Chapter 68: Before Dawn (7)
Faced with Rong Yi’s threat, Tang Cuo felt like he’d been bitten by a summer mosquito—a little itchy, and he just wanted to swat it dead and be done with it. However, the implication hidden within Rong Yi’s words caught his attention more. He looked straight into Rong Yi’s eyes and said, “There’s a second timeline besides the one you came from?”
Jin Cheng noticed it too. If Rong Yi was telling the truth, then out of the six players, split across five timelines, everyone except Tang Cuo and Qi Hui had been isolated.
The system truly knew how to play games.
Rong Yi’s expression remained unchanged. “That’s the core of the deal. When midnight strikes, I can take you to my timeline. According to the rules of this instance, once all players have left a timeline, its time will reset to the moment the player first entered. In other words, you’ll have another chance to time travel from there.”
Jin Cheng: “So what do you need us to do?”
Rong Yi: “I want to use the Movement to redeem someone, terminating their karma-clearing process and sending them straight to reincarnation. The Sixth Movement has massive authority; once you do this for me, you can still use it for other things.”
“Oh, that sounds very interesting,” Jin Cheng said with amusement. “Who do you want to redeem? I’ve been in Yong Ye City for three years, and I’ve never heard of you having some old flame working as an NPC in an instance.”
Rong Yi: “Do you think I’d tell you?”
Jin Cheng innocently looked at Tang Cuo, shrugged, and said, “You see? He’s not cooperating with me at all.”
Faced with Jin Cheng’s complaining, Tang Cuo wasn’t particularly inclined to cooperate with him either; it was too childish. Out of the corner of his eye, he kept tabs on Qi Hui. He noticed Qi Hui’s expression change slightly when Rong Yi mentioned redeeming someone, leading him to believe Qi Hui and his teammates’ goal was likely related to this as well.
After a moment’s thought, Tang Cuo looked at Rong Yi again and said, “According to your logic, we can also go to 1924.”
If a timeline reset once all players left, then with no one currently in 1924, time would revert to before 10:00 PM.
“As long as you don’t find a new time coordinate, you won’t be able to obtain all the clues and clear the instance. Going to 1924 will only delay time, because you can’t shake me off,” Rong Yi said, completely devoid of any intention to underestimate Tang Cuo. Ordinary players might only see Jin Cheng’s halo and ignore the man standing beneath it, but the elites of Zone A absolutely would not.
Based on the intel filtering up from Zone F, this Tang Cuo was definitely not simple. Once he matured, his partnership with Jin Cheng would be the ultimate nightmare for any opposing players.
Faced with Rong Yi’s repeated threats, Jin Cheng simply laughed. Tilting his head toward Tang Cuo, he said, “You might not know this, but our great Detective Tang has a secret skill called repeated horizontal jumping.” (T/N: means quickly jumping back and forth between two sides.)
Rong Yi: “…”
Tang Cuo: “…………”
He really wanted to crack open Jin Cheng’s skull to see what kind of garbage he was thinking about all day.
Jin Cheng felt very innocent because he was telling the truth! Tang Cuo said they could go to 1924—wasn’t that the first jump? Even if Rong Yi followed them and immediately adjusted the time to midnight, they could still jump from 1924 right back to 1926.
If Rong Yi adjusted the time again, they’d just jump from 1926 back to 1924—an infinite loop. Anyway, as long as they made sure everyone jumped together without leaving anyone behind, they’d be fine.
Theoretically, they could repeatedly jump back and forth between 1924 and 1926 until the end of time.
Even if Rong Yi stayed in 1926 so they couldn’t jump back from 1924, wasn’t that even better? They could leisurely search for clues in 1924. With two to three hours of leeway, Jin Cheng fully believed in Tang Cuo’s brilliance to definitely uncover a new time coordinate.
Rong Yi had no idea a method as cheeky as “repeated horizontal jumping” existed. Naturally, he couldn’t stay in 1926 alone and let Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng search for clues in peace. But if he really jumped back and forth with them, how much of an idiot would he look like?
The atmosphere stalled; no one spoke.
After a long while, Rong Yi finally cast a glance at the completely ignored Qi Hui and said, “You could do that, but can you guarantee he is absolutely on the same page as you?”
Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng simultaneously looked at Qi Hui. True, as long as Qi Hui didn’t jump with them, the repeated horizontal jumping strategy couldn’t be executed.
