This Time, He Wouldn't Die

His fragile neck was exposed beneath the ghost's claws, yet Yu Xing remained completely unmoved.

He even managed to taunt him.

A few seconds later, he felt Fang Rui's hand slowly loosen. He leisurely stepped back a few paces. "Just as I thought. The ghost summoned when you take a battery can only scare people. It can't actually kill them."

Fang Rui's voice came in fits and starts, as though his vocal cords had nearly stopped functioning after his Ghostification. "How... did... you... know?"

"I suspected it from the start. This is only a test for newcomers, so there shouldn't be so many deadly traps." Yu Xing slipped the battery into his pocket and casually tucked both hands in them. "If taking a battery came with risks this high, then forget it. No one would play.

"What confirmed it for me was that little Female Ghost, Tang Yuan. She was pressed against the window of the Exhibition Room, pretending she hadn't seen Zhao Yijiu and me. In fact, from that angle—she could clearly see us.

"She probably didn't know that when the homeroom teacher stood by the back window, you couldn't get away with using your phone. Well, something like that. Anyway, I know from experience.

"Why didn't she come in if she saw us? Because she can't kill anyone. So why was she chasing us?"

Yu Xing reached out and patted Fang Rui on the shoulder. A chill seeped through the point of contact and into his body, making Yu Xing privately marvel, That's so refreshing. Then he continued, "Just like what you did a moment ago: buy time."

"If you scare us into forgetting to change the battery, then once the camera's been off for five minutes, we'll be lambs for you to slaughter."

"..."

Fang Rui stared at him in silence. After a long while, he managed to speak. "Since... you... already... know... I'll... let you go. In three... hours, you... leave!"

"Aw." Yu Xing tilted his head. "You'll let me go? Come on, don't mess with me. Did I ever say I'd let you go?"

He yawned and raised his camera. "Tsk. Zhao Yijiu's probably in trouble. Since he gave me the battery just now, I'll make sure he doesn't die this time."

He aimed the camera at Fang Rui. Fang Rui shrieked and turned to run.

"Hey, don't run! I still have to save him. Let's hurry this up. Look at the camera—no? Then should we say 'cheese'?"

"Bang!"

A large wooden board went flying across the hall after getting kicked by accident. Zhao Yijiu felt a dull pain in his right leg, and sweat had already soaked through his clothes.

A serious problem stood before him: Tang Li was faster than Tang Yuan!

As he ran, he took a turn and glanced back out of the corner of his eye.

The ghost pursued him relentlessly, its mouth stretched open to reveal a rotting oral cavity, a long, thin, bloody tongue, and a chalk-white throat bone.

Tang Yuan had fallen a little behind, but Tang Li looked ready to catch up.

Zhao Yijiu was agile and had decent stamina, but after such a long chase, he was already at the end of his rope.

His strength was draining away. Worst of all, waves of icy energy kept winding around him, slowing his movements and steadily breaking down his composure.

Even his knife couldn't withstand the aura emanating from the ghost.

Ghostified Tang Li, his tongue hanging long, gave him no time to think. Its protruding eyeballs rolled, and its sharp nails pierced through Zhao Yijiu's shoulder blade.

Zhao Yijiu heard a faint rush of wind and could only shift left in time to avoid a fatal blow. A burst of intense pain followed. If he hadn't dodged, that claw would have pierced right through his chest!

But his chances of getting away were slim now.

The ghost pressed close. Its icy chill passed through his clothes and seeped into Zhao Yijiu's back. Its sharp nails pulled free from his shoulder blade, bringing a spray of blood with them. Zhao Yijiu grunted in pain, gritted his teeth, and drove his elbow backward. Then he immediately turned his knife around and slashed upward from the ghost's lower abdomen.

The swollen skin split open, revealing rotten organs and intestines. Tang Li's movements only paused for a moment. It didn't seem to feel much pain.

Its huge, blood-smeared mouth opened, its tongue curled up, and it lunged down to bite—

Zhao Yijiu shut his eyes in despair. He didn't want to inspect the inside of a ghost's mouth in the instant before his death.

But the death he expected never came. Instead, the moment he closed his eyes, he felt a force yank the ghost backward. The rush of air rapidly drew closer, and then came a loud bang—

The ghost was kicked into the wall. At the same time, the camera he'd been carrying so diligently was snatched from his hand.

Who was it!?

Zhao Yijiu opened his eyes. In the darkness, he saw a blurry figure roll smoothly, set his camera on his leg, and start changing the battery.

