Aren't I the player tasked with investigating and resolving anomalous incidents?
Aren't you the NPC responsible for providing me with clues and occasionally helping me?
Why does it feel like our roles are reversed now?
Could this NPC's trait be a "heart of justice"?
After recovering from her shock, Xie Lai knew it was time to state her stance. Otherwise, the NPC might exclude her "for her own good."
That wouldn't do; her instance evaluation would never improve that way.
“Sister Bai, what are you saying?”
“If I were really scared, I would have just pretended I saw nothing. Since I told you about this letter, I never planned on staying out of it.”
“I'm definitely participating the whole way. Sister Bai, don't think about leaving me behind. You have to count me in as your partner in justice!”
Watching Xie Lai's fired-up expression, Bai Ci chuckled softly.
“You're the true partner in justice. I only have my own selfish reasons to get to the bottom of this.”
“Xie Lai, listen to me. You must stay vigilant around everyone else in the team now. If one day you sense something off about me, don't dismiss it as a mere illusion. When that time comes, you must distance yourself from me.”
“Actually, scratch that. When that time comes, you need to run—the further, the better.”
Bai Ci's words left Xie Lai completely baffled.
How did the topic jump to this? Why did she suddenly lose track of the conversation? She hadn't even bent down to pick up a pen!
No riddle-mongering allowed here!
“Sister Bai, what do you mean by that?” Unable to figure it out, Xie Lai simply asked directly.
“Xie Lai, I suspect... Sang Lan is no longer Sang Lan.” A look of sadness mixed with determination appeared on Bai Ci's face.
“I want to uncover the whole truth and find the real him. Even if I can't save him anymore, at the very least, I don't want his remains to be lost in this place.”
Something had happened to Sang Lan?
Xie Lai was caught off guard and shocked once again.
When did this happen?
She instinctively began retracing their entire itinerary since entering the village.
From the moment they entered the instance until now, in these past three days, the team had acted collectively almost the entire time. There was barely any opportunity for anyone to be alone.
If she had to nitpick, the only time was when they were moving props in and out of the utility room. Since everyone carried different items, their round trips naturally wouldn't align perfectly.
Only during those fragmented moments did anyone slip out of everyone else's sight.
While Xie Lai complained internally about whether the timeline really had to be parsed so minutely, she also had the typical detached, snarky mindset of a player.
Sure enough, the most classic trope of unlimited flow instances was always that a couple would either have one of them turn out to be the werewolf, or one of them would inevitably die.
She raised her hand and gently patted Bai Ci's shoulder with a solemn expression.
She comforted her in her heart: Sister, it's not your fault. That's just how it is when you're in a couple. If Sang Lan hadn't been the one to meet with disaster this time, it would have been you.
Of course, Xie Lai didn't utter a single word of these blunt and bizarre inner thoughts.
Instead, she pressed for more details: “Sister Bai, can you be sure roughly when he was targeted and replaced?”
Bai Ci cast her eyes down, as if speaking of this made her slide into sadness. “It was yesterday afternoon. After he went back to the Red Church to retrieve the charging equipment, I noticed something was off about him.”
“Yesterday, Sang Lan wore my lipstick. The texture of that lipstick makes it smudge very easily.”
“Yet, when he came out of the church, his lip color was exactly the same as when he had the lipstick on, but there was no sign of any smudging. That is ironclad proof.”
“Besides that, it's not exactly evidence, but my intuition tells me his core has changed.”
“Going back yesterday afternoon...” Xie Lai suddenly realized something, her eyes widening.
“When Brother Sang went back to grab his things yesterday, didn't Wang Dong volunteer to go into the church with him?”
“Since they went together and Brother Sang was replaced, doesn't that mean Wang Dong was also...”
Bai Ci shook her head gently, refusing to jump to conclusions. “Wang Dong mentioned that after they went inside, they split up for a while to look for the bag containing the equipment batteries.”
“I don't interact with Wang Dong much on normal days. Based on my limited understanding of him as a mere coworker, I can't make a definitive judgment.”
“But Sang Lan is different. He's my boyfriend. That thing can copy his appearance, memories, and speech, but it can't copy the subconscious habits that Sang Lan himself never even noticed.”
Xie Lai accepted this explanation easily. Ah, the power of true love. Having watched so many TV dramas and read so many novels, she understood this trope all too well.
She immediately slapped her thigh, her expression turning urgent. “Then we have to hurry with our investigation! The longer we drag this out, the more danger the real Brother Sang will be in.”
Of course, her words were also intended to boost the NPC's motivation.
Although this NPC's initiative to investigate was already incredibly high, it didn't hurt to add some fuel to the fire and make it burn even hotter.
Bai Ci nodded. She fell into deep thought for a moment, mapping out the team's schedule in her head.
Then, she spoke with clear logic: “According to the work schedule, tomorrow we're supposed to go to town for supplies. Not everyone needs to go for that; some people can rest.”
“Once we return in the afternoon, we'll formally begin setting up the venue. The day after tomorrow will also be for setting up, plus the dress rehearsal.”
“In other words, excluding collective work hours, the only times we can act freely and investigate the truth in secret are tomorrow morning and... right now.”
Xie Lai's eyes lit up. She instinctively straightened her back and blurted out excitedly, “Then I'll go with—”
She cut herself off mid-sentence. Just as she tried to stand up, a dull ache flared in her ankle.
The pain immediately dragged her back to reality, reminding her of a cruel fact.
She had forgotten that her ankle was sprained. She was already slow and limping just trying to walk, much less running or jumping.
If she followed Bai Ci out to investigate like this, she would only slow down the pace, become a burden, and hold back Bai Ci's progress.
Bai Ci saw through her embarrassment at a glance. After all, Xie Lai hadn't tried to hide it, and her acting skills weren't good enough to cover it up anyway.
“You don't need to come with me,” Bai Ci comforted her gently.
“First, your ankle injury hasn't healed yet. The paths in the village are rugged and overgrown with weeds. It's not just inconvenient for you to move around; going out makes it very easy to suffer a secondary injury and worsen your condition.”
“Second, the team leader has specifically assigned you to stay behind, organize the ledgers, and write the inventory report.”
“If you show absolutely no work results or progress after a whole afternoon, what will you say you were doing with your time?”
“The team leader has been to this village three times, so he's no pushover. If you exhibit any abnormal behavior, he'll definitely get suspicious, right?”
Having her concerns laid bare, Xie Lai immediately patted her chest reassuringly. “Don't worry about that, Sister Bai. I can handle the ledger copying and document organization.”
“I'm just a recently hired intern. Even if my writing is rusty and the report is full of holes and a complete mess, that's perfectly normal.”
“As for why I still wrote it so poorly even with your guidance...”
“Well, 'the master leads you to the door, but the practice is up to the individual.'”
“Besides, no matter how good a teacher is, they can't just ignore a student's actual skill level and suddenly make their work look spectacular in the blink of an eye.”
“Even riding a rocket wouldn't be that fast.”
Rate on N.U.
