Zongman: My days as a chaebol in Japan

At the dining table, Asuna and her friends began to sort out the clues they had collected so far. Death of Thorns was the name of the peculiarly shaped weapon. There was nothing special about the weapon, except for its peculiar shape. It could not cause any damage in the safe zone. The forger was Aaron, the blacksmith of the Night Adventure Group. Asuna and her friends planned to go to the Adventure Group Association in the afternoon to inquire about the information of the Night Adventure Group.

They had a hunch that this night adventure group would be a key turning point in the safe zone murder incident.

Li Xuan did not tell anyone about his discovery, as it would have been a fatal blow if he had said it at the right time.

After dinner, Asuna's team, still in high spirits, headed to the Adventure Group Association.

In the Adventure Group Association, Asuna and her friends obtained important information that the Dark Adventure Group had been disbanded due to the death of its leader. It is worth noting that among the members there was Mark, a member of the Holy Dragon Alliance who was found "dead" by being hung outside the clock tower, the recent eyewitness Ye Zi, and the blacksmith Aaron.

The leader's name was Hesta, a well-known player in the adventure group circle. However, he died for unknown reasons, so their adventure group was disbanded.

After listening to the news given by the people from the Adventure Group Association, Asuna and the others started brainstorming. Many questions were connected together, and at the same time many new questions emerged.

However, the logic has gradually become clear. Li Xuan did not intervene too much throughout the process. He already knew what was going on. Now he just regarded it as an activity to enhance the relationship with Asuna and the others. After a while, when Asuna and the others were still discussing which question point to investigate first, Li Xuan suggested that they should first look for the person that the Night Adventure Group could find.

Asuna and the others thought about it and realized that this was a very important point. At the moment, they could find just one person, and that was Yako, who had separated from Asuna and the others at Fabre's place.

Asuna opened the friend list, which showed Yako's approximate current location, the hotel where they met in the morning.

After getting in touch with Yako, Asuna and the others walked into the portal and met Yako again at the hotel where they met in the morning. At this time, Yako looked very tired and a little worried.

After seeing Asuna and the others, he forced a smile and greeted them. After sitting down, Asuna went straight to the point, "Ms. Yako, we have found an important clue. Now, may I ask you, is there a blacksmith named Aaron in your Night Adventure Group?"

Hearing the question asked by Asuna, Ye Zi's eyes were a little flustered, but she quickly restrained herself. Ye Zi didn't expect that Asuna and the others already knew about the Night Adventure Group. After thinking about it, she nodded, acknowledged Aaron's affairs, and then told Asuna and the others about the adventure group.

Unlike other adventure groups that accumulate strength in a weak period and then grow gradually, the leader of the Night Adventure Group, Hesta, is a woman. This is rare in adventure groups that are basically dominated by men. From Yako's description, Asuna and the others learned that Leader Hesta is a smart, cheerful and gentle person.

That day, when they were hunting in the maze area, they got a piece of equipment of rare quality. Everyone was very happy at that time. After discussion, they finally decided to sell it. After contacting the buyer, the team leader Hesta took the equipment to meet the buyer, but what everyone was waiting for was the notification of the team leader's death.

Looking at the leader's character name that has turned gray, this is the normal display after the game is offline, but this is a death game and there is no logout option.

It was a little hard for everyone to accept that the powerful, smart and gentle Captain Hesta was dead, especially the female players who had a good relationship with Hesta. Among them, Ye Zi had always wanted to find out the cause of Hesta's death, but she had no clue.

After the death of Captain Hesta, the members of the Black Night Adventure Group lost the motivation to move forward, so they disbanded the adventure group and went their separate ways. The one who did the best was Mark, who joined the first-line strategy group, the Holy Dragon Alliance. However, Mark also died outside the church bell a few days ago because of a murder in the safe zone.

After hearing this, Asuna and the others roughly understood a lot of information, and many questions in their minds were also answered. Now back to the original question, the logic of killing in the safe zone, several people fell into thinking again, and Yako stood up while describing the introduction just now, walked to the window, and then turned his back to Asuna and the others.

"So, if you guys can help investigate it, I would be very grateful, um...", Ye Zi said with a smile, but before she finished her words, her body trembled. Under the strange gaze of Asuna and the others, her body slowly turned around, and there was a dagger stuck in her back. The shape was surprisingly similar to Death by Thorns.

After being attacked, Yako fell out of the window. Asuna quickly ran to the window and reached out to grab her, but Yako turned into pieces and dissipated during the fall. At the same time, a strange light flashed by, and on the roof opposite, a man in a black robe was moving quickly and escaping.

"Stop," Asuna and a few others jumped onto the roof from the window and chased after him. Li Xuan looked at the place where Ye Zi disappeared with a bit of amusement. Li Xuan saw Ye Zi's little movements clearly.

