Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 54
Situ Qing’s eyes widened. Her pupils contracted like needles, reflecting a semi-transparent object like ice spikes enveloped by intense killing intent and alcohol. This object was close at hand, ready to take her life at any moment.
However, in this critical moment, there was a “bang”, followed by a “zzt”. A current of electricity swept towards her. It opened into a net, quickly enveloping the gourd and the alcohol pouring out from it that could condense into weapons, finally hitting Yin Jiujiu and causing her to collapse to the ground, her limbs paralyzed.
How… How is this possible?
Each of the five witches had such weapons—extremely powerful weapons. Logically, there should be no way for the players to escape from them!
In fact, the reason why the witches were rated Rank S, aside from the game setting and their substantial amount of health, was mainly due to the empowerment of their weapons. Their attack power shouldn’t be at Rank S; it was all due to these unerring weapons.
Under such circumstances… how did Zhou Qian and the others escape?
Wait, even if Zhou Qian and the others could escape, how could they even seize such a weapon and even… even return?
Did Zhou Qian guess her plan all along?
Yin Jiujiu crawled on the ground, frowning, forcing herself to raise her head with her hands, and indeed saw Zhou Qian and the others walking over.
Before, it was Zhou Qian and Qi Liuxing carrying Wu Ren.
Now the situation had changed. Wu Ren was being supported by Ke Yuxiao, and the person holding the witch’s weapon, who just attacked her, is also Ke Yuxiao.
As for Zhou Qian, he seemed to be leaning on Qi Liuxing as if he had no bones, and he too seemed to be affected, paralyzed due to the attack. At the same time, Zhou Qian was holding a small round object in his hand that couldn’t be identified.
As Yin Jiujiu was astonished, she met Zhou Qian’s smiling eyes.
She felt an extreme sense of foreboding from his smile.
What… What exactly is going on?
……
Moments earlier.
Zhou Qian and the three men escaped into the bushes, followed by the five witches.
If they had attacked the bushes impulsively due to not finding anyone, all four of them might have been affected and paralyzed.
Therefore, Zhou Qian jumped out first at a critical moment, attracting all firepower, becoming the target—at least three electric shots were aimed at him. Fortunately, his estimates were quite accurate; he fell to the ground and couldn’t use much strength but was still alive.
Before this, Zhou Qian had asked Situ Qing, who was affected, to pick up the stone from the ground to see if a person who was affected could still exert a little strength. Since Situ Qing could pick up the stone after being affected—
Of course, Zhou Qian could still use his strength to make a call.
While Zhou Qian attracted the witches’ attention and fell to the ground, the five witches checked his condition, and after confirming that he couldn’t move, they continued to search for his three teammates.
The time Zhou Qian bought was enough for them to run a certain distance, so they wouldn’t be affected by the witches’ random shots at the bushes and lose their strength.
When the witches turned around, Zhou Qian pulled out a small round object and dialed “26-111”—the mayor’s hotline he saw on his way to the witches’ base.
“Hello, mayor, I’ve been attacked by the witches. I’m in the southern part of Weir Mountain… maybe you can track my location? Oh, you can see it. That’s great.”
“If I die, I will have evidence that they indeed harm people…”
The witches heard his words, stopped immediately, turned around, and looked at him. After a period of hesitation, struggle, and contemplation, they surprisingly made a unified choice—to run.
During this, Qi Liuxing supported Wu Ren from the depths of the bushes, and Ke Yuxiao quickly followed the direction the witches were running, taking out his weapon, a long flute. The moment the flute sound rang, a sound wave targeted a witch’s wrist from a distance.
The witch, in her hurry to escape, dropped her weapon due to the pain and didn’t pick it up, immediately running with her teammates.
The four didn’t chase the witches but quickly went back to rescue Situ Qing, leading to the present scene.
Time returned to this moment.
Zhou Qian looked down at Yin Jiujiu, then glanced at the acquiescent Li Buhui behind her, and finally looked at the others.
“On the way to the witches’ headquarters, we can see the mayor’s hotline, a clear hint that when we encounter difficulties with the witches, we can seek help from the mayor. That’s one thing.”
