Fantasy Game: Infinite City

"Player has been eliminated"

"Number of players remaining: 4/55"

Just when the five players separated to act, the system suddenly popped up a prompt. There were only four left out of the original five people. One of them was killed by other players. Normally, if the reason for elimination is the copy mechanism, the system will not eliminate any players, and will only directly display the remaining number of people. Therefore, among the five players, a fight must have broken out between at least two people, and the one with less skill was killed.

Pei Zuocheng, who was in the manor garden, had just learned that someone had been killed. He saw some servants and bodyguards quickly heading towards the back door of the manor's main building. Pei Zuocheng grabbed a maid and asked what had happened.

"I heard that something happened to a guest!"

Pei Zuocheng also followed the maid to the location of the accident. According to Pei Zuocheng's thinking, judging from the information of this copy, this is not a copy that focuses on combat, or it can be said that combat is almost unnecessary. However, in such a copy, there was actually a fight between players. Could it be that someone discovered something important and was then silenced?

When Pei Zuocheng arrived at the scene of the accident, the area was already full of people. The bodyguards of the manor were maintaining order at the scene. At the outermost edge were some brave maids and servants such as gardeners. A little further inside were a few butlers. Between them and the bodyguards were the other three players. Everyone was here.

Magnus, the owner of the manor, and his son Ha Jin, stood beside the corpse with serious expressions. Ha Jin, who had some experience in dissection, was checking the corpse on the ground. Pei Zuocheng squeezed through the crowd and took a look at the corpse on the ground. The face was very familiar. It was Cao Yuan, who had been sitting and talking together not long ago. His body was lying flat on the ground, with his head tilted, his face livid, his eyes open, and three deep cracks on his chest, which looked like the claws of some beast. His neck was bloody and fleshy, and some columnar marks could be seen from the edge. It could be analyzed that something should have bitten Cao Yuan's neck and torn it back and forth to cause the wound.

"Although these wounds look scary, it wasn't these wounds that killed him. This thing should be the one that killed him."

After examining Cao Yuan's body, Ha Jin found a very small diamond-shaped wound, about one millimeter in size, between the second and third vertebrae of his spine. Something was stuck in his body in this wound.

Ha Jin took out a small folding tool kit from his pocket, which contained tools originally used to dissect monsters. Ha Jin picked up a pair of tweezers and slowly picked out the thing stuck under the wound. It was a very thin spike that seemed to be made of chitin. Ha Jin took out a magnifying glass to observe and found that this thin spike was actually hollow.

"Although I don't know what's inside, judging from the darkening color around the wound, the substance inside must have been poisonous. But I'm not sure if it's contagious. Father, I think we should isolate the body first. He died about half an hour ago."

"Free up a storage room on the side of the garden."

After receiving the order from the manor owner Magnus, several servants immediately went to work. Not long after they cleaned up the storage room, they brought two thick wooden sticks, tied the body to them with ropes, carried it into the storage room, and assigned someone to guard it.

"Master, Master Ha Jin, all the exits of the manor have been guarded, and no one has ever left."

A bodyguard ran over and reported the news to Magnus. Magnus looked very unhappy, but because there were other guests around, Magnus controlled his emotions and did not get angry on the spot.

"Where's Jerome?"

"I asked someone to check it out. They should..."

"master!"

Another butler came running over breathlessly with several bodyguards, bringing bad news.

"Young Master Jerome is missing!"

"What did you say?!!!"

"I'm going to find Jerome, father. You guys! Protect the master!"

Just as Ha Jin left to look for Jerome and Magnus was getting angry at the bodyguards, Pei Zuocheng shifted his attention and began to observe the status of the other three players present.

The player named Su Wen had a serious expression. Although the other players were like this, there seemed to be a hint of doubt in her expression. Pei Zuocheng also observed that when Ha Jin was explaining Cao Yuan's injuries and the cause of death, before explaining the specific situation, Su Wen was also paying attention to those positions, but subconsciously shook her head slightly. When Ha Jin explained the real cause of death, Su Wen nodded. Combining her actions and micro-expressions, Pei Zuocheng could infer that Su Wen should not be the one who killed Cao Yuan. She was obviously more interested in Cao Yuan's wounds than the dead Cao Yuan. She should have some medical knowledge and might be a doctor. She should have just arrived here.

The player named Wei Mingchen had an unnatural expression on his face. Pei Zuocheng noticed that he was pinching his thigh with one hand. He seemed to find it hard to accept Cao Yuan's death.

There were only three guilds participating in this dungeon. Including the dead Cao Yuan, there were five people left, so there must be someone from the same guild. However, for the sake of safety, they did not tell the news and pretended not to know each other. From Wei Mingchen's actions, Pei Zuocheng analyzed that he and the dead Cao Yuan should be players from the same guild. There are very few individual competitions in the guild competition dungeons, and this dungeon is obviously not an individual competition, so there is no need for internal strife. This means that Cao Yuan’s death has nothing to do with Wei Mingchen.

Now there is only one person left, and she is also the only woman who did not reveal her name during the discussion in the study. From the very beginning, she did not want to have any contact with other players.

Pei Zuocheng looked towards the place where she had just stood, and happened to see that she was quietly leaving the crowd. Pei Zuocheng thought that even if Cao Yuan was not killed by her, he must know something about the situation. Just as he was about to follow to see the situation, Magnus, the owner of the manor, gathered the three players present and prepared to ask about the situation.

A few minutes later, in Magnus's other study.

"I know this is disrespectful to the guests, but this incident may endanger the safety of my family, so I must ask, where were you when that person died?"

"The garden. There were quite a few gardeners and maids around at the time. I was basically by the fountain in the garden."

