Card Room

Chapter 530 - Xiao Lou’s Plan

If it was before, no one would have any doubts when Xiao Lou said this. It was because Xiao Lou’s words contained two key points. The Western restaurant that was the code Xiao Lou had set before everyone entered the secret room and the fact that Ye Qi and Chu Huaying found a hunter pretending to be Xiao Lou who had his card pack.

The secret code and card pack information was matched. There was an extremely high possibility that Xiao Lou in front of them was a real person.

But now…

The hunter Qu Wanyue met had a mind reading card and read Qu Wanyue’s memories. She passed the information using Thousand Miles Sound Transmission to her teammate. In other words, all the hunters knew that their meeting place was the Western restaurant and that Xiao Lou’s card pack had been lost.

These two things were no longer secrets so it was difficult to determine the authenticity of this Xiao Lou in front of them.

Ye Qi and Chu Huaying made eye contact and Chu Huaying winked slightly. This should mean for Ye Qi to cooperate with her acting. The next moment, he heard Chu Huaying calmly ask, “Professor Xiao, have you contacted Group Leader Yu?”

Xiao Lou shook his head. “I called him but he didn’t answer. I don’t know if there was an accident.”

There was nothing wrong with this answer. Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang knew each other in reality before entering the Card World and Xiao Lou knew Yu Hanjiang’s phone number. Calling each other was the most normal reaction.

He paused before continuing, “I called Chief Shao on the way here and Chief Shao didn’t know me at all. Today’s time is December 24th. My guess is that we were teleported to the past world and Chief Shao in the past doesn’t know who I am. In other words, the Shao Qingge we know isn’t in this secret room.”

Ye Qi pretended to be stunned. “No wonder why. I previously called Chief Shao and he didn’t remember who Ye Qi was.”

Chu Huaying asked, “What’s next?”

Xiao Lou lowered his head and thought about it. After a moment, he asked, “Are you the only ones who met up in the Western restaurant?”

Chu Huaying nodded. “That’s right. The four of us were besieged by hunters and jumped out the window to run.”

Xiao Lou simply made a decision. “Since our other teammates didn’t come to the Western restaurant, it is likely they encountered some accidents on the road or it is inconvenient for them to leave. We should try to use the Peach Blossom Spring to pull people. They can be teleported to the Peach Blossom Spring as long as they are in this world.”

Chu Huaying looked at Ye Qi and Ye Qi nodded.

Up to now, Xiao Lou’s appearance, movements, tone of voice and the way he analyzed the problems were all normal. It was just that Chu Huaying always felt that something was wrong but she couldn’t say what the specific problem was.

Probably… intuition?

Her intuition told her that she couldn’t listen to Xiao Lou’s words and open the Peach Blossom Spring to summon her teammates.

She frowned slightly. “Professor Xiao, I just placed the entrance to the Peach Bloom Spring at the Western restaurant. If I open the Peach Blossom Spring to summon the team members, everyone will come out of the Peach Blossom Spring in the Western restaurant. Now the Western restaurant has been surrounded by hunters. It is too dangerous to do this. We should think of another way.”

Xiao Lou understood. “Then… use Li Qingzhao’s mark to teleport. Find a safe place and put the mark.”

Chu Huaying could only nod. “Okay, let’s get out of here first.”

Her gaze swept over the group. The waiter at the restaurant had been disposed of by her and no hunters had chased her out of the Western restaurant. The group of small children with chains were beaten by Ye Qi. Strangely, the people around them were indifferent to the fight that just happened. They still walked and chatted among themselves like Ye Qi and the others didn’t exist at all.

This wasn’t Jiangzhou City but an illusion of Jiangzhou created by the two jokers of December 24th according to everyone’s memory.

Xiao Lou led the way and the other four followed behind him. Qu Wanyue whispered into Ye Qi’s ear, “Xiao Ye, do you think this Professor Xiao is real?”

Ye Qi shook his head. “I can’t be sure.”

Qu Wanyue glanced at Long Sen and followed with a complicated look.

Xiao Lou led everyone out of the central square. Jiangzhou City at night was very lively. There were several young people on the sidewalk who looked like students who were singing. One of the boys looked particularly familiar. He was a classmate of Ye Qi’s at the conservatory of music who often used to go to the central square for busking. It was said that his income wasn’t bad. Ye Qi had accompanied the boy to buy a guitar previously.

