Chapter 257: If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I would have totally bought it!
After the one-eyed kid twisted the eye of the statue, clouds started gathering in the sky.
Since it was nighttime, it wasn’t very obvious, and not many people noticed at first.
After the one-eyed kid stepped outside, he realized the starry sky was no longer visible, and a chilly wind would blow every now and then.
At this hour, not many people were actually asleep yet—aside from those getting ready for their shift, everyone else was still busy with their own tasks.
A strong flash of lightning streaked across the night sky, like a blade slashing through the void, instantly tearing apart the silence of the night.
Then thunder roared, as if a giant drum was shaking the heavens and the earth, jolting awake everyone who had been feeling a bit drowsy.
After the massive thunderclap, raindrops began to fall in a flurry. The rain hit the dry ground and was instantly absorbed, filling the air with the scent of wet earth and the fresh smell of rain—refreshing and pleasant.
The rain grew heavier, and the wind became more violent.
Raindrops pelted the temple’s rubble, making a crackling sound.
Inside the temple, many people found it strange—why did it suddenly start raining like this without any warning?
The Lone Wolf guy woke up from his sleep, heard the commotion outside, and inwardly sighed, “Wow, it really is just like the big shot predicted.” Then he simply fell back into a deep sleep.
The sound of rain wasn’t going to affect his sleep quality.
The one-eyed kid, who had started all of this, had already gone off to the side to rest.
He was thinking about the “intelligence” that Zhang Yangqing had shared with him.
“Didn’t the Green Team lose one person who got injured? So then, tomorrow I just need to go and make contact with that kid, and get him infected with both the purple and green viruses. That way, he’ll be exposed to three different viruses. If he doesn’t die, it proves he’s an insect humanoid. If he does die, then his sister will be highly suspicious.”
Reaching this line of thinking already proved that the one-eyed kid was now a qualified “clearance player.”
As for how to infect someone with the viruses, breathing was just one of the conditions.
Infection could also happen through blood.
The one-eyed kid could find a way to handle the injured Green Team member’s wound and get some of his blood.
Then he could mix it into water or food and have the boy eat it.
After all, his team was responsible for the food today. He knew exactly which foods the “weird insects” loved to eat.
Other chosen ones didn’t have the bitter orange fruit, so they had to use other food as substitutes.
But the one-eyed kid had plenty of bitter orange fruit, so he could afford to waste some.
Humans couldn’t stomach this stuff, but weird insects and insect humanoids should love it.
The one-eyed kid explained this idea to Zhang Yangqing, who nodded—it could indeed be done that way.
So then, since you already know what to do, you can handle this yourself tomorrow. I won’t get too involved in such small matters.
Isn’t this what cooperation looks like?
Zhang Yangqing provided the resources, and the one-eyed kid carried out the actual plan.
Even now, the one-eyed kid didn’t feel like he had lost anything.
In fact, he was still grateful that Zhang Yangqing trusted him so much and gave him all the good stuff.
Only the audience knew that from the very beginning, he was just the perfect tool for the job.
The truth is, Zhang the Heavenly Master just couldn’t be bothered to do it himself, so he let the kid handle it!
During the storm, the weather turned chilly. Those sleeping in the rooms were fine, since the rooms were small and had proper beds.
But those sleeping on the cold stone floor of the temple definitely felt the cold.
A few people grumbled a bit, laid down some dry grass on the floor, and then lay down.
After all, the temple was large and empty, so even lighting a fire wouldn’t warm it up.
The lucky thing, amid all this bad luck, was that this time the scenario didn’t have some jerk chopping up the doors and windows for firewood like last time.
Otherwise, the wind and rain would have blown right in, and everyone would have gotten sick from the cold.
At this stage, the Lone Wolf sleeping outside was indeed pretty unhappy. Some chosen ones could actually use their emotions to stir up hatred and lay the groundwork for their future actions.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t need to do that. After discussing some details with the one-eyed kid, he simply went to sleep.
The next morning, the rain cleared up, and the sky brightened.
The early morning sunlight broke through the clouds and spilled onto the earth.
The air was filled with a moist, fresh scent—the special fragrance that comes after a rain.
Water dripped from the eaves of the temple, forming little waterfalls.
While the other chosen ones were still sleeping, Zhang Yangqing was already up, checking the condition of the well water.
