Parallel Task

November 19th was the second day of the gathering. There were almost no activities planned, and no mandatory socializing. However, with members of the Zhao family present, it was impossible for the atmosphere to be dull.

The young people from different families can learn a lot from each other. By the end of the day, many of the deducers who were meeting for the first time had become familiar with each other, especially those who were going to participate in the Death Parallel Line, who had already begun to look for suitable teammates.

Yu Xing spent some time at the winery during the day and successfully received five or six signals from people who wanted to get to know him. He chatted with each of them for a while, leaving them with an impression of being shy and humble, before being pulled away by Luo Jue, who had come to find him.

Luo Jue changed into a cool little dress. Feng Gulan Ting prepared multiple outfits for each guest who received an invitation. Yu Xing's room also had some in his wardrobe. They were all brand new and the right size. It was a mystery how the person who prepared the clothes got his size information.

Ever since she let loose and hugged Yu Xing, she's become quite obedient, as if afraid of Yu Xing's revenge. But with her fearless spirit, she still insists on playing with Yu Xing: "What's so great about alcohol? Want to go swimming?"

The swimming pool, located on the west side of the manor, is divided into outdoor and indoor sections and is very popular among swimming enthusiasts.

Yu Xing, without batting an eye, lied. "I can't swim."

Luo Jue tugged at her pigtails. "What a coincidence, I can't do it either. I originally wanted to see handsome men enter the water."

"Sigh..." It's rare to see a girl so openly flirtatious. Yu Xing raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you go play with Luo Qishan?"

"I'm with my senior brother every day at home, it's not easy to get out here, let's change things up!" Luo Jue blinked her big eyes, "How about we go to the art gallery?"

Yu Xing thought about it for a moment. It didn't seem very meaningful to keep rejecting a cute girl. He really wanted to go to the gallery, so he agreed.

For a while afterward, he stayed with Luo Jue. After all, they had gone through the deduction together, dug up bones together, and jumped into fire pits together, so they got along quite well.

He ate a quick dinner at a restaurant that served Chinese food, and as darkness fell, he returned alone to the vermilion-painted building.

As usual, entertainment activities were taking place on the first floor. He peeked over and saw that they were playing mahjong this time. Even Zhao Mou was sitting there, along with a few members of the Luo and Xu family. However, he didn't see Zhao Yijiu.

"Let's play together, Yu Xing ~" Zhao Miao wasn't there either, but Zhao Yingying was as enthusiastic as ever. She put down her wine glass, swayed in her high heels, and put her arm around Yu Xing's shoulder. "That Zhao Mou guy is amazing! He won all my money! You should go up and try, make him lose everything!"

Yu Xing glanced at her slightly tipsy face and smiled, "I was tired from playing just now and wanted to go upstairs to rest for a while."

"Oh..." This woman, though bold and unrestrained, didn't try to persuade anyone. Hearing this, she immediately let go. "Then you should get some rest... Oh, and don't forget to check the system at eight o'clock."

A quick plug for an app: A perfect replica of the old version of the popular book-tracking app with source switching capabilities.

Tonight at 8 PM, the live stream section of the Absurd Deduction System will release a preview of the rules for the new episode of [Death Parallel Line]. Although the information revealed won't be much, it's still very important.

Yu Xing responded, climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, and then... knocked on Zhao Yijiu's door.

He guessed that the autistic young man must be in his room, and sure enough, a dozen seconds later, Zhao Yijiu opened the door halfway, his hair was wet at the front, his face was covered with a fine layer of water, he wasn't wearing his glasses, and his breathing was noticeably more rapid than usual. He glanced at Yu Xing.

Upon seeing him, Zhao Yijiu seemed taken aback for a moment. "What brings you here?"

"What are you doing?" Yu Xing asked. "I'm bored, so I wanted to chat with you for a bit."

"..." Zhao Yijiu didn't answer, but opened the door a little wider and closed it after Yu Xing entered. He wasn't wearing a shirt, but had changed into a T-shirt that was easy to exercise with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his firm forearm muscles.

Yu Xing immediately noticed the sandbags and targets in the open space of Zhao Yijiu's room. The sandbags were swaying slightly, and the targets were covered with marks, not small holes left by darts, but long puncture marks and scratches.

He understood why Zhao Yijiu's face was wet; she probably heard someone knocking on the door and went to wash her face.

He laughed and said, "Everyone else is playing, and you're training?"

"Nothing to do," Zhao Yijiu said coldly, shaking the water off her hands.

He dislikes crowded places, especially noisy ones, as he always feels out of place.

