A Targeted Attack

Yu Xing's words were half true and half false. He had taken a roundabout route to the other staircase with malicious intent, just to make it easier to create an alibi.

Now that the positions of the two deceased's bodies are both in his favor, there's no need for him to hide his whereabouts.

"I didn't see many people, except for the Rubik's Cube after the alarm went off. Speaking of which, the Rubik's Cube and I ran downstairs and found the Pearl Seller's body on the second-floor staircase."

He first said he had seen the Rubik's Cube, and then they "ran downstairs together." To others, it would sound like he encountered the Rubik's Cube first, and then the two of them acted together.

But to the Rubik's Cube, this statement made sense; they had indeed run downstairs one after the other.

This method of description created a perfect false alibi for Yu Xing.

At the same time, Yu Xing also noticed something: it seemed that in everyone's descriptions before, whether it was the first floor, the second floor, the third floor, or the fourth floor, Zhao Yijiu and Zhao Mou were not mentioned at all. It was as if they had disappeared from other people's perspectives.

Next was the Rubik's Cube. The Rubik's Cube confirmed Yu Xing's words and added some details about how the Pearl Seller died. He said that when he and Yu Xing saw the Pearl Seller, the Pearl Seller's wounds had just formed. Obviously, this must have been done by someone who ran down this staircase before them on the second floor, or someone who killed the Pearl Seller and then went to the other staircase from the second-floor corridor. In any case, the person who was originally on the second floor was the most suspicious.

The Dark Thief's death was similar; upon hearing the description of the Rubik's Cube, many people instinctively thought of a guess.

Perhaps both perpetrators were on the second floor, covering for each other?

In that case, the statements made by those who saw someone on the second floor are not credible; what if they were manipulating the time difference?

After the Rubik's Cube finished speaking, it was Zhao Mou's turn. Zhao Mou rubbed his temples, looking somewhat tired. His gaze behind his glasses was sharp and cold. At this moment, Yu Xing finally saw a similarity between Zhao Mou and Zhao Yijiu.

Zhao Mou wasn't cold-hearted; he was just wearing a completely false exterior.

As soon as we left the lobby, A Jiu pushed my wheelchair and we took the elevator to the third floor together.

"The ghost in the elevator isn't fully awake yet, so it's not a big threat. We went to the third-floor archives and stayed there. During that time, I saw the Rubik's Cube pass by in the hallway outside through a gap in the curtains. At that moment, the Rubik's Cube was holding a pure black Rubik's Cube with silver patterns."

He specifically mentioned details that Rubik's Cube hadn't told anyone else, and everyone's attention turned to the chubby boy, Rubik's Cube nodded.

Zhao Mou's statement is relatively credible. Since he went straight to the archives room without wandering around, no one saw him and Cold Wine. Because there were ghosts in the archives room, when everyone was busy with the mission, no one would deliberately provoke the ghosts, so no one would open the archives room door to check.

Aside from the fact that this person's thought process is seriously flawed.

Shafuri lazily pointed to the wound on Zhao Mou's shoulder.

"This was caused by a ghost."

"When A Jiu and I were in the archives, A Jiu was accidentally possessed by a ghost in the archives. He was already poisoned, don't think we didn't notice," Zhao Mou glanced coldly at Shafuri, "You poisoned the elevator buttons, A Jiu was poisoned the moment he opened the elevator door, his head spinning."

Shafuri shrugged, not denying it.

"Due to poisoning, A Jiu's resistance was insufficient, and the ghost took advantage of this, invading his mind. Then, he stabbed me with a knife." Zhao Mou glanced at Yu Xing as he spoke. Yu Xing knew that Zhao Mou was conveying a message to him.

Zhao Yijiu's condition is not good.

The archives have a live broadcast view, so the so-called possessed ghost is naturally a fabricated excuse; it was just a vengeful ghost appearing inside Zhao Yijiu's body.

However, in front of so many viewers, they naturally had to come up with an excuse to cover up the connection between Zhao Yijiu and the vengeful ghost.

Fortunately, possessed ghosts appear quite frequently in Fear Hospital, and just like this time, they only cause minor injuries to the guests before "stopping."

[What a pity, although the archives have a fixed screen, Zhao Mou is very cunning; he's been hiding in a corner behind the bookshelves with Cold Wine, doing who knows what.]

[Yes, so I only stayed for a few minutes before going back to Ren Yi's live stream to study.]

