Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 176
Meng Bie had always been an extremely cautious person, but he had one big flaw: he loved to gamble. He met a group of players at a casino in Blue Harbor City who had just arrived in this semi-open dungeon. Unexpectedly, he ended up entering the collapsed city together with them.
Not long after the game began, Meng Bie noticed that certain colored wristbands were decreasing in a targeted way. He quickly deduced that killings were occurring. Using his investigative skills, he led his teammates on the path of escape.
It was during this escape that their group was rescued by Bai Zhou. They then joined Zhou Qian’s team and were now all members of the Invincible Legion.
Naturally cautious and suspicious, Meng Bie never fully trusted Bai Zhou from the start. Even after joining up with Zhou Qian, he remained guarded and didn’t share everything he knew.
But at this very moment, Meng Bie clearly trusted Zhou Qian’s abilities and character enough to step forward and confess what he had discovered.
After hearing Meng Bie’s words, Zhou Qian pulled him aside.
Once Bai Zhou, He Xiaowei, Hidden Blade, and Yin Jiujie had all gathered, Zhou Qian took out a soundproof airbag item and had everyone sit inside.
With this, their conversation would be completely inaudible to the Peach Blossom Legion.
Once everyone was settled, Zhou Qian turned to Meng Bie. “Tell me the specifics of what you found about the Saiya Hotel.”
Meng Bie: “There are especially many murderers connected to that hotel! We found one murderer who, after murdering someone, would cut off the tattooed part of their victim’s skin to make decorations, and then add a swastika symbol…”
Zhou Qian interrupted him. “Leave him aside for now. What about the others? The bodies with their heads covered, beaten to death. Did you find their murderer?”
Meng Bie answered immediately, “We did. This was actually the strangest case. Our team spent the most time on it before finally uncovering the truth.
“The corpses you mentioned actually fall into several categories. The first type was the earliest case, committed by a pair of murderers—a man and a woman.”
At this, Zhou Qian understood. Writer Luo Yu had drawn inspiration from this pair’s joint killing spree, using gathered information and his imagination to create his manuscript.
So, what about the other cases?
Meng Bie continued, “Another similar serial murder case happened many years later.
“We suspected the murderer was a writer named Luo Yu. We found many magazines mentioning him, saying he underwent a dramatic personality change.
“Luo Yu was a novelist. His works often exposed the darker sides of human nature, but his themes were always positive; his protagonists never had a negative outlook, and he himself was known as an upright person.
“But later, Luo Yu changed. He only ever produced one more work—the one he wrote while staying at the Saiya Hotel. Many readers felt… he empathized with the murderer in that story. He believed what the murderer did was justified and stopped expressing any criticism at all.”
After a short pause, Meng Bie went on, “Luo Yu checked into the Saiya Hotel, claiming he was seeking inspiration. But during his stay, many murders occurred. The murderers in those cases resembled the murderers in his novel and also resembled that man and woman from years ago.
“No one suspected Luo Yu at first. But once his book was published, police studied it closely and found it overlapped heavily with the real crimes. Investigating his behavior during his hotel stay confirmed he was the murderer, and he was arrested. Also…”
He Xiaowei, hooked on the story, quickly asked, “Also what?”
Meng Bie said, “Even scarier, before Luo Yu was caught, he held many lectures. He brainwashed a lot of people, who then began killing in the same way. They even changed their names, calling themselves Luo Yu.
“The name ‘Luo Yu’ became like a god worshipped by criminals.”
Zhou Qian grasped it. “So Luo Yu imitated that pair’s murders, and then many others imitated him. A chain reaction.”
“Yes.” Meng Bie nodded. “That’s what I mean. Among Luo Yu’s followers, one man was especially famous. His original name was Zhu Gao. He was tall, handsome, and seduced many beautiful housewives, telling them his name was Luo Yu. The strangest part was…”
Zhou Qian leaned in curiously. “What?”
Meng Bie said, “This guy really was good-looking and flirtatious. Not only did he seduce the wives, he also seduced their husbands… He was even sicker than the original Luo Yu.
“By exploiting this in vile ways, he destroyed marriages and eventually killed them all!”
Zhou Qian’s eyes narrowed. “I just saw a murderer who looked quite handsome earlier. He stood out immediately.”
He Xiaowei exclaimed in surprise, “Huh? Handsomer than Boss Long?”
Zhou Qian had no idea when He Xiaowei started calling Bai Zhou “Boss Long”, nor whether he was just stirring the pot or still socially clueless. He glared at He Xiaowei and turned toward Bai Zhou.
Meeting Bai Zhou’s gaze, Zhou Qian clapped his hands over Bai Zhou’s ears. “No, you heard wrong. I didn’t see anyone. What handsome guy?”
