Li Ang raised his right hand; in the center of his palm lay a square green electronic chip asuring five centiters on each side.
[Na: Mastiff-style Anti-Theft Tracking Chip]
[Type: Portable Prop]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Special Effect: Anti-theft tracking. It can be linked with up to three pieces of the user's own equipnt or props. When an equipnt piece or prop is a certain distance away from the chip, the user can activate the chip to teleport to the linked item's location.]
[Consumption: The Spirit Energy Value consud is directly proportional to the teleportation distance and the strength of the user's life essence.]
[Cooldown Ti: 24 hours]
[Equipnt Conditions: Intelligence Attribute must be equal to or higher than 13 points.]
[Remark: Current Linkage—rcury Blood Amber]
[Remark: Cannot be used within 5 seconds of making or receiving an attack.]
[Remark: This chip is compatible with the Future Tech Irresponsible Limited Company's 8848 Titanium Gold Phone. The 8848 Titanium Gold Phone, an exclusive one-to-one secret key, will automatically explode if the user and phone are separated by more than ten ters, leaving phone thieves no chance to escape.]
The red-clothed old woman could not see the item description for the [Mastiff-style Anti-Theft Tracking Chip] (Li Ang had not chosen to make it public), but that did not prevent her from guessing what had happened.
In the Killing Ga's rules, most equipnt and props had a hidden binding attribute. Equipnt on a player belonged to them; even if others snatched it during normal tis or combat, they could not use its special effects. (This rule was primarily to prevent high-level players from plundering resources from lower-level players.) The hidden binding attribute would only be lifted, allowing normal use, after the player died or made a voluntary, equal trade.
Furthermore, after a player's death, the equipnt and props they carried would beco ownerless and could be picked up. However, the items in their inventory would disappear from the world directly and not be dropped as in web-based monster-slaying gas (this was also to prevent imbalances due to level differences).
The red-clothed old woman, having eaten both the rcury Blood Amber and 13MARK, understood. 13MARK had anticipated his own death and stowed away his equipnt so as not to leave anything for her. At the sa ti, he had left the most easily hidden and critical prop to his player companion who ca to provide support.
"..."
Black, snowflake-shaped Evil Qi danced around the red-clothed old woman, racing against ti to heal her injuries.
The chip in Dragon Head White Lab Coat's hand, which can teleport him near the rcury Blood Amber, is probably not bound to my own rcury Doll. As the item's owner, I should be able to see if my own equipnt is bound.
The red-clothed old woman's gaze slowly shifted down to Li Ang's feet. There, a small, oval-shaped liquid substance resembling silver sli was slowly moving towards her.
Another portion... of rcury Blood Amber.
rcury Blood Amber could be divided and split multiple tis, creating different entities. However, only a piece of blood amber constituting more than 80% of the total volu could activate the clone Special Effect and obtain skills and equipnt from the user.
Apart from that, the blood amber fragnts also possessed the ability to coalesce. Smaller fragnts, if left unattended for a period, would actively move towards larger pieces.
Last night, 13MARK must have hidden an additional smaller portion of rcury Blood Amber on the eleventh floor where he died, leaving it for Li Rising. He must have anticipated that I would consu the rcury Blood Amber and would certainly use its Special Effect to create clones. His aim was to enable Li Rising to locate my position through the convergence of the rcury Blood Amber fragnts, then use the [Mastiff-style Anti-Theft Tracking Chip] to teleport directly to my vicinity.
The reason 13MARK didn't use the chip to escape earlier was possibly because the prop was still in its cooldown period.
Previously, Wanli Fengdao's arm was cut off by . It was then healed by Dragon Head White Lab Coat and regrew. Back then, I only thought Li Rising was skilled in healing. I didn't realize that he had used vines with a small portion of rcury Blood Amber to shape Wanli Fengdao's right arm, thereby creating a teleportation opportunity for himself.
In other words, at that ti, Li Rising had already guessed that I would abduct Wanli Fengdao. Was he willing to use his teammate as bait in order to track ...?
"It wasn't about selling out a teammate."
Li Ang, as if he had read the red-clothed old woman's mind, casually shook his head and said, "The combination of rcury Blood Amber fragnts and the Tracking Chip is effective on anyone. Just now, upstairs, I was planning to intentionally make a mistake, allowing myself to be severely injured by an aberration to lure you into attacking . Unexpectedly, Liu Wu Dai's mini-missile was too effective, and since Little Brother Dao didn't have flying skills and was too slow, you captured him before I could be."
