Lucky billion players, you've never seen one before / I can accumulate my own luck

“…Hmph.” Koike said, “Alright, it’s your turn to ask a question.”

“I have quite a few questions,” Fan Xiao said with a smirk. “First, I want to help a family in town complete a sacrificial ceremony. How should I do that?”

“Just kowtow ten times in front of the portrait,” Xiaochi replied.

"Secondly," Fan Xiao continued, "you and your parents should now exist in spirit form. Where are your bodies... or rather, your remains?"

Xiaochi said indifferently, "Without corpses, we are physical entities."

“The third question,” Fan Xiao glanced out the window, “are those dark figures outside other townspeople? And they’re all townspeople who didn’t perform any sacrificial rites at home, right?”

“No, they are just monsters,” Koike quickly replied.

"The fourth question..."

Fan Xiao paused for a moment, then asked, "You can't stay in this town for long, right?"

"..." After a few seconds of silence, Koike replied, "How absurd! We are the townspeople here, of course we can stay here forever!"

Her tone became irritated: "You're asking too many questions. I don't want to answer anymore. It's dawn, so you can leave if you want!"

“Alright, then I won’t ask.” Fan Xiao said with a smile, “Anyway, I already know the information I want to know.”

"...What do you know?" Koike asked instinctively.

"Didn't you just answer that? Why are you still wondering about this?"

Fan Xiao explained in detail: "First, the sacrificial ceremony is for families who have set up an altar and a portrait of the deceased. The method of the ceremony is currently unknown. Of course, I will have someone try your kowtowing."

"Secondly, it seems that only your spirits have returned, you 'ghost town residents'. Your remains have not returned to the spirit town and are still in an unknown place, perhaps in your graves or in other dimensions. If we can bring your remains back, it might be possible to allow the dead to truly return."

"Third, those dark figures outside are other 'ghost townspeople'."

"Fourth, you can't stay in the Spirit Sacrifice Town for long, which may be related to the fact that you are not living people. The reason you attacked us may also be for this reason. Let me guess... is it that you can stay a little longer for every outsider you kill?"

"..."

Koike did not answer.

Her face turned quite pale.

The final attempt to mislead failed.

This guy is so annoying!

"Looks like I was right all along," Fan Xiao said with a smile.

Xiao Chi glared fiercely at Fan Xiao.

Perhaps she dared not speak anymore, for she disappeared from the room, deliberately avoiding Fan Xiao.

She probably won't show up again until she comes up with a new wicked idea.

"Xiao Chi, you still say you're not a spirit?"

Fan Xiao shouted into the air.

Got no response.

It seems that the young female ghost no longer dared to have any further interaction with him.

Fan Xiao wasn't disappointed, since the intelligence he had obtained had already exceeded his expectations.

Little Sister Xiaochi is so easy to fool... He couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

This trip to Xiaochi's house was definitely the right decision!

He already had a rough idea of ​​how to complete the dungeon quest, and was just waiting to verify it during the day.

After no one blocked his way, Fan Xiao left Xiao Chi's bedroom and went straight to Li Xian's bedroom door, shouting into the room, "Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger."

Soon, the door opened, and Li Xian came out.

"Were you attacked?" he asked.

“It seems you are too,” Fan Xiao nodded. “You dare to open the door so openly, you must have already deduced the relevant pattern.”

“Fear and light are probably the reasons why these ghost townspeople attack us.” Li Xian nodded and said, “Besides that, we’d better not attack them directly, or we’ll be in a very unfavorable situation.”

"That's pretty much what I predicted."

As Fan Xiao spoke, he glanced into Li Xian's room.

The furniture and the room environment remained unchanged; everything was the same as before.

"You doubt my identity?" Li Xian asked.

"Aren't you also doubting me?" Fan Xiao laughed. "The things in this house can change, and the family can change too. That way, there are many more ways to play."

Upon hearing this, Li Xian opened his palm, and green digital lights flashed, creating a flying skateboard.

“Psionic power can prove my identity.”

He tossed the skateboard to Van Shaw.

Fan Xiao carefully examined it, then nodded and said, "No problem, it's genuine. However... I can't prove it right now."

"It's okay, I'll just remain skeptical of you."

Li Xian was not fixated on this matter.

Fan Xiao seemed to be deep in thought.

This person with facial paralysis... there might be a way to confirm his identity.

The reason they don't reveal it is probably to avoid leaking information to the monsters in the instance.

Once intelligence is leaked, it can be exploited.

The methods by which those "deceptive monsters" they encountered in the afternoon obtained information were completely unknown.

You really need to keep a few tricks up your sleeve in this regard.

"It seems we have different suspicions."

Fan Xiao said, "I suspect you're one of that family members in disguise, trying to scare me at a crucial moment. You mean... you suspect I'm one of those 'deceitful monsters' we encountered this afternoon?"

“Both,” Li Xian said. “It’s better to be cautious.”

"I don't think we need to worry about the 'liar monster' for now."

Fan Xiao walked into the house, drew back the curtains, pointed to the dark figures outside the window, and said, "Those things are other ghost townspeople in the town. They don't have the authority to enter the house directly and compete with this family for our prey. Those 'deceitful monsters' this afternoon would have even less chance of getting in."

"After all, those monsters and these ghost townspeople are very likely to have opposing stances and are enemies on the surface."

