Book 4: Chapter 20 |
Leon wandered alone through the castle, but it wasn’t completely aimless.
He first went to the place where A-Guang had been “killed.”
It was outside the door of a task room. Back then, he and his two daughters had just completed a three-person task. Before they even had time to celebrate, A-Guang got sent away.
And now, on the floor in front of that room’s door, the staff had drawn a human-shaped outline in chalk.
In the center of the outline were a few words:
Friend B.
A-Guang’s in-game identity.
This was how the game marked a “corpse.”
“Noya, Mu’en, and Senior Claudia should all be on the good side. The only two whose identities are truly uncertain are Rosvithar and Big Sis.”
“The other lone wolf has to be one of those two.”
“But Rosvithar was bound to me for almost half the time earlier. I know pretty much all the item cards she got.”
“As for the time she acted alone… was that really enough for her to complete a ‘remote kill’ setup like this?”
“And Big Sis… there aren’t any clues about her at all on the field, but that’s exactly what makes her the most suspicious.”
“Did she use some kind of item to hide all intel and information about herself… or have we simply not found it yet…?”
Leon’s investigation range had narrowed down a lot.
Just like Noya said in the meeting earlier: once you have a range, you wouldn’t be running around like a headless fly anymore.
But even so, Leon still couldn’t ignore another speculation about “remote killing.”
Well, calling it speculation wasn’t quite accurate.
It was more like a blurry conclusion formed from the current situation, plus a dragon-slayer’s instincts about dragons.
There was no decisive evidence supporting it, which was why Leon still hadn’t mentioned it to anyone.
Besides, they still couldn’t confirm who that remote-killing lone wolf actually was. If he brought it up recklessly, it might instead bring “death” down on his own head.
Thinking as he walked, Leon unconsciously arrived at another location.
There was another human-shaped outline on the floor here, too.
Guard.
“It’s Little Helena’s ‘corpse,’ huh.”
Leon spoke quietly, kept moving forward, and kept thinking.
Along the way, Leon also completed a solo task.
The reward was unexpectedly good: a “Great Detective” item card, which could check whether a certain player had performed a kill within the past six hours.
The earlier “Great Detective” card he and Rosvithar had found had already been used by Rosvithar to prove Leon’s innocence.
And now that the game had reached this stage, a kill-check card like this was extremely crucial.
Because the fewer people left, the more information a check card could produce.
Leon put away the “Great Detective”, then continued wandering around the castle.
About ten minutes later, he vaguely saw a staff member crouched near the corner of a corridor ahead, drawing something.
Leon frowned, quickened his steps, and went over to check.
By the time he reached the spot, the staff member had just left.
Leon glanced sideways, watching him walk away, then withdrew his gaze and looked at the place the person had been working on.
Then Leon almost seemed to be startled—he took half a step backward.
It was a small human-shaped outline.
In the center of it was written:
Friend A.
Mu’en… had been killed!
In that instant, even Leon couldn’t accept the sudden shock.
When… by what method… had Mu’en been killed by that wolf, just like that…?
A fear with no clear source began to spread and swell inside Leon’s chest.
He truly hadn’t expected a family bonding game to leave someone with psychological trauma.
After steadying his emotions a little, Leon slowly crouched down, reached out, and brushed his fingers over the words “Friend A.”
Then he showed a helpless, bitter smile.
“Little Moon, this time you didn’t even get to eat Dad’s offering.”
After forcing a joke through the bitterness, Leon stood up, dusted his hands off, and his gaze turned even more serious and heavy.
Even if it was “just a game,” don’t underestimate a doting dad’s thirst for revenge.
……
In the public kitchen, Rosvithar had just prepared a small cake and held it in her palm.
“Hopefully it can be useful.”
“Useful for what?”
A familiar voice suddenly came from the kitchen doorway.
Luckily, the Queen had built up some courage from this game—she didn’t get frightened.
She turned around.
Leon was standing there with his arms crossed, leaning crookedly against the doorway.
“Why are you here?” Rosvithar asked.
“Mu’en got killed.”
Leon went straight to the point.
Rosvithar froze in place, the expression on her face stiffening.
A large interactive game with roleplaying elements could, to a certain extent, involve “out-of-game factors.”
For example, in the game, the “Friend Group” had no real relationship with the “Royal Chef.”
But the interesting part was: out of game, the two little ones in the “Friend Group” were the “Royal Chef’s” daughters.
So now that the entire “Friend Group” had been “killed,” it was hard for Rosvithar not to feel some emotional fluctuation.
That fluctuation wasn’t negative, but it would absolutely affect the tempo and pacing of the game itself.
And it could also add surprises to what would otherwise be a routine game flow.
“Do you know who did it?” Rosvithar asked in a low voice.
“No.”
“Why wasn’t Noya with Mu’en? And… why didn’t you call a ‘temporary meeting’?”
Leon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he was hesitating whether to make a certain decision.
After a brief struggle, Leon took out the “Great Detective” card from his pocket.
