Chapter 292: Instant Kill

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The Mi family's game's reputation was such that even Dorin Gray, who didn't play mobile games, had heard of it, but he truly didn't know the behind-the-scenes details, so he was quite bewildered.

"Forget it."

Dorin Gray, who prided himself on having entered high society, didn't want to waste words arguing with a third-rate nobody like Master Pi Fu, who had no fame to speak of, and said at once: "Let's vote by show of hands. Those who agree to go to the northern Gao Ta, please raise your hands."

Mid- and low-level Transcendents had not yet shed the concept of "human"; their thoughts and ideas had not yet escaped human nature.

Dorin Gray deliberately threw out the riskier proposal first; more players might not have reacted yet, or were still hesitating and watching others' choices, so their willingness to raise hands was low.

The result was just as he had expected: only six people raised their hands, including Master Pi Fu, Zhao Zijing, and Bai Ji Bear.

Dorin Gray smiled slightly and continued: "Those who agree to stay here, please raise your hands."

Wait—Li Cheng thought of something, stepped forward, and took the tablet computer from the corpse of Sonic Boy.

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The conference room fell silent; everyone stopped what they were doing. Li Cheng pressed on: "Just now, Sonic Boy knew about that thing, which is why he was killed. You also know about that thing, you can see it, but you can't tell us—is that right? If so, blink twice."

As a Mobile Task Force operative, Fu Ding Hua Long was quite professional; even as he complained, his hands moved without slowing, pulling an infrared thermal imager from his backpack slot and scanning back and forth across the conference room.

Sweat beaded on Fu Ding Hua Long's forehead. Sonic Boy was an American, belonging to the FBI's Anomalous Incidents Division, and was himself a Lv15 capable operative. He had died for no apparent reason, without even time to struggle.

With the previous vote as precedent, the remaining people felt much less psychological burden and raised their hands one after another.

Fu Ding Hua Long felt his scalp go numb. In the readings of all his sensors, the air temperature of the conference room was steadily and slowly dropping from 21°C to 20.7°C, 20.4°C.

"Wait."

Making the already not-very-optimistic survival situation of the species even worse.

"Twelve to six, Fu Ding Hua Long abstains."

As if some invisible thing were silently absorbing heat.

"WTF"

Zhao Zijing suddenly shouted: "We can't open the door either!"

Guessing at a certain possibility, Li Cheng raised his head and asked Zhao Zijing in a low voice: "Only those who 【know what that thing is】 can see that thing, right? If so, blink twice."

Eyes wide open, glaring as if seeing something utterly terrifying.

"Although I don't know what's going on, anything out of the ordinary must be a demon—"

Zhao Zijing unhesitatingly pressed her palms together, releasing the 【Dot-Matrix Detection】 skill she had used in the previous battery escort mission, scanning all living things in the surrounding area that fit the concept of life.

Nothing at all—the room was completely normal, and she couldn't find any cause for the rapid temperature drop. "Formless and intangible, able to evade any detection method, causes ambient temperature to drop."

Everyone fell into shocked, bewildered confusion. No matter how they pressed her, Zhao Zijing simply refused to speak. As if she had some unspeakable secret, she couldn't give specifics and was forced to act as a riddler.

"That's not any better!"

Her face was deathly pale, her expression unable to hide her fear. Head lowered, her eyes fixed intently on the conference table, as if deliberately avoiding the ceiling.

None of those present were novice players; they had all manner of methods.

Even Li Cheng, whose mind leapt about, hadn't expected such a bizarre death. "This guy's name is Sonic Boy, right? How come he runs fast and dies fast too?"

"Is that how you use that word? Why is the aside in two paragraphs so much longer than the previous one? Feels like the moment you bring up below-the-belt topics you suddenly get excited, hey."

Zhao Zijing looked at the table and slowly blinked twice.

Fu Ding Hua Long's eye twitched uncontrollably; he couldn't help but complain. He finally understood what the Special Affairs Bureau's database meant by its evaluation of Master Pi Fu: "reliable yet unreliable."

