Female Voice, You...

Before Jin Rongxu could answer, a woman’s voice rang in everyone’s ears.

“Good morning, players!”

It was the same cheerful, lilting voice Zhu Yan knew all too well.

“I’m delighted to see that you entered the instance on time, even though your team is incomplete.”

Gee, thanks, lady.

Zhu Yan silently grumbled.

At least she said “the team is incomplete.”

If she had said “the number of people is incomplete,” then the lie he had just told would have been exposed in an instant.

At this, Jin Rongxu’s expression darkened further, and his lips pressed tightly together.

Zhu Yan held his breath and listened carefully. He noticed that the woman’s voice paused almost imperceptibly for a second.

He heard a faint trace of electrical static.

But it was extremely slight, vanishing almost as soon as it appeared.

“In this instance,” the woman continued in the same bright, spirited tone, “you’ll need to activate the instance’s tasks yourselves. For example, there’s a villager ahead.”

Zhu Yan stared at the road ahead, his vigilance instantly shooting up.

He still remembered the little trick Ji Xiting had pulled before.

Somehow, that guy had cut off the woman’s voice and produced a counterfeit voice that was completely identical to it.

That fleeting pause just now might have been his imagination.

Or it might not have been.

But what if something was wrong…?

Hidden inside the puppet’s body, Zhu Yan unconsciously clenched his fists.

He had no idea whether Jin Rongxu could really be relied upon.

In any case, it never hurt to be a little more cautious.

“You need to speak with this villager.”

The woman’s cheerful voice carried a hint of indifference. But unlike the last time with Ji Xiting, both her tone and voice were remarkably stable now, without even the slightest trace of electrical interference.

Zhu Yan even began to wonder whether he was making a mountain out of a molehill—

He turned the sandalwood bracelet around his wrist, forcing himself to remain rational and trust his initial judgment as much as possible.

Zhu Yan looked up at Jin Rongxu. The other man still wore no unnecessary expression, and evidently had not noticed anything unusual about the broadcast.

“If you answer appropriately…” the woman said, her voice rising and falling meaningfully, “I will issue your next player task.”

“Good luck, players.”

Then she vanished.

“Hey, Captain.” The man known as the army medic suddenly spoke. “Look ahead. Is that the villager the broadcast mentioned?”

Everyone else in the team had perfectly normal thoughts, including Zhu Zeyu’s. Hearing them, Jin Rongxu felt reassured.

He had seen the villager without the army medic’s warning. Zhu Yan had seen him too.

It was an old man.

They hadn’t seen anyone approaching before—not even the body of [Mist], which was walking at the front of the group, had spotted him.

The old man had appeared out of nowhere!

He still looked hale and hearty. With his hands clasped behind his back, he strode toward them with astonishing vigor.

“Stop!”

He was speaking in a local dialect, his accent thick and heavy.

“Don’t come any closer! Outsiders aren’t welcome in our village!”

Jin Rongxu raised one hand, halting the group.

“He should be human,” he said quietly. “Or, if he’s a horror creature, his level isn’t high. Let’s see what he has to say first.”

Zhu Yan understood.

When Jin Rongxu put it that way, it meant he could hear the old man’s thoughts.

Judging by his Level 7 ability, even if the old man was a horror creature, he had to be below Level 7.

Pot Lid tugged Zhu Yan back and stopped warily.

The old man soon reached them.

Now that they were closer, Zhu Yan could see him clearly.

The man’s skin was dark, coarse, and weathered. At first glance, he looked like an ordinary farmer.

But beneath his drooping eyelids hid a pair of gloomy eyes.

Black particles spread from his pupils into the yellowed whites like a nebula.

Whenever he looked up at Zhu Yan, those eyes never blinked. Zhu Yan could not shake the feeling that something was hiding behind them.

“You’re obviously not locals. What are you doing here?”

The army medic, Ma Dong, and Pot Lid all remained tacitly silent. Zhu Yan wisely kept his mouth shut as well.

Jin Rongxu spoke, but his answer was completely different from what Zhu Yan had expected.

“I’m a friend of Li Panlong,” he said. “Li Panlong asked me to come find Li Daochang.”

Jin Rongxu could have simply said that he was looking for Li Daochang, but he hadn’t.

Was this the use of [Mind Reading]?

Zhu Yan was somewhat curious.

What exactly had Jin Rongxu read?

“Li Daochang, huh?”

The old man spoke in the same dialect, but he drew out the words.

“Fine. He happens to be looking for Li Panlong too.”

The old man’s dry, shriveled lips pulled into a smile.

He pointed ahead, signaling for them to follow him. Then Zhu Yan heard the pleasant woman’s voice once more.

“Congratulations, players!”

This time, the voice seemed even more realistic. At least, Zhu Yan could no longer distinguish it from the real thing.

“Next, I will issue the player task for this instance. Please listen carefully.”

“Player task: Please proceed to Li Daochang’s residence, determine Mother’s identity, then take Mother and escape the village, thereby fulfilling her final wish.”

All right. It was most likely fake.

Zhu Yan silently mocked the announcement.

The key figures were Li Daochang and his wife.

According to the Human Alliance’s investigation, Li Daochang was a widower. “Mother” should be his deceased wife.

Take “Mother” and escape the village—did that mean they were supposed to take a female ghost away?

And fulfill “Mother’s” final wish. What if her final wish involved worsening some kind of contamination?

This player task was more than a little horrifying.

It was strangely similar to his [Hunter Task], “Spread Mother’s contamination.”

What, then, was the point of having him work as a [Hunter]?

Zhu Yan calmly observed his surroundings.

Jin Rongxu’s brows were tightly furrowed, while the army medic and Ma Dong looked unconcerned.

Pot Lid was still doing his best to hide his fear, keeping close to Zhu Yan’s puppet.

The old man beside them had one ear tilted slightly toward the group. From this angle, Zhu Yan could see a sliver of his eyeball.

The eyeball was black—

As though the old man were desperately turning his pupil in this direction, trying to see something.

Zhu Yan hurriedly lowered his gaze.

When he looked again, that small patch of the eye had turned back into yellowed sclera.

“Players, begin your investigation,” the woman’s voice continued cheerfully.

“Good luck. Of course, due to the special nature of this instance, whenever you obtain a key clue or make significant progress, we will provide a broadcast notification.”

“Have fun. Goodbye.”

The woman’s voice disappeared.

Pot Lid immediately hurried forward and asked in a low voice, “Captain, what do you think?”

Zhu Yan was looking forward to hearing the answer too.

In his opinion, there was clearly something wrong with the broadcast.

Jin Rongxu might not be able to read Zhu Zeyu’s true thoughts, but he should have been able to read the old villager’s mind.

Could he detect the problem?

“Let’s follow him for now,” Jin Rongxu said quietly. “This matter isn’t simple—the people in this village seem to have no way of contacting the outside world.”