Chapter 151: The Gunshot

Jian Qi glanced sideways out of the corner of his eye toward Uman, noticing that the other party was not paying attention to him.

He quickly reached out and snatched the glowing object out, then closed the entrance of the passage.

The object was small, roughly the size of a peanut.

With a quick glance, Jian Qi realized it was a blood-red earring, and immediately slipped it into his pocket with a casual expression.

Then he looked at the spot where he was currently standing, which happened to be the seats of Lucy and Uman.

At this, Jian Qi raised an eyebrow. All his previous doubts were instantly cleared up.

However, Jian Qi's brow furrowed soon after, because if things were truly as he suspected, Lina's death became somewhat ambiguous.

"One clue is still missing."

Jian Qi felt as though he was separated from the truth by only a thin membrane—the kind that could be easily pierced as long as the posture was right.

Although he was deep in thought, his hands did not stop moving. He walked over to the third row of seats.

At that moment, Emotionless and Iron-Willed Man, having finished inspecting the kitchen, walked over.

"The toilets will be left to the two of you, and the rest will be inspected by the two of us," said Iron-Willed Man.

Hearing this, Uman's expression shifted. "Why?"

Making him inspect every place where there was a corpse felt deeply unfair to him.

Yet, Iron-Willed Man turned a deaf ear to his words and, accompanied by Emotionless, vanished directly into the next carriage.

"Damn it!"

Watching their retreating backs, Uman cursed in a low voice, then turned his gaze toward Jian Qi.

After a moment of thought, as if having made some major decision, he walked over to the table Jian Qi was currently stepping on.

"Jian Qi, how about we discuss something?"

Seeing that Jian Qi continued inspecting the entrance without paying him the slightest bit of attention, Uman's mouth twitched twice.

After a few seconds of silence, he spoke again: "I know you are also from the Main God Space."

Hearing Uman's words, Jian Qi's hands paused in their movement, clearly a bit surprised.

Having finished inspecting this particular entrance and finding no useful clues, he jumped down from the table.

He smoothly took a seat and looked at Uman. "So, you are also from the Main God Space here to complete missions."

Uman nodded, glanced back toward the rear carriage, and then spoke: "My mission is to survive, and for all NPCs in the instance to die."

"A different mission?" Jian Qi frowned, though after a brief moment of thought, he understood the reason.

Uman was an immersive player. Unlike ordinary mode players like himself, immersive players possessed more possibilities.

"So you want me to agree to execute Rote?"

"Heh, I love talking to smart people like you." Seeing that Jian Qi had guessed his intention, Uman smiled. "What do you say? Shall we cooperate?"

Jian Qi rubbed his chin and looked at Uman with some confusion. "What's in it for me?"

"Of course there's a benefit. Once Rote is gotten rid of, only Irene and that Lucy will be left."

"And the killer is definitely one of them."

"Your mission isn't hard to guess either; it should be to find the killer and kill them. Am I right?" Uman said confidently.

Jian Qi nodded and then asked, "Why are you so sure Rote isn't the killer? According to the report in that newspaper, the probability of Rote being the killer should be the highest."

Hearing Jian Qi's words, Uman smiled smugly, but instead of answering, he asked, "So, you agree to cooperate?"

"No," Jian Qi looked at Uman strangely. "I can complete my mission on my own. Why should I cooperate with you?"

Uman's expression froze, but he quickly came up with a reason: "Do you think your mission can be completed if Rote is still around?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Jian Qi looked at Uman with a smile.

Seeing that Jian Qi was completely impervious to persuasion, Uman fell silent.

After pondering for a long time, he took out a very old-looking newspaper from his bosom, looking somewhat reluctant.

"What is this?" Jian Qi asked curiously, eyeing the newspaper Uman had produced.

"See for yourself. If you agree to cooperate with me, it's yours."

Hearing Uman's words, Jian Qi touched the newspaper with his hand, and a data panel instantly appeared before him.

Name: Latest Report
Grade: F
Function: Content can be written manually, and it can be duplicated to create a brand-new newspaper.
Durability: 2/3 (Note: The item will be completely destroyed when durability reaches zero)
Description: This is a newspaper capable of publishing the latest reports at any time.

After reviewing the attributes of the newspaper in Uman's hand, Jian Qi frowned. To be honest, the function of this newspaper was quite useless.

"How did you get this newspaper? Did you open a Samsara treasure chest to get it?"

Hearing Jian Qi's question, Uman shook his head. "No, this is an item I had as soon as I entered the Samsara Space."

"It seems to be a newbie gift package given based on my profession. How about it, don't you have one?"

"A newbie gift package?" Jian Qi muttered to himself, realizing this must be one of the perks for immersive players, designed to maintain balance between the two types of players.

"I certainly don't. But, the newspaper claiming that Rote was already dead—that was your doing, right?"

Uman did not answer Jian Qi's question, but instead stared into his eyes. "So, do we cooperate?"

"As long as you agree, I'll give you this newspaper right now."

"This..."

"Bang!"

Just as Jian Qi was hesitating over whether to accept Uman's proposal, a massive gunshot suddenly rang out from the carriage behind them.

Hearing the gunshot, he and Uman exchanged glances.

In an instant, they reached a consensus and put the matter of cooperation aside for the time being.

The two of them stood up immediately and hurried toward the rear carriage.

...

In the storage carriage filled with a large amount of miscellaneous items, a horrific, jagged tear had been ripped into the junction of Emotionless's left side and neck.

Bright red blood was continuously gushing from the wound.

With a wound of this magnitude, if the bleeding wasn't stopped in time, he would soon die from excessive blood loss.

Yet at this moment, he paid no attention to it whatsoever.

His right hand tightly clutched a silver revolver.

A faint white smoke was curling from the silvery-white barrel.

Lying in the direction the muzzle was pointing was a sturdy man.

This man was none other than Iron-Willed Man, who had come along with him to inspect the carriage.

"What's going on!"

Uman, having just arrived, cried out in shock at the scene before him.

Meanwhile, Jian Qi's gaze fell upon the revolver gripped tightly in Emotionless's right hand.

"As expected."

Earlier, he had noticed the other party's unusual behavior. Clearly, Emotionless had concealed the revolver's bullets using some method while searching the male corpse earlier.

Jian Qi shifted his gaze to the ground, looking at the lying form of Iron-Willed Man.

The other party clearly had not anticipated that Emotionless would hold such an ace up his sleeve, resulting in a complete failure during the ambush and getting himself eliminated from the game.