"'The 'liar monster' is the embodiment of fraudsters, while these ghost townspeople are the embodiment of victims."

"They may even operate at separate times, one during the day and one at night."

“It seems you have more information than I do,” Li Xian asked. “Could you elaborate?”

"of course."

Fan Xiao didn't hold back and recounted what had happened.

After finishing his explanation, he offered his own speculation: "We previously guessed that the townspeople were either victims or their family members. Logically speaking, they shouldn't have any conflict with us players, and there's no need for them to hurt each other."

"But these ghost townspeople are not honest at all; every word they utter is a lie."

"Their behavior is just like that of fraudsters, using lies to deceive people first, and then harming them."

"This pattern... doesn't it seem a lot like a victim being blackmailed by a real scammer, forced to scam in order to survive?"

"It does look a bit like it."

Li Xian nodded: "So, you suspect that they are 'not free' now, and must deceive and kill people in order to gain more 'freedom'?"

"That's it."

Fan Xiao said, "They've become ghosts, and each of them has extraordinary abilities, so I guess the 'lack of freedom' here isn't because they're actually being held hostage by those 'deceitful monsters'."

"The only thing that can restrict them now is the copy rules."

"There is likely a dungeon rule that prevents them from staying in Spirit Town indefinitely, while killing players can extend their time in the town."

Just like the victims in Wa City who were coerced by fraudsters, if they didn't deceive others and drag them down with them, they would be subjected to beatings, water dungeons, guards gouging out their eyes, and other forms of harm.

They receive a reward for each person they successfully lure over.

This pattern might have been extended within this instance, becoming a set of instance rules.

Chapter 354 The Three Missing Teammates

Your guess is very insightful.

After sorting through the information provided by Fan Xiao, Li Xian said, "The third mission condition for the instance is 'help a deceased person achieve a true return'."

"I previously guessed that the dead in the Spirit Town might all exist in the form of spirits, and helping them return probably refers to doing something with their corpses."

"However, your guess has given me a new clue. Perhaps the real return means removing the restrictions on them, allowing them to live in the Spirit Town forever."

"No, that's very unlikely."

Fan Xiao shook his head and said, "I asked Xiao Chi this question before, and not a single word of her answer was true."

“Helping them lift the restrictions so they can stay in town for a longer period of time would obviously be beneficial to them, but Koike has shown a completely opposite attitude.”

"It's clear that a 'real return' would be harmful to them, otherwise their attitude is inexplicable."

"but……"

He paused, then continued, "I think your guess about 'spirits and corpses' is correct."

"Regarding this issue, I also probed Xiaochi. Judging from her reaction, these ghost town residents are indeed in a state of separation between their spirits and corpses, and their corpses are very likely hidden somewhere."

"The grave... is very unlikely, it's too easy, but we can try digging it up when it's daytime."

"Of course, I don't think we'll get any results."

"Xiao Chi's reaction..." Li Xian thought for a moment and asked, "Is there a possibility that she's playing you?"

"Her previous schemes and attempts to scare me were rather naive, somewhat... well, rather inept."

Fan Xiao said, "Unless she can foresee the future, knows from the beginning that she can't deal with me, and then acts the whole time, her reactions can't be faked."

I don't know if it was just my imagination, but the temperature in the living room seemed to drop a little after he finished speaking.

Fan Xiao chuckled: "Little Chi, you're not still eavesdropping, are you? That's really tasteless."

There was no response.

After the attack failed, Koike and her parents all disappeared from the room.

Spirits seem to possess innate abilities like invisibility. Now that the three ghosts know they are not easy to deal with, they have completely given up on scheming and making contact.

To avoid accidentally revealing information, they simply didn't show their faces at all.

"Then let's just take it as true for now."

Li Xian started plotting loudly again: "We have six days to try and fail. If this direction doesn't work, we'll try another one."

After deciding on the direction of their investigation, he continued, "Now we can be basically certain that the so-called 'town mayor' is a fake, and the so-called 'policies' are just fabricated excuses and pretexts to better deceive us."

"The townspeople of Ghost Town lied to make it easier for them to attack us. I wonder what the normal townspeople are thinking when they lie?"

"Ghosts are also transformed from humans; wherever there are people, there is a world of martial arts and chivalry."

Fan Xiao speculated, "The real townspeople... well, let's call them living townspeople. Based on our current guesses, only a small portion of the living townspeople are definitely safe."

"After all, if the living want their relatives who return on the day of the memorial to stay longer, they will most likely have to do what the people of Ghost Town do and kill outsiders."

"The remaining safe families probably have moral principles that outweigh their inner desires, so they won't do bad things."

“They stand against the other townspeople. If they want to live safely here, they definitely have to abide by the rules that everyone has made together, otherwise…”

"Otherwise, the copy doesn't stipulate that townspeople can't attack each other."

Li Xian quickly grasped the logic behind it, adding, "Even if they are from the same hometown, if they hinder my ultimate goal, I will definitely not hesitate to eliminate them."

"From this perspective, whether we can get through the first night safely is entirely a matter of luck."

Because neither families that choose to perform ancestral rites at home nor those that choose not to do so are safe.

"It seems you believe that the families in the town where the people of Huoren Town are the leaders... that is, the families that perform sacrificial rituals at home, are also haunted." Fan Xiao laughed, "I don't think so."

Li Xian would offer this viewpoint, and he can understand the reasons behind it.