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Ch13 - Is your ancestor Zhuge Liang?
The entire morning was spent thoroughly combing the place. They had clearly searched meticulously enough, but there was still nothing else to be found, not even a thread from a web of clues as to what could have happened those decades ago.
One of the veterans in the subteam, a B-rank who had previously studied cryptography for some time, arranged the entire library catalogue, as well as all sorts of different clues obtained by the subteams from different places, including the pnpso found in the ward. He put them in front of himself and racked his brain, but he still couldn’t come up with any explanation.
“Logically speaking, it’s impossible for a former military base like this not to leave any secret reports.”
That man took a ballpoint pen and circled the white paper. “However, I’ve used several different methods and can’t find any further hints. I can’t rule out the possibility that this base has created its own code.”
Usually, the first thing that came to mind when a string of letters like this appeared was code-related, especially under the precondition of this being a military base.
[Weird. Why can’t they solve it after all this time? Is it possible that this string of letters is some sort of different metaphor?]
[I’m curious about that too. But I still believe that this is more likely a cipher. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a whole bookshelf of books on the subject over there. Maybe the Holy Son and the others had noticed this, that’s why they are treating this as a code and trying to decipher it.]
“Isn’t there something like the Vigenère cipher in classical cryptography that requires a key?”
Messiah pondered. “Let’s stop for now. Either we’re going in the wrong direction, or we’re missing key clues.”
Standing to one side, He Jianlan’s brows furrowed deeply.
It was about to be noon, yet their search had not yielded much. Everything was the same as last night, stuck at a certain point and unable to move forward.
Continuing like this was a blatant waste of time. Yet what that they lacked most was time; it was the one thing that they couldn’t afford to waste. If there weren’t more clues, at the latest after dinner today, then they’d have to start taking the initiative, regardless of the losses.
Just as He Jianlan pondered over this, there suddenly came a series of hurried footsteps approaching from outside the door.
He got up and went to the door.
“Your, Your Holiness.”
A C-rank trainee who had run up from downstairs stood at the library door. He bent over, gasping. “Something went wrong!”
—
By the time Messiah walked to the scene with those who were in the library, there were already a number of people gathered around.
Those veterans and newcomers were whispering to each other, each with an undisguised look of horror on their faces.
Seeing the golden-haired Holy Son come over, everyone sighed in relief, as if they were given a peace of mind.
“Your Holiness.”
“This is great, the Holy Son has finally come.”
Messiah nodded towards the crowd. He walked down the path that was formed by the spontaneous dispersal of the crowd.
This was the stairwell at basement 1. People were blocking the way to basement 2, each one poking their heads out to peer down, but they quickly withdrew after poking out just a bit, fearful that they would be assimilated into that deep darkness.
The stairs to basement 2 were extremely run down. Not only were they run down, but the darkness was also without a light, seemingly purposefully warding off prying eyes.
Messiah turned his head, looking towards the depths of basement 2.
No one knew what horrifying existence could be hidden in the menacing darkness.
“What happened?” As he walked, he looked towards Qin Ye, who was responsible for this area.
Qin Ye, “I led them to the basement 1 wards to check them one by one for any information we overlooked. Then, a newcomer suddenly came this way to report that he had heard a strange sound coming from the stairwell, so I called people over.”
The golden-haired Holy Son raised his hands, motioning for everyone to quiet down. The crowd instantly hushed.
No one could hear anything at first. But gradually, after this silence lasted for about a minute, everyone heard that eerie scraping sound.
It was a peculiar sound. It didn’t follow any particular rhythm, more like the cold tingling in the teeth of something sharp being scratched across an iron plate, giving them goosebumps and their fine hair rising.
The bullet chat buzzed with discussion.
[This instance is really too peaceful. I can’t believe it’s already noon of the second day and yet they haven’t even finished exploring the entire mental asylum. They clearly have such a good set-up, those medical staff are nowhere to be seen during the day.]
[The main reason is that the Holy Son is too good at getting everyone together. If this was some other instance, the veterans would all be butting heads with each other, no one willing to concede to the other. And so, they’d have a higher probability of being singled out, and more trouble would come.]
