The Twenty-Eighth Chapter: The Certain-Death Timeline

Time distortions are not uncommon, but what about distortions that even the system acknowledges?

Rare.

"Never seen it before." Hua Subai and Mo's eyes were fixed on Yu Xing, almost urging him to continue with expectant looks.

Yu Xing glanced sideways at the wall without changing his expression, and continued as they wished, "I was just thinking that Nanshui Town has its own rules, and it shouldn't let in a time trap that could break all the established rules."

"The demon also said that the reality she saw did not come from her own initiative, but rather from a sudden Spiritual Sense that struck her the moment she stepped into the bedroom, causing the illusion to naturally dissipate."

"This situation might not be unusual for demons, so the fact that she can see those things in her mind is due to her own abilities."

"What if it isn't?"

Yu Xing's voice was calm and measured, carrying a convincing certainty. "In other words, if anyone entering the bedroom would trigger this result, and everyone could see the truth, does that mean this is what Nanshui Town wants us to do?"

"Huh?" Mo was taken aback, then suddenly realized, "You mean the rules of Nanshui Town and the way my abilities are manifested overlap to some extent, causing me to misjudge."

Because they were so focused on what was hidden in Nanshui Town, they overlooked the usual shifts in atmosphere that occurred when ghosts appeared.

Even in some individual scenarios, if a ghost or a corpse were to be her caregiver, it's highly likely that some terrifying scenes would be created to frighten her and increase her fear.

This time, the only difference is that the terrifying scene already existed; she simply went from being unable to see it to being able to see it.

"I think..." Yu Xing stated his guess in great detail.

Nanshui Town is a ghostly place, and the reason it appears so prosperous is probably because some entity has hidden the real Nanshui Town within an illusion.

The method of concealment was not to simply put a shell over Nanshui Town, but to blind the eyes and senses of everyone who stepped into Nanshui Town.

This point wasn't entirely without merit; Yu Xing mentioned the plump old woman he and Hua Subai had seen before entering the town.

Outside of town, they could see the old woman in real life; she held a knife, her expression malicious, and she drooled over the deducers.

Having been misled upon entering the town, all I saw when I saw the old woman again was her kindly watering the flowers.

"I see."

Before Yu Xing could finish speaking, Yan Li's voice rang out from the top of the wall. The array diagram at the man's feet flashed by, appearing almost out of thin air, and he half-squatted on the top of the wall.

He gracefully jumped down in front of the three people below, dusted himself off, and said calmly, "Sorry, I just happened to sense you as I was passing by, so I came straight over to meet you without saying hello."

Since they were already traveling together, Yan Li felt there was nothing wrong with his appearance at this time.

Before he could even put his hand down to brush off the dust, Yu Xing said sarcastically, "When Yan Li was in school, he must have been a master at scaling walls. Look at that dashing pose and unrestrained movements, the gatekeeper probably never caught up with you."

Yan Li: "..."

Yu Xing added, "But you were only focused on jumping yourself. Our good student Zhang Yu has never tried climbing over a wall before. Look at him, he can't get down."

Yan Li turned his head and finally realized why Yu Xing was targeting him.

Zhang Yu was following him. He set up an array to move to the place closest to their auras, and Zhang Yu naturally moved along with him. Now he was awkwardly squatting on the wall, clinging to it tightly with both hands, afraid that he would fall.

Moreover, the longer he stayed up there, the greater the risk of being seen by people outside the alley.

Yan Li simply jumped up again and lifted the mournful-faced Zhang Yu down like a chick. "Sorry, I overlooked this because I haven't seen a predictor blocked by a wall in a long time."

Zhang Yu felt an arrow in his knee and ran sadly to Yu Xing's side. "Captain!"

Yu Xing would only make a couple of sarcastic remarks; he certainly wouldn't dwell on this issue with Yan Li. Ignoring Zhang Yu, he tilted his head and asked, "Where was I?"

Hua Subai smiled and reminded us, "Our eyes and senses are obscured."

Yu Xing: "Yes, that's right."

Before he even began to analyze and speculate, he had already sensed the presence of Yan Li and Zhang Yu on the wall. The two hadn't revealed themselves immediately thanks to the concealment of the formation, but he must have heard everything he needed to.

Yu Xing was too lazy to repeat himself, so he continued his analysis from where he left off.

His theory is that the concealment is calculated separately for each person. Once someone approaches a dangerous area and comes into contact with the ghost carrying the plot, the illusion covering their eyes will temporarily disappear, and they will enter the real scene.

Time flows ten times faster in a real-life scenario than in a fictional one. However, even though to outsiders, the time experienced by the person in the real scenario appears compressed, in the person experiencing it, they actually spend the same amount of time.

His system also recorded these times.

Once the person who experienced the event returns to the fictional scenario, the time that has passed will not come back.

This means that... the more dangerous areas one goes to, the more reality one sees, the faster time passes for this predictor. It's as if, within the larger environment, this small individual has taken the lead and stepped into the future alone.

Finally, Yu Xing concluded. "I suspect that the seven-day time limit is a predetermined timeline for certain death."

That is, if the strategist is still in Nanshui Town by the end of the seventh day, there is no chance of survival.

Hua Subai already understood his thoughts and continued, "To survive, you need to actively seek out places with realistic scenarios to make your seven days pass faster, thus avoiding the inevitable death timeline of the larger environment when completing your own 'seven days'."

Like the demon, she already has a nine-minute head start, which means that when she has seven days, she will be teleported away nine minutes earlier than everyone else.

Zhang Yu quickly joined the discussion, succinctly highlighting a key point. "Although I don't know which of you just experienced the 'real-life scenario,' I could roughly understand that the real-life scenario was terrifying, equivalent to facing ghosts and monsters directly."

"But we all know that confronting ghosts and monsters is extremely mentally taxing. If it happens too many times, our Personality Assimilation Degree will... skyrocket, and we might even go insane!"

Most players experience a significant increase in their Personality Assimilation Degree after each deduction, requiring them to rely on items sold in the shop to return to a safe level.

There are no items for sale in the simulation that can reduce alienation level. Unless you prepare a large number of items in advance and store them on your person, squandering alienation level in the simulation is squandering your rationality and your potential as a human being.

Yan Li nodded calmly. "This is as expected. The dungeon never hesitates to create all sorts of dead ends for the players; even if they know it's a trap, they have no choice but to jump in."

"So, we can now clearly define a goal." Yu Xing held up one finger, "Investigate the entire background; we must pinpoint the timeline of certain death to the hour."

Following this logic, staying for seven days would certainly mean certain death, but they couldn't be sure if those seven days would give the losers a chance to fight back in their death throes.

If so, then the timeline of certain death would have to be pushed back further, possibly to the sixth day, the fifth day, or even the fourth or third day...

It all depends on how quickly Nanshui Town intends to drive people mad.

[How come, in such a short time, these people have analyzed the target to this extent in the alley?]

[The plot hasn't even started yet, isn't this a bit too exaggerated? Shouldn't it be like this first, then that, and so on, getting a series of hints before reaching this conclusion?]

[If it were me, at least 20 of us would die before anyone would learn their lesson and understand the true core of the mission.]

[This is the top tier, I've really seen it for myself.]

[Didn't you notice something funny? I just came from Yan Li's live stream, and Yan Li was passing by, squatting on the wall, listening to the conversation below. His expression went from completely unaware to clearly understanding everything.]

He can show off, but I'm left completely dumbfounded.