The players present were all stunned. On one hand, they were shocked that an NPC would do such a thing; on the other hand, they were surprised that Xie He said it so easily, as if it were a public display of affection…
But Xie He said that Song Gua was the mole's informant.
That seemed plausible.
Song Gua's face grew increasingly grim: “Fine, you're so capable. If you want to doubt, then doubt!” He angrily turned and left.
Zhang Langlang couldn't help but watch his retreating figure and said, “When you doubt others, you speak so eloquently and passionately, but when it comes to yourself, you get angry. Is that reasonable?”
She wasn't one to gossip behind people's backs, so she deliberately raised her voice, making sure Song Gua could hear her.
Song Gua trembled with anger and walked even faster.
At this moment, a group of faceless students had gathered at the classroom door, all staring in their direction. Under the dim light, they looked rather eerie.
Zhang Langlang, now the English teacher of Class 1, Grade 11, proactively said, "Stop looking around, go back to self-study. Do you care about your final grades?"
Many of the shameless little brats immediately left.
"!" Old Zhang, also a teacher, was dumbfounded, though terrified. He followed Zhang Langlang's example and dismissed some of the students.
───
Song Gua, a student in Class 1, Grade 11, was feeling very aggrieved, but considering he still had to obey the game and maintain his persona, he obediently returned to the classroom after a quick look around.
He rummaged through his belongings.
He did so cautiously, afraid of triggering a chain reaction of death.
He noticed high-end chocolates and candies in his desk drawer.
But the original owner of "Song Gua" was a poor boy receiving scholarships. Why would he own these things?
Either he had a crush and scrimped and saved to buy them as a gift, or they were given to him by someone else.
If he had a crush, wouldn't that crush be that "extra student in the graduation photo"?
A student…
He thought of Xie He, one of the students. How could that person be so annoying? He felt something was off about him; what kind of newcomer was so arrogant, even daring to turn around and bite him!
Song Gua lifted the hem of his shirt to look at himself. Although he had been injected with antibodies, the viral red spots on his body had deepened considerably over time.
Since the good guys suspected him, he might as well join the mole's camp… If he won, he could legitimately eliminate Xie He, who had a lower score.
He needed to speed up his search for the mole.
He had to defect to the mole.
───
When the bell rang for evening self-study, Sui Yuan was watching a live stream in the basement. Then he saw Xie He rushing towards the basement in the video.
Sui Yuan's face grew colder. He flicked his hand and turned off the TV.
Knock, knock, knock. Xie He knocked politely on the door before entering.
The room was filled with the smoke of cigarettes. Sui Yuan was reclining on the sofa, seemingly not fond of buttoning his collar, his pale collarbone exposed, looking rather alluring.
The teeth marks were neatly covered with gauze.
But he just silently smoked, his face cold towards Xie He, as if to say, "You still have the nerve to come see me."
Xie He seemed oblivious, leaning against the wall, and said lazily, "I thought about it carefully after I got back. Since the system arranged for the character of Doctor Sui to appear in the instance, there must be some value in him that can be used."
Sui Yuan, who could be used: "..."
Connecting the eyeball and love letter he had seen in the basement, Xie He continued, "So, the student's body is here with you? Shall we go take a look together?"
"Who's with you or us?" Sui Yuan glanced at Xie He. For some reason, his gaze unconsciously drifted to his lips; a scab-like mark remained at the corner of his lips.
As if on cue, the words "bitten by Sui Yuan" and "heart-shaped" suddenly flashed through his mind.
Sui Yuan quickly averted his gaze, too lazy to pay him any attention, and grabbed his coat from the sofa to leave.
Xie He eagerly followed, asking, "Where are you going?"
Sui Yuan didn't answer, just walked quickly.
An NPC's job is to guide players. He had already poisoned the other person; even if he took him to see the corpse, it wouldn't matter. It was uncertain whether the other person would even survive until leaving the instance.
But Xie He suddenly understood: he was going to see the corpse.
This taciturn fellow, never saying a word, leaving him to guess. A faint smile appeared on Xie He's lips as he followed Sui Yuan discreetly.
The basement had many rooms, winding and labyrinthine. After a while, Sui Yuan finally pushed open a door. Although the room was air-conditioned, a faint smell of decay still lingered.
The body of the person who jumped was laid out before them. A white sheet covered the body, but its unevenness made it look completely unlike a person lying there, indicating the body was mangled beyond recognition.
"Go see for yourself," Sui Yuan said lazily, leaning against the side, spraying disinfectant on his hands. Clearly, he was a severe germaphobe and didn't want to get close to the corpse.
Xie He approached the body and silently lifted the white sheet. A strong stench of decay immediately filled the air, revealing the body of the woman who had jumped to her death that day, smashed to pieces.
Because there were many people around and time had passed quickly, Xie He hadn't had a chance to examine it properly.
Now, finally, he had found the body again.
Under the cold spotlight, the exposed body resembled a dessert bursting with red molten lava.
However, this dessert was covered in dust, probably because it had been shoveled up and taken to the basement along with the ashes after being smashed so badly.
Xie He noticed several pairs of medical gloves in a bag beside the hospital bed where the body lay. He took one out and began examining the corpse.
