Changsheng Building
Chapter 657: Desperate people will take desperate measures
—How to make a tightly knit, massive organization fall apart?
“You mean… Pinocchio?”
The anchor scrutinized Gentleman’s expression while carefully choosing his words,
“Didn’t you say he was left on that ship?”
Gentleman said gloomily, “Obviously, he wasn’t.”
“But…” How was that done?
After all, since the end of the Lucky Cruise instance, Oracle had been closely monitoring movements there, but Pinocchio’s name had remained gray throughout, never lighting up even once before they entered the instance.
Moreover, before this instance started, they had carefully inspected the square and hadn’t seen Wen Jianyan at all.
However, seeing Gentleman’s ugly expression, the anchors finally swallowed their questions.
“Although I don’t know how he did it, I’m certain he had a hand in this matter,” Gentleman sifted through everything that happened since entering this instance in his mind, his expression gradually becoming ugly. Although he hadn’t found definite evidence yet, judging from everything happening now, there was absolutely no second possibility—it was even highly likely that since they entered this instance, they had fallen into Pinocchio’s trap.
“And Dark Fire… they must have colluded by some means, no mistake.”
Gentleman said gloomily.
“Wait until we leave this instance; I’ll make them pay.”
“…”
Listening to Gentleman muttering to himself, the other anchors around looked at each other but dared not really say anything.
But they all knew in their hearts how fantastic such a theory was.
They could control anchors entering a specific instance because they had privileges in Nightmare, but what did Pinocchio have?
Besides, he would need Dark Fire, Nightmare’s second-largest guild, to cooperate with him, and possess the ability to ignore Nightmare and secretly manipulate an entire instance from the shadows…
No matter how you looked at it, this was almost impossible to achieve.
Moreover, all the challenges they faced now didn’t exceed the scope of the instance’s own difficulty… At least for them, it was hard to see any trace of human manipulation.
However, thinking of Gentleman’s increasingly radical methods since entering this instance, everyone swallowed their doubts and dared not raise any objections.
Only a anchor at the end of the team lowered his head to hide his ashen face.
Among everyone, only he knew that Gentleman’s guesses were correct.
Because just on the previous floor, he had encountered that legendary figure in the darkness.
Before he could organize his thoughts, Gentleman’s cold voice sounded from above—
“When you went to extinguish the candle earlier, did you see anything outside?”
“…!”
The anchor’s heart skipped a beat. He raised his head, his face pale and ugly, “No, really nothing!!”
Under the intense desire to survive, his denial was incredibly certain.
Because he knew that once he admitted it now, he would die without a burial place.
One wrong step leads to many wrong steps.
When he just returned to the shop, he had already lied once. If he admitted now that he indeed had contact with the other party then, given Gentleman’s suspicious and ruthless nature, what awaited him would probably be the most terrifying end… He could only stick to his original answer now, absolutely no changes allowed.
“…” Gentleman didn’t speak immediately, his eyes flickering grimly.
He didn’t know if that guy had contact with Pinocchio outside, because at this moment, in his eyes, everyone had become extremely suspicious.
What was Pinocchio best at?
Acting, disguising, deceiving.
This was the consensus of everyone who had entered the same instance as him and been tricked by him—the appearance provided by Nightmare was flawless; he could disguise as anyone without revealing any flaws.
Even he himself had been deceived by Anise disguised by the other party in the Xingwang Hotel instance without any suspicion.
Gentleman said nothing, his temperatureless gaze slowly sweeping over everyone present, deep mistrust in the depths of his eyes.
Has anyone been replaced?
Is that guy currently hiding in some corner of his team, laughing at him in the dark?
Feeling Gentleman’s gaze move away from him, the anchor didn’t feel any relaxation. Sticky sweat seeped from his back, painful like needles.
No one knew better than him that Gentleman’s suspicion wouldn’t disappear, only intensify.
He could hide it for a while, but not forever.
Moreover, he only refused Pinocchio’s “cooperation” suggestion then, but didn’t refuse the other’s “charity.” The deal that seemed very cost-effective then had now become a hot potato that could explode at any moment.
Once the lie was exposed, even if he really did nothing, the consequences would still be unbearable for him.
Can only protect myself, must protect myself.
He lowered his eyes, gaze falling on his gauze-wrapped arm. Blood seeped from beneath, reflecting in his gradually reddening eyes.
He just wanted to survive.
What wrong did he do?!
—A thousand-mile embankment collapses from an ant hole.
—Even the hardest wall cannot withstand internal corrosion.
“What next?” Wu Zhu asked.
“Next?” Wen Jianyan smiled. “We don’t need to do anything.”
Just watching it fall apart is enough.
“First, that guy won’t try to confront Gentleman head-on; after all, the power gap is too big.”