Ye Qi didn’t come forward to say hello but the other party took the initiative to come over to meet Ye Qi. “Ye Qi, what a coincidence!”

Chu Huaying looked at him warily. She found that the boy had no intention of attacking and said, “Excuse me.”

Ye Qi smiled awkwardly at him. “I’m a bit busy. I’ll contact you another day.”

Then he followed his teammates and continued to walk forward. The boy looked at Ye Qi’s back in a confused manner and continued to pick up the guitar and sing. Ye Qi looked back at his familiar classmate and whispered in Qu Wanyue’s ear, “The time in the secret room is almost an exact copy of Jiangzhou on December 24th. There are too many passersby and it is hard to tell apart who are hunters and who aren’t.”

Qu Wanyue looked solemn. “This is the most difficult thing. It is possible that the person who greeted you is indeed a friend you know but it is also possible that they will suddenly stab you after approaching you…”

Ye Qi felt numb. “Let’s take it one step at a time.”

Xiao Lou led everyone through an alley to a hidden corner and said in a low voice, “I can’t say where in this world is absolutely safe but I know a place where there will be no hunters.”

Chu Huaying and Ye Qi asked in unison, “What place?”

Xiao Lou told them, “The morgue of the hospitals.”

Everyone, “……”

Xiao Lou said seriously, “First of all, the hunters will replace the identities of some people in the secret room when entering the world. For example, Chief Shao’s mother whom we met in the 10th level and the clones of the 12th level. Since they replace people in the secret rooms then they will naturally replace living people.”

Ye Qi felt it was reasonable and nodded. “Yes, this is like soul transmigration. Transmigrating into the body of the living person allowed them to replace the other person and do things with the identity of the other person. If they transmigrate into a corpse then they will be dead when entering the secret room.”

Moreover, in a morgue-like environment, all the bodies were placed in the freezer. The living could only stay in the freezer for a few minutes. There would indeed be no hunters there.

Chu Huaying opened her mouth. “Professor Xiao, do you mean to go to the morgue and hide?”

Xiao Lou said, “Yes, go to the morgue and put down Li Qingzhao’s mark. First open the team teleportation and see if we can find our other teammates. The world is very big and there are many hunters. It will be very dangerous if the team members are scattered.”

Chu Huaying glanced at Qu Wanyue and Long Sen. They had a complicated expression on their faces, but nodded reluctantly.

Ye Qi smiled. “Go to the morgue to gather. It is truly worthy of Professor Xiao’s idea.”

Xiao Lou smiled bitterly. “There is no way. This is the only safe place I can think of.”

Chu Huaying said simply, “Just go there. The dead aren’t as terrible as the living.”

The four of them agreed so Xiao Lou said, “The hospital isn’t far from here. Long Sen and Teacher Qu have displacement cards while Huaying is fast and can go by herself. Xiao Ye, can I trouble you to use the teleportation card to take me over?”

Long Sen and Qu Wanyue used the jumping card and jumped eight meters at a time. The speed was very fast. Chu Huaying’s movement speed was boosted by cards so she could run like the wind. Ye Qi used the teleportation card to bring Xiao Lou with him. He might only be able to teleport in a straight line but occasionally going around detours had little effect.

The group arrived at the city hospital in less than three minutes.

Xiao Lou was very familiar with this place and led everyone to the morgue.

Chu Huaying simply broke through the window.

December was winter and the weather was cold. Everyone was wearing sweaters but the hospital morgue was still cold. Ye Qi sneezed as soon as he entered the morgue. Qu Wanyue was also cold and Long Sen hurriedly took off his coat and draped it on her body.

The overhead lights were dazzlingly white and the four walls were covered with freezers. All of them had seen this gloomy environment many times but they still felt uncomfortable.

Xiao Lou walked forward with a relaxed expression. He read the information of the freezers and said, “These are all normal corpses and there should be no hunters who crossed into a corpse. Huaying, set the mark.”

Chu Huaying nodded. She summoned Li Qingzhao and put down the mark. “We have to wait five minutes.”

The teleportation was a group message and required the teammates to confirm it. If a teammate was in this world and accepted the teleportation invitation, they could instantly come to the morgue to join everyone.

Time passed quickly. Ye Qi looked at the smiling Xiao Lou and always felt that something was wrong.

4 minutes passed… 4 minutes 35 seconds…

4 minutes 59 seconds…

At almost the moment when five minutes arrived, a key piece of information flashed in Ye Qi’s mind. How could Xiao Lou know that his card pack was in Sister Ying’s hands?

