Star Trace Gate

In front of the zoo, Xiao Shuai and Yin Hu both turned pale and their hair stood on end after listening to Ren Ye's words.

"No... not to die together?" Yin Hu stammered in surprise.

"My mind is in a mess right now. I need to find a quiet place to think carefully." Ren Ye held his forehead and murmured with the same pale face: "There is a possibility that we may have all been deceived...!"

Xiao Shuai looked around when he heard this, and saw a closed breakfast shop and said, "Let's go to where the person ran away."

……

after an hour.

In the fast food restaurant which was already deserted, Ren Ye sat blankly in the darkness, like a sculpture, without saying a word.

He had been sitting in this position for nearly an hour.

Neither Yinhu nor Xiaoshuai said anything to interrupt, they just waited patiently.

Time passed quickly, and there was not much time left before 5 pm when the task had to be submitted to Song Mingzhe and Pan Lianrong.

There was no light in the empty breakfast shop. Only the dim street lights emitted light, shining through the windows onto the profiles of the three people.

Ren Ye sat upright in the chair, his whole body immersed in the swamp-like memories, unable to extricate himself for a long time.

After the killing mechanism of the secret room in which he was imprisoned was broken, he began to recall, and countless sets of messy images emerged in his mind.

On the first night after the secret room was cracked, a black dog suddenly appeared in the corridor on the first floor; on the second night after the secret room was cracked, the ceiling lights in the living room on the second floor suddenly went out; in the Tiangong Building, after Tan Pang and Yin Hu separated, they said they smelled a smell...

All these messy images began to be arranged one by one in Ren Ye's mind, and whenever they couldn't make sense, he would start over...

Countless times of deduction seemed to have drained his soul away, causing him to stare at the clean tabletop like a madman, his eyes bloodshot.

“Brother, he…he won’t…!” Xiao Shuai looked at Ren Ye worriedly and tried to interrupt his thoughts several times.

"brush!"

At this moment, Ren Ye suddenly turned his head to look at him and said word by word: "You are in danger!!!"

Xiao Shuai was stunned for a moment: "What are you talking about? Big brother!"

Yin Hu also came back to his senses, stretched his neck and asked: "What do you mean? Have you figured it out?"

"pass."

Ren Ye stared at the two in the darkness, and suddenly stood up and said, "If those three drops of golden blood were just the blood of a magical alien race and were used to kill Fatty, then they would be the same as a broken sword body and a shattered formation stone. They have no special meaning at all. He didn't have to point his finger in that direction on purpose."

He walked into the fast food restaurant and repeated, "Xiao Shuai is in danger. We must protect him."

"Why?" Xiao Shuai looked puzzled.

Ren Ye turned his head to look at him and said in a hoarse voice: "This star gate has a very important mechanism. That is, after completing the task, the player will get the corresponding gold coin reward, but the gold coin reward is bound to the individual. Except for the explosion after the player's death, it cannot be given to others. We have all been misled by this mechanism...!"

"What do you mean?" Yin Hu asked.

"Let me tell you a story about 'Shadow'."

In order to help the two understand his speculation, Ren Ye started from the beginning: "This story starts from the first day of this star gate. Shadow is one of the eight players. After he entered this star gate, he met the old cadre. I don't know if the two of them knew each other outside the star gate, such as being members of a large organization and having a token of recognition; or if they had some means of restraining each other. In short, they quickly established absolute trust between them and decided to travel through this star gate together."

"On the first day, after the mission began, everything went smoothly for the two of them. They even completed an Easter egg mission, received extra rewards, and became the number one on the gold coin list that day."

"In addition to the extra gold coin reward, the Easter egg mission should also give a prop reward. And I actually got a similar prop. The ability of my prop is to resist a disaster, and I haven't used it yet." Ren Ye looked at them and narrated in a steady tone: "Later, I guessed that this reward that can resist disasters should be used in the murder mechanism of the secret room. For example, on the first night, if my Li door was in a very bad position, then with the help of this prop, I might survive. Song Mingzhe might not kill anyone for a day, or he might kill other targets...!"

"I understand." Yin Hu nodded.

"So, I guess the reward Shadow got should also be related to the prison chamber." Ren Ye frowned and said, "And it is likely to be a precious prop with a hint. For example, this hint is that something ominous will happen in the Kanzi room tonight."

"Shadow didn't know what this ominous thing was, but he was very scared and felt it was very dangerous. However, he didn't want to waste his props, so he decided to find a scapegoat."

"But everyone is a third-level supernatural power user, and they are all team leaders. Everyone may have some hidden cards in their hands. It is not easy to find a scapegoat."

"Until Xiao Yuan, who was isolated by everyone because of his various behaviors, showed up and took the initiative to find Yingzi, wanting to reconcile with him. For Yingzi, he was the best scapegoat. Even if he died, no one would care. After all, this was only the first day, and everyone had no emotional ties."

"However, he didn't know Xiao Yuan's ability, nor was he sure he could subdue him alone, so... the old cadre decided to help him."

"He tricked Xiao Yuan into going to the first floor, and together with the old cadre, he attacked the other party. In the end, the two sides exchanged rooms, and Xiao Yuan died on the first night."

Ren Ye paused here, frowned and recalled: "I checked the place where Xiao Yuan was ambushed and found scratches on the wall, but when I imitated the scratches with body movements, I found that the posture was very awkward, just like a person who was suddenly attacked from behind and left marks on the wall unintentionally when swinging one arm, or before fainting. But the shadow must be communicating with him from the front, so who attacked him from behind?"

