Drawing lots

"This... you can't! You're killing someone inside the Instance! You'll be punished!"

Yi Jing struggled in panic. There was a Human-Skin Monster in that room. If they locked him inside, he would definitely die!

"Don't listen to his bullshit!" Jiang Yan retorted. "There are severe penalties for killing someone directly inside an Instance, but exploiting loopholes to kill indirectly is fine. If that counted as murder, wouldn't you have died eight hundred times by now?"

Seeing that he could no longer fool them, Yi Jing finally told the truth:

"Yes! The mistress did give me a condition: get anyone to damage a painting in their room!"

Li Xian asked, "Then why did you bring so many people along at the start?"

"To help me test the death conditions. The mistress approaching me was completely unexpected."

Liang Pei frowned. "So you killed the others too?"

"No. Aside from Feng Tao, their deaths had nothing to do with me. They were simply useless."

"You..."

Liang Pei didn't believe him and swung a fist at Yi Jing, but Li Xian stopped him mid-swing.

"He's probably telling the truth."

Yi Jing glanced at Li Xian in surprise, then heard him add:

"But if I'd died in an 'accident,' that would no longer be true."

"Why did you push me in Feng Tao's room?"

"So you noticed after all." Yi Jing wasn't surprised. "I wasn't planning to target you at first."

"But the mistress gave me another condition: get you killed too... you were just too cautious. I got impatient, so my methods were a little sloppy."

A trace of regret crept into Yi Jing's voice.

If Li Xian had died, the rest of them would never have been able to cause any trouble, and he wouldn't have ended up in this position.

"Why does the mistress want me dead?"

"Who knows? Maybe because you're good-looking."

With a hint of gloating, Yi Jing threw those words back at Li Xian.

[What? The Instance boss actually singled someone out? How is that even a thing?]

[So that's why Yi Jing wanted to kill Li Xian.]

[The last Instance seemed to be targeting the streamer too. Why is this one doing the same?]

[Only my man Li could hear that without batting an eye. Anyone else would've fallen apart.]

[They've asked everything they need to. Hurry up and lock Yi Jing in that room. You can't leave someone like him alive. He's still taunting people with death staring him in the face.]

Yet Li Xian wasn't angry at all. Instead, he smiled and said:

"Did you know? People killed by the human skin turn into monsters just like it. There are probably four of them now. The mistress may have helped you, but she never intended to let you live either."

Yi Jing was smart. Without needing Li Xian to explain, he quickly realized that what he said was true, and his face turned sickly green.

Jiang Yan didn't understand, so Song Qingzhang carefully explained the situation to her again. After listening, she covered her mouth with a trembling hand. "How could this..."

Yet "Mr. Zhang," who stood nearby and had heard the same explanation, looked perfectly composed and showed no reaction.

Yi Jing stared motionlessly at the ground. Cold sweat dripped from his forehead onto the floor, and then he abruptly raised his head.

"Tell me. What do you want me to do?"

Li Xian said, "Go to the mistress. Pretend you discovered this yourself, and demand an explanation."

[!!!]

[Right! That's an option too!]

[I was wondering why the streamer was being so nice to this *. Turns out he's still useful!]

[Honestly, this is probably our best shot right now. There are no clues about the human skin, and time's running out. They'll have to pry something out of the mistress.]

Yi Jing fell silent.

"What are you thinking about? You don't have a choice anymore."

"If you ask her, you might die. If you don't, you definitely will."

In the end, Yi Jing agreed.

Song Qingzhang and Liang Pei released their grip on him. Yi Jing hissed, only then realizing that both his arms had gone numb.

He staggered to his feet and headed down to the first floor.

Dolly happened to be drinking tea in the hall at that time.

The others hid some distance away, out of her sight, and watched the two negotiate.

Yi Jing spoke indignantly, while the mistress, Dolly, had her back to the others, leaving her expression hidden.

A few minutes later, Yi Jing returned to them.

Once they were back on the third floor, Jiang Yan asked urgently, "What did you find out?!"

"She told me how to resist the human skin."

"What is it? Tell us!"

Yi Jing's expression was grim. "But first, you have to guarantee that I won't die."

"No problem."

Li Xian agreed readily.

"Picture frames. Frame the human skin, and it'll be trapped inside."

"But where are we supposed to find..." Halfway through, Jiang Yan realized the answer. "There are empty frames hanging in the exhibition hall!"

They hurried to the second floor and each took a frame off the wall. Only then did they realize why Yi Jing had demanded that they not let him die.

There were six people still alive, but only five frames.

Yi Jing clutched the frame he had taken and stared at Li Xian. "You already agreed. You can't go back on your word. Otherwise, I'll tell the mistress you've discovered the secret, and none of us will get out alive."

"Then... what do we do?"

Song Qingzhang was stumped.

"Four human skins, five frames, six people..."

Song Qingzhang's head ached. He felt as though he were back in high school, solving permutations and combinations.

If they chose one person to go without a frame, that person would still have a chance of surviving. It was...

One in three.

Too low.

Song Qingzhang immediately realized he was approaching this the wrong way.

Even if the odds were good, who would want to be the one left to chance?

"What if we put a frame between two doors?"

Song Qingzhang suggested.

"That won't work, will it? There wouldn't be time to grab it. And what if the rooms the human skins attack are next to each other?"

"Right..."

They remained at an impasse until Li Xian finally offered a solution:

"Have two people share a room."

Jiang Yan asked, "But what if that breaks a rule? And how do we choose those two?"

"It's our only option. We'll draw lots to decide who shares."

The others had no choice but to agree. Li Xian found six slips of paper, marked two of them, then crumpled them into balls and placed them in his palm.

"Pick one. The last one left is mine."

They each took a paper ball. Those who unfolded blank slips let out long breaths of relief.

Li Xian unfolded his slip. A crooked little ghost was drawn on the crumpled paper.

He'd drawn a marked one.

[Man, the streamer's luck is terrible.]

[My heart sank the moment he opened that paper.]

[But what did he draw? Sanxingdui?]

[Hiss... I can't tell. It's so abstract.]

Li Xian looked around, trying to find the other unlucky person who would be sharing with him, but to his surprise, no one looked troubled.

"Who else got one?"

Li Xian waved his slip of paper.

"Me."

Li Xian looked over and saw "Mr. Zhang" raise his hand with a smile.