That still doesn't erase the suspicion that you intentionally allowed your teammate to be captured, does it? If you truly wanted to save your teammate, you could have used the Tracking Chip back on the twelfth floor and rescued Wanli Fengdao right away. Why wait until I took Wanli Fengdao down to the eleventh floor before you arrived so leisurely?
As the red-clothed old woman's thoughts churned, Li Ang smiled and said, "The reason I didn't co right away is, first, because this chip has limitations, and second, because I wanted to see which floor you would take Wanli Fengdao to."
What?
The red-clothed old woman felt a great shock within her heart, and the black ice crystals lingering around her paused imperceptibly for a mont.
"As an aberration, you could directly kill a player. Yet you choose to run the risk of the player fighting back at the brink of death, taking him to another floor to consu him—doesn't that seem odd?"
Li Ang said indifferently, "Aberrations are not squirrels with a hoarding habit, who must place their food in their nest before they can enjoy it properly. Unless, she is not truly an aberration, but rather a player disguised as an aberration."
Li Ang paused, looking at the still silent red-clothed old woman, and sighed, "It will be very boring if no one responds. Danfei, can't you stop pretending? In my view, you're like a firefly in the night, extrely conspicuous."
"...Danfei?"
The red-clothed old woman took a deep breath and slowly began to speak, her voice grating and hoarse like the scrape of tal, making it impossible to distinguish if it was male or female. "How did you know?"
"There are two reasons."
Li Ang spoke calmly, "First, I have a skill that allows
to discern the difference between players and aberrations."
In Li Ang's eyes, words clearly floated above the red-clothed old woman's head: *I slept with Rudy Joseph's wife at the Royal Oasis Hotel in Prince Harbor.*
Prince Harbor is the capital of Haiti. According to Luffy and Bai Haozheng, both Kafei and Danfei are from Haiti.
"Second, it's about the floors here."
Li Ang looked around and spoke faintly, "According to the hotel's accommodation guide, having residents occupy the floors can effectively calm the hotel's unrest. Furthermore, floors where deaths have occurred don't need to be occupied for the following 180 hours.
"Fourteen players correspond to fourteen floors. The Killing Ga implies that each player should stay on a different floor. Even if players died, as long as they died on their assigned floors, it wouldn't lead to unrest in the hotel.
"The so-called unrest, first, refers to the hotel's anomalies becoming more aggressive—just like tonight, when all the players gathered together, causing all the anomalies to go insane.
"Second, it refers to those unidentified tall, skinny figures with bamboo hats."
The red-clothed old woman pressed her lips tightly, making no sound.
Li Ang continued, "Let's review the previous six nights.
"On the first night, Kafei was killed by the red-clothed old woman shortly after the curfew began. There was no appearance of the bamboo hat figures that night.
"On the second night, Danfei stayed in room 1172 and left a note. There were signs of a fight in the room, along with one of Danfei's hands and a foot. It's presud Danfei t with misfortune. No bamboo hat figures appeared that night.
"On the third night, the red-clothed old woman appeared, taking the elevator from the first floor to the eighth, then to the twelfth, and continued upward. That night, Ω and 13MARK on the first floor received a note: *Keep the door clean.*
"The Ghost of Hidden Eye on the twelfth floor saw a woman in a kimono in his dreams, killed her, and then woke up.
"That night, tall, skinny bamboo hat figures appeared, saying 'one less' as they climbed from the first floor up to the twelfth, where they killed the Ghost of Hidden Eye.
"On the fourth night, Bob on the ninth floor spent a long ti in a dream and died; the ti of death is unknown. That night, the elevator didn't operate, and the red-clothed old woman did not appear.
"However, the bamboo hat figures did appear, continuing to say 'one less' as they climbed upwards.
"Black Holy Son and I sat in the elevator watching the bamboo hat figures. We noticed they disappeared on the eighth floor.
"The ninth-floor room was in disarray, and Bob was nowhere to be found.
"On the fifth night, 13MARK, on the eighth floor, encountered the red-clothed old woman before curfew and was attacked by her.
"He realized that she had acquired the Ghost of Hidden Eye's abilities.
"After a struggle, he escaped into the elevator shaft, seeking help from Bai Haozheng.
"No bamboo hat figures appeared that night.
"Ω was found missing by players the next morning. There was no note in the room, and the ti of disappearance was unknown.
"On the sixth night, 13MARK, suspecting other players, secretly hid in room 1108. He believed that staying on a floor where soone had already died would prevent him from being attacked.
