Chapter 382: The Way of Escape

So stubborn.

Looks like we don't need to use force; this thing won't tell the truth.

In the next second while the guest was stunned, Cheng Shuili's long knife was already pressed against his shoulder.

She gave a half‑smile, yet her voice was heavy with threat: "If you don't tell the truth, I won't know where this knife will come from, you see."

Her voice was light and airy, yet it made the disguiser stiff all over.

The cold blade pressed against his neck, the threat of death felt all too real.

His previously vacant gaze was instantly filled with terror, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.

In fact, whether he spoke or not, Cheng Shuili and Haohao could already sense something was wrong.

Those attendants, one after another, were like robots; how could they have such precise emotions?

And if they were attendants, they'd have acted by now, right?

The fact is he not only wouldn't act first, but was also quite afraid of Cheng Shuili making a move.

"I—I'll speak!" he gasped rapidly, still shaken but daring not to raise his voice: "She's a guest! You're all guests! We're on the same side, you can't kill me, you can't kill me!"

Haohao, hearing the answer, finally exhaled in relief, then glared at him angrily: "You lied to me!"

Cheng Shuili had assumed Haohao was merely speaking offhand, even thinking the person had a good temperament, able to utter such words at a moment like this. A fleeting side glance, however, revealed that the person now held an axe that had appeared at some unknown moment, and his look at the guest was as if he were about to study anatomy.

Cheng Shuili: "…"

Being able to blend into the top few of a sector and even the top five hundred of a continent proves you aren't a cheap light.

"Put the axe away," Cheng Shuili said lightly, "It's not time to act yet."

Haohao reluctantly sheathed the axe, but his gaze still glared fiercely at the disguiser: "Why did you deceive us?"

The disguiser slumped on the ground, his face ashen: "Be‑cause the attendant role is safer! Attendants won't become the main course of the banquet, nor be chosen first at the ball! I just want to survive…"

Cheng Shuili's blade tip did not retract, but moved a fraction closer: "What use are you?"

"Use… use?" the guest seemed never to have heard such words, naturally replying: "We're all on the same side; what benefit is there to you killing me? Our goal is the same! Even if I can't bring you any use, you still can't kill me!"

What Cheng Shuili hates most are those who, feeling invincible, refuse to answer properly and instead spout nonsense!

Her gaze turned cold, the blade pressed down slightly, and a thin line of blood immediately seeped from the disguiser's neck.

"What I'm asking is, you, the guests who chose to disguise yourselves as attendants, what known, concrete use do you have for overturning the banquet or escaping Nightmare Island?" Her voice was as if tempered with ice. "If you answer off‑topic again, I don't mind losing another useless ally."

The intense pain and cold killing intent jolted the disguiser awake; he realized the woman before him would truly strike, and cared nothing for any 'same‑camp' camaraderie.

"Yes! Useful! I'm useful!" he shouted almost screaming, speaking so fast his tongue seemed about to bite, "We know some of the attendants' patrol patterns, and we also know how to leave this island!"

He panted heavily, daring not to hide any more: "The attendants mentioned that to safely leave the whole island, one must go through the island‑heart passage. Besides needing an attendant's seal, you also must… must at a specific time, namely each time the banquet phase shifts, when the fog surges most violently, pass through the entire passage. That window is brief, maybe only a few dozen seconds!"

When his words fell, his pupils suddenly dilated, and he seemed completely stunned.

He twisted his neck stiffly, lips trembling, and after a while managed to speak, "The sound… the sound is too loud, it's over. It's over."

Almost the instant his words ended, the surrounding guests who had been mechanically eating all froze in unison.

Clack… clack…

A tooth‑aching sound of bones twisting came from all directions.

Those monsters in lavish gowns, with hollow or twisted faces, like rusted marionettes, turned their heads slowly, jerking in an extremely unnatural manner.

Dozens of hollow, black, or crimson‑glowing eyes simultaneously focused on the spot where Cheng Shuili and the two others stood!

Cold malice surged like a tangible tide, instantly flooding the tiny corner.

