Where's the cute girl we were promised? She's completely wiped out S-rank dungeons!

Although it only lasted three seconds, it was enough.

In the blink of an eye, Fu Zhengyang was swallowed up by the monster horde behind him. Qiao Ran and Xu Jian ran up to the rooftop, and Song Yuan knew what happened next.

"What's that monster?"

After the bleeding from the wound stopped, Song Yuan lifted her head off An Xiaomei's lap and sat up on her own. She raised her chin and pointed at the decapitated monster:

"After it was killed, these monsters stopped being aggressive towards Fu Zhengyang. And how did you know there was a key under the carpet, and how did you know that potion ingredients could also be stolen?"

Qiao Ran shrugged: "I don't know, I just guessed it on the spot. Luckily I won the bet in the end, otherwise I really don't want to think about it."

The reason he was able to deduce these things was thanks to the NPC "Heartbroken Wife" who said to him after he was attacked for the first time: "You've become just like me."

That means that, in the worst-case scenario, players will be assimilated into the same kind of existence as these NPCs.

As night fell, the room became a mess. He immediately suspected this wasn't just happening in the players' homes; the NPCs' homes were likely in the same state. But these NPCs' minds had been completely corrupted by the daily oppression and manipulation. If they considered love and a husband their life's pursuit, what were they most likely to do?

Of course, it's about concocting a magic potion to win her husband's eternal love.

Why would players bother collecting materials themselves? Why not just snatch them from them?

So the door must be openable. After deducing this, he found the key under the carpet. He ran into the room, intending only to escape through the window, but the system warned him that stealing the potion would result in him being hunted by all the monsters in the building, so he immediately changed his mind.

If we use this wave of monsters to stop Fu Zhengyang, wouldn't we have more time to escape?

"Then you guys came to rescue me."

At this point, Qiao Ran lifted her toe and gently kicked the small jar used to hold the love potion:

"As for that monster, didn't I rush into the room and steal a potion? It was the homeowner, which means that the 'hunt the thief' command was initiated by it."

It took us a lot of effort to pull it out of the monster horde. I used my skill on it to tell it that the thief wasn't me, but Fu Zhengyang. So the target of their attacks changed fundamentally, which is why the monsters suddenly changed their targets.

Once this monster is defeated, the pursuit will end at its root. Fu Zhengyang has lost a lot of health; he's probably healing now.

Judging by the sky, it'll be dawn in two hours. Fu Zhengyang also needs time to recover, so we'll just stay on the rooftop until dawn, then go home and make breakfast.

With that, Qiao Ran finished speaking. The two players with low IQs were completely dumbfounded.

Seriously, bro! This whole process was half guessing and half gambling. Was there even one thing you were 100% sure about?!

To deduce so many clues from just one sentence and apply them to this extent—this person is incredible! Are all players with an IQ of 90 this good?!

Song Yuan wasn't shocked by this, but after Qiao Ran's explanation, she gained a completely new understanding of Qiao Ran's skill "Song of the Siren":

"Your skills are quite useful; they can not only be used to extract information, but also to indirectly influence the will of an entire group through intermediaries?"

Faced with Song Yuan's rare praise, Qiao Ran tossed her hair and accepted it without any modesty:

"Oh dear, my skills have always been very useful, okay? It's just that my overall level is too low. As my level increases, my weapons and skills will continue to improve."

"So what's his situation now?" Song Yuan looked at Xu Jian, who looked pale and hadn't said much from beginning to end. "Are you planning to cooperate with us? Otherwise, there was no need for you to help Qiao Ran when you were on the roof."

Perhaps due to his critically low health, Xu Jian no longer possessed the same vigorous voice he had when they first met; in fact, even his speech sounded weak and feeble.

"That was just tit for tat. He helped me once in the stairwell, preventing me from being... preventing me from being completely drained, so I helped him once on the rooftop. Isn't that fair?"

Song Yuan looked at his deeply sunken cheeks, her voice completely flat:

"But you should know that you can't go back to your guild. Fu Zhengyang never intended to get you out of here alive, and even so, you still insist on following him?"

Qiao Ran, arms crossed, pressed her advantage, "Yeah, why don't you consider joining our guild, big brother? We don't have any S-rank players yet."

"Just the two of you, one D-rank and one E-rank, and you even have your own guild? Haha..."

Xu Jian chuckled, but quickly suppressed his laughter—what right did he have to mock other players? He was now a free agent without a guild.

He had long disapproved of Midnight Ghost's ways. He had previously thought that Fu Zhengyang was at most dissatisfied with his methods and would gradually distance himself from him and stop relying on him over time, but it turned out that this man actually wanted to kill him.

This is indeed the underlying logic of the game. Players distrust and frame each other, so morality doesn't apply here.

"Cooperation is fine, but I won't join your guild."

Xu Jian, carrying his knife, sat down casually on a storage box on the rooftop: "Once we get out, I'm going to be a free man and never join any of those messy guilds again."

"Are you sure you don't want to participate? Our guild is very loyal and has a very warm and friendly atmosphere."

Qiao Ran spread out her hands, making a "demonstration" gesture towards Song Yuan:

"Take my teammate for example. She lost 100 health points to 13 to save me, and I was almost moved to tears! Although we've only known each other for less than a week, I can feel that our friendship is already unbreakable. Isn't that heartwarming?"

Song Yuan asked expressionlessly, "Feed?"

Despite Qiao Ran's persuasion, Xu Jian ultimately shook his head and refused. He had promised to be a free agent, and he wanted to be one without any reservations. He didn't want to join any guild, good or bad.

"Hey there, little girl, you said you have neither weapons nor talent, right?"

Xu Jian walked up to Song Yuan, picked up a piece of scrap steel from the ground, and weighed it in his hand. The heavy, slightly rusty steel softened and deformed in his hand, eventually turning into a large knife with a handle.

Xu Jian tore some rags from the headless monster's corpse, wrapped them around the handle, and handed it to Song Yuan:

"You seem to be quite strong in combat. Here, take this. My talent is that I can turn metal materials into any weapon, and the weapon I create will have the same hardness and grade as my sword. With this for self-defense, at least you won't be chased and hacked."