The Highest Form of Acting Is Being Yourself

"Bang!"

"Damn it! This is so damn frustrating!" Xiong Tao cursed furiously at the fallen tree in front of him.

They'd actually been driven to this point by a bunch of monkeys.

They'd managed to get away from those damned monkeys, but their losses had been enormous. They hadn't gained a single thing, and they'd even lost Third Brother.

Xiong Tao found it hard to accept.

By comparison, Yang Zixuan sat on a nearby rock, calmly wiping his Flying Blade. Seeing how furious Xiong Tao was, he shook his head.

"This is normal. You think you're strong, but don't forget: before we became certified players, we were all worthless nobodies!"

He spoke with a touch of self-mockery.

Xiong Tao had been seething, but the moment he heard the words "certified players," he deflated like a punctured balloon, all his anger vanishing in an instant.

He thought back to the man they'd encountered before. A deep sense of despair pressed down on him like a mountain.

"Just hang in there a little longer. We're almost at the required Script Points. As long as we meet the standard for becoming certified players..."

Yang Zixuan trailed off. He merely stared at the Flying Blade in his hand, his eyes full of longing for the future.

[Warning! Temporary team member Chen has inflicted a fatal injury on Xu Chen (Zhang Hu), resulting in the death of member Xu Chen!]

[Warning! Temporary team member Chen has violated the temporary contract rules and has been removed from the team.]

Suddenly, Zhang Hu's death notice rang in their ears without warning. The system's icy notification instantly dragged them back to reality.

"How is that possible?" The two stared at each other, unable to accept the result.

They could accept Third Brother's death. As players in a Script World, no one could afford to ignore the risk of dying.

But what they couldn't accept was that the one who'd killed Third Brother wasn't those damned monkeys. It was that cowardly, spineless piece of Livestock in their eyes.

"That's impossible!"

After a brief daze, Yang Zixuan let out a sharp scream. His face was full of disbelief, and his earlier composure was gone.

He couldn't believe it. He couldn't accept it. It was utterly absurd.

Had he misjudged him?

He couldn't help recalling every detail from when he'd first met Xu Tong.

From the way Xu Tong had unconsciously rubbed his hands against his trouser legs upon entering the room, to how he'd perched so nervously on the edge of the chair, barely daring to sit down.

Every little detail raced through Yang Zixuan's mind, clear as day.

Had Xu Tong been faking all of it?

At the thought, Yang Zixuan shuddered. The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it seemed.

Was this guy some sort of award-winning actor from the Central Academy of Drama?

Yang Zixuan suddenly felt his vision darken. He nearly fainted.

"Find him! Find him! Find him for me!" he roared hysterically, his features twisted in rage.

Xiong Tao had never seen their leader lose his composure like this. He had no idea that Yang Zixuan's mind was buzzing right now.

There was only one thought in his head: find that guy, peel off his skin, and take a good, hard look to see whether he'd really misjudged him!

"Ah-choo!"

Xu Tong looked at the droplets of saliva he'd just sprayed, rubbed his nose with a finger, and muttered, "The wind's too strong at night. I should've kept that jacket instead of giving it away."

As he spoke, he pulled his clothes tighter around himself. In the firelight, his face looked waxen and sallow, and even his eyes were bloodshot.

"Have some water. Are you sure your wound is all right?"

Yang Guanjin handed him the canteen, her gaze flicking toward his lower abdomen. She couldn't help wondering why her stab wound had gone in so shallowly.

"I'm fine. It's almost healed, see?"

He smiled as he took the canteen and pointed to the wound, wrapped in black gauze on his lower abdomen.

In fact, the moment she stabbed him, he'd activated his title, [Retributor].

It reduced mental damage by 80% and physical damage by 30%. On top of that, he'd been in the [Demon King Descent] state, with a layer of black demonic flames acting as armor and absorbing a huge amount of damage. That was why he'd only suffered a minor flesh wound.

The price, of course, had been steep. At that very moment, he was enduring both the curse brought on by his title skill and the aftereffects of [Demon King Descent].

Though he sat there chatting and laughing with Yang Guanjin, his clothes were already soaked through with sweat. His body kept alternating between hot and cold, and it felt as if he'd been filled with lead. He didn't even want to move a finger.

If Yang Guanjin attacked him now, he'd be meat on a chopping board, at her mercy.

Still, he believed she wouldn't do that, because right now he was the only person who could help her.

So he took the water and drank without the slightest hesitation. A faintly strange look crossed Yang Guanjin's face.

She sat down slowly and tossed a few more sticks onto the fire. Then, as if asking casually, she said, "When did you realize something was wrong with me?"

"Hey!" His eyes lit up. He might not have cared much about other things, but when it came to acting, he perked right up.

"If someone saved my dad—not once, but twice—I'd gladly kneel and kowtow to him. I wouldn't just give him a jacket, say a few polite words, and play the part of a sweet, filial daughter."

