Regaining the Magician’s Prestige

In the dining room, the golden-haired Holy Son was gathering every search team in the mental asylum, consolidating all the information they had at present.

When the cold system prompt appeared, everyone stilled.

[S-rank Thriller Trainee Zhuge An has cleared the instance.]

No one could describe the mood of the remaining trainees in the mental asylum after hearing this system prompt.

Most likely, every single person was dumbfounded.

Let alone the trainees, even the viewers watching from an omniscient perspective were equally shocked.

[Wtf, no, how did Master Zhuge know the answer? What happened in the last ten minutes?]

[They just disappeared for a moment, then the system announced that Master Zhuge had cleared the instance. My head is filled with confused Nick Young question marks.]

[Waitwaitwaitwait, what???? I'm slowly getting down on my knees, I'm really getting down on my knees. It's not even halfway through the second day, and the difficulty level is close to S-rank!!]

[Upstairs, you're not alone. I'm also kneeling as I watch the live broadcast… Too dope.]

[Do you guys live under a rock? Just think about what Master Zhuge did in the 'Cursed Mask', then you'll feel that this speed of clearance is nothing. Otherwise? Did you think that he got his No. 3 rank by doing nothing?]

[But why doesn't he have to finish the full duration of the instance? Is this a special situation?]

"Zhuge An has cleared the instance?!"

After a moment of silence, everyone then whispered to each other disbelievingly, an intense discussion breaking out.

At this moment, Qin Ye also happened to bring up all the teams searching basement 1.

"Those two newcomers got new intel in the washroom not long ago."

He pointed to the two newcomers standing behind him. "You, say it."

"Y, Your Holiness."

Facing No. 7, that boisterous newcomer was evidently very nervous, stammering over his words.

"Don't be afraid," Messiah told him kindly. "Just tell us what information you obtained."

"A moment ago, Xu Wenji and I were searching the washroom on basement 1."

The newcomer struggled to untwist his tongue. "Then we found a cubicle door that refused to open… Just when we were about to shove it, the door suddenly opened. The dark-haired S-rank and that pretty looking E-rank came out from inside together."

When two men sneakily hid in a toilet cubicle, one which had an exceedingly cramped space, what else could they be doing?

A number of people looked at each other meaningfully.

Messiah's eyebrows knit together. "I see. Thank you for the work."

This innocuous tidbit initially didn't sound like anything much. But when pieced together with the system prompt, the significance behind it couldn't be compared with the same breath.

"Just now, at the stairwell, weren't Zhuge An and that white-haired E-rank moving together?"

He Jianlan gazed down at his blurry reflection on a spoon. "The white-haired brat must have told Zhuge An the S-rank clue he held onto, or Zhuge An could never have cleared the instance this quick."

If Zhuge An had the ability to leave the instance alone, then he would have long cleared it, and wouldn't have dragged it until now.

"In my opinion, the most urgent mission now is to catch hold of that E-rank back."

Jiang Yuan said viciously from the side, "The clue on him must be crucial and directly related to the plotline of this instance."

Meng Tianlu also expressed his agreement.

"That's right. We're missing vital information now. Since someone has cleared the instance, that means that the clue to the S-rank prop must be important."

Many of the veterans were still secretly coveting that black iron box they had seen in the operating theatre.

Now that the first person to clear the instance had appeared, no one could be sure if he had taken that mysterious S-rank prop. And if he hadn't…

"Indeed. Your Holiness, we can't risk dragging it out to the third day."

"Yeah, we don't know what could happen on the third day. Moreover, there are so many newcomers here without the means to defend themselves, all of whom require protection from us veterans. But it's difficult to even guarantee our own safety. Your Holiness, please reconsider, this clue is very important to us!"

Under normal circumstances, how much better could an E-rank trainee with an S-rank clue fare?

If he wanted to keep the treasure, he also needed to have the strength to keep it.

Honestly speaking, if it weren't for Messiah protecting him, the veterans would have used force to coerce the white-haired E-rank long ago. Who would let him keep strutting around, all high and mighty?

Whispering to each other, everyone unanimously turned their gazes to Messiah.

In this situation where they lacked clues and leads, the Holy Son was thrust into the centre of the discourse.

They all needed a clear path, a clear path that was laid before them.

People would often turn contemptible when facing life and death. Zong Jiu was only an E-rank; was anyone able to guarantee that these veterans wouldn't disobey the Holy Son's orders on the sly, and use other means to force him to reveal that clue about the S-rank prop?

