Wang Luoshan spoke up and asked, “Young friend An Lin, is there anything else we need to watch out for besides this?”
Zuo Lin'an shot him a highly peculiar look.
“You don't have food or water, yet you don't seem anxious at all. You don't even care that we're surrounded. Instead, you're asking me what else to watch out for. Could it be that you have a way to escape?”
At these words, everyone froze.
Wang Luoshan secretly cursed his own carelessness.
Dungeon natives were by no means fools, especially this one.
He was supposedly a loser in a power struggle within some grand organization or clan, which meant he was a clever person who had simply made one wrong move and lost everything.
Therefore, they absolutely could not treat him the way they had treated ordinary natives in the past.
Wang Luoshan explained, “We merely wish to learn more about this place. After all, we have never heard of it before.”
His explanation was reasonable, though it felt a bit forced if one overthought it. Fortunately, Zuo Lin'an did not seem like the type to pry.
“This place...”
He paused momentarily before continuing.
It wasn't on purpose.
He was simply taking a moment to think about how to spin his lies to gain these players' trust.
“I don't know the exact details either.”
“I only know that of all the people thrown in here, not a single one has ever made it out alive. And when others came in later to search for their bodies, they could only find mangled flesh and shattered bones.”
“It didn't look like they slaughtered each other, but as for what exactly happened, no one dared to investigate any deeper.”
At this point, he let out a cold laugh.
“In the past, I also threw my opponents in here. They would disappear on their own after a couple of days, and I never paid it any mind back then.”
“But... it seems I'll be experiencing it firsthand now.”
At that moment, Wang Luoshan and the others couldn't help but think of the dead player they had just seen.
Flayed, dismembered, and torn to shreds!
That bloody, gruesome scene lingered vividly in their minds.
Right then, Yao Qianhe discreetly glanced at his wife beside him.
Lin Deshuang blinked and nodded twice at him.
Seeing this, Yao Qianhe's expression softened slightly.
Although martial artists like Wang Luoshan caught this interaction, they chose to remain silent.
They assumed Zuo Lin'an hadn't noticed, but in reality, he possessed a God's-eye view and had been monitoring every move of all the players since the start of the dungeon.
He had witnessed the interaction between Yao Qianhe and his wife, though he didn't know what it meant.
In truth, this was because Lin Deshuang possessed the common talent 【Lie Detection】.
She could detect lies three times a day.
Her nodding twice meant she had used her talent twice to verify two of the statements Zuo Lin'an had just made.
The results indicated that both were true, hence the two nods.
Had one been true and the other false, she would have nodded once and then shaken her head.
Since 【Lie Detection】 was only a common talent, each use could only verify the truth of a single sentence.
As for which two sentences Lin Deshuang had verified...
The first was Zuo Lin'an's description of this place—that it was the Withered Forest and Barren Mountains, devoid of life, lacking food and water, and impossible to leave.
The second was his claim that once anyone entered this place, they could never leave alive and would meet a gruesome end.
If Zuo Lin'an knew about this, he would have surely felt incredibly lucky.
Because that had been a very close call.
After all, aside from those two sentences, almost everything else he had said was laced with lies to some degree.
As for the second sentence Lin Deshuang verified...
How should one put it? It was simply her bad luck.
After all, the only people who had ever entered this dungeon, aside from the players, were Zuo Lin'an himself, Xu Youyou, and the deputy group owner, Fanxing, who had visited previously.
All twenty players were dead.
And the three of them... could no longer be considered truly living.
Thus, the statement that no one who came here had ever left alive was indeed a true statement.
Zuo Lin'an had no idea that despite weaving so many lies into his speech, Lin Deshuang had managed to pick out the only two true sentences with such absolute precision.
Having received confirmation from Lin Deshuang, Yao Qianhe believed that this native, An Lin, was fundamentally trustworthy, and thus assumed everything he had said was entirely true.
As for Zuo Lin'an, he remained silent after delivering his speech.
Right now, his mind was on Yuan Shan, who had been crippled by Wang Luoshan's strikes and was currently unable to move.
What was his nickname again?
Something like... Heart-Gouging Tiger?
One could tell from the name alone that he was no good. Perhaps he should finish off Yuan Shan first.
But in the next instant, Zuo Lin'an dismissed the idea.
For no other reason than the fact that the current Yuan Shan was simply too easy to kill! Precisely because he posed absolutely no threat, he should be saved for last.
Furthermore, Yuan Shan's current state could be considered being left alone.
If he killed Yuan Shan first, wouldn't the other players immediately assume that he would target isolated players first?
If that happened, the likelihood of them acting individually would drastically decrease.
Zuo Lin'an closed eyes, pondering his next move.
Since he couldn't think of a good plan for the moment, he decided to stay put and see if these people would discuss their talents and specter items.
Normally, when players discussed talents, specter items, the dungeon, or players, the system would automatically filter out many of these keywords from the NPCs' perception without the players realizing it.
However, this restriction had no effect on a dungeon boss.
So if these players dared to discuss such topics in front of him...
He would not hesitate to take advantage of it.
Yao Qianhe scanned their surroundings, then suddenly turned to look at Lin Deshuang.
The husband and wife exchanged a look.
Before long, Lin Deshuang understood what he meant.
Specter items.
She knew Yao Qianhe wanted to find a specter item, but given how vast this dungeon was, and that the main quest was simply survival time without any clear pointers, finding one would be difficult.
To locate a specter item, they might have to search the entire area, which was highly unrealistic. Moreover, neither of them knew martial arts.
Furthermore...
The placement of specter items followed certain patterns; the system would never leave players to search aimlessly.
Currently, the only person they could ask was the native standing right before them.
Yao Qianhe knew that he and his wife might not be able to obtain the specter item in this dungeon, but even so, they had no intention of giving up just yet.
Even if they couldn't get it, they couldn't let Evil Blade Wu Yuan get his hands on it either.
If they could help Wang Luoshan obtain it, this Lord Wang would likely offer the couple some protection.
With this in mind, he struck up another conversation.
“Young Master An Lin, is there any place nearby where we can shelter from the wind and rain?”
“My wife has been physically frail since childhood. She cannot bear the wind or the cold.”
Generally speaking, specter items were hidden inside buildings or other special locations.
A barren, withered forest like this, stretching as far as the eye could see, had a ninety-nine percent chance of not containing any specter items.
Zuo Lin'an shook his head.
“No. How could there be any houses here?”
“Everyone thrown into this place is meant to die. Who would waste time and effort building houses here?”
There were indeed no houses within the dungeon boundaries.
However, there was one at the very outer edge—but that was his home.
Rate on N.U.
