"An item?" Ren Ye raised his eyebrows. "What item?"
"A gift from Baldhead Zhong, a Fortune Divination Stick." Brother Hong made no attempt to hide it. "I had to draw twice to get it. Once used, the stick can divine good or ill fortune at any mission location. If the result is good, you can find out beforehand whose Autobiography fragments the location rewards, how many there are, and how many Gold Coins. If it's bad, you can learn a small portion of the location's rules beforehand. I haven't used it yet, so I don't know the finer details."
Hearing this, Ren Ye frowned and sank into thought.
"Doesn't that stick suggest something to you?" Brother Hong added quietly. "Put plainly, you could get absolutely anything from the Scratch-Off Ticket game. Look at me. I got a 'hint-type' reward."
He spoke clearly, placing heavy emphasis on "hint-type."
"I see what you mean. If someone was lucky enough to draw an item reward related to the Secret Chamber's rules, they might have gained the ability to predict things in advance? And use that to kill through someone else's hands?" Ren Ye looked up at him.
"Exactly."
Brother Hong nodded emphatically. "I suspected the woman before, because there was no way to verify what she said. And she placed first on the first day, which meant she might have gotten an important item. But she died today too, so it's hard to say now. I think... anyone could be pulling something behind the scenes."
"That line of thinking does make sense." Ren Ye agreed with a sigh. "In a Star Gate with individual competition, people's hearts are hard to judge."
"That's why I asked whether those two who went with you yesterday ever acted alone," Brother Hong said quietly. "On the first