Under everyone's gazes, Messiah wearily closed his eyes.

He finally spoke.

"He will join us."

—

Zong Jiu pushed open the door of the ward.

The gaze of the high school student standing outside kept darting behind him. "Jiu-ge!"

"Jiu-ge, did you hear that system prompt just now! Zhuge An has cleared the instance!"

Sheng Yu's face was completely shocked, and even unconsciously flapped his arms around to fully express his current mood.

The white-haired young man gave him an unreadable look. "Yeah, I'm shocked too."

Actually, Zong Jiu had taken it quite well.

Whether or not Zhuge An cleared the instance didn't have anything to do with him, in any case. All he knew was that he had already gotten the information that he wanted from Zhuge An.

What really surprised Zong Jiu was Sheng Yu's flawless acting skills.

In fact, Sheng Yu and Zhuge An were the two candidates that Zong Jiu had ruled out from the offset of being a mole.

The reason for ruling out Sheng Yu was very simple, for this person didn't even exist in the novel.

Before, when Sheng Yu came to talk to him in the dining room with his dinner tray, even though Zong Jiu was surprised, he didn't suspect him. Moreover, there was a chance task in the novel to find the mole, so Zong Jiu had the preconceived notion that since Sheng Yu, having joined later, naturally shouldn't be a problem, so he simply ruled him out.

Then why was Zong Jiu so sure that Sheng Yu was the mole later?

It was due to the way that the canonical character died in the novel.

In the novel, the canonical character, a cannon fodder and glass vase, had asked another newcomer to accompany him to the washroom, and as a result, encountered the first horrific incident in the washroom of the mental asylum instance.

Specifically what this horrific incident was, Zong Jiu didn't know. This was because when writing first deaths in horror works, an author usually wouldn't write concrete details about how they died. They would only keep exaggerating the chilling atmosphere and place extra emphasis on the tragic condition of the corpse after death, in order to maintain the mysterious and scary atmosphere.

Even so, Zong Jiu still received an invaluable piece of information from the novel.

The canonical character went into the cubicle to use the toilet, and the newcomer who accompanied him stood guard outside the washroom. As he was too afraid, the canonical character deliberately left the cubicle door open and was sent off the set midway through his peeing.

The canonical character's head fell straight off his neck, so it went without saying that there came a dull thumping sound from the washroom. The newcomer guarding the door didn't even dare to go in to check; he got so frightened that he immediately turned tail and fled, only to be inevitably and tragically killed as he looked over his shoulder.

Then, the newcomer's corpse disappeared without a trace. The canonical character's head was used to make a human head mop, which was casually dumped in the washroom's dirty sink.

According to the plot, the two people who went to the washroom should have died.

But Sheng Yu didn't die. Not only had he not died, he also accurately described what happened when the guy in glasses went to the washroom.

At that time, Zong Jiu had tightly clenched the ballpoint pen hidden under his sleeve, his muscles tense.

Would a monster pick and choose between two people that were singled out and served on a platter? Under a situation where there was ample time, it was impossible to only have killed the guy in glasses, not to mention the fact that it achieved a double kill in the novel, making this comparison all the more striking.

He started to grow wary of Sheng Yu then.

In order to test this suspicion, Zong Jiu sneaked into the washroom in the alternate dimension.

Incidentally, Zong Jiu was vaguely aware of the presence of another dimensional space in this instance, as the novel had briefly touched on a scene in basement 2 from Vincent's perspective.

However, at the start, Zong Jiu thought that basement 2 was the only channel to the alternate dimensional space, and hadn't realised that there was also some probability of being pulled into the alternate dimension when alone.

Zong Jiu saw the corpse of the guy in glasses in the washroom of the alternate dimension.

Sure enough, the incision on the neck was very flat, more like the actions of a human than that so-called 'ghost that existed in the alternate dimension'.

Although He Jianlan didn't look very smart and his reasoning was full of holes, he had, by dumb luck, gotten something right.

The guy in glasses was murdered by a person; the time at which it happened did not fall on the hour.

And with this, who the mole was, was as clear as day.

But this didn't represent the end. There was still another mole in this instance.

This matter was probably hidden even from Zhuge An, but it was very clear to Zong Jiu.

Because after Zong Jiu kicked open the three cubicle doors of the washroom and checked that they were indeed empty, he had also taken the time to take a look at the sinks of the washroom.

