Chapter 47: The Assassin Lady's Methods
Going back meant they could canvas for the killer.
Not going back meant avoiding another accident tonight.
In a seven-day trial, losing a teammate before the first day was even over was absolutely the worst possible start.
Everyone's grimness was written across their faces. Only Yun Ni scoffed and turned to leave.
The direction she chose was the "Surging Light of Life."
Watching Yun Ni depart so decisively, Cheng Shi's heart swelled with emotion.
This was what a 2400 lobby looked like. Even with death staring them in the face, some people could face it calmly and charge straight ahead.
At 1400, their group would've fallen apart tonight.
Du Xiguang pushed his glasses up and suggested:
"Wei Guan's death… why not report it to the Enforcement Bureau?"
Honestly, it wasn't a bad idea.
Getting the Enforcement Bureau involved would eliminate many risks.
But the problem was, they still couldn't confirm whether this killer wielding a semi-divine artifact was the players' target or merely a signpost pointing toward it.
If a "signpost," that was fine. They just needed to figure out who the killer's next victim would be and search for the true tribute.
But if the killer was the "target," once he fell into the Enforcement Bureau's hands, killing him afterward would amount to artificially inflating their own difficulty.
Besides, given Wei Guan's current "gutted and split open" state, how would they even explain it?
Fang Jue pondered for a moment, then shook his head and rejected the proposal.
Now was not the right time to cooperate with the "authorities."
Cheng Shi had expected this outcome. He glanced at Wei Guan's unblinking corpse, then likewise turned and left.
Yun Ni was right. Getting close to the killer was the only way to find the killer.
Regardless, they absolutely had to return to the hotel tonight.
This trial had already shifted from "dispelling the fog" to "walking the razor's edge."
And this was exactly what [Death] desired.
He had never objected to more tribute offerings.
"You go first. I'll dispose of Wei Guan's body."
Followers of [Order] were always dependable. Du Xiguang didn't hesitate and fell into step behind Cheng Shi.
Fang Jue, face dark, gazed at the corpse and sighed softly.
When he had finished "hiding" the body and looked up again, he found that the Ascetic Monk who had been silently listening all night had already vanished.
When Cheng Shi returned to the hotel, Yun Ni was at the front counter buying alcohol.
He walked over, requested a glass of hard liquor from the waiter, and sat down beside her.
Yun Ni cast him a sideways glance. Unusually, she said nothing.
Cheng Shi raised his glass and said:
"Regardless, we're teammates. If you have any ideas, why not discuss them with me first?"
Yun Ni's slightly tipsy eyelids lifted a fraction, signaling him to continue.
"I don't want to lose two teammates on day one, and I don't want you ending up like that conceited follower of [Ignorance], dying for no apparent reason."
Cheng Shi's words were blunt. Right now, he was terrified that a teammate would confidently charge out and end up dead on arrival.
It wasn't that he doubted Yun Ni's intelligence…
Actually, forget it. He did doubt it.
Moreover, he could tell that the Assassin lady already had a plan and might act tonight.
As for whether her actions would benefit the trial, he couldn't judge without knowing her thoughts.
Yun Ni smiled, ignored him, downed the drink in her glass, and once again departed alone.
Cheng Shi watched her go, then turned his gaze to the bar counter.
The empty glass Yun Ni had slapped onto the counter was still trembling. Along its base, a barely visible crack was gradually creeping toward the three o'clock position.
Heh. An interesting invitation.
The hotel's first floor closed at two. This clearly meant she wanted to do some "unspeakable" business during the quiet hours of the night.
Cheng Shi laughed despite himself, drained his own glass, and likewise returned to his room.
The night deepened. No matter how many guests the hotel had, most chose to rest at this hour, a far cry from the liveliness when evening had first fallen.
The hotel owner was clearly a savvy operator. To help guests sleep more peacefully, he had actually arranged for several waiters to patrol the corridors of each floor at regular intervals even at this late hour.
Cheng Shi lay on the bed in his room, unable to sleep at all. Listening to the footsteps pacing back and forth in the corridor, his mind kept churning over how to break the deadlock.
Just as he frowned in deep thought, the familiar sound of breathing returned from behind the wooden wall beside his bed.
"Three o'clock already?"
He raised his hand to check his watch, and the breathing next door vanished.
As if receiving a signal, Cheng Shi immediately rolled out of bed, pushed open his door, and stepped out.
The moment he emerged, he saw Du Xiguang and Fang Jue pushing their doors open simultaneously.
Their gazes moved in perfect unison past Cheng Shi, fixed on Yun Ni's door.
Even more absurdly, at the far end of the corridor, the brawny man lying in the shadows had also roused and silently risen to his feet.
"?"
Looks like everyone's mind was fixed on the Assassin lady's movements.
But I couldn't sleep because Yun Ni gave me an invitation. What's the deal with you three big men pressing your ears against the wall in the middle of the night?
The window of opportunity was fleeting, leaving no time for Cheng Shi to overthink.
The group tacitly skipped the awkward greeting phase and followed Yun Ni's trail up to the third floor.
Perhaps with Wei Guan's death as a cautionary tale, she hadn't bothered to erase her trail.
So the four men trailed behind her, erasing her traces as they went while simultaneously guessing what this Assassin of [Annihilation] intended to do.
However, they didn't get to puzzle for long. When they reached the cornermost guest room on the third floor, the answer revealed itself.
A faint trace of [Annihilation]'s scent seeped from the room.
Yun Ni had struck!
Everyone blanched. Dodging the waiter's patrol, they slipped rapidly into the room.
The moment they entered, they found the room completely ransacked. And the guest who should have been inside was long gone.
Yun Ni had vanished again.
"Lunatic!"
Fang Jue immediately grasped Yun Ni's intent. He cursed bitterly and flashed out the door.
Du Xiguang followed closely behind, clearly having seen through her plan as well.
Cheng Shi stared at the empty room, brow knit tight.
Without question, Yun Ni had "killed" someone.
Followers of [Annihilation] used special methods granted by Him to dispatch the hotel guest to "another plane."
And these planes were almost always crumbling, apocalyptic wastelands.
Delivering living beings into disintegrating spaces was, to Him, a form of offering.
Furthermore, a living being vanishing from its original location was itself a kind of "death."
This unfortunate guest might still be alive, but what kind of suffering awaited them in a plane watched by [Annihilation] was anyone's guess.
The idea was rough, but highly effective.
The Assassin lady's plan was simply to forcefully search every room for evidence, one by one, without alerting the other guests.
Just like her personality: decisive and direct.
But one problem remained. The moment she came face to face with the killer, Yun Ni could very well become the next Wei Guan.
It wasn't that no one else had considered this simple, effective approach. It was just that no one wanted to be the second Wei Guan.
To his surprise, Yun Ni didn't mind in the slightest and voluntarily became the players' spearhead.
At this thought, Cheng Shi couldn't help but sigh:
Truly, superior skill breeds superior courage.
These high-rated people, why were they all so confident?
Were their scores really just brute-forced upward on the back of good talents?
He found this somewhat laughable.
Brute force couldn't solve everything. The brain was the key that opened critical doors.
But what was done was done. Dwelling on it was pointless.
He sighed helplessly and set to work searching the ransacked room, hoping to find some useful information.
It was easy to guess that the Assassin lady wouldn't search carefully.
This kind of dirty work had to be a team effort.
Sigh. The Grand Tribunal people are on their way. Raising hell in the hotel at a time like this, isn't she worried about trapping herself in the middle of it?
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