The ghost got up with its tongue hanging out. Without even looking at the figure, it lunged straight for him.

Zhao Yijiu dodged by instinct, but before the ghost could get close, the camera with its newly replaced battery lit up—

Its faint glow mingled with the ghost's furious howl, illuminating a face Zhao Yijiu knew fairly well, with slightly upturned eyes.

Tang Li let out a couple of angry roars, then turned and disappeared around the corner. Seeing things go badly, Tang Yuan also turned and ran off with a "kekekeke."

Yu Xing was crouched on one knee nearby. When he saw the ghosts flee, he turned around with a smile and waved at Zhao Yijiu. "You still alive, buddy?"

What kind of wildly inappropriate greeting was that?

There were two more cameras beside Yu Xing: one on the ground and one in his hand. It was obvious who one of them belonged to.

Still shaken, Zhao Yijiu felt a bead of cold sweat slide down his jaw. He stared at the man who had appeared from nowhere, his expression unusually astonished.

The person who'd kicked the ghost away and replaced the battery in a flash was Yu Xing!? Could this guy really be that good at fighting, too?

His surprise was so great that, for a moment, he forgot the tearing pain in his shoulder and the realization he'd just had about the conditions under which the ghosts could kill.

Zhao Yijiu: "You—"

Yu Xing looked up at him from below. There was a hint of gloom and mischief in his expression. He raised his right index finger to his lips. "Shh. Be good and don't play the curious little baby yet."

"I..." Zhao Yijiu was suddenly at a loss for words. Who had ever talked to him like that!?

"Come here a moment." Yu Xing beckoned him over.

After hesitating briefly, Zhao Yijiu cooperated and moved closer, stopping beside him. "What are you doing?"

Yu Xing looked up at him, gauging the distance, then finally pushed himself to his feet.

His vision went black and the world spun. He reached out and braced himself on Zhao Yijiu's uninjured shoulder, finally steadying himself.

After five or six seconds, he clutched his head. "I'm, I'm badly anemic. I get dizzy when I stand up. Let me lean on you."

"..." Zhao Yijiu thought, What the hell am I even supposed to say? Are you messing with me? You know I'm starting to doubt you, right?

Once the man in front of him had fully recovered from his dizziness, Zhao Yijiu took back his camera and squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth. "Thanks. You're really good at acting, though."

You're really good at acting. You've been doing it since we stepped into this abandoned factory, and I actually fell for it.

Yu Xing picked up the camera he'd set on the ground so he could use both hands earlier. He arched a brow and feigned surprise. "Oh? What makes you say that?"

Though he asked what Zhao Yijiu meant, his tone was noticeably different from when they had first entered the factory. Zhao Yijiu narrowed his eyes, unsure why the guy was already getting on his nerves.

Maybe it was just that he looked so irritating.

His face was cold as ice. "You can tell the state of a corpse, pick locks, act, and fight. You sure have a wide range of hobbies."

"Is it fun to play the weakling and hide your true strength?"

After all the help he'd given this "weakling," he'd been worried for nothing.

Yu Xing burst out laughing.

His finely shaped brows didn't make him look feminine in the slightest. Instead, they added a hint of irreverence. His nose was high-bridged, the corners of his thin lips turned slightly downward, and his narrow, double-lidded eyes were full of slyness. A small mole sat at the outer corner of his left eye.

When he smiled, he had a striking, almost classical Eastern beauty—

along with an inexplicable, persistent air of carefree insolence that made you want to punch him.

He tossed the camera up and down like a basketball and tilted his head. "It's fun. Hey, don't get worked up. Life's about finding a little enjoyment—"

That's right. When he saw that Assistant Hao had left no footprints on the dusty floor, he knew Assistant Hao wasn't human. On the way here, he'd suddenly remembered that Zhao Yijiu had tested him with that detail earlier. His memory wasn't great, and he hadn't paid attention, so he'd let a little slip.

He'd said he was leaving, but still went out of his way to visit the bathroom, a must-have setting in any horror movie, because he wanted to see what the ghost looked like.

As expected, he ran into a ghost. Then he'd deliberately jabbed the mop handle into the Female Ghost's face. So what?

All those actions, hidden beneath the fear he'd put on display, had actually been easy enough to trace.

"You're unbelievable!... I wanted to ask you something." Zhao Yijiu let a Tianjin accent slip out before he could stop himself. Ignoring the other man's annoyingly good looks, he fixed him with a gloomy stare and enunciated each word. "Doesn't it get tiring, pretending to be a weakling?"