"However, the red-clothed old woman still appeared in room 1008. She first devoured his rcury Blood Amber, then climbed up to room 1108, subdued 13MARK on the eleventh floor, beat him severely, and dragged him into the elevator shaft.
"She then blocked , who had co to provide support, by setting a Light Ray Landmine Trap.
"That night, no bamboo hat figures appeared.
"The bamboo hat figures appeared around 3:30 AM on the third and fourth nights.
"They killed the Ghost of Hidden Eye on the third night.
"On the fourth night, they disappeared on their way to the ninth floor—Bob had already died by then.
"That is to say, the pattern of the bamboo hat figures' appearance is linked to player deaths.
"If a player dies before 3:30 AM on a given night, they won't appear.
"But if no player dies before 3:30 AM, they will appear and follow a certain rule to kill a player.
"This is the 'unrest' ntioned in the accommodation guide."
"That's not right."
The red-clothed old woman said in a low voice, "Since you know I'm a player, then Kafei, Danfei, the Ghost of Hidden Eye, Ω, and 13MARK, who all died before, are suspects. Why are you convinced that I am Danfei?
"Moreover, the note left by Danfei on the second night clearly stated:
"Between 00:30 and 03:15, nothing happened.
"At 03:16, the telephone in the corridor on the right side of the eleventh floor rang. The incoming number was displayed as 101#. Danfei was suspicious and didn't answer. After three rings, the call disconnected.
"At 03:30, Danfei once again heard the phone ring, this ti from next door. She didn't answer.
"At 03:31, the phone in Danfei's room rang, and Danfei decided to answer.
"Take note: when Danfei decided to pick up the phone in room 1172, the ti was already 03:31.
"Before this, no player had died.
"According to your hypothesis, at 03:30, the bamboo hat figures should have already appeared in the hotel because no one had died.
"The actual observed facts contradict your hypothesis."
"They do not contradict."
Li Ang shook his head. "The bamboo hat figures do indeed operate based on whether soone has died or not. However, the Killing Ga never arranges for certain-death scenarios. Before any killing occurs, the hotel must satisfy the conditions to trigger the appearance of the bamboo hat figures.
"That is, unrest—soone is not staying on the floor they were supposed to."
"..."
The red-clothed old woman's breathing hitched.
Li Ang continued, "On the third night, I found it strange.
"The one who died that night was the Ghost of Hidden Eye, who had already killed the kimono-clad woman in his dream. At the ti, I thought it was his act of killing the aberration that attracted the bamboo hat figures.
"But considering other players' experiences of killing aberrations, that's not the case.
"On the third night, the red-clothed old woman—aning you—took the elevator up from the first floor before 03:30.
"When passing floors 1, 8, and 12, the elevator doors opened each ti.
"Why didn't the bamboo hat figures take away Ω on the first floor or 13MARK on the eighth floor that night? Why did they instead take the Ghost of Hidden Eye from the twelfth floor?
"Looking at the bamboo hat figures' route, Ω should have been the likeliest first victim."
The red-clothed old woman did not answer. Li Ang continued, "Now it seems their notes saved their lives.
"They received the note *Keep the door clean* and spent the entire night cleaning every door in their rooms, including the outside of their main room door.
"I presu you used the rules from the hotel's accommodation guide to leave food scraps outside the doors on floors 1, 8, and 12, right?
"Ω and 13MARK narrowly escaped because of the notes.
"Whereas the Ghost of Hidden Eye was unlucky enough to be targeted by the food you left outside room 1208.
"This caused the Ghost of Hidden Eye to violate the rules, attracting the bamboo hat figures, which resulted in his death.
"The reason you disguised yourself as the red-clothed old woman, rode the elevator, and left food outside three rooms was twofold.
"One, it was to create an illusion, making players believe you were truly a hotel aberration, deterring them from carelessly opening their doors and discovering your sche or your act of leaving food outside.
"Two, it was to conduct a test, to observe the effects of breaking the hotel's rules.
"If the bamboo hat figures had killed three players in one go, that would have been ideal. It would have suppressed the hotel's unrest to the greatest extent and reduced unstable factors.
"If the bamboo hat figures killed only the player on the first floor, that would also have been informative.
"At least it would prove that the bamboo hat figures act only once per night and prioritize players on lower floors, which would have helped you assess the risks.
"The reason you didn't use this tactic again is simple.
"You learned from soone that the Dolphin Hotel would generate notes like *Keep the door clean* in players' rooms, specifically targeting your thod.
"The trick of leaving food outside doors was no longer effective and would only make players suspect your identity.
"So you switched to a different thod of harm, such as killing them directly."
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