Chapter 317: You Can't Pull Off Flashy Plays, Why Run So Fast?

Qiu Hua stared at Tian Xiaohua. Ye Qian and Han Bing exchanged a glance, while Qiu Yinong walked in the middle of the crowd, her thoughts unknown.

Just now, Chen Ran on the first floor had definitely used his skill. There was no doubt about this.

Something might have happened on the first floor.

Ye Qian thought this way.

'I checked just now; a lot of things in my bag are missing.'

'In other words, Chen Ran's skill can make items created by players vanish.'

'Then, the Sunglasses worn by the cat left on the first floor might have vanished too, leaving him knocked unconscious by the mice using Distance-Free Technique.'

'The problem is...'

'Will the mice come upstairs?'

'However, I'm more inclined to think that the mice are still staying on the first floor, pretending as if nothing happened...'

'Now this is troublesome!'

'Wait!'

'The ordinary Four-Star youth, the Future Lie he proposed just now...'

Ye Qian felt a chill rise within her, and her body couldn't help but shiver.

'The ordinary Four-Star youth... is he really just a Four-Star player? It's one interlocking trap after another!'

'No wonder he is the Reserve Teammate of the Ninth Floor Master. He's absurdly strong.'

Soon, they arrived on the eighth floor. Qiu Yinong searched the very last room.

When the rest of the people also arrived at the last room on the eighth floor, they saw Qiu Yinong standing with her arms crossed, quietly watching Lin Xuan, who was standing in the room's side bedroom. Sure enough, Lin Xuan's hiding spot was exactly as everyone had deduced.

(Key Point)

"Why aren't you catching me?" Lin Xuan looked at Qiu Yinong speechlessly.

"They're afraid of the Wheel of Time." Qiu Yinong's tone remained concise and to the point.

Indeed, Qiu Yinong's role in this game of cat and mouse was like an ADC.

Giving the cats a late-game hard carry.

As long as Qiu Yinong didn't clear the stage early, her Wheel of Time could reset time, making it nearly impossible for the mice to win.

Right at this moment, the Fitness Blogger Tian Xiaohua suddenly leaped out and touched Lin Xuan.

"You are a cat." Lin Xuan couldn't be bothered to wait for the three-minute Confirmation time and spoke directly.

The next moment, the Fitness Blogger was beyond excited as his body gradually faded, while Lin Xuan entered his Ghost State and phased into the floorboards.

With the disappearance of the two, logically speaking, the players present should have felt a sense of pressure.

But, to put it bluntly, true experts wouldn't clear the stage immediately. Players who cleared the stage first were never that strong. Even if they cleared this Secret Room, they'd have a hard time surviving the next one.

True powerhouses, in such a treacherous and unpredictable Secret Room, would try every means possible to trap and kill the experts of the opposing faction.

Simply put.

The weak: 'This Secret Room is so complicated, and the opponents are strong. I need to escape quickly and temporarily avoid their sharp edges.'

The strong: 'Me? Avoid their sharp edges?'

When Tian Xiaohua appeared in the Initial Secret Room with the twelve doors, he found that aside from the Frying Pan Face Woman, there were other people here.

This left him slightly bewildered, but he clearly realized that many people were probably going to be played to death in this cat and mouse game.

…

As time passed.

When the cats finished searching the 18th floor, it was time to send a Three-Star player down to the first floor to take over for the guarding player, while the player guarding the first floor would touch a mouse to clear the stage.

At the same time, they also knew that Lin Xuan should have just ended his Ghost State at this moment, meaning he could recklessly destroy the scenes in the rooms on every floor.

They quickly reached a decision: Lin Xuan's teammate, the Three-Star female player, would take the elevator down to the first floor, while the rest of the players would return to the second floor and continue searching upwards from there.

…

The Three-Star female player—the woman who could transform into a Teddy dog in the rules Apartment.

She arrived on the first floor.

She found that the number of people on the first floor had changed. Zhou Zhan, Chen Ran, Big Gold Tooth, and the Youth were all there, but Short and Fat and Gao Lan were not on the first floor.

The Three-Star woman couldn't help but frown.

'Two possibilities.'

'One: Short and Fat and Gao Lan used their transformations to hide in a room on the first floor.'

'Two: Zhou Zhan has already cleared the stage. According to the rules, the mouse he touched cannot hide on the first floor, so it used the Ghost State to phase through the ceiling and go to the second floor.'

'The second possibility can be ruled out.'

'According to the Future Lie: 【The cat stationed on the first floor cannot prematurely touch the controlled mice; they must only touch the mice when another cat takes over for them, or when 24 minutes are up】.'

'If Zhou Zhan cleared the stage early, he would definitely violate the Future Lie. He shouldn't be stupid to that extent.'

'Wait!'

'【Or when 24 minutes are up】... I remember the mice arrived at this Secret Room earlier than the cats.'

'By the time we arrived at the Secret Room, the cat and mouse game had already started for a while. Therefore, the 【24 minutes】 should have passed a long time ago. Zhou Zhan could have touched a mouse to clear the stage early!'

'The second possibility cannot be ruled out!'

The Three-Star woman's expression was grave as she looked Zhou Zhan up and down, trying to spot something.

'First, his Sunglasses are still there.'

'Second, his Watch has vanished.'

