In front of Ren Yifei and Saman, he said he wanted to kill them?
"So how are you feeling now? Want to fight?" Ren Yifei shrugged and took a step back as if it were the most natural thing in the world, making way for Saman. "Please."
Boyfriend, it's time for you to show your true colors.
Saman was both amused and exasperated. He reached out and ruffled the man's hair, then turned to Shan Chuan and asked seriously, "Who is it?"
"A desolate corner".
After Shan Chuan uttered his answer, the two fell silent. They didn't think Shan Chuan would lie, so this situation... Had the Desolate Corner broken the unspoken rule of not intervening, as long as they died?
"And it opened the background and let me see the game records of the previous two times I played the Caged Bird instance, to ensure that I was in control," Shan Chuan added.
Ren Yifei covered his forehead: "It doesn't seem too surprising. I knew it was going to make a move, but I didn't expect its desire to be so strong that it would actually hire someone to kill and manipulate things from behind the scenes."
"So, Xia Chuan, have you now abandoned darkness for light, or are you going to start your killing with an artistic opening?"
"Actually, I could have made my move much earlier. However, I think I can wait a bit for you." Yamakawa watched the interaction between the two and slowly looked away.
"I'm glad you didn't choose to forgive or let it go, and you didn't let yourself get bogged down in the mud. You did exactly what I expected."
Ren Yifei accepted the compliment with a smile after being praised by the real-life inspiration for the character.
Shanchuan looked at Teacher Wang beside him and said, "There are always people with a saintly heart who want to love the abuser and use gentleness to resolve their violence. Such people have already achieved their goal and can go to see God or Buddha."
Teacher Wang: ...
"Teacher Wang, I heard that you've been doing charity work ever since that incident. Has your heart found peace because of it?" Shan Chuan said sarcastically.
If she had already calmed down, how could this instance exist?
Admittedly, Shan Chuan himself is partly to blame for the appearance of this high-end instance, but if Teacher Wang had no obsession, Shan Chuan's arrival in his true form would have been of no use.
"How did the Desolate Corner convince you?" Saman was very curious. Shanchuan was a very low-key and Buddhist person, who seemed to have no desires. What did the Desolate Corner promise?
"Kill any one of you, especially you, Saman, and you will be granted immunity from this purge."
"You would be attracted to something like this?" Saman was skeptical.
"Why not?" Shan Chuan looked at Ren Yifei. "I also want to meet the number one player of the Disguise Style in the Desolate Corner and see if I deserve the title of number one."
"Now that I see you, the first time I saw you, I thought I had gained a twin brother."
"Thank you for the compliment." Ren Yifei wasn't fooled. He asked directly, "But this kind of thing isn't enough to make you agree to become an assassin. You're not that kind of person."
Upon hearing this, Shanchuan's smile spread from the corners of his eyes to the corners of his mouth: "Of course, what attracts me even more is that it says it will take me back to the past. Even though it's fake, I still really want to see my high school classmates."
By this time, all the NPCs had disappeared, leaving only the players disguised as characters. But Shan Chuan still looked at each player's face, then shook his head: "Actually, I don't remember anymore. After taking my revenge, I let it go."
Perpetrators rarely care about the harm they cause to others, and this principle also applies to mountains and rivers.
"Compared to those 'classmates,' you brought me more surprises. I've also thought, if I had another chance, could I have done better? I probably could, but not as well as you could."
"How so?" Ren Yifei became interested. Coincidentally, the original owner of this body was also there and could comment on his performance.
"No matter how perfectly I do it, I can't dispel their suspicions like you do."
Shanchuan looked at Teacher Wang: "Perhaps Teacher Wang has a deeper understanding. Except for this time, Teacher Wang was convinced that I was the murderer every time. Of course, I was. However, you changed her deeply ingrained belief."
At this point, Teacher Wang perked up and got up: "So it really was you who did it?"
This question had been weighing on her mind for a long time. Sometimes she felt that she was prejudiced and had misunderstood Xia Chuan, while other times she felt that her suspicions were not wrong at all and that Xia Chuan was the murderer.
Teacher Wang could never forget the bloodshed in Wutong Village; it was the first time she had ever felt death so intensely.
So many students died during her time teaching, and she bore indirect responsibility. After that, Ms. Wang never became a teacher again; she took on other jobs and kept herself too busy to 'remember'.
However, she still thinks about that day when she wakes up in the middle of the night. It has become a knot in her heart that she can't get over, and she still feels resentful about it to this day.
Seeing that Teacher Wang's eyes were bloodshot, Shan Chuan realized that he had also lost the emotion called 'hatred' towards her. She, like everyone else, had become an old image of the past.
He had completely let go of it, so he said nonchalantly, "If you ask who killed Ikeboshi, it was me. And the illustrator was someone I brought here. Even the fact that the class reunion chose this place for their graduation trip was also due to my influence."
Teacher Wang's mouth dropped open. She suspected Xia Chuan was the murderer, but she hadn't realized he had so many lives on his hands. He even bore some responsibility for the students who died in Wutong Village.
"Didn't you ever feel even for a moment uneasy?"
"Why can't I feel at peace?" Xia Chuan asked rhetorically, genuinely puzzled. After taking his revenge, he slept exceptionally well, peacefully, and deeply.
