Routine Investigation, Your Cooperation is Appreciated

[Ding! Group 108 status abnormal. Currently under dynamic review. All functions frozen during review. Please wait patiently.]

A system notification suddenly popped up in the silent Group 108 chat.

Immediately afterward, the entire chat interface turned gray, rendering all operations impossible.

At the same time, Chen Yi, who was preparing for his eighty-second attempt at the Transcendence Tribulation, slowly turned his gaze toward the message.

"Heh, it finally came..."

Everything was within his expectations.

Though he had cleaned up all traces of his tampering with the Dream Wedding Secret Realm, the depleted Law Origin could not be restored.

With such a glaring deficit, any detection system worth its salt would inevitably notice—and thus investigate every group member who had participated in trials within the Dream Wedding Secret Realm during that period!

But so what?

Did it have proof?

Every action taken within the Dream Wedding Secret Realm was perfectly legal and compliant. The system would find nothing!

Unless... it knew there was a traitor in its own ranks.

What a shame—it was just a program running on preset logic. How could it possibly know there was a traitor?

If it didn’t even realize it had a traitor, how could it catch him?

Absolutely impossible!

[Ding!]

[Group 108 Leader, routine investigation. Please cooperate.]

Chen Yi, ever the picture of innocence: "What’s going on? Why the sudden dynamic review? Don’t tell me another account suspension? I’m a law-abiding citizen this time! I swear I didn’t do anything! Your Honor, you can’t wrong an innocent man!"

[...]

[The detection system does not wrong any upstanding group member, nor does it spare any unscrupulous ones. Rest assured and cooperate fully.]

Chen Yi: "Oh, I thought it was another suspension... scared me half to death..."

[Please cooperate and do not divert the topic!]

"Am I not cooperating? I’m cooperating just fine! You’re the one not asking questions!"

[...]

[Then, Group 108 Leader, during your trial in Dream Wedding Secret Realm No. 7, did you notice any abnormalities?]

"Yes, yes! Wasn’t the minimum combat power requirement for the Exorcism Instance three million? But so many of our group members who didn’t meet the requirement somehow joined anyway. Does that make sense? I suspect a system error!"

This was the biggest loophole—one Chen Yi had deliberately left for the detection system to vent its frustration.

After all, if everything was too perfect, who would take the blame for the inexplicable deficit?

Given the detection system’s habit of indiscriminate punishment, it would surely pin this mess on every member who had participated in Dream Wedding trials that month!

Chen Yi refused to shoulder that blame.

Thus, it had to be a system error causing the abnormal consumption!

And coincidentally, during that period, the detection system had been overwhelmed by endless anomaly reports, making minor errors perfectly plausible!

[Thank you for your feedback. Your account’s abnormal status will be lifted after verification. Please wait patiently.]

"Ah, no need to thank me... Maintaining a healthy platform environment is every member’s duty. Since I’ve cooperated so thoroughly, when’s the unban coming?"

[System busy. Please try again later...]

After extracting nothing but nonsense from the notorious Group 108 Leader, the detection system promptly shifted its focus to other members.

[Ding!]

[Group 108 Member ‘I Really Don’t Want to Be a Sacrifice,’ routine investigation. Please cooperate.]

When the system prompt sounded, the suspect, Fang, not only remained unflustered but even seemed excited, eagerly confessing everything:

"I’ll cooperate, I’ll fully cooperate! Your Honor Detection System, I... I didn’t mean to join the Exorcism Instance! I just tried it casually, never thought I’d actually get in!"

"And once I was in, somehow I lucked out and cleared it! The instance rewards dumped a huge pile of points straight into my account. Your Honor, believe me, I know it’s shady—I didn’t touch a single point! Too scared, grew up poor..."

[...]

[Remain calm. Legitimate instance rewards will not be revoked.]

Fang burst into grateful tears: "Thank you, thank you, Your Honor! I won’t do it again—I’m terrified of getting banned! Never exploiting system loopholes again, I swear..."

[...]

The detection system visibly lagged.

Why was every member of Group 108 blaming a system error?

Yet multiple checks confirmed no such error existed.

Could it be that during the frequent anomaly reports, the system had malfunctioned but, stuck in a reboot loop, failed to log it before resuming normal operations?

But according to system data, the normal consumption of all trial participants during that period was nearly ten thousand times less than the missing Law Origin!

Such a massive deficit... Analysis suggested it was 90% likely due to backend system reboot requirements!

Finding no evidence, the detection system rationalized its own logic.

After surveying all of Group 108, it was nearly ready to generate a plausible report pinning the deficit on itself.

But when it approached the final three members from Group 2 who had participated in the Dream Wedding trials to complete the chain of logic—a breakthrough emerged!

[Ding!]

[Group 2 Member ‘Ultimate Invincible,’ routine investigation. Please cooperate.]

Meng: "Ab... aba?"

[Ding!]

[Abnormality detected. Member ‘Ultimate Invincible’ suffers severe soul trauma, memories forcibly erased—suspected evidence tampering!]

[Investigation confirms member voluntarily ingested the lethal Soul-Scattering Pill. Tracing origin... Pill sourced from Group 2 Leader ‘Reclusive Cultivator.’]

[Ding!]

[Group 2 Leader, explain: Why did you provide the lethal Soul-Scattering Pill to member ‘Ultimate Invincible’? And why did he consume it?!]

Ye, utterly baffled: "Huh? He took it himself? Is he insane?"

[Answer directly: Why provide him the Soul-Scattering Pill?!]

Ye immediately adopted a righteous tone: "Get this straight—he begged me for it, I didn’t ‘provide’ anything!"

[Then why did he need it? Explain!]

Without hesitation, Ye replied: "He claimed it was to poison a half-step True Demon. He even asked me to disguise the pill as a potent Immortal Pill brimming with energy so the demon wouldn’t suspect a thing!"

“Honestly, I didn’t get it. A mere half-step True Demon—why go through all that trouble? Just share your location, I’d have obliterated it on the spot!”

"Now that I hear he swallowed the poison himself, it all makes sense... Was he hiding something?!"

"Could it be related to the anomalies in the Dreamwed Secret Realm? No wonder he's been so distracted—acting strangely the moment he entered... System, say something! Am I right or not?!"

[System busy. Please try again later...]