Players, Please Board the Train

Chapter 459: Reversal

The Crimson Sword had sunk more than a finger's width into Tong Jian's neck, but this strike failed to sever his head because, the instant he was hit, he tilted his head and blocked with his dagger!

He dodged even at such a short distance. Xu Huo's brow furrowed. He whipped out the kite string, pinning it into the other's heart, and seized the moment to kick him away!

Tong Jian blocked with his leg and flew backward, simultaneously reaching to pull out the string from his chest. But the next second, his expression changed, because the string was piercing his heart and simply couldn't be pulled out!

"Kite string." Xu Huo pulled the string taut to chest height and smiled. "Mao Wei's item. You're allies, so logically, you should recognize it, right?"

Apart from the Kong siblings, the other players were a temporary team. At best, they might have revealed their professions and Major Characteristics. As for items, they absolutely wouldn't casually mention them until they needed to be used.

Seeing Tong Jian raise his hand, Xu Huo gave the string a sharp inward tug, warning, "Don't try anything sneaky."

Tong Jian had no choice but to open his hands, and the dagger was also recalled to his item slot. "My right hand is bleeding. At least let me stop the bleeding."

"You won't die for a while yet." Xu Huo turned to Miao Yu. "Perhaps they have other players lying in ambush on the island. Could you help keep watch?"

This made Miao Yu, who had been walking towards him, stop in her tracks. She simply flipped up onto a tree.

Over on the other side, the original three had become two. Chu Yuan, who had finally managed to clear the glue and sand plastered on his face, walked over and said, "Gan Qing is gone. Most likely, he ran away.""In that situation just now, even I almost couldn't resist running away." Dr. Deng's hands were still stuck together. Xu Huo had only released the Desert Windmill for a short time, so he had only eaten a bit of sand.

Xu Huo glanced at them but didn't speak.

"Brother Xu, why keep him?" Chu Yuan looked at Tong Jian.

"A bit curious why they aren't leaving Deep Blue Island." Xu Huo asked Tong Jian, "It also doesn't seem like you plan to notify the Bolun Family. Is there another secret on this island?"

Hearing this, the several people present turned to look at Tong Jian. However, Tong Jian just smiled. "I didn't leave because you didn't leave."

"Good grief, he was planning to silence us all." Chu Yuan spat. "He was sizing us up, thinking we were all injured and couldn't leave for the moment, just waiting here!"

"Is that so?" Xu Huo wasn't too convinced. "Wouldn't it be easier for you to wait for other players to come? Even taking a boat from Sayir Coast to Deep Blue Island wouldn't take much time. Why take this risk?"

"The Kong siblings are dead, the dungeon is over. Whether you participate in the follow-up matters or not isn't important. But you actively stayed behind, and possibly haven't even notified people outside. Besides having something to gain, I can't think of any other reason."

"Regarding the laboratory, there must be something you know that others don't, right?"

Dr. Deng looked at Tong Jian in surprise. "Could it be you're not from the Bolun Family?"

Tong Jian didn't answer that question. Instead, he countered, "Speaking of things others don't know, last night, Qiu Xiangdong and I went back to check the third underground level. We discovered there was a cavity wall on the outer perimeter of the laboratory. The area where the hatch was supposed to be built had been blasted open. There were clear signs something had been placed inside, but the thing was already gone."

"It was taken away in advance by someone here, right?"

His words made the people present perk up. Dr. Deng couldn't help asking, "Are you telling the truth?"

"If you don't believe me, you can send someone to check." Tong Jian looked at them coldly. "Perhaps what was hidden in the cavity wall was the potion."

"When the explosion happened, Dr. Deng, Gan Qing, and I were directly blasted out to sea. We didn't have the time. That leaves..." Chu Yuan didn't finish his sentence, but a simple process of elimination showed that the most likely people to have taken the thing from the cavity wall were Miao Yu, who killed Kong Cheng; Xu Huo, who killed Kong Hui; Tong Jian, who went back to the third underground level; and the escaped Qiu Xiangdong.

"The potion couldn't have been taken by them." Dr. Deng said. "Otherwise, once they found the potion, they should have left."

"We also can't rule out that they deliberately stayed behind to silence everyone." Miao Yu said. "The third underground level was blown up. The Bolun Family will discover the cavity wall sooner or later and lock onto targets."

"Don't you find that statement laughable?" Tong Jian retorted. "The Bolun Family knows the list of participants in this dungeon. What use would silencing everyone be for me? Wouldn't it be better to flee to other Game Partitions as quickly as possible? Could the Bolun Family possibly search every single Game Partition?"

Miao Yu was silent for a few seconds before saying to Xu Huo and the others, "What he says makes sense."

That left Xu Huo and Miao Yu.

Chu Yuan looked at them and then said, "Not necessarily either. If they found the potion, why not run but stay? Clearly, Qiu Xiangdong's suspicion is greater, right? During the explosion, Xu Zhi and Miao Yu were tied up by the Kong siblings. Only he had nothing to do."

"Isn't that kind of reasoning treating everyone else like fools?" Xu Huo said nonchalantly. "If Qiu Xiangdong got the potion after the explosion yesterday and wasn't injured, would he stay behind to drink the wind or wait to be killed?"

Chu Yuan rolled his eyes. "So, by that logic, the thing in the cavity wall must have been taken by one of you two."

"Not me." Miao Yu was the first to clear herself and said, "The last one up yesterday was you, Xu Zhi."

"It's true I was the last one up," Xu Huo gave the kite string a tug, glanced at the pained expression on Tong Jian's face, and smiled. "But at this point, you can stop acting."

"What do you mean?" Tong Jian was in pain but didn't dare pull on the kite string.

"I mean, since you two are companions, there's no need to try and clear each other's names." Xu Huo signaled for Miao Yu to stand further away. "What cavity wall, what thing? The only reason you didn't leave is to silence everyone, to silence Dr. Deng."

Dr. Deng was startled. "You're saying Miao Yu and Tong Jian are in cahoots?"

Chu Yuan was also stunned. "What kind of plot twist is this? I'm a bit confused."

"Let's set aside Qiu Xiangdong for now. Wu Xiaonan, as Miao Yu said, should indeed have boarded the Kong siblings' ship later." Xu Huo looked at Miao Yu. "However, there's a huge flaw here: you, as a hostage, were far too lively and active. If it were me, I'd at least neutralize your offensive capabilities before capturing you. Otherwise, it would be better to just kill you directly."

"And the act of taking a hostage itself is superfluous. In a dungeon, there are no friends, only temporary allies. The Kong siblings, veterans of many dungeons, wouldn't do such an unnecessary thing."

"Reasoning it out this way, the situation becomes quite clear. It was indeed you who injured Wu Xiaonan, but the one who temporarily switched sides was also you."

"The reason for doing this was that you didn't trust Dr. Deng and also wanted to ascertain whether Dr. Deng truly knew the potion's hiding place."

"Later, after Qiu Xiangdong's repeated confirmations, the Kong siblings determined Dr. Deng truly had no further clues and came downstairs to finish things off."

"At that point, still dragging you along as a hostage was even more abnormal. Wouldn't it be better to deal with you on the spot?"