From the fact that the location of the Taoist Temple was different, Lin Yu could actually judge that there was a conflict between the escort masters and the three players who arrived later.
This meant that one side had to be untrustworthy—whether they were deliberately lying or were also being deceived themselves.
At first, Lin Yu suspected they were hiding their true completion conditions, or had even somehow fooled the One-Statement Lie Detector.
But after arriving at the Taoist Temple and realizing that the Mastermind possessed abilities related to "time," Lin Yu understood that there was a more reasonable explanation for the anomalies in these three players.
That was... these three guys had also "confused" their sense of time.
Their missions had actually long since failed, and they had already perished in the Fire Hell of Prison Mountain.
Although they appeared to be alive—at least in the judgment of the Death Game, they had been dead for a while now.
"What escort mission? You bastard from the Psychological Society made up some bullshit to scare people!"
Deadshot cursed loudly.
Looking at the trio on the ground who completely didn't believe what he said, Lin Yu crouched down.
"It doesn't matter if you don't believe me," Lin Yu said calmly. "But let me confirm one last thing—a major event recently happened in your Player Mutual Aid Association. Do you know what it was?"
"What major event could there be?"
Squirtle replied with a hostile tone.
Lin Yu stood up.
"Alright, I can confirm it now."
He looked at Li Nian. "These three don't know about the incident in Haicheng, but they recognize you and know you're a Second-Tier, so they've probably been trapped here for about three weeks."
Li Nian nodded. "I see."
"But what do we do now? Kill them? What exactly is this Mastermind trying to accomplish?"
Lin Yu said softly, "It's useless. Although these three are 'Players,' they're no different from the villagers of Chen Family Fort."
"They're just ordinary puppets. Killing them would do nothing."
At this point, Flying Knife, who had been listening in confusion, finally couldn't hold back anymore.
"Why do we have to stubbornly stay in this creepy place? Can't we just run? Even if we have to ask around for directions, that's better than wandering in circles here!"
Flying Knife was clearly scared out of his wits by the eerie setup, speaking frantically.
Lin Yu and Li Nian looked at him at the same time.
"Because, dear employer, we can't be sure how large an area this thing can influence," Lin Yu said calmly. "Chen Family Fort and Twin Saw Mountain are the core zone, but based on my estimation, the range it can affect might extend all the way to Fuyuan Mountain or even further."
"Based on that," Li Nian sighed, "if I'm guessing right, if we want to reach Willow Town, we have to face this 'Mastermind' and break its ability."
Flying Knife was stunned. "What do you mean by that?"
"It means 'Willow Town' is probably just like Chen Family Fort—completely under its control," Lin Yu exhaled. "In other words, our destination isn't some safe place, but a place already swallowed up by a powerful being."
"This thing is way scarier than we imagined... maybe the entire Fire Hell is within its sphere of influence."
Flying Knife's scalp tingled. "If... if that's true, what do we do?"
Li Nian looked at Lin Yu. "Sister Zhu Ming, what do you think?"
"The safer approach is to keep working around the escort cart, studying what's so special about the Mutilated Body of the Blade Demon in this Escort the Darts dungeon," Lin Yu said calmly. "And this Taoist Temple should also be a place that restricts it... this temple was likely left behind by a true master a hundred years ago."
"Unfortunately, he probably didn't defeat the Mastermind either—but at least we should be relatively safe in this temple."
"Although if we slowly grind it out, we'll probably end up trapped here forever like those three over there, but... the information we have right now is really too limited."
As Lin Yu spoke, Flying Knife was about to agree, but Li Nian raised a different opinion.
"You already went all out with those three, so you must have a more radical and more interesting plan, right, Sister Zhu Ming?"
Lin Yu nodded.
"Of course," he looked at Flying Knife. "Do you know the Diviner?"
Flying Knife was taken aback.
"I know him... why?"
"Although I'm not truly a member of the Marauders, I am to some extent considered a member, and the Diviner has met me once and thinks highly of me, so he prepared many methods for me," Lin Yu said, lips parting as words flowed out, simultaneously activating the Teeth of Prophecy. "Therefore... I can also use precognitive abilities to directly glimpse the true face of the 'Mastermind'—after all, our opponent is also related to 'time manipulation,' so precognitive abilities actually have a special effect!"
"Give me enough 'phenomena' and 'events,' and I can trace these 'appearances' back to their source!"
The first half of his "truth" immediately received the belief from both Flying Knife and Li Nian.
"Sister Zhu Ming, you have connections like that too?"
Flying Knife was even more shocked: "A current member of the Psychological Society, a future member of the Free Alliance, and half a member of the Marauders..."
Was this guy collecting stamps or what?!
However, even after gaining the strong belief of those two, Lin Yu still couldn't obtain the ability to "glimpse the future."
But that was fine—Lin Yu now was no longer the guy who had to painstakingly piece together every shred of belief on his own.
Having acquired a Specialized Item, Lin Yu not only could use the Teeth of Prophecy boldly without saving up, but he could also directly use the Pyramid Scheme to supplement his belief!
Before entering the dungeon, Lin Yu had used Old Yao's identity to milk twenty portions of belief from the Jiang'an Hall.
After entering the dungeon, Lin Yu had milked another thirty portions from the escort team.
Now, fifty portions of unshakable belief were stored in the Pyramid Scheme—enough to support Lin Yu's transformation into the Rakshasa, and naturally enough for Lin Yu to gain the "precognition" ability!
The effect became reality. Using the ability obtained by borrowing the Diviner's name, Lin Yu felt as if his eyes had gained some kind of "all-seeing" sensation.
Then, he manipulated this ability, trying to understand and see through the haze and truth surrounding this dungeon.
"Old Zheng, if anything goes wrong, knock me unconscious."
Lin Yu said in a low voice, his gaze sweeping over the players and the natives of Prison Mountain Realm, recalling every detail along his journey.
Then, he felt his consciousness grow dazed, and his vision seemed to plunge into the depths beneath Twin Saw Mountain!
