Who gave you permission to travel through time with Earth?

Chapter 66 Several Flaws

"Are you sure... he's so drunk he's on the verge of death?"

"He seems perfectly fine to me."

Jing Xiu's voice pulled Tie Zhao back to reality from his agitation. He looked at Fang Jin at the door in astonishment. Like Jing Xiu, Fang Jin also appreciated the scene of betrayal before him, her clear eyes shining.

"Keep going, why are you looking at me? What if Jiang Yu has a backup plan if you don't clean things up properly? Since you've already become a traitor, you should be more efficient... otherwise, what's the point of having you?"

Fang Jin showed no signs of drunkenness whatsoever. She even tossed three or four mints up and down, then popped them into her mouth along the same trajectory, chewed for a moment, and then laughed.

"Sap's been waiting for you, haven't you? I'm still alive!"

"..."

"What foreign language? And he didn't seem to say you were dead..."

"Shut up, you two-tailed brat! No interrupting when it comes to classic lines!"

Fang Jin angrily rebuked him, causing the veins on Jing Xiu's forehead to bulge, but he did not make any rash moves, because Fang Jin's position was at the boundary between the threshold and the inner room.

Even though he had blocked the door with his foot, it wasn't closed. If it startled Fang Jin and she chose to escape, or even if he simply closed the door, according to the museum's rules, they wouldn't have a chance to leave the room for a while.

"...I don't understand, how did you figure that out?"

Iron Cover staggered forward a few steps, and for the first time, his eyes, which had always been ferocious, showed a look of bewilderment. He thought he had hidden himself well enough, but Tavern Night had been able to avoid the damage, yet he had been seriously injured several times.

"It's actually quite obvious."

On this point, Fang Jin chose to tell the truth. The fun he was most looking forward to wasn't actually here; he just wanted to explain based on the flaws he'd noticed... although this would only bring Tie Zhao a deeper level of embarrassment and annoyance.

"No matter how incomplete the dungeon world is, the basic rules will not change. They will progress from easy to difficult, and unless it is a dungeon of nightmare difficulty or higher, there will be very few sudden changes in difficulty."

"Then why did your team of players suffer a complete wipeout on the first floor? Most of the main puzzles were passable even by first-tier players, yet you singled out and killed everyone on your level?"

"...They didn't actually die at the hands of some rich man. Instead, after they were transferred to the Demise Zone by the Chessboard Space, they were ambushed and slaughtered by the real main force there."

"..."

"You actually know about the novelist's pawns... "

Iron Shield said resentfully, his steel teeth under the mask grinding together. He had been suspected by Fang Jin since so early on, and he had maintained a detached and contemptuous attitude ever since.

"Information and intelligence are always the most important aspects. If you dare to break in without knowing anything, I'm afraid you would have killed me on the first floor. The pieces of corpses scattered all over the chessboard are proof of that."

Fang Jin smiled and lightly tapped the door with her toes, a silent provocation directed at the two people in the room.

"But even then, I was still wondering if Iron Shield was already dead, and if you were no longer yourself, but some scavenger who had disguised himself and teleported back to infiltrate our midst, waiting for an opportunity to strike."

"But the details seem difficult to achieve. Your performance and the iron shield fit together too well. Although equipment and tools can be changed, the smooth and natural use of them can only be achieved by the real person."

"And most importantly..."

Fang Jin paused, a look of helplessness and mockery on his face. He kicked open the sliding door, letting bright sunlight stream into the enclosed room. Both of their hearts leaped into their throats as if in a cruel joke.

"You're in a bit too much of a hurry."

"The first floor led their followers into the room to their deaths, the second floor has repeatedly shown radicalism, and even offered frank advice on going to the third floor... What are you so impatient about? What are you trying to guide them towards?"

"This is your territory, the main stronghold of the scavengers. You should know this place well enough to toy with us at will, so why are you behaving so pathetically?"

"The answer is simple: because you can't outsmart us. The maximum threat a broken dungeon can pose is only at the level of the tavern, and your own strength can't guarantee a reliable sneak attack."

"Therefore, we can only guide and hint, drive us to this room on the third floor, and use our own betrayal and the ambush by someone in the treasure room to completely wipe out the remnants of this punitive expedition."

"Although, in my opinion... you're practically telling me outright that the treasure room has been replaced by the chessboard space, and that the real enemy who poses a threat to me is currently lurking inside."

"After all, although the rules restrict you to starting from the first floor, it's incredibly easy to send someone directly to the third floor by using chess pieces to exchange rooms... You can figure that out just by thinking about it."

Iron Shield's face changed from pale to green. Not only was his true identity seen through from the beginning, but the suspicions only intensified step by step. He even exposed the ambush in the treasure room. What... what was he doing?

Jing Xiu's expression was equally gloomy, but he was more focused on Tie Zhao than Fang Jin. This good-for-nothing had revealed his true colors from the very beginning, turning what should have been a perfect surprise attack into such an embarrassing situation.

But he remained relatively unconcerned; the situation was far from out of control. So Jing Xiu simply smiled, stepped forward to take over the iron shield, and spoke loudly:

"But friend, you don't seem to be that smart. Even though you saw through it from the beginning, didn't you still let the iron cage lead you by the nose and end up in the same situation as Jiang Yu?"

"You're only slightly better off than her; you don't have to die immediately. But once the room is locked, you still can't leave the museum. Are you going to just stay here and wait for us to come back and kill you?"

"Second Master Jing, right? You've misunderstood. I've already said that none of the above is the point."

Fang Jin shook her head and smiled, then turned and slammed the door shut behind her. The moment the latch closed, the entire door vanished; the room had been sealed off by the rules.

"Iron Cover's actions actually told me a few things. First of all, it seems that Chief Chen has no way to contact us. He entered the first floor first because of prior selection and arrangements."

"...So what if it is? Establishing contact requires procuring other equipment or skills. What if this exposes the headquarters' secrets and intimidates you into not coming in?"

Jing Xiu laughed, but there was no smile in his eyes. He felt that he had really met his match this time, not himself... but Chen Yuan, the boss of Chen.

How could such a subtle flaw be caught?

"That makes it even simpler. Since communication between the two systems is impossible, it means the time the room is in the museum is fixed. How can spatial exchanges continue indefinitely?"

"Furthermore, after dealing with the troublemakers here, you should also go back as combat force to wipe out the liquor gang. The boss is probably keeping track of the time and will bring you back as soon as it's time."

"..."