[Yeah, just look at this instance. Only one guy got left alone and died in the washroom; everyone else was moving as a group all other times. There isn’t the slightest sense of anticipation. As long as everyone brainlessly follows the Holy Son’s commands, they’ll be fine.]
[They’re done being at ease. If they don’t find more clues, I’m afraid they’d have to go down to basement 2 even if they don’t want to.]
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Undisguised shock flooded He Jianlan’s eyes. “There’s something alive down there?”
“Rb, la wluta cba yf jilnf,” Hlc Tf rjlv. “Pa mbeiv jirb yf rbwfatlcu firf.”
Pc eclrbc, atfs ibbxfv ja Zfcu Kljcie, ktb kjr rajcvlcu ab bcf rlvf klat tlr fsfr mibrfv lc mbcmfcagjalbc.
Ojra alwf ja atf rajlgkfii, Zfcu Kljcie aglfv ab qgbyf bea tlr rfcrfr jcv fcvfv eq qjrrlcu bea ragjluta jkjs.
Unconsciousness meant that all the psychic’s spiritual energy had been completely drained away. It felt like having his brain wrung unbearably dry, as if someone was grinding the teeth of a saw over his head, and he wouldn’t be able to snap back to reality for the next few days.
Fortunately, Meng Tianlan hadn’t encountered such an emergency in a situation when he was alone, because a psychic’s mental exhaustion was a terrible thing. There was once a shocking case that had occured in an S-rank instance ‘Ancient Well of Evil Spirits’.
Shortly after entering the instance, an advanced psychic inadvertently linked up with the most terrifying existence in the instance. At the fleeting moment that they were linked, the advanced psychic’s spiritual power was completely drained, and that evil spirit had possessed the psychic’s body.
In the end, none of the three teams that had entered that S-rank instance was spared; it was a total wipeout. It was only when this instance was restarted after an unknown number of years that those who came after found the diary of the last survivor who had opened the instance, thus learning of this horrific past.
“I don’t sense anything right now, but it could also be because of the drain from last night… and that I haven’t recovered sufficiently.”
Looking at the darkness in basement 2, Meng Tianlu’s heart wavered in uncertainty.
“Let me try. If anything goes wrong, knock me out immediately.”
There was really no way out of it. He was the only psychic in the entire instance. Although he was only an intermediate psychic, he had to drive himself further than what he was capable of.
Meng Tianlu’s eyes popped as he tried to ignore the Waterloo defeat he had suffered here last night, and readied himself to probe his spiritual awareness down again.
“Wait.”
Messiah suddenly spoke up, cutting his concentration. “Let’s directly set a rope out. We need information now.”
The rope that Messiah was speaking of was He Jianlan’s special prop.
Calling it a rope wasn’t quite right. The prop’s full name was Knotted Lasso, a B-rank prop that He Jianlan had obtained in a B-rank instance.
Its use was very simple and extensive. It could be used for attack and for defense, and could even be used to scout. It was also the reason that He Jianlan had managed to get his high B-rank evaluation. With this useful and powerful prop, even other veterans had to show him some respect.
He Jianlan hesitantly said, “Will it…”
“It won’t.” Messiah said. “I’m here.”
The golden-haired Holy Son was already holding the high priest’s staff in his hand. A few fresh green leaves hung from the branches of the dried wood staff, the faint golden glow in the dimly lit corridor reassuring.
Since Messiah had already brought out his S-rank prop, He Jianlan naturally wouldn’t have any other qualms.
He directly took out his own Knotted Lasso, and with Meng Tianlu’s help, they slowly lowered it through the gap between the stairs.
A circle of people crowded the area, each staring nervously at the place where the rope hung down.
He Jianlan’s Knotted Lasso also had an ability that it would always bind to something. This dictated that once the rope was taken out and lowered, it would automatically catch something and then be hauled up by their combined effort.
Well… they couldn’t be sure if what they hauled up would be a person or a ghost. In any case, it was extremely risky.
If this were the usual circumstance, He Jianlan would never have taken such a risk. But since Messiah had brought out his high priest’s staff, then there was no meaning in assessing the risk; they just had to go for it.
Zong Jiu came out of the washroom to see this scene. He tilted his head, watching them.
