Chapter 893: Deceiving the Public
Actually, I felt a bit surprised. Someone like White Sheep would actually be curious about an organization.
Since White Sheep said that Sheep didn't die from gambling his life but from "breaking the rules," that meant there was no premeditation or planning.
They most likely just happened to cause Sheep's death, or there was some uncontrollable little accident in the game that led to Sheep temporarily breaking the rules.
After I shared my thoughts with White Sheep, he offered a different perspective.
He believed Sheep wasn't the type to be careless or easily provoked. Although Sheep's game was set up in a hidden location, that didn't mean its difficulty was low.
After all, Sheep intended for this game to be his ticket to meet with White Sheep. Otherwise, once White Sheep became "Earth-level" and discovered that Sheep had designed a simple, mindless, and remote game, how could he trust Sheep's skill enough to bring him into the team?
So the question was: an "Earth-level" game not only had the hardest-to-control rules of "Sheep," but was also quite difficult and located in a secluded spot.
With all these harsh conditions combined, how could someone suddenly one day cause the referee to break the rules and die... Wasn't that too strange?
White Sheep told me that the perpetrator was likely also trying to deceive the public.
The one who made the move thought that killing such an obscure zodiac would go unnoticed, but they didn't know that Sheep happened to be one of White Sheep's people.
Even if the location was very remote, someone had been keeping an eye on him all along.
White Sheep had never seen Sheep's game, nor had he ever seen anyone who participated in Sheep's game, but he used the known conditions to dissect the entire incident clearly in just a few sentences.
I was far behind.
I agreed to investigate that organization, then went to Ground Snake's place to return the "Higher Plant Illustrated Guide" to her, only to find her hanging herself again.
I had nothing to say, just quietly waited for her to finish hanging.
When the rope suddenly slipped and Ground Snake fell to the ground, she finally noticed me standing there.
"Damned girl..." She was stunned for a moment, then explained while coughing, "Cough... Don't think this is just an ordinary hanging... cough..."
"Oh?" I shrugged. "What's the difference between this time and before?"
"Of course..." Ground Snake stood up, looking proud. "Before, I always hanged myself because I was too sad, but this time..."
"What about this time?"
"This time, I hanged myself because I wanted to hang myself!"
The air froze for a few seconds before I slowly handed the book forward, pushing it into Ground Snake's arms, and said hoarsely, "Thanks for the book. I'm leaving now."
"Hey... no, damned girl... Wait a minute..." Seeing me turn to leave, Ground Snake quickly changed his tune. "Fine, fine... I'll talk properly. There's really a reason this time!"
I shook my head. "I can guess it even if you don't tell me. Probably you couldn't stand other people's sad stories again, so you wanted to commit suicide to relieve your mood."
"Really not!" Ground Snake waved his hands excitedly. "Because this matter is too bizarre. I was afraid if I said it, you'd think I was crazy!"
Oh god, you hang yourself every day, sister. How could I possibly think you weren't crazy?
"Alright... How about you tell me?" I asked.
"Hiss... It's like a supernatural event has occurred. I can't figure it out, and it's been going on for two cycles." Ground Snake scratched his forehead, a fearful expression on his face. "If I'm not hallucinating, then there's a ghost here."
"What do you mean?" I really found it hard to believe that the "Land of the End" could be haunted, because this place was way scarier than ghosts.
Ground Snake leaned in closer and whispered to me, "Damned girl... I killed seven people in the cycle before last, but Ground Dragon told me I only killed five. And last cycle I killed nine people, but Ground Dragon said there were only four..."
"Uh..."
"What does that mean...? Where did those people go?!" Ground Snake looked around cautiously and said very seriously, "Either I'm hallucinating, always seeing people who don't exist... or there really are ghosts... Those people weren't human to begin with, so killing them doesn't count..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ground Snake shivered. "Too scary... Sister... I need to hang myself to ward off evil."
Oh god, the noose hanging by your door all day is already evil enough. I never thought it could be used to ward off evil.
"Uh... Maybe it's not ghosts... maybe it's something else..." I said.
"Something else?" Ground Snake looked at me. "Do you know, sister?"
Yes, I knew, but it was really hard to explain.
"Anyway, you don't need to be scared..." I stood up awkwardly and gave Ground Snake an embarrassed smile. "Maybe those people didn't appear here to participate in your game, but to participate in someone else's game..."
This brief statement left Ground Snake dumbfounded.
"Appearing in my game venue... to participate in someone else's game?" Ground Snake blinked after hearing this. "Are you mentally okay, damned girl? Do you hear what you're saying?"
Yes, if I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't believe it either.
Those people who died in Ground Snake's venue but didn't count as her results were already White Sheep's results.
They died here just to control the "Lamp."
A small lamp could be worth three to five "Daos" at least, or affect "Deposits" and "Lottery" at most.
"Ah... just pretend I'm talking nonsense."
I shook my head. I didn't want to deceive Ground Snake, nor did I want to betray White Sheep, so I said nothing and quickly left Ground Snake's venue.
That day, I walked the path Jiang Ruoxue had walked, spending nearly five hours to reach the other end of the city, but I didn't know Jiang Ruoxue's exact spawn point.
I didn't have any "Karma" on me, so I couldn't move as freely as Jiang Ruoxue. She could always find me, but I couldn't necessarily find her.
All I knew was that she was highly likely to be active in this area, and since she was so outgoing, many people would recognize her. I figured if I asked around, I would find her.
Unfortunately, I met many people who seemed to retain their memories, but none of them recognized Jiang Ruoxue.
I also took the opportunity to inquire about organizations in this area. Sure enough, as White Sheep said, there was a large organization here called "Heaven's Mouth." It had over thirty members, all of whom were "Echo" users. Their base was a hotel, and their leader was called Chu Tianqiu.
If Brother Sheep was right, this Chu Tianqiu was almost certainly the one who killed Sheep.
But was he really that powerful?
At dusk, I stopped a cool-looking girl on the street. She was wearing a leather jacket and had many earrings and lip piercings. For some reason, I felt that this kind of rebellious girl would know Jiang Ruoxue.
"Excuse me... dear," I said with a smile. "I want to ask you something..."
"Tsk!" The girl glanced at me impatiently. "Who's your dear?"
"No..." I felt this girl was a bit strange. "I just wanted to ask about someone."
"Tsk! I don't know!"