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

Of course, this superficial judgment is not entirely accurate.

If a person lies frequently and it becomes a habit, they can lie without blushing or panting, and no one can completely discern the truth from the falsehood.

Ghost Queen... Mountain Spirit...

The "Mountain Spirits" likely refers to the monsters that cannibalize players encounter in the mist.

After an earthquake, the mountain spirits emerged from the mountains and began to wreak havoc on the land.

Just then, the Ghost Goddess appeared and helped the villagers overcome their difficulties.

From the perspective of folklore alone, this story seems to have no problems.

However... if we take this story as true history and add a layer of conspiracy theory, then the timing of the Ghost Queen's appearance is a bit too coincidental.

It's similar to the concept of "raising a bandit to enhance one's own power."

After a moment's thought, Fan Xiao temporarily reined in his wandering thoughts.

The possible hidden meanings in the legends are not their current focus of exploration.

We need to quickly find out what the village's rules are in order to solve this urgent problem.

With this in mind, Fan Xiao decided to give Owen and the others the order to split up and act separately.

Splitting up is a brainless act in horror movies. Screenwriters with poor brains often use this anti-human design in order to show suspense and danger. Now, he is going to reverse this design and step on all the pitfalls and landmines in Red Village.

As for whether Owen and the others will be in danger... well, Fan Xiao has always believed in one principle—those who kill will be killed in return!

He would naturally show no mercy to those who had tried to kill him.

If he were weak, his fate would be far worse than that of Owen and the others.

"Alas, I was too kind. I was willing to spare their lives after only receiving a small amount of money."

Fan Xiao felt a surge of self-pity.

If Owen and his seven companions survive this exploration, he will forgive and forget about their past grievances.

Just as he was about to give the order...

Suddenly, Owen emerged from the Red Village, stood at the entrance, and waved at him.

It seemed to be gesturing for him and You Guo to follow.

The three of them, You Guo and his companions, immediately became dazed and took a step forward.

Fan Xiao's pupils also became somewhat unfocused, and his consciousness fell into a half-dreaming, half-awake state, very confused.

Fortunately, his mental strength, which is close to that of an A-level player, makes his mental resistance much higher than that of other C-level players.

He barely managed to maintain a sliver of consciousness, and before the little angel could jump out to protect him, he manipulated the crimson cloak on his body to fly out, landing on the ground and unfolding a small sea of ​​blood.

A large amount of distorted pollution suddenly rose from the sea of ​​blood. The quantitative change led to the qualitative change. The dense distorted power gathered together, transcending the medium, and stirred up a small storm of chaotic will out of thin air, slightly dispersing the mental interference that had been imposed.

Fan Xiao's eyes regained their clarity.

Seeing the fake Owen at the village entrance, he did not immediately retaliate. Instead, he surrounded himself with blood and pretended to follow behind You Guo and his two companions.

"What the hell? They're even luring people into the village by force?"

Upon closer inspection, Fan Xiao discovered that the fake Owen was exactly the same as the real Owen in appearance.

Now, he is enveloped in the "storm of chaotic will," and with his own mental strength, he has barely escaped the mental interference—in other words, the Owen in front of him is not some kind of mental illusion, but a physical figure.

Is there a monster in Red Village that can transform into other people's appearances?

Soon, he followed the fake Owen into the Red Village.

The fake Owen vanished instantly.

However, the mental interference suffered by You Guo and his two companions did not end, and they continued to walk deeper into the Red Village.

"Why did you get in?"

A questioning voice brought the three of them back to their senses.

All they could see were Owen and his seven companions standing in front, casting strange glances at Fan Xiao and the others.

Instead of letting us split up to investigate, he came in himself... Owen felt a bit conflicted.

This guy... doesn't seem to be particularly bad?

"We... are mental interventionists!"

You Guo's face was grim as he said, "We just encountered..."

He recounted the incident, still shaken.

This village is so eerie!

"Uh……"

Owen glanced at Vanshaw and silently retracted his previous thought.

Damn it! I'm just being delusional.

Fan Xiao gave Owen a strange look, wondering if the guy was suffering from some kind of Stockholm syndrome.

"What do we do now?"

Canglang looked at Fan Xiao and asked, "The game warning said there are rules in our village, but the villagers say there aren't... Are the villagers lying?"

Although she felt angry at Fan Xiao, she had already witnessed his strength firsthand.

As a teammate and captain, this guy was very reliable, and she subconsciously wanted to ask for his opinion.

Unbeknownst to them, Fan Xiao, who had given everyone a good beating, had become the leader that everyone subconsciously wanted to gravitate towards.

Fan Xiao replied, "I don't know if the old man was lying or not, but I do know that we need to find a black umbrella to carry with us as soon as possible."

"Uh... Black Umbrella?"

Upon hearing this, Owen immediately recalled this detail.

