absurd deduction game.

After some time, Carlos emerged from the medical room having received the answer he wanted.

He closed the door behind him, shutting out the thick smell of blood inside.

The corridor remained dimly lit. Carlos stood with his back to the door for a moment, then raised his hand, removed the leather gloves stained with dark red blood, and shook them off with a look of disgust.

Just then, a familiar voice came from the shadows to the side, neither loud nor soft, as calm as if inquiring about the weather:

"Did you kill Anthony?"

Carlos paused in his glove-flicking motion.

He looked up and followed the sound.

A few meters away, in a recessed part of the corridor wall, Yu Xing was leaning casually, his arms loosely wrapped around his chest, one leg stretched out and supporting him on the ground, the other leg bent, his posture as relaxed as if he were taking an afternoon nap.

The light from the corridor behind him outlined his figure as a long, blurry silhouette, his expression completely hidden in the shadows, making it impossible to see clearly.

Carlos looked at him silently, his emerald eyes unfathomable in the dim light. After a few seconds, he spoke, his voice devoid of emotion, as if stating an objective fact: "Yes."

He neither explained nor asked the other person why they were there.

Because Yu Xing had just communicated with him using a paper doll.

In order for the mission to proceed smoothly, they still need to put on a show in front of Fernail to avoid any new mishaps at tomorrow's final ceremony.

Yu Xing remained in that leaning posture, seemingly unsurprised by the answer. He continued to ask, his tone still calm: "What did Anthony say to you before he died?"

It's time to show off your acting skills.

Carlos's gaze swept over Yu Xing and then quickly passed over both ends of the corridor, as if to make sure that no one else was lurking.

He paused for a moment before replying in the same calm tone, “He said so. He said that Fernail has a special room in the manor used to ‘create’ monsters. She would use the people she captured as breeding grounds for monsters, and when the time was right, she would cut open their bellies, take out the ‘things’ inside, and then hold a ritual in that room to give those ‘things’ special powers, turning them into beings under her control.”

“Not long ago, Fernail removed a two-headed ghost infant from Anthony’s body. Doesn’t that sound familiar? In the battle where the church was ambushed in the west of the town, the cult used a two-headed ghost infant as a vessel for an evil god. According to the survivors, a high priest of the cult appeared next to that ghost infant.”

“Yu Xing, I suspect that Funer is the High Priestess. It’s very dangerous here. We must leave quickly.”

He described things very clearly, even with the organization of an investigative report, but somehow, there was a hint of wariness and distance in his tone.

Yu Xing did not respond immediately after hearing this.

The corridor was quiet for a few seconds, with only the sound of the torrential rain outside the window continuing.

After a long pause, he finally spoke softly, his voice neither a question nor a statement: "Anthony has trouble breathing, yet he can talk to you for so long?"

Upon hearing this, Carlos's face immediately darkened.

That feigned calm shattered like thin ice on the water's surface, revealing a cold wariness beneath.

He stared at Yu Xing in the shadows and slowly asked, "You knew about Anthony's situation all along?"

Without waiting for Yu Xing's reply, he continued speaking to himself, his tone clearly mocking and sharp: "But you didn't tell me. So... just as I guessed, you chose to stand with Funel? Now you're here to arrest me, right, High Priest's 'comrade'?"

He pronounced the last title with exceptional clarity, carrying an undisguised sarcasm.

In the shadows, Yu Xing seemed to chuckle softly, a sound as gentle as a drop of ice water falling into boiling oil.

“That’s right.” He admitted it readily, even with a sense of entitlement. “Otherwise, how could those useless cult servants outside possibly capture our ‘great’ magician?”

As he spoke, he finally moved, slowly straightening up from his leaning position and walking step by step toward Carlos.

"Considering our professional relationship," Yu Xing's voice echoed clearly in the corridor as her footsteps approached, her tone devoid of genuine regret, "I didn't want to confront you directly in the first place. What a pity..."

He stopped about three steps away from Carlos, a subtle distance between them that allowed them to clearly see each other's expressions while maintaining space to react at any moment.

“I’ve been watching for a while,” Yu Xing tilted his head slightly, his gaze seemingly piercing through the wall to see the servants searching in vain outside, “and all I saw was that bunch of useless trash being completely fooled by you. So…”

He raised his eyes, his gaze falling on Carlos's face, which, in the dim light, was so calm it sent chills down one's spine.