“Before I answer your questions… do you mind if I use a check card on you?”
Rosvithar shrugged.
“I don’t mind.”
Leon used the “Great Detective.”
The check result was—
“Player ‘Royal Chef’ within the past six hours—”
“Has not killed.”
Rosvithar let out a breath of relief.
“You wasted a precious check card.”
Leon slowly shook his head.
“No. It wasn’t wasted. I think I’ve already guessed the principle behind this ‘remote killing.’”
“What principle?”
“Actually, ‘remote killing’ is only the surface. Rather than calling it ‘remote,’ it’s more like… ‘timed.’”
Leon explained slowly.
“Look—starting from A-Guang, then Helena, then Mu’en. Didn’t you notice a common point in when they were killed?”
Rosvithar’s silver pupils shifted as her thoughts surged.
After a moment, she suddenly realized it.
“Every kill happened after a meeting—after a period of time!”
“That’s right. That lone wolf definitely found some kind of item card that makes one person die after every meeting ends.”
Leon said.
“This not only creates the illusion of ‘remote killing,’ but it also hides their identity really well.”
“It even makes us suspect each other and creates uncontrollable chaos.”
“And then that lone wolf can sit back, reap the benefits, and calmly take the final victory.”
After absorbing Leon’s analysis, Rosvithar processed it for a moment, then asked again,
“But would there really be an item card with an effect that exaggerated? Wouldn’t that be too disruptive to game balance?”
“I suspect… to achieve something this absurd, an item card alone isn’t enough.”
Leon said, “It would also require some… means. Some means capable of affecting all players…”
As he reached that point, the couple looked at each other.
Their gazes crossed—and they spoke in unison:
“Collective Fate!”
“And the only Collective Fate that’s been triggered in this entire game is the Alchemy Room.”
“After the Alchemy Room disease spread, all of us went to—”
Before they could finish, footsteps approached from the doorway.
The two of them silently shut their mouths in perfect sync, then turned to look.
Blue hair entered their view.
It was Claudia.
“Yo, you two—meeting up in the kitchen for a date is… pretty unique, isn’t it?” Claudia teased with a smile.
The couple smiled along with her, and Leon immediately asked, “Senior, did you find any—”
Leon’s words were cut off again by another set of footsteps.
And the owner of these footsteps didn’t belong to any player in the game.
It was a female staff member in a standard uniform. She appeared at Claudia’s side and politely supported the beautiful woman’s arm.
Claudia sighed helplessly and shrugged.
“As you can see, Leon, I’m about to be escorted to God’s Observation Room.”
Leon and Rosvithar both sucked in a cold breath.
Good lord—That red dragon has gone on a rampage!
At this point, they might as well give her the title of “Strongest Dragon Slayer”!
“Is… is it because you exposed your identity and goal in the last meeting, so you got killed?” Leon asked.
“I think so,” Claudia said.
A good player who revealed their role was always the easiest to kill.
Especially since Claudia’s hidden objective was to destroy the “Black Holy Stone.”
To a lone wolf who wanted to take the Black Holy Stone for themselves, Claudia couldn’t be allowed to remain.
“Was it a remote kill, too?”
Claudia blinked, then gave a playful smile—before giving a nearly imperceptible shake of her head.
“Miss Claudia,” the staff member reminded, “‘The dead’ shouldn’t speak too much.”
“Alright. Sorry,” Claudia said.
Then she turned to the couple.
“Next, it’s up to you two. You’ll win, right?”
Before Leon and Rosvithar could answer, Claudia was already led away by the staff member.
Before she left, the beautiful woman gave the couple a wink.
Probably to cheer them on.
Once the footsteps faded, Leon slowly turned his head toward Rosvithar.
The Queen stared back at him with the same grave seriousness.
“Do we go kill my sister directly?”
“I don’t have a card that can kill directly. Do you?”
“I…”
Rosvithar looked at the freshly baked cake in her hands.
“This cake is different from the one you ate at the start. Whoever eats it will be eliminated directly.”
Leon raised an eyebrow, then sighed and smiled bitterly.
“But your sister is smart. She definitely won’t eat it, right?”
“Yeah…” Rosvithar said. “So the only thing we can do now is find Mu’en’s or Claudia’s corpse, then call a ‘temporary meeting’ and vote my sister out.”
At this point, as the other lone wolf, Leon had to join forces with the good faction.
Damn it—That black-bellied Red Dragon Queen’s killing skill is way too bugged. If we don’t team up, how are we supposed to play?
They might even get counter-killed in a three-versus-one.
So calling a temporary meeting and voting her out was the best option right now.
“Alright. Move.”
The couple dashed out of the public kitchen.
At the same time, they stayed extremely cautious, searching carefully while on guard.
Because, judging by Claudia’s death, Isha was no longer satisfied with killing by “meeting-end timing.”
She had started using kill item cards.
Just like Leon had predicted at the start, Isha would be the hardest opponent in the entire game.
“Leon.”
While they ran, Rosvithar suddenly spoke.