"Maybe don't crack jokes at a time like this."

Bai Ji Bear also switched from viper form to wind element, summoning a light breeze to sweep through the conference room, sensing the wind's flow to check for any invisible objects.

Fu Ding Hua Long picked up a paintbrush, quickly drew two Door God patterns on the table, reached out and grabbed, summoning the Door Gods to appear and guard by his side. "Everyone leave this conference room first."

"No! We can't leave!"

The next instant, his whole body shuddered; fresh blood streamed from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. He tilted backward and crashed to the ground, already without breath.

Li Cheng rubbed his brow. Looking at Zhao Zijing's appearance, she was indeed being coerced, and the source of the coercion was right there in the conference room—formless, intangible, but truly existent.

This matter is also recorded in Liu Yuxi's "Inscription on the Humble Dwelling"—'No common visitors come and go,' after all."

Zzzaaap!

And most likely not a native otherworld monster, otherwise there'd be no reason only Zhao Zijing could "see" it.

Zhao Zijing's face grew paler still; her eyes fixed on the conference table as she said with difficulty: "In short, everyone keep a normal expression, don't look up, don't try to escape."

Li Cheng said solemnly: "By the way, in the real world, due to the transfer and accumulation of various industrial chemicals including PCBs and polychlorinated biphenyls to the Arctic region, spreading pollution, for decades the bone density of polar bears' penises has been decreasing—their penises have become smaller and more brittle, more prone to fracture.

Bai Ji Bear, in polar bear form, suddenly said: "Have any of you noticed the temperature around here has dropped?"

"I can't say—"

The others also employed their own methods. Fu Ding Hua Long took out a compass to detect hostile targets. Li Cheng gently pushed the information-integration glasses on his nose bridge, strengthening his detection.

Dorin Gray smiled and said: "The vote result is, we stay here."

A player with the ID 【Sonic Boy】, holding a tablet gifted by the GOC, suddenly changed expression, jerked his head up, and looked at the conference room ceiling.

Someone pulled out an air environment temperature detector, someone pulled out an air probe, and Bai Ji Bear directly transformed into an African puff adder—the puff adder could perceive temperature changes at the 0.001°C level through the pit organ sensor on its head.

Li Cheng humbly waved his hand. "It's alright, actually compared to below-the-belt topics, I'm more into poop-and-pee-and-fart stuff."

Its screen was paused on the search box; Sonic Boy was inputting information such as 【formless and intangible】, 【can evade detection】, 【causes ambient temperature to drop】 into the GOC database to search.

"Polar bears are quite sensitive to temperature; once it exceeds 21.1°C, they show signs of heat stress."

Dorin Gray hadn't noticed any obvious change in temperature either, and even suspected this might be Bai Ji Bear making things up to overturn the vote.

"Huh?"

Everyone was shocked and suspicious. Dorin Gray, who had already placed his hand on the door handle, changed expression slightly and said urgently: "What do you know?!"

"This feeling is like marrying into a wealthy family and being oppressed by the mother-in-law, mocked by the sister-in-law, betrayed by the husband, despised by the servants, poisoned by the mistress—reborn to the moment just after marrying into the wealthy family. Minimum 0.3 yuan/day to activate membership and view full content."

Dorin Gray was momentarily stunned and looked around.

It definitely couldn't be a ghost—with this many mid-tier players present, let alone low-level wandering spirits, even veteran ghosts of the caliber of Chu Renmei or Kayako could be beaten to death by group assault.

"The temperature really is dropping."

The main structure of the building they were in was still largely intact, and the conference room's door was shut, with no drafts leaking in.

The sudden death scene terrified everyone to the bone; the few players near 【Sonic】 scrambled backward, simultaneously drawing their weapons and aiming them at the empty ceiling.

Zhao Zijing blinked twice more.

"Good," Li Cheng drew a deep breath, "where is that thing now? The doorway, or the ceiling?"

"Overhead,"

Zhao Zijing said in a trembling voice: "Right above each and every one of us."