The mop in the sink was a regular mop. There was even a large spider web under the tap; if someone wanted to hide a head in the mop, they would definitely have to break the spider web to do so.

Not to mention that when Zong Jiu kicked the door in, the head of the guy in glasses wasn't made into a human mop and put into the sink yet, like the canonical character of the novel. But later on, after Messiah led the veterans to search for it, someone had inexplicably hidden the head in the mop, so it was impossible that there wasn't an accomplice.

Moreover, even without Sheng Yu in the novel, the system had likewise issued a chance task involving the existence of moles. It was easy to deduce that aside from Sheng Yu, there should be another mole existing within the trainees in the novel.

Who was it?

While listening to Sheng Yu talk, Zong Jiu secretly mulled over this.

Sheng Yu was vividly describing the scene in the stairwell to Zong Jiu.

When he finished, he furtively lowered his voice. "Jiu-ge, have you noticed those two yet?"

Not far down the corridor, two newcomers

were approaching this area, whether by accident or by conscious design, with the words 'we're watching you' practically written over their faces in bold.

Sheng Yu, "I feel like they're watching us, what now?"

Zong Jiu shrugged nonchalantly, "What else? We are now abandoned by both coattails, why not we just go over and take a look at the dining room?"

From the various hints and conjectures, the mole card that Sheng Yu received should have extremely high authority. Otherwise, there was no way to explain how an F-rank could effortlessly kill and transfer the corpse to the alternate dimension at his whim before Zong Jiu had arrived.

He was definitely in possession of the key that Zhuge An said was able to open the alternate dimensional space at will, and the plaintext of the Vigenère cipher before it was encrypted by a key. As long as he acquired the key, he could clear the main task of the ordinary identity card; regarding this, Zhuge An was the best example.

Zong Jiu was curious what Sheng Yu's objective was, and what the main task of the mole card he received was.

If he simply wanted to kill people for fun or kill all the trainees, Sheng Yu was fully able to toss all courtesy to the wind and kill him off, an E-rank, in the washroom straightaway.

Alternatively, he could have plunged a knife into Zong Jiu before Zong Jiu managed to discover the chinks in his narrative through the events that conspired.

But Sheng Yu hadn't.

Not only had he not, he didn't even have the slightest intention of pushing the envelope or stirring up trouble.

He played the image of an obtuse high school

student to near perfection, following behind him, calling Jiu-ge at every turn, and pretending that he didn't have any other schemes up his sleeve.

Zong Jiu didn't believe that he didn't have any plans.

But… this did remind him of the prophecy that Zhuge An mentioned before he left.

"Where are you going? Hm?"

A low voice suddenly came from above them.

A man in a white coat slowly walked out from the shadows.

Against the dim light, his ordinary silhouette projected a profound depth, like a sinister devil escaping the deep abyss.

The doctor's eyes scanned the four men before him with interest, his gaze lingering on the white-haired young man for an extraordinarily long time.

Zong Jiu felt like he was being watched by a venomous snake, and shivers of electricity involuntarily rolled up his spine.

"The nurse has been looking for you for a long time. It's time to head upstairs for your medicine."

Sheng Yu spoke, confused. "Medicine? What medicine? Don't we only have to take medicine at night?"

Dr. Chu didn't say anything. He pointed behind them, a strange smile deepening on his face.

On the wall above the oil lamp, the clock leisurely rested at ten o'clock.

Ten o'clock!

Sheng Yu and the other two newcomers showed looks of disbelief.

How could this be? They distinctly remembered that they hadn't even eaten lunch!

[Wtf, why is it ten o'clock all of a sudden. I'm confused again.]

[Wasn't it just twelve o'clock… heck, what the hell is this?]

[Could the answer to this instance have something to do with time? But that's not right, I saw Master Zhuge speculate that this was a space-based puzzle instance on his live broadcast earlier, what's going on?]

Zong Jiu stood aside, his eyes darkening.

The time when the guy in glasses died, and the time when Zong Jiu was pulled into the alternate dimensional space, was exactly ten o'clock.

This time was highly likely to be a symbol of the opening of the alternate dimension!

The white-haired young man's head snapped up.

But at present, the doctor with his gold-rimmed glasses was still standing there, and the scenery around him hadn't changed in the slightest.

"Hurry up and take your medicine. Everyone's waiting for you."

The doctor's eyes curved, reminding in a seemingly friendly manner, "It's unwise to wander around in a group."