Shanchuan continued.
He started planning six months before graduation. He found an illustrator who loved to seduce naturally beautiful women and got in touch with her. He also added Teacher Wang, He Xiangxue, and others on his social media.
Then he began looking for a suitable 'hunting' location and found Wutong Village, where people were being bought and sold in secret.
Even the plainclothes police came here because of him; he submitted evidence of human trafficking in Wutong Village through another person.
It wasn't for justice; chaos alone would have allowed him to escape unscathed. And he did indeed escape unscathed in the end. They suspected him, but had no evidence, and could only watch him leave.
"You wait, I'll find something on you sooner or later." The police in the Source World listed him as a key person under observation.
For that graduation trip, Shanchuan calculated every possibility and used countless seemingly unexpected coincidences to bring everyone together. Only then did they begin their mission.
First, he carefully tore open the soft-pack cigarettes and used three of them to create mercury cigarettes. Then he repackaged them until no trace could be found. Throughout this process, he wore gloves and a protective balaclava to prevent leaving fingerprints, hair, or other clues.
The three cigarettes were placed on the left side, a habit of Chi Bo's; he liked to tear open the pack facing the front and then start smoking from the left. He was a heavy smoker, able to smoke four or five cigarettes at a time.
The mercury came from a thermometer, but he had started preparing it six months ago and had also bought the cigarettes Jiang Shaobo often smoked. So it's almost impossible to find him by trying to find him through these two methods.
The day after the specially made cigarettes were made was their graduation trip. Yamakawa led a student who had a conflict with Ikebo to mischievously take Ikebo's bag, steal the cigarettes inside, and put the bag back.
Everyone in the class knows that Chi Bo is a heavy smoker, so taking away his cigarettes is an effective prank.
Afterwards, Shanchuan deleted this contact because he was no longer of any use to him. This is also why Ren Yifei only saw three people in his second phone.
Unlike Ren Yifei, Shanchuan allowed Chi Bo to find cigarettes on the first night. The next morning, Chi Bo 'had a fever,' the others continued their trip as usual, and then He Xiangxue disappeared.
It hadn't rained yet, and they all went out to search, but to no avail.
Back at the guesthouse, Chi Bo vomited blood and died. Teacher Wang called the police, but the bridge was blown up in the mountains, and the police were not involved at all.
"The biggest variable is the old and young police officers, but you can turn the tables and use them to clear your name, which is something I can't do as well as you."
Ren Yifei quickly waved his hand, saying that he manipulated people's hearts, while Shan Chuan manipulated human nature.
Shan Chuan concealed himself behind the scenes, completing his revenge plan with a mere flick of his fingers—a talent few possess. His claim of inferiority was largely a display of humility.
Teacher Wang, who was standing to the side, finally understood, but it was better if she hadn't understood at all. It turned out that she herself was just a pawn in Shan Chuan's revenge plan.
Teacher Wang felt ashamed. She thought that coming to Wutong Village was her own decision, but it wasn't at all. It was Shanchuan who led her to find 'Wutong Village' on her own initiative.
What she found most unacceptable was that Ren Yifei, the man who had recently played Xia Chuan, had actually killed Chi Bo and indirectly killed He Xiangxue.
However, his acting fooled everyone. Teacher Wang felt guilty, believing she had misunderstood him, and even the two police officers assumed he was innocent. But... it was all fake!
This misidentification felt like a slap in the face, right in the same spot where the real Xia Chuan had slapped her.
She not only misjudged people, but she misjudged people twice!
That's too cunning!
Teacher Wang's mood at this moment was as shattered as this collapsed instance, but both Ren Yifei and Shan Chuan looked at her with eyes that said, "You're being unreasonable."
"Can we be quiet?" Shanchuan said. "I have something to say to him, and I don't have much time left."
Yamakawa glanced at his watch: "We wasted too much time analyzing the case before. In short, the Wasteland Corner has decided to take action against you. It rarely crosses the rules to attack players like this, and you really pose a threat to it."
"Furthermore, I'm just the vanguard. Next time, I won't just be a hunter; there will be more people involved, and the instance will be even more dangerous."
He had barely finished speaking when a bolt of lightning struck down, hitting the very toes of the mountain.
This was a warning from the desolate corner, but he didn't even blink, continuing, "Well, that's fine too. Maybe the world will become a better place if a few more people like us die. ...The next time we meet, we'll still be enemies."
Admiration is one thing, but killing is another; their 'friendship' is limited to this instance.
Ren Yifei nodded, accepting this explanation. What lay before him now was the undisguised killing intent emanating from the desolate corner.
Was his act of devouring the mini-game really that stimulating to him?
The good news is that Desolate Corner is more ethical than mini-games; you can't change the rules halfway through, you can't interfere directly, and you can't make biased calls...
So they may not necessarily lose.
More than half of the fifteen-minute pause had passed. Ren Yifei turned to Teacher Wang, who held a sinister-looking card in his hand and uttered a blatant threat:
"There's not much time left. Teacher has two choices: admit defeat and become my ghost card, or refuse, and I'll tear you up after turning you into my ghost card."
Teacher Wang: ...