Ye Qi’s eyes widened and he wanted to speak, but his voice was stuck in his throat.

It was because five minutes passed and no other teammates appeared at the marked point.

Xiao Lou’s expression changed and his eyes revealed surprise. “How can there be no one?”

Chu Huaying asked coldly, “Are you disappointed?”

The moment she spoke, she flashed behind Xiao Lou and the sharp spider dagger in her hand touched Xiao Lou’s back. She just needed to move it forward slightly and she could take Xiao Lou’s life.

Xiao Lou sensed the coldness behind him and gently frowned. “Huaying, what are you doing?”

Chu Huaying explained, “Your acting skills are flawless but unfortunately, you ignored a detail. The real Professor Xiao wouldn’t know that his card pack is in my hands. Naturally, it is impossible for me to open the Peach Blossom Spring to teleport my teammates.”

It turned out that Sister Ying also found this anomaly!

Ye Qi was excited. “That’s right. Only the hunters know that Professor Xiao’s card pack is in Sister Ying’s hands! The two hunters in the Peach Blossom Spring passed on the information so you knew that Sister Ying had the Tao Yuanming card in her hand. You subconsciously had Sister Ying summon our teammates but you didn’t expect it was this action that betrayed you. You aren’t our Professor Xiao!”

Long Sen and Qu Wanyue obviously reacted as well. No wonder they always felt that something wasn’t quite right. It was too natural that Xiao Lou had Chu Huaying open the teleportation. How could he know that the Tao Yuanming card was in Chu Huaying’s hands?

Xiao Lou, “……”

The smile on the man’s face finally faded. “I was careless. You guys aren’t stupid.”

Chu Huaying sneered. “It seems that there are more than four of us in this world. That is why you went to such great lengths to pull our other teammates over. Unfortunately, we aren’t so easily deceived.”

The dagger in her hand stabbed forward with force but unexpectedly, it didn’t hurt the ‘Xiao Lou’ in front of her. The man who was originally in front of Chu Huaying disappeared like a ghost. This was followed by the freezers in the morgue making a creaking sound that made people’s teeth sore.

Long Sen’s expression changed. “Don’t tell me it is the sudden movement of corpses?!”

Before he could finish speaking, more than a dozen corpses crawled out of the freezers. The frozen corpses released cold air from their bodies. Their actions might be slightly stiff but the attacks of the corpses were extremely strong. In an instant, the four of them were surrounded and the corpses pounced at them.

Xiao Lou’s cold voice was heard in their ears. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t pull your teammates over. It is the same to kill you first.”

Chu Huaying had a calm face. “Corpse control… it is Qi Ran.”

Ye Qi was stunned. “The murderer of the K secret room who can control the corpses at the mass burial site?”

Chu Huaying shouted, “Cover your ears!”

The moment she finished speaking, the familiar rattle-drum sound was heard in their ears.

Dang dang, dang dang…

In the quiet morgue, the clear and pleasant rattle-drum sound was like magic brainwashing. This made the consciousness of the four people dazed for a while!

Chu Huaying decisively slashed her arm with the spider dagger to sober herself up.

Immediately after that, she flashed over and slashed the arms of her teammates. The severe pain made everyone’s consciousness instantly awaken. Meanwhile, Ye Qi was the bug king. His consciousness wasn’t the same as ordinary people and he wasn’t affected by the magical sound.

He saw the corpses rushing toward Chu Huaying and hurriedly exclaimed, “Sister Ying, be careful!”

Chu Huaying immediately turned on the teleportation of the Peach Blossom Spring, wanting to pull everyone back to the Western restaurant to avoid the zombies and magical sound…

Yet at this moment, a familiar notification flashed in the floating box in front of her eyes.

[The card magnetic field has been activated and the skill is invalidated!]

Cards could still be used in the morgue so it obviously wasn’t this place that was blocked. It was the Peach Blossom Spring at the Western restaurant.

The mind of this Qi Ran was really poisonous. He actually had his teammate open the card shielding near the Western restaurant to cut off the retreat of the Peach Blossom Spring. Then he led everyone to the morgue.

The morgue was indeed a relatively safe place. There were no hunters who would cross into the body of a corpse.

Yet for Qi Ran, this was the most suitable battlefield.

It was because he could control corpses. All corpses were his weapons!

Partially proofread: Paranoid Kitten