bayedsolid Chapter 1426 The Poisoned Wine
Chapter 1426 The Poisoned Wine
"boom!"
The sound of gunfire echoed throughout the convention center, amplified by the announcements over the loudspeaker.
Not only did the "Order" trio react to this, but the members of the "Player Mutual Aid Association" present also noticed the strange noise.
The speech on stage was interrupted, and the candidate looked around, seemingly at a loss, while the audience whispered among themselves.
"What is that sound?"
"what happened?"
No one knew what had happened; after the gunshot, only Sharara's static could be heard on the radio.
If you listen carefully, you can also hear heavy breathing mixed in, but in the already chaotic and turbulent venue, it is even more distorted and imperceptible.
"Hiss—ho—hiss—ho—"
Amidst all this noise, Lin Yu made his judgment.
"To the studio!"
As he spoke, he was the first to set off towards the stairs.
Good Night was about to follow closely behind, but both of them were pulled back by Dionysus.
Dionysus's hands pressed down on Lin Yu and Liang Ye's shoulders, like a mountain pressing down, firmly pinning the two to the spot.
"Damn it, what are you doing?!"
Liangye asked, puzzled and anxious.
Yin Lan said in a low voice, "Taking the stairs is too inefficient."
As she spoke, she grabbed their shoulders and gently jumped upwards.
next moment……
Something happened that Lin Yu and Liang Ye couldn't understand.
The scene before them was distorted—like using Gaussian blur and liquefaction tools in image editing software, everything in the field of vision seemed to be mixed together and turned into a mess.
Even as "players" in the "death game," and as skilled and experienced "players" at that, both were confused and perplexed by the scene.
"What the hell is going on?"
Liang Ye said, puzzled.
But the next moment, the two instantly regained their senses—and then, Yin Lan released them.
They felt their feet touch the ground again, and the scene in front of them had changed to... the entrance to the control room of the studio on the top floor of the convention center.
At this moment, the door to the control room was wide open, and "Paper Kite" stood inside with her back to the door, the pistol in her hand emitting wisps of gunpowder smoke.
In the control room... "Redwood," who had met Lin Yu and the others once before, and two other "second-tier" members of the "Player Mutual Aid Association" lay dead on the chairs in the control room, lifeless—one of them had fallen onto the control panel, which is why they heard a gunshot at the end... probably because his body touched a button on the control panel.
Meanwhile, the electronic screen above the control panel also had three bullet holes in a triangular shape, the entire screen was damaged, and sparks were coming out of the bullet holes.
"What have you done, Paper Kite!"
Seeing this, Yin Lan couldn't help but question it.
Paper Kite said in a low voice, "I didn't kill these three people... it was a member of the 'Player Mutual Aid Association,' 'Rainy Bell,' who killed them."
“I have investigated and found that ‘Yu Linling’ has been secretly cooperating with ‘Hunter’s Guild’ and has been selling a considerable number of ‘items’, mainly high-quality weapons, to ‘Hunter’s Guild’ for a long time. However, he himself is not a ‘player’ who is good at crafting, and there is no evidence that he has traded with a certain entity in the Ten Realms that can reliably produce ‘items’. Therefore, I have reason to suspect that he obtained those weapon-type ‘items’ through some improper means, such as killing other people.”
"However, after I found 'Yu Linling' and subdued him, he told me that he was just someone's 'white glove' and that there were other masters behind him. He told me that he could take me to see the mastermind and that he had evidence to prove it."
“At that time, he had already been hit by my ‘double curse seal,’ which blocked and cut off the flow of energy throughout his body. He was no longer a threat to me, so I allowed him to do so and came here with him.”
"But after arriving here, before entering the door, he suddenly nullified my 'Double Curse Seal' in some way that I couldn't understand, then broke down the door and instantly killed the three people inside."
“I immediately went inside and fired three shots at him, but the bullets missed,” Paper Kite raised her hand and pointed to the electronic screen. “He was there… and vanished into thin air.”
Paper Kite calmly recounted everything, while Yin Lan's expression was grave.
"What you're saying is meaningless... Even if we believe you, the 'Player Mutual Aid Association' won't!"
“You are a greater suspect than I was before; and this victim is even more significant than ‘Iced Americano’,” Yin Lan glanced at the unseeing eyes of ‘Redwood’ and sighed as she spoke. “Although he was not a candidate… this is a ‘third-tier’ being, and one that is recognized by all parties as a ‘neutral’ being.”
"The other two 'second-tier' players, 'Sorrowful Cloud' and 'Fried Tofu,' are also quite influential. If the 'Player Mutual Aid Association' proposes to hand you over to them, it might be very troublesome for us to negotiate, and we might not even have a way to save you."