Everyone: “…”
“Ahem, well…” Meng Bie cleared his throat and continued, “Anyway, lots of people were brainwashed by Luo Yu and became his followers, but not everyone managed to become a successful serial murderer.
“Among those who stayed at the Saiya Hotel, carried out serial murders, and were connected to Luo Yu, there were only two: the handsome Zhu Gao I mentioned, and a woman named Liu Mei.
“As for the hotel’s other murderers…”
“We’ll leave the other murderers aside for now,” Zhou Qian said. “Knowing about Luo Yu is enough. This is crucial. It confirms one of my suspicions.”
He Xiaowei scratched his head anxiously and asked. “Qian’er, tell me already! I’m dying to know!”
The corpses in Exhibit C were divided into two categories: one matched the swastika murderer; the other’s murderer the players likely never encountered at all.
Now, with Meng Bie’s information, Zhou Qian was certain that Luo Yu was that second murderer.
But why was this so critical?
He Xiaowei couldn’t figure it out.
Then Zhou Qian said, “After we left the cell earlier, I deliberately walked slowly. I saw all 55 murderers.
“I looked at every face. But Luo Yu wasn’t among them.”
Everyone was shocked—
By rights, Luo Yu was also a serial murderer, part of the chain of events leading to collapse.
So why wasn’t he here?
Was Meng Bie wrong and Luo Yu wasn’t really the murderer? Or was there some deeper explanation?
“Luo Yu’s not here…” He Xiaowei muttered, frowning. “So, we’re missing a murderer. Why would one be missing?”
Zhou Qian asked him, “Remember when I asked Ruan Mei that question? I told her I knew how she committed her crime.”
He Xiaowei nodded. “Yeah! I thought that was weird! I worried she might lash out at you, but she just walked off looking pale. She even seemed… afraid of you?”
“Exactly. That’s important.” Zhou Qian nodded. “When I met the ‘World Spirit’, what it told me confirmed this further. Murderers won’t target people who are too smart or know too much, and one more key point—they won’t kill useless people. Together, this explains something.”
Sensing where this was headed, He Xiaowei gulped hard. “You mean…”
“I mean… maybe the real Blue Harbor City hasn’t actually collapsed yet,” Zhou Qian said.
He Xiaowei: “?”
Zhou Qian: “Luo Yu’s story must be meaningful. What if… just like in his novel, Blue Harbor City really does have a dual-world structure?”
He swept his gaze across everyone before continuing, “Previously, we guessed the collapse happened because someone freed criminals who should have been locked up or executed. They killed too many people, triggering a chain reaction that destroyed the city.
“But there’s a missing link in that logic. The exhibit’s other purpose hasn’t been addressed—how exactly did these murderers escape justice?”
He Xiaowei said, “Funny you bring that up. My master and I discussed it. Many of the exhibit’s corpses are from the moment of death. Like those babies—they’d just drowned when they appeared in your Exhibit A. When you examined the bodies, your fingerprints became clues back in the past…
“So logically, suspects would come from us. My master and I figured the murderers would visit us, pick one of us, and take us back in time to pin their crimes on us.
“That way, we’d be trapped in the past, unable to leave, maybe even executed in their place!
“That’s what we thought the exhibit was for. Except… except…”
“Except… that hasn’t happened yet,” Zhou Qian finished for him. “What you said is perfectly reasonable. The exhibit connects past and present. We left fingerprints on past evidence, and murderers have indeed come forward to the present. But this logic chain is still missing its most crucial link—
“Only if the real culprit picks someone, sends them back to become the suspect and take their punishment, can they walk free and trigger the collapse.
“But so far, all players are still here. None of us have been taken as suspects.
“The murderers haven’t chosen anyone yet. Why?”
Zhou Qian scanned their faces and said, “That’s why I suspect this so-called ‘King’s Game’ is actually how the murderers choose their scapegoats.”
“This world isn’t the real Blue Harbor City. It’s the shadow in a dual-world system. The real city still exists intact. And in truth, neither world has fully collapsed yet.”
Zhou Qian continued, “The ‘World Spirit’ I encountered is the embodiment of this shadow world.
“If the real world is the sunlit side, this one is the shadow side. It only survives by clinging to the real one, forever its reflection. That’s why the spirit wants to cross into the real Blue Harbor and make what happens here real.”
The scales, the gates, Luo Yu’s absence…
By now, Zhou Qian had formed a clear theory—
Blue Harbor City has two worlds.
The real world is the sunny side. Opposite it is a shadow world that mirrors it exactly. Everyone and everything here is merely a projection.
From another angle, this shadow world only exists because the real world does.
Normally, the two worlds don’t interfere. But sometimes, a shadow-self awakens and crosses over, replacing their sunny counterpart’s life.
