Chapter 162

"Damn it! You traitor!"

"What the hell!"

Several of the blade-wielding main players nearly got hurt, but luckily at that moment, two red-name players who'd sided with the good camp stepped in just in time.

These two players were also red-named and had received the damage boost from [Captain's Backstab]. Earlier, because of their red names, they hadn't joined forces with the green-name players, staying on the outskirts to fend off the humanoid monsters solo. It wasn't until now, in a pinch, that they moved to help.

The other support players, sensing something wrong, quickly tossed items at the blade-wielders to bolster their defenses and amplify their damage.

Lin Tu and Kang Lina also caught on. They exchanged a glance, and Kang Lina charged at No. 42, hurling an item skill as she went.

"You? Think you can kill me?" No. 42 scanned the area but saw no sign of Guan Suixing. She sneered, casually swatting away the item, but she had no intention of tangling with Kang Lina. Her gaze stayed fixed on the one she deemed the greatest threat—

Lin Tu, weaving through the ordinary red-names, had just checked her communicator in the chaos. The last few... She counted the remaining kills in her head. A few more, and [Serial Killer] would hit max level.

Just then, a black beam of light shot toward Lin Tu.

"Watch out!" A nearby green-name player, who'd been eyeing No. 42 after noticing her odd behavior, saw her suddenly raise her gun at Lin Tu and lunged without hesitation.

Then Lin Tu watched, helpless, as the black bullet tore through the player's shoulder.

The player met Lin Tu's gaze, seemingly trying to say, "Go on, I'll leave the rest to you." But the searing pain doubled her over, and she crumpled to the ground, writhing as she fumbled through her pack for painkillers.

"No. 99! Are you okay?!"

"Damn it!" Kang Lina re-engaged, fury reignited. Enemies truly were blind with rage, especially when that enemy didn't even acknowledge her. "Hey! I'm right here!"

But No. 42 stayed focused on Lin Tu, striking at her in the gaps between exchanges with Kang Lina.

No. 42 was, after all, one of the playing cards, and her attack angles were extremely tricky. Several times, Lin Tu barely dodged in time. Fortunately, the players had already noticed the Captain seemed to defer to No. 42, and they were thoroughly wary of her. After her attacks were blocked time and again by the others, Lin Tu finally managed to max out her [Serial Killer].

A brilliant golden light blazed from Lin Tu's hand, and even the snowflakes drifting over the snowfield caught the dazzling glow. A radiant golden sun seemed to rise on the horizon of the calamity-darkened sky, as if bells were tolling across heaven and earth to celebrate the birth of a new max-level profession.

"God damn it!" No. 42 finally stopped holding back.

She suddenly dropped to her knees, her body beginning to swell violently until she stood two or three times her original height. Her skin started to rot, thick white fur sprouting from her flesh, and patches of festering sores appeared where the decay ran too deep. When she rose, her clothes looked ancient, and a long leather whip materialized in her hand.

"Ugh! What the hell is that?" one of the players grimaced.

"She looks..." someone murmured, "like the undead from [Return of the Dead], but that whip's like the cannibal weapon from [Cannibal Invasion], and that white fur... maybe a yeti from [Yeti Invasion]?"

"I'm just worried it's not just appearances..." another player cursed. "Look at her arm!"

Kang Lina, well-versed in the principle that villains die from monologuing, gave No. 42 no time to finish transforming. She raised a toy gun and fired at No. 42's shoulder. The water bullet froze the arm solid, and with two sharp cracks, it dropped from the shoulder. Almost immediately, a new arm grew back—but it was much thicker, a stark contrast to the other side.

—That was the undead's ability!

"Then she's only getting stronger the more we hit her?!"

"Not just that! Watch her whip!"

If the undead's special ability was manifesting in her, then the cannibal whip's random debuff effect on whoever it struck was probably also in play!

While everyone was panicking, Lin Tu raised her newly formed golden pistol and fired at No. 42.

No. 42, brimming with confidence, raised her whip to block—

[Level 10 Serial Killer (Red Name)] bonus skill, [Relentless: A single shot, aimed at any point on a target, causes that person's complete and total death. Doctors cannot revive; scientists cannot clone;]

This skill was powerful, but it only had one bullet. As long as she blocked it...

That whip, deliberately raised to intercept, did indeed block the golden bullet. But the scene No. 42 had expected—the golden light dissipating into nothing—never came.

Her triumphant smile cracked when she met Lin Tu's composed expression—

"You... that's not a [Serial Killer] skill!"

"Who told you it was [Serial Killer]?" Lin Tu looked at No. 42 with a hint of surprise.

Right—in the early stages, [Serial Killer] could only level up by killing designated targets, so Lin Tu had used every experience card she earned from special events to upgrade it, and she'd never bothered to hide that from her teammates. No. 42 had naturally assumed that the profession Lin Tu just maxed was [Serial Killer].

Too bad she'd miscalculated.

"Then... what is this?" No. 42 felt her body starting to freeze. She shivered as she stared at Lin Tu, and when she saw the golden pistol in her hand vanish, there was no joy in it.

Because in the next instant, another golden pistol appeared in Lin Tu's hand.

