Chapter 287

Hai Ming's face was full of guilt.

He hadn't even added Tail's friend request, let alone gotten her real contact info.

With Tail dead, where would he find such a cute little sister?

Hearing Hai Ming's bizarre words, Fang Yue and Liao Moran exchanged a glance.

Liao Moran had a straightforward temper; she directly confronted Hai Ming: "Hai Ming! What did you mean just now? How is this woman's condition connected to the earlier corpses?"

Fang Yue was more cautious; he silently stepped back a few paces, putting distance between himself and the two of them—and just then, he received a message from Tail.

"Ye Ge! Something's wrong! I can't get out! I'm trapped inside the Shuilian Room! The Shuilian Door has turned solid like cement—I can't break through!"

"Don't enter the Shuilian Room! Don't enter the Shuilian Room! Don't enter the Shuilian Room!"

Don't go in?

Fang Yue instinctively looked toward the Shuilian Room—and his pupils shrank instantly.

The once opaque Shuilian Curtain now clearly reflected the scene inside.

It was a girl, pounding desperately against the Shuilian Curtain, slamming into it—but unable to break through, trapped in frantic desperation inside the room!

And that girl was unmistakably Tail—identical in appearance to the Tail lying on the ground, her chest severely wounded, barely clinging to life!

Who is real?

Who is fake?

In an instant of thought, Fang Yue made his decision.

Clang—he drew his blade.

Amid Liao Moran's gasping retreat, Hai Ming's furious roar, and the dying Tail's terrified scream on the ground.

Fang Yue slashed straight at Tail's head.

The cracked Leng Yue Blade was still sharp.

With a Yu Li value exceeding 200, paired with the Leng Yue Blade, it sliced through Tail's skull without resistance, cleaving it cleanly in two.

As Tail's corpse convulsed, blood and brain matter sprayed out.

But Fang Yue's gaze was fixed on the Shuilian Room!

Then… Fang Yue saw the Tail behind the Shuilian Door suddenly freeze, then jerk her head up in terror, staring at him—as if asking why he had done this.

Immediately, a thin line appeared on Tail's forehead.

The line expanded instantly, slicing through the upper half of her skull—just as Fang Yue's earlier blow had split the ground-bound Tail's head.

In Fang Yue's stunned expression, the Tail behind the Shuilian Door collapsed, blood pooling beneath her.

"How could this…?"

Fang Yue was dumbfounded.

I killed the Tail on the ground—and now the real Tail behind the Shuilian Door simultaneously suffered the same wound and died?!!

"Ahh! Aaaah! Aaaaaah!!"

Liao Moran now saw the corpse behind the Shuilian Door and screamed, her high-pitched cry echoing through the hall.

Only now did Hai Ming notice the anomaly behind the Shuilian Door—he too froze.

Two Tail corpses lay on the ground, their postures identical, leaving no one able to make sense of it.

"What's going on?! Ye Captain killed the Tail goddess outside, but there's another Tail goddess behind the Shuilian Door—and she also mysteriously died at the same time!"

"What's the explanation? Could the Tail outside be the future version, and the one inside the past version? Did Ye Captain kill the future Tail, and that caused the past one to die too?"

Hai Ming knelt on the ground, muttering nonsense that only deepened the confusion.

But soon, Fang Yue calmed down from his shock, frowning: "No—Tail isn't dead."

"What?!"

"How is that possible?! I saw you kill her with my own eyes!"

Both demanded in unison.

Fang Yue shrugged at Hai Ming: "Liao Moran might not get it, but you should understand—because… she's still online."

"Wha—"

Hai Ming froze. This was… an irrefutable piece of evidence he couldn't deny.

The only problem… he didn't have Tail as a friend.

That was awkward.

"Uh… she's really online?"

"What else? I messaged her. She told us to figure out a way to open the Shuilian Door from outside."

The two were speaking like ancient scripture—Liao Moran understood not a word, and couldn't fathom why Hai Ming, who had been furious a moment ago, now calmly accepted that Tail was still alive, even though they'd just watched her die right in front of them!

But Hai Ming ignored Liao Moran entirely and said: "Then… I'm going in to see her!"

He moved toward the Shuilian Room—but Fang Yue grabbed his arm instantly.

"I don't care if you go in, but first tell me—when the fake Tail died, what did you mean by 'corpses'?"

"Corpses… uh…"

Hai Ming hesitated, then, seeing Fang Yue's grim expression, quickly recounted everything about the two corpses outside the Bronze Door.

"Those two corpses… looked a lot like you and Tail?"

Fang Yue frowned, unconvinced.

He had personally examined the corpses—no matter how he looked, from height to build to skeletal features, they bore no resemblance to him at all!

Yet now Hai Ming was saying this…

As Fang Yue pondered, Hai Ming suddenly dashed into the Shuilian Door.

Unlike being trapped inside, entering the Shuilian Door from outside offered zero resistance.

But strangely, although Hai Ming entered Shuilian Men, from the outside, the scene remained the same as before—the corpse of the tail—with no trace of Hai Ming at all.

Fortunately, he soon received a message from Hai Ming.

"Holy shit! Miss Tail is still alive! She's glaring at me! Awesome! I'm definitely adding her as a friend this time… Dammit, rejected instantly!"

Fang Yue rolled his eyes and ignored the message, instead bending down to examine the fake tail's corpse.

The fake tail's corpse was indistinguishable from the real one—as if it had stepped out of a mirror.

Without player-to-player friend messages to confirm the situation, even Fang Yue would have been fooled, let alone the Natives—had they seen this scene, they'd be tricked instantly!

In a sense, players themselves were essentially cheating.

After slashing the corpse's limbs several times with the Leng Yue Blade, deep enough to expose bone, Fang Yue stood up, stroked his chin, and sent a message to Tail.

"Are you safe over there? If everything's fine, I'll head back to the Bronze Room first—I've got something to handle there, then I'll help you find a way to open Shuilian Men."

"Go ahead, Ye Ge. I'm not in danger here. The room isn't big—just a bunch of empty boxes. Also, the guy who just came in already told me about the outside situation. I want to know what's going on with those two skeletons."

"Good."

Fang Yue stood up, ready to leave with Liao Moran, when he saw she had somehow hidden behind a pillar, peering out cautiously at him.

In that moment, to her eyes, Fang Yue looked like a deranged, psychotic killer.

(End of Chapter)