"Oh. That's right."

He lowered his head and absently glanced at the gold watch on his wrist. "It's almost time for room checks. The head nurse should have told you that there are rules prohibiting nighttime excursions."

"If you violate the asylum's rules and get caught on a nighttime excursion—"

The man brushed past Zong Jiu, maliciousness slowly obscuring the pupils hidden behind the glasses.

"Disobedient patients… will be punished."

Only after the hems of the white coat disappeared down into basement 2 did Sheng Yu then say, trembling, "Jiu-ge, why did it suddenly become ten o'clock? What should we do?"

Act, just keep acting. I'll quietly watch you perform.

Zong Jiu kicked the ball back to him. "Ah, looks like there's no way out. Let's go upstairs to look for the Holy Son first."

The few of them walked to the dining room and, under the watchful eyes of a circle of nurses, went through the process of taking their medicine again.

The hand Zong Jiu used to clip the pill imperceptibly swept past the wide pocket of the hospital gown. As he looked up, he happened to hear the nurses conversing with each other.

"Tomorrow will be the third day that this batch of patients have come; looks like we'll be having another holiday period soon."

Strangely enough, this seemed to be the first conversation that they had ever heard from them.

The toneless voices gradually drifted away, down the empty corridor, and the legs of the newcomers all shook hearing this.

In actuality, the present atmosphere in the dining room wasn't great.

There was virtually the same anxiety and fear painted across everyone's faces, so much so that they hadn't even noticed Zong Jiu and the others who had walked into the dining room.

Messiah looked sombre. "Time has been sped up."

The veterans remained silent; their expressions didn't look much better.

Just a moment ago, they were in the dining room discussing the list of people going down to basement 2 in the afternoon. The next second, the nurse appeared out of thin air, carrying the medicine basket, coldly informing them that it was time for them to take their medication.

Time had been sped up by ten hours out of nowhere!

What was even more frightening was that they weren't clear on the reason why time had been sped up.

No one knew whether it was because Zhuge An's early clearance of the instance that caused the difficulty of the instance to increase dramatically in the later stage, or because there were such variables that already existed in the instance.

"We can't delay any longer. Everyone has to come with me to basement 2 tonight."

The newcomers lost the colour in their faces.

"We have to go too?"

"Didn't you hear what the nurse said?" He Jianlan said icily. "If this drags on past tonight, no one can guarantee what will happen on the third day. After midnight, it can be considered the third day."

"But, but…"

To these newcomers without a smidge of experience, in this short time, the two words 'basement 2' had become synonymous with a flood of calamities.

"What do you mean by but."

A veteran spoke impatiently. "If it weren't for the benevolence of His Holiness, we wouldn't have bothered with you newcomers. Thriller Trainee is a survival show for the best, not any regular instance for contenders. There are rewards for helping newcomers in regular instances, but helping you now doesn't only bring us nothing, but you guys are also such rebellious eyesores. In other words, whether you live or die is none of our business."

The golden-haired Holy Son gave the veteran a reprimanding look. He turned over to placate, "Based on the situation today, you're likely to die if you stay in your quarters."

"Follow me. I will try my best to keep you safe."

After saying this last statement, Messiah glanced to the side, his azure eyes looking towards the entrance to the dining room.

Everyone's gazes turned over in unison.

The white-haired youth just stood there, magnanimously accepting the baptism of gazes that scrutinised him.

In these gazes, there was worry, greed, and undisguised envy.

Zong Jiu, however, stretched his limbs as if he didn't feel them, even bending from side to side and yawning where he was.

Some of the veterans were about to speak up indignantly, but were all stopped by Messiah.

The golden-haired Holy Son looked at them, his gaze brimming with sincerity. "Now that Zhuge An already cleared the instance, join us again, alright?"

But there wasn't any reason for Zong Jiu to agree.

Breaking away from Messiah's team and attempting the impossible task of joining hands with Zhuge An was, to him, the result of meticulous calculations.

However—

"Sure."

Zong Jiu readily agreed.

[Huhhh? Why did he agree again?]

The bullet chat was filled with questions marks.

[No, I thought that he'd at least put up a front.]

[Wow, it sure is different to be good looking. After he finished riding on the Holy Son's coattail, he ran off to ride on Master Zhuge's. And after he was done with that the Holy Son was actually still willing to go all in on him. I'm a confused potato, sisters.]

