Setting the Trap Again

Upstairs.

Zhu Zeyu followed another team member surnamed Chen to retrieve the props, while [Hunter] spoke in an unhurried tone, pretending to know nothing about Director Jin’s little scheme.

“As expected of Director Jin. You’re sensible and clever.”

Director Jin let out a laugh and pulled over a chair to sit down.

Although [Hunter] was young, his mind was vicious, so Director Jin didn’t dare take him lightly.

He had already figured out that this man had deliberately allowed himself to be captured.

The purpose was simple enough: lure Jin Rongxu out of his secret hiding place, then use him as leverage to threaten Director Jin.

The only thing he didn’t know was who had leaked the information about Room 1356.

But that wasn’t important.

As long as he could lure [Hunter] into taking the bait and bring him completely under control, not only could he recover the seven hundred thousand bone gold coins he had lost, but he could also take the man’s abilities in the open-beta dungeon.

“I’ve already sent everyone else out.” Director Jin smiled kindly and gently. “When all is said and done, you’re just a young man with nowhere else to turn. There’s no need for us to resort to extremes.”

He understood the mentality of extremists far too well.

Most of the time, as long as you treated them a little more kindly, they would gradually lower their guard—or become emboldened and reveal their true intentions.

…

Zhu Yan was actually quite exhausted.

That was because another part of him was downstairs, busy running the Jin Rongxu who had just stopped to rest ragged.

For now, the thing still stubbornly refused to speak. But every time another light went out, it would start running around frantically, like a chicken that had just spotted a dog.

Inside the interrogation room.

The invisible Fog looked at Director Jin, who was ten times steadier than Jin Rongxu. By comparison, it only made his head ache more and left him even more mentally exhausted.

Even so, he remained thoroughly professional and put on a somewhat unsteady, threatening tone.

“Director Jin, I’m warning you too—don’t try anything funny.” He spoke coldly. “I have my own ways of finding out the truth. My props and resources are beyond anything you can imagine. Heh. You wouldn’t want anything unfortunate to happen to your nephew, would you?”

Director Jin hurriedly said, “Calm down, calm down. There’s no one else here. Just tell me directly—what will it take for you to release Jin Rongxu?”

In truth, Director Jin wasn’t nervous in the slightest. Instead, he miraculously felt relieved.

Just now, he had still been worried that there was a mole within the Alliance. Now, it seemed that he had simply been overthinking things.

As expected, [Hunter] still possessed the naivety of youth. Like most people who lacked cunning, he had been goaded into throwing out his trump cards after only a little provocation.

The words “props and resources beyond anything you can imagine” were enough to explain how he had obtained his information.

He probably possessed an item related to investigation or truth-seeking. Director Jin knew of one such item himself—the Surveillance Mirror.

And [Hunter]’s item likely had a limited number of uses or some other restriction.

Otherwise, he should already have realized Director Jin’s true intentions by now.

At present, [Hunter] appeared to be making empty threats, but in reality, he had already exposed his weakness.

Director Jin hurriedly put on the cautious, tentative smile of a parent worried about a child, and raised a hand to wipe away his cold sweat.

This time, he intended to make sure the other man took the bait completely.

Ideally, he would force him to reveal every last trump card!

“You’ve seen for yourself,” Director Jin said. “I’m acting in good faith. There’s no one else here, so I’ll be honest with you.”

He waved toward the outside once more, signaling for the people surrounding the room to disperse immediately.

Only after most of them had left did Director Jin turn back toward the empty interrogation room and begin earnestly persuading him.

“We all know that the open-beta dungeon is going to descend sooner or later. It’s an unstoppable trend. Even if it doesn’t descend here, it’ll descend somewhere else.”

“Let me be frank with you. As long as we can gain some benefits from the dungeon, what difference does it make to us?”

“Besides, no matter how vast the world is, nothing is more important than my family’s lives!”

…

Level B18.

Jin Rongxu stopped again, gasping for breath. He collapsed onto the floor, then stumbled back to his feet.

His face was drenched in cold sweat. The flashing word “Lie” had become a nightmare he could never escape.

What frightened him even more was that there truly was no exit.

The long, narrow corridor twisted and turned endlessly. No matter how far he ran, he could never reach the end. No matter how much he attacked or smashed things along the way, the walls remained utterly indestructible.

Moreover, as time passed, the space itself began to warp.

The corridor grew lower. The originally straight walls on either side bent inward, while the corridor stretched out lengthwise like a sheet of fabric being pulled taut, constantly compressing the space in which he could move freely.

Smack!

The darkness behind him advanced another segment.

Jin Rongxu sprang up from the floor and rushed forward. Turning sideways, he slipped through the gap in the corridor, which was now barely half a meter wide, like an eel.

“Damn… damn it…”

Jin Rongxu cursed brokenly. At last, his mental defenses collapsed completely.

“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” he shouted. “I confess!”

Damn it, there wasn’t even anyone here.

Once he confessed, he could still tell everyone outside that he had solved the problem himself and escaped through his own efforts!

Zhu Yan was delighted.

He quietly condensed half a humanoid figure behind Jin Rongxu, logged into the account Account Deleted, found Director Jin’s private-message window, and started recording the conversation.

“I’ll talk!” Jin Rongxu’s disheveled figure appeared in the center of the view. “I—I have an ability of my own. I stole the abilities of two other people!”

“One of them was a woman named Zhang Xiaoxin, and the other one was called… called…”

…

Upstairs.

[Hunter] fell silent for a moment, as though weighing his options.

“Since you’re being so honest, Director Jin, I’ll be frank as well.”

His voice carried the restlessness characteristic of a teenage boy.

Zhu Yan deliberately followed Director Jin’s lead, laying all of his cards bare.

“We don’t trust you. Unless you let me and my companions accomplish our objective right now!”

Director Jin hurriedly agreed. “That’s easy, completely doable! As long as you can release Jin Rongxu, I’ll cooperate with anything else you need!”

At the same time, he used the Player Forum to send Captain Zheng a message, then asked, “Tell me, what are you trying to do? What do you need me to cooperate with?”

“Let me make one thing clear first: I want you to release Jin Rongxu immediately!”

Just as he had hoped, [Hunter] soon gave him an answer.

“We’re going to install ten connectors here.”

It was the same answer he had given during the dungeon upstairs.

“Your people aren’t allowed to destroy our connectors. Oh, of course, we’re not going to tell you where we’ve installed them.”

“Other than that, you don’t need to do anything. Just leave the [Connectors] there for twenty-four hours.”

Zhu Yan spouted the lie off the top of his head, his tone brimming with conviction.

“That won’t be a problem, will it, Director Jin?”

After thinking it over, [Hunter] added another condition.

“I want you to call all your core members here. My companions will begin installing the connectors now.”

“Once we’ve installed all of them, you can order your people to act!”

“Once you’ve done that, I’ll have my people destroy the instance from the outside and release Jin Rongxu.”

“Otherwise, whether he survives that unwinnable instance or not will be none of our concern!”