Second Examiner

Everyone stared at Iver in utter astonishment as he suddenly shot and killed the reporter.

"You are truly decisive."

The man standing to the side, with his arms crossed, exclaimed in a low voice, "Whether he's Merlin, a reporter, or a detective who came down early, as long as this isn't the Layer Zero, this shot can be fired."

"I just wanted to save everyone some time."

Iver wiped the muzzle of his gun and said calmly.

If he were Merlin, Iver wouldn't be worried at all— Merlin would only cause them trouble, but the real Jacob would personally open the box for his grandson Iver.

At this point in time, the Noble Red had not yet been established. The Scaleless Hand was still a highly respected ritual master organization among the common people.

Even though they were wanted for cursing and killing some wealthy and powerful people, they still enjoyed high popularity among the public.

In this situation, if Jacob realizes he has been wronged, he will most likely reveal his identity as the founder of the Scaleless Hand.

—Iver still didn't know who Pure White and the others really were, and this secret couldn't be revealed to them yet.

From this perspective, Iver was actually silencing them.

"Without Lu Lu's hard work in bringing back the information, this layer could have become a deadly trap."

As he spoke in a deep voice, Iver stepped over the reporter's corpse, walked to the round table, sat down, and crossed his legs.

He looked at everyone and slowly said, "The other levels are like stormy nights. Suddenly, we've arrived at this level, where the sun shines brightly, the air is fresh, and birds sing sweetly... As long as they haven't awakened their memories and found their true mission, they will immediately think they've reached the Reality Layer."

"—Because this place is different from every other layer of the dream."

Isabel initially thought so too, because she fainted after giving the information and didn't hear Iver's reasoning at all.

"But it won't be this clean right after a storm of that magnitude. Neither the forests, grasslands, nor lakes will be this clean."

"Trees, broken wood, trash and debris blown about, even fish from the lake are falling to the ground. This is clearly just a little girl's imagination of a storm, lacking experience in life."

"Oh."

Suddenly, Chunbai laughed, "These are all just excuses... It's actually because of Topaz, isn't it?"

"Because of the information brought by Miss Lu Lu, after being verified with others—as long as Merlin's information is excluded, you will realize that Topaz was not present in the floors she descended to."

"So you suspect that we were actually all on the Second Layer before, while Topaz was on the First Layer... Only this makes sense."

"But have you considered another possibility? Perhaps Topaz killed everyone? Just like me—killed everyone and then fell to the next level."

Pure White slightly raised its head and declared, "Admit it, Mr. Fox. You made a mistake—because of your arrogance and my lies, you personally eliminated the bodies that carried your teammates."

"Oh? Is that so?"

The Fox smiled at Pure White, while Lu Lu clenched her fists nervously and looked at the Fox.

Chunbai sneered and said without hesitation, "Of course."

"Although I don't know why you entered this ritual earlier than me, you clearly don't understand the basic principles of the Nine Pillar Gods's ritual."

"When the Nine Pillar Gods construct the Promotion Ritual and prepare the plot and bonus points for the ritual, they only consider the absolutely rational decision of the ascension recipient. That is to say, the optimal solution of each ritual is based on the premise that 'everyone is a smart and rational person, and everyone knows that everyone else is also a smart and rational person' and 'everyone acts according to their own path'."

"So in this situation, what is the optimal solution? Of course, it's for everyone to kill everyone on their floor."

"If everyone kills everyone in their current dream layer and then commits suicide, they will immediately and precisely fall into the Layer Zero. Not only that, everyone will fall into the Layer Zero. This is the most tacit and efficient cooperation! No matter how many people or how many layers there are, it can guarantee at least six people to win."

"From the perspective of the question setter, what's wrong with me killing everyone on my floor?"

Pure White spoke fluently and incessantly.

The more Lu Lu listened, the paler her face became.

She looked at Iver with some apprehension, but saw an increasingly obvious smile on Iver face.

"Who are you?"

Iver suddenly asked a question in return.

Pure White narrowed her eyes, somewhat disappointed. "You don't still think I'm Merlin bewitching people, do you?"

"You are not Merlin, but you are indeed lying and deliberately misleading people."

Iver said quietly, "So what I'm asking is... who are you in real life?"

"You've crossed the line, Mr. Fox."

Pure White narrowed his eyes and warned.

