Lady of the Lake · Righteous Knight

"Um?"

Lin stopped and pointed straight ahead.

The three people's eyes met.

A wooden sign, with the words "The Clue is Here" written in blood-red lettering that easily evokes negative connotations.

Then he drew an arrow pointing to the wooden house in the distance.

They appeared openly and honestly on the main road.

A stick was thrown into the wooden house without triggering any mechanisms. Then, a black-haired man wearing only beach shorts slowly stepped into the wooden house after tentatively stepping on the creaking wooden floor to confirm that there were no risks of collapse or traps.

"No problem, come in."

Meanwhile, Hua finished his search of the area around the house, and Eden found nothing else on the wooden sign.

The three of them squeezed into the wooden house and walked at the same time toward the most conspicuous and only metal cube in the house, whose style was out of place with the rest of the wooden house and resembled a table.

"Is this a clue?" Hua cautiously examined the cube.

"Hmm... it doesn't look like it. Should we open this...'box'?" Eden said, puzzled.

But this cube didn't look like a box containing anything at all; Lin knew from the first glance that it was a nearly solid metal block.

Lin stepped forward and naturally placed his hand on the metal block. "I'll do it."

"Clap."

The moment Lin's hand touched it, the metal block made a soft sound. Then, under the wary gazes of the two people behind him, the top of the metal block dented, and something was pushed out of the dent and transported to Lin's front.

"Congratulations, you've taken the first step." The sound system inside the metal block emitted a processed voice. Lin remained silent for a while before picking up the small piece of paper on the table.

He opened the note and glanced at what was written on it—

"..."

Lin's expression changed slightly, almost imperceptibly. After reading the note in his hand, Eden asked curiously, "What's wrong? What does it say?"

Suddenly, a ball of fire shot up from the bottom of the paper. Lin subconsciously let go of it, and the tiny piece of paper spontaneously combusted and turned to ashes in mid-air.

"Are you alright?" Hua asked as he stepped forward. Lin shook his head and then said to the two of them—

"The targets listed above are the ones I'm required to meet, and if I don't meet them, I'll be punished."

"This... so, it's a mission?"

"Almost."

Assigning tasks is indeed part of the game, but judging from Lin's performance, there seems to be more to it than meets the eye.

"Everyone has been assigned a task, and you can't enter the treasure's burial site without accepting the task, so it's mandatory." Lin looked at the metal cube again. "Just put your hand on it and the assigned task will be issued. Someone must be monitoring us from somewhere and then sending the task over through the transport channel."

He paused for a moment. "However, it's more likely that the procedure was preordained, and finding the real culprit through these potentially intricate transportation routes that span the entire island is almost impossible."

After listening, Hua asked, "What is your mission?"

"... You accept the mission first."

Lin didn't say it explicitly, so Hua could only place her hand on the metal block in confusion. The next thing she did was the same as Lin. She picked up the note, glanced at it, and her expression changed. Then the note spontaneously combusted, and she silently looked at Eden.

"So, it means we can't tell anyone else?" Eden deduced something from their behavior, and their simultaneous nods confirmed her guess. She sighed and accepted the task with some skepticism.

As expected, she fell silent after seeing her task.

After thoroughly searching the house, almost dismantling the metal blocks, the three of them finally left and found a shady spot to sit down and discuss the matter.

"Lin, what are your thoughts?"

Eden was probably the most authoritative among the three, and her mature womanly demeanor was convincing enough, so she took the lead in asking Lin, who had been thinking about something since earlier.

"... There's a problem with this mission."

Lin spoke solemnly, and the other two also looked serious. He then explained.

"This mission cannot be shared with anyone else, and it must be carried out without question. Do you remember what our initial game objective was?"

"The mission was to find treasure, and one of us was supposed to deliberately sabotage our progress. But this mission changed the course of the game."

The dappled shadows of the trees cast dots around the group.

Amid the rustling of leaves, Lin said in a low, heavy voice, "What if someone's task is to interfere with others?"

After Lin explained it this way, the two of them understood the problem.

Originally, it should have been fifteen against one, with victory achieved by finding the treasure or capturing the mastermind. However, after accepting the mission, it may turn into a confrontation between two factions, with one or even more traitors added to sabotage and interfere with their treasure hunt.

Hua analyzed, "But they cannot let others know the details of their mission before they complete it, so they cannot communicate with each other and therefore do not know each other's identities, making it difficult to cooperate."

This can be considered a stroke of luck amidst misfortune, or perhaps it's just how the game is designed.

"The reward for the mission can be made public; mine is 'the location of an undiscovered treasure'."

"Mine too." "Same."

This means the rewards are the same, but this raises another issue.

"But our goal is to leave this island and make contact with headquarters, regardless of who finds the three treasures," Lin muttered, stroking his chin. "Why does He think we'll follow His mission and procedures?"

"Regardless, let's go find the treasure or other people first."

"That's all we can do for now."

The three set off again, their shadows stretching long behind them, resembling winding snakes in the shadows.

Lin, just now, you overlooked a fatal problem.

There is a game where sixteen people kill each other. What drives people to commit crimes is often a variety of "desires," such as the desire to escape, the desire for money, or even the desire to protect others.

The most important thing is not the game rules or the missions.

It was something he had asked casually and hadn't paid any attention to at all.

Chapter Eight: The Lake Fairy and the Knight of Justice

"That... Lin..."

Hearing the gray-haired woman's soft whisper, Lin, who was following Eden, slowed down and walked alongside Hua.

"What is it?" Lin asked casually, turning his head.

Hua suddenly felt a little flustered. She rarely had the opportunity to walk side by side with Lin before. Most of the time, she would look directly into his cold eyes or follow his back. It was rare for her to be so close to him and only be able to see his profile. She took a small step to the side uncomfortably. "How are you feeling after you lost your memory?"

