Don't You?

As Zhao Xun was about to reach the second floor, he heard the faint sound of a door opening on the third floor.

He immediately straightened up and raced toward the third floor, taking the stairs two at a time.

He took long strides with every step, but tried to make as little noise as possible.

When he reached the third floor, all the doors were closed. He had no way of telling which room the Short-Haired Woman had entered.

If the Short-Haired Woman's main quest was to destroy the evidence in the safe, letting her get there first would be bad news.

Zhao Xun quickly located the study. Just as he was about to open the door, he suddenly heard the Duke crying loudly for help from another room a few doors away.

Zhao Xun paused.

That had to be the Duke's bedroom.

It seemed the Short-Haired Woman had entered the Duke's bedroom rather than the study.

Her main quest was probably to kill the Duke, which didn't conflict with his own.

Hurried footsteps were already coming from downstairs. Guards patrolling nearby must have heard the commotion and were rushing upstairs.

Zhao Xun calmly turned the doorknob.

With the Duke's life in danger, most of the guards would undoubtedly head for the bedroom. That gave him an excellent opportunity to search the study for evidence in peace.

Zhao Xun gently pushed open the study door.

The study was brightly lit.

Taken aback, Zhao Xun immediately stopped with the door barely cracked open.

He cautiously peered through the gap, then froze again.

Someone stood up by the bookshelves opposite him, her back to Zhao Xun, rapidly flipping through the pages of a book.

She soon finished flipping through it, returned it to its place with one hand, and pulled down another book with the other, continuing to turn pages.

As Zhao Xun watched her back, the surprise on his face faded, replaced by understanding.

He slipped into the study and quietly closed the door before the guards reached the floor.

Hearing the sound, the person in the study immediately turned around.

There wasn't a trace of nervousness or unease on her young face, only wariness, defensiveness, and an instant flash of murderous intent.

The moment she saw Zhao Xun, the young girl paused, then smiled. "Looks like my cover's blown."

In those few seconds, her expression had been completely different from what she had shown in front of everyone earlier. With someone else, she might have made up a lie to brush them off, but not Zhao Xun.

Although they had only briefly encountered each other twice and had never even spoken, she knew perfectly well that Zhao Xun wasn't easy to fool.

Whatever excuse she came up with now probably wouldn't deceive him.

"So this is the real you," Zhao Xun said bluntly. "You're actually a veteran player, deliberately pretending to be a newcomer in front of the other players."

At that moment, he suddenly understood why such thick white fog had appeared when they got off the train.

It wasn't meant to make it harder for the players to locate the Platform Game. It was meant to keep them from knowing which carriage everyone else had left.

The system didn't tell them whether each participant was a new player or a veteran, although most veterans were calmer than newcomers, making the difference obvious at a glance.

But a few skilled actors could easily pretend to be newbies and fool people.

Like the girl in front of him.

"That's right," the girl admitted readily. Then she turned back and continued searching through the books at the same pace as before. "I think pretending to be a newcomer is fun. You get to see so many interesting sides of people."

She seemed completely unconcerned that Zhao Xun might ambush her.

Zhao Xun, however, didn't approach her carelessly.

Since the girl was a veteran player, she wouldn't truly leave herself defenseless against him. She very likely had some means of protecting herself and striking back.

Besides, judging by her actions, she seemed to be searching for something in the study too. Her quest probably didn't conflict with his.

In that case, he had no reason to attack her.

As Zhao Xun examined all the paintings hanging in the study, he asked the girl, "Were you acting helpless in front of the NPC for fun too?"

Every painting in the study depicted a beautiful woman emerging from a bath.

He finally understood why Ruby had described the painting in such detail.

The girl glanced back at Zhao Xun and gave him a sweet smile. "That wasn't entirely for fun. Acting helpless gives an old pervert like him a sense of accomplishment. It makes it easier for me to pry out his secrets."

Zhao Xun laughed. "You still have the leisure to amuse yourself in a game where your life is at stake."

That also explained why the girl hadn't resisted the Duke's groping earlier.

She hadn't actually been afraid.

She had done it to achieve her goal, and because she found it entertaining.

The girl suddenly stopped what she was doing. She slowly climbed down the ladder, her eyes fixed on Zhao Xun. "Don't you?"

Zhao Xun said nothing.

The girl's smile grew sweeter. "Hmm, you aren't really showing it right now. You're a new player, after all. You have to hold back a little. But I can tell you're the same kind of person as me."

Zhao Xun smiled without answering her question. Instead, he asked, "You seem completely unguarded around me, and you have no intention of attacking me. Surely you aren't holding back just because you think we're alike?"

"No, that's not why." The girl shrugged. "I have an item that lets me determine whether the other players who entered the game with me are hostile to me."

She tilted her head, all smiles. "You're green. Perfectly safe."

The latter half of her remark was ambiguous, making it hard to tell whether "perfectly safe" referred to her or Zhao Xun.

Naturally, Zhao Xun couldn't be certain whether she was telling the truth, but that didn't stop him from asking, "Then what's your main quest?"

"Discover the Duke's secrets and expose them to the public," the girl answered without hesitation.

One asked directly, and the other answered frankly.

"What about you?" the girl asked in return.

"Help the Witch prove her innocence," Zhao Xun answered without missing a beat.

Before asking the girl about her main quest, he had already decided on his own answer.

Now he delivered it without the slightest stumble.

"In that case, our quests complement each other." The girl looked delighted. "Why don't we work together? It'll be faster too."

Zhao Xun considered it for a few seconds, then agreed.

The girl hadn't asked why he had come here to look for clues, which suggested she already knew some of the Duke's secrets.

Although he knew exactly where the safe was hidden, he couldn't be certain that the code Ruby had given him would work.

No, if his guess was right, the code had almost certainly been changed.

After discovering that Ruby was collecting evidence of his crimes, the Duke would never have left the code unchanged.

That made the girl, who had spent the past two days by the Duke's side, the person most likely to know the code.

Even if she didn't know it, he would still have to rely on her to coax it out of the Duke later. Zhao Xun had no way of doing that himself.

So working together would indeed benefit them both.