“The only way out is to find more people to stand on his side. Only in this way can there be hope of survival… whether from Gentleman or from within the instance.”
“At this time, he will find that this step is far simpler than imagined.”
In the darkness, the young man smiled, looking harmless.
“After all, I paved the road for him long ago.”
—The human heart is the thing that can least withstand testing.
—All cracks have early signs.
Although the recorder on the second floor had long been turned off, the bewitching words wouldn’t disappear from memory. The seeds of division had long been quietly planted in everyone’s heart. Without even needing too elaborate provocation, as long as the timing was right, they could quickly take root and sprout.
The ambitious were resentful and indignant.
The fearful were panicked and insecure.
In the darkness, the small shop was shrouded in weak light. Amidst the sickly sweet scent of corpse oil, invisible undercurrents surged.
It seemed nothing had changed, yet it seemed everything was already irreversible.
“Of course, fear of Gentleman is rooted in every Oracle member’s heart, and they are used to obeying. Just having ‘disloyalty’ isn’t enough for them to do anything, unless…”
“They have to do it.”
The seeds Wen Jianyan planted weren’t just the teammates’ unease and division, but also Gentleman’s suspicion and anger.
When realizing Pinocchio was manipulating all this, no one would be angrier than Gentleman.
He was in the light while the opponent was in the dark; every step taken was being monitored. What they faced were unsolvable ghosts that couldn’t be broken by force. This impotent fury of having no enemy to seek and no plan to implement would always end at the cost of blood.
Just a small change could break the current fragile balance.
Guided by the dim light of the oil lamp, another “customer” entered the shop.
A red banknote took away two lives.
In just fifteen minutes, everything ended. One died from a fierce ghost’s haunting, and one died by Gentleman’s hand.
Gentleman lowered his head, staring expressionlessly at the teammate clutching his wound, only able to linger on his last breath.
—Not Pinocchio.
What a pity.
But it didn’t matter. Even if not, he could be useful.
A strange dagger appeared in his palm, silently slitting the throat. Watered by fresh blood, a new item appeared in his palm.
After using the human skin paper once, he urgently needed to replenish his consumed item inventory.
Gentleman didn’t see the horror in the eyes of everyone a few steps away from him.
He had never seen it before, and wouldn’t see it in the future.
“The more suspicious Gentleman is, the more afraid his subordinates are. The more afraid they are, the more mistakes they make,” Wen Jianyan glanced at Wu Zhu with a smile, asking nonchalantly, “Want to make a bet on when they will mutiny?”
“I bet ten minutes.”
—Compared to the fierce ghosts entering the shop, a crazy captain was more terrifying.
Fear can bring obedience, but once fear goes too far, it leads to despair.
The desperate will take risks.
Third minute.
“Captain, I’m not, I’m really not Pinocchio! Didn’t have any contact with him either…” The anchor looked desperate. He knew his subconscious reaction just now was fatal, but still tried to struggle. While slowly retreating and looking around, trying to seek help from others, “You were with me all this time, you can testify for me. I, I almost never left your sight, right?!”
Someone looked unbearable, trying to persuade:
“It’s true, Vice President, I can testify… really.”
“Is that so,” Gentleman walked slowly forward, leaving bloody footprints that hadn’t dried yet. He still wore a gentle and refined smile on his face, looking seemingly unrelated to madness, but everyone’s eyes were full of fear. “As far as I know, that guy is best at buying people’s hearts.”
He turned to look at the pleader:
“How can you be sure you weren’t bewitched?”
The oil lamp light fell on Gentleman’s smiling face, but there was no smile in his eyes, “Or are you doing this because you have other ideas?”
Fifth minute, the copper bell rang crisply. Another “customer” walked into the shop, leaving a gray-white banknote.
This time, to handle the crisis, everyone had to split up.
“We must leave here… otherwise we will all die by his hand!” The anchor gripped his companion’s arm. Because of the force, blood seeped from the bandage again. “Could it be you want to become like me?”
“But,” the companion looked conflicted, “if we confront the Vice President head-on, do we really have a chance of winning…”
“Of course!” The anchor gritted his teeth, eyes fierce. “Absolutely.”
“In this instance, darkness is far more terrifying than anything. We just need to attack the lamp oil!”
If it were a one-on-one confrontation, they would have absolutely no possibility of matching Gentleman, one of Nightmare’s top ten. But this was inside a instance, and an unsolvable rule-based instance at that—it was a test for their survival but an aid for their mutiny.
“But when darkness falls, we will die too…”
“No.”
The anchor took a deep breath, turned his head to scan around quickly, ensuring no one noticed before fishing out a corner of a gray-white candle from his pocket. In just a second, it was immediately put away again.
He implied something.
“…We will survive.”
Ninth minute.
A customer entered the shop; darkness descended around.
Tenth minute.
Mutiny began.
