Newbie Instance: Class Reunion (9)

The DM's inorganic voice sounded again:

[Before the first group discussion begins, each player, please answer the questions.]

As before, only the players and the viewers in their livestreams could see their own answer boards. Most of the questions were related to the players' side quests. There were ten in total. Whoever answered the most correctly in the shortest time would receive bonus points in the final scoring system. As for how many points, that depended on the specific rules.

333 reminded Zhen Liu at the right moment:

[Write down the answers you're sure of. It doesn't matter if you leave the ones you don't know blank for now. This isn't the final submission; you'll have plenty of chances to revise them later.]

Zhen Liu was puzzled. Since only the final answers counted, what was the point of setting up this stage in advance?

Soon, after all five had submitted their answers, Zhen Liu got his answer—

The DM announced the results:

[Some players have correctly guessed the secrets other players need to conceal. Submit relevant evidence before the game ends. If verification succeeds, the player whose secret was uncovered will lose the bonus-point privilege from one side quest.]

This setup was obviously meant to stir up trouble.

As long as life went on, trouble never stopped.

After a notification from the DM, the atmosphere in the room immediately changed.

"Didn't we agree to help each other secure this point?" Basketball Qiao spoke first. He looked deeply shaken as he rose directly from his seat, his face full of collapsed ideals.

The trust that the five players, who were not particularly familiar with one another to begin with, had barely managed to build crumbled in an instant. Their eyes were filled with wariness toward each other. Though any mature adult could guess that, by the end of the game, there was a high chance they would all stab each other in the back. No one could expect to keep that point. But having it laid out so early and so directly felt entirely different.

Everyone instinctively began to wonder: Who had guessed the secret correctly? Had they guessed one person's secret, or everyone's? And who had been unlucky enough to be exposed so quickly?

That final question made them all turn toward Lawyer Jin.

The likely victim. Lawyer Jin did not feel any better because of everyone else's sympathy. He only felt that, as an experienced player, he was losing face. Panicked, he slapped the table and sprang to his feet, pointing at Professor Lu. "Was it you?!"

That action not only revealed Lawyer Jin's hostility toward Professor Lu, but also made it clear that, among the players present, Lawyer Jin considered Professor Lu the greatest threat.

The two camps were swiftly drawn apart.

At least, in Lawyer Jin's eyes, the situation was now him, Second-generation Zhao, and Basketball Qiao against Professor Lu and Doctor Zhen. The three of them might not have been entirely clean among themselves, but he still preferred to suspect outsiders. Doctor Zhen was not especially aggressive, while Professor Lu was too mysterious and too difficult to grasp. And, most humiliatingly, Lawyer Jin had always felt that Professor Lu simply did not take him seriously.

In fact, Lawyer Jin had guessed correctly.

More precisely, Professor Lu did not take anyone present seriously at all. Even though Lawyer Jin was already baring his fangs and claws, he remained casually seated, giving Lawyer Jin an indifferent look before replying, "If I wanted to, do you think the DM would still lack evidence?"

After that single look, Lawyer Jin seemed nailed to the spot, unable to move even half a step.

Lawyer Jin kept psyching himself up. What are you afraid of? You shouldn't be afraid. Yet no matter what, his body could not withstand the pressure enough to keep moving forward. In the end, he could only act tough with his words. "Y-you, what do you mean?"

Professor Lu was the one who finally laughed. For some unknown reason, he let Lawyer Jin off the hook and, unusually, spoke at length. "I mean, if I had hidden a recording device in the living room beforehand, then I would know exactly what you did. How could I possibly lack evidence?"

Professor Lu's words carried a clear implication.

And the chilling possibility he raised did not sound like something he had pulled out of thin air.

Lawyer Jin looked at Second-generation Zhao and Basketball Qiao beside him, his pupils trembling. Anyone who could have prepared in advance must have known that he had clashed with the deceased in the living room. Doctor Zhen and Professor Lu had both been upstairs at the time, so the odds of them happening to witness it were low. In other words, the ones who had betrayed him were ultimately his "own people"!

Basketball Qiao had already admitted that he had witnessed that scene. Second-generation Zhao claimed he had seen nothing from the kitchen, but the kitchen was semi-open, making him even more suspicious.

Zhen Liu had no choice but to speak up and stop the escalating confrontation. "Their answer might not have been aimed at you."

"Then what could it have been for?" Lawyer Jin had suffered several setbacks in a row and was now utterly flustered, incapable of thinking rationally.

Zhen Liu did not answer directly. Instead, he asked Lawyer Jin a question. "None of us are playing for the first time. Everyone knows what this kind of question round implies. If they knew it would expose them, what did they gain by answering?"

Ordinarily, if someone did not want to offend others or reveal their ambitions too early, they would not rashly write down an answer during the first round. Of course, another reason people did not answer rashly was that writing down an incorrect answer could affect their overall bonus, even if they corrected it later.

Zhen Liu had not written down a single answer he was unsure of.

Lawyer Jin froze. Right—by creating opposition so early, the other party would only make everyone wary. It was certainly better to strike at the end, catching others off guard and leaving them no chance to retaliate.

"So, for now, I think the murderer filled it in deliberately, so we'd focus all our energy on suspecting each other and fighting internally." The murderer certainly could not stand seeing the good side united. The sooner they drove a wedge between them, the better they could prevent them from sharing information.

Lawyer Jin was convinced. The murderer truly stood to gain the most.

He had... indeed fallen for it.

How embarrassing.

Zhen Liu's livestream chat exploded.