As expected, Asuna and her companions lost their target. As the man in black robe escaped, a transfer stone appeared in his hand and he moved to the coordinates left in advance.

Feeling a little discouraged, Asuna and her friends sat down on a nearby patch of grass and started brainstorming again.

They didn't expect that there was actually a way to kill people in the safe zone, and under the noses of their group. Now with Ye Zi's death, the clues they had originally found disappeared again.

Chapter 130 The Logic of Killing in the Safe Zone

Seeing Asuna and the others falling into mental difficulties again, Li Xuan was just about to remind them, but unexpectedly, Tokisaki Kurumi seemed to have discovered something.

"Wait a moment everyone, I found a problem," Tokisaki Kurumi was next to Li Xuan at this time. She was also thinking about the logic of the way of killing people in the safe zone, but she had no clue. In reality, she could just use Kekedi to time travel and find out clearly, but now she was in the game, and she didn't want to put in the effort of brainstorming.

Although she was also interested in the way of killing people in the safe zone, she was only interested in seeing the answer, so she did not participate in the brainstorming of Asuna and the other three. Instead, she stayed by Li Xuan's side and interacted with him crazily. Just now, Tokisaki Kurumi took Li Xuan's hand and opened his inventory, then took out the strawberry cake that Li Xuan had hidden. After eating a few bites, the cake turned into pieces and its durability was gone.

All of a sudden, Tokisaki Kurumi thought of a link in the logic of what they were thinking, so she quickly interrupted Asuna and the others and began to describe it.

"Tokisaki-chan, did you find anything?" Asuna and the others looked at Tokisaki Kurumi, who had been slacking off with Li Xuan, with some curiosity.

Tokisaki Kurumi chuckled and began to demonstrate, "Look, as long as I control Xuanjun's hand, I can open his inventory and take out the cake. After the cake has run out of durability, it will directly turn into pieces, and the light of the transfer stone is not very obvious."

When Asuna and the others saw this scene, the mental dilemma in their minds was suddenly resolved. If they looked at it from this angle, the objects in the safe zone would lose their durability and turn into fragments.

All of a sudden, the problem that had been bothering several people seemed to have found an explanation.

They are all smart people. Asuna sorted it out, "That is to say, if we follow the method just now, as long as the durability is gone, it will turn into fragments, and at the same time use the transfer stone to achieve a closed loop."

After hearing that Asuna and the others had found the real way, Li Xuan also pointed out the key point, "Asuna, open your friend list and take a look."

Asuna felt a little strange when she heard that, but she still opened the friend list and immediately found the problem, because she had added Yako as a friend in the morning. Yako had died right under their noses just now, but now her name was still lit. She had never heard of any bugs in this game. Combined with the method that Tokisaki Kurumi used just now, Asuna came to the conclusion that Yako had deceived them.

Then, Asuna and the others who found the breakthrough looked at where Yako was and saw that it was a cemetery, so they hurried there.

When the few people arrived, they just happened to catch a good show. There were three people in the cemetery, two of whom had fallen to the ground, apparently controlled by paralysis, and the one who was not controlled was holding up a weapon similar to the Thorn of Death in Asuna's backpack, preparing to attack the two people who could not move.

The rapier in Asuna's hand materialized, and her body was as agile and swift as a dragon.

In a few breaths, she arrived beside the three people and saw Mayuko lying on the ground with a man in armor next to her. Asuna waved her rapier and knocked back the weapon in the hand of the person who was about to attack. Subsequent attacks continued. It was obvious that the attacker had poor fighting ability. It was estimated that he relied on sneak attacks and paralysis to defeat the two people.

Now, after being challenged by Asuna, the pentagonal warrior, he was thrown to the ground.

Picking up the Death of Thorns that fell on the side, one can see obvious traces of enchanted potion on it. This is the source of the paralysis control effect. Li Xuan and Erina, who were a few steps slower, took out ropes and tied up the fallen attacker.

After using the recovery potion on Yako, she was freed from the paralysis and thanked Asuna. Although she was very surprised why Asuna appeared here, she still rescued her former companion who was wearing armor.

"Asuna, why are you here?" Ye Zi asked Asuna in confusion.

Asuna combined the information of Tokisaki Kurumi and herself and deduced the connection between the safe zone murder case and Yako.

Seeing that her method had been cracked, Yako expressed her admiration for the cleverness of Asuna and the others. You know, she had been thinking about this method for nearly a week and she came up with it when she accidentally saw the scene of an item disappearing after its durability was consumed.

At this time, Asuna was curious about why Yako did this.

"This is for Captain Hesta," Ye Zi looked at the tied up man, walked over and lifted the turban covering his face.

