Looking at the bluish-green supernatural being ahead that turned back, gesturing for him to follow, Xu Xi didn't think twice and immediately stepped forward to follow behind it.
He hadn't originally expected to find that so-called skull symbol in this run. At worst, he could just ask the show/production team staff in the next reload.
But now, since a supernatural being was helping, it saved him some trouble.
While the other three teams were each encountering different attacks, here, one supernatural being and one human maintained a not-too-close, not-too-far distance as they headed in a certain direction.
The corridor grew deeper and deeper, the light increasingly dim. Only the emergency lights embedded in the ceiling at wide intervals emitted a faint green glow.
Xu Xi almost thought the other party actually wanted to lure him to some unspeakable, remote corner before finishing him off.
Fortunately, the figure ahead stopped in front of a tightly shut wooden door.
Xu Xi shone his flashlight over there.
The three characters on the doorplate were still eye-catching even though they were rusty — Archive Room.
Huh? The symbol is inside here?
Xu Xi subconsciously looked at the Blue Monster that had led the way, only to see it gradually merging into the wall, as if passing through it.
"......" Seeing this scene, he no longer hesitated and simply pushed the door open.
Sure enough.
Inside the room, the bluish-green figure was dangling upside down, swaying slightly in front of a set of filing cabinets.
Seeing the young man enter, its slender arm stretched out, and a rather thick booklet fell from the cabinet, thudding onto the floor.
And in the spot where the booklet had originally been placed, a red skull symbol was quietly imprinted.
He actually really found it.
Xu Xi didn't immediately check it out. Instead, he first swept his flashlight across the entire archive room.
The room wasn't large. The air was filled with the musty smell of damp paper and a faint odor of dust.
Apart from the Blue Monster dangling upside down in front of the cabinet, seemingly waiting for his response, there were no other abnormalities.
The skull symbol on the cabinet was exceptionally bright. Its eye-catching color was completely out of place in the dusty, gray archive room, clearly having been imprinted there not long ago.
But none of these were the main point.
Xu Xi looked back and forth at that symbol, his expression exactly the same as when he saw the completely empty dungeon last night.
He had already found the red skull symbol. And then what?
He looked up, trying to find surveillance cameras, and discovered there actually was one.
But the show/production team remained completely silent.
......Alright then.
Xu Xi shifted his gaze back to the cabinet. No matter how he looked at it, the symbol seemed more like just a simple mark.
Could his line of thinking be wrong?
Was this symbol actually similar to those three challenge locations, all just smokescreens?
Xu Xi clicked his tongue.
He couldn't say he was particularly annoyed, just slightly disappointed that the anticipated clue had fallen through.
Whatever, smokescreen or not, he could afford to waste the time anyway.
Just as he was about to turn and leave this place, he saw the originally upside-down Blue Monster suddenly land lightly on the ground.
Beside it, the opened booklet displayed neat printed handwriting.
Xu Xi raised an eyebrow slightly. After pausing for two seconds, he bent down, picked up the thick booklet from the floor, and brushed off the dust on it.
The booklet's cover was ordinary hardboard, its corners severely worn.
Opening it, he found it was a neatly bound collection of victim profiles.
On the page that had been opened earlier, several photos were attached. The photos showed men and women of various ages. Below them were brief personal details and death notes. The information here was slightly more comprehensive than on the photo wall outside.
Suddenly, his gaze was drawn to one particular line in the death notes.
『...As the sole surviving townsfolk, after investigation, officially determined their true identity as a spy, executed by firing squad.』
Among all the death notes stating death by rebel massacre, this note stood out particularly prominently.
Xu Xi glanced at the photo.
It was a young woman with short hair. When looking at the camera, her eyes held a clear expression of timidity.
The more he looked, the more he felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Until he subconsciously glanced out of the corner of his eye at the Blue Monster, which for some reason had been quietly staying to the side the whole time.
"!"
