Some things became easy to sort out once you figured out the right angle.
Given that the other side had only arrived in this world not long ago yet knew so much about it, there were only two possibilities.
Either they had been to this world before, or they had learned information about this world from other Players who had been here.
Assuming the information they had previously obtained from the Pumpkin Demon was correct, the truth was actually quite obvious.
The other side had learned about this world from other Players and knew more of this world's Secrets than they did—for example, how many Keys needed to be gathered to activate some rule mechanism that existed in this world.
Perhaps they wanted to trigger that mechanism before Bai Zhi's group could, or perhaps they had regarded their team as prey from the very beginning. Either way, they had deliberately laid out a trap from the start.
Starting a conflict with them to test the team's strength was only one part of it. More importantly, they had used the excuse of their defeat to smoothly deliver that crucial Key to them. That Key they had sent over should have been tampered with somehow, allowing them to steal all the Keys Bai Zhi's group acquired at a certain moment.
There was nothing wrong with the Key itself. What was wrong was some unknown Skill applied to it.
—From the moment they had arrived in this world and discovered their team, they had been deliberately plotting against them.
"Wait... they started planning this from back then?"
After hearing Bai Zhi's quiet explanation, Kan Lu could not help looking rather stunned.
"What else would it be?"
Bai Zhi shot him a glance.
"That's exactly what I don't get. Why didn't you wake me