His fingertips traced the skin, and Xie He narrowed his eyes.
There were no signs of external impact, nor any lingering bruises; it didn't appear to have been subjected to violence or abuse.
Soon, Xie He lifted the body's arm and examined it, discovering several…cut marks on the wrist.
Oh, yes, the wrist had been cut, and the cuts were quite neat.
That leaves three possibilities.
One is that the victim suffered verbal abuse and jumped; two is that the victim simply had a mental breakdown and jumped; three is that the victim was pushed off the building.
The syringe containing the blood must be related to the NPC, Sui Yuan, who is a doctor.
A bold guess suddenly formed in Xie He's mind.
Xie He lifted his eyelids, glanced at Sui Yuan beside him, and suddenly asked, "Do you like boys or girls?"
"Neither." Sui Yuan had already lit a cigarette, the faint scent of smoke filling the room.
Xie He pondered for a moment, then continued, "Can your phones connect to the internet? Could you search for some scary music so I can record a bit..."
Sui Yuan was getting annoyed with him; he wanted to see what kind of trouble this guy was up to.
He randomly found a few horror movie recordings and had Xie He record them.
───
A dress was angrily thrown out of the closet.
After returning to his dorm that evening, Song Gua began rummaging through drawers and closets looking for clues. He discovered several drawings under Xie He's closet, all depicting the back of a girl in a short dress.
And in a hidden compartment of the closet, there were several dresses and women's underwear.
Song Gua thought to himself, "This guy's a pervert."
The original owner of this body, "Xie He," must have been a peeping tom.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Footsteps echoed in the hallway.
It was already past midnight when Xie He returned to his dorm. Song Gua was still awake. Hearing the footsteps, he immediately jumped up, turned on the light, and pointed at him aggressively like a resentful young widow, demanding, "Where did you go?"
"You fucking went to find the mole again?!"
Xie He ignored him.
This guy was a typical case of sleeping too much at noon and not being able to sleep at night.
But he didn't expect that Song Gua had already ransacked his place, leaving his things scattered all over the bed and floor, making the entire dorm look like a doghouse.
Pointing at the items, Song Gua continued his sarcastic remarks, "Your 'character' is truly perverted, exactly like you, drawing all sorts of rubbish. And so many little skirts in your notebook! Tell me! Are you secretly in love with the mole?!"
His voice was so loud that the players living on the same floor thought something had happened and rushed over, surrounding the door of Xie He's dormitory, 501.
There were six players on the fifth floor.
When they arrived, they saw that dormitory 501 was a complete mess. Xie He's drawers and cabinets had been smashed by Song Gua, and the dismantled wooden boards were scattered on the ground.
Song Gua's face was full of smugness, while Xie He stood quietly to the side, watching everything without showing any emotion, his eyes dark and unfathomable. The atmosphere in the room suddenly became chillingly cold.
Zhang Langlang tried to reason with him, "Come on, Song Gua. You're investigating clues, there's no need to go to such lengths." She glanced at Xie He's bed and sighed, "The original owner and the player were two separate people. Whether the original owner was a psychopath or not has nothing to do with Xie He. How can anyone sleep tonight with all this stuff on his bed?"
Song Gua was still angry, and said sarcastically, "He won't sleep. He'd love to have a long talk with the mole, figuring out how to deal with us..."
Song Gua kept rambling on, but Xie He's attention wasn't on him; his gaze was fixed on the things scattered on the floor.
The light cast a long shadow on the ground.
A little dress on the floor, a girl on a drawing paper, and many distorted drawings...
Considering Xie He was a boy... for him to have these things did indeed seem like the behavior of a psychopathic voyeur.
It also seemed like the mole's contact.
But what if we looked at it another way?
Beep beep. The moment Xie He figured it out, everyone's phones rang simultaneously, and the players checked their phones.
The other phones displayed: 【The traitor has awakened. The opposing factions have begun.】
On Xie He's phone, it displayed: 【Congratulations, you are the traitor. You have triggered the traitor awakening! Gained 40 points!】
【Bonus Bug X1: After the traitor awakens, the traitor can completely transform into a ghost.】
【Traitor Main Quest: Destroy the opposing faction, current progress (0/3)】
【Main Quest ①: You are now the traitor. To avoid suspicion, you need to be the "most qualified good person" and find a scapegoat to divert attention.】
【Traitor Side Quest: Fulfill the ghost's wish, current progress (0/3)】
【You have 10 opponents. Enjoy the fun and let the world fall for you!!】
The audience was completely stunned when they saw Xie He's phone screen: [!!!!!!]
[Holy crap!!! What kind of crazy plot twist is this?! Isn't the mole a woman?! How could it be a guy?! Or is he actually a cross-dresser?!]
[What kind of game is this?! I've been guessing who the mole is for hours, deducing from those women, and now I'm being told the mole is actually a guy???]
Xie He, however, stood there calmly, having already seen everything.
Actually.
They were all constrained by the fact that the person who jumped was a girl.
The people in the original world and the players were only randomly matched.
Song Gua, in his thirties, could still correspond to a high school student in this instance, which was inherently illogical.