"...I had no choice but to come myself."

The atmosphere suddenly became extremely tense.

Carlos looked at Yu Xing, suppressing the smile that came over him as he saw the captain putting on a show for him, and forced a cold smile onto his lips.

“Yu Xing,” he murmured, his voice low, heavy with disappointment—or rather, he might have laughed if he hadn’t lowered it, “you’ve fallen.”

Yu Xing didn't even lift her eyelids, her tone as calm as if she were discussing dinner: "I had no choice, they have something on me."

"A handle?" Carlos's voice suddenly rose several decibels, filled with deliberately feigned excitement and disbelief. "Just because of a handle? Don't you want to be a good person?!"

Yu Xing almost immediately raised her voice, retorting with a hint of impatience, "Why are you yelling so loudly?!"

Carlos glared at him, his emerald eyes burning like two cold flames: "Then go find the item... Fennell!"

The words were spoken so easily that the air between the two of them froze for half a second.

Yu Xingxian looked away, seemingly too lazy to continue this pointless argument, and his tone returned to its previous calm: "If I go to call Fennell, you'll definitely take the opportunity to run away. So—"

Before he finished speaking, something strange happened!

Beneath Carlos's feet, on the thick carpeted corridor floor, a phantom branch, as thick as an adult's wrist, dark brown in color, and covered with eerie black patterns, burst forth from the "ground" at an astonishing speed and instantly wrapped around Carlos's ankle!

The sharp end of the branch, carrying a chilling aura, pierced straight towards his femoral artery, clearly attempting to pierce his leg.

Carlos reacted the instant he sensed the movement beneath his feet, but he couldn't dodge the entanglement. He swiftly reached into the inside pocket of his trench coat, pulled out the silver Utopia standard-issue pistol, and without even looking, lowered the muzzle and fired two shots at the brown branches wrapped around his leg! "Bang! Bang!"

Gunshots rang out in the enclosed corridor, deafeningly loud.

The silver enchanted bullet struck the middle of the branch precisely, exploding into two faint, purifying silver-white lights.

The illusory branch trembled violently, as if struck by lightning. The binding force suddenly loosened, and charred marks even appeared on its surface, before it quickly retracted.

But this is just an appetizer.

At the same time as the first tentacle retreated, the walls beside Carlos, above his head, behind him, and even the ceiling simultaneously writhed and bulged, with more illusory branches of the same color and varying thicknesses, like ghostly hands reaching out from the depths of a nightmare, attacking him from all directions!
Carlos's eyes sharpened, and he performed a dazzling series of evasive maneuvers in the extremely confined space. He sidestepped a spike aimed straight at his temple, ducked to avoid a thick branch sweeping across his waist, and at the same time, the muzzle of his gun kept spitting fire.

Gunfire erupted in rapid succession, silver bullets streaking through the air, striking precisely one attacking tentacle after another.

Each bullet could cause the hit tentacles to recoil in pain, but there were so many of them that their regeneration and attack speed was astonishing.

With the bullets empty, Carlos pressed the eject button with his thumb, the empty magazine slid out, and a full magazine appeared in his other hand. With a click, he pushed it in, chambered a round, and continued firing!
“I never expected this,” Carlos said coldly between dodging and shooting, his voice devoid of any breathlessness, only icy sarcasm, “that the bullets issued to investigators to deal with monsters would be used in large quantities for the first time on my dear 'colleagues'.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that his left hand had somehow caught a few playing cards—ordinary playing cards with blue and black diagonal stripes on the back.

With a flick of his wrist, Carlos sent several cards flying as if they had come to life, spinning rapidly. With a soft thud, the playing cards, like the sharpest throwing knives, embedded themselves deeply into those illusory, non-physical tentacles, pinning them firmly to the wall and floor behind them!

The pinned tentacles writhed wildly, unable to break free; each one was putting on a show of sheer absurdity.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Carlos nimbly slid backward to temporarily escape the densest encirclement, leaning against the wall with his gun steadily pointed at Yu Xing, who had been standing still not far away.

His emerald eyes were fixed on the other person, devoid of their usual frivolous smile, replaced by a sharp, piercing scrutiny and a deep, complex disappointment.