Pei Zuocheng first answered Magnus' question. He told the truth. When Cao Yuan died, he had been sitting on a bench near the fountain in the garden, sorting out the information he had searched in the manor. The gardeners and maids around him also saw him and could serve as witnesses to prove his alibi.

"I was on the balcony on the second floor of the manor with Ha Jin. I was asking him questions about the ceremony. He should be able to prove what I said." Wei Mingchen also told where he was at the time. This was also confirmed after Ha Jin entered the study.

"The kitchen. I was a little hungry at the time. The people in the kitchen should be able to prove what I said."

Su Wen was indeed in the kitchen at that time and did eat something. Although Su Wen went to the kitchen to gather information, she did have an alibi.

Of the remaining four people, three had alibis and a large number of witnesses, so suspicion naturally pointed to the last person, the only woman who did not reveal her name. But Magnus' words made everyone present confused.

"She didn't kill him because she was with me at the time and she was asking for the details of what happened a year ago."

There were five people in total, one was killed, but the other four had alibis, which made the matter confusing, but now there is no information, so there is no way to continue the investigation.

"Hajjin, where's Jerome?"

"He's fine. He ran to another room. I just found him outside his room. I left a few people to protect him. Father, what should we do now? Do we need to notify the guards to come over?"

As a duke, Magnus certainly has his own guards, and they are of excellent quality, but they usually stay in the military camp in the suburbs. If they are transferred here, it will take at least forty minutes. Moreover, with too many people in the manor, it will not be so smooth to investigate the information, and it is inevitable that some lawless people will come in and fish in troubled waters. Also, Magnus does not want to make his family affairs public. After all, he is a duke and it will have a bad influence.

"Phew... No need, Ha Jin, I'll leave the investigation of the murderer to you. Guests, continue your work. If necessary, I can send someone to protect you and stay with you. Let's solve the matter of my granddaughter first."

Magnus handed the investigation of the murderer to Ha Jin and went to do his own thing. Although there was someone in charge, Pei Zuocheng understood that Ha Jin would not be able to find out anything. After all, this was a fight between players. Although the other three had alibis and witnesses, Pei Zuocheng still felt that this incident must have been done by one of the other three.

Although it was unclear what each other was thinking, it was true that the rest of the people were skeptical about the matter, but Wei Mingchen seemed to have other opinions.

He knew Cao Yuan's route of action. In their previous investigation, they found that there was a secret door at the end of the corridor on the right side of the stairs leading to the underground wine cellar. However, according to the structural drawings they had found before, when the manor was renovated and before, there should not be such a secret door there. Cao Yuan once asked Magnus indirectly, but Magnus was not aware of the existence of this secret door. Therefore, this secret door should have been built after the manor was renovated. Calculating the time, it was almost around the time when Magnus's daughter had an accident. But because of this incident, no one found the location at that time. So after Wei Mingchen and Cao Yuan discussed it, they decided to let Cao Yuan, who had stronger martial arts skills, investigate secretly.

According to common sense, this matter is indeed inexplicable, because such a system notification will only be issued when players eliminate other players. However, Wei Mingchen, Cao Yuan, and their guild know one more thing than other people and their guilds. That is, they know that there are cheaters who use abnormal equipment in the Infinite City.

Wei Mingchen thought that if the other people present had alibis, and the system still issued a notice, then Cao Yuan was most likely killed by a cheating player, and he or they should have a way to not be counted among the remaining players. If this was the case, then this matter would be difficult to handle.

Wei Mingchen held a high status in his guild, so he participated in many meetings, both public and secret. He learned a piece of news from the vice president that some of the cheaters who appeared in the Infinite City did not aim to clear the dungeon. Although he did not know what their purpose was, as long as they were suspected of appearing in the dungeon, ordinary players in the dungeon would basically be killed inexplicably, and there was another thing.

That is, after Cao Yuan died, his body did not disappear, which proved that Cao Yuan was not teleported away. Cao Yuan really died here, but Wei Mingchen did not know this.

But just because he didn't know, it didn't mean that others didn't know. For example, Su Wen discovered this detail.

Normally, if a player dies in a dungeon, regardless of whether they have resurrected, their bodies will not be left in the dungeon for more than five minutes. They will usually be teleported out directly. Cao Yuan's body is still in the storage room outside. It has been nearly fifty minutes since he died. This means that Cao Yuan did not just die in the dungeon, but really died. As for why Su Wen knew this detail, it was because in the guild that Su Wen belonged to, her president was a former employee of the Infinite City. From the president, Su Wen and other members got a lot of internal information. Although many of them are outdated, at least they know more than some other guilds and players.

At the same time, outside the manor wall, near the back door of the manor.

A woman was walking in a hurry, having just walked out of the woods not far away. Her shoes and skirt were stained with some wet mud, as were her hands tucked into her sleeves. She was the woman who did not give her name. She was also a player, but she had a secret. That was that she did not belong to any of the three guilds participating in the dungeon this time. She was even a lone wolf player without a guild.

Although she looked a bit guilty, she was not a cheater, nor was she the one who killed Cao Yuan. She was also puzzled by Cao Yuan's death, and she knew more inside information than the other three, including the dead Cao Yuan. For example, she knew about the cheaters, and at the same time, she also knew what countermeasures the Infinite Company had taken. She even knew that this dungeon was a dungeon that could not be cleared by normal means, and was used to screen cheaters. However, this was not the most important thing.

The most important thing is that she knew that in order to deal with cheaters, Infinite Company dispatched some people to do the finishing and bottom-up work, and these people's methods were often not very decent. Simply put, they were shady. In her opinion, Cao Yuan's death was most likely caused by these people, and Cao Yuan was most likely a cheater.

As for why she is so nervous now, there seems to be another hidden story.