Volume One: First Steps in the City Chapter Twenty-Eight: Communication

“In truth, I did that deliberately at your door, precisely to keep you from reaching the protagonist,” Fang Hao said unhurriedly.

Lu Yi shot to his feet the moment he heard this, glaring at Fang Hao with a sharp question, “Why?”

“What’s the rush?” Fang Hao glanced sideways at Lu Yi. “Before I answer that, let me ask you—haven’t you found something odd about the veteran challengers?”

“Of course. They didn’t have any lines either at the bus or the service area,” Lu Yi replied irritably, then added, “You just said Dong Xingteng was suspicious, and now you’re saying the veteran challengers are as well. At this rate, are you going to suspect everyone one by one?”

“That’s all you noticed?” Fang Hao sighed and shook his head. “Didn’t you notice that the protagonist doesn’t seem to recognize the veteran challengers?”

Lu Yi was taken aback. Back in his house, the veteran challengers indeed hadn’t referred to knowing Xie Ruida. Just as Fang Hao said, it was as if the two sides had never met before.

“And you should remember the dialogue, right? When you entered, that girl listed all the people who hadn’t arrived, but none of the veteran challengers were named.” Fang Hao’s words shocked Lu Yi to the core. “How is that possible? They were with us the entire time.”

Lu Yi couldn’t make sense of it; the veteran challengers now seemed like surplus figures in the group.

Seeing Lu Yi’s gaze shift to him, Fang Hao smiled faintly. “Well? There are still many details in this mission worth pondering, aren’t there?”

“Hurry up and talk,” Lu Yi urged.

“Patience,” Fang Hao said, straightening his posture. “Before answering, let me throw out a little question. Which do you think will determine the final difficulty of this task: one, the level of the newcomers, or two, the level of the veteran challengers?”

“Obviously the latter,” Lu Yi answered without hesitation.

“Very good. In that case, under what circumstances or conditions would the difficulty be raised to that level?” Fang Hao continued to guide him.

“What conditions?” Lu Yi didn’t quite follow.

“You don’t really think that whatever we do has no effect and the difficulty just increases step by step until it matches the veterans, do you?” Fang Hao stared at Lu Yi, who shook his head. “So what would cause the mission’s difficulty to spike early?”

As Fang Hao questioned him, Lu Yi suddenly remembered his own theory—that discovering a way out caused the spike in difficulty. “It’s when key information is uncovered.”

“Exactly, that’s one possibility. Early on, the veteran challengers are there but transparent in the script. Now that they’ve appeared in those roles and interacted with the protagonist, it’s to control that critical moment,” Fang Hao said with certainty.

“Key information? What kind of key information?” Lu Yi muttered, then suddenly thought of something. “Could it be the order of deaths? But since I survived, the order should have already been rearranged.”

Fang Hao nodded. “True, but there are still pivotal points for raising the difficulty on the protagonist’s side. So as soon as they got those roles, they took the protagonist away from us, just to avoid raising the difficulty too early.”

“Then how did you know for sure that I’d go looking for the protagonist?” Lu Yi asked curiously.

“That’s simple—you faced serious danger,” Fang Hao replied, eyes crinkling with a smile.

“That’s it?” Lu Yi found it hard to believe.

“That’s it. Compared to the others who weren’t attacked, you, having survived, have a much more urgent need to seek answers from the protagonist. You’re also more likely to trigger the ‘trap’ than other newcomers.” Fang Hao shifted his posture slightly. “You could say the protagonist is a double-edged sword in this mission.”

“That’s why, to keep you from raising the difficulty and to avoid you ruining my plan, I blocked you at your door.”

At that moment, Fang Hao’s phone rang a few times. He glanced at it, his expression shifting from delight to something more complicated. Putting the phone away, he said, “There was more I could have told you, but it looks like something more important has come up. Since we’ve discussed the main points, let’s leave it here for today.”

He took out his notebook and started reviewing the list of people along the way. Lu Yi thought for a moment and decided to share his own suspicions with Fang Hao.

When Fang Hao heard him, he frowned slightly, closed his laptop, and began pacing the room, deep in thought.

“You mean you’ve repeatedly seen black smoke winding around you, and you think it’s the exorcism ritual that caused the crisis, and the appearance of the Grim Reaper is a message left for you by the city?” Fang Hao clarified.

“That’s right,” Lu Yi nodded.

“No, that’s not it,” Fang Hao eventually shook his head. “It shouldn’t be like that.”

He sat back down. “You think that was a clue related to finding a way out, a hint provided by the city. But if relying on demon hunters and the Grim Reaper is the way out, does that mean the newcomers should keep the demon hunter close by, or unite to destroy the Grim Reaper somewhere?”

“If it’s the former, the goal is still to survive the time limit—which brings up a contradiction. The demon hunters and the veteran challengers hold equal standing in this mission. In fact, because of the veterans, the difficulty has increased significantly. If the city arranged for veteran challengers just to make things harder for the newcomers, that doesn’t make sense. Remove the veterans, and this mission would already be quite hard, wouldn’t it?”

“Besides, that kind of ‘way out’ is too uncontrollable, since it’s not a simple action of approach or avoidance, but involves interacting and dealing with people, which is full of variables.”

“By contrast, the idea of uniting to destroy the Grim Reaper is more plausible. If a group can kill it, does having fewer people still allow survival? But that’s a path with no retreat—it would instantly raise the mission’s difficulty to the limit, do or die. Even if the city were to prompt such a move, it would only do so when both sides’ strength was nearly equal.”

Lu Yi pondered Fang Hao’s words and realized his earlier guess indeed didn’t quite hold up.

“You’ve given me some useful information today,” Fang Hao said, leaning in a little closer. “Let me share part of my own theory with you.”

He spoke in a low voice, and as Lu Yi listened, his eyes grew wider and wider. When Fang Hao finished and leisurely took a sip of his drink, Lu Yi stood in shock for a long while before exclaiming, “No, that’s impossible. If that’s true, the difficulty is far too high.”

“Why not? If my guess is correct, then anything is possible. Isn’t that perfectly in line with the city’s goal of pushing people to their limits?” Fang Hao replied with a grin.

“No, I still can’t accept that theory.” Lu Yi stood up.

“Fine, fine. In that case, let’s each seek the evidence we need. Come with me.”

Lu Yi followed Fang Hao down to the basement of the house. Fang Hao casually opened a wooden crate.

“What’s this? Guns?” Lu Yi asked in astonishment.

“That’s right. Deng Zhi is backed by a smuggling ring. You should have activated your temporary team by now,” Fang Hao said, opening another crate.

Then Fang Hao joined Lu Yi’s temporary team, though he said he’d only be using its shared space for now. Before leaving, Fang Hao gave Lu Yi all the files related to him, and the two of them agreed on a plan.