Undercover

All around was silent. Zhu Yan heard the sound of someone swallowing.

That was it.

Everyone should know what this meant—

If they could just throw both of these [Hunters] into the main line, the odds of clearing this dungeon would increase significantly.

But...

Zhu Yan stared intently at the cloaked figure, a chill creeping up his spine.

But this wasn’t right.

A horror entity appearing as a [Hunter], a role highly focused on by players, looked too much like a trap no matter how he saw it.

And yet...

Zhu Yan watched the way that thing slowly turned and left. An indescribable sense of dissonance filled his mind.

If it wanted players, why not just appear directly in front of them and lure them into chasing it?

Why bother sneaking around to find Tu Shan, another [Hunter], all alone?

Wasn’t this just overcomplicating things?

Zhu Yan couldn’t figure it out.

In the mirror, the fake [Hunter] tugged at its hood and leaned in close to Tu Shan.

Zhu Yan couldn’t help pressing his ear against the door. Qi Yinming did the same beside him.

He strained to make out the fake [Hunter]’s words.

“I know you have a [Hunter] mission.” That was the first sentence.

“What’s your mission?”

Tu Shan lowered his voice and said something Zhu Yan couldn’t catch.

“That doesn’t matter,” the fake [Hunter] said. “Aside from the ones you’ve already picked, send me five more. Low level is fine. They need to be alive.”

“No problem,” Tu Shan replied confidently. “Where to?”

“The room at the end of the hallway,” the fake [Hunter] said. “Only [Hunters] can see it. Knock five times before entering. Three long, two short.”

The words were barely audible.

Zhu Yan struggled to catch them, piecing together sounds and guesses with great difficulty.

In the mirror, Tu Shan made an OK gesture.

Silence returned to the outside. Soon, the heavy sound of dragging fabric resumed—shff, shff—as the fake [Hunter] pulled its robe along, slowly passing by Room 303’s door.

But it didn’t stop—

The dragging sound, a bit sluggish, seemed to quicken slightly. The fake [Hunter] trailed its robe behind it, gradually disappearing from the mirror.

The group exchanged glances. Zhu Yan peeled his ear away from the door.

“What did you hear?” Qin Yang asked. “What are those two planning?”

Qi Yinming furrowed his brow, his expression sour.

“The voices were too low. I didn’t catch a single word. I’m guessing some conspiracy—either targeting players or stealing something.”

“Think about it,” Qi Yinming continued. “That first [Hunter], the one who kept messing with us, wasn’t he obsessed with precious loot?”

He glanced at the mirror. Tu Shan was still standing in place, as if lost in thought.

“Brother Zhu, you didn’t hear anything either?” Qin Yang turned to ask Zhu Zeyu.

Qi Yinming shook his head. “The soundproofing on this door is too good. At this distance, it’s impressive we managed to hear those two revealing themselves earlier.”

Oh, so besides him, no one else had overheard the secret conversation between Tu Shan and the horror entity?

Zhu Yan studied Qi Yinming’s expression. He couldn’t find anything suspicious.

That made sense.

Zhu Yan was already a Level 7 player, with an activated attribute panel.

Even though he hadn’t checked the specific stats yet, his overall numbers were certainly higher than the others.

In this situation, being the only one who could hear while the rest couldn’t seemed perfectly normal.

Zhu Yan thought about the mysterious “mission” Tu Shan had taken on and made up his mind.

“Tu Shan doesn’t know our door has surveillance. Judging by that horr— [Hunter]’s reaction, it doesn’t know either.”

Damn, almost slipped up.

“And then?” Yang Zhanbai nodded.

He spun his small knife in his hand, any thought of sleep abandoned.

“Tu Shan’s player level isn’t as high as mine.”

He said this, staring at Tu Shan at the edge of the mirror image.

Tu Shan was looking at the palm of his right hand, a smug smile on his face.

Soon, he stopped admiring it and gripped his military knife again.

“Zhu Zeyu, what do you think? If I went out right now and sliced him up… we’d at least get a clue, right?”

That won’t do.

Zhu Yan showed a bitter smile, as if words failed him.

“No. If you handle it that way, it’s too much of a waste.”

If only the one in the cloak outside really were a [Hunter]…

But it wasn’t.

From the conversation, this horror entity not only knew about Tu Shan’s identity as a [Hunter], but also had a thorough understanding of his personality.

Earlier, it had even precisely exploited Tu Shan’s character flaws, smoothly extracting his [Hunter] mission from him.

For this horror entity to pull that off, it had clearly been observing Tu Shan for a long time. It couldn’t have been something from the floor Zhu Yan was on.

If this was the same one that followed Tu Shan here, then…

Zhu Yan looked at the empty, mist-shrouded corridor in the surveillance mirror and lowered his eyes.

Then his [Key Fragment 3] might just be within reach.

“[Hunters] have done so much, they know far more than we do.”

Zhu Yan kept up his act of calm analysis.

“Tu Shan is weak, and that stronger [Hunter] hasn’t bothered to show its face at all.”

He pointed at the empty mirror.

“We might as well pretend we didn’t see or hear anything. Let’s try to fish some information out of them first.”

“Anyway, Tu Shan was planning to come find us regardless.”

If he could figure out a way to [pretend] to be Tu Shan and meet that fake version of himself…

He might be able to uncover something.

“Sounds doable,” Qi Yinming nodded, then pointed at Tu Shan’s long blade in the mirror.

“But let’s keep the door closed. As I recall, when Tu Shan clashed with us before, he didn’t have any weapons.”

“With his personality, if he had anything decent, he’d have shown it off long ago.”

Qi Yinming adjusted his glasses and glanced around the room.

“I suspect that blade of his has a rank—and a high one at that. So…”

In the dorm, everyone’s expression was grim, except for Chen Zhaoxing.

He wore a look of eager anticipation, staring at the surveillance mirror with a grin that stood out like a sore thumb!

Qi Yinming nervously grabbed his shoulder. “What are you thinking? Don’t you dare go out there to join the fun.”

He had heard of Chen Zhaoxing’s glorious exploits.

If not for Xu Tongguang holding him back, that lunatic would have been brave enough to go watch the supermarket boss cause a scene.

…Run outside?

Zhu Yan glanced at Chen Zhaoxing.

The guy wasn’t resisting Qi Yinming’s hold, but the brim of his flat-top riding hat was pulled low, as if he was struggling to suppress his laughter, creasing the corners of his mouth into deep lines.

Zhu Yan chuckled to himself.

Running outside was good. Of course, Chen Zhaoxing would want to run outside!

If Chen Zhaoxing ran out, Zhu Zeyu could just go to the corridor and confront Tu Shan under the pretext of saving someone.

With that thought, Zhu Yan fanned the flames without missing a beat.

“Brother Qi, don’t be too tense.” He patted Qi Yinming’s arm and shot Chen Zhaoxing a friendly smile.

“Well, I think Chen Zhaoxing is pretty sharp. We might not need—”

“An undercover!”

Chen Zhaoxing suddenly let out an excited howl, startling Zhu Yan.

Before Zhu Yan could react, he leaped up from where he stood like a bird taking flight, yanked the door open, and dashed out!