Being stared down collectively by three big bosses made cold sweat pour down Qi Hui’s face. He was anxious to declare his loyalty to Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng, but as the words reached his lips, he suddenly remembered his other teammates and abruptly changed his tune. “I-If I follow your lead, can you promise me one condition?”
Jin Cheng raised an eyebrow. He truly hadn’t anticipated this twist.
Qi Hui regretted it the second the words left his mouth. Seeing Jin Cheng’s expression made his heart pound like a drum. He knew full well his own strength didn’t give him the right to negotiate, but with the words already spoken, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and continue. “My teammates and I entered this instance to find the Twelve Movements to save someone too. H-He was a member of our team who died in an instance a while back. He died trying to save us.”
Jin Cheng: “He died to save you guys, so to save him, you guys are going to throw your lives away too?”
Jin Cheng’s words were extremely harsh, causing Qi Hui’s face to flush bright red, but he had no way to refute them. Reaching this point in the mission, he had already profoundly realized that this instance absolutely could not be cleared by their small group alone. Without Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng, they were quite literally courting death.
Just then, Qi Hui met Tang Cuo’s gaze.
Tang Cuo looked at him without speaking, his eyes calm and profound. Under such scrutiny, Qi Hui suddenly remembered something he had completely forgotten—Tang Cuo had forced him to swallow poison.
Qi Hui’s eyes abruptly widened in horror. It was his own carelessness; Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng’s lenient attitude toward him had made him automatically forget about it. Realizing this, he hurriedly opened his character panel, only to find his attributes hadn’t changed at all.
Why? He had even seized the opportunity to negotiate terms—why hadn’t the poison flared up?
Unaware of the poison incident, Jin Cheng shifted his gaze back to Rong Yi and said, “Are you guys treating the Twelve Movements like a cafeteria suggestion book? Everyone wants to write an entry, but there’s not enough room on one page.”
“Then what do you propose?” Rong Yi countered.
“We exchange information fairly and justly. Whoever gets the Twelve Movements keeps it. Furthermore, we guarantee not to attack each other after leaving this instance. Accept your loss gracefully,” Jin Cheng stated firmly.
Rong Yi didn’t doubt Jin Cheng’s words. Although the man was full of tricks and had a dirty heart, he was indeed someone who kept his promises. Rong Yi could distinguish between a promise and a treacherous scheme.
However, this made him highly doubtful he’d actually be able to secure the Movement, as he wasn’t a brain-type player. He cast his gaze back to Qi Hui, who was sweating profusely.
Never had Qi Hui expected that the deciding factor in a game between big bosses would fall squarely onto his own shoulders.
If Qi Hui sided with Jin Cheng, they would execute the “repeated horizontal jump,” leaving Rong Yi helpless. If Qi Hui sided with Rong Yi, the “repeated horizontal jump” would fail, forcing Jin Cheng to accept Rong Yi’s terms.
By this point, Qi Hui looked again at the calm and composed Tang Cuo, who appeared completely detached from the situation, and finally understood everything—there was never any poison; Tang Cuo had completely bluffed him.
But Qi Hui also hadn’t expected Jin Cheng to swiftly offer an alternative solution. “Stop looking at him. If you look at him again, I’ll kill him.”
Rong Yi frowned, though his tone remained certain. “You wouldn’t kill innocents indiscriminately.”
Jin Cheng smiled. “Thank you for holding me in such high regard, but did you forget about the Twelve Movements? By your own admission, the Sixth Movement has immense authority. I could absolutely just resurrect him at the very end. Even if I don’t resurrect him, so what? If he has the guts to betray me and threaten me, he must have the courage to bear the consequences.”
In that instant, Jin Cheng unleashed his full aura. Every single word carried a thousand pounds of weight, slamming ruthlessly onto Qi Hui’s heart.
He finally truly realized exactly who he was facing. How could the infamous Blacklist Maniac be a pushover? Even if he had never shown malice toward ordinary players and single-handedly built the East Cross Street safe zone, how could he possibly tolerate someone threatening him?
“I…” Qi Hui didn’t dare utter another word.
Seeing his reaction, Rong Yi knew this path was completely blocked. After pondering for a moment, he finally nodded and accepted Jin Cheng’s proposal. Having agreed, he stopped wasting time.
“What intel do you have to exchange with me?” he asked.