"Old cadre!" Xiao Shuai has learned to answer quickly.

"Yes, that explains why the scratch marks are a bit weird. Xiao Yuan should have been communicating with the shadow face to face, and the old cadre attacked from behind, so Xiao Yuan's fingers just happened to grab the wall after he reacted and before he fainted."

"Makes sense." Yin Hu nodded vigorously.

"Let's continue with the story. After Shadow killed Xiao Yuan on the first day, he thought the crisis was over, but he never thought that he would face an even greater crisis on the second day." Ren Ye frowned and said, "First, there was the first crisis. Brother Hong's character is a bit stubborn. He always insisted that Xiao Yuan's death was not normal, and he was very suspicious of Shadow. He felt that his explanation was very far-fetched, which made everyone suspicious of Shadow... This caused his situation in the team to deteriorate, and everyone was secretly guarding against him. The second crisis was something he could never have imagined...!"

"What crisis?"

"It's the killing mechanism of the Star Gate." Ren Ye said coldly: "He probably can't figure out why he is so unlucky. Shadow thought that the most unlucky room on the first day was the Kanzi room, so it would probably not be this room on the second day, so she chose to spend the second night here. But she never expected that the most unlucky room on the second day would still be the Kanzi room...!"

After hearing this, Yinhu and Xiaoshuai nodded and agreed: "This guy is really unlucky."

"After half past eight, the door was locked, and Shadow had no way to find someone to block the knife, so... in desperation, he decided to use the prop he got on the first day." Ren Ye thought about it, shook his head slightly and said, "I can't guess what this prop is called. But the general meaning must be a substitute for death. I will call it "Death Substitute" for the time being."

"As we all know, the way of heaven is fair. To a certain extent, props that violate the rules must have a price for use. I guess Shadow used the Death Substitute, which is equivalent to dying once. The price is that all his personal accumulation, including gold coins and fragments of his autobiography, will explode, and he will not be able to pick it up again, so he can only let others take it."

"At this point, Shadow has two choices. The first is to spend the night safely, and then wait for the day to come, explain the situation to everyone, and continue to blend in with the team. The second is to go with the flow and "die" directly."

At this point, Ren Ye suddenly looked at Yin Hu and asked, "If it were you, you have been rejected and suspected by everyone, and it is difficult to build trust again... then what would you choose?"

Yin Hu was stunned by the question and answered instinctively: "Everyone suspects that I killed Xiao Yuan. This is different from Xiao Yuan deceiving everyone. After all, it involves human life. So in the following travels, absolutely no one will trust me. I will suffer greater rejection and isolation than Xiao Yuan. So, if it were me... I would choose to go with the flow and give it a try."

"Yes."

Ren also nodded and said, "So, he chose to die directly. Due to the effect of the death-substitute charm, the Heavenly Dao helped him evolve the funeral scene... and this is also supported by evidence. The Star Gate has been guiding everyone to kill each other, so if someone dies, it is in line with the characteristics of this Star Gate. The Heavenly Dao helps it evolve and adds to the struggle of humanity... There is no problem with that."

"But where did she go after she died?" Xiao Shuai asked.

"This has to be said about what happened after everyone quarreled that morning." Ren Ye recalled, "Since two consecutive days, people died at night, and Changsheng Temple's way of breaking the deadlock was not right, so everyone was very emotional, and there was a quarrel, and then they all dispersed. After you all left, I only chatted with Brother Hong for a while, and mentioned the special props. He also specifically reminded me to be more careful and to be on guard against other people. After Brother Hong left, I searched eight rooms, and halfway through I heard a sound of footsteps...!"

"I was terrified at the time, thinking that everyone in the villa had left, so who could be walking? So, I immediately used my magical powers and left the room to check, but I ran into Fatty Tan who brought me food." Ren Ye said coldly: "Now that I think about it, the footsteps were probably not from Fatty Tan, but from the shadow on the second floor... He had been hiding in the Kan room, and he must have used props like an invisibility talisman, maybe hiding under the bed. After everyone left and I started checking each room one by one, he was forced to leave...!"

"After Fat Tan came back, we searched the first floor and the courtyard, and that was probably the time when Shadow left." Ren Ye logically recounted his guess.

After hearing this, Xiao Shuai was silent for a while, then shook his head and said, "No, brother, you are wrong!"

"What went wrong?!"

Ren also asked.

"If Shadow is still alive, how did he survive so many days?!" Xiao Shuai looked at Ren Ye, "You know, the hard rules of this star gate are that everyone must return to the villa before 6pm every night, and must return to the eight rooms before 8:30pm, and two people cannot live in the same room. If these rules are violated, the death mechanism will be triggered. How...how could Shadow do it? He lived for several days without anyone noticing, right under the noses of so many supernatural powers?!"

Ren Ye heard this and pointed to his temple: "Use your brain and cooperation, you can do it."

"I won't mention it. I can't think of it anyway. But you can tell me in detail how to cooperate." Yin Hu replied.

"On the first night that Shadow survived, I found a way to crack the murder chamber and announced the location of the murder room at 8:20." Ren Ye said softly, "I remember it very clearly. On that day, Xiao Shuai's Zhen room was the murderous location. I even asked him which room he would choose to live in. In the end, Xiao Shuai chose Dui."