It wasn’t that Zhang Yangqing was unusually diligent today; it was just that the other chosen ones had been on night duty last night and were still fast asleep.
Zhang Yangqing hadn’t been on duty last night, had gone to bed early, and naturally woke up early.
Today’s tasks were as follows: the Green Group was to find food, the Red Group was to find the passage into the city, and the Purple Group was to observe the surroundings and guard the camp.
What Zhang Yangqing was doing right now fit perfectly with the task he had been assigned.
When he looked down into the well, he saw that it was almost completely filled with rainwater.
But now, in broad daylight, he didn’t see any so-called moon. It just looked like an ordinary well.
The one-eyed kid, following behind him, was also wondering if the well water might be related to the blue and green potions.
So he grabbed the bucket and rope next to the well and tossed them down.
After hearing the bucket hit the water, he waited a moment for it to sink a bit deeper, then pulled the rope up with both hands.
A bucket of well water, carrying a faint medicinal scent, appeared before him.
But then came the problem. This might indeed be a potion, but it didn’t have the color Zhang Yangqing had mentioned.
Would a potion without any color even work?
This question made the one-eyed kid pause and think, as he searched his memories for anything related to the color blue.
Honestly, he was more like a real chosen one than Zhang Yangqing was.
The other chosen ones also woke up one by one and ran into the same problem.
Meanwhile, the superhuman from the Hans Kingdom, Hilde, chose to float his feet off the ground and climbed up a tree to think.
While he was up there thinking, he spotted some blue flowers blooming in the distance—flowers that hadn’t been there yesterday.
It was because of last night’s storm that quite a few of these flowers had bloomed around the temple.
“Could this be a hint from the rules?”
Thinking this, Hilde jumped down from the tree and picked some of the flowers.
Then he tossed them all into the well water. Miraculously, the well water absorbed the blue flowers and turned a pale blue color.
Seeing that this worked, and wanting the blue potion to be even more effective, he went all over the mountainside looking for more of those flowers.
He spent a full hour and a half searching until he had turned the entire well’s water blue.
He was overjoyed, feeling as if he had solved some huge problem.
Because from this, he could deduce that the blue potion and the green potion were meant for “clearing” the level, not for killing the mother insect. Without obtaining them, rushing in recklessly would almost certainly mean certain death.
After pulling up a bucket of water, Hilde found some bottles and filled them up.
He only left after he had filled three bottles to his satisfaction.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t waste much time on this. He just had the one-eyed kid casually pick a few flowers and drop them into the bucket they had already drawn up, and that gave them the blue potion.
In Zhang Yangqing’s view, turning the entire well blue just to get one bucket of water was a complete waste of effort—like something someone with a problem would do.
The rule just said you need to turn the potion blue, so why wouldn’t I just drop the flowers directly into the bucket?
Next came the green potion. The first well had already been dyed blue, so the chosen ones had to go check the second well.
At first, many chosen ones, like Hilde, tried throwing in various green things—weeds, bamboo, green leaves—but nothing happened.
The well water remained transparent with a slight grayish tint.
“How strange. I’ve thrown in every green thing I could find near the temple, so why isn’t there any reaction?”
At this point, many chosen ones were stumped. They just kept looking for green things to toss in and test, since that was the hint from the previous well. Was there really a green thing they hadn’t tried yet?
Here, Zhang Yangqing, seeing the puzzled look on the one-eyed kid’s face, smiled slightly.
He said, “Don’t forget, isn’t there still a green thing lying inside the temple? You could try throwing him in.”
Hearing this, the one-eyed kid suddenly understood.
Oh? Could that really be what it meant?
And indeed, just as Zhang Yangqing had said, there was a patient lying in the temple with a green mark on his neck.
The clue from the previous well—the blue flowers beside it—had indicated that you needed to find something of the same color and throw it in.
If throwing in all the other green things hadn’t worked, then it was pretty much certain that he was the one to throw in.
At this stage, for a superhuman, once they had this idea, it was easy to handle—they could directly go for a kill.
Ordinary chosen ones also had their ways, with a variety of approaches. The most traditional method was poisoning.
This approach had been tried and tested back at the rehabilitation center.
Basically, if you gave someone the wrong medicine, it became poison, and there were plenty of ways to poison someone.