'Lastly, he also seems unsure if I am transformed from a mouse, so he has been looking me up and down as well. After all, his Watch was made to vanish by Chen Ran's skill, so he can't be certain if 24 minutes have passed. And because he can't be certain if I am a mouse, he chooses to remain on guard. Logically, it makes sense.'

'At the same time, because he is guarding the stairwell, he can't restrict the mice from hiding in one of the rooms on the first floor, which is why there are only Chen Ran, the Youth, and Big Gold Tooth in the lobby.'

'Both possibilities make logical sense. Is it an Unknown Lie?'

'I thought this group of mice had already surrendered without a fight, but they're actually still stirring up trouble.'

'So, the real plan of the ordinary Four-Star player was: the player going down to the first floor might be coaxed into a lie by the mice, while the players searching upstairs could actually clear the stage, just like that Fitness Blogger did.'

'Impossible to defend against!'

'Wait!'

'If there are no gunshots on the first floor, the rest of the cats will assume Zhou Zhan has already cleared the stage and that I took his place...'

'But in reality, even I am not sure if Zhou Zhan has cleared the stage. If they search the entire building again and discuss who to send down to take my place, the ordinary Four-Star player can completely use the conversation to coax a lie out of them.'

'How truly sinister, ah ah ah!'

'Suppress Mental State!'

Instantly, the Three-Star woman's eyes became clear as she rearranged the logic.

'There's a flaw!'

The next moment, ignoring everyone, she lifted her foot and left the stairwell of the first floor, heading into the several rooms on the first floor to search.

'If Zhou Zhan is a fake, this group of mice would have run away long ago. They aren't running because they want to stay and coax out a lie.'

'If Zhou Zhan is real, he's guarding the stairwell, so the mice can't go to the second floor.'

'In other words, regardless of whether Zhou Zhan is real or fake, I can leave the stairwell.'

She had looked through the six rooms on the first floor before and had a rough memory of them.

However...

When she finished searching the six rooms, she was shocked to find that every room had an extra item—either a backpack or an article of clothing.

'I belong to the second rotation. According to the Future Lie, I have to wait for the next person to come down, or wait for 24 minutes to pass before I can touch a mouse.'

The Three-Star woman raised her wrist. Her wrist was completely bare; her Watch had vanished long ago.

'Damn that Chen Ran!'

'If Short and Fat and Gao Lan really ran upstairs, they will definitely time it so that right before the 24 minutes are up, they transform into the appearance of a Three-Star player and come down to take my place. If I touch a mouse then, I will definitely violate the Future Lie.'

'This building has no doors. Logically, I should stand in the stairwell and shout upwards, informing the cats upstairs about the changes happening on the first floor...'

'No, there are mice on the first floor. A mouse could transform into my appearance and shout along with me. The cats upstairs won't be able to tell if it's me shouting or the mice shouting, so they won't believe what I say.'

'Why are two mice missing?'

'If only one were missing, then among the two possibilities, Zhou Zhan touched one and cleared this Secret Room, and the one he touched couldn't hide on the first floor. Lin Xuan has also been caught multiple times and can't hide on the first floor either. Thus, I could deduce that the cat coming down must be a real cat, confirming that 24 minutes have passed.'

'But, it just had to be two mice missing!'

'This means there's one that hasn't been touched by a cat, who can transform into a cat and come down to the first floor.'

'Right, how could these experts setting up an Unknown Lie trap for me not think of this point?'

She couldn't help but look at the group of people, secretly lamenting that the mice's skill tier was simply too high, vastly outclassing the cats.

'I'll just wait.'

'Wait for Zhou Zhan to make a choice. If he consistently doesn't touch a mouse, it means he might be a mouse in disguise. Alternatively, I can wait for the next Three-Star player to come to the first floor. He/she will also face my current situation. If two Three-Star players don't come down in quick succession, it means the Three-Star player who comes down is a real cat.'

'However...'

'I feel like I'm overlooking something!'

'The elevator!!!'

'I remember when we were on the second floor, the ordinary Four-Star player blocked the elevator with something. But when I came down, the elevator wasn't jammed; it had directly gone up to the 18th floor.'

'Lin Xuan was caught twice, so he can't return to the second floor. Then the object jamming the elevator on the second floor must have been moved by a mouse!'

'A mouse went up to the second floor!'

'Being able to break through Zhou Zhan's defense line means that Zhou Zhan has already cleared the stage.'

'So this was where the flaw lay!'

Thinking of this, the corners of the Three-Star woman's mouth curled up slightly. This was perhaps the advantage of a joint layout: everyone had their own ideas, so when it came to execution, there were bound to be problems.

This was also the reason why it was best to have only one smart person in a project or a company. When there were too many smart people, they would argue endlessly, and execution would drop.

The few people who had been observing the changes in the Three-Star woman's expression felt speechless in their hearts.

They also sighed inwardly.

'Sigh, I told you, that idiot Gao Lan couldn't pull off any flashy plays.'

'No, if you can't pull off flashy plays, then why the fuck did you run so fast?'

Facts proved once again that a pig-like teammate was more terrifying than god-like opponents.

Needless to say, their idiot allergy was acting up, and their blood pressure was skyrocketing.

'However, we never expected him to pull off any flashy plays anyway, so we prepared patches in advance.'

'Moreover, this play... no, these three plays... have only just begun.'