It so happened that Sheng Yu, who had been looking for him to no avail, hurriedly came down from upstairs just then. His eyes lit up when he saw the person standing behind the crowd. “Jiu-ge!”
The high school student had probably spent a long time looking for him and he hadn’t kept his voice down at all. With this shout, everyone surrounding the stairwell heard it.
Jiu-ge?
They quickly whipped their heads around and saw the white-haired young man standing there with his eyes curved in a smile.
It wasn’t anything much for him to stand there. It was the man standing behind him that was the problem.
The dark-haired man’s eyes were like cold pools, and as always, he wore that indifference around him as if the world owed him millions.
Put aside the trainees, even the viewers in Messiah’s live broadcast were stunned.
[Wtf, how long has it been? How has this white-haired beauty ran off to latch onto Master Zhuge’s coattails instead already?]
[I called it. Who would be stupid enough to reject the Holy Son’s invitation, even stubbornly quitting the team straightaway. Hoho, turned out that he had long made preparations, it was a seamless transition!]
[Actually, reasonably speaking, they were speculating that this white-haired guy and that F-rank are the mole, but I actually think that it’s more likely to be this white-haired guy and Zhuge An.]
[Damnnn, beautiful people sure have it different. The two parties he latched onto are powerful S-rankss. I feel so sour I’ve turned into a lemon.]
If the bullet chat could see this, there was no reason why the other trainees couldn’t.
In the past two days, Zhuge An was like a mystical dragon whose full form could never be seen, shiftily flickering in and out of sight. Aside from seeing him during mealtimes, his movements were elusive, and they didn’t know where he went.
This could be considered their first time seeing this No. 3 guy outside the dining room. And what was even more shocking was that the bigshot even seemed to know Zong Jiu. Minimally, from their expressions and the mannerisms, it was easy to discern that they weren’t wholly unfamiliar with each other, and the air between them conversely looked harmonious.
Zong Jiu, however, was completely unfazed by such an atmosphere.
He nodded carelessly at Sheng Yu. “What is it?”
From afar, Sheng Yu wept. “Jiu-ge, I came downstairs to chase after you. I walked up and down several times, but I couldn’t find you.”
Zong Jiu eyed the suddenly taut section of rope between the stairs. “Is that so? Thank you for still being willing to believe in me.”
“Senior He, the rope moved!”
He Jianlan was about to speak when he turned his head around and noticed the pull of the rope in his hand. So he looked back, pulling it with everyone else in a flurry of action.
Sheng Yu struggled through the crowd, during which he received looks of contempt and rejection from several newcomers.
But it was true that both he and Zong Jiu were now stamped as certified moles, likened to rat feces in the gutter. Whether or not they were unjustly accused, there wouldn’t be anyone who dared to get close to them.
“Jiu-ge, this is…?”
When Sheng Yu saw Zhuge An, before he could furtively ask Zong Jiu about it, the white-haired young man suddenly patted his shoulder and spoke in a very earnest manner.
“Xiao Sheng-ah, I’ve a mission to entrust to you.”
This was the first time that Zong Jiu had addressed Sheng Yu so sincerely. The high school student was instantly fired up. “Zong-ge, just give me the word!”
Zong Jiu pointed behind him. “Go over and see what they’re doing.”
“But…” Sheng Yu was quite dismayed. “They avoid me like a snake now.”
“Don’t be afraid, they’re too busy now to care about you. You just have to squeeze in over there, sneak a few looks, and figure out what’s going on; that’d be enough.”
Pale pink eyes crinkled. “Did you say you wanted to stay with me? I’ve found you a new coattail now.”
Hearing this, the new coattail glanced coldly at them whispering.
“I’m going off now to negotiate terms with him. You go over and fish out some information, we’ll reconvene again at lunch.”
Perhaps these words reminded Sheng Yu of the situation they were in currently. So, the high school student mustered his courage, and saluted. “Got it.”
“I’ll make sure to do what Jiu-ge has entrusted to me well!”
“Very spirited, not bad.”
Zong Jiu gave a hollow compliment. Finally, he looked one last time at the people over there who were working together to pull the rope up, and with Zhuge An, turned step in step into the ward beside them.
“Chhht—”
The ward door gently shut.
In the silent air, the dark-haired man suddenly snorted. “Negotiate terms?”
Comments flew across the bullet chat in the two live broadcast rooms.
[A confrontation between an E-rank and an S-rank! Why am I so pumped up!]
[No way, what mood is this white-haired beauty in to say this.]
[Wah, they’re on equal standing once they enter the room. Daggers drawn! I feel that this conversation won’t go smoothly.]
Indeed. An E-rank so brazenly talking about negotiating terms with the No. 3 seemed excessively conceited.
Zong Jiu’s expression was calm. “Why? Isn’t it possible that Your Excellency has clues to spare in the present?”
“And even with clues to spare, Your Excellency doesn’t have to stoop to secretly tail behind me, no?”
Zhuge An didn’t say anything.
Although the other was completely unreadable on the surface, Zong Jiu didn’t take mind to it, instead going on heedlessly, “As luck would have it, I also have a clue that Your Excellency would want to know. —Pertaining to the clue to the S-prop from the operating theatre, am I right?”
That’s right. The reason Zong Jiu would rather choose to preemptively leave the team was because he didn’t wish to divulge the S-rank clue to anyone else. He himself was intending to use this information as his biggest trump card.
After all, this clue not only concerned the S-rank prop, but also the main plotline of this instance. If this clue thread was lost, the future development of this instance was unpredictable.
And with this trump card, Zong Jiu had gained the equivalent of a life-saving talisman.
Before he divulged this piece of information, or before anyone else had the means to learn the same clue from Dr. Chu, he could use this trump card to negotiate terms with anyone he wanted, with full confidence and without fear.
Right now, for example; Zong Jiu had approached Zhuge An.
Zhuge An’s eyes narrowed. “You’re very confident.”
“Aren’t you afraid that I have other means to force you to reveal the clue to me?”
“No. You won’t.” The white-haired young man shook his head with surety.
This was information that Zong Jiu had deduced from the novel.
At the beginning of the instance in the novel, there was a chapter where the main character perspective was given to Zhuge An. It was also through this chapter that Zong Jiu was able to learn that the other party had gotten an ordinary identity card.
Of course, apart from this… he had also taken advantage of his knowledge of the plot to understand particular character traits of this powerful man.
Such as, arrogant and conceited. Eccentric and noble.
These character traits were profiled by Zong Jiu bit by bit from his memory of the plot, congealing into the assurance that he had today.
Zhuge An gave Zong Jiu a long look.
It was true that he wouldn’t do the type of bullying that he had insinuated just now.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t.
After all, for an S-rank to deal with an E-rank, bringing up a more glaring example, their confrontation in the washroom was still the result of Zhuge An staying his hand. Because the constitutions of an ordinary person and an S-rank were, put bluntly, not on the same physical plane. The former was an ordinary person; the latter was like a commando who had undergone physical enhancement.
So, it wasn’t that he couldn’t. It was that he didn’t care.
It was beneath him to use such disgraceful means.
Seeing that Zhuge An didn’t say a word, Zong Jiu knew that he had most probably placed his bets right.
The white-haired young man’s smile widened as he extended his hand, fully expressing his friendly attitude.
“How about that? Let’s have a pleasant cooperation?”
“Was it fun probing me?”
The dark-haired man narrowed his eyes at him, the corners of his lips lifting sarcastically. “You’re a little more interesting than those ignorant creatures with an average of a single brain cell out there.”
With this, he symbolically stretched out half a finger and gave a shallow shake, then parted in disgust, as if touching a mere mortal like Zong Jiu was the greatest favour he could bestow.
Zong Jiu, “…?”
He really wanted to ask this bigshot, are you still in your chunnibyou phase? When this guy didn’t usually talk he looked as beautiful as a flower, so why was it that once he opened his mouth, his words really asked for a beating?
Although the partnership was established, the atmosphere in the ward plunged into deeper silence due to Zhuge An’s words.
In order to diffuse the awkwardness, Zong Jiu decided to hype up the atmosphere.
“As you said. After all, you seem like a clever man, even by the sound of your name. Zhuge Liang, heh.”