Condition.”
The Blonde Woman’s pupils contracted sharply. “Right… Xiao Li didn’t have any Anomalous Artifact on him.”
“The boy in our group had an offensive Anomalous Artifact, and he used it. He killed a normal passenger, so he broke the rules and died because of it,” Xu You said, sounding deeply regretful.
She hadn’t expected Zhu Zhaoyang to be so impulsive. For the sake of getting 500 Merit Points, he had rushed to make the first move and ended up losing his life instead.
The Blonde Woman sucked in a cold breath and said, “So the way to clear this stage is to kill the person who breaks the rules!”
“If someone who breaks the rules doesn’t have a Life-Saving Anomalous Artifact on them, they’ll explode the moment they violate a rule. They won’t even last long enough for you to make a move.” Xu You smiled faintly. “I think the safest method is still to obtain a Life-Saving Anomalous Artifact, then deliberately break a rule and kill yourself. That would be more appropriate.”
A venomous glint flashed through the Blonde Woman’s eyes. “Kill myself? Heh. You told me something this important because you want me to verify whether this theory is correct, don’t you?”
“How would that verify anything? If you really do go break a rule, I won’t know whether you cleared the Instance in the end or died.” Xu You spread her hands, turned, and left. “Thanks for cooperating. Bye.”
A sharp look appeared in the Blonde Woman’s eyes as her gaze shifted toward the members of Group B.
Everything that woman had said was only speculation based on the clues they already had. It was not something she could trust one hundred percent.
But… 500 Merit Points. It was worth a try!
Xu You returned to the flight attendant’s seat, opened her watch, and sent a message.
[Xu You: Sister Sen, it’s done. But she guessed right away that we wanted her to verify whether this theory was correct. What do we do now?
Wei Sen: Don’t worry. She’ll verify it for us.]
In the cockpit.
The plane had entered autopilot. Wei Sen unbuckled her seat belt and began searching the cockpit.
“Xiao Sen, what are you looking for?” the captain asked.
“Just stretching my legs.”
Fortunately, the captain did not ask any further questions.
The cockpit was very small. Wei Sen found a flight log in the rest area, and her name was written on it.
It should have been the original copilot’s flight log, but because she had now taken on the role of copilot, her name was written on it instead.
Wei Sen quickly flipped through the flight log. Its contents were all flight-related records, and it was clear that this copilot had been conscientious, responsible, and extremely diligent.
The copilot had also recorded some flight-related details from her personal life in the log, but none of it was of any use to Wei Sen.
The date on the last page was today. The ink marks were still fresh. It had been written before takeoff.
[Flight Log
Date: March 21, 2022
Pilot: Wei Sen
Mission Type: Commercial Flight (including special itinerary)
Weather Briefing: Yangcheng clear, visibility 10 km, light breeze, excellent flight conditions.
Route Plan: Standard route, cruising altitude FL360, estimated flight time 2 hours and 15 minutes.
Special Notes: After this mission concludes, attendance is required at Ether Group’s “DEEP” product launch. Crew members must wear formal attire.]
Wei Sen could not help frowning as she looked at the log.
It was Ether Group again.
Back in the Zhihui Primary School Instance, she had once seen this name in the Principal’s Office!
Zhihui Primary School had been built with a donation from this Ether Group. She still remembered that man with the European-American face.
But Zhihui Primary School had been built in 1996, and the current Instance was set in 2022. A full twenty-six years had already passed. The young man in that photo back then should be at least fifty years old in this Instance by now.
The flight log clearly stated that they were going to attend Ether Group’s product launch.
But as pilots, why would they attend a product launch?
Wei Sen thought in silence for a long time and could only come up with one possibility: Ether Group had close ties with this airline, or the two had reached some sort of partnership!
“DEEP”?
What kind of product would be called that?
And Ether Group had appeared in two Instances in a row. Was it really a coincidence, or… an important clue?