Disappearing one after another

Song Qingzhang's eyes widened. A cry of "Who?!" nearly escaped his lips, but Li Xian noticed in time and clapped a hand over his mouth.

"...Everyone was crowded together at the time. I didn't see who pushed me."

As for the others, their attention had probably been drawn to the human skin that suddenly sprang out, so they hadn't noticed someone taking the opportunity to strike.

Even so, Li Xian already had a suspect in mind.

He looked toward Yi Jing nearby and took his hand off Song Qingzhang's mouth. "Asking won't get us anywhere. Keep it quiet for now."

[I saw it clearly! It was that little b*stard Yi Jing who pushed him!]

[What the hell is he trying to do? That human skin couldn't possibly have reached him at the time. Did he really have to push the streamer to his death?]

[Exactly! Even veteran players who use rookies as guinea pigs only send the useless ones to their deaths. The streamer was doing so well. Why hurt him? Is Yi Jing really that confident he can clear the instance himself?]

[Hard to say. He looked completely unfazed when the human skin appeared. Maybe he has some ace up his sleeve?]

[I can't figure out what he's up to.]

Li Xian couldn't fathom Yi Jing's intentions either, but this wasn't the time to openly turn against him.

A few steps away, Yi Jing was comforting the only two surviving rookies he had brought into the instance.

"Another one's dead... People didn't die anywhere near this fast in the F-rank instance I cleared before. How the hell can you guarantee our safety?!"

Zhang Guangding shouted, losing control of his emotions.

"That thing is still in the room. It could come out and kill someone at any moment..."

A flicker of impatience crossed Yi Jing's eyes. His smile grew perfunctory, no longer as sincere as before. "Didn't I already tell you? As long as you listen to me, you'll be fine."

"Then Feng Tao..."

"Who knows what unnecessary thing he did?"

Yi Jing's tone turned cold.

"You saw it yourselves. Out of everyone's portraits, his was the only one holding up three fingers. Maybe he acted on impulse and brought trouble on himself."

Zhang Guangding had no answer. Liang Pei stood silently off to the side with a dark expression, saying nothing.

"Unexpected things happen all the time in C-rank instances. You'd better do as you're told."

With that, Yi Jing turned and went upstairs, for once making no effort to soothe either of them.

Li Xian approached Liang Pei. Seeing that he was still in a daze, he called softly, "Hey?"

Only then did Liang Pei come back to his senses. Seeing Li Xian and Song Qingzhang beside him, he forced a faint smile. "What is it?"

"Could we talk somewhere private?"

Liang Pei didn't know what this was about, but he eventually nodded.

Li Xian moved to an empty corner, turned his palm over, and produced a short knife.

Liang Pei took a closer look. "Is that... the knife that fell beside Feng Tao? When did you get it out?"

"I grabbed it on my way out of the room."

[He managed to grab a knife from the room even under those circumstances... Does the streamer have auto-loot enabled on his hands?]

[Now that you mention it, he took the keys off the Village Chief in the last instance without anyone noticing, too.]

[A master thief... I want to learn that skill too.]

Liang Pei was astonished. As he recalled the scene, he found himself feeling a little more respect for Li Xian.

"So what did you want to ask me?"

Li Xian spun the knife in his palm and offered Liang Pei the handle. "Have you seen this knife before?"

Only after hearing the question did Liang Pei begin examining the knife in his hand closely.

He hadn't paid much attention to the knife lying on the floor before. Now that Li Xian had asked, he took another look...

"This knife... I think I've seen Yi Jing carrying it."

At that answer, Li Xian frowned. "Did he speak privately with the man who died at any point today?"

Liang Pei shook his head.

"You mean Feng Tao? I didn't see them..."

He lowered his head and thought back for a moment, then continued.

"But there was a while early this morning when I couldn't find either of them..."

Following Li Xian's train of thought, Liang Pei grew more alarmed the more he considered it.

"You suspect Yi Jing had something to do with Feng Tao's death?"

"Yes."

"How did you figure that out? And this knife-how did you know to ask me about it?"

Li Xian didn't reveal the information he had obtained in the Novice Lobby. He merely said it was his intuition.

"As for the knife, we hadn't seen any knives in the instance, and Feng Tao didn't seem like the kind of person who would bring one himself. So I thought Yi Jing might have given it to him."

"Then the reason Feng Tao died..."

"He was probably goaded into damaging his portrait. You knew him better, so you should have a clearer idea of whether his mental state would leave him open to being talked into something like that."

Liang Pei bit his lip. Though he didn't want to accept that terrible possibility, he had to agree with Li Xian.

"You're right."

Having his suspicions confirmed didn't put Li Xian at ease. Instead, his expression grew even graver.

Song Qingzhang noticed the change in his mood. "Bro, is there another problem?"

"I'm thinking about... the motive."

"Hmm..." Song Qingzhang's eyes shifted thoughtfully. "Maybe it's not that complicated? Maybe he thought destroying the portrait was the right thing to do, but didn't dare try it himself?"

Liang Pei nodded. "That's what I think too. On the first day, he told us to put our portraits under our beds. Looking back, he was probably using us to test things out."

That explanation made sense, but Li Xian still felt it couldn't fully account for Yi Jing's behavior.

Yi Jing was almost certainly the one who had pushed him from behind. If his only goal was to test things out, why target Li Xian specifically?

Could he have realized I suspected him, so he decided to strike first?

Li Xian turned to Liang Pei. "I hope you'll keep this conversation to yourself."

For now, it was best not to alert him.

Liang Pei nodded. "Then this knife..."

"I'll hold on to it."

Li Xian took the knife back from Liang Pei and slipped it into his pocket.

The day passed without anyone finding any useful clues. All they could do was silently pray that their portraits wouldn't raise another finger tomorrow and that the imprisoned human skin wouldn't escape and hurt anyone. With unease weighing on them, they closed their eyes.

Their prayers went unanswered. Early the next morning, every portrait had raised one more finger.

Someone soon realized the problem.

"If we don't hurry up and find a way to stop the fingers from increasing, we'll all be wiped out on the day of the exhibition. All of us!"

The woman with neatly cropped hair paced anxiously, muttering to herself.

"This isn't right. I've cleared a C-rank instance before. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't like this one, where we can't make any sense of anything..."

She strode up to a door and knocked urgently several times.

"Chen Cheng! Chen Cheng?"

But there wasn't a sound from her companion's room.

"He should be up by now..."

Her hand stopped in midair. Suddenly, she raised it to cover her mouth. "No way..."

Liang Pei walked up beside her, his face ashen, and delivered more bad news.

"I just knocked on Zhang Guangding's door. No one answered there either."