8.47 What Meets The Eye
Everyone's face abruptly changed.2
Inside his mind, 666 let out a sharp screech. [Oh my Admin God, there is really another transmigrator in this world?! But how?! 666 has never heard system 404 before! That's such an awful name and not as cool as 666!]
"Special quest…" Ji Yan's eyes lit up impossibly brighter as an excited flush colored his cheeks. "Special quests are even rarer than hidden quests! You can only trigger the special quest after you have completed the game to a certain percentage, otherwise even if you crossed paths with the item, the system will not acknowledge it as a quest!" After he blurted out the words passionately, only then did the notification sink into his mind. "Huh…?" He looked around in confusion. "Player… 404? Is there someone named 404 in our team?"
Lu Yizhou's lips turned down into a scowl as he told Ji Yan, "Give me the key."
Ji Yan looked at him with a start. "Ah…?"
"The key to the room where we placed Diana's body." Lu Yizhou stressed heavily. "Now!"
He must have looked quite terrifying because Ji Yan fumbled around his skirt to search for the item. Olivia demanded in confusion, "Why do you want the key?"
"Diana is not dead," was all Lu Yizhou could manage to say before he grabbed hold of the key and rushed out of the library, the other three catching up behind him after a short pause of bewilderment. Lu Yizhou's stamina had not quite recovered yet since the short marathon he attempted earlier hence he did not hesitate at all to drink one of his stamina potions and picked up his speed. Soon, the distance between him and the others grew larger.
[666: Host, is Diana really the other transmigrator?!]
[There's no other explanation.] He said with a heavy heart.
Fortunately it was still daytime so no one would care for the ruckus they created. The mansion was completely empty. Baines and Luca were nowhere to be seen, nor did they make any sound that could announce their presence. It was like Lu Yizhou was running inside a truly haunted mansion.
At first, he had suspected either Ailín or Diana to be the transmigrator, simply by excluding the two protagonists. When Diana died, his suspicion shifted heavily to Ailín and indeed, all signs pointed to him as the culprit. Lu Yizhou just had not found the evidence to prove that.
But he failed to realize that this world was unlike the previous ones he had encountered before. In this world, players could get various skills just by completing the side quests. Just like Ji Yan's 'Guardian Angel' skill card and Ailín's ability to detect supernatural beings, what if… Diana also received a similar skill? Something like… the ability to fake her death and fool everyone?
'But why does she want to fake her death meow?' Ozzie asked in puzzlement. 'Why can't he be like you, Daddy? You're also a transmigrator and you don't need to fake your death to investigate.'
Lu Yizhou huffed out a sigh as he climbed up the stairs to the second floor and marched straight to the room Diana was supposed to be in. There were so many reasons he could come up with. For example, Diana did not have Ella and Ellie's support, just like Lu Yizhou did; or she had another mission she had to complete, one that was different from everyone else… Lu Yizhou remembered that 666 had once insisted that no transmigrators could exist in one simulator otherwise the world would be in chaos. He had never really thought of the meaning behind 666's words but now that he pondered on it… what kind of chaos would derive from it?
[Are you sure you have not heard of 404 before?] Lu Yizhou asked.
He stopped in front of the room to regain his breath, sweat dripping down his face like bullets. Goddamnit, was he not a witch? How could his stamina remain as awful as ever?!
[666: Y–Yes! 666 is ninety percent— no, a hundred percent sure! All systems are registered in the system forum and even if 404 is an unfriendly and introverted system and unlike 666 in every way, there's no way it has not appeared even once before! We have regular check-ups and our community is very close!]
The corner of Lu Yizhou's lips twitched. He could not imagine a community full of systems like 666. One was already enough to be a headache — [Host is so mean! QAQ] — what of a few hundreds more? Wouldn't it be utter chaos that way? He saluted Dr. Feng who could keep those systems in check.
Lu Yizhou wasted no time to enter the key and slammed open the door. He had seen this coming but his heart still sank a little when he found the room empty, the blanket rumpled where it was flung haphazardly across the bed. Lu Yizhou entered slowly all the while keeping his guard up to the surroundings.
'Where is she?' he hissed. The notification had not sounded for long so she must still have been around the place where she found Madam's comb. If it was not this room, then where else?
'Daddy, the balcony!' Ozzie pointed out.
Lu Yizhou rushed forward to throw the curtain open. The balcony door was half opened and from his peripheral vision, he could see the silhouette of Diana's ginger hair rounding the corner as she ran across the garden! Without even thinking, Lu Yizhou slid the door open, ignoring the clamour behind him as Ji Yan, Olivia and Ailín finally stumbled into the room.
He was hiking one leg up across the fence when Ji Yan cried out in panic, "Miss…Miss Irene, what are you doing?!"
Olivia yelled. "Irene, have you gone crazy?! This is the second floor!"
Lu Yizhou did not even hesitate as he jumped down from the balcony. For certain, this must be how Diana escaped too because the door was still locked when he arrived. Shocked, Ji Yan and Olivia tried to grab him but they were too late. Lu Yizhou already landed on the ground and rolled a few times to soften the momentum. Cramps shot up his calves and he ignored the pain in lieu of chasing after Diana.
"Irene!" "Miss Irene!"
Ji Yan and Olivia panicked. "W–What should we do?!"
"We… We should go after them," Ji Yan said tremblingly, his face as pale as a sheet. There was no way he could jump from the second floor without possibly breaking an arm or a leg! He tugged on Olivia and Ailín. "Come on! Let's take the stairs!"
However, to his utter surprise, Ailín shook him off. "You two go from the stairs."
"Brother?!" Ji Yan was shocked. His eyes flew open even more when Ailín suddenly approached the fence with a determined look on his face.
With the agility of a sleek leopard, he flipped himself over with ease and landed smoothly on the ground. The series of movements were done so effortlessly that Ji Yan and Olivia could only gape in utter bafflement. Who was this pro gymnast and what had he done to their chubby drunkard teammate?!
When Ailín found that Ji Yan and Olivia were still frozen up there, he hollered. "Go through the stairs. I will catch up to them first! Pay attention to safety and don't get yourself hurt!" After saying that, he did not wait for an answer before turning away and running toward the direction where Diana and Lu Yizhou had gone. He was surprisingly nimble too, so fast that he zoomed across the distance and disappeared almost in a blink of an eye.
Ji Yan and Olivia glanced at each other and saw the same surprise within. In their opinion, Ailín had always been the one who followed behind them, who always agreed with whatever they said and did the bare minimum. As it turned out, there was more to him than what meets the eye?
"Come on." Olivia was the first to recover from her surprise and dragged Ji Yan outside. "We have to move. Hurry!"
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