Hearing Lu Jiuchuan's question, Tang Ci remained calm: "Do you think people will believe you or me?"
Lu Jiuchuan chuckled, "Your plan is indeed clever. To gain everyone's trust, you're even willing to save Ye Qi and sacrifice Hunter's companions. Once you've gained everyone's trust, you can use your teammates to kill me, then enter the next world with everyone and eliminate the other teammates."
He paused, then said in a low voice, "Unfortunately, you overlooked one thing despite all your careful planning."
Tang Ci calmly asked, "What do you mean?"
Lu Jiuchuan said calmly, "I told Qu Wanyue to go to Crescent Lake in Dunhuang because her name has the character 'moon' in it, making it easier to remember. Hunter read Qu Wanyue's memories using mind-reading and thought that was my code. In fact, what Xiao Tang and I agreed on was not Crescent Lake at all."
Tang Ci nodded: "That's right, the private agreement between Ninth Brother and me wasn't Crescent Lake. He said he would take me to the beach for a vacation."
Lu Jiuchuan raised an eyebrow: "Nonsense, I told Xiao Tang we were going horseback riding on the grasslands."
Teammates: "..."
Since it was a private agreement, no one knew what the secret code between Ninth Brother and Tang Ci was.
Should we believe Lu Jiuchuan or Tang Ci?
No one could guarantee they could make an accurate judgment. Neither Brother Jiu nor Tang Ci appeared to be the same as their teammates, and the consequences of mistakenly killing either of them would be unbearable.
Ye Qi was in a state of confusion, feeling that something was wrong.
Since entering the secret room, he has met Professor Xiao, Captain Yu, and Liu Qiao, called Shao Qingge, and went to see Tang Ci, Senior Gui, and Uncle Mo with Sister Ying. Later, he also met the Longqu Couple...
They never even went to look for Lu Jiuchuan.
Sister Ying said that the current world is the world of December 24th, and Lu Jiuchuan sacrificed himself three years ago. In this world, to find Lu Jiuchuan, one can only visit the martyrs' cemetery to pay respects; it's impossible to find the real Lu Jiuchuan. If Lu Jiuchuan appears, it must be Hunter in disguise.
But now, looking at Lu Jiuchuan with his sharp eyes and playful smile, Ye Qi felt that this Ninth Brother was very real, so real that he didn't seem like Hunter at all...
However, Lu Jiuchuan's appearance in the world on December 24th is indeed illogical, and this is the biggest contradiction.
In contrast, Tang Ci remained consistent throughout, and he even saved Ye Qi at a crucial moment —if he were the Hunter, why would he need to save Ye Qi?
Ye Qi grew increasingly conflicted. He glanced at Long Sen and Qu Wanyue, both of whom wore complicated expressions, clearly undecided as well. He then looked at Senior Gui, who was frowning thoughtfully. Sister Ying was still frozen in place, and with his teammates remaining silent, Ye Qi had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "Mr. Tang is right. Ninth Brother should have sacrificed himself three years ago. How could he be in this world?"
Lu Jiuchuan looked at Ye Qi: "According to this logic, I could never appear in the later worlds because I died three years ago, and time doesn't flow backwards?" He paused, then chuckled: "Little Ye, are you sure that you're in the first world?"
His question caught Ye Qi off guard – the floating window had indicated that the first stage of the relay mission was "the world on December 24th" and required them to survive until January 3rd, so they naturally assumed that the relay mission was carried out sequentially according to time.
But Lu Jiuchuan wasn't wrong either; judging whether Lu Jiuchuan was the real person based solely on time was a completely untenable reason. Because they didn't know whether December 24th was actually the first world.
Seeing Ye Qi's wavering expression, Lu Jiuchuan continued, "The world I'm in is the first one. Three years ago, on July 1st, on a deserted island, I was required to survive for three days. I came to this world after completing the mission, which triggered your mission."
Ye Qi was skeptical: "So, you completed the prerequisite mission in the world three years ago?"
Lu Jiuchuan nodded: "That's right. I could only meet you in the subsequent worlds if I survived the world three years ago. According to the logic of time, the world I am in is the first one, and the world we are in now is the second one."
This is similar to a relay race in an online game, where you need to complete the "prerequisite tasks" to unlock it.
Assuming Lu Jiuchuan's words are true, and he completes the preliminary task, then the survival mission on the deserted island must be extremely dangerous. If he fails to complete it and cannot unlock the relay mission, the other teammates will be eliminated.
Ye Qi looked closely at Lu Jiuchuan and saw that the man was wearing camouflage clothing commonly used for wilderness survival. His tall figure looked even more capable in the clothes. However, there were many mottled bloodstains on the dark green clothes, which blended into the camouflage pattern and were easy to miss if you didn't look carefully.
The appearance of Ninth Brother just now was too unexpected for everyone. No one noticed the bloodstains on his clothes. Now that they looked closely, they found that he had suffered a lot of injuries. His exposed arms also had cuts and scars, and some of the scars were still bleeding. They all looked like fresh wounds.
The wounds on his body and the bloodstains on his clothes perfectly matched the prerequisite task of "surviving on a desert island" that he mentioned. It's easy to imagine how many dangers he encountered in the wild.
Is this person's acting so superb that they even considered the details of the clothes, or is Tang Ci the fake one?
The teammates were all uncertain.
Tang Ci calmly looked at Lu Jiuchuan and said, "Your excuse is ridiculous. How could Guardian let you take on a wilderness survival mission alone? How could you let your success or failure determine the fate of the whole team?"
"You overestimate yourself."
