Everyone's Here

The Sheep-faced leader was banging his head against a tree, while Qu Xuanqing and Yu Xing walked away silently.

As before, once Yu Xing disappeared from the Sheep-faced leader's sight, the foreman couldn't find him and had to wander around with his weapon for a long time.

Clearly, Zhang Xiaowei, the head waiter, doesn't have a strong enough grasp of the barbecue restaurant.

Yu Xing followed behind Qu Xuanqing, glancing at him every now and then.

The chef's uniform... indicates that this Qu Xuanqing is a clone of someone from the barbecue restaurant, but he seems to be conducting his investigation very seriously.

It's unclear whether she was unaware of her ghostly identity and believed herself to be the real Qu Xuanqing, or if she had other intentions.

Yu Xing wouldn't crudely categorize every clone as an enemy, just like his own seventeenth clone—how sensible! In fact, because of their shared memories, the tacit understanding of their shared thinking made him feel very comfortable.

If they want to go to the women's restroom, they will pass through the kitchen first.

After turning a few corners, the aroma of meat and seasonings gradually filled the air.

The pots and pans were stained with grease, the menu was laid out on the counter, but there was no sign of the chef.

The entire kitchen was empty, and no food delivery staff came in.

During the previous reset, Yu Xing had met the chef in the kitchen, who was also a very tall and large man.

The chef's pristine white uniform was stained with various kinds of blood, and a thick, fat pig's face was perched on the human's neck.

But now the pig-faced chef is gone.

He continued walking and asked, "Where is he?"

Qu Xuanqing said calmly, "There was a slight accident; someone kidnapped the chef and the waiters."

Yu Xing:?

"Kidnapping?" His tone was somewhat strange, because when this word came up in his mind during this simulation, only one person could be identified.

Qu Xuanqing, only Qu Xuanqing would find things annoying and kill all the things in the way.

However, the chef is a key character, and she cannot violently ruin the simulation, so she "kidnaps" him, rendering him incapable of acting, lest he become a second Sheep-faced leader who runs around with weapons.

The problem is that it was also "Qu Xuanqing" who gave him this information.

"Yes, kidnapping," Qu Xuanqing said. "She also kidnapped... many people."

After a pause, Qu Xuanqing uttered a single word. "She found it too troublesome."

The two walked out of the kitchen and into the dark corridor as they talked. Based on those few words, Yu Xing made a judgment. "It seems you already know what you are."

Chef Qu Xuanqing didn't deny it, saying, "I knew it when I saw her; there's a huge gap between us."

She was talking about power.

Faced with absolute power, what she replicated was as fragile as paper, unable to withstand scrutiny.

"Under these circumstances, you still decided to help us?" Yu Xing.

"Heh." Chef Qu Xuanqing let out a mocking sneer, then finally glanced at him with her dark eyes, which had suppressed their rage.

"It's a decision to help 'you,' not 'all of you,'" Yu Xing.

"I don't care about the other me. My birth contained most of her emotions, and she doesn't care about herself either." In front of Yu Xing, Qu Xuanqing, dressed as a chef, showed none of the ruthlessness she displayed in front of Gao Lou, but rather was very close to the real Qu Xuanqing.

"I—no, I should say she—made you her most important anchor. I inherited her feelings, so I also consider you the most important person. Yu Xing, I envy her so much."

Chef Qu Xuanqing smiled and said, "She can truly fight alongside you, and she'll always be with you... If you don't give up on yourself, then you two definitely have a long road ahead of you."

Yu Xing was stunned.

In a daze, he almost thought that it was Qu Xuanqing himself speaking to him.

"There are some things she won't tell you, but I only have a short lifespan, and I'll say what I want to say." The woman in the chef's uniform suddenly drew a fruit knife from her waist and waved it threateningly at Yu Xing. "I'll be frank, she can guess everything. She just feels she can't interfere with your choices, but she really wants you to live."

"Even if you die, she won't have a good life."

"..." Yu Xing's breath hitched. Even though the thing beside him was just a ghost wearing Qu Xuanqing, he knew she was telling the truth.

He couldn't even respond to this "threat".

