This Time He Won't Die

The fragile neck was exposed under the ghost claw, yet Yu Xing remained unfazed.

He even managed to mock.

A few seconds later, he felt Fang Rui's hand slowly loosen, and he leisurely retreated a few steps: "As expected, the ghosts summoned when collecting batteries can only scare people, they can't kill them at all."

Fang Rui's voice was somewhat intermittent, as if his vocal cords had almost atrophied after his ghost transformation: "You... how... did you know?"

"I suspected it from the beginning. After all, this is just a newcomer test, there shouldn't be so many death points." Yu Xing put the battery in his pocket, hands casually in his pockets, "If collecting a battery carries such a high risk, then it's not worth playing."

"What confirmed this for me was that little sister ghost, oh, Tang Yuan was her name. She was sticking to the window of the Exhibition Room at the time, pretending not to see Zhao Yijiu and me. In reality, that angle—she could see us perfectly clearly."

"She probably doesn't know that when the homeroom teacher stands by the back window, there are no blind spots for catching mobile phones... well, roughly the same meaning, I have experience.

"Why didn't she come in when she saw us? Because she can't kill people. Then why was she chasing us?"

Yu Xing reached out and patted Fang Rui's shoulder. A chill surged into Fang Rui's body from the point of contact, making him inwardly exclaim, "So refreshing," then continued: "Just like what you did just now, to stall for time."

"As long as you use fear to make us forget to change the batteries, and after the cameras shut down for five minutes, we'll become lambs for you to slaughter."

"..."

Fang Rui stared at him in silence, then after a long pause, spoke with difficulty: "Since... you... know... I'll... let you go, three... hours later, you... leave!"

"Geez." Yu Xing tilted his head. "You let me go, don't mess around. Did I say I'd let you go?"

He yawned and held up his camera: "Tsk, Zhao Yijiu is probably in trouble. Considering he gave me the battery earlier, he won't die this time."

He aimed the camera at Fang Rui, who screamed and turned to run.

"Come on, don't run~ I still need to save him. Let's hurry, look at the camera—not looking? Want me to say 'cheese'?"

"Bang!"

In the hall, a large wooden board was accidentally kicked away. Zhao Yijiu felt a dull pain in his right leg, his body already soaked in sweat.

There was a very unfavorable situation before him—Tang Li was faster than Tang Yuan!

He used the turns while running to glance back with his peripheral vision.

The ghostly creature was in hot pursuit, its mouth split open, revealing a rotten oral cavity within, a slender bloody tongue, and stark white throat bones.

Tang Yuan was slightly behind, but Tang Li seemed to be catching up to him.

Even though Zhao Yijiu was agile and had good stamina, after such a long chase, he was now at his wit's end.

His stamina was draining, and what was most unbearable was the constant chilling aura that wrapped around him, making his movements increasingly sluggish and his mental state gradually collapsing.

His knife couldn't resist this aura emanating from the ghostly creature.

Tang Li, in his ghost form with his tongue elongated, gave him no chance to think. His bulging eyeballs rolled, and sharp claws pierced through Zhao Yijiu's shoulder blade.

Zhao Yijiu heard a faint whistling sound. He only had time to shift left to avoid a fatal blow, then felt an intense pain. If he hadn't dodged, that claw would have pierced his chest!

But his chances of escape were clearly slim.

The ghost pressed close, its icy coldness penetrating Zhao Yijiu's back through his clothes. The sharp claws on his shoulder blade were pulled out, drawing a spray of blood. Zhao Yijiu grunted in pain, gritted his teeth, and struck back with his elbow, then immediately reversed his grip on the knife and slashed upwards from the ghost's lower abdomen.

The swollen skin was cut open, revealing the already rotten viscera and intestines within. Tang Li only paused for a moment; it seemed he didn't feel much pain.

His blood-soaked mouth opened, his tongue curled, and he lunged down to bite—

Zhao Yijiu closed his eyes in resignation, not wanting to examine the ghost's oral structure at the moment of his death.

But the expected death did not come. Instead, the moment he closed his eyes, he felt a force pulling the ghost backward. The sound of wind rushing past approached rapidly, and with a "bang"—

The ghost was kicked flying, smashing against the wall. Along with it, Zhao Yijiu's hand went empty; the camera he had been diligently carrying was snatched away by the newcomer.

