Chapter 223 | The Alliance Hired Me to Play Final Boss

Player 2, the Peeper, looked somewhat pale. His eyes, which usually flickered with a shrewd light, were now heavily bloodshot.

He pushed up his glasses, his voice raspy and tinged with an irrepressible dejection.

"Everyone, I have to admit, my luck yesterday was abysmal. The Locksmith locked himself, and the Anomaly happened to choose the target that could be sacrificed."

He gave a bitter laugh, his expression carrying a trace of indifference as if he had seen through life and death. "But it doesn't matter anymore. In this situation, I didn't expect to survive today anyway."

"The cards are on the table now. Since the deceased Player 10 wasn't an Anomaly, the last one remaining is either Player 6 or Player 11."

He waved his hand tiredly, as if trying to disperse the thick darkness before him. "There's nothing left to say. That's it. Pass."

As Player 2 extinguished his candle, the flickering flame suddenly jumped in front of Ren Yi.

Ren Yi slowly stood up, his movements as elegant as if he were adjusting the cufflinks of a suit.

He first turned his head to look at Zhang Qiuqiu. The "class monitor" remained as calm as an iceberg. Then, he looked at Player 6.

Player 6 was currently in an extremely tense state. She didn't even spare a glance for Ren Yi; her aggressive eyes were locked onto Zhang Qiuqiu, as if she wanted to peel the other woman's skin off.

Ren Yi remained silent for a moment, a playful smile hanging at the corners of his mouth. "I agree with Player 2. There's not much to say. Once this round of speaking ends, it will basically be time to decide life and death. It's just..."

He paused, his gaze drifting between the two women, his tone becoming somewhat teasing.

"Why does this scene feel so familiar to me?"

"That day when we were finding clues on the second floor together, you two seemed to be just like this, staring at each other like a pair of fighting cocks."

"I remember at the time, in order to find people, I had to leave for a while, leaving the two of you there to supervise each other."

"Looking back now, did anything really happen between you two during the time I was away? That smell of gunpowder in your eyes doesn't look like it just started burning."

Ren Yi's words were like a depth charge dropped into ice water.

In truth, he knew perfectly well that Zhang Qiuqiu certainly hadn't let any leverage fall into the other's hands; otherwise, she would have told him in the Anomaly Web long ago.

But that didn't stop him from lying through his teeth now, intentionally creating this subtle chain of suspicion.

"I've said what I needed to say. As for my leaning... I don't have a leaning yet. In the end, it will depend on the 'clash of titans' between you two."

He bowed slightly, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the two women, his tone becoming light yet dangerous.

"Alright, ladies. Forget about me. Go ahead and tear each other apart."

With that, Ren Yi reached out and precisely pinched out the candle in front of him.

In the darkness, the flame in front of Player 6 instantly flared up.

She snapped to her feet, her voice carrying a sharp tremor of rage.

"Player 11 definitely has a problem! Don't let her victim act fool you!"

"I admit she was good on the first day—or rather, she wasn't 'her' yet."

"But precisely because she was good, she was chosen as the target for Possession. It makes perfect sense!"

"The Anomaly needs a shell with a clean identity that has already earned everyone's trust. Is there any better choice than her?"

Player 6 pointed across the long table, her tone aggressive. "As for the rest, I will prove that I am a good person."

"Look at this fireplace! Look at the rubble all over the floor! Yesterday, the Anomaly risked being discovered to destroy this place, which shows they were guilty. They were afraid of those words!"

"If I were the Anomaly and I was the one who found the clue, why would I make it public?"

"I could have wiped it out the moment I climbed up there. Why would I call you all to see it?"

"This is enough to prove I must be a good person! The one who destroyed the fireplace was the Anomaly, and the one who found the clue was me. Isn't the logic clear?"

Player 6 finished her speech, and the candle flame traced an arc across the table, stopping in front of Zhang Qiuqiu.

Zhang Qiuqiu didn't speak immediately. She just quietly looked at the panting Player 6 across from her. After a long while, she let out a contemptuous, low chuckle.

"You're panicking, Anomaly."

Zhang Qiuqiu's voice wasn't loud, yet it carried a chilling composure.

She tilted her chin up slightly, revealing a confident, cold smirk.

"Since yesterday, you've been acting more agitated than anyone else, as if you can't wait to strangle me with your own hands right now."

"Are you so desperate to point the finger at me because you're afraid people won't notice your own slips?"

"The suspicion against me mainly comes from Player 5's previous reverse-logic doubts."

"But the fact that Player 12 was the Anomaly has already been confirmed after our repeated discussions."

"So those so-called 'foundations for suspicion' you're talking about are nothing more than baseless sandbox simulations with no ground to stand on."

Zhang Qiuqiu elegantly crossed her hands, her gaze suddenly becoming sharp.

"Furthermore, you might not have realized that your so-called 'self-justification' just now actually further confirmed the suspicion against you."

"Talking so much... you really know how to take all the credit for yourself."

"If we're really going to talk about it, the person who was acting all sneaky and climbed up that fireplace alone multiple times was you!"

"When we first looked for clues, it was a collective effort. Player 2 had to step on so many people's shoulders and used so much strength just to barely get up there."

"Yet you climbed up that three-meter-high fireplace all by yourself several times."

"I just want to ask, what were you after? Are you part gecko, or do you have a guilty conscience?"

"Don't compare me to yourself. Back then, I specifically compared clues with Player 3 and we moved together. We supervised each other and checked together. But what about you?"