Wu Zhao took a moment to organize his thoughts.
“Then, the specter suddenly vanished! When it appeared again, it was right in front of Big Brother.”
“He was startled and instinctively struck out with a palm.”
“The strange figure collapsed straight to the ground. We found it a bit odd, so we checked closely and realized the person's body was still warm.”
“In other words, that person was still alive just a moment ago, but was struck dead by Big Brother's palm.”
“Right at that moment, my junior brother suddenly vanished!”
Wu Zhao carefully recalled everything that had happened.
Right after Big Brother had struck the unconscious man dead, their junior brother had vanished, even though he had been standing right there just a moment before.
Even if he had run away, Wu Zhao would have noticed.
The only possibility was that he had been carried off by the actual specter. His fate was almost certainly sealed.
There was a ninety-nine percent chance he was dead.
Zhong Cheng asked, “Suddenly vanished? Not run away?”
Wu Zhao shook his head with absolute certainty.
“Yes, vanished!”
“Later, the person who had been struck dead turned into an unsolvable specter and killed Big Brother.”
He omitted the part about Big Brother abandoning him and running away.
“In the end, only I was left.”
Wu Zhao paused here, picking up the meat in his hand to take another bite.
Zhong Cheng thought he was finished, but to his surprise, after swallowing the last bite of meat, Wu Zhao continued.
“To be honest, I thought I was a dead man. After all, the dungeon specter had silently carried off my junior brother, and I was left all alone. There was no reason for the specter to spare me.”
“I ran for my life, but out of nowhere, I felt a sharp, sudden pain at the back of my head and blacked out. It felt exactly as if someone had bashed my head with a rock.”
Hearing this, Zhang Tinglei looked puzzled.
“You... were knocked unconscious by a rock while running away?”
Wu Zhao nodded solemnly.
“Yes, there's no mistake. I was once knocked out by a rock when I was out traveling in the past. I would absolutely never mistake that sensation.”
“I don't know how much time passed, but when I woke up, I found myself in a different place, lying in a patch of weeds that were taller than a man.”
Zhang Tinglei asked, “Let me ask you: where exactly did the three of you encounter the specter? Which direction did you run afterward, and roughly where were you when you were knocked out by the rock?”
Wu Zhao frowned.
In truth, he didn't really remember. It had been pitch-black at the time, after all.
But after some thought, he was still able to point out a few approximate locations.
Zhang Tinglei nodded slowly.
“I see.”
Wu Zhao was somewhat surprised. “Senior, could it be... you were nearby at the time?”
Zhang Tinglei shook his head.
“No, I wasn't.”
“I was still busy hunting down this imperial court General, so I didn't see your encounter with the specter.”
“But that doesn't matter. What matters is what the three of you experienced.”
“According to your description, a freezing aura appeared first, followed by that living player. However, he seemed to be supported by something as he moved forward.”
“In other words, the dungeon specter was right behind that man, holding him up as it approached you.”
“Once you panicked, killed the man, and scattered, the unsolvable specter went after the one who did the deed, while the original specter personally hunted down the other two.”
At this point, Zhang Tinglei chuckled sinisterly.
“It killed your junior brother first, then came after you.”
“As for why you were knocked out by a rock, my guess is that the specter wanted to repeat its trick. Just like how it set up your Big Brother, it wanted to control you to set up someone else.”
“The reason you're alive right now isn't because you're strong, but because you were lucky. The specter chose to kill your junior brother first instead of you.”
“As for why the specter abandoned you...”
Zhang Tinglei assumed an air of calm confidence.
“At the time, I used a certain method to lock onto the specter's location, then pursued and repelled it. You were likely abandoned by the specter along the way.”
Wu Zhao was stunned.
He hadn't expected such events to have transpired while he was unconscious.
“Thank you, Senior, for saving my life!”
This truly was a life-saving grace!
Wu Zhao had previously thought of exchanging his information for the senior's protection, but he hadn't realized his very life had already been saved by him.
He suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.
Zhang Tinglei, perhaps sensing his hesitation, waved his hand dismissively.
“It's fine. You can stay.”
“In three days, I will repel it once more. As for you all... you're lucky to have run into me.”
Hearing this, Wu Zhao finally let out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you for your great kindness, Senior! If I can get out of here alive, I will definitely pledge my allegiance to you!”
Zhang Tinglei nodded, not refusing the offer.
He casually dismissed the two men, and only then did his expression turn solemn.
At this moment, his state of mind was nowhere near as relaxed as his words had suggested.
The specter in this dungeon... possessed an extremely high level of intelligence!
It would knock players unconscious, then manipulate them, disguising them as specters to ambush other players.
“Why would it do that?”
There were far too many possibilities.
Either the specter knew that players possessed means to repel it, so it used the method of manipulating unconscious players to bait out their trump cards.
That way, the specter could strike without reservation, free from the fear of being repelled.
But...
“Is a specter really that intelligent?”
Zhang Tinglei found it hard to believe.
He had been through quite a few dungeons, but he had never—absolutely never—encountered such an intelligent specter.
It was easily on par with some of the cleverest humans!
“No, that's not right.”
“If it just wanted to bait out other players' trump cards, wouldn't it be easier to just use a player's corpse?”
A corpse was dead; disguising it as a specter would be far safer.
At least there was no risk of it being exposed.
But using a living player...
If they ran into someone like him in the Xiantian Rank—no, even someone in the Houtian Rank, even a First-Rate or Second-Rate martial artist—they would easily realize the person was alive.
As for the three martial artists from the Martial Alliance who had been fooled, Zhang Tinglei didn't think much of them.
They were likely just too incompetent.
“Could it be because players' corpses disappear after a while once they are killed? Is that why the specter chose to use living players?”
Was that why the specter had deliberately left a survivor after attacking the three from the Martial Alliance?
Zhang Tinglei turned it over in his mind, feeling that his guess was likely correct.
Yet, he still felt something was off, as if he had missed some crucial detail.
“Where exactly is the catch?”
The specter manipulated living players to bait out other players' trump cards. Once it confirmed they had no means of resistance, it would kill them.
Finally, it would leave one survivor, then use that survivor to attack other players and bait out their trump cards... repeating the cycle until all players were wiped out.
Such a design was indeed perfect.
“No, it only looks perfect on the surface.”
He was certain he had missed something.
“A player killed by another player... triggers the creation of an unsolvable specter, which relentlessly hunts down the killer until they are dead...”
“An unsolvable specter... an unsolvable specter?”
As Zhang Tinglei recalled the unsolvable specter he had seen earlier, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.
That was it!
That was the key!
If the specter wanted to trick players into using their trump cards, using corpses would have been the best method. Using living people carried a very high risk of being discovered.
Yet, the specter had still done so.
There was only one reason for this!
“The specter in this dungeon is deliberately creating unsolvable specters while hunting down players!”
Rate on N.U.
