In the Death Party rest area, the next day.
Fu Songcheng stood up and walked to the wardrobe, changing out of the clothes that still carried a faint aura of exhaustion.
He spent 200 points in the system shop on a pure black advanced combat suit. When it came to spending money on himself, Fu Songcheng was never stingy.
The combat suit was sharply tailored and form-fitting; the fabric thin and light yet highly durable. The collar opened slightly, revealing clearly defined collarbones.
A tactical utility belt cinched his waist, outlining his already slender waistline as even more lithe and powerful.
The trouser legs were tucked into black tactical boots. His whole appearance was crisp, sharp, and radiating an unmistakable coldness.
Beep—
The system clock on the wall ticked to 11:55.
Fu Songcheng pushed open the rest room door. Yu Huaiting was already standing in the corridor.
Hearing the sound, Yu Huaiting turned his head, his gaze brazenly sweeping up and down Fu Songcheng.
Those pale eyes were full of admiration, and then the corners of his mouth curved into a teasing arc.
“Changed your style?” Yu Huaiting took half a step forward, a soft hum escaping his nose. “Dressed so tight—are we going into a proper instance here?”
Fu Songcheng gave him a cold glance, his eyes like ice-quenched knives. “You’re the one who’s improper.”
“Can’t even say a couple of words.”
Yu Huaiting shrugged. Instead of getting angry, he licked his back teeth, looking quite pleased.
…
[Loading B-rank instance: Avalon.]
[Matching players… Match successful. Player count for this round: 6.]
White light instantly swallowed them both.
After a brief sensation of weightlessness, the clamor of voices mixed with the roar of a steam locomotive flooded into his ears.
Fu Songcheng opened his eyes and found himself sitting at a round wooden table.
The air was thick with the mingled smell of coffee and tobacco.
It was an old railway station café. Outside the window was a gray, overcast sky and a steam train puffing white smoke.
Besides him and Yu Huaiting, four others sat around the round table: a sharp-eyed man with a scarred face, a short-haired girl, a pot-bellied middle-aged man, and a scrawny youth with bleached hair and shifty eyes.
At that moment, a semi-transparent system panel only each of them could see appeared before all six.
[Instance Background: Avalon Station.]
[Clear Condition: Faction confrontation.]
[Game Rules Overview: This is a six-player round. Divided into the Good faction (four players) and the Evil faction (two players).]
[The Good faction includes: Merlin (can see who the Evils are), Percival (can see Merlin and Morgana but cannot distinguish between them), and two Loyal Servants (no special abilities, civilians).]
[The Evil faction includes: Morgana (impersonates Merlin to confuse Percival) and the Assassin (at the very end, if the Good faction wins, the Assassin may make one final strike. If the Assassin correctly kills Merlin, the Evil faction snatches victory from defeat).]
[Flow: The station will dispatch five trains (i.e., five missions). Each time, a specified number of players must be selected to board.]
[Victory Conditions: The Good faction must ensure three trains arrive safely (mission success); the Evil faction must cause three train accidents (mission failure). If the Good faction wins, the assassination mode automatically begins—if the Evil faction finds Merlin and successfully assassinates him, that also counts as a victory.]
The rules were long. This was a classic game of logical deduction and faction disguise.
Yu Huaiting had played it with classmates back when he was in school.
He couldn’t exactly say he was good at it—only that he was basically a self-detonating truck, a black hole of a player.
Fu Songcheng quickly scanned the rules, then moved his gaze down to his [Identity Card].
As the card slowly flipped open, crimson characters met his eyes—
[Your identity: Morgana (Evil faction).]
[Your teammate: Assassin (Yu Huaiting).]
Morgana.
Fu Songcheng took a deep breath. He was now one hundred percent certain he’d been screwed over by that damned “lover” binding with Yu Huaiting!
Whenever he entered an instance, the system assigned him a female identity.
Fu Songcheng raised his head expressionlessly, his gaze crossing the table and fixing straight on Yu Huaiting, who sat opposite him.
Yu Huaiting was lounging lazily against the chair back, one leg bent and propped on the chair’s crossbar, his posture outrageously arrogant.
Sensing Fu Songcheng’s murderous stare, he raised an eyebrow and tapped his fingertip twice lightly on the table.
[Party Private Chat]
Yu Huaiting: [What do we do now, time to play the charming villain role? ~]
Fu Songcheng: [Rein it in.]
Looking at Yu Huaiting’s unbothered look, Fu Songcheng gritted his teeth. He’d loved playing these tabletop games back in his student days—and at a glance, he could tell Yu Huaiting’s current arrogance wasn’t bluffing.
It was pure incompetence.
Yu Huaiting looked at the reply, the corner of his mouth clearly twitching, then a barely suppressed laugh surfaced in his eyes.
He propped his chin on one hand, his gaze brazenly lingering over Fu Songcheng’s crisp combat suit, as if admiring some interesting toy.
“Ahem…”
The scar-faced man was the first to break the silence. His gaze swept over everyone present, his voice low and rough. “Since everyone’s read the rules clearly, let’s not hide anything.”
“The first train’s about to leave. Two people need to board. I’m an old player—just call me Brother Dao. I’ll state my position first: I’m good.”
“I’m good too,” the short-haired girl quickly chimed in.
The bleached-haired youth sneered. “Obviously. Can bad guys write ‘bad guy’ on their foreheads? Isn’t this game all about lying to each other?”
The middle-aged man wiped away nonexistent sweat and gave a dry laugh. “Let’s just work through the logic slowly…”
“Work through what?!”
An extremely impatient cold shout abruptly cut off the middle-aged man’s words.
Yu Huaiting, who’d been silent all along, suddenly sat up straight. The laziness on his face instantly vanished, replaced by a bone-chilling savagery.
“This kind of dawdling guessing game is the worst.”
He stood up abruptly, his right hand grabbing at the void.
Buzz—!
A massive black greatsword radiating a thick stench of blood materialized in his hand out of thin air.
The blade slammed heavily into the wooden floor, smashing out a deep pit and sending wood chips flying.
Yu Huaiting held the greatsword one-handed, his pale eyes glinting with bloodthirsty light, his gaze sweeping slowly across Brother Dao, the short-haired girl, the bleached-hair youth, and the middle-aged man—as if looking at four corpses.
“Finding two bad guys out of five is too much trouble.”
Yu Huaiting’s mouth twisted into a cruel arc. “How about this—kill everyone, and won’t this broken game just end on its own?”
The air froze in that instant.
The thick killing intent struck like something tangible, pressing down so hard the four of them couldn’t breathe.
Brother Dao’s expression changed drastically and he yanked out the pistol at his waist; the bleached-hair youth hid in terror behind the short-haired girl; the short-haired girl said nothing but took up a fighting stance.
“Are you insane?”
Brother Dao held his gun, staring dead at the raving Yu Huaiting.
At this critical moment.
Fu Songcheng, who had been sitting to the side watching coldly all along, felt his gaze suddenly sink.
Fool.
He shouldn’t have believed Yu Huaiting would actually listen to him.
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