The air seemed to solidify.

Huh… we've been discovered… we're doomed…

The disguiser's face turned ashen, his body trembling like a sieve, and he closed his eyes in despair.

Haohao inhaled a cold breath, instinctively gripping the axe tighter, leaning against Cheng Shuili, and scanning the surroundings warily.

Cheng Shuili's gaze was icy; her hand holding Night Hunt was steady as a rock.

"Rules," she whispered to Haohao, her voice still calm, "Keep smiling, pick up your utensils."

Haohao flinched, then forced a grin that was uglier than crying, while his free hand clumsily snatched a silver fork from the table.

Cheng Shuili did the same, a perfunctory yet appropriate curve on her face, and the dinner knife twirled deftly at her fingertips.

But this time, the simple 'follow the rules' seemed ineffective.

The startled guests did not, as before, look away after confirming the players were following the rules.

They still stared dead‑on, their standard yet eerie smiles widening, bearing a cat‑and‑mouse mockery and cruelty.

They began to move.

Slowly, like a tide, they rose from their seats and converged on Cheng Shuili and the two others.

Their footsteps scraped the floor, producing a rustling sound mixed with the clack of joints, eerily clear and terrifying in the dead silent banquet hall.

All the players noticed the situation, yet none dared step forward in this bizarre circumstance.

"They're coming," Haohao whispered, "Boss, what do we do now?"

Cheng Shuili's eyes swept sharply over the approaching horde, her voice low: "The rules haven't changed; we triggered a higher‑level discord factor. That disguiser's voice was too loud, they know he leaked core secrets. The previous rule priority has been overwritten."

"And…" Cheng Shuili glanced at the terrified disguiser who dared not stand, "They probably aren't coming after us."

Before she finished speaking, the advancing monsters seemed to confirm her judgment.

Their target was crystal clear: the limp, ground‑sprawled disguiser who had leaked the secret!

Several pale, swollen, or oddly patterned hands, like piranhas smelling blood, swarmed toward the disguiser!

No! Don't! Save me!!

The disguiser let out a harrowing scream, scrambling backward with hands and feet, trying to hide behind Cheng Shuili.

Cheng Shuili's gaze remained cold as she pulled Haohao one step to the side rear, precisely evading his grasp and fully exposing him to the monsters' claws.

Ah!!!

Accompanied by a grating tearing sound and a brief scream almost negligible, the impostor was instantly submerged by the swarming monsters. The sounds of flesh being torn and bones breaking were clearly audible, and warm blood even splattered onto Cheng Shuili and Hao Hao a few steps away.

Hao Hao's face turned pale as he endured the discomfort and turned his head away.

Cheng Shuili, however, remained expressionless, and taking advantage of the precious gap when the monsters' attention was wholly drawn to the "punish the leaker," she quickly scanned the entire scene.

Almost all the guests were present here, yet a few strange guests still sat at the banquet table.

Cheng Shuili guessed those people were probably also impostors.

The cruel punishment ended quickly; these attendants seemed only responsible for meting out punishment, not for cleaning up the aftermath.

The impostor who had deceived Hao Hao turned into a puddle of blurred flesh and blood, brokenly piled on the luxurious carpet, forming an extremely jarring contrast with the exquisite banquet decorations around.

The monsters that had completed the "punishment" wore exaggerated smiles that seemed even more satisfied.

They slowly straightened up, stiffly turned their heads, and their empty gazes swept over Cheng Shuili and Hao Hao.

This time, their gazes no longer carried the previous locking and malice; instead, they seemed to be… confirming whether they were "law-abiding."

Cheng Shuili maintained her perfunctory smile, the dinner knife in her hand still maintaining a subtle balance at her fingertips, as if the bloody scene just now had nothing to do with her.

Hao Hao also forced a smile, but the fingers gripping the silver fork turned white from excessive force.

The monsters' gazes lingered on them for several seconds, seemingly judging whether these two onlookers constituted a new discordant factor.