Xu Xi held the booklet up in front of the other party for a careful comparison and found the facial features and contours were indeed extremely similar.
He paused, then pointed at the photo and cautiously asked, "Is this you?"
The Blue Monster remained silent.
But silence itself is sometimes an answer.
Seeing this, Xu Xi understood in his heart.
It seems so.
"This record says... your identity was a spy—"
Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly saw the Blue Monster bare its teeth and snarl fiercely at him, as if it was about to pounce the next second.
Xu Xi immediately made an emergency correction: "—So you weren't a spy!"
The moment the words left his mouth, the Blue Monster quieted down again.
"......"
The contrast in the other party's emotions before and after had already clarified the issue.
Obviously, this death note was false.
Xu Xi didn't consider himself particularly smart, but he wasn't a fool either.
This Blue Monster, as the sole survivor during its lifetime, was clearly silenced.
Thinking of this, for a moment, he actually didn't know what to say.
After a while, he spoke up again and asked, "Can you speak?"
This time, the Blue Monster responded. It slowly opened its mouth.
Using the flashlight's light, Xu Xi discovered the other party's mouth lacked a tongue.
"......"
At this moment, Xu Xi inexplicably thought of a saying—
He really deserves to die.
But sympathy aside, the conversation still needed to continue.
After all, he was here to clear the instance.
"Were you the one who gave those previous few warnings?"
Hearing this, the Blue Monster continued its silence.
"Why were you so anxious to make us leave this place?"
The Blue Monster moved. A line of text appeared on the ground.
『He is about to come out』
"He"?
Xu Xi's mind immediately thought of the living corpse man from the previous reload.
"'He' refers to that rebel leader?"
Silence.
Just as Xu Xi was about to ask something else, the Blue Monster suddenly became agitated.
『Retreat』
The crimson characters were even more glaring.
Xu Xi's expression turned serious.
Was noon almost here?
Seeing the Blue Monster was about to disappear, he quickly said, "One last question, is there a way to seal or eliminate him?"
The bluish-green figure gradually dissipated. The "Retreat" character on the ground twisted.
『None』
This highly informative series of questions and answers couldn't help but make the live stream comments in the live stream boil over.
Especially when contrasted with the other three teams' challenges not going smoothly and more players being forced out, it made this side seem excessively harmonious.
Not to mention the young man's brief, precise, direct, and straightforward questioning, the information revealed by the Blue Monster and its final behavior gave the netizens a vague sense of foreboding.
Under the gaze of numerous netizens, the young man on the screen calmly placed the booklet back on the cabinet, turned, exited the archive room, and then walked with clear purpose towards a certain direction.
In reality, Xu Xi's heart was far from as calm as his surface appearance.
As he advanced towards the direction of the dungeon, he felt a headache coming on.
If the living corpse man cannot be sealed or eliminated, then how the hell is this instance supposed to be cleared??
The envisioned method of clearing the level was wrong, proving his previously speculated faction theory was also incorrect.
Xu Xi couldn't help but sigh.
He stopped thinking about it further and instead quickened his pace.
Should he first verify another conjecture?
*
Inside the dungeon.
Xu Xi stood before that smooth stone slab.
The deepening chill made him subconsciously rub his arm.
Actually, he was already mostly certain.
But, since he wanted to reload anyway, doing it here saved him the trouble of doing it himself.
Thus, in the following time, he personally witnessed a revival.
The moment his eyes met the man's, Xu Xi waved his hand.
"Nice to see you again."
——
The live stream fell silent.
They first watched the Hua Nation young man die at the hands of that man who inexplicably emerged from underground like a corpse.
Just as some netizens were still mocking this Hua Nation young man for being arrogant and overconfident, only to crash and burn, they then witnessed the deaths of the remaining players one by one.
In the end.
No one survived.
After a long while, someone couldn't help but ask.
[What did the Hua Nation player mean by that last "Nice to see you again"...? (ip Coffee Nation)]