Indeed... it seems that every villager carries a black umbrella.

"It's pointless to discuss whether the villagers lied or not at the moment."

Fan Xiao continued, "Even if the villagers here are all honest, they may still say some misleading things to us due to their limited understanding."

"Don't just listen to what they say, you have to see what they do. We can imitate them. The black umbrella is one of their common features."

"Of course, we still need to gather intelligence."

"Where can we find the black umbrella?" Canglang asked.

“That black umbrella is a paper umbrella; those things break very easily,” Fan Xiao said. “Got it?”

"What?" Canglang was taken aback.

"Heh, those cannibalistic players are brainless! They can't even understand this."

After habitually showing off his superiority and making a disdainful remark, Owen explained on behalf of Fan Xiao: "Essential items that are prone to breakage should naturally be stocked up as a substitute for when urgently needed."

"If carrying a black umbrella is a village rule, then you must be careful not to violate it. What if the black umbrella gets damaged?"

"Hmph, these villagers must have spares at home, we can just steal some."

"How can you talk like that? This is a player's business, can you call it stealing?" Fan Xiao corrected, "The items in the dungeon aren't of any use to us, we're just borrowing them temporarily."

“Yes, you’re right,” Owen immediately replied.

"..."

Fan Xiao was speechless.

How did this superior dog turn into a simp?

He temporarily put aside his disdain and got down to business, saying, "Let's split up and gather information about the Black Umbrella. Moving together is too inefficient. If carrying the Black Umbrella is indeed part of the rules, we'll be in danger at any time if we don't quickly fill this gap in our 'common knowledge among the Red Village people'."

"By the way, when you're gathering intelligence, remember to ask about the Ghost Queen in detail."

"Ghost Queen..." You Guo asked, "Brother Fan, what have you discovered?"

"It feels like Her appearance was too coincidental... As a background character related to dangers like the Mountain Spirit, the Ghost Queen might hold clues to clearing the level."

Fan Xiao was generous with his information, recounting the "fog incident" encountered by the cannibalistic players.

After hearing his words, Canglang's face turned so gloomy it could drip water.

This guy... really does have surveillance methods!

She didn't say anything, but the other party knew everything... That bastard, he really was setting a trap for them before.

If we weren't outmatched...

"Don't make that face, little wolf."

Fan Xiao suddenly looked at Cang Lang and smiled, "The plan to escape in the opposite direction is still worth trying. Although you failed, I still don't doubt its feasibility. If I have the opportunity later, I will try it myself."

"There's no way out of the fog! Besides the monster threat lurking inside, the fog itself is like a maze!"

Canglang wanted to sneer and mock, but remembering that Fan Xiao was an extremely ruthless person, he quickly stopped his instinctive impulse and said in a normal tone, "This plan is completely unworkable. I advise you not to waste your time."

"No, if it doesn't work, it's a problem with your capabilities, not a problem with the plan."

Fan Xiao's tone was a bit mysterious.

He wasn't afraid of the mist monster.

As for being trapped in a maze... if it's just a simple mental interference, you can easily fly out by simply leaving the movement to the little angel.

The little angels are unaffected by these fancy interferences.

If it's a spatial-level maze... then that's a bit troublesome.

Fan Xiao's desire to try new things is quite strong.

Of course, the current danger situation is still unclear, and the little angel has a three-hour cooldown period, so he cannot test this cheating scheme now.

"Okay, it's time for us to act."

Fan Xiao glanced at the time on the player panel and then said, "By the way, let me remind you of something else, which may be very important or not."

"what?"

The wolf was somewhat disgusted by the way the riddle-maker spoke.

Like I said, if we weren't outmatched...

"The people in this village are very likely all ghosts!"

Fan Xiao dropped a bombshell with a single sentence.

"..." Canglang: "What do you mean...?"

“Literally,” Fan Xiao pointed to a villager walking in the distance and said, “Look at the ground, none of the people here have shadows.”

"!?"

Looking from afar, Canglang and the others confirmed that it was indeed the case.

The villagers here don't even cast shadows!

And this isn't an isolated case; it happens to everyone.

Why didn't they notice such an obvious anomaly before?

This is not normal...

“Oh, by the way,” Fan Xiao continued, “we don’t have any either.”

Chapter 536 They're All Ghosts

The absence of a shadow is a clear anomaly. Even if they might not notice this detail at first due to distraction, they are all C-level players and have basic observation skills. It's impossible that they wouldn't notice it for so long.

However, the truth is that if Fan Xiao hadn't reminded them, they would still be ignoring the anomaly in the shadows.

It's like there's a layer of fog over the level of consciousness.

"Could it be psychological interference? Have we been subjected to a cognitive impairment?"

You Guo looked at his "empty" feet, his expression slightly uneasy.

Without a shadow... I wonder if something will go wrong?