After reading all the faxes and lab reports, Mu Ke's expression grew increasingly serious. He turned to Liu Jiayi. "Is it possible they can't be reached by satellite phone?"
"I couldn't get in touch with them," Liu Jiayi replied, her tone calm but her face betraying concern. "With Mu Sicheng and Tang Erda following, it won't be easy for Bai Liu to encounter those monsters. You keep watch; I'll go outside and deal with the one in the basement."
According to the lab report, this monster couldn't be killed by a gun, so the one in the basement was still alive.
Bai Liu had left a barrel of fuel next to the basement. She carried her own corrosive poison and wondered if a double whammy would work.
Mu Ke nodded. "Once we deal with it, we head for Tarzan Station. They need to know about this."
When the door opened, three weathered figures hurried inside. Mu Sicheng exhaled heavily, stamping snow from his boots at the entrance. Tang Erda set his gun down by the door. Bai Liu walked at the front, snow clinging to his eyelashes, glancing sideways.
"We're back."
Mu Ke raised his gun without hesitation, and Liu Jiayi readied her poison, both wary of the sudden return of their teammates. They stepped back slightly, maintaining distance, and spoke in low, cautious voices: "What are you doing back here?"
Bai Liu sidestepped, making way for a ragged group of Tarzan Station members trailing behind him, freshly dug from the ice chasm.
The group had been exposed to the snow for so long, shivering and bare, that they should have frozen to death. Yet they survived. Their skin was blue, vital signs stable, but their faces were dull, desolate, as though some unbearable ordeal had stripped their souls from their bodies.
"We found this group of Tarzan Station crew buried in the ice crevice," Bai Liu explained. "We intended to take them straight back to confront the crew at Tarzan Station, but their mental state was compromised. They couldn't communicate properly. Only one of them seemed slightly more coherent—this Fang Xiaoxiao."
A man stepped out from behind Bai Liu, forcing a small smile. "Hello. I'm Fang Xiaoxiao."
"He told me these team members needed psychiatric medication, so he brought them back first to get it," Bai Liu added calmly, lifting his eyes to scan Mu Ke.
Mu Ke's blackened gun was leveled at him, voice cold. "I don't believe you. Open your system panel and show me."
"You can't see my system panel," Bai Liu replied blandly, giving Mu Ke a faint approving nod. "That was a good use of the verbal trap you set for me."
Due to the league format in the pool, players' system panels are not only stripped of the shop function but also hidden from each other. Even if one player opens their panel, the others cannot view it.
Mu Ke cast a suspicious glance at Liu Jiayi but lowered his gun at her subtle signal, keeping his fingers on the trigger in case he needed to raise it again.
They moved aside, and Liu Jiayi tucked her poison out of sight, speaking softly. "Come in first."
-----------------
The Other End
Bai Liu led the ragged crew, freshly dug from the ice crevasse, toward Tarzan Station.
Less than five hundred meters away, they spotted another helicopter parked in the hangar outside Tarzan Station, identical in markings to their own.
"It's another helicopter from Edmond Observatory," Tang Erda said at a glance, frowning. "How did it get here? Mu Ke and the others… are they coming?"
Bai Liu's eyes narrowed as he glanced at the helicopter, then turned to Fang Xiaoxiao behind him. "You guys stay outside and find a place to hide while we take care of some team business."
The team obeyed. Bai Liu then looked at Mu Sicheng and Tang Erda. Both raised their guns in understanding.
Mu Sicheng's hand shook on his weapon. "Holy shit! They're not monsters, are they? And where are they? The monsters didn't take their homes, did they?"
Tang Erda followed Bai Liu, gun in hand. Bai Liu, unarmed, walked casually as if at the entrance to Tarzan Station.
The sentry at the gate let them through after a brief oral check. Though questioned about their whereabouts the previous night, Bai Liu muddled through easily. The sentries, recognizing his perfunctory answers, didn't press further—more exciting matters awaited him.
Turning down a ventilation shaft leading through the doorway, the high-pitched, excited voice of Fang Xiaoxiao from Tai Shan Station echoed from the cabin Bai Liu's team had briefly used the night before.
"Oh my God! How did you find all this information on Mr. Edmond?" he cried."With this first-hand information about the climate anomalies and the creatures, we can work on a solution!"