Who says Xie He's original body couldn't be a girl?
The system matched players. The game only considered the player's personality and didn't strive for perfect accuracy in every detail.
The original owner, "Xie He," drew a syringe.
The deceased clutched the syringe tightly in their hand when they died, yet wrote a love letter to the doctor, Sui Yuan; this wasn't because the deceased loved two people simultaneously, but because the original owner, "Xie He," was the student who jumped to their death.
The second time Xie He went to see Sui Yuan, it was also a test.
NPCs would never kindly help a player. Although Sui Yuan disliked him, he still took him to see the body, which suggests only one possibility: Xie He is definitely not a "good player" in this instance.
The mole is Xie He!
After turning off his phone screen, Xie He gave a cold, impassive laugh, his expression a mixture of anxiety and dissatisfaction: "Heh, the mole has awakened. It must be one of those other people. Now we've got some work to do."
Xie He stared at Song Gua and continued, "You said you suspected me, and now the mole has awakened and sent out a notification. That person only just found out they're the mole. Am I supposed to find a ghost to help me? Shouldn't you apologize to me?"
His expression remained unchanged, his tone resolute, as if he truly had nothing to do with the mole.
[Waaah! The thief crying 'stop thief!' has begun!!!]
[Please begin your performance.]
Song Gua, unable to argue back, could only retort angrily, "Anyway, you two are definitely in contact! Once I find out, you're dead, Xie He."
Xie He simply leaned back lazily, his expression languid, his tone nonchalant: "Then go ahead, kill me, thank you."
With that, he turned and went to the closet to grab a blanket.
Standing behind him, Song Gua scoffed, "Not bad, at least you know how to run away."
"Could you say less?" Zhang Langlang glared at Song Gua, tugged at Xie He's arm, and whispered, "...If you don't mind, you can sleep in our room. Your life's in danger, no need to worry about so much."
"I'll sleep on the floor in Old Zhang's room," Xie He said.
Song Gua coldly watched Xie He's departing figure, then continued rummaging through Xie He's belongings. The other players in the room quickly left, either returning to their rooms or discussing matters with other players.
After they left, Song Gua stood in the room, quietly pondering.
For some reason, he felt there was something suspicious about Xie He's identity, that he was definitely connected to the mole.
After tidying up his things for a while, Song Gua suddenly noticed a faceless student staring at him from outside the window, seemingly having been standing there for a long time.
Song Gua's heart skipped a beat, a chill running down his spine from being spied on.
He took a deep breath, trying to regain his composure.
Anyone coming at this hour must be related to the "extra student." Song Gua clutched the exorcism talisman in his pocket, swallowing hard.
His gaze, however, involuntarily drifted to the full-length mirror in the room.
The mirror was empty; he couldn't see the other person.
Thinking this, he still couldn't resist stealing a glance…
The faceless student was still… standing by the window, staring at him eerily!
It's a ghost! Song Gua's heart trembled violently.
Run! Run! Run! Don't look at me! Don't look at me!
Song Gua's palms and back were drenched in cold sweat. After struggling to remain calm and analyze the situation, he mustered his courage and asked, "I...is there anything I can do to help you?"
He wanted to test if the other person was the ghost of the woman who jumped from the building, but he didn't dare ask directly, his voice cracking.
The other person, however, remained unmoved and quickly tossed him a photograph.
Song Gua caught it quickly and glanced at it. It showed a boy handing chocolate to a girl in a white dress.
"?"
Song Gua suddenly remembered the chocolate he had found in his desk drawer, so...
The original "Song Gua" liked the girl in the white dress.
Does that mean there's hope?
Song Gua quickly caught the photograph with both hands, then suddenly held it high above his head, bowing respectfully, and said, "I'm willing to join the mole's camp. Please, please let me lend you a hand!!"
After he spoke, the ghost fell silent, as if pondering the question.
Fearing the other party wouldn't agree, Song Gua quickly continued, "There's not a single good person in the good guys' camp! I'm willing to serve you! I'll do anything you ask, as long as you let me leave the dungeon alive!!"
After a few seconds of silence, the ghost's voice rang out, a girl's voice: "Okay. I want you to scare those players—"
Song Gua immediately relaxed his guard; it sounded quite normal, after all, it was a ghost.
The ghost: "I want you to wear a white dress, dress up as a ghost, and dance gracefully outside their windows, scaring them out of their wits—"
Song Gua panicked upon hearing this, not daring to lift his head, and cried, "But...but I can't dance!"
The ghost calmly said, "It's alright, I'll arrange it for you."
After hesitating for a moment, Song Gua gritted his teeth, picked up the dress on the ground, and quickly put it on.
Outside the window, Xie He, now in "ghost" form, silently watched everything.
In his pocket, a card called [Spinning Ballet Card] silently flashed an arc of light. Then, Xie He took out his phone and played the soundtrack from a horror movie he'd recorded that evening with Sui Yuan. The melody was eerie and sinister.
To the chilling music, Song Gua, already dressed in a white dress, tiptoed and raised his arm.
The live chat exploded: [Hahahaha, help!! You're the best at lying.]
[Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!!! Help, everyone!!!]
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