As the kite spoke, it said, "I know."
Hearing Zhiyuan's tone, Liangye quickly said, "But don't panic too much. We were able to clear 'God of Wine's' name before, and we can clear your name this time too. We have a 'director' here—as long as you really didn't do it, there won't be any problems."
As Liang Ye spoke, he also glanced at the three corpses. However, unlike Yin Lan, Liang Ye paid more attention to how the three corpses died than their identities.
Although both were gunshot wounds... what's concerning is that they were both shot in the left eye socket.
This is why Ryoya subconsciously added, somewhat guiltily, "If you really didn't do it."
The only person who would do this, and is capable of doing it, is "Paper Kite".
Zhiyuan turned around, his handsome face splattered with blood mixed with brain matter, which had almost dried on his face.
"So, Captain Liangye, you also think I'm a suspect, right?"
He spoke in a gentle and shy tone.
Liang Ye chuckled: "How could that be? You're a member of our 'Order,' I believe you wouldn't indiscriminately kill innocent members without distinguishing right from wrong..."
"The premise is that they are truly innocent."
"It's a kite," Zhiyuan said softly.
Yin Lan stared at the kite and said, "Anyway, put the gun down first..."
Even now, Zhiyuan still holds the pistol in his hand.
Zhiyuan raised her head, looked at Yin Lan, and shook her head.
"'God of Wine'... Yin Lan, I admire you. You are undoubtedly a good person and a righteous person. You have done a lot for 'order'. To be honest, it is my honor to work with someone like you."
Yin Lan's lips curled up slightly, but she quickly put on a cold expression again: "Are you trying to get close to me? Don't do such pointless things!"
Lin Yu quickly noted down Yin Lan's reaction and updated his understanding of Yin Lan's personality in his mind.
"The type who is easily swayed by kind words..."
If I am ever hunted down by Yin Lan in the future, I might try to use this method to increase her favorability or temporarily reduce her killing intent and postpone the time to make a move.
But Paper Kite clearly wasn't planning on that; he just continued talking to himself.
“While there aren’t many people in ‘Order’ who can truly be called ‘harmful’ or ‘guilty,’ most are good people… but they are also good people with flaws and imperfections who have made mistakes but which are not serious. There are very few people who I can’t find any problems with at all, and you are one of them,” Zhiyuan said. Yin Lan snorted coldly at this point, but did not interrupt him. However, Zhiyuan paused for a moment, as if he was organizing his thoughts, before continuing, “I admire you, but I can’t do what you do… This is because we have different views on some aspects.”
"Comrade Yin Lan, you believe in and are too attached to 'procedural justice'. Although it is not a bad thing, I cannot follow 'procedural justice'... This will inevitably make me turn a blind eye to many things. I cannot tolerate those criminals who have not been caught or tried within the 'procedure' and continue to live in the world triumphantly, as if they have successfully fooled others... Just thinking about it makes me feel disgusted to the point of vomiting."
As Zhiyuan recounted the story, Yin Lan spoke in a low voice.
"Can I take your words as a 'criminal confession'... Are you explaining why you killed those three?"
no, he is not.
Lin Yu thought to himself.
He probably already understood what the "paper kite" was trying to express.
"Programs are unreliable. Since we don't believe that programs can punish all bad people, we naturally don't believe that programs can protect all good people either."
Lin Yu thought in his heart.
He felt that he had grasped some core qualities of "Paper Kite" and that if he were to impersonate Paper Kite, he could probably fool even Paper Kite herself.
Sure enough, Paper Kite spoke up after Lin Yu's idea popped into his head.
“I didn’t kill them…but whether you believe me or not, whether ‘Order’ can ultimately clear my name or not, is not important, because I will not give up here and wait for all of this to happen—this could very well be a trap set by the other side against me, and I cannot sit idly by and wait to die.”
“I trust you, especially you, Comrade Dionysus… but I will not follow your example and willingly accept the fate of being imprisoned and awaiting trial.”
"I will not become Socrates who drinks poison."
As Zhiyuan spoke, she pointed the gun at Lin Yu.
"boom!"
He fired directly, but Lin Yu, who was already on guard, immediately activated [Eye of the Gray Spirit], and his body had silently transformed into an energy body.
However, before the bullet hit Lin Yu, Yin Lan had already flashed in front of Lin Yu and reached out to block the bullet that was aimed at his lower abdomen.
"Ding Dong!"
The bullet bounced off and fell to the ground.
"Paper Kite! Whether you are the murderer or not... how dare you attack the 'Director'?! How dare you attack a fellow member of 'Order'?!"
As Yin Lan spoke, a chilling killing intent resurfaced, and an invisible, violent energy erupted from her body, roaring as she charged towards Zhi Yuan.