There was a familiar face under the turban. When Ye Zi saw this person's face, an expression of disbelief but understanding suddenly appeared on his face, and he said, "It's you, Mr. Aaron. I guessed it after I saw the creator of Thorn Death. But why did you do this? Captain Hesta saved you from your decadence and gave you his trust."

At this time, Mark also looked at Ye Zi with a confused face. He slowly realized what Ye Zi said. The death of his former leader was actually related to the leader's partner? He always thought that he had killed the leader and felt guilty.

"Hey..hahaha, of course it's to keep Hesta by my side all the time," Aaron, who was exposed, also let out a twisted laugh and sound.

"What do you mean? Isn't Captain Hesta dead? What do you mean by always being with you? Explain it to me clearly." Mark couldn't help but rushed forward and punched Aaron.

Aaron was punched and looked at Mark, who had been the scapegoat for so long. He smiled sinisterly and said, "Mark, you greedy guy, have you forgotten how you entered the Holy Dragon Alliance? Haha, you and I are both hopeless."

The words that came out of Aaron's mouth made Ye Zi's expression change again. He looked at Mark straight. Mark's scalp numbed when he saw Ye Zi's eyes, so he quickly explained his own affairs clearly, "I just used the paralysis potion on the leader according to Aaron's words, took away the rare equipment, and did not hurt the leader."

"I want to join the front-line strategy team, but the threshold for the Holy Dragon Alliance is to have a rare equipment. The death of the leader really has nothing to do with me," Mark continued to explain with a guilty look on his face.

"Stop talking, Mark. How can I believe you at this point? I was so stupid as to ask you to help me investigate the death of the team leader," Ye Zi angrily scolded Mark with a devastated look on his face.

Mark didn't know how to defend himself and could only keep saying that it had nothing to do with him. At this point, the murder in the safe zone had been finally solved. The biggest question was, who killed Hesta, the leader of the Night Adventure Group?

Chapter 131 Chapter Cowardice in the name of honor

Li Xuan saw that things were almost over, so he didn't want to wait any longer and directly threw Aaron, who was making sick and twisted remarks, in front of Ye Zi and Mark.

"No need to debate, just ask our perverted Mr. Aaron and you will know who the murderer is." Li Xuan pointed his sword at Aaron's neck and stabbed it a few inches. The blood on Aaron's head began to slowly drip.

"Don't kill me, don't kill me, I just want Hesta to stay with me forever, I haven't done anything wrong." Aaron saw that his blood volume quickly dropped to half, and Li Xuan had no intention of moving the sword away, so he begged for mercy quickly, uttering strange remarks.

Ye Zi, Mark, and Asuna and others who were listening on the side were also a little puzzled by Li Xuan's words, but after hearing Aaron's words again, they still realized the problem.

"Ms. Yezi, maybe it wasn't Mr. Mark who killed your captain, but the blacksmith of your Night Adventure Group, Captain Hesta's partner, who did it himself," Asuna also figured it out, and deduced a possibility from Li Xuan's words and Aaron's two strange remarks just now.

Seeing that the blood bar was about to reach the red warning line, Aaron finally confessed his secret. Li Xuan pulled out his sword and inserted it into Aaron's neck just a few centimeters away.

Aaron breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that his health bar had stopped dropping, and began to tell the story.

Hesta and Aaron met each other at the starting place. At that time, Aaron had no fighting ability but good forging talent, so he could only be in the logistics line. This was nothing. Aaron gave people the impression that although he looked average and had no fighting talent, he had been providing equipment assistance to Hesta.

Hesta even formed a night adventure group with him. There was nothing wrong with all this until Hesta proposed that she hoped to go to the front line to contribute her own strength after a while. She expressed her love to Aaron and hoped to conquer the top level as soon as possible and meet Aaron in the real world after passing it.

Aaron agreed on the surface, but he began to feel uneasy in his heart, because he and Hesta had been able to complement each other so far, but this was already his limit, and his forging talent had also reached its limit, while Hesta was far from reaching its limit.

She had a great talent for fighting, and she was becoming more and more dazzling. In contrast, Aaron, who was once on par with Hesta in the Night Adventure Group, had gradually faded. After more than ten days, the accumulated resentment and resentment finally erupted with the incident of rare equipment.

Aaron discovered very early on that as long as the player could control the target for a long time, he could open the opponent's panel backpack. However, he never thought of using it on his partner. It was not until Hesta said that he would go to the front line to see the strength of the strategy after completing the transaction of rare equipment.

Aaron's first reaction at this time was not to ask Hesta to be careful, but to think that Hesta was going to abandon him and leave him to find someone more talented on the front line. It just so happened that Mark from the adventure group revealed a few days ago that he wanted to join the Holy Dragon Alliance, but there was no rare equipment.

So Aaron found Mark one day before Hesta left, told Mark the conditions that made Mark excited, and then taught Mark how to get rare equipment from Hesta.

