Unexpected

The room abruptly fell silent.

After An Ke finished speaking, she pressed her lips tightly together and stared fixedly at him.

Only after a long while, when Ye Lin spoke again, did she breathe a sigh of relief.

"Tell me everything you know. And why are you so sure he got out, and that he was the only one?"

Faced with Ye Lin's questions, An Ke instead relaxed, a faint smile appearing on her face.

Good. She had been afraid he wouldn't be interested. If he was questioning her, that meant he cared.

"Because the system said so."

"Whenever something major happens, the system makes an announcement. So when he got out, it broadcast that information."

As she spoke, recollection surfaced in An Ke's eyes, along with a tangle of emotions.

Ye Lin might not understand how she felt, since he had only just arrived. When that announcement sounded, every examinee who heard it had been beside themselves with excitement. Some had even burst into tears.

They weren't the ones who had escaped, but it meant someone really could get out of here alive and leave this hell behind!

What happened afterward, however, had caught everyone off guard.

Suppressing her emotions, An Ke brushed aside the fine strands of hair over her forehead.

"You can ask He Zheng to verify that, though he might not have heard the announcement. He didn't come here that early, after all."

"The reason I'm certain he wrote this letter is that I only survived thanks to something he left behind."

Ye Lin raised an eyebrow. After a moment's thought, he understood what An Ke meant.

"You're saying he didn't just leave a letter. He left some things, too. And one of those things let you forcibly withdraw from the Seventh Exam?"

"No... there's more than one letter, isn't there? And more than one thing he left behind."

"In that case..."

Ye Lin's eyes flickered.

"So the letters he left are essentially treasure maps. We need to follow them one by one and find everything he left behind before we can learn the truth about the Death Exam."

An Ke froze, staring at Ye Lin in shock.

She hadn't expected him to guess the answer before she had even finished.

Ever since she had obtained this letter, not a single other person had seen it. Even everyone in that exam had died.

Yet Ye Lin spoke as if he had been there himself and opened it on the spot.

"There's nothing to be surprised about."

Ye Lin spoke calmly.

"If there were only one letter, and all it contained was the answer, you wouldn't need to assess my strength, much less talk about cooperation."

"Unless he left behind a lot of things, and you want them."

"You were punished and lost all your strength. Yet you can kill Species without having redeemed any points."

"So the power you have could only come from something he left behind. That's why you're so afraid of exposing yourself."

"Because what he left behind isn't just the truth about the Death Exam. It's also a path that lets someone follow in his footsteps!"

Ye Lin finished with a cold laugh. There was another reason he was so certain.

An Ke had brought the letter straight to him.

If there were only one letter, An Ke would never have shown it so readily. She could simply have told him what it said.

So the real reason An Ke cared so much about his strength was that she wanted to use him to find the remaining things.

An Ke's heart lurched, and her expression stiffened.

She had wanted to hide that part and only tell Ye Lin about the letters. But merely hearing her mention how she had survived had allowed him to piece together the whole story.

Meeting Ye Lin's icy gaze, she felt a powerful unease rise within her.

Suddenly, she regretted bringing the second letter. She also regretted revealing that extra information.

At this point, Ye Lin could easily "kill" her, take the letter, and then search for what that man had left behind on his own!

Of course, regret was useless. Even if she hadn't brought it, Ye Lin would still have grown suspicious.

An Ke gritted her teeth.

"I admit he left behind a lot of things, and there's more than one letter."

"You can have all of those things, as long as you can guarantee my safety!"

"Believe me, it's absolutely worth it!"

"What he left behind is beyond anything you can imagine! You've only been through one exam. You have no idea how terrifyingly difficult the later ones are! Without those things, our chances of surviving the Seventh Exam are practically zero! Never mind getting out!"

"There's still a lot I know. Once you get those things, I know how to use them, too!"

Admittedly, Ye Lin was the smartest newcomer she had ever met.

Even so, she didn't believe he could make it to the end. In the later exams, every survivor was formidable, with intelligence and courage that were one in ten thousand. Yet only one person had ever made it all the way.

The real reason Ye Lin could threaten her was that he had earned far too many points in his last exam! His strength simply overwhelmed hers.

Contrary to An Ke's expectations, Ye Lin merely chuckled after hearing her out.

"Finished?"

"You seem very afraid I'll kill you and keep everything that man left behind for myself."

"But the truth is, I'm not interested at all."

Ye Lin shook his head, paying no attention to An Ke's suddenly frozen gaze.

"Don't you think everything you've said sounds like some tired old story?"

"The only person who ever got out leaves a bunch of letters, acting all mysterious, along with a few treasures, just waiting for the right person to find them."

"Then that person follows the clues he left, gradually grows stronger, and unravels the mystery bit by bit until they discover the truth."

"In the end, everyone joins forces and escapes, smiling as they step into the sunlight."

Ye Lin paused briefly.

"Too clichéd? So clichéd it sounds like a novel, like the most formulaic commercial script."

Meeting An Ke's stunned gaze, Ye Lin spoke each word distinctly.

"I'm not interested. Really."

"It's too fake, and too boring."

"I don't believe the only person who managed to get out alive would be bored enough to do something like this. Nor do I believe he'd be that kindhearted."

"I'm much more inclined to think it's a trap."

With that, Ye Lin pulled the letter from An Ke's hand, glanced over it, and returned it to her.

He didn't care what that man was plotting or why he was doing this. The best response was simply to ignore it.

Even if it was real, he trusted only himself and would follow only his own path.

Yet this time, the turn things took caught Ye Lin completely off guard.

After a brief silence, An Ke opened her mouth. She seemed to struggle and hesitate before finally gathering her courage and forcing out the words.

"But what if he died after learning the truth?"

"What if he killed himself after leaving this letter?"

Ye Lin froze, astonishment spreading across his face.

After a long moment, he suddenly laughed.

"Then."

"That makes it very interesting..."