When the plot-skips players into the game world

Watching Aiwass suddenly shoot the journalist dead, the others all looked at him in astonished disbelief.

"You are indeed decisive,"

Living Silver, arms crossed over his chest, said softly in admiration, "No matter if he's Merlin or a journalist, or a detective who came down early, as long as this place isn't Layer Zero, that shot was permissible."

"I simply wanted to save everyone some time,"

Aiwass said calmly as he wiped the gun barrel.

If he were Merlin, Aiwass wouldn't worry—Merlin would only cause them trouble, but the real Jacob would personally open the box for his own grandson, Aiwass.

At this point in time, Noble Red was not yet established. The Hand of the Scaleless was still a ritually organization with considerable public prestige.

Even though they were wanted for cursing and killing some wealthy elites, their reputation among the people was very high.

In such a case, should Jacob realize he was being wrongfully accused, he was highly likely to disclose his identity as the founder of Hand of the Scaleless.

—Aiwass still didn't know who Pure White and the others were; such secrets were not yet to be revealed to them.

From this perspective, Aiwass was indeed silencing him.

"If it weren't for the information painstakingly brought by Lulu, this level might well have been a lethal trap,"
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Aiwass said soberly as he stepped over the journalist's corpse, walked to the round table, sat down, and propped up his leg.

He looked at everyone and slowly said, "The other layers were like tempests in the dark night. Suddenly, we get to this layer, bright sunshine, clean air, birds chirping, flowers fragrant... As long as they don't have awakened memories and find the real tasks, they would definitely think they have reached reality at first."

"—Because this place is different from every other dream layer,"

Isabel was initially of the same opinion because she passed out after giving the information. She didn't even hear Aiwass's deductions.

"But such a scale of a storm will not be so clean immediately after it ends. Whether it's the forest, grassland, or lake, none would be so spotless."

"Tree branches, broken wood, garbage, and miscellaneous items blown all around, even fish from the lake would fall on the ground. This is clearly just a little girl's imagination of a storm, from someone who lacks experience in life,"

"Heh."

Suddenly, Pure White laughed out loud, "All those are just excuses... It's actually about Topaz, isn't it?

"Because of the information Miss Lulu brought, which was verified with others—once Merlin's information is ruled out, you would realize that in the layers she descended, there was no existence of Topaz.

"So you suspect, we were actually on the second layer before. And Topaz was on the first layer... Only that would make sense.

"But have you considered a possibility? Maybe Topaz killed everyone?

"Just like me—killed everyone and then descended to the next layer,"

Pure White slightly raised his head and declared, "Admit it, Mr. Fox. You've made a mistake—your arrogance and my lies led to the elimination of the body carrying your teammate."

"Oh? Is that so?"

Mr. Fox looked at Pure White with a smile, while Lulu nervously clenched her fists and looked toward Mr. Fox.

Pure White sneered without hesitation, "Of course."

"Although I don't know why you entered this ritual earlier than I did, you clearly don't understand the fundamental principles on which the Nine Pillar Gods construct the ritual."

"The Nine Pillar Gods construct the ascension ritual, and while they prepare scenarios and bonus points for the ritual, they only consider the absolute rational decisions of the ascenders—meaning that the optimal solution for every ritual is based on the premise 'everyone is smart and rational, and everyone knows that all others are also smart and rational,' and 'each person acts driven by their own Path.'

"So under these circumstances, what is the optimal solution? Obviously, for each person to kill everyone in their layer.

"As long as each person kills everyone in their layer of the dream, then commits suicide—then they will immediately land accurately in Layer Zero. Not only that, everyone will reach Layer Zero. This is the most tacit, most efficient cooperation! No matter how many people or layers there are, at least six people can ensure victory."

"From the perspective of the one who posed the question, what's wrong with me killing everyone in my layer?"

Pure White went on and on.

The more Lulu heard, the paler her face became.

She looked at Aiwass somewhat fearfully, but what she saw on Aiwass's face was an ever-clearer smile.

"Who are you?"

Aiwass suddenly asked in return.

Pure White narrowed his eyes, somewhat disappointed, "You wouldn't still think I'm Merlin trying to mislead people, would you?"

"You're not Merlin, but you are indeed lying and deliberately misleading. So I'm asking... who are you in the real world?"

"You're overstepping, Mr. Fox."

Pure White narrowed his eyes, warning him.

"The one overstepping is you."

Aiwass struck back without hesitation, "Why are you helping Merlin?"

Upon hearing this, the surroundings instantly fell silent.

Pure White looked at Aiwass in surprise, "When did you realize?"

"After I proposed the Surefire Method. But now that I think about it, you already revealed a flaw the first time we met."

Aiwass snorted coldly, "Think about it, from the first time you saw me... everything you said seemed to question Merlin, but in reality, all your words were helping him to shake off suspicion."