Social interaction wasn't something he needed to care about. He was excluded from it from a young age, and he had no interest in pleasing others as an adult.

"You continue, I'll just watch." Yu Xing chose a rattan chair and sat down, leaning back casually.

Zhao Yijiu stood there, speechless. "You came in just to watch me train?"

Yu Xing: "Hmm? Or what else do you expect me to do?"

Zhao Yijiu: "I just didn't expect you to be even more boring than me."

He skillfully picked up a small knife from the table. It was an ordinary knife, not the sacrificial one Stop Killing, but its size and blade diameter were very similar to those used to Stop Killing.

Ignoring the extra humanoid creature in the room, Zhao Yijiu straightened the target, squinted, and suddenly exerted force in a casual stance, rotating her entire body half a circle and stabbing the small knife in her hand into the bullseye.

He pulled out the knife, changed to a posture that was clearly not exerting any force, and stabbed the knife into the target again, in the same spot as before!

With his back to him, or half-squatting, no matter what his initial posture was, he would adjust himself in a fraction of a second and pierce the bullseye with ferocious force!

Yu Xing could tell that he was training his attacks for unexpected situations, ensuring that he could accurately strike the desired point regardless of the time or posture.

After practicing for a while, Zhao Yijiu put down the knife, stretched his arms and wrists from the heavy workload, wiped the sweat from his forehead with the hem of his T-shirt, and began training in combat.

He practiced very seriously, seemingly without any distractions. As the sandbag continued to hit him with loud thuds, his cold and stern face remained taut, just as it had been when we first met.

Yu Xing began to think outside the box: what made Zhao Yijiu, someone like her, fall onto the Righteous Path?

He has the aura of a cold, villainous character, but he turns out to be a genuinely good person. If his environment didn't help him, did he maintain this integrity solely through his own efforts?

How strong must a person's character be to be like that...?

After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Yijiu stopped moving, caught her breath for a while, and then lay down to do push-ups.

Yu Xing was playing on her phone at the time, chatting briefly with Zhu Yan about Wang Jue's uncle, when she saw this and asked, "Why are we doing push-ups?"

Zhao Yijiu maintained her breathing rhythm. "Relax."

He hesitated for a moment. "You mean, doing push-ups is for relaxation?"

"All mechanized movements are forms of relaxation."

Yu Xing: "..." Thinking about it this way, the fact that my muscles haven't deteriorated is really all thanks to my constitution.

It's not that he can't do a hundred or so push-ups now, it's just that he's purely lazy. If it weren't for his special physique, given his usual habit of lounging around wherever he sits, his muscles would probably have atrophied long ago.

He checked the time, sent Zhu Yan a message saying "Continue to follow up," then silently counted down for ten seconds before Zhao Yijiu's doorbell rang.

"Who is it again?" Zhao Yijiu muttered.

"I guess it's your brother." Yu Xing gave him a "you continue" gesture, got up and opened the door.

Sure enough, it was Zhao Mou outside the door. It was 7:59. He knew Zhao Mou was coming to remind them to watch the rules announcement.

Zhao Mou didn't seem surprised to see Yu Xing open the door. He pushed up his glasses, walked straight in, squatted down, and patted Zhao Yijiu's bottom. "That's enough, take a break."

Veins bulged on Zhao Yijiu's forehead as he nimbly stood up, seemingly suppressing the urge to beat up Zhao Mou.

"Let's take a look at the rules, so we can have a better understanding of tomorrow's live broadcast simulation." Zhao Mou poured himself a glass of water, waving aside Zhao Yijiu's hand (which might have been used to hit him), and sat down leisurely. The time also jumped to exactly 8 PM.

Yu Xing sat back in her seat and used her consciousness to enter the Persona Mask template.

In addition to the live streaming rooms that are currently open, the live streaming section also lists the previews of various programs. Amidst the eager anticipation (and misfortune) of many predictors, the highly popular Death Parallel Line has updated the rules preview for the new episode!

[Dear viewers, it's time for the rules reveal!]

[Let me first explain the unique features of our "Death Parallel Line" program to new viewers. In our program, the deductions are conducted on a one-to-one scale with real-world time. Participants will appear in different parallel lines of the same world, experiencing the same terrifying missions. In the normal phase, the deducers compete on mission progress! The higher the speed and completion score, the higher the reward!]

[During any mission phase, parallel lines may intersect at any time, causing previously uninterrupted worlds to converge. At this point, players can either kill each other or cooperate to complete special Side Quest, earn high scores, exchange for corresponding items, and increase their survival rate.]

[Each timeline overlaps will last no more than two hours, so seize the opportunity!]

