Guan En remembered the female voice that had echoed without stopping.
Feeling brainwashed fit.
The female attendant's face grew paler and more haggard.
A little sweat broke out on Zhu Yan's palms.
He reached into his pocket, where his aunt's player badge, [Ability Card], and black envelope still lay.
These things he hadn't had time to deal with would make perfect props for deceiving the officer.
Guan En instinctively felt that the female attendant wasn't acting.
If she were, she might slip up and say something like, "I was pulled into a dungeon."
He had also seen suspects fabricate clear, meticulously detailed statements to gain trust.
But the woman before him was flustered, dazed, and incoherent, just as someone might be after a sudden shock.
He glanced toward the door. His colleagues were still holding their positions there, while his superior was inspecting the carriage.
Strangely, there was no fear or panic on the passengers' faces.
None of them had been pulled into the dungeon!
Could this female attendant be one of his few teammates?
Guan En asked, "Ma'am, when did you start hearing voices? Did you receive anything?"
Zhu Yan gave a small gag.
He recalled his aunt's state when she first entered a dungeon and made her a little smarter.
"I... heard them while I was working..."
"Something, there was a black..."
Zhu Yan made his face a shade paler.
"Officer, it's hard to explain. It's too complicated, and right now I..."
"Let me see it." Guan En frowned. "I know what's going on, so don't panic."
"In those voices you heard, there was a player mission, right? What was it?"
She was probably one of the players, but time was short, and he had none to spare for counseling her.
All he could do was check the other player's [player mission], then have her follow his lead and cooperate.
[Cat-and-Mouse Game].
He was on the [cat] side, and Zhu Yan was the [mouse].
If he was right, the others either had roles assisting the cat or had other, simpler missions!
His face pale, Zhu Yan trembled as he placed a gold coin in Guan En's palm.
Clearly, he and the officer had the same idea.
The officer wanted to draw out his ability and mission, then make decisions more favorable to the [cat].
In that case, he could compare notes with the officer.
But he couldn't hand over his aunt's [Ability Card].
If he did, he would surely be exposed!
"Is this it?" Zhu Yan said. "There was a card too. I put it in my bag when my shift ended and I went on break."
"I got these things when—"
"Do you remember your mission?" Guan En had no time for idle talk.
Zhu Yan pretended to hesitate for a second.
In that second, he glanced into the carriage.
The Pseudo-human had found his empty seat.
Unlike the level-two Pseudo-human from before, it lifted its nose and sniffed gently, as though it could smell something.
Then it turned decisively and walked straight toward carriage eight.
A level-three Pseudo-human had a keen sense of smell and could distinguish specific scents?
But instead of coming back to find him, the Pseudo-human followed the route he had taken.
Could his [Roleplay] conceal his scent?
Zhu Yan grew a little wary.
With a thought, he tried to mask his human scent, then turned his attention back.
"My mission..." He let just the right amount of confusion show. "The exact words were something about assisting... cooperating with the police department to catch the mouse..."
"Officer, do you know something?"
Pretending to be a teammate of the [cat] would make it easier to keep going.
"One person," Guan En said. "Carriage seven, male, about eighteen or nineteen, long hair."
"He's... very good-looking. Have you seen him?"
Like Zhu Yan, Guan En had noticed his superior's movements and instinctively glanced into carriage seven.
As expected, he didn't see Zhu Yan's striking face.
Still, Guan En wasn't in much of a hurry.
Their people had surrounded the entire train, and everyone had been kept on board. There was no way out.
He turned his gaze back to the female attendant and saw her frowning, cold sweat beading on her forehead from panic.
"I've seen him... I spoke to him... but I don't understand..."
She looked at Guan En, so distressed she was about to cry.
Something stirred in Guan En's mind.
She had seen him and even spoken to him?
That was an important lead!
Guan En wanted to ask more, but Zhu Yan grabbed his sleeve, acting as though he had lost all sense of what was going on.
Now was the time.
He had to confirm Guan En's mission!
"Officer, do you mean all of this is real?"