Finally, as if receiving some order, they stiffly retreated like a receding tide, each returning to their original seats, picking up knives and forks again, and continuing that endless mechanical eating.

The commotion here was truly huge; almost all players noticed the situation here.

Although Cheng Shuili and Hao Hao's earlier conversation was soft, the venue's commotion was originally minimal; aside from players who had gone far to search for clues, almost everyone knew what had just happened.

Those who could participate in the global instance were elites, and someone quickly realized that the guest who had been sitting at the banquet table earlier, the one who had contacted Cheng Shuili and Hao Hao, was also an impostor!

For information, these players quickly acted.

The Pan Shi Squad reacted fastest; they were not far away, and taking advantage of the moment when the monsters' attention shifted, they formed pairs and swiftly and silently approached several other impostors still seated but visibly uneasy.

The Kael Squad was a step slower, but also immediately locked onto their targets.

However, the situation that appeared was completely different from what Cheng Shuili experienced here; the Pan Shi Squad members had just begun talking to the impostor, and that so‑called "impostor," acting like a genuine attendant, lashed out at the questioning player.

The impostor facing Kael was even more bizarre; he still wore that standard smile, but his arm suddenly stretched like rubber, five fingers turning into claws that lunged for Kael's face, fingertips flashing with a sinister green poison.

"Damn! These guys are attendants in disguise! We got it wrong!"

Kael, shocked and angry, lurched sideways and rolled to avoid the poisonous claws; the ground where he had stood was corroded into several small pits by the toxic claws.

The Pan Shi Squad side also fell into a bitter struggle; these impostors displayed truly extraordinary strength, and every move was aimed at the players' lives.

It looked like…

…real attendants?

Cheng Shuili narrowed her eyes; she had also momentarily felt those guests weren't impostors, but judging by their attack style, there was still a big difference from those attendants.

In other words, they should indeed be guests, but a better‑disguised kind of guest.

Cheng Shuili sensed something off and put a question mark after that thought in her mind.

Guests… really come in two types?

Or perhaps Cheng Shuili's luck is just that good, or Hao Hao's luck is just that good, and simply asking a random attendant for his identity could yield such a special key role.

That would be too strange.

A sudden flash of inspiration lit up Cheng Shuili's mind; she stared at a genuine attendant for a moment and finally confirmed her guess.

"Boss, why did they suddenly attack?"

Hao Hao put down his knife and fork, looked up, and asked Cheng Shuili.

That question was quite subtle.

She didn't doubt whether those guests were impostors; she directly asked why they had attacked.

Hao Hao is also a smart person.

But Cheng Shuili is obviously smarter: "Because they know they can't beat me."

"What?" Hao Hao blinked, not quite understanding.

Cheng Shuili's gaze swept over the guests who had resumed mechanical eating, then fell on the impostors fighting Pan Shi and Kael squads in the distance; her voice calm and steady: "The instance obviously wouldn't set two difficulty levels for guests, so the problem must lie with the players. What have I done that they haven't?"

Hao Hao instantly understood, sucking in a breath of cold air: "Boss, you killed an attendant."

"Exactly." Cheng Shuili nodded, "Those impostors were present then, they all know this, so they dare not attack us; they only pick on soft persimmons."

Her eyes turned icy: "They aren't not attacking guests; they just dare not attack me. Essentially, they are also monsters, just on the same side as us."

Hao Hao stopped asking, glanced at the food on the table, and suddenly said: "Boss, you said after you killed an attendant, the paper you obtained—could it not be the attendant's mark?"

Cheng Shuili paused; she really hadn't thought of that question.

But after Hao Hao put it that way…

…it really might be.

Previously she only regarded that as a clue item dropped after killing an attendant, but now examining it closely, the paper's material is special, it feels slightly cool to the touch, and that smiley face mark on it is clearly a label of something!

Cheng Shuili slowly said: "Perhaps it really is, but we need to find a way to verify it."

"How to verify?" Hao Hao looked clearly puzzled.

Cheng Shuili smiled: "Of course by asking someone who knows."

Someone who knows?

Those… attendants?!