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

"My number... is unusually high. I hope you're not scared."

After giving a reminder, the hooded girl removed the chewed-up fabric from her right hand.

Fan Xiao looked down and saw a number that surprised him greatly – “20”.

20... How can there be so many?!

We're all just sixth-ranked guys at best, how can you be so dramatic...!?

Suddenly, Fan Xiao remembered the last of the four game tips—killing players from the opposing faction allows him to inherit their stats.

Meanwhile, Silver City is two people less than Obsidian City.

"No, that's not right either. If we calculate it at 6, even if Junior Sister kills two of our people, the accumulated number won't reach 20."

"Besides... how could she possibly have time to kill our players?"

"There were only 13 people in Silver City until the dungeon opened, and there weren't enough extra people for her to kill... Wait, the dungeon is open..."

Fan Xiao suddenly had a bold guess: "Is it possible... this isn't the first time the dungeon has been opened?"

"Reincarnation...? Uh... this kind of pattern doesn't seem uncommon in games. Evolution games, in the end, are still games, only on a larger scale..."

Following this line of thought, Fan Xiao activated his mind to a high degree.

Thinking from the perspective of "reincarnation," the current numbers... still don't quite match up.

Therefore, it is very likely that the initial number on the back of the player's hand is not "6".

He quickly built a mathematical model in his mind, did some calculations, and soon came to a conclusion.

"If a player's initial number is 7, and it has decreased by 1 after going through one cycle..."

"If my junior sister kills two of our people in the first reincarnation, accumulating the number to 21, then subtracting 1 with each reincarnation will bring it to exactly 20..."

"Yes, the logic is complete and reasonable."

"But... why is the number 5 for Uncle Jian and that slick-haired idiot..."

"The only difference between them and us is that they were killed by the true king Caesar right at the beginning of the instance... Given their character, if there really was a previous reincarnation, they would most likely have died in the same way."

Thinking of this, Fan Xiao asked the hooded girl, "I heard that your Obsidian City faction had three cannibal players killed by Caesar the True King, is that right?"

"It seems you've already inquired about it." The hooded girl nodded.

"What were the numbers on the back of their hands before they were killed?" Fan Xiao continued, "Have you observed them?"

“It’s ’5’,” the hooded girl said, frowning. “That’s what’s puzzling me too.”

“We also have a '5' here.”

Fan Xiao's lips curled up, as if he had already reached a conclusion: "What they have in common is that they were all killed by the true King Caesar."

Perhaps... the number of players will decrease not only due to reincarnation, but also due to being killed by the true king Caesar.

This design... is most likely intended to create differences in the player's numbers in subsequent cycles, forming a subtle hint.

otherwise……

Fan Xiao couldn't see the point of this design.

He then asked the hooded girl, "You just entered the instance and killed the three people who came in with you... You must have a grudge against them, right?"

"..." Hooded girl: "Is this question related to clearing the game?"

“I don’t know,” Fan Xiao replied. “It depends on your answer.”

Upon hearing this, the hooded girl hesitated for a moment before replying, "They don't really have a grudge against me; they're just a bunch of despicable lackeys."

“I heard they were wearing matching uniforms,” Fan Xiao continued, “So… they’re from some organization? And they’re hunting you down?”

"That's it."

"How many of them are there? Well, I mean the group that hunted you down."

"Five. Three of them entered Obsidian City with me, and I thought the other two would be with you, but they didn't come. I don't know if they got caught up in the instance or not..."

The hooded girl frowned.

Fan Xiao grinned.

Everything matches up!

Obsidian City has 15 players, while Silver City only has 13... Junior Sister isn't the type to indiscriminately kill innocents, but she won't hold back against her enemies... That's right, the two players missing on their side are most likely the two enemies Junior Sister still has.

These two guys weren't uninvolved; they were killed by their junior sister in the previous cycle.

Killing players from the opposing faction will inherit their stats—in this cyclical instance, stats are equivalent to the number of times you can reload a save, but you will lose your memory when you reload. Whether this loss is permanent or temporary is currently unknown.