The second method was to follow the rules: when the moon appeared in the well water, you could trick someone with a green mark into going to the well. That way, they would break the rules and be killed by the eerie well.
Which method to choose depended on the chosen one’s own plan.
The one-eyed kid didn’t hesitate for a second. This would kill two birds with one stone anyway.
He still needed some blood from that boy in the house to test whether he was an insect humanoid this morning.
Perfect. He could just take care of both at once.
As for how he’d explain things when the other teams came back later—well, he could say whatever he wanted. He’d just claim that the Lone Wolf had mysteriously wandered off and they couldn’t stop him. He’d make sure to get his story straight with his teammates beforehand.
At this stage, the one-eyed kid was doing most of the heavy lifting. Zhang Yangqing just kept watch nearby.
Basically, he was slacking off and enjoying the easy life. He could really appreciate the joy of winning without having to lift a finger.
If the one-eyed kid made a mistake, Zhang Yangqing would step in a little.
But the kid was efficient and decisive. He put some poison into some of the cooked food.
Then he had the nurse take the poisoned food to the Lone Wolf with the green mark. The Lone Wolf wasn’t suspicious—after all, the nurse had bandaged his wound and checked on him yesterday when he was hurt.
He never imagined these people would try to kill him, and since he was still lying in the temple recovering, he ate the food without a second thought.
In fact, at this point, the nurse didn’t even know the food she gave to the Lone Wolf was poisoned. Zhang Yangqing would explain everything to her later.
Meanwhile, the one-eyed kid himself used a bitter orange fruit laced with two types of viruses to knock on the door of the room where the family of four was staying.
Even though the couple had warned others not to come near, it didn’t matter.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t know what the one-eyed kid saw inside.
But after coming out, the one-eyed kid said, “Not only does he really like eating the bitter orange fruit, but some of his behaviors and habits are also not like a normal person’s. Most importantly, after eating the virus-laced bitter orange fruit, he was completely fine.”
Hearing this, Zhang Yangqing knew for sure that this kid was definitely an insect humanoid.
So, tomorrow’s problem would be to figure out a way to bring the family of four into the city. Once inside, the insect humanoid would naturally try to find the insect nest.
After reporting this, the one-eyed kid still had other things to do—like carrying the body of the Lone Wolf with the green mark and throwing it into the well.
Timing it, the green-marked Lone Wolf should have already fallen ill from the poison.
Before long, the one-eyed kid came back carrying some green potion. It seemed Zhang Yangqing’s guess was correct—they needed the corpse of a green-marked patient to turn the well water green.
And just like that, Zhang Yangqing had obtained everything mentioned in the rules.
This morning, the chosen ones had a ton to do, and they couldn’t be discovered by their teammates.
They spent almost the entire morning rushing just to get everything done.
If you looked at Zhang Yangqing’s screen, you’d see that he didn’t have to do anything himself. He just gave a few pointers here and there, and the one-eyed kid got everything done, even better than the other chosen ones.
Aside from not being able to see the rules, this kid was practically no different from a real chosen one.
Around two in the afternoon, the other teams started coming back one by one.
The chosen ones had already prepared their explanations, and Zhang Yangqing had also told his teammates what to say to respond to the middle-aged uncle’s questions about why a teammate had disappeared.
But something had happened to the other teams, too. The team with the red mark—the family of four’s team—had been tasked with finding the passage into the city today.
They had followed the rough map provided yesterday by the middle-aged uncle’s green team.
The reason they came back so early was because something unexpected had happened.
According to the couple, they had been attacked, and their Lone Wolf teammate had unfortunately died.
The middle-aged uncle expressed his condolences, and the couple also expressed their deep sorrow, taking the blame upon themselves.
Then they exchanged some polite formalities and moved past the matter.
Zhang Yangqing, however, felt something was off. The couple acted very convincingly—it was hard to find any flaw.
But by chance, he noticed a small detail. The little girl seemed very happy when they arrived, almost dancing with joy.
It was only after they got there—or maybe because her parents had told her to behave—that she quieted down a bit. Still, they couldn’t see her expression behind the mask.
Did this look like a family that had been attacked?
Wouldn’t a normal little girl who had been attacked be hiding behind her parents, looking scared?
At the very least, she shouldn’t be acting so joyful, right?
Let’s be honest—she was usually gloomy and didn’t talk much.