“Look at these tentacles, Yu Xing.” Carlos’s voice was not loud, but each word was clear, piercing through the pattering rain. “I really want to know… were you already a monster during one of those past investigations?”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the still-wriggling brown branches, scorched by bullets or nailed to the ground by playing cards, his sarcasm reaching its peak:
"Look at yourself, are you still human? Didn't you used to hate... becoming a monster the most?"

Yu Xing's eyes flickered.

In the near-dark environment, those deep blue eyes seemed even more profound, even more...inhuman.

Without warning or preparation, his figure vanished from his spot like a ghost, and almost the instant Carlos's pupils contracted, he was already upon him.

Carlos only had time to raise the muzzle of his gun before Yu Xing's hand gripped his wrist like an iron clamp. An irresistible force came through, and Carlos groaned as his arm was twisted and the muzzle of his gun was forced to the side.

He immediately grabbed Yu Xing's wrist with his other hand, trying to counterattack. The muscles in both arms tensed, and they instantly entered a dangerous stalemate.

Standing so close, Carlos could clearly see the unfathomable darkness in Yu Xing's eyes. Yu Xing spoke softly, her voice barely audible as she scolded, "Trying to sneak in your own agenda, huh?"

Carlos: "..." Hehe.

The stalemate lasted for less than two seconds.

Yu Xing clenched his empty left fist and delivered a solid punch to Carlos's abdomen without any fancy moves!

boom!
A muffled thud, not the sound of flesh colliding, but more like a heavy hammer striking a sandbag, mixed with a clear, teeth-grinding sound of bone cracking.

The immense force sent Carlos flying backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the wall on the other side of the corridor before sliding to the ground. The gun in his hand flew out and landed with a clatter on the carpet a few meters away.

"Are they really going to fight? This is what it means to have your own agenda..." The silent complaints were drowned out by the noise.

The corridor fell silent for a moment, with only Yu Xing slowly withdrawing his fist, straightening his body, and looking at "Carlos" slumped against the wall.

There was no sign of the expected figure coughing up blood and severely injured.

Leaning against the wall is a paper figure.

The paper figure has a clear, violently punched hole in its abdomen, with jagged edges, the result of the punch. Its face, with its features drawn with simple lines, is crooked and has a comical yet eerie blank expression.

Almost at the same moment Yu Xing's gaze fell on the paper figure, another unexpected event occurred.

On the corridor walls, the bullet holes left by the silver bullets Carlos had just fired, and the playing cards deeply embedded in the tentacles, all suddenly lit up with a faint green light at the same moment!

Immediately afterwards, these green light spots seemed to be connected by invisible lines, quickly outlining and spreading in the air. In the blink of an eye, a complex and perfect alien magic circle composed of green light traces completely surrounded the area where Yu Xing was located.

The moment the magic circle took shape, the illusory brown tentacles that had been wriggling and trying to break free withered instantly, as if all their life force had been drained. Yu Xing himself, who was trapped in the circle, suddenly stiffened, as if he were firmly imprisoned by invisible shackles. He could not move, and he could not even tremble his fingers.

A clear look of astonishment finally flashed in his eyes.

The sound of unhurried footsteps came from the shadows of the corridor behind Yu Xing.

Carlos strolled out leisurely, his clothes spotless and his hair perfectly styled. Without even glancing at Yu Xing, who was still pinned to the spot, he walked straight to the fallen silver pistol, bent down, and picked it up.

Then, he calmly removed the empty magazine and took out a bullet from another pocket of his trench coat.

This bullet is completely different from the standard enchanted bullets issued by the Ideal State.

Its entire body presents a purer, more restrained silver-white color, with extremely intricate and exquisite patterns engraved on the cartridge case, like some ancient runes and sacred symbols intertwined, flowing with a faint, holy silver glow in the dim light.

Carlos played with it for a moment, then clicked it into the chamber and cocked it.

Then, he walked up behind Yu Xing, who was trapped by the green light array and unable to move, and pressed the cold muzzle of the gun firmly against the back of Yu Xing's head.

Carlos leaned slightly closer to Yu Xing's ear, his voice regaining its usual playful and composed tone:

"you guess……"

"This bullet, specially prepared for 'monsters'... can it blow your head off?" (End of Chapter)