[Then you didn't see the exciting part. Later, Cold Wine was possessed by a ghost and exuded a ghostly aura, which was terrifying. Zhao Mou was unable to move and obediently got stabbed.]

[Oh...]

Savvy viewers will surely see through the deception and dismiss Zhao Mou's clever but ultimately illogical explanation. However, as long as he can fool most people, he can give Zhao Yijiu some breathing room.

Yu Xing gave Zhao Mou a look, indicating that she understood.

He wondered how Zhao Mou managed to pull Zhao Yijiu's body back, or whether Zhao Yijiu had regained control of her body after being provoked by stabbing Zhao Mou.

Zhao Yijiu is in very bad condition. To the audience, he appears to be in a daze due to poisoning and possession, and seems to be barely holding on as he sits there.

Midnight Guild seized the opportunity to praise the potency of Shafuri's poison, which actually gained Shafuri a wave of fans among those who admired strength.

However, no matter how bad his condition is, he still has to confess. Even if Zhao Yijiu and Zhao Mou's timelines completely overlap, he still has to hear Zhao Yijiu's confession.

Zhao Yijiu stirred, her increasingly bright red eyes hidden beneath her black bangs.

His voice was somewhat hollow, even sounding unreal and surreal. Those who heard him speak at the scene experienced varying degrees of disorientation, as if they were listening to some kind of unbearable rambling.

Even Yu Xing's mind went blank for a moment, which shows that the ghost that sneaked into Zhao Yijiu's body back then was no simple thing and was probably more troublesome than expected.

"What my brother said is exactly what I wanted to say. My task is to suppress the alternate personality and prevent it from appearing for thirty minutes." Zhao Yijiu spoke very briefly, finishing before everyone could react.

Although it was not very serious, since the suspects were concentrated on the second floor, Zhao Mou and Zhao Yijiu were not at the top of the suspect list for the time being. Even if Zhao Yijiu blatantly slacked off, he could not be identified as the culprit.

Yu Xing stared at Zhao Yijiu's profile for a few seconds. He sensed that Zhao Yijiu wasn't lying, and the mission was probably really like this.

In other words, Zhao Yijiu failed her first mission because her "alternate personality" was too strong, and her physical weakness was also related to the punishment.

This is outrageous; it must be a targeted attack. Yu Xing's eyes narrowed dangerously, but he remained outwardly calm.

Inside the same villa, one of the five members of the Widow Investigation Team was gone; the rest were eating sunflower seeds.

Lu Xiaorong wasn't allowed to eat anything, so he could only snack on sunflower seeds non-stop. His eyes gleamed, and he slapped his thigh. "Good heavens, boss, you sent Yan Ming to keep an eye on Yu Xing, did you also have your eye on this group of oddballs around Yu Xing?"

"How is he weird?" Qiu Ziyan raised an eyebrow. "Is he weirder than you? I think this young man Zhao Yijiu is quite nice."

"Young man? Don't you know how much older you are than him?" Lu Xiaorong retorted, but wasn't swayed by the topic. She turned to Yan Li and poked him, "Boss, boss, isn't Zhao Yijiu a ghost? At least he's related to ghosts, right? I'm all too familiar with someone like him..."

Yan Li tilted his head, cruelly denying him. "Zhao Yijiu isn't a ghost; he's not the same kind as you."

"... Oh, is that so?" Lu Xiaorong seemed a little disappointed.

Yan Ming comforted him, "It's alright. Even if Zhao Yijiu isn't a ghost herself, she's still constantly suffering from the torment of ghosts. You can still find common ground. Compared to Zhao Yijiu, Yu Xing is more likely to be like you..."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Lu Xiaorong's eyes lit up. "Tell me everything already, don't just leave things out!"

"No, there are some things I'm not sure about, so I can't tell you." Compared to Lu Xiaorong, Yan Ming calm. He wagged his finger. "If anything I say comes out wrong, I'll suffer the consequences. You'll just have to keep it to yourself; I'm not gambling."

"You wretched brat!" Lu Xiaorong cursed him angrily, but his mood was much more positive than before, obviously because he had heard Yan Ming Yu Xing and he might be the same kind of person, which gave him some hope.

Even if it's just a possibility, it's still a possibility; it's not like we can completely rule it out, is it?

Yan Li noticed this and tapped Lu Xiaorong on the head. "Overly blatant desires will lead you to utter ruin. At our stage, every emotion can become a fatal weakness in the next simulation. When Song Xue returns, have her give you psychological counseling."

