Card Room

Chapter 570 - The Secret of Old Gui

Lu Jiuchuan’s expression became solemn when he read Gui Yuanzhang’s letter. He frowned and read the letter three times from beginning to end. The words were indeed written by Old Gui himself. Could It be that Old Gui became a hunter in order to go undercover?

He was thinking carefully when there were the fierce howls of wolves from outside.

Lu Jiuchuan walked vigilantly to Old Mo’s side. “The wolves outside suddenly howled so fiercely. Did something happen?”

Old Mo looked nervous. “I don’t know. Do they want to launch an all-out attack against us?”

Lu Jiuchuan gripped the sword tightly and looked around. For, Old Mo was quick and wise. There were no windows in the model room and the four walls were sealed. He sighed with relief. “Fortunately, the four walls are all cement. The wolves