Lu Jiuchuan chuckled, but when he turned to look at Tang Ci, his gaze instantly turned icy: "You've said a lot of nonsense and lies, but only this sentence makes sense—if I fail, all the other teammates will be eliminated, which is really unfair to everyone."
Tang Ci was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.
Could it be that there were other people doing the prerequisite tasks with Lu Jiuchuan?
He seemed to sense something, and his back suddenly stiffened—
Almost reflexively, Tang Ci suddenly dodged to the right. His movements were lightning fast; everyone only saw a black shadow flash before their eyes, and Tang Ci instantly appeared in the distance. However, the person behind him was even faster. A clear "bang" rang out, and a bullet that had traveled from afar struck Tang Ci precisely in the back!
The fact that the bullet could hit a fast-moving person shows just how accurate the opponent's marksmanship was.
Tang Ci dodged quickly enough; the bullet only hit below his shoulder blade and didn't pierce his heart. However, the sharp pain in his back and the large amount of blood spurting out made his face turn deathly pale!
Ye Qi's eyes lit up: "—It's Captain Yu!"
Who else but Yu Hanjiang could have such fast, ruthless, and accurate marksmanship?
Lu Jiuchuan's smile was wicked: "I've been chatting with you for so long, do you really think I wanted to use words to figure out what's real and what's fake? I was just waiting for Hanjiang to reach the sniping point... Imposter, you're not even worth a finger of my Xiao Tang!"
Tang Ci endured the excruciating pain and gritted his teeth, saying, "Aren't you going to do it?"
Gui Yuanzhang, who had been frowning in thought, suddenly flung his calligraphy brush. A gust of wind swept towards them, catching Qu Wanyue and Long Sen off guard. They were instantly blown dozens of meters away by the gust.
There was a tall building right behind me; if I crashed into it, my internal organs would be shattered.
Ye Qi's heart was in his throat. Just as the two were about to crash into the tall building, a white silk ribbon suddenly fell from the sky. Long Sen hurriedly reached out and grabbed the white silk ribbon, while simultaneously grabbing Qu Wanyue with his other hand. The two used the momentum to jump upwards and landed safely on the rooftop.
They saw a familiar figure.
The man who set up the sniper rifle high up was dressed in a police uniform. His face was very serious, and his eyes were calm and sharp. He was hidden in the darkness, like a hunter who was watching his prey with confidence.
Qu Wanyue asked in a trembling voice, " Captain Yu?"
Yu Hanjiang gave a faint "hmm" and said in a low voice, "Step back."
Long Sen and Qu Wanyue were still in shock, but Yu Hanjiang's aura was too powerful, and the two subconsciously listened to him and took a few steps back.
Yu Hanjiang squinted and opened the scope.
On the rooftop across the street, " Tang Ci " and " Gui Yuanzhang " suddenly made their move. Only now did Ye Qi finally realize what was wrong—when he went to the Police Station to find Yu Hanjiang, he had mentioned Lu Jiuchuan, and Captain Yu's expression had been somewhat subtle. Yu Hanjiang neither said he knew Ye Qi nor that he didn't, but simply adopted a "business as business" attitude.
Perhaps Captain Yu was unsure of Ye Qi's authenticity at the time, which is why he didn't acknowledge her directly?
Furthermore, Tang Ci's timing in rescuing Ye Qi in the bathroom was too opportune. Qi Ran was seriously injured, and Chu Huaying and the Longqu Couple had already arrived at the scene. Even if he hadn't rescued Ye Qi, Chu Huaying, with his lightning speed, could have easily rushed into the fire and saved her.
Tang Ci saving Ye Qi was actually just a favor, to make Ye Qi believe that he was genuine.
Moreover, the metal shield that Tang Ci used to save Ye Qi was something Ye Qi had never seen before.
The metal shield resembled Tang Ci's card "Protective Mech," capable of shielding against all external attacks, resistant to both high and low temperatures, essentially an invincible shield. However, upon closer inspection, there were differences. Tang Ci's Protective Mech resembled a humanoid mech from the future, while the shield that saved Ye Qi was shaped like an egg.
Ye Qi initially thought Tang Ci's mecha could transform and didn't think much of it. Now, it seems that these differences in detail are enough to prove that the card didn't belong to Tang Ci at all, but to Hunter!
This Hunter probably only got Tang Ci's drone. A card is used to create an air of mystery.
Old Gui's appearance was also very strange; he and Tang Ci arrived in front of their teammates at the same time, and their explanations were very similar.
One person said, "There's a Hunter in the company who deliberately tricked Chu Huaying and Ye Qi when they came looking for us." Another said, "The housekeeper is a Hunter who poisoned his own food and tricked his teammates who came looking for him." Both said they had dealt with the Hunters around them privately before coming to the restaurant to meet up with their teammates.
But if this claim is true...
Why didn't Hunter simply lure Chu Huaying and Ye Qi into the trap? Why did he trick them into leaving?
The company's hunter could easily lure the two into a trap by saying, "I'll take you to Mr. Tang." Similarly, the hunter at Old Gui's house could lead them to Old Gui and then into a trap. What hunter would use excuses like " Tang Ci is away on a business trip" or " Old Gui is on a speaking tour" to trick Chu Huaying and Ye Qi into leaving?
Isn't this like watching your prey come to you and then driving it away?
How could Hunter be so stupid?
Therefore, what " Tang Ci " and " Gui Yuanzhang " said were both lies.
There are indeed 6 teammates in this world.
The real teammates appeared at the very end— Lu Jiuchuan and Yu Hanjiang!