Chapter 190: Ghost Whisperer - Usurpation

"I don't know."

"I don't know."

The two answered very straightforwardly. It would be a ghost story if they knew such a secret.

Chen and Qiu weren't disappointed by this. In their deductions, carving rules onto a stone pillar was either related to the level of a True Self Skill or related to the Liar-Slayer Alliance. There would be plenty of opportunities to slowly investigate it in the future.

Diwu Zeyi and Long Hui already knew that the two intended to carve out a bloody path. Since only two people could survive this Instance anyway, Long Hui generously suggested, "Your Combo Skill lacks a sound-purifying Skill or a higher-level Spatial Skill. If you manage to make it out alive this time, I suggest you don't upgrade to Two-Star right away. Go to the Novice Instance and team up with a player whose Skill can complement yours."

It had to be said that Veteran Players were indeed rich in experience. The drawback of the Wheel of Time was that people could hear the incantation, allowing them to initiate a preemptive Judgment. But with a sound-purifying or Spatial Skill, this drawback could be circumvented.

However, both Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong shook their heads. In truth, to the two of them, Skills were merely embellishments in Infighting. The true core of Infighting was a battle of wits.

If they randomly found a member whose thinking wasn't on the same frequency as theirs, not only would it fail to create a "1+2>3" situation, but it might even drag them down. The loss would outweigh the gain.

Furthermore, they didn't have the time to keep wasting away in the Novice Instance, searching for that teammate who perfectly aligned with their way of thinking.

Amidst the casual chat, the wealthy man of Company No. 5 was unknowingly eliminated. Without even a sliver of room to resist, Company No. 5 went bankrupt.

The difficulty of the second Secret Room lay in the fact that there were two Company No. 5s. If one couldn't deduce this layer, they would be screwed over miserably.

However, this batch of players not only deduced it right from the start, but also plotted to kill Zhang Meili of Company No. 5. Without a protective umbrella, the wealthy man couldn't fight them at all.

The moment Company No. 5 went bankrupt, the four floor tiles suspended in mid-air merged into one.

It moved in front of a wall, and a door appeared on the surface. Or rather, there was a door here all along, but it had been specially treated so that they hadn't noticed it before.

The door slowly opened.

Inside was a vast expanse of white; it was impossible to see what was there. The four didn't waste words, lifting their feet and walking through the doorway.

"My dear enemies, welcome to my home turf."

It was still the familiar incantation, but Qiu Yinong felt that compared to the incantations of previous Instance Bosses, this BOSS's incantation seemed to lack confidence.

The four immediately looked at their watches to record the time before surveying their surroundings.

This was a Secret Room.

More accurately, it was an Inpatient Department. There was a Nurses' Station, an attending physician's office, and five patient rooms. Even more crucially...

There were NPCs!

There were two nurses at the front desk, and the doors to the five patient rooms were half-open. They could faintly see doctors inside. This was very strange...

'Logically speaking, these NPCs should all be people killed by the subway worker.'

'But that logically doesn't make sense. If the subway worker wanted revenge, they should have first killed the primary culprit, like the hospital's higher-ups.'

'For instance, the Hospital Director.'

'Under normal circumstances, the Hospital Director rarely appears in the Inpatient Department, unless the subway worker knew the Director's schedule...'

'Wait!'

'It seems possible to summon the Hospital Director. You have to remember that in the plot, the wealthy man was killed.'

'Furthermore, the heart that needed to be transplanted was a child's heart. In other words, the wealthy man's Child also needed a heart transplant at that time.'

'Then, the wealthy man's Child must definitely be in the Inpatient Department as well.'

'Taking the child hostage to force the wealthy man and the Hospital Director to show themselves makes sense...'

Thinking up to here.

The four looked towards the five patient rooms. Then, in one of these five rooms, the wealthy man's Child was staying...

By the same logic.

The subway worker should also be in the patient room of the wealthy man's Child.

'Which one is it?'

'In the previous Secret Room, we deduced that the subway worker wanted to bankrupt the wealthy man.'

'In the first Secret Room, we deduced that the wealthy man's Child also needed a heart transplant.'

'Therefore, "heart" and "bankruptcy" should be the two criteria for judgment.'

'I'm not done yet.'

'If it's just taking the child hostage, that can only summon the wealthy man; the Hospital Director might not show up. After all, it's a matter of life and death. Without a necessary reason to step forward, the Director wouldn't easily show themselves.'

'Take a doctor hostage?'

'No, unless one of the doctors is the Hospital Director's wife or child.'

'There's another possibility: the hostage doctor knows the Hospital Director's weakness. This weakness is a crime, one serious enough to warrant execution by firing squad. This would force the Director to show up and persuade the subway worker.'

With this thought.

The four widened their eyes, secretly thinking that things were bad.

However, it was already too late.

"Ghost Whisperer: Usurpation."

The next moment, the Secret Room plunged into darkness. In the dark, the two Three-Star players smiled bitterly. They hadn't expected to actually be played by a measly One-Star BOSS.

Earlier, they were still wondering: logically speaking, the first two Secret Rooms were the "Effect," so this Secret Room should have been the "Cause."

But the Third Secret Chamber was still the "Effect"—there was no plot detailing the cause of the event at all.

In other words.

The moment they appeared on the subway and saw the child carrying the oil barrel...

The Deceiver's Tongue had already been formed.

The true BOSS wasn't the subway worker, nor was it the wealthy man, but rather...

It was The Director's Malice!

'Sure enough, until the very last moment, no one will know what the truth is.'

When the light was restored.

The four saw...

Li Zhitong, Dorje, Lin Xiuyuan, and the rest of the sixteen people who had died previously.

They looked at the four with venomous resentment.

The four didn't waste any words. They stepped forward and kicked one person each, but were then rebounded away.

'After a player dies, their Liar-Slayer will disappear. This is an ironclad rule.'

'Right now, it logically makes no sense for them to be protected by Slayer's Sanctuary.'

'Unless these sixteen people are all the Hospital Director, or rather, are being controlled by the Director...'

'Usurpation. It's highly likely that the Hospital Director's soul split into sixteen to control the corpses. The Director's soul is protected by Slayer's Sanctuary, which causes the sixteen corpses to also be protected by Slayer's Sanctuary.'

'Wait, no!'

'Even if that were true, there should still be a distinction between primary and secondary. In other words...'

Chen Ran said to Qiu Yinong, "There was a timing discrepancy when we kicked them just now. Let's each kick one at the exact same time."

Qiu Yinong nodded and walked over to Li Zhitong, while Chen Ran walked over to Lin Xiuyuan.

Timing it perfectly, the two simultaneously raised their legs and kicked the person in front of them.

Chen Ran was rebounded away, but Qiu Yinong kicked Li Zhitong to the ground.

'Sure enough. Although the Director's Skill can control sixteen corpses, Slayer's Sanctuary can only protect one corpse. This means that when the Director's Skill controls multiple targets, there is a primary/secondary distinction. He can freely switch which corpse his soul is attached to.'

Seeing this, Diwu Zeyi and Long Hui didn't waste any words, pulling out a Dagger from their bags.

"Hey, hey, hey, could you give me the respect a BOSS deserves? Doing this right off the bat makes me lose a lot of face, ah!" The one speaking was Li Zhitong.

Long Hui raised his Dagger and said indifferently, "So, are you going to discard 15 of them yourself, or do you want us to sever 15 heads?"