This time… maybe she had a happy meal?
If that was the case, then maybe the couple wasn’t normal either, right?
Their identity was still unknown, but Zhang Yangqing had already become wary of them.
As it happened, the team led by the middle-aged uncle had also been attacked by weird insects.
Another Lone Wolf teammate had died in that attack.
Here’s another small detail: Zhang Yangqing noticed that the middle-aged uncle’s son was squatting on the ground, and his eyes seemed to be deliberately avoiding the others. He no longer had the fierce, arrogant look from before.
Zhang Yangqing had a bold guess: they had indeed been attacked.
After all, their clothes were quite messy, and there were scratch marks on their hands.
They were probably cut by sharp branches while running away.
But the problem was the middle-aged uncle’s son.
If they had been attacked and lost a teammate, the son should have been furious.
Given his personality, he would have looked like he was seething with hatred for the weird insects.
So why did he look so guilty instead?
Maybe this kid—or his father—had betrayed their teammate in a desperate situation.
Because there’s a rule: weird insects attack people to eat them. If you give them something to eat, they won’t attack anyone else.
The situation at the time was probably pretty bad, so to survive, the father and son ditched their teammate.
A guy with the middle-aged uncle’s mindset would be completely unfazed—so what if he backstabbed a teammate? No big deal.
But the middle-aged uncle’s son was still young, not mature enough. Having done something like that, he felt guilty in his heart, so he couldn’t look anyone in the eye.
To verify his guess, Zhang Yangqing checked where the last remaining green-marked Lone Wolf was standing. He was indeed quite far away from that father and son.
But since he had also benefited from the situation, he certainly wouldn’t say anything.
Zhang Yangqing guessed that next time, that Lone Wolf wouldn’t be going on any outings with that father-son duo.
Who wouldn’t be afraid of being tossed aside by two people who might betray you at any moment?
He couldn’t take them both on in a fight either.
But since their team’s next task was to stay and guard the camp, it probably wouldn’t be a problem—it shouldn’t scare that Lone Wolf off.
Truth be told, the chosen ones had killed people, and they were worried about how to explain it. But it seemed everyone had secrets on their minds, so no one dared to question anyone else, for fear of being bitten back.
So when the chosen ones casually said that their teammate had just inexplicably left, no one bothered to ask why.
On Zhang Yangqing’s side, it was the nurse, who was acting as their team leader, doing the talking.
The audience found this incredibly convenient—it felt like the scenario world had been designed to give the chosen ones a way out.
At this stage, any chosen one who observed carefully could definitely notice something off.
The father and son were a little suspicious, but not that big of a deal. The family of four, however, was the most suspicious of all.
Three people had died today—all Lone Wolves.
The atmosphere was pretty somber. But in the end, the middle-aged uncle still tried to encourage everyone, telling them not to give up, that they had to carry the hopes of their fallen teammates and move forward together!
Otherwise, they’d be letting down their teammates’ sacrifice!
He said this so honorably and righteously that he seemed like a beacon of light in the darkness, bringing hope to everyone!
Underneath his mask, the green-marked Lone Wolf had a cold, sneering smile, as if to say, “If I hadn’t seen you and your son attacking our teammate with my own eyes, I would have totally bought that crap!”
After that cheesy morale boost, things went back to normal.
The team leaders shared their intel with each other.
The most important thing, of course, was the exploration of the path into the city.
Even though the red-marked team had suffered a loss, they had still managed to explore some of the route.
The husband of the couple made some marks on the map that the middle-aged uncle had drawn—these marked the route they had discovered today.
It seemed both teams were cunning, choosing to back away from the most dangerous spots.
Tomorrow, it would be the purple-marked team’s turn to explore the way into the city—which was the chosen ones’ team.
The middle-aged uncle dropped some hints, saying things like how they hadn’t had enough time last night, and that the red-marked team had run into trouble today, so maybe the purple team could pick up the exploration from the spots they had marked.
That was how he put it, making it sound like there wasn’t any danger.
All he really wanted was to have another team act as cannon fodder, right?
If a chosen one didn’t notice these details, they’d be happily heading out to explore tomorrow.
And that was as far as they got today.
They still hadn’t found the way into the city, so this camp was still their only shelter for now.
Only tonight, some people were definitely going to have trouble sleeping.
