The Missing Puzzle Piece

At the end of the sixth-floor Corridor, Pool Room.

"... I feel my Life is in danger."

After a long silence, Temperance Gentleheart finally managed to utter these words.

"Oh, don't worry, because you're too stupid, the chances of you being the mole are very low."

Looking at the Temperance Gentleheart on Xinrou's face, Bai Zhi offered her a few words of comfort.

"I initially thought being attacked multiple times during the Novice Quest was just a coincidence, but now it seems you really are stupid. But sometimes fools are lucky, right? Even though you're stupid, your luck is still pretty good; you still managed to pick up Wild Monster like that."

I'd rather you didn't comfort me.

With Temperance Gentleheart, Xinrou turned her head away, her lips twitching.

"Now that the conditions for completing Mission Two have been met, what should we do now? Continue searching for possible survivors inside the building?"

"No, strictly speaking, the most urgent task is to find the mole and uncover the truth behind the Anomaly have broken out in this Orphanage..."

As he spoke, Bai Zhi walked towards the stairwell.

"Now, we can head over to meet up with our Teammate. Remember to have your Skill ready at all times; they should be able to provide some valuable assistance..."

Before Bai Zhi could finish his sentence, two System Prompt, less than a minute apart, popped up in front of him.

[A Hidden Anomaly Source has been resolved] ×2

"..."

Seeing the two notifications that popped up in front of him, Bai Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly and took out his Walkie-Talkie.

Before long, the Traveler's slightly out-of-breath voice came through the Walkie-Talkie.

"That's right, we've just been attacked by Anomaly again."

Leaning against the wall, the Traveler, now covered in numerous wounds, coughed a few times.

"It was a Monster filled entirely with high-strength acid, resembling a cockroach in appearance, and about the size of a kitten. Completely unaware of this, although they eventually killed the Monster, VerdantRipple's longsword was Corrosion by the acid, and she herself suffered considerable injuries... Was the Anomaly Source dealt with by your side?"

"No, it should be Iron Blood and the others... I'm coming down now."

Bai Zhi looked up at the straight staircase embedded in the ceiling, then walked down the stairs, with Temperance Gentleheart walking ahead of him.

"Don't worry about things like that. Have you made any valuable discoveries over there?"

"Iron Blood?"

After pausing for a moment, perhaps having injured his lungs in the battle, the Traveler coughed a few times before slowly recounting how the legend of "My I’m Arrogant, So What?" had become Anomaly tale.

"The Player has become the Anomaly itself? Doesn't that match what's recorded in that diary...?"

After listening to the Traveler's description of the corpse word for word, Temperance Gentleheart's face involuntarily turned quite pale.

"It would have been better to die sooner than to suffer such abuse."

"... Is that so? I think I understand a little bit now."

Bai Zhi reached out and touched his chin, nodding thoughtfully.

"It seems the situation is more complicated than I thought... Oh, right, I found a Diary in a room on the sixth floor..."

As he spoke, Bai Zhi shared the information he had gleaned from the Diary.

"As long as you stay in the Orphanage, you will inevitably become an Anomaly yourself!"

After listening to Bai Zhi's account, the Traveler's voice noticeably grew louder.

"If that's the case, then this task with no time limit can be explained; we must..."

"No, your deduction is wrong. Whether it's the Employee mentioned in the Diary, or 'I’m Arrogant, So What??' the way they became Anomaly should be..."

Bai Zhi put down the Walkie-Talkie and walked up to the Traveler.

The journey from the sixth floor to the Third Floor went smoothly without any unexpected events. Before they knew it, Bai Zhi and Temperance Gentleheart had reached the Third Floor.

However, compared to Bai Zhi and Temperance Gentleheart, who were mostly unharmed and without much injury, the Traveler and VerdantRipple looked much more miserable.

Leaving aside VerdantRipple, who was lying on the ground severely injured, the Traveler's clothes were also tattered, and the gold-rimmed Glasses he was wearing were even half torn. As for Bai Zhi, his Unique wound was probably the one he was bitten by in that Man-eating Room and forcibly bandaged by Temperance Gentleheart.

The two stood side by side, their contrasting appearances stark.

As for VerdantRipple, who was lying on the ground, her right hand and thigh were wrapped in thick bandages, which were obviously Corrosion by the blood of the Monster from before. Temperance Gentleheart, on the other hand, was basically unharmed, and there were hardly any tears in her clothes.

This perfectly illustrates the importance of aligning yourself with the right powerful backer.

After silently watching Qianxiao Temperance Gentleheart, who was unharmed and busy re-bandaging her wounds and applying medicine, for a while, VerdantRipple turned her gaze to the Traveler and the Black&White group.

Why are you so sure?

Seeing that Black&White had finally arrived, the Traveler breathed a sigh of relief and slowly sat down against the wall.

"Also, I tried contacting Iron Blood through a private channel before, but they didn't respond at all."

"Because the mission hasn't failed yet, and the survivors we need to save are still inside this Orphanage. If this Orphanage really had the rule that anyone who stayed there would gradually be assimilated into Anomaly, then the survivors we need to save should have already become Anomaly, and our mission would have failed long ago."

Bai Zhi threw a stapler and a roll of tape at the other person, and walked over to the charred corpse on the ground while the Traveler looked on in a daze.

"I have a few vague guesses about the reasons for the Anomaly Incident at this Orphanage, but I still lack the most crucial and conclusive evidence..."

As he spoke, Bai Zhi put on rubber gloves and squatted down next to the grotesque corpse.

"In the puzzle I've pieced together, there's still one crucial piece missing... For example, what role did the Orphanage Director, who appears multiple times in the Diary, play in this incident?"

I'm very curious.