System: "!?!?!"
"Host, why did you tear it up? Aren't you planning to show the note to the others? Your teammates are bound to get suspicious sooner or later!"
As the saying went, the emperor wasn't worried, but his eunuch was. The system was startled by Lu Xiaoxiao's sudden move, yet its beloved host remained perfectly calm. "Of course I am. What are you panicking for? It's not like I tore it randomly!"
The system took a closer look and finally realized that Lu Xiaoxiao had torn the paper very neatly, roughly down the middle, dividing "Deer in the Deep Woods" into "Deep Forest" and "See a deer."
Lu Xiaoxiao continued to explain, "Right now, I'm the only one who knows what the complete clue says. If I tamper with it like this before showing it to my Pirate Team teammates, I can mislead them without arousing their suspicions. Isn't that great?"
The note had been fairly long to begin with, with wide spaces between the characters. After Lu Xiaoxiao tore it apart, either half looked perfectly natural on its own.
Anyone who hadn't seen the original note would indeed have a hard time spotting anything wrong at first glance.
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!
Enlightened, the system immediately resumed its efforts to flatter her, declaring gleefully, "Host! You're so devious! Amazing, amazing!"
Lu Xiaoxiao: "..."
Devious? Why did that compliment sound so wrong?
...Forget it. There was no point arguing with something that wasn't even human.
"Then, Host, which half of the note are you going to show your teammates?" the system asked again.
Lu Xiaoxiao stared at the two scraps for a while before deciding. "Deep Forest! The key to this clue is actually the deer. 'Deep Forest' is very vague. As long as I obscure the crucial