Fortunately, Chef Qu Xuanqing didn't seem to be looking for an answer. He snorted and sheathed his knife, "We're here."

The men's and women's restrooms are just ahead.

The dim red light created a gloomy atmosphere, and a strong smell of blood wafted from behind the door.

The flavor is almost too strong.

Yu Xing regained his composure. He had sensed that someone had been killed by ghosts here, but after bypassing the mountain of corpses and seeing the refrigerated box, he stopped paying attention to this area.

It seems that Little Ququ really managed to accomplish a lot in that short time.

Yu Xing reached out and pushed the door open.

With a creak.

A loud "whooshing" sound suddenly came from inside.

A whimpering sound?

Yu Xing looked up and met... many pairs of eyes.

Xiao Ququ had her back to him, and only turned around when she heard the noise, her right hand just waving away the blood sword.

"You're here? I can't take it anymore. Everyone's here now, what are you going to do?"

Looking around, she was the only one standing there.

Beneath her feet lay a group of people whose tendons in their feet and hands had been severed. Among them were Xiao Duo, Gao Lou, a male candidate to serve food, an unhappy-looking assassin, a cashier aunt who was very close to her original corpse, and two Little Heavenly Masters were struggling with wide eyes.

It's really comprehensive.

In the corner lay a pig-faced chef, his fate unknown.

I don't know where Xiao Ququ found the cloth, but she gagged everyone. Otherwise, Yu Xing would probably be able to hear a lot of ducks quacking right now.

Chef Qu Xuanqing appeared behind Yu Xing, and the people immediately started whining even louder, their faces filled with fear and a hint of confusion.

Qu Xuanqing glanced at the "herself" in the chef's uniform, said nothing, and made no attack, clearly aware of the other party's choice. She briefly explained the current situation to Yu Xing: "This fake Xiao Duo took advantage of Wang Shufen's trust and conspired with cashier Wang Shufen to kill her and frame Gao Lou."

"The fake skyscraper took the opportunity to kill the real person, and secretly switched the beams and pillars right in front of the Little Heavenly Master."

"They wanted to come looking for me, but I just happened to stumble upon the fake assassin poisoning the meat. Ugh, he challenged me to a fight, but I couldn't kill him, and the fight just got more and more annoying. Luckily, the others arrived too, so I simply tied them all up."

Simple and unpretentious.

Yu Xing shifted her gaze. "How did you find the cloned Little Heavenly Master?"

"... At first, he didn't see the real body and didn't know he was a ghost. He came over and accused me of disrupting the deduction, so I just tied him up."

Qu Xuanqing looked at the two identical Little Heavenly Master and clicked his tongue twice. "How do you deal with these people?"

Yu Xing pointed to one of the Little Heavenly Master: "He--"

The Little Heavenly Master looked terrified, struggling desperately, muttering incoherently; he looked utterly frightened.

Yu Xing glanced down at her employee uniform. "..."

Yes, in other people's eyes, he is the copy.

Yu Xing still pointed at the Little Heavenly Master: "Besides him, everyone else you've bound are clones."

Some of them are already dead in their physical form.

Some of their original forms... are still sitting in the lobby of the barbecue restaurant.

He then ordered the assassin and the waiter, "Their original bodies are still alive; let them deal with each other later."

The remaining clones, whose identities had been exposed, began to show a coldness in their eyes that did not belong to the original.

"When only one 'person' remains, it shouldn't reset," Yu Xing said. "So none of them matter; what matters is Zhang Xiaowei."

The chef, who had been pretending to be dead in the corner, seemed to stir slightly.

Seeing this, Yu Xing picked up the Little Heavenly Master, went to the chef's side, and removed the rag that was gagging him.

At this moment, the Little Heavenly Master realized that two veterans in the group were pretending to be newbies. He seemed to understand everything, yet also seemed to understand nothing. Suddenly given the freedom to speak, he was still a little confused. "W-what are you doing?"

Yu Xing said symbolically, "You ask, you solve the deduction."

He and Qu Xuanqing...

Should...

It didn't affect other people's deductions, did it?

Even he himself couldn't bear to hear those words. (End of Chapter)