After speaking, he imitated Yang Guanjin's expression and gaze from that moment, putting on a little demonstration for her.

Yang Guanjin froze. She'd considered plenty of possibilities, but hadn't expected that she'd given herself away from the very beginning. Even so, she didn't believe those details alone were enough to prove she was up to something.

"That alone wasn't enough, was it?"

"Of course not!" Xu Tong looked at her. "Less than twenty-four hours passed between the Golden Dagger appearing at the crime scene and Zhou Huasheng arriving with his men. Even if I'd ridden in a truck, it would've taken me almost half a day to get from town to the Forest Farm. What does that tell you?"

Yang Guanjin's eyebrows lifted slightly.

When she didn't respond, Xu Tong continued, "There are two possibilities. One is that they had phones in this era."

"Phones?" She looked bewildered. Xu Tong nodded. "Of course, they don't have those yet. So the other possibility is that someone tipped Zhou Huasheng off in advance."

"So what?"

"So you were a suspect, because you returned to the Forest Farm right after us. You said you were patrolling the mountain, but no one could confirm it."

"Of course, at first I only suspected you. But then I realized something: who would benefit most from killing me? Without a doubt, you.

"Since you couldn't send the message directly to Zhou Huasheng, you couldn't be sure whether he'd receive it or how soon he'd get here. What if he never got the message, or something delayed him?

"In that case, the safest option was to kill me, the new guy, while you had the chance. Then no one could take over your position as forest ranger, and you could stay at the Forest Farm."

As he spoke, he pulled his clothes tighter and edged closer to the fire.

"Besides, that jacket was too big for me, and it wouldn't have fit your dad either. You'd prepared it half a month in advance. Was it for a ghost?

"So I compared it with Zhou Huasheng's clothes, and it turned out the sizes matched perfectly. What a coincidence, huh?"

Xu Tong took a jacket belonging to Zhou Huasheng out of his Prop Catalog. He'd found it in Zhou Huasheng's suitcase. That was also why he'd gone straight to his room to search his luggage, even though he knew Zhou Huasheng wasn't there.

"You were deliberately provoking me!" Yang Guanjin recalled how Xu Tong had suddenly pointed out the flaw in her story in that odd, insinuating tone while they were on the road. She understood now.

Xu Tong shivered and stopped paying attention to Yang Guanjin. It wasn't that he didn't want to keep talking. Suddenly, he felt an indescribable itch all over, as if ants were crawling between his bones.

This must be the curse's effect. As expected, you couldn't understand what it felt like without experiencing it yourself.

But as unpleasant as it was, the rewards were a pleasant surprise.

After killing Zhang Hu, he'd been kicked out of the temporary team and lost 15 Script Points. The precious five-second window to counter while Zhang Hu was paralyzed was irrelevant now that Zhang Hu was a corpse.

But compared to what he'd gained, that was nothing.

According to Mad Dog, if a player killed another player, they could take one Prop Card from the other player's Prop Catalog, or choose to take all of their Script Points. They could only pick one.

Faced with that choice, Xu Tong hadn't hesitated at all. He'd chosen to take all of Zhang Hu's Script Points.

560 Script Points wasn't a huge amount, but it was enough to cover two or three Script Worlds' worth of savings for a player.

And with the two top-tier Prop Cards he'd conned from Zhang Hu, he'd made a killing this time.

Killing Zhang Hu hadn't actually been the best choice.

If circumstances had allowed, he could've kept him captive and tortured him bit by bit, taking every Prop Card and every Script Point from his Prop Catalog.

That way, he could've stayed with Yang Zixuan's Jie Team, played the traitor, and waited for his next opportunity.

But that would've required the right circumstances. He couldn't be sure when Yang Zixuan and Xiong Tao might show up in front of him.

So he'd chosen the option that maximized his gains: quickly taking Zhang Hu out of the picture.

Yang Guanjin watched Xu Tong's face grow paler and paler, and finally asked the question she most wanted answered. "Why are you helping me? You know, all of this is actually..."

"Shh!"

Before she could finish, Xu Tong pressed a finger to her lips. "I helped you because you'd already blown your cover. You shouldn't have lured them to the Mountain God Temple to ambush them."

After what had happened last night, Yang Zixuan already suspected her. Whether Zhang Hu was alive or dead, the first person Yang Zixuan would kill if he saw her was probably her.

If Yang Guanjin died, Xu Tong would lose a powerful ally. He needed her ability to control the monkeys to keep Yang Zixuan in check.

With that, he lowered his hand. "I'm not interested in your plan or your story. I helped you because we have a common goal. And one more thing: your acting is terrible. Remember this: the highest form of acting is being yourself!"

As his voice faded, a figure slowly emerged from the bushes nearby. "I've finally found you!"