Bai Liu pushed open the cabin door. Fang Xiaoxiao sat cross-legged on a bunk bed, clutching a paper document and choking back tears as he read softly. The header on the document read [Fax Record], which Bai Liu recognized immediately.
Liu Jiayi stood politely by the door. Mu Ke perched on the top bunk, eyes lighting up briefly at Bai Liu's entrance, then cooling as he jumped down and positioned his gun behind Liu Jiayi's back.
Both bore signs of the cold—the tips of their noses and lips showing healed frostbite. Liu Jiayi must have administered an antidote.
Fang Xiaoxiao's face shifted slightly upon seeing Bai Liu. He reluctantly set the fax aside. "The person you're looking for is back. Let's talk first, and then we'll go over the information."
Once Fang Xiaoxiao departed, Tang Erda, Mu Sicheng, Mu Ke, and Liu Jiayi faced each other for a tense few seconds, then drew their guns at one another's vital points without hesitation.
Bai Liu sat calmly in a small, empty compartment, surrounded by two teams of four guns. Both sides tacitly ignored him, leaving him free to comment:
"Seems we suspect each other of being monsters, not real people. Why don't we see who can convince whom first?" He turned sideways toward Liu Jiayi. "Why did you bring Mu Ke here?"
Liu Jiayi pursed her lips. "Because Edmond Station was overrun by monsters."
"We searched Edmond Station and found fax records that are important game clues," she explained. "The satellite phone can't reach you, and the system panel is blocked between players, so we had to get the faxes to you at Tarzan Station after dealing with the basement monster."
Tang Erda frowned. "But you and Mu Ke don't know how to fly a helicopter. I'm the only one on the team who does."
Liu Jiayi looked up at him. "We don't need to know how—we just needed to know that you could."
Bai Liu smirked. "Nice plan. You held his clone hostage?"
"Exactly," Mu Ke said, exhaling. "But as Jiayi was about to burn the basement monster with fuel and poison, the door opened—you returned with a team from Tarzan Station, claiming you needed medicine. We suspected it was your duplicate and made a move."
"The mistake," Liu Jiayi continued grimly, "was that Mu Ke and I were underpowered, while your three imitators were half as strong and could even mimic your skills."
"After attempting to kill [Mu Sicheng] with fuel and poison, we tried everything to kill [Bai Liu]. So cunning, we had to settle for the next best thing: exploiting [Tang Erda]'s lack of defense and using poison to hold him hostage in a helicopter. Then we forced him to help us escape."
Mu Sicheng's hair stood on end. "What about Tang Erda?"
Liu Jiayi shrugged. "Once we reached Tarzan Station, I shot it dead in the helicopter's pilot seat and doused it with fuel-poison. That should exploit the creature's weakness—I verified it in my monster book."
Tang Erda noticed blood stains on the cuffs of Liu Jiayi's vest, remnants from wiping.
Meanwhile, at Edmond Observatory, Tang Erda and Mu Sicheng drew their guns on Liu Jiayi and Mu Ke, who raised their poison and firearms in return.
Bai Liu walked calmly to the center of the standoff. "Wow, looks like the scene at Tarzan Station is being recreated. You suspect us of being monsters, too?"
His dark eyes were fixed on Mu Ke and Liu Jiayi. "I suspect you as well. That trick you used to gain my trust via the game's hidden settings? Clever."
"Unfortunately, you already used it once at Tarzan Station, Mu Ke."
Mu Ke arched a brow. "What are you talking about?"
Mu Sicheng spat a mouthful of bloodied saliva, turning grimly to glare at Mu Ke and Liu Jiayi. "I fucking hate this copy."
"We encountered [Liu Jiayi] and [Mu Ke] once at Tarzan Station. They claimed to deliver information to me and had already fought the monster at Edmond Observatory, holding Tang Erda hostage before escaping."
Bai Liu smiled faintly. "But we discovered they were merely simulations, created to deceive us. That's why we returned with the remaining Tarzan Station crew after killing them—to see what was really happening. And—"
His eyes darkened, void of light. "—where the hell are my real team members?"
"It frustrates me that I can't find them, hidden by you."
Bai Liu lowered his eyes, raised his hand, and gestured with his fingers, his tone flat, commanding: "Strike and kill."
Mu Sicheng and Tang Erda raised their guns, faces expressionless, triggers down. The chamber glowed faintly red, bullets poised to ignite.