"Oh." Lu Xiaorong wasn't opposed to it. Mentioning Song Xue, he cracked another sunflower seed. "If Nie Langran n't here, and if his mutation hadn't progressed to the point where Song Xue would have had to rush over to treat him immediately, I guarantee he'd be interested in this Fear Hospital. Look at that, what great material for him!"

"Well, we know Han Yan has already checked, right? After all, the guest list was released in advance. When Han Yan saw names like Xing and Cold Wine, he definitely had to check them out, right? As a member of Single Prism, Han Yan certainly wouldn't miss Lingren's appearance in the Death Parallel Line, so he must know Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu. Let's put Yu Xing aside for now; Lingren did try to recruit Cold Wine." Qiu Ziyan stroked her chin, casually playing with a pair of jade beads in her hand. "Although Zhao Yijiu refused at the time, according to Single Prism's style, whatever they set their sights on, they either destroy or obtain. The same goes for the people they set their sights on; regardless of whether the other party is willing or not, Single Prism will make themselves the other party's last and only choice."

"Zhao Yijiu has a special physical condition, and his dissociative identity disorder has had a significant impact on him. He hasn't recovered yet. Could this be Han Yan deliberately doing this to trigger Zhao Yijiu's depraved side?"

Yan Li's gaze was calm as he grunted, "Most likely. The Lingren has a grudge against Yu Xing. By poaching Yu Xing's friend, she weakens Yu Xing's side and can also use this opportunity to strike at Yu Xing, killing two birds with one stone."

"Be more confident. With Han Yan's true abilities, the fact that he still has the capacity to manage Zhao Yijiu's affairs shows that he was prepared long ago," Yan Ming said with a smile.

After Zhao Yijiu finished her perfunctory confession, everyone noticed something.

In this round, there was no prophet!

Logically, regardless of who the prophet verifies in the first round—whether it's the perpetrator or an ordinary person—they should step forward to eliminate potential targets for everyone, thus avoiding collateral damage.

Of course, there are also cases where the person who made the claim doesn't reveal it or doesn't verify the claim before the first identification. In such cases, the prophet must have their own ideas and a clear plan for how to proceed, and they must not mislead others.

Another possibility is that the prophet is dead and can no longer speak.

This is the worst possible outcome.

The dean's voice was lifeless, filled with overwhelming exhaustion. "It seems you've all finished your self-defenses. Do you have any clue about the killer's identity? Or... has the ghost lurking in this building finally revealed its intentions? My mind is in turmoil. If three or four more people die, I'm afraid I can't remain the dean. I'm incompetent!"

"Think carefully about who the perpetrator is. I want to hear your answer in three minutes, and I will execute that person."

The identification segment in "Screaming Night" gave the guests a three-minute buffer period to consider the loopholes in each person's statement.

Right now, everyone's attention is focused on the people on the second floor. Yu Xing's extreme maneuver in the stairwell isn't that it won't be exposed, but rather that it hasn't been noticed yet.

Yu Xing himself didn't need to figure out the killer's identity; he just pretended to be thinking, guessing what the others were thinking.

First of all, they must be wondering if they have been poisoned.

Secondly, they should review the timeline on the second floor to prevent anyone from infiltrating into periods where they did not have an alibi.

Thirdly, there are various doubts, such as who stabbed Qu Xuanqing in the dark, whether this person was the perpetrator, whether he failed in his attempt and had to find another target, or whether he was not the perpetrator but just wanted to weaken Qu Xuanqing's abilities?

Everyone had their own ideas, and after eliminating some unlikely murderers, they settled on a suspect in their minds.

Soon, time was up, and the large screen in the hall suddenly began to vibrate slightly, as if something was about to break through the screen. Blood gushed out, and under the slightly fearful and horrified gazes of the group, countless pale arms stained with blood stretched out from behind the screen, groping on it. The scene was extremely chaotic.

[Please confirm your nominee]

Yu Xing's mind stirred, and on the screen, the name Shafuri appeared in parentheses after his Persona Mask.

It's basically just throwing a random shot.

Who told Shafuri to poison Qu Xuanqing? If it weren't for...

Yu Xing seemed to realize something, and his eyes crinkled slightly, which was noticed by the audience. His fans immediately chimed in with comments:

He laughed; he must be thinking of some mischievous idea.

Is someone about to have bad luck?

Shafuri is clearly not the most unlucky one, because once her poison is administered, it's almost impossible to cure without her antidote.

If you don't want the poison to take effect later, leaving you physically helpless and at the mercy of others even though your life isn't in danger, you have to keep Shafuri on the field first.