Chapter 29

The washroom was completely silent. The dark red wine was still quietly flowing in the crook of Venus' arm, causing the surrounding air to be tainted with a rich and fragrant wine aroma.

The golden dome was reflected in the dark wine, making it look like the legendary extravagant cocktail party on Mount Olympus.

Puppeteer!

Zong Jiu's eyelids twitched, and he repeated with uncertainty, "The puppet strings will not leave any traces of being manipulated?"

The black-haired man nodded slowly. "That's right, there are no traces. It can only be barely identified by the differences between the person and the past."

Without a doubt, if the No.6 Demon's ability was as Zhuge An had said, then this ability was definitely an unsolvable skill.

Not only could the five puppet strings completely turn a person into a marionette, but the person being manipulated would also be completely unaware and lose their perception.

Of course, the scariest thing was that there were no traces. Even if they knew his ability, it wouldn't be of much use, because others couldn't tell who was being manipulated by the Demon, and who was one of the Demon's puppets. Just thinking about it made one's hair stand on end.

No wonder he had so many fanatical followers. This ability was indeed worthy of the title of No.6.

Zong Jiu slowly exhaled from his chest. "The stronger the ability, the greater the restriction."

With such a terrifying, bug-like ability, if there were no restrictions, No.6 could directly manipulate all the trainees or NPCs. There was no need for him to participate in this competition. From this, one could make a simple inference. Although the Puppeteer's ability sounded scary, there were still restrictions, and most of them were quite large.

"Not bad."

Zhuge An nodded approvingly. "But the problem is that no one knows the conditions for the Demon to activate his ability. If they don't even know the conditions, there's no way to avoid it."

He didn't say the last sentence, but both of them knew what he meant.

Because … those who knew were either dead or turned into puppets. Their fates were obvious.

Zong Jiu fell into deep thought again.

According to what Zhuge An said, he couldn't think of any reason for the Demon to participate in the Thriller Trainee Competition. Was it just for the All-Purpose Wishing Voucher?

Although it was logical, Zong Jiu's intuition told him that there must be some hidden conspiracy.

"Let's change the topic."

After talking about No. 6's ability, the white-haired young man changed the topic. "Then how do you know so much about the devil's ability, honorable Sir Zhuge?"

"Since there are no traces of the demon's manipulation, do I have reason to believe that you are also under suspicion?"

Faced with this question, the black-haired man's expression was very cold. Even the way he looked at the Zong Jiu was filled with subtle disdain.

"I can't believe that you would ask such a stupid question."

If Zhuge An had really been manipulated, then he wouldn't have been able to lend a helping hand to Zong Jiu in the first dungeon, let alone stand here and tell him what kind of ability No.6 had.

Who would be so bored as to announce their trump card to the whole world?

Of course, Zong Jiu knew this, but even if he had nothing better to do, he still had to provoke Zhuge An.

There were too many mysteries surrounding this guy to count, including his attitude toward him. Zong Jiu had a very subtle understanding of him.

Now, the information between him and Zhuge An was not equal. Zhuge An obviously knew a lot about him, and the root of this was very likely the "prophecy" that Zhuge An mentioned. However, Zong Jiu knew nothing about him. All he knew was that he had an arrogant personality and was extremely intelligent.

He didn't like the feeling of being out of control.

Moreover, his opponent was such a dangerous and intelligent character. He had to be on guard against this kind of person.

"You don't have to use such a clumsy method to test me," the black-haired man said coldly.

The black-haired man said coldly, "There are some things that you will naturally know when the time comes."

"I'm not telling you now because the time isn't right."

Zong Jiu was speechless.

He had wanted to tell him last time, but this No.8 spoke so mysteriously, like a swindler.

"Your attitude makes me suspicious, No.8."

The white-haired youth crossed his arms and smiled faintly. "You keep saying that No.6 and I are destined to be enemies in the prophecy, but in reality, you've been intensifying the conflict in front of me … In my opinion, you and No.6 are the ones who have a grudge against each other."

Zong Jiu didn't use a questioning tone when he said this, because it was obvious that Zhuge An didn't have a good relationship with the devil. Otherwise, Zhuge An wouldn't have appeared in front of him again and again, giving him so much valuable information for free.