“I’ll trade a three-digit code for your spatial coordinate,” Jin Cheng paused, then added, “This is intel from Lin Yandong.”
The name “Lin Yandong” undoubtedly served as a guarantee for the reliability and usefulness of the intel. However, Rong Yi had no way of knowing if Jin Cheng was bluffing him, just as Jin Cheng couldn’t be certain of the authenticity of Rong Yi’s intel.
At a time like this, it all came down to a gamble.
The two locked eyes, a silent clash of gazes taking place.
A moment later.
“1936.” “062.”
Deal struck.
Since they had decided on fair competition, and Rong Yi possessed a cheat to manipulate time, he naturally wouldn’t travel with Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo. Thus, an agreement was reached: Rong Yi would step in and fast-forward the time to midnight. Jin Cheng, Tang Cuo, and Qi Hui would head to 1936, while Rong Yi headed to 1924, splitting up to act independently.
Soon, the grandfather clock in the living room chimed the hour, and the piano music drifted from the second floor once more.
With a flash of their surroundings, Rong Yi vanished from Tang Cuo’s sight. Looking around, the haunted mansion was still a haunted mansion, only more dilapidated and much dimmer. Cobwebs hung everywhere, and a thick layer of dust blanketed the furniture.
Ten years had passed since the Yu Residence massacre.
What could have possibly happened at this point in time?
“Find corpses,” Tang Cuo said succinctly.
“You think someone died here too?” Jin Cheng asked.
“Why do you think the system chose 1923, 1924, and 1926 as the time coordinates? They only share one commonality—a murder had just occurred.”
“Then who do you think died this time?”
Tang Cuo: “Someone who luckily survived 1926.”
There were only two possible survivors: the Miss and the attic occupant.
The current time was 8:34 PM. The three split up; Tang Cuo and Qi Hui went to the closer basement, while the highly skilled and daring Jin Cheng headed to the second floor alone.
The Yu Residence in this timeline also had ghosts. The ghosts of the butler, the middle-aged maid, and the young maid had all been spotted. If a murder truly occurred here as well, then just as Tang Cuo said—
“Even if we can’t find the corpse, finding his or her ghost will work too.”
After what happened earlier, Qi Hui had become much quieter and far more cautious. However, Tang Cuo held no grudge against him. He never forced his own standards onto others; as long as Qi Hui didn’t cause trouble, he didn’t care.
Though he also wouldn’t go out of his way to offer comfort.
After ten years, the corpses in the basement had been reduced to white bones. However, the number of corpses hadn’t changed, nor had the items on them. The only difference was the incense ash in the burner—the ash was fresh.
This indicated that someone had offered incense here recently.
The two skeletons on the floor remained in their original positions without being moved, meaning the person offering incense could only be directing it to—Yu Wangyue in the coffin.
If they had been paying respects to Yu Wangnian and the butler, they would have at least arranged their corpses properly.
Aside from the incense ash, there were no other clues here. Tang Cuo then led Qi Hui to the second floor to find Jin Cheng.
Jin Cheng was currently tinkering in Yu Wangyue’s room, but strangely, Yu Wangyue wasn’t inside this time. Hearing footsteps, Jin Cheng turned his head and said, “Take a guess where Yu Wangyue is.”
Tang Cuo: “The attic.”
Qi Hui was completely lost. How did they know he was in the attic?
But this time, neither Tang Cuo nor Jin Cheng explained. Not daring to ask, Qi Hui could only follow along. Lin Wan’s ghost was still whimpering in her room, and the moment the three approached, she appeared again.
Jin Cheng held her back while Tang Cuo and Qi Hui rushed straight to the attic. This time, the lock on the attic door was open.
Seeing the open lock, Qi Hui instinctively looked at Tang Cuo, knowing Tang Cuo had definitely guessed correctly again. After Rong Yi left 1936, the timeline here reset, meaning everything in this space should have reverted to its original state.
If the attic door wasn’t opened by Rong Yi, it could only be an NPC.
Pushing the door open, there were two ghosts sitting inside, playing chess.
One was Yu Wangyue. The other was a man whose hair, height, and facial features somewhat resembled his. Not exactly identical, but the longer you looked, the more striking the resemblance felt.
The two highly similar ghosts turned their heads simultaneously to look at them.
Right at that moment, Jin Cheng arrived as well.