Luo Yu was one such case.
Originally, he was a writer who spread positive values in his work.
But he was killed by his shadow self.
The shadow Luo Yu replaced him, drastically changed personality, became a serial murderer, and brainwashed countless followers.
Worse still, one day the shadow world’s spirit awoke. Its power was great enough to influence the sunny world.
For example, the Murder Exhibit might exist in both worlds. The last time they visited, the courtyard was still that of the sunny world.
But once they entered, they were already in the shadow version. All the murderers and corpses they saw were from this shadow world.
No one wants to stay a mere reflection forever.
This World Spirit wants to be unique.
Born in the shadow, it holds all this world’s negativity.
It plans to collapse this shadow world first, then drag the real Blue Harbor down with it.
Zhou Qian speculated that the scales they’d seen connected the two worlds.
They were tipping.
In about five hours, at midnight, the tipping would finish—
And then, yin and yang would invert. The shadow would replace the sunlit world, plunging the real Blue Harbor into ruin.
This was what the spirit meant by “going out”.
It and the murderers would cross into the sunny world.
Before the inversion in five hours, the spirit and murderers needed to finish one task: choosing “scapegoats” to send back in time within this world.
The world hasn’t truly collapsed yet.
What players saw as collapse was just a false chaotic space created by the powerful World Spirit, tricking them into thinking it had already happened, so they’d miss its true goal.
The logic chain still lacked its key piece.
Once players were chosen, sent back as suspects, executed in place of murderers—that missing link would be filled. Then the shadow world’s Blue Habor would collapse.
When the scales tipped fully, the collapsed shadow would overwrite the sunny world.
That would be the true apocalypse of Blue Harbor.
Luo Yu’s absence proved this.
His shadow-self had already crossed over, and in the sunny world he was arrested.
He wasn’t even part of the shadow’s collapse chain anymore.
He Xiaowei mulled this over for a long while before understanding. He was about to ask more when Meng Bie spoke first.
“Leaving aside the dual-world theory,” Meng Bie said, “just focusing on this world—we lack the historical event of scapegoats being caught and executed. That’s why this Blue Harbor hasn’t collapsed.
“The World Spirit can connect time, so creating this fake chaotic space isn’t hard for it…
“In short, it tricked us into thinking collapse already happened, but it hasn’t. They still need scapegoats from us to complete the chain.”
After thinking further, Meng Bie added, “So, can I say that right now, we’re in a fake, hypothetical timeline? The slaughter in the ‘King’s Game’ is also fake—it’s just ceremonial.
“Of course, the players killed will still die. But they won’t die here… They’ll actually…”
Zhou Qian confirmed. “They’ll actually be sent to the real shadow-world Blue Harbor, arrested as the culprits, and fill in the missing history. Once that happens, this shadow world collapses for real, and at midnight, it replaces the sunny world and wipes it out.
“The murderers could simply take us directly, but they slaughter us here because, like you said, it’s ceremonial. The spirit and its murderers are steeped in negativity. Killing delights them. Blood and flesh are their revelry and their ritual to herald the apocalypse.”
When Zhou Qian finished, He Xiaowei jumped in. “Hiss… so we just need to avoid dying in this game, right? Then we won’t be chosen!”
“Exactly. And those three rules the spirit mentioned fit perfectly. Murderers won’t choose someone too smart or too informed—it risks their chances of exoneration.
“That’s why when I told Ruan Mei I knew her methods, she stormed off. She wouldn’t dare pick me, especially after I won the game and proved I’m ‘smart’. I know her flaws and might get myself acquitted, letting her be caught instead.
“And the last rule’s key too. Murderers won’t kill useless people.
“That’s simple: if a case already narrowed the suspect’s age range, anyone outside it is useless to them. Those people won’t die in the game either.
“So—”
Zhou Qian concluded, “The game’s core isn’t wristbands or weapons. Just like we thought at first, the key is information from crime scenes.
“This city has countless crime scenes, scattered everywhere. Everyone has different intel. You can’t count on randomly meeting a murderer tied to your case. That’s why sharing info is critical.
“The bigger your group, the more info you can pool. To survive, everyone needs to share completely, not be misled by the system’s initial setup into infighting.”
“Encouraging infighting while the real win condition is teamwork…” He Xiaowei cursed. “This system’s twisted humor never disappoints!”
Zhou Qian ignored him, lost in thought.
Then he felt a hand squeeze his.
Turning his head, he met Bai Zhou’s gaze.
“The game starts in one minute.”
Bai Zhou didn’t ask how Zhou Qian planned to get info from Peach Blossom’s side.
Instead, through private chat, he asked, “How many from Peach Blossom do you plan to keep?”
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