Once you lose all the numbers in your hand, and you die... then you're truly dead.

Game over.

"What are you laughing at?" the hooded girl asked, frowning.

Fan Xiao's smile remained unchanged, and he reminded them, "From beginning to end, the number of players on our side has always been 13, not 15, and there are no people wearing uniforms."

"……What did you say?"

The hooded girl showed a rare look of surprise.

Two people were missing... and the numbers in her hand were more than three times those of the other players... A terrifying guess was born in her mind.

"It seems you have thought of it too."

Fan Xiao concluded directly: "This is very likely a instance with reincarnation rules, and we... have probably already died once."

At this point, he immediately wanted to summon the little angel to inquire about the situation.

The little angel was granted the ability to transcend dimensions by the original sin of pride, so theoretically, the cycle of reincarnation in the dungeon cannot affect her.

But soon, he suddenly remembered a crucial point: "No, if the player wipeout is the condition for starting the reincarnation, then I've already died once. And if I die, Qiqi will definitely die as well."

"We were essentially restarted after death, so it's hard to say whether her memories were preserved."

"Forget it, the theory of reincarnation is almost confirmed now. We can build a plan based on that. There's no need to waste Qiqi's summoning opportunity."

"Moreover... since I died in the last reincarnation, it proves that this instance is... extremely dangerous! It might be the most difficult one among the C-rank instances... I must act more cautiously and cannot use my trump cards casually."

Fan Xiao made a quick decision in his mind.

There's no rush to use the talent.

When it's time to fight, just summon the little angel and ask him casually.

"We...died once?"

The hooded girl's face, obscured by shadows, seemed to reveal a somber atmosphere: "How could a C-rank dungeon be this dangerous?"

"Wow...? Judging from your tone, you seem quite confident in your abilities."

Fan Xiao reminded him, "No one stipulates that the danger in a C-level dungeon must be less than that in a B or A-level dungeon, right? Danger and difficulty are not the same concept."

"As for the difficulty... don't we have multiple opportunities to try and fail? Look at the number in your hand, 20, which represents 20 chances to start over."

"Moreover, starting from the second cycle... that is, starting from this time, the dungeon has begun to give players some subtle hints: abnormal numbers, differences in the number of players, a feeling of déjà vu in hell... I imagine that by the third and fourth cycles, these kinds of hints will become more and more frequent."

"The further you progress, the higher your chances of clearing the game!"

He paused, then shook his head and said, "Of course, the further you go, the more unexpected things will happen. Anyway, I will not leave my fate to my future self in the next cycle of reincarnation."

Although he was surprised by the difficulty of the "Battle of Two Cities" instance, it was not unacceptable.

Since there are C-rank players with extraordinary strength like him in the evolution game, then... why can't there be C-rank dungeons that match him?

The original D-level dungeon "Wangxiang Town" was also very difficult. He relied on the Little Angel to kill enemies while keeping the "6-hour" cooldown timer, and managed to pass it with ease.

Meanwhile, "Wangxiang Town" in the G08 node 001 partition is only rated as one of the most difficult D-level dungeons... well, one of them.

From that moment on, he knew that the game of evolution was vast, full of countless thrills and unknowns.

Therefore, although he was surprised, he was not too surprised.

Higher difficulty means richer dungeon rewards.

This is so difficult... perhaps there will be unexpected gains?

"You... are right."

The hooded girl took a deep breath.

She accepted the fact that even with her A-level psionic abilities, she ultimately died in the dungeon.

Her mental stats were too weak to fully utilize her psionic abilities, so dying in the reincarnation instance... doesn't seem like such a bad thing.

After calming herself down, her expression turned slightly serious: "What do you think the cause of our deaths might be?"

Chapter 427 The Arrogant Junior Sister, the Wise Senior Brother

"We'll discuss the cause of death later."

Faced with the hooded girl's question, Fan Xiao shook his head and reminded her, "Don't forget that we are now in a new cycle. All the information needs to be collected again. If we make a rash judgment before obtaining complete information, we may fall into a trap."