"I don't feel anything," Lin Rushi replied. "It's just that your attitude is too unusual, which makes me a little uneasy."

Of course, he could understand. When a familiar person loses all their memories, their appearance is still the same, but their inner self is like a completely different person. Anyone would have such a reaction.

"Um, sorry, we're not..."

"I know, there's no need to apologize."

As Hua indifferently interrupted her, he saw Lin's appearance before she lost her memory.

"Let's focus on the present first." Lin casually placed his hand on Hua's shoulder, a gesture that surprised Hua for a moment.

"You don't need to feel guilty at all. Just do the task, even if it goes against what others are doing," Lin said indifferently. "Although we've analyzed it a lot before, this is just a game after all. If they wanted to target us, they wouldn't need to go to such lengths. It would be more efficient to do it on the ship."

"Um..."

The person who designed this game had a very good grasp of their psychology. At least when Lin saw the punishment for failing to complete the task, he did have the desire to complete it.

So, what is Lin's mission?

Hua didn't see the strange glint that flashed in Lin's eyes the moment his hand touched her shoulder.

He sighed almost imperceptibly, recalling the dreaded task requirements.

"Without actively asking, you can get a kiss from any of the sixteen women, on any part of their body."

The punishment for the mission is... to be kissed once by all the men among the sixteen people, and the kisses must last for at least thirty seconds.

Although Lin doubted whether the other party could actually do it, the fact that they were able to write it down meant that they must have a plan and a method to carry out the punishment, especially since it was something that had been planned for a long time on Raven Island.

Unless we can find out who's behind this, we should proceed step by step.

The mission cannot be told to others, but it doesn't matter if others guess it and reveal it. Let's find the mastermind behind it all. He doesn't think he has that much charm to make others offer him kisses.

... Perhaps Griseo would be willing to kiss his cheek?

"That is..."

Eden stopped, and Lin and Hua stepped forward and looked at what was in front of them.

A vast lake on the island blocked the three's path. There was such a large freshwater lake on this island. The lake was so clear that you could see the bottom of the lake at a glance. In this place surrounded by trees, a sudden and beautiful sight appeared, like a scene from heaven.

"An artificial lake." Lin immediately recognized the reason for the lake's unexpected existence.

Clearly, this place is related to "treasure," and there may be clues to "treasure."

Under the watchful eyes of the three, the lake suddenly surged and churned, a whirlpool appeared in the center, and then a platform slowly rose up.

Everyone fell silent.

Whether it was Lin and his two companions, or the people on the platform.

Her waist-length hair clung to her back, damp with dew. Her white, sheer dress swayed gently in the breeze, revealing glimpses of her fair skin. Her delicate face held a hint of shyness beneath her usual gentle and calm demeanor, and her tightly closed eyes seemed to eagerly await the picking of flower petals.

If the three of them didn't know this person, they would surely marvel at her beauty as a fairy from the lake.

Unfortunately, they knew this person.

His name is Su, and he is a man.

"... My friend, what are you doing?" Eden spoke first. Even with her vast experience, she looked at Su, who was dressed more beautifully than a woman and even wore a bougainvillea headdress, with a subtle look in her eyes.

However, Su did not answer her question. With a stiff and unyielding face, he spoke in a high-pitched voice to the three men with strange looks, "Three noble and great knights, may I ask whether you dropped the golden King's Sword of kings or the silver King's Sword of kings?"

"..."

"Um... Su?" Seeing that Lin Du remained silent, Hua had no choice but to bite the bullet and try to ask Su, who was wearing a revealing white dress and whose face was almost completely drooping, "Are you doing a mission?"

"No, this is punishment; his mission failed."

A chilling voice, cold enough to freeze the air, came from the side. The familiar voice was highly recognizable; it was...

"Kevin?"

However, when the three looked over, they didn't see anyone, only a figure with white hair peeking out from behind a tree trunk in the distance.

Kevin exhaled a puff of white mist and said to the three in his cool voice, "After Su failed his mission, he was forcibly punished. He was probably threatened and then put on that outfit to sell 'King's Sword' in the lake. He probably won't be able to leave until the punishment is over."

What happens if the mission fails?

The three of them swallowed hard, looking at the twitching faces of the women covering themselves with clothes that would almost reveal their underwear if the wind blew... or perhaps strips of cloth would be a more accurate description.

"If a task is failed, there will be a penalty. After the penalty is completed, a new task will be assigned. If the task is failed again, the penalty will be increased."

Lin frowned, thinking about his own mission, and said, "Are there missions that fail prematurely? Isn't Su's mission supposed to continue until the entire treasure hunt is over?"

"No, according to you, your mission should be different from ours. The failure condition is that you don't complete the entire treasure hunt. My mission and Sue's mission both have fixed success and failure conditions." Kevin stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Judging from the time, Sue's mission should be 'not to communicate with anyone within twelve hours of receiving the mission'."

Are there even subcategories for missions like this? It seems our previous guesses need to be revised. Some people might not have been moles initially, but became moles after receiving new missions following mission failures.

"Speaking of which..." Lin looked at Kevin, who remained motionless in the shade of the tree, "Why don't you come out?"

"..."

A deathly silence.

In the silence, Lin remembered Kevin mentioning "us" earlier... Could it be...?

With a sigh, the white-haired man stepped out of the shade and into the sunlight.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Lin's fierce gaze met the other's, while the other's cool expression, now fearless, appeared even more "delicate and adorable" against the backdrop of his JK uniform and miniskirt.

"... What is your mission?"

"To tell a joke and make people laugh."

"..."