Chapter 1117: System's Malice

"Lin Dui, how do I feel this is like hide-and-seek?"

"After finding it, can we still do this? I haven't even dealt with a ghost before! This instance feels pretty easy..."

Touching the hair disguised from a scalpel, Zhang Tie felt a bit uncomfortable touching his head, and couldn't help asking in the team voice chat.

Looking around, aside from being a bit desolate, it wasn't really scary.

"Hide-and-seek?"

After carefully chewing over the system's hint once, Lin An slightly shook his head:

"No, it's not that simple. The system is forcing us to seek death."

Under super-effective thinking, while everyone else was thinking completely differently about how to complete the mission, Lin An had already figured out the system's malice.

Zhang Tie froze, and the next second he heard Lin An explaining to the two of them:

"Under normal circumstances, when encountering a supernatural incident, basically one tries to stay as far away as possible."

"The greatest danger usually comes from the moment the ghost appears, not the environment itself."

"This mission appears to give us an opportunity to counterattack, able to harm the supernatural entity. But essentially it's forcing us to actively seek death!"

"It's simple: when you find the ghost's true form, you're actually not far from death."

"If luck is good and reaction is fast enough, you can initiate a judgment before the ghost kills, perhaps still having a fighting chance. If reaction is a bit slow, or even if you hesitate a little, the outcome is naturally a dead end."

Lin An snorted coldly in his heart; he had long been accustomed to the system's malice.

"Not only that, I expect fierce ghost attacks will start soon, forcing us to split up and search. Searching slowly means death; searching quickly but unable to react also means death; finding it but not daring to confirm still means death. Even a hasty misjudgment means death!"

He didn't say those last words out loud.

Within 10 seconds one can attack the fierce ghost, which looks not bad, giving the Awakened Ones space to counterattack. But what if the fierce ghost is strong? What if it can't be killed within 10 seconds?

His gaze carried a hint of solemnity; after guessing the system's trap, Lin An's heart sank slightly. Even though there is currently no danger, he also felt how high the difficulty of this instance is.

The simpler the rule, the trickier it tends to be.

Fortunately..

After glancing at Mo Ling, who was constantly observing the surroundings, Lin An's heart settled a little.

All three of them have resistance ability, which means the error tolerance will be higher, so it's not necessarily going to result in deaths right away.

Taking advantage of the few seconds before the instance starts, Lin An looked at the surroundings and directly reminded:

"Mo Ling, prepare to note down the positions of all items you see."

"I'll note the details and colors; you note the general positions."

"If the ghost turns into an object form, as long as it moves or disappears, we can instantly compare and find it."

Little Mo Ling nodded lightly after hearing that.

With Lin An remembering the most details and colors, and her only noting positions, it's not a problem. Comparing the two, it indeed counts as a method to find hidden targets.

"Lin Dui, what about me?!!"

"What should I note?!!"

Hearing Lin An assign the task, Xiong Hanzi hurriedly asked, his eyes constantly looking around. Lin An's meaning wasn't complicated; he understood it.

However, only seeing Lin An remain silent for a moment, then hesitantly speak:

"You... just note whatever.."

Not really wanting to deal with this dumb bear. Although Zhang Tie's attributes aren't low, theoretically his memory is many times stronger than an ordinary person's. But..

For someone like Zhang Tie, whose brain is full of muscles—a big dimwit—Lin An really doesn't want him to help remember anything.

If he doesn't remember, it's fine; if he misremembers, maybe the whole group will truly be wiped out here..

Unless Chu An possesses him, under normal circumstances Lin An wouldn't consider this dumb bear for any brain-intensive task.

On another side, Xiao Peng, who had split into a separate group with Lin An and the others, as the shield was about to disappear, suddenly a white light flashed in his hand, conjuring several cameras.

Seeing him calmly look toward Lin An and the others:

"Do you need them?"

"The system requires finding the hidden ghost, taking photos with the camera, then comparing them. It should work."

Hearing that, Lin An raised his brow, his gaze instantly flicking to Xiao Peng's waist belt.

Space equipment? Camera?

He was slightly surprised.