"I'm going to investigate why the True King Caesar and the Demon King Carmen appeared in Longxi Village. What about you?"

"That's exactly what I was just about to do."

The hooded girl accepted Fan Xiao's suggestion and temporarily stopped dwelling on the cause of death.

There is still too little information available, and it is indeed not appropriate to draw conclusions at this time.

So the two left the rainforest and headed towards Longxi Village.

……

Half past six in the evening.

Fan Xiao and the hooded girl traveled through the mountains and forests, heading back towards Longxi Village.

The two have discovered the reason why the two kings appeared in Longxi Village—King Carmen came to pick up his two daughters, while King Caesar, as a close friend, came along to join in the fun.

Starting from Longxi Village, they spread their search outwards along the surrounding area and eventually found the twin daughters in a riverside wooden house. After questioning them, they learned that Carmen's wife had died two years ago and that his revenge had been thwarted by the true King Caesar.

On the way back, the hooded girl seemed a bit down, as if she was in a bad mood.

"King Caesar, you've gone a bit too far."

She murmured something as she hurried along.

Then there was no further news; it fell silent, as if waiting for something.

After waiting a while and seeing that Fan Xiao didn't respond, the atmosphere around her became even colder.

"..."

Fan Xiao finally figured it out... his junior sister was just a proud and aloof person!

She clearly wanted to strike up a conversation, but she wouldn't say it unless someone else took the initiative before she would step down the stairs.

Although he was speechless, he didn't show it and said, "It's just that the era limited our values; there's no right or wrong."

"Judging from your tone, you seem to agree?" The hooded girl frowned.

"It's not about agreement."

Fan Xiao shook his head and said, "This world is relatively backward. I can treat it as history, learn from it and summarize the experience, but I will not ignore the background of the times and arbitrarily judge the right or wrong of a controversial figure."

Before the hooded girl could ask what he meant, he said, "How about this, I'll tell you two more... oh no, I should say one story."

"This time, I'm no longer a high-ranking member of the demon race; I've become a scholar leader in the late period of a dynasty."

"The enemy army has now entered the pass and is unstoppable. The destruction of the country is a foregone conclusion. I have two options before me: one is to lead the surrender to the enemy, which can protect the peace of the people of the city; the other is to follow the example of the virtuous predecessors, drown myself in the river and die for my country, and die for the court. As for what consequences such an act will cause... after I die, what do I care about the flood?"

"One of my wives... well, I was a leader of the literati in ancient times, so having three wives and four concubines was normal, right? Anyway, one of my wives, although she came from a brothel, was very righteous and had a great personality and noble character. She was willing to drown herself with me and even persuaded me to die voluntarily to preserve my honor and never live a life of dishonor in the new dynasty."

“I was very moved, so I planned to jump into the river with her. But when we got to the riverbank, I suddenly chickened out. I reached out and touched the water, said, ‘The water is too cold,’ and decided not to jump. My wife was ashamed and angry, and jumped into the river without thinking, but I managed to save her.”

"And so, I took the lead in surrendering to the enemy. Although my intention was out of fear of death, in fact, I ensured the safety of the people in the city and prevented them from being slaughtered by the enemy."

"In the new dynasty, the court ordered everyone to shave their heads, and the people resisted and disagreed. At this time, as a former literati leader with considerable influence, I... well, that's right, I chickened out again and said 'my scalp itches.' The next day, I shaved my head and grew a queue, setting an example."

"However... although I fear death, I also understand righteousness. In the new dynasty, I became an official, but I did not become an accomplice to evil, nor did I harm others. I felt ashamed and remorseful for not facing death to uphold righteousness, so I secretly risked my life to help various anti-government righteous people for a long time, selling intelligence, distributing money to support them, and trying my best to take care of the remnants of the previous dynasty..."

At this point, Fan Xiao looked at the hooded girl and asked, "Do you think I'm extremely shameless? Do I deserve to be infamous for all time?"

"...He's just an ordinary person who's afraid of death, but he's in a position that's too high, and he's not worthy of it."