Who was it!?

Zhao Yijiu opened his eyes and saw a blurry figure in the darkness execute a clean roll, placing his camera on his leg and beginning to change the battery.

The ghost, dragging its tongue, climbed up. Without even looking at the person, it lunged straight at him.

Zhao Yijiu instinctively dodged, but before the ghost could get close, the camera, with the battery changed, lit up—

A faint light, mixed with the ghost's unwilling roar, illuminated a face that was somewhat familiar to Zhao Yijiu, with slightly upturned eyes.

Tang Li roared angrily a couple of times, then turned and disappeared around the corner. Tang Yuan, seeing the situation was unfavorable, also turned and fled with a "cackle."

Yu Xing was kneeling on one knee nearby. Seeing the ghost flee, he turned his head with a smile and waved at Zhao Yijiu: "Still alive, friend?"

What an inappropriate greeting!

Yu Xing had two more cameras beside him, one on the ground and one in his hand. It was obvious whose camera it was.

Zhao Yijiu was still shaken, a drop of cold sweat sliding down his jaw. He looked at the person who had appeared out of nowhere, showing a rare look of astonishment.

The one who kicked the ghost and quickly changed the battery was Yu Xing!? This guy was also this skilled?

The surprise at this moment even made him ignore the tearing pain in his shoulder and his sudden realization about the conditions for ghosts to kill.

Zhao Yijiu: "You—"

Yu Xing looked up at him from below, a hint of gloom and playfulness in his eyes. He raised his right index finger to his lips: "Shh, be good, don't be a curious cat yet."

"I..." Zhao Yijiu was suddenly speechless. Who had ever spoken to him in that tone!?

"Come here for a second." Yu Xing beckoned to him.

After a slight hesitation, he obediently moved over, stopping beside Yu Xing. "What do you want to do?"

Yu Xing looked up at the distance, finally exerting himself to stand up.

Then his vision went black, the world spun, and he reached out, pressing a hand on Zhao Yijiu's uninjured shoulder, finally steadying himself.

After about five to six seconds, he clutched his head. "I'm anemic, severely anemic. I get dizzy when I stand up. Just need to lean on you for a bit."

"..." Zhao Yijiu: What the hell am I supposed to say? Are you kidding me? Do you know I'm starting to not believe you?

Once the person in front of him had completely recovered from his dizziness, Zhao Yijiu took back his camera and gritted out, "Thanks. But, your acting is really good."

Really good acting. He'd been acting since the moment they stepped into this abandoned factory. And he'd actually fallen for it.

Yu Xing picked up the camera, which he'd temporarily placed on the ground for easier handling with both hands, and raised an eyebrow, feigning surprise. "Oh? What makes you say that?"

Despite his words, his tone was significantly different from when they first entered the factory. This made Zhao Yijiu narrow his eyes. For some reason, he felt incredibly annoyed.

Perhaps it was the man's infuriating demeanor.

His face was as cold as ice shards. "You know how to check a corpse's condition, pick locks, act, and fight. You really have a wide range of hobbies."

"Is it fun pretending to be weak?"

After all the help he'd given this 'weakling,' he shouldn't have bothered worrying about this guy.

Yu Xing chuckled upon hearing that.

His perfectly shaped eyebrows didn't look feminine on him at all; instead, they added a touch of insolence. His nose was high and straight, his thin lips curved slightly downwards, and a sly glint lay dormant in his almond-shaped eyes. There was also a small mole at the corner of his left eye.

This smile delivered an impact of Eastern aesthetic beauty—

And a hint of an inexplicably persistent, roguish, and infuriating charm.

He tossed the camera as if it were a basketball, tilting his head. "It's fun. Hey, don't get worked up. Life is about finding some enjoyment--"

That's right. When he saw that Assistant Hao hadn't left footprints on the dusty ground, he knew Assistant Hao wasn't human. On the way here, he suddenly remembered that Zhao Yijiu had tested him using this very fact before. He had a bad memory and hadn't paid attention, accidentally revealing a tiny bit.

He said he was leaving, but he still went to the toilet, a classic scene in horror movies, wanting to see what a ghost looked like.

As expected, when he encountered a ghost, he deliberately poked the mop handle into the female ghost's face. So what?