Aaron and Mark also agreed that they would act together. Mark would wear a black robe and take away the rare equipment, while Aaron would be worried about "just happening" to meet him, so he would scare Mark away and then take Hesta back.

There was nothing wrong with the plan, but what Aaron didn't expect was that after Hesta's rare equipment was stolen, she still said when Aaron was clearing her paralysis that she wanted to go to the front line to see if she could get a rare equipment, so that she could make up for the loss of the adventure team after the rare equipment was stolen.

After hearing Hesta's words, Aaron successfully turned evil on the spot. Aaron, who was originally preparing to remove the paralysis on Hesta's body, took out the Death of Thorns that he had specially forged, and inserted it into Hesta's abdomen in the eyes of astonishment and disbelief. It was a vital attack, and after more than ten seconds, Hesta turned into fragments and dissipated.

Aaron kept saying, "Hersta, why do you have to go to the front? Isn't it good like this now? We fit each other, why do you want to abandon me? You are too dazzling. I am living in your shadow now. So, don't go to the front, stay with me, you will always be by my side."

Aaron's narration ended here, but the shock it brought to Ye Zi and Mark present was beyond words.

After a long while, Mark, who had digested the information, rushed forward first and punched Aaron, who was lying on the ground, twice. Tears of regret began to flow from his eyes. "Asshole, you just said that you would bring Miss Hesta back and persuade her to give up going to the front line. You actually lied to me. I went to the front line just to capture the top floor as soon as possible and let a good person like Miss Hesta regain her life."

Li Xuan looked at Mark and Aaron a little strangely, then looked at Ye Zi who was also sad behind Mark. No, is this okay?

You like her, she likes him, she likes him. It turns out that the triangle is stable, but the quadrilateral is more solid.

However, Li Xuan still went over and pulled Mark away. If he didn't pull them apart, Aaron, who was beaten into a pig's head, would be dead.

At this time, Asuna and the others finally sorted out all the information. They were just investigating a murder case in the safe zone, but they didn't expect that it would involve a love story in the end. However, when they heard Aaron's words, they all walked away with disgust and returned to Li Xuan. Their men were tens of millions times better than Aaron. It was like the difference between a dragon and an ant.

Li Xuan looked at the pig-headed Aaron who was still comforting himself, and said mockingly, "Hehe, why do you think Hesta is leaving you by going to the front line? Are you making such a high-sounding excuse for your cowardice and incompetence?"

When Li Xuan told Aaron the biggest secret hidden in his heart, Aaron immediately began to argue, "What do you know? When the people around you are in my situation, you will be the same as me, hahaha, um..."

Aaron laughed and tried to argue, but was soon shocked by Li Xuan's next action. Li Xuan put his arms around Asuna and Erina beside him and tapped their pink lips, and then tapped the pink lips of Kotonoha Katsura, Sekai Saionji, and Kurumi Tokisaki.

Asuna and the others responded to Li Xuan with joy.

"Don't you know the rule that the strong take all? Your cowardice and incompetence are really ridiculous in my eyes. Instead of thinking about scheming against others, you might as well think about how to make yourself stronger. It's the biggest bad luck in your life that Hesta falls in love with you." After saying this, Li Xuan told Mark and the others to deal with it as they wish, and then left with Asuna and the others.

Chapter 132 Erina, Celebration

After returning to the house, the few people who were disgusted by Aaron's twisted thoughts had no intention of staying in the game. Asuna and the others were the first to log off, while Li Xuan told the bald head of the Scarlet Knights the reason for the incident.

Then went offline.

Because Li Xuan and the others are special personnel, Kayaba Akihiko gave them authority. After they go offline, artificial intelligence will automatically take over. The characters will not move, but will always show their online status.

Li Xuan took off his helmet and put it on the shelf beside him. Then he returned to the sofa and saw Asuna and the others discussing the matter of the safe zone. They all agreed that Aaron needed to be pulled out for what he did to Hesta, and exposed like a vampire under the sun-like light of his own man until he turned into ashes.

Seeing that several people were still upset about what happened to Hesta, Li Xuan smiled, sat down next to Asuna and Erina, who sympathized with Hesta the most, reached out and hugged them, and whispered in Erina's ear, "Erina, go make some snacks, otherwise everyone will be hungry from talking."

Erina held down Li Xuan's bad hand, bit the back of his hand gently, rolled her eyes, kissed him, and went to the kitchen.

After chatting for a while, Erina brought up two plates of fragrant and beautifully presented snacks. The people who were discussing immediately dropped the topic and started enjoying the food.

Erina sat down next to Li Xuan, fed the snack in her hand to Li Xuan's mouth, and said confidently, "Try it, Xuanjun, this is a new combination inspiration I found in SAO, the Flying Cow Bombing Roll."