[The player with the highest overall score at the end of all mission phases wins and receives generous rewards!]

[The following are the special rules for this Death Parallel Line: The simulation will be conducted in groups, with the twenty-seven participants divided into nine opposing groups to test their teamwork and abilities. Aren't you curious about what your favorite simulation participants are like in their daily lives?]

[Background information: old, worn, grief, funeral, wedding, red cloth, white cage.]

[Get ready, a new round of horror is about to begin! Want to see your favorite deducer shine? Follow this program and you'll receive a reminder before the live broadcast starts!]

[A bloody storm, a parallel world of death!]

Yu Xing scanned it carefully, showing great interest.

It has to be said that each live simulation gives many people a strange sense of urgency.

Perhaps knowing that many eyes are watching them at all times, every move they make unconsciously carries a purpose, and they even feel a kind of excitement from acting.

Yu Xing wasn't concerned with that. To him, the audience was dispensable and wouldn't affect him anyway. He just found the rules of this Death Parallel Line quite interesting.

The progress competition within the same world is equivalent to placing the developers in a very direct comparative position, making it easy to see who is stronger and who is weaker, and it is practically a public execution for those who fall behind.

"We're in a three-person group, but we're one person short." Zhao Mou's cheerful voice came from the other side while Yu Xing was studying the rules.

Yu Xing exited the preview screen. "Then what do we do? Choose someone from the Zhao family who has no friends?"

The Three Great Families will inevitably be divided into separate groups. After all, while exchanges are important, the barriers between families still exist. Teaming up with other families would easily expose one's abilities and deduction style.

Zhao Mou shook his head, a slightly smug smile playing on his lips, "Besides A Jiu, who in the Zhao family doesn't have friends?"

Zhao Yijiu looked at him coldly without saying a word.

"Who said that? Doesn't Brother Jiu have me as a friend?" Yu Xing realized that Zhao Mou was really good at bullying Zhao Yijiu, so he immediately gave Zhao Yijiu plenty of face.

Zhao Yijiu didn't look at him, but her cold and gloomy aura seemed to dissipate a little.

"Haha, with your words, I'm much more relieved." Zhao Mou got the answer he wanted and then said, "I'd like to recommend someone to you, Zhao Ruru. She's someone I trust, and she's quite capable."

The person he recommended was a 25-year-old girl who had been Struggle Level advance for over a year and whose specialty was small-scale divination.

This ability is truly rare. Although it has little offensive or defensive capabilities, it is unparalleled in its ability to adapt to and deduce plot developments.

The combination of Zhao Yijiu's skills and Yu Xing's intellect, Zhao Mou believed, would form an excellent complementary pair.

Yu Xing naturally had no objection. He was a guest and would go with the flow; anyone could come. After nodding, he saw Zhao Mou take out his phone and make a call.

"Get ready, the Dragon Leap Pavilion will hold an analysis meeting in twenty minutes." Zhao Mou pushed up his glasses, his eyes calm, as if he was already rapidly considering the feasibility of this rule and system in his mind.

He didn't say who needed to be there, but the person on the other end of the phone seemed to have already received the order and gone to make preparations.

Yu Xing yawned lazily. In his opinion, the rules were quite interesting, but it would be difficult to analyze anything useful before he entered the live simulation and learned the specific background.

The only thing to be careful about is the grouping. Since it's a proactive grouping process, many people with complementary abilities should have already met beforehand. It will be even more convenient for those who already know each other and have good chemistry. When you encounter such a combination, those with no chemistry will be at a disadvantage.

He guessed that this analysis meeting would serve two purposes: first, to confirm the group assignments; second, for the three families to exchange pleasantries, say a few words of "go easy on us," and then give each other some advice on reading more ancient ghost stories and learning more about ancient customs over the next two days.

"I don't need to go, right?" Yu Xing asked tentatively.

Zhao Yijiu immediately chimed in, "I'm not going either."

Zhao Mou was speechless for a moment, then thought about it. What he was analyzing for the younger generation, Yu Xing could have thought of himself, and his explanation to his teammate Zhao Yijiu would certainly be more detailed. There was really no need to waste time.

"Okay, you don't need to go. I'll have Zhao Ruru come over later. Yu Xing, you two analyze it yourselves, is that alright?"

Yu Xing snapped his fingers, "Okay. Also, if it's convenient, please provide me with a detailed list of the participants from each organization who will be participating in the live stream, along with their group assignments."

Zhao Mou looked at him, and he returned a harmless smile, "Getting this information shouldn't be too difficult for you, right? Thanks for your help."