“Secondly, the mayor, along with the rest of the townspeople, all despise the witches. The witches and the mayor are on opposite sides. If the witches want to harm us, the mayor will indeed help us.”
“Thirdly, on the way from Beautiful Flower Town to the base, the witch bus only dares to take small roads, hiding from sight. Moreover, just after getting off the bus and on the way climbing Weir Mountain, as you have seen, the witches have been acting very cautiously, saying that the mayor will send people to investigate. They are afraid of being caught, so everyone needs to be very careful…”
“In conclusion, the witches are very afraid of the mayor and his people. The mayor, being the head of a town, may have military power. Sure enough, with just one call, the witches were scared away by me.”
After Zhou Qian finished explaining, the players received a message from the system.
[Beautiful Flower Town North — Witch Base line, a regular clearance route.]
[Player Zhou Qian calls the mayor’s hotline unlocking the hidden plot: Beautiful Flower Town South.]
[Hidden plot has been triggered. Please look forward to the follow-up…]
Hidden plots often come with an exponential increase in game difficulty.
So… even though the mayor had resolved the immediate crisis for the players, whether he was a protagonist or antagonist in this instance was still questionable.
For a moment, the players even temporarily forgot the attempted murder that had just occurred minutes ago.
Soon, it was the would-be murderer, Yin Jiujiu, who brought up this topic.
She looked at Zhou Qian and asked, “When did you guess… about my actions?”
“I originally thought you wanted to kill me. But between ‘going to the square to watch the warlock being punished’ and ‘coming to Weir Mountain to investigate’, you chose the latter. I then realized that your target might not be me, or even any male player.
“In fact, at that time, these two choices weren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. After all, after watching the warlock being punished at the square, there might still be many opportunities to come to Weir Mountain, as the witches often need to investigate here. But to kill a male player surrounded by numerous witches is a golden opportunity.”
“So, if you wanted to kill me or any male player, you would not have missed that opportunity. Is there any better opportunity than when everyone is gathered at the square and execution tools are readily available to kill with the help of dozens of witches?”
“But you didn’t hesitate to say you wanted to come to Weir Mountain, so the only one you wanted to kill was a female player. Among those present, the only females are you and Situ Qing.”
“Therefore—” Zhou Qian smiled. “Just from that one thing, I knew you didn’t want to kill me. And when you asked the witches to attack Wu Ren, or even all the male players, I became even more certain that the one you really wanted to kill was Situ Qing.”
“You exposed our identities, not to take our lives, but to have the witches constrain us, depriving us of the ability to protect Situ Qing.”
Hearing this, Situ Qing, who had regained some strength, propped up her upper body from the ground and sat down.
She looked at Zhou Qian. “So… at that time you were…”
Zhou Qian looked at her, frankly saying, “Of course, there was an element of testing you. But you undoubtedly passed the test. See, you chose to trust me, and that’s how I could trust you. I told you, I won’t let you die.”
Situ Qing was stunned. Zhou Qian didn’t look at her but looked at Yin Jiujiu again.
“Of course, what I said just now was just the first objective. My second objective was naturally to probe your, Yin Jiujiu’s, background. I heard all the conversation you had just now. And I think… most of what you said is true.”
“Now you both have different stories, Yin Jiujiu says Situ Qing harmed her friend, while Situ Qing denies it. But from what I know of Situ Qing, she is straightforward and physically strong—not necessarily a good person. But she is indeed not good at lying. Under the circumstances just now, she actually had no need to lie, so—”
“Shut up, Zhou Qian.” Yin Jiujiu abruptly interrupted him. “I know your kind. You are not really a good person either. You’re not truly vindicating Situ Qing. You just want to temporarily convince me to cooperate with you.”
“Oh, but don’t you want to cooperate with me?”
Zhou Qian asked her with a smile. “You’ve seen it. I’ve unlocked the hidden plot. The achievement rate of this hidden plot is so low… Do you want me to remind you?”
At this moment, even Yin Jiujiu fell silent.