His lips trembling, Zhu Yan glanced at the Pseudo-human's retreating figure and interrupted Guan En again, who was just as eager to ask questions.
"You have a mission too? Is yours worded the same way?"
Guan En could tell that the terrified female attendant now regarded him as a lifeline.
He said, "It's real. You have to complete your mission."
Seeing the female attendant's expression, Guan En reassured her, "You don't need to worry too much. My mission is almost the same as yours. Mine is [assist my teammate in completing their mission and stay alive]."
In an instant, Zhu Yan's mind raced through countless possibilities.
As he saw it, the officer's newbie mission was pretty difficult.
By real-world logic, Guan En was a police officer, so his teammate was the Pseudo-human.
From [Merry Happy Land]'s perspective, Guan En was a player, so his teammate was Zhu Yan!
With concepts muddled like that, it was easy to make the wrong call.
Even a small mistake would cost him his life.
If he were this officer, he'd already be thinking about how to trick both sides and exploit the bug.
Yet this man was actually reassuring a female attendant who might be a fraud.
Zhu Yan nodded, his eyes red as he pretended to struggle to stay calm.
"I... I understand," he said. "So both our missions are to find the person the police department is looking for?"
To make it convincing, he asked another question a newbie would ask.
"Then, the Pseudo-humans mentioned in the broadcast...?"
Then again, whether Guan En lived or died had nothing to do with him.
All he had to do was find a way out under a suitable identity.
"Yes, we need to find someone."
Guan En nodded, watching as his Pseudo-human superior stopped in front of the restroom.
The Pseudo-human was his superior and also his teammate.
As he saw it, the game was fundamentally about joining forces with the Pseudo-human to capture Zhu Yan, who was also a player.
It was cruel, but dungeons were a matter of kill or be killed.
He could use his ability to keep Zhu Yan from being eaten by the Pseudo-human, to prevent him from dying in such a painful way.
But whether he lived or died after leaving the dungeon was none of his concern!
"He spoke to me at around four in the morning."
Zhu Yan returned to the subject, truthfully recounting his conversation with the real attendant.
"He made small talk, asked me where the dining car was, and whether I could take a break and eat when we changed shifts..."
"So I told him when the shift change was..."
Zhu Yan watched Guan En's expression as the latter thought it over carefully.
"He went toward the other end of the train, toward carriage fifteen..."
Zhu Yan glanced at the connection between carriages eight and nine.
The restroom where he had spent a long time was there. The Pseudo-human had already gone inside and looked as though it would be coming out again soon.
Let this idiot go argue it out with the real attendant.
He was going to find the Pseudo-human and leave without anyone noticing!
Guan En quickly figured it out.
Zhu Yan was cunning. Judging by his conversation with the attendant, what he wanted was information about the female attendant's shift change.
It was simple: that way, he would be less likely to be exposed when he disguised himself as the female attendant.
He had gone to carriage fifteen simply because it was the farthest away.
Guan En wasted no more time and strode toward carriage fifteen.
Zhu Yan broke into a trot after him, rushing toward the Pseudo-human he had been thinking about.
The Pseudo-human had found nothing and had already come out of the restroom.
Guan En quickly stopped and called out, "Sir, the person should be in carriage fifteen. We need to go over there."
Guan En looked straight at the Pseudo-human's face.
While Guan En wasn't looking, Zhu Yan gave the Pseudo-human's sleeve a hard tug.
This wouldn't do.
This Pseudo-human was far too useful!
Feeling the tug, the Pseudo-human turned its head and glanced at its own kind.
Now!
Zhu Yan pretended to shrink back in fear, making sure the Pseudo-human's body blocked him from Guan En's view.
Then his face changed rapidly, returning to its original appearance.
The Pseudo-human stopped turning its head away.
It watched Zhu Yan, and as his face slowly changed back into the female attendant's, a trace of confusion and reverence appeared on its stiff face.
"Are you the one in charge?" Zhu Yan said, making it clear that he wanted it to follow him. "Shall I take you to see the surveillance footage?"