"Not really, not really. I'm used to it, I'm used to it~ The only troublesome part is having to remind myself, 'I'm so scared.' If I don't, then—ghosts at this level really aren't scary at all. They're boring." After finishing, Yu Xing stopped tossing the camera and clicked his tongue twice. He checked the time. "It's already one ten. There's no need for this test to drag on until four, is there? I'm getting sleepy."

Only then did Zhao Yijiu turn his attention back to the matter at hand.

He hesitated for a couple of seconds. "Are you here for the right to become a Deduction Player, or are you here looking for a job?"

"Oh?" Yu Xing let out a single, ambiguous syllable.

"...You know about it, right? There's a supernatural game system in this world called Absurd Deduction. Its players are called Deduction Players." Zhao Yijiu looked around at the wreckage and decay. It seemed the battery Yu Xing had changed for him was the one he'd just gotten.

He thought, So taking the battery is fine. It's when the camera shuts down that the real death condition is triggered.

Yu Xing had known before he did...

At the thought, he tightened his grip on his knife. Only then did he notice that blood was still running down from his shoulder. Even the slightest movement made his flesh hurt as if it were tearing apart.

He endured the pain and continued. "This Deduction Company doesn't actually exist in the real world. It finds people with the potential to become Deduction Players. Once it has gathered enough people in a city, it holds what looks like a job interview but is actually a test to gain access to the game."

In other words, after completing this nonexistent company's recruitment process, the survivors would gain access to the game Absurd Deduction and become Deduction Players.

"Most people are tricked into taking the test without knowing what it really is. But there are also people who know and choose to take part. After all... the Absurd Deduction game is a way for many people to make their wishes come true." Zhao Yijiu wasn't used to saying so much at once. He watched Yu Xing, whose expression hadn't changed at all as he listened, and became even more certain of his guess—

This guy who played the weakling while hiding his true strength was definitely in the know. For the sake of some wish, he'd willingly stepped into this terrifying, twisted world... just like Zhao Yijiu himself.

He held out his hand. "Either way, you saved my life. If I get the chance, I'll save yours too."

Yu Xing found his serious expression rather amusing. He held out his own hand and shook Zhao Yijiu's with equal solemnity. "Though you definitely won't get the chance to save me, I'm touched. As an innocent college graduate who knows nothing about any of this..."

Zhao Yijiu: "Bullshit."

"You're being mean to me." Yu Xing put on a pitiful expression.

"..."

Zhao Yijiu exhaled quietly. That was the only reason he didn't beat Yu Xing to death right then and there. Of course, he also had no idea how strong Yu Xing was. The same guy who needed ages to get up from a crouch had kicked a ghost flying.

He might not be able to beat him.

Hah. He had no idea whether the first part was real or an act. This Yu Xing was full of lies.

"I don't want to know what you do in the real world, and I assume you won't tell me. Anyway, let's make sure we get through this test safely first. Can you stop messing with me in the meantime?"

He was practically begging. It was pathetic.

Yu Xing readily agreed. "Sure. Do I look like the kind of person who'd mess with you?"

Zhao Yijiu thought, Guess what? You look exactly like that kind of person!

At the thought, the air around him seemed to drop several degrees, turning bone-chillingly cold.

"So, let me summarize the key points of this test." Seeing that Zhao Yijiu didn't believe him, Yu Xing immediately lowered his voice to sound serious. At first glance, he really did sound like someone running a no-nonsense meeting.

"First, taking a battery reveals your location to the ghosts, but they can only scare you, not kill you. Second, when the camera runs out of power, it attracts ghosts and triggers the real death condition." He thought for a moment, then decided he didn't want to stand. He moved aside and sat on the flat surface of an abandoned machine, putting some distance between himself and Zhao Yijiu, who was radiating cold. "The way to survive is to find a battery every half hour. You'll get scared, but your life won't be in danger."

"Right. That's the difficulty level of the beginner test." Zhao Yijiu nodded, acknowledging Yu Xing's assessment.

"That's it? It's even simpler than I expected. Boring." Yu Xing spoke as he straightened his messy bangs, then shook his head in disappointment. Under Zhao Yijiu's wary gaze, he snapped his fingers. "I'll tell you something interesting. I've already found a way to end the game early. I can tell you, but there's one condition."

"What condition?" Zhao Yijiu's heart stirred.