These actions, hidden beneath his feigned fear, had actually been traceable all along.

"How infuriating! ...I want to ask," Zhao Yijiu blurted out a Tianjin dialect involuntarily. He ignored the man's disarming good looks, his face darkening. He asked word by word, "Pretending to be weak, aren't you tired?"

"Not really, not really~ I just have to remind myself 'I'm so scared' sometimes, which is a bit troublesome. Because if I don't remind myself—this level of ghost isn't scary at all, it's incredibly boring." Yu Xing stopped tossing the camera after his last sentence, tutted twice, and glanced at his watch. "It's already 1:10. This test doesn't need to go on until 4:00, I'm getting sleepy."

Zhao Yijiu finally brought his attention back to the main topic.

He hesitated for two seconds. "Did you come here for the deducer qualification, or to find 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,' and its players are called deducers." Zhao Yijiu scanned their surroundings, the mess and decay. It seemed the battery Yu Xing had gotten for him was a recent acquisition.

He thought to himself: As expected, taking the battery was fine. The camera running out of power is what truly triggers the death condition.

Yu Xing knew about this earlier than him...

He clenched the knife as he thought this, belatedly realizing that blood was continuously flowing from his shoulder. With the slightest exertion, his flesh felt like it was tearing.

Enduring the pain, he continued, "This Deduction Company doesn't actually exist in reality. It finds people with the potential to become deducers. Once it gathers a few in a city, it conducts an assessment disguised as a recruitment drive, the actual purpose of which is to obtain game qualifications."

In other words, after completing this non-existent company recruitment, those who survive will obtain the qualifications for the 'Absurd Deduction' game and become deducers.

"Although most people are tricked into the assessment unknowingly, it's not impossible for those who know to participate voluntarily. After all... the Absurd Deduction Game is a way for many people to realize their wishes." Zhao Yijiu spoke so much in one go that he felt unaccustomed to it. He looked at Yu Xing, whose expression hadn't changed at all after hearing his words, and became even more certain of his guess—

This guy pretending to be weak was definitely someone who knew about it, willingly stepping into this terrifying and twisted realm for some kind of wish... just like himself.

He extended his hand. "Regardless, you saved my life. If there's ever a chance, I'll save you too."

Yu Xing found his serious expression quite amusing, so he also extended his hand and shook Zhao Yijiu's earnestly. "Although you definitely won't have a chance to save me, I'm very touched. As an innocent fresh graduate who knew nothing..."

Zhao Yijiu: "You're talking nonsense."

"You're yelling at me." Yu Xing put on a wronged expression.

"..."

Zhao Yijiu let out a soft sigh, managing not to beat Yu Xing to death on the spot. Of course, he wasn't sure of Yu Xing's combat power right now. The man who needed a long time to transition from a squatting to a standing position could still kick a ghostly creature so far away with one foot.

He might not be able to win.

Heh, I really don't know if the former was real or an act. This Yu Xing is full of lies.

"I don't want to know what you do in reality, and you probably won't tell me. In any case, let's focus on surviving this test safely. During this period, can you stop acting with me?"

Damn it, I'm practically begging.

Yu Xing readily agreed. "Sure, do I look like the kind of person who would act with you?"

Zhao Yijiu: Guess what? You totally do!

Thinking this, the pressure around Zhao Yijiu dropped, becoming chillingly cold.

"So, let me summarize the key points of this test." Seeing that Zhao Yijiu didn't believe him, and to show his seriousness, Yu Xing immediately deepened his voice. At first listen, it truly sounded like a concise and rigorous meeting style.

"First, getting a battery will reveal the ghostly creature's coordinates, but the ghostly creature can only scare people, not kill them. Second, the camera running out of power will attract ghosts, and this is the true death condition." He thought for a moment, unwilling to stand, and simply moved aside, sitting directly on the flat surface of some abandoned machinery, further away from the chilling Zhao Yijiu. "The way to survive is to find a battery every half hour. Although you'll be startled, your life will be safe."

"That's right, this is the difficulty level for a beginner test." Zhao Yijiu nodded, acknowledging Yu Xing's words.

"That's it? It's even simpler than I imagined, uninteresting." Yu Xing said, tidying his messy bangs and shaking his head regretfully. Then, 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 a condition."

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