“What?”
“You’re not going to get captured by my sister a second time, are you?”
Screech—
Leon stopped abruptly.
“What do you mean, ‘a second time’?”
“Do you remember when I was pregnant with A-Guang? You played a game with my sister at that shop event, and you lost to her in the end.”
“…That will never happen a second time! What I once lost, I will take back with my own hands!”
Rosvithar covered her mouth and chuckled.
“Sure. Good luck, then.”
After the small tease, the couple continued searching the castle for the “corpse” of this round.
The game rules stated that you could only call a “temporary meeting” while standing beside the “corpse” that appeared in that round.
But after running up and down twice, they saw nothing—aside from A-Guang’s and Helena’s “corpses.”
They didn’t see Claudia at all.
Even Mu’en’s “corpse,” which Leon had just seen earlier, was gone too.
“How can that be… Our precious daughter died right here!”
Leon pointed at a corridor corner.
“You two are truly a model of ‘kind father and filial daughter,’” Rosvithar complained as she searched nearby.
Could it be Leon remembered wrong?
“Excuse me, Xiao Luo, Brother-in-law—are you looking for Little Moon’s traces?”
A magnetic, charming female voice came from the other side of the corridor.
The couple looked over.
A red, graceful figure stood there in an elegant posture, smiling, holding an item card between her fingers.
“Item card: ‘Scene Cleanup.’ After you cause a kill, it can erase the ‘corpse’ traces.”
“In other words, you cannot call a temporary meeting before the scheduled meeting.”
“Now let’s calculate how long it is until the scheduled meeting at eight o’clock.”
“Oh. A full hour.”
Click—
Isha stepped forward.
Her high heels tapped the ground with a crisp sound.
But that sound somehow felt like the Grim Reaper dragging a scythe across the floor.
“Perfect. I also have three kill item cards in my hand.”
“You three—one per dragon.”
A lone wolf revealing themselves meant one thing: she fully intended to kill all remaining players before the scheduled meeting began.
With an hour…
It was enough.
Leon’s eyes locked on Isha as he slowly retreated, quietly tightening his grip around Rosvithar’s hand.
“Are you going to follow your husband, Xiao Luo? Then let me tell you one more thing—don’t get scared, okay?”
“Actually… your husband is the second lone wolf.”
Rosvithar frowned.
“How do you know?”
“‘Intel card’—‘Unique.’ That card is almost always found at the very beginning.”
“But the ‘Unique’ clue was too vague. Didn’t we rule it out already…?”
“No, no, Xiao Luo. ‘Unique’—only.”
“Try rearranging those four letters and see what they become.”
“Only… o, n, l, y…”
“Ly… on. Leon…”
The Red Dragon Queen smiled in satisfaction.
“That’s right. The answer was right in front of us from the start. It’s just that my clever brother-in-law managed to slip past it.”
“But if you’re deducing from the player’s name, doesn’t that lean too much into out-of-game information?”
“I think that’s what makes this game interesting.”
“It only gives us the characters’ ‘identities’ in the story—Princess, Doctor, Old Friend—but it doesn’t give those characters names.”
“So the players’ own names are also part of the game.”
Rosvithar pressed her lips together, remembering.
“So when you were writing and drawing on a piece of paper during the second meeting, you were piecing together this clue.”
“Yes.”
“And I deliberately didn’t target Leon the whole time because I wanted to see you two fight as a couple.”
A victorious arrogance flashed through Isha’s deep red dragon eyes as she continued,
“But what a pity. It seems you failed to amuse me.”
“Then let’s end this game quickly.”
“After I deal with you now, I’ll go find my adorable eldest niece. Then your whole family can reunite.”
“Run—Rosvithar! Run!”
Leon finally made his decision.
He grabbed Rosvitha and bolted toward the other end of the corridor.
Watching the couple vanish at full speed, Isha didn’t panic at all.
“It’s fine.”
“Then I’ll go deal with the ‘Princess’ first.”
…
Footnotes:
- wú tóu cāng yingMeaning: “headless flies”; acting blindly without direction.
- cénɡ shī qù de, yí dìng yào qīn shǒu duó huí láiCommon dramatic phrasing: “What I once lost, I must take back with my own hands,” often used to show determination.
- fù cí nǚ xiàoIrony/humor: literally “a kind father and a filial daughter,” used here sarcastically to describe a chaotic, affectionate family dynamic.
- nǎi má máInternet slang (lightly vulgar emphasis): an emotional expletive used for comic frustration, roughly “damn it” in tone.
- bugGaming slang borrowed from English: describes something unbalanced/overpowered or “broken.”
- zì bàoGaming term: “self-reveal” (often used for a wolf to openly reveal their identity/strategy to force the endgame).
- wǐnkBorrowed English gesture reference: a wink used to signal encouragement, teasing, or a private joke.
- only → ly on → LeonWordplay clue: rearranging letters to form “lyon,” which phonetically points to “Leon”; used as an in-game meta clue tied to player names.