"You have two... two max-level professions. That one just now was..." No. 42 watched as a second golden bullet flew toward her and shrieked, "Cannibal Hunter!"

But she was already afflicted with the debuffs forced on her by max-level [Cannibal Hunter], and with Kang Lina and the others interfering, she had no way to stop the bullet's trajectory.

She watched helplessly as the bullet passed lightly through the arm she desperately raised, and then her body began to dissolve into nothing, the undead's special ability completely useless.

"The max-level [Cannibal Hunter]'s sole ability is to hard-CC a target, combined with the max-level [Serial Killer]'s [Relentless]... if she still doesn't die," Lin Tu shrugged, "then there's nothing I can do."

Under the blazing sun, No. 42 vanished like melting snow.

Kang Lina stepped forward to check, but Lin Tu had already confirmed No. 42's death—she could feel herself automatically absorbing No. 42's energy, just as she had absorbed Ace of Diamonds' energy.

A strange, familiar energy surged into her body, and without even needing to test it, Lin Tu knew her strength, agility, and other attributes had increased.

At the same time, with No. 42's death, the humanoid monsters that had been masquerading as players collapsed one after another, dissipating without a trace, just like her.

"Is... is it over..." The players stared at the sunlight breaking through the clouds, illuminating the melting ice, feeling a dreamlike sense of disbelief.

"No, it's not over yet!" someone suddenly shouted.

Everyone followed her pointed finger and spotted the Captain, who was trying to sneak away.

"There's one more traitor!"

Instantly, it was a case of everyone turning on the fallen. Whether they carried blades or not, anyone with strength charged at the Captain. Since nobody was armed, who knew who'd come out on top?

"Don't kill him! Lock him up! The only way he can win is by the red-name victory condition, so when the game ends, he'll die too! Let him feel the same despair we felt!"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Lin Tu sat on the ground, watching the traitor surrounded, his face a mask of terror. She turned her head and, in a daze, saw Guan Suiyue emerging from the captain's cabin.

Guan Suiyue kept her eyes on the ground, and in the shadows cast by the hair covering her eyes, it seemed as though an unspoken apology flowed out.

Those who betray others will themselves be betrayed.

But sometimes, Lin Tu couldn't quite tell what true betrayal even was.

Because as soon as she successfully cleared [Who's the Traitor] and returned to the real world, she received a text notification on her phone—Guan Suiyue had bequeathed her entire estate to Lin Tu.

Lin Tu: "???"

She read it again, checking the names of the benefactor and the beneficiary. No mistake—it was her and Guan Suiyue.

The estate wasn't large; that made sense. Although Guan Suiyue had landed a decent position in the Temple, she had to cover not only her own expenses but also her sister's daily needs and the costs of clearing the game. Not to mention the illicit dealings she had going on behind the scenes—she was so broke she had to steal from the Temple, and with White Glove on her tail, most of her items had been used up during the pursuit.

But the inheritance wasn't exactly small either.

Besides 7,623 credits, there was also an item worth 1,200 credits.

—Even so, shouldn't this go to Guan Suixing? What did it have to do with Lin Tu?

That thought kept spinning in Lin Tu's head, and in the end, she looked at the note attached to the inheritance.

Guan Suiyue had made no demands for inheriting the estate, not even leaving a single word in the note, which could have served as her final message.

Considering the amount wasn't that large, and having been burned twice already, Lin Tu—who refused to believe it and wanted to try again—consoled herself that even if she got tricked a third time, she could sell off some property and pay back the inheritance.

Besides, after being scammed twice, didn't she deserve to take something of Guan Suiyue's?

Over seven thousand credits hit her account instantly, and at the same time, the pen-like item dropped into Lin Tu's palm.

A screen unfolded before her eyes.

The familiar snowfield. Guan Suiyue sat there, looking dejected, and in front of her stood a grim-faced No. 51.

—"Do whatever you want. In these final moments, tell me who tried to harm my friend, and the full story about my friend."

The moment Guan Suiyue finished speaking, Lin Tu sat up straight.

If she guessed right, this was the last recording Guan Suiyue had made before her death. She never would have expected that Guan Suiyue would use this last chance to ask questions on her behalf.

"Haven't you noticed? My [Divine Descent] skill has no effect on her."

When No. 51 spat those words out with loathing, Lin Tu immediately recalled the reflected damage that should have transferred to her but dissipated into thin air.

"Why is that?" Guan Suiyue prompted, guiding the conversation. [Divine Descent] was an exceptionally well-guarded secret in the Temple. Though she had lied to Lin Tu about certain things, it was true she didn't have much information herself.

"Use your brain and you'll figure it out. This skill only has no effect on one kind of being—the god themselves."

"How is that possible?!?!"

"What's so impossible? You've studied that history too, you know about the 'God-Making Project.' Sure, your teachers would tell you the project failed, but it didn't. That person surnamed Lin, he succeeded."

"But Lin Tu is obviously just an ordinary person."

"Then I don't know. Maybe she has a divine artifact on her? Or some kind of power or authority?"

"..."

"You'd be wasting your time pressing me on that. The files from the God-Making Project were destroyed long ago, and even the higher-ups in the Temple know little about it. How would I know?"

"As for who wants to kill her? I'm certain—it's someone surnamed Yu."