Combined with Xiao Peng's strength, Lin An's curiosity about his 'identity' increased a few more degrees. Originally he had only suspected the other was a card holder but wasn't sure.

But, now?

The rarity of space equipment, he knows well. Though he and Zhang Tie each have one, in the outside world it's considered a rare item. Whether the Huaxia war zone can find even double digits of them is a question. Such equipment rarely drops from mutants; at least after killing so many mutants, he's only seen one appear.

Moreover, Lin An wonders if his own space ring is big enough, but he never thought of putting several cameras inside it. After all, storing something almost useless is a waste of space. Thus, Lin An doesn't believe the other side would prepare these for combat. Therefore, only if they knew the mission information, or at least part of the instance content, could they have prepared in advance.

Knowing the mission + abnormal strength + space equipment.

In an instant, Lin An directly raised the probability of Xiao Peng possessing a card to 80%.

Kind of interesting, the Huaxia war zone indeed isn't just one card. It seems perhaps in many places there are many card holders silently developing..

After thinking a lot, under extremely effective thinking, Lin An simulated several dozen scenarios in less than a second.

Meanwhile, Xiao Peng still looked somewhat smugly at the silent Lin An trio, shaking the camera in his hand.

Standing beside him, the middle-aged man named Li Xiang mistakenly thought Lin An had never seen space equipment, and couldn't help speaking with a somewhat boastful tone:

"Take it; you running into us this time is also lucky."

"As long as you follow orders, this instance might actually be easy to clear."

"Yeah, our Brother Xiao is famous for high IQ; there's no mission he can't complete!"

"We split into two groups; you note the top, we note.."

Without waiting for his subordinates' flattery, Xiao Peng directly interrupted:

The downstairs and outside are yours; the third and fourth floors will be led by Li Xiang to take photos.

Several Awakened Ones behind him heard and nodded repeatedly, saying yes. Initially they thought it was some downstairs safe zone, at least that's the feeling. However, Xiao Ge might have considered their numbers small and assigned them to the downstairs. But it doesn't matter; after long-term following Xiao Peng to complete missions, several people have absolute trust in the youth in black robes.

However, Lin An was seen shaking his head:

Just use the cameras.

Since the assignments are set, let's begin.

Having said that, Lin An glanced at Xiao Peng without changing his expression, a faint odd color flashing in the depths of his eyes.

Seeing Lin An directly lead people away, Xiao Peng had little reaction, merely shaking his head slightly, while Li Xiang and the others beside him looked astonished at Lin An's retreating back.

These people, so arrogant...

While speaking, the middle-aged man furrowed his brows, seeming uneasy that Lin An's group might misremember the position, and couldn't help but quietly order the several Second Level individuals behind him:

Later, send two people to follow behind them and take photos.

Don't let them misremember and implicate us.

The little lackey beside him nodded heavily, looking at the already-searching Lin An trio, and couldn't help muttering a few words under his breath.

He quickly committed everything he saw to memory, followed behind Lin An, and Zhang Tie curiously asked Lin An:

Captain Lin, what aren't we doing?

I feel that kid is pretty smart, even thinking of using a camera. I wonder if we could also use the system to record a video?

Just as his words fell, Lin An was seen shaking his head:

Using cameras for comparison is fine, but have you considered that specters might be able to tamper with photos?

Once the photos are tampered with and you still believe them, it's essentially suicide.

But memory is different.

Photos are dead objects; memory is one's own. If a hidden specter can alter memory, then this instance is unsolvable.

In no case can it be unsolvable; therefore memory must be the most reliable.

After calmly explaining, Lin An patted the stunned Zhang Tie on the shoulder, indicating he needn't think further.

Although system recordings are also unlikely to be tampered with, if you want to compare a certain object, you must watch from the beginning, which is too slow.

Of course, I'm only speculating; perhaps using photos for comparison really carries no risk.

So let them use it if they want; besides, we can probe the specters' abilities. After all, it's not our people who will die.

Having said that, Lin An smiled and continued memorizing the surrounding environment.

After a moment, Zhang Tie came to his senses and couldn't help smacking his lips.

Damn, Captain Lin still has the most cunning mind.