Instance Name: Escort Mission

"Two skulls make Twelve-Guans?"

Upon hearing Chen Yuanye's words, Lin Yu stood up without making a sound.

"I understand, Senior Brother. It seems this Map is indeed outdated."

As he spoke, he folded the Map in half and walked straight up to Little Fire Dragon, Deadshot, and Squirtle.

"Tell me, what kind of Yaomo did you encounter? And how did you escape? Tell me in detail, in every single way!"

Lin Yu asked directly, his tone more serious than ever before.

The three looked at each other, still somewhat hesitant.

"This..."

The Little Fire Dragon pondered for a moment before speaking, and Lin Yu gave him a cold look.

"Regardless of your reasons for not wanting to elaborate, now tell me everything in detail: this [Instance] has a major problem— the Daoist temple beneath our feet, the Yaomo in these mountains, everything is very strange."

"If you want to leave this Instance alive, you'd better speak up now."

Hearing this, Little Fire Dragon and Squirtle were still hesitant, but Deadshot spoke up.

"The Psychology Society, are you trying to scare us or put pressure on us?"

"If you yourself think there are absolutely no problems with this Instance, you don't need to trust me."

Lin Yu spoke calmly, Deadshot.

"Alright, I'll tell you then—after getting lost, we accidentally stumbled into the territory of a powerful Yaomo, and disturbed the Yaomo there..."

"Actually, at first we didn't know we had disturbed Yaomo. The Yaomo, disguised, looked very much like an ordinary human, and we all thought it was just a poor Native of the Prison Mountain Realm," Deadshot sighed. "Then, she fooled us all and led us into a trap..."

"The trap was a seemingly harmless cave. She said it was where her family stored their belongings and hoped we could help her retrieve some things... Luckily, Little Fire Dragon had a warning Item, otherwise we would have walked right into it!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Yu roughly understood the reason why the three had been hiding it—most likely because the experience of being deceived was too shameful.

Even the current language used to Deadshot is now tinged with a bit of euphemism.

Although he didn't say the Yaomo's disguised gender, Lin Yu already had a clue in his mind whether the word "pitiful" meant "pathetic in dire straits" or "pitiful in a pitiful state."

Are you sure that's a disguise, and not... a 'puppet' or something like that?

Lin Yu looked at Deadshot and asked seriously.

Deadshot frowned. "If you think that Yaomo is related to Chen Family Fortress, perhaps... but the one we encountered felt different from the people of Chen Family Fortress, and she is..."

"It just vanished into thin air, right?"

Lin Yu asked in a low voice.

"Yes, just like the escort who disappeared before," Deadshot was surprised, "How did you know?"

"Summary and analysis... Currently, the Yaomo behind this are exhibiting two methods: one is to make people disappear inexplicably and affect the Memory of those involved, and the other is to manipulate the actions of puppets."

"And I'm wondering... is it possible that these two abilities are actually two stages of the same ability?"

Lin Yu spoke softly.

"The so-called 'disappearance' is actually the process of turning people into puppets."

This audacious hypothesis utterly shocked Deadshot, Little Fire Dragon, and Squirtle.

"This... is this guy really someone we can fight back against?"

Lin Yu nodded. "Of course—since it requires such a long and complicated process to create a puppet, and we've already taken such extreme measures without any other reaction, it means that perhaps this guy hiding behind the scenes doesn't have any other good methods besides this one."

Lin Yu stood up and looked outside the Daoist temple.

"Furthermore, given the reason why the location of the Daoist temple changed... I have a guess."

"This Map is Map a hundred years ago, and the Daoist temple you left is located in the same place as it was a hundred years ago. So, could the mastermind's abilities be related to 'time'?" Lin Yu said softly. "Of course, it's probably not about directly traveling through time or manipulating time, but its ability might be to access the state of any 'thing' that it can control or manipulate at any point in time."

These remarks left the three Player completely stunned.

Deadshot asked, "What are you trying to say?"

Lin Yu held up one finger. "It's very simple—some people in this Daoist temple seem to be fine, but before they disappeared, they had already become the 'puppets' of the mastermind behind the scenes."

He turned around and looked at the bodyguards. "If we consider the villagers of Chen Family Fortress as the final state of the mastermind's power, having completely controlled a person's past and present, then 'disappearance' might be the penultimate stage—that is, when it begins to control a person's present."

"And if we continue backwards, the 'Memory' are affected, perhaps to an 'even earlier' stage," Lin Yu said with pity and a sigh. "Given that I've confirmed they have no mental issues, what was actually altered for them is... their 'past'."

"The reason they forget some information is not because their souls have been tampered with, but because their 'past' no longer belongs to them."

Charmander said in shock, "You mean, these escorts are actually hopeless?!"

"Not just those bodyguards, but also Chen Yuanye, who has deep ties to Chen Family Fortress," Lin Yu paused, "Looking at the three Player."

"Of course, there are the three of you too."

"What?!"

"Deadshot!" Lin Yu said in a low voice, "Make your move, A Nian."

"Received, received."

Li Nian, who had somehow gotten behind them, spoke up.

The three instinctively reached for their weapons, but suddenly felt their bodies go limp.

They were all completely deceiving themselves.

Li Nian picked up the empty [Paralysis Potion] bottle from the ground and spoke with a grin.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, I apologize for the inconvenience."

The Little Fire Dragon quickly spoke up, "You must have misunderstood something, we have no problem at all..."

"You 'Psychology Society' guy, I think you're just looking for an excuse to take us down!"

Deadshot said angrily.

Lin Yu sighed, "How pitiful, still trapped in the past? Gentlemen... let me ask you a question."

What is the question for this [Instance]?

Lin Yu asked, and the three of them looked at each other in bewilderment.

Why are you asking this? Aren't we the same?!

Lin Yu shook his head.

"I don't think so, because a very important point in my judgment that this Game is a [confrontational] Instance is that my [Instance] is called Escort."

"So we met up with the caravan shortly after the game started, and the mastermind behind it all was also very interested in the 'caravan'."

"But what about the three of you?" Lin Yu said, stroking his chin, "You three don't seem to have any interest in the caravan at all, do you?"

"So, I have a bold guess..."

"You three, you're probably not playing the same [Instance] as us."