[Just like that?? What happened to our A'Jiu's obstinate 'I'd rather die than submit to you' act?! My love is over.]

In the end, not only had Zong Jiu agreed, but he had even taken the initiative to announce some information.

"Actually, it's no use even if I tell you that clue."

Everyone: ? Just say it, then!

"Think about it, everyone. Isn't our main task simply to survive for three days?"

Everyone nodded.

"But now, Zhuge An has run off before two days have even passed. Tell me, why do you think he can run?"

Zong Jiu adeptly modulated his cadence.

"That's naturally because—he's the mole!"

Everyone was skeptical, but when they thought harder about it, this did seem to be the case.

Huh, that's true. Why was the main task three days, yet Zhuge An was able to run off early?

This, naturally, could only point to Zhuge An having received a different identity card and main task from them!

"Sigh, all of you really misunderstood me before."

The white-haired young man was filled with indignation at the injustice he was put under.

"That shameless old brute Zhuge An is too despicable. Not only did he pretend to cooperate with me, but he even wheedled the clue out of my mouth! The state of society is worsening day by day."

"Alas, since this mole cleared the instance, by my estimate, that S-rank prop should also have been taken by him."

Zong Jiu pretended to raise his arm and wipe away his non-existent crocodile tears. "I don't have much use for the clue in my hand anymore, so it isn't an issue for me to tell it to you. But I never expected that you would actually still be willing to take me along to play; all of you are such kind people."

Even though Zong Jiu didn't usually dabble in acting, if he really did go for a career change, was there anything that could stop him from breaking into showbiz?

Upon hearing the news that the S-rank prop had been taken away, everyone looked as if they had swallowed a mouthful of flies. The veterans exchanged a look at each other, not knowing what to say for a time.

Reasonably speaking, now that Zhuge An wasn't around, this allowed Zong Jiu free reign over whatever version of events he came up with.

If Zhuge An's usual style was like the Holy Son, then probably no one present would have believed him.

Unfortunately, Zhuge An didn't have a completely blemishless character; this guy flitted freely between the light and the dark sides. He was eccentric and unreasonable, ungodly shrewd and wise, and would often play unorthodox hands. Many people felt very complicated about him. He had left behind many victims who were used as pawns in instances, who hated his guts with a passion.

This guy liked to play a big game; whatever did snatching an S-rank prop count for?

Feigning cooperation to extract information was exactly in line with Zhuge An's style.

Moreover, Zhuge An was originally the number one candidate suspected of being a mole.

So, with Zong Jiu putting on a show and tossing the dirty laundry to Zhuge An, the remaining people were largely convinced.

Aside from the trainees present in the dining room, even the bullet chat had seen the light.

[Wtf, no wonder he dragged that guy to a little corner in the ward and used an S-rank prop. It turns out that during the time we couldn't see the live broadcast, someone was bullying a tiny newbie.]

[Sounds so miserable… I once heard about how Zhuge An flipped sides in the 'Cursed Mask'. This E-rank is so pitiful, Zhuge An probably left him trauma.]

[HAHAHA! Am I the only one who thought that Zhuge An was the mole from the very beginning! And sure enough! My suspicions are proven right.]

Don't ask; asking would be slandering yourself. Anyone who asked would be asking for it.

"It's okay."

On the contrary, Messiah looked relieved. "We didn't ask you to rejoin us because of that clue."

The golden-haired Holy Son smiled lightly. "In any case, welcome back."

Since the Holy Son had taken a stand, the others had no choice but to reluctantly acquiesce and secretly keep their guards up.

The primary reason was that the explanation Zong Jiu gave made sense. There was no other way to explain how Zhuge An was able to leave the instance early.

The corners of Zong Jiu's lips curled.

In his heart, he insincerely thanked Zhuge An for being the perfect scapegoat.

Since Zong Jiu could set out to find the key and prepare to clear the instance now, there wasn't any need for him to go to basement 2 with Messiah for a good-for-nothing exploration.

But aside from clearing the instance, Zong Jiu also needed a large sum of survival points.

The white-haired young man's gaze gently swept across the high school student who stood a little behind him.

He had always been a very greedy person.

Since the conditions were so nicely laid out for him, why shouldn't Zong Jiu finish off the chance task in passing?

This instance was, at present, a battle of wits.

And once this instance was over, he would

make sure to restore his hands and let playing cards dance between his ten fingers again.

Then… he would regain the prestige of the Magician.