"No."

Zhuge An denied flatly, his words concise.

"Only you."

Zong Jiu raised his eyebrows. "Is that so? What a terrible line. "

Zhuge An ignored this teasing. His expression was cold as he looked deeply at the white-haired youth.

"I don't like to make promises. But no matter what … I won't be your enemy. Our interests will be aligned, you can rest assured about this. "

Zong Jiu shrugged and didn't say whether he believed him or not.

"I'm not here to give you a bargaining chip."

Zhuge An put down his hands and stood up from the golden wall he was leaning against.

When they were in the mental hospital, all the trainees wore hospital gowns, which greatly obscured their personal colors. Now that they were back in the trainees' dormitory, everyone was wearing their usual attire, which made it easier for Zong Jiu to make a profile analysis.

The man's hair was as black as ink, his eyebrows were like swords, his expression was cold, and he was handsome beyond compare.

He wore a pure black Taoist robe, with dark cloud patterns embroidered on the sleeves and a dragon-patterned ancient jade at his waist. When he walked, the hem of his robe and sleeves fluttered slightly, giving off a frivolous and aloof vibe.

This attire was common, after all, there were trainees who wore all kinds of strange attire. There were Native American shamans who wore feathers on their heads and painted faces, and there were also crossdressers who began to let loose after entering an infinite loop.

Just now, when Zong Jiu was playing cards at the A-level table, he heard someone say that Zhuge An was a stingy cheapskate. Relying on his ability to count cards, he gambled at the central table a few times. He was either unlucky enough to get a low chance of winning a trump card and immediately folded, not even taking the front bet, or he went on a killing spree, using all of the thirty-six stratagems. The empty fort stratagem, the covert stratagem, the stratagem, and the stratagem of sowing dissension. Almost no one could escape unscathed from his serial scams. Even if they didn't die, they would be skinned alive.

He didn't expect that the sage-like maniac was actually a stingy cheapskate.

With this summary, Zong Jiu wasn't surprised by Zhuge An's words.

He didn't speak, but stood calmly in the same spot, waiting for Zhuge An to continue.

As expected, after stating that he wouldn't provide cash chips, Zhuge An gave him another clue.

"The main system didn't say that you can only use special items, lives, or rare items to exchange for chips. If you carefully look at the rules board at the front desk, you should know … There is also a non-physical item that can be exchanged for chips in the main system. "

The black-haired man looked at him meaningfully. "The S-level item you got from the last dungeon should be put to use."

Zong Jiu wasn't surprised that Zhuge An knew that he got an S-level item.

The No. 8 in front of him was a strange existence who collected all the clues on the second day and directly cleared the unsolvable dungeon. Zong Jiu got such a high rating in the last dungeon, half of the credit came from him. Logically speaking, this kind of unearned behavior would definitely cause the main system to deduct points. But in the end, not only did the main system not deduct points, but it also pulled him down to S-level. Thinking about it, the S-level item from the last dungeon went without saying.

Moreover, Zhuge An had already collected all the information from the last dungeon. Not to mention other things, he probably went through the entire reading room. Although he chose to leave the dungeon directly, which benefited Zong Jiu who was picking up branches behind him, the possibility of him knowing what the S-level item was was was also very high. After all, all special items came from horror dungeons. Before being collected by trainees, they were all derivatives of horror dungeons. Some dungeons even revolved around special items, so it wasn't surprising that information was left behind.

In the end, it was the unequal information between them that made Zong Jiu unhappy.

He knew nothing about Zhuge An, but Zhuge An seemed to have seen through his past and even his future.

How could he let his guard down?

He clearly knew that they couldn't trust each other, but he still said, "You can trust him." Zong Jiu didn't know what this person's intention was.

Seeing the black clothes disappear into the corner of the bathroom, Zong Jiu shook his head and put away the poker cards in his hand. He turned around and walked into the cubicle, and took out his tarot cards from his Backpack.

Even if Zhuge An didn't say anything, Zong Jiu could think of his new item.

As an S-level item, wasn't the function of the 77-card Alcanar to provide clues when there were no clues?

He spread out the tarot cards, and they floated up one by one, automatically piling up in the air, waiting for the white-haired young man's next instructions.