She didn’t care at all about unlocking hidden achievements; she was here truly just for revenge.
The normal clearance rate of this level was as high as 50%, so she was originally confident of clearing it alone.
Besides, judging from the previous situation, this level seems to be very friendly to women…
But now, Zhou Qian had forcibly triggered the hidden plot for everyone.
Facing only a 5% clearance rate, she couldn’t afford to gamble either.
“Wait—” The one who spoke at this moment was Wu Ren.
He turned his head and looked at Zhou Qian with a complicated gaze. “That thing in your hand… a device that can make calls—is it a cellphone? Where did you get a cellphone? The trading hall has similar communication tools, but not in this design. You—”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian raised his head and glanced in the direction of the foot of the mountain, seemingly wanting to see if a certain witch had already left.
After a moment, he said, “I got it from Eva secretly on the bus.”
“Why does she have it? And why would she give it to you? What, what did you tell her?” Wu Ren asked unavoidably.
Not only was he curious, but at this moment, everyone’s curious gaze was also fixed on Zhou Qian.
Zhou Qian explained, “It’s actually nothing. First, I handed Eva her daughter Lily’s diary. Of course, I only showed her the page that Lily wrote about the music festival. I reminded her—her daughter might not be possessed by evil spirits at all. She did show a glimpse of doubt but was soon defeated by long-established beliefs, thinking I was talking nonsense. Under such circumstances…”
Pausing slightly, Zhou Qian continued, “I didn’t forcefully ask her to believe me or to believe that magic doesn’t exist.”
“I just tentatively asked her if the TVs at her home and even the AI Barbie doll in her daughter’s room are still there. So, whether it’s for disguising as a normal person or not, there should still be some electronic devices in her life. After all, electronic devices can alleviate many unnecessary burdens and indeed bring convenience to our lives.”
“I guessed she might still have some similar devices. I did ask her explicitly if she kept any communication tools.”
“To avoid arousing her suspicion, I said at the time… the rest of her daughter’s diary is placed somewhere. After I find the diary later, I will contact her using communication tools.”
“As expected, she gave me this cellphone that can dial the mayor’s hotline. Though she told me… it’s against the rules, and we both need to act covertly. Haa…”
Zhou Qian shook his head. “She also emphasized to me in a low voice that she only kept the cellphone for convenience. She swore she absolutely didn’t betray the Witch Association.”
After hearing Zhou Qian’s words, Wu Ren remained silent for a long time.
He and his gambler seemed to be completely stunned.
After a while, he gave Zhou Qian a sincere thumbs-up.
Zhou Qian’s thoughts were so meticulous, and his actions were flawless.
Wu Ren had taken several blows in a row, discovering his physical condition, the accelerated decrease in life points, and the unlocking of the hidden plot… He felt he might really die in this instance.
But now, seeing Zhou Qian like this, he felt a surge of confidence that they could pass the level.
After a while, everyone heard footsteps.
Zhou Qian turned his head and saw another group of people coming from the main road.
They were almost fully armed.
They wore something like goggles. Special masks covered their faces, their hair was completely wrapped by some high-grade hats, and the parts like the neck and limbs were well protected. Nothing was exposed.
This was a small team of more than ten people; their steps were very neat, as if they had received professional training.
Each was carrying a huge weapon, somewhat similar to a gun.
The leader was tall and straight.
When he approached, Zhou Qian could see his eyes were a beautiful green, like the most beautiful jade or like a lake reflecting the trees.
“Hello, I am the mayor of Beautiful Flower Town.”
The man spoke.
His voice was deep, pleasant, very magnetic, and extraordinarily courteous.
Then he said two sentences.
The first, he gently raised his hand, made a gesture to the soldiers behind him, and said, “Check if there are any witches hiding here. If so, capture them.”
The second, he said while looking at Zhou Qian.
Glancing at the communication tool in Zhou Qian’s hand, he said, “You were the one who called for help, right? I’m glad you’re safe; it seems I came just in time. Come on, I will take you to see the real, new Beautiful Flower Town.”
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