"You're the one who crossed the line."

Iver retorted without hesitation, "Why are you helping Merlin?"

Upon hearing this, the surroundings fell silent.

Pure White glanced at Iver with some surprise. "When did you find out?"

"Ever since I proposed the Sure-Win Method. But now that I think about it, you already showed a weakness the first time we met."

Iver snorted coldly, "Think about it carefully. From the first time you met me... everything you said seemed to be questioning Merlin, but in reality, it was all to help him clear his name."

"After you met us, you suspected that one of us might be Merlin."

—Now you can trust me, right? I'm the detective, and that burly man is the Fox.

When Iver first met Merlin, Merlin said the following.

This statement seems reasonable, but it's actually wrong in every way.

"First of all, if Merlin was a real 'detective' back then, he wouldn't need to explain to you why he was a detective. Since you two didn't know each other at all, and it was just a matter of words, why couldn't Merlin do what a detective could?" So, what he actually meant by that was, "The content of our previous conversation revealed his suspicion that I was Merlin." And you subconsciously made a wrong response—

—To be precise, at this point we can only confirm that at least one of you is not Merlin.

Pure White said that at the time.

Iver interlaced his fingers and whispered, "You chose to follow the topic Merlin raised. But that's completely pointless... Of course, we can't both be Merlin, because there's only one Merlin."

"You would say that instinctively because you know the reporter is Merlin, but you don't dare to explicitly reveal that you know this."

"It's unreasonable for you to believe he's not Merlin directly; it would make you suspicious—so you pretend to be wary of him to avoid suspicion. But you're also worried that if you really arouse my suspicion that he's Merlin, you don't dare to go all out against him. So you just say it casually, just to state your position."

"I started to have some doubts about you around that time. But I didn't realize then that you were working with Merlin, so I tested you twice..."

"I openly suspected you were Pure White, yet you showed no hostility towards me. There are four of you and three of us—and, if I may be so bold, the detective and I are the main force, as you can probably tell."

"Moreover, we told you from our words that we had already gathered together on the next level and verified each other's identities. Yet you didn't try to stop us, nor did you try to find your teammates."

"If you truly followed your position as an ascendant, and everything served absolute rationality, then you should have tried to divide us back then."

"For example, trying to make the 'detective' suspect that I was Merlin from the very beginning, or giving false testimony or deliberately misleading me to make me suspect him. Since we've already come together, it's very likely that we'll stay together in the future. And if Merlin isn't among us, it means that one of your three teammates is very likely to be replaced."

"In other words, you were already at a disadvantage from that point on. So how did you respond?"

"—You ignored the logical flaws in Merlin's 'rapid descent theory' and accepted the three-person team. You still haven't shown any hostility towards Merlin."

Iver said calmly, "That's when I realized something. You're definitely not Merlin, but something about you is also a bit off."

"Because you don't really want to win. But if you don't want to win, why did you come to the Promotion Ritual?"

"Later, Merlin suddenly presented you with a conjecture—that you might have killed an entire floor of people. And what was the purpose of this statement?"

The answer is simple: swallow one layer.

However, this decision has a flaw. The number of floors can be reduced by one, but the number of people will not suddenly decrease by one.

"I was thinking... could Topaz actually be on the First Layer? So I came up with the ' Sure-Win Method '... it was bait. But it wasn't for Merlin, it was for you."

"The Sure-Win Method is based on two premises: Topaz has already gone directly from the upper levels to the Layer Zero, and you actually killed someone on the first level. In that case, including the real detectives who haven't come down yet, we were already on the First Layer. So, if you had just died then, it would have been a victory."

"You did not choose to die. And now you have brought up this point again... You have turned your back on your previous statement and denied that you did kill one layer of people. You also claim that Topaz killed one layer of people."

"If that were the case, then counting Topaz's level, the detective's level, and your level, we would indeed have reached the Layer Zero. But unfortunately, that's not the case... We are still in a dream, and have not yet arrived in reality."

"If you don't believe me," Pure White sighed helplessly, "You can call out Dancer to come and see."

"—Yes, Mr. Fox."

Upon hearing this, the Dancer came over from the corner of the stairs.

She laughed and said, "You've been fooled by me too. Actually, I am Topaz... from the very beginning."

"In that case," Iver countered, "When did you arrive here, sister?"

"In my memory," the Dancer said, "I came here to take shelter from the rain last night... but this memory is definitely not quite right."

You're a hammer.

Iver couldn't help but laugh out loud.

You don't even know what "here" means when I ask—

"Then it matches up."

A slight smile played on his lips as he said without hesitation, "You are Merlin."

Then, Iver pointed to the corpse at the front desk: "He is Topaz— "

"You deliberately killed the receptionists on the second and third floors because you saw Topaz commit suicide on the First Layer."

"Pure White is deliberately trying to mislead me by adding the receptionist while excluding Daya. You want to use the fact that ' Daya is a participant' to exclude Topaz from the receptionist as well."

"That's why I said, you were able to get Merlin to acknowledge his identity and cooperate with you... who exactly are you?"

Merlin said that the Nine Pillar Gods were watching this ceremony... Is your identity related to this?

"It's best not to ask that."

Huo Yin, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up and warned.

Upon hearing this, Chunbai stared at Iver for a long time.

The Old Inspector finally let out a helpless sigh and closed his eyes.

"No, it's okay..."

Chunbai opened her eyes, suddenly adopting a calmer tone. "This is a test that a certain Pillar God asked me to give you when you entered. He wanted to see if you could change your bad habits under extreme circumstances—"

"You are quite suspicious, find it hard to trust others, and always keep a wary distance from others, yet you lack discernment when it comes to those close to you, and always subconsciously want to believe the words of well-intentioned people; Miss Lu Lu is kind and brave, but because she has been too well protected, her personality is a bit weak and her willpower is not strong enough to handle her talents; Mr. Detective is smart, calm, and rational, but he always likes to show off, has a strong desire to perform and curiosity, and also has an overly strong desire to win."

"I'm your temporary examiner. I originally came to test your ability to withstand deception... but you just exposed me instead. Fine, I guess that's one way to answer the question."

"... Who exactly set this test question? Who are you?"

Hearing Chunbai's words, Iver hesitated for a moment. "Are you... the Eternal Saintess?"

He originally thought that Pure White only knew Merlin, so he chose to cooperate with him.

Unexpectedly, I received a private message directly from the Nine Pillar Gods...

Holy crap, who is this person? "Guess?"

Chunbai smiled slightly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

The Old Inspector slammed the gun down in front of Iver, his once calm and distant gaze fixed on Iver: "My test is over, but the ceremony isn't over yet. But you've won, haven't you?"

Merlin told me that Topaz has now fallen into the Negative First Layer. After all, he was born on the First Layer and has difficulty distinguishing between dreams and reality. In other words... the inevitable loser has appeared.

"If we all reach Layer Zero now, all six of us will win..."

"—Excuse me, Lord Pure White... and Merlin. I'd like to interrupt."

Iver suddenly spoke up, "If I'm not mistaken, entering the Negative First Layer won't result in immediate death, right?"

"What you up to?"

Merlin countered, "You want to dispel the Earthbound Spirit and bring Daya back? In principle, it's not impossible... Once you return to reality, your power will return. But you're only a Second Level priest."

"Don't underestimate the priest, Merlin."

Iver smiled, then pulled Daya into his arms.

"...what are you up to?"

Daya nestled in Iver, squirming uncomfortably. "Maybe I should just give up this time... You can go down with them. I'll just stay here and maintain the dream..."

"No."

"It's only half a month anyway, I can just go to the New Moon Ritual myself in two weeks..."

"No."

Iver spoke softly and gently, lifting Daya's hair and pressing the muzzle of the gun behind her ear.

"I refuse to believe that the Promotion Ritual will necessarily kill one of the participants. You must have a way to survive and win."

"If you can't find it, I'll help you find it—consider it a reward for your resilience in enduring so many painful self-destructions."

One shot. Two shots.

When Iver awoke again, he heard the joyful voice of the Paradox Flame Butterfly:

"... Brother... you're finally awake!"

"Yes, I'm awake."

"Iver said softly."

He opened his eyes, and a golden-red light, like the Rising Sun, suddenly shone from the depths of his pupils.

The second chapter has 4,500 words! That's already 6,000 words!

But there's a third chapter (hands on hips)

The cat went to grab lunch and will come back to continue writing, but the third chapter might not be finished until tonight.

I hope the cat won't write 10,000 words today—