Zong Jiu looked at the cards floating in the air, and his mind kept replaying the actions of the NPC doctor in the mental hospital dungeon.

When he was in the studio, Zong Jiu noticed No. 6.

Perhaps it was because he had once studied mental magic, but he had a strong intuition toward gazes. Almost at the moment when this sticky and malicious gaze fell on him, waves of shuddering electric currents began to roll from the tip of his spine. It was incomparably cold, exactly the same as what he had felt at the central gambling table just now.

At that moment, Zong Jiu even thought that Doctor Chu had chased him out of the mental hospital dungeon and was looking for him for revenge.

It was hard to describe this feeling.

Doctor Chu gave him a very bad feeling. Although he looked extremely perverted on the surface, it was fake and deliberate. There were a few times when Zong Jiu met his gaze, and it was as if he could see the abyss from the eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses.

That doctor was definitely not as simple as he looked. But he was just an NPC, and Zong Jiu had already gotten his revenge. After leaving the dungeon, he didn't take this person to heart.

But now … it was all thanks to Zhuge An's timely help.

Those intermittent, fragmented inspirations were all put together and pieced together into an incredible picture.

"Then let me see if you are the same person."

Meditation, shuffling, cutting, and arranging the cards.

The young man's slender fingers gently brushed across the back of the cards, and finally landed on one of them.

He gently pulled out the tarot card floating in the air from the pile of cards.

At the same time, the system showed that his remaining draw times had become two, and the cooldown time was twelve hours.

The cooldown time was neither long nor short, and it was just right.

Zong Jiu slowly flipped open the tarot card that he had pulled out.

On the front of the card, there was a huge devil with a pentagram on top of his head, stepping on a chain tied to a human's neck, and opening his mouth wide.

Big Alcanar number fifteen, the devil.

As expected.

Zong Jiu raised his eyebrows, not surprised at all.

Good lord, no wonder he always felt a vague sense of oppression and malice from the other party. It turned out that he had rewarded the other party with a hammer and directly kicked him out of the dungeon. This grudge had been formed.

All the trainees were at the same starting line, but now No.6 was openly manipulating the NPC to cheat. What a sneaky bastard.

"Main system, requesting to exchange chips."

[The exchange channel has been opened for you. You can exchange the corresponding chips by silently saying 'exchange'.]

Zong Jiu's eyes darkened.

Zhuge An wouldn't give him a useless piece of information. Since he mentioned that he could exchange chips through the main system's non-physical channel, then this clue must be valuable. Moreover, he was able to lead the topic to No.6, so Zong Jiu felt that something fishy was going on.

He tried to feed the information about the trainees acting as NPCs back to the system. The next moment, a cold voice sounded in his mind.

[Exchange successful. Chips increased by 05555.]

[Information has been exchanged. Note, trainees are not allowed to share this information with others through any channels. Otherwise, they will be punished.]

Zong Jiu: "…?"

Why did the main system increase No.6's chips even after he fed the information back to the main system?

Moreover, the main system's second notification was very subtle. It obviously had the intention of giving him money to keep his mouth shut.

A bold idea popped up in Zong Jiu's mind.

He returned his gaze to the floating tarot cards and began the remaining two divinations.

Meditation, shuffling, cutting, arranging.

Meditation, shuffling, cutting, arranging.

There was no doubt that he had drawn the same card from both divinations.

The white-haired youth held the devil card in his hand and laughed so hard that he couldn't straighten his back.

Perhaps No.6 would never have dreamt that the Puppet Technique that he was so proud of, that even No.8 Zhuge An had stamped his seal and had never been discovered by anyone, would actually be exposed in front of a mere Level C in such a playful way like tarot card divination.

Zong Jiu felt that he didn't have to worry about Zhuge An's words at all. As long as he had this S-level item, he could find out the devil's disguise at any time.

The ancients didn't lie when they didn't know what to do with their divination!

He kept the most important piece of information from the three divinations and exchanged it with the main system again. Then, he swaggered back to the gambling table with his fresh 645,555 chips.

This time, Zong Jiu didn't avoid the devil's gaze. Instead, he took the initiative to smile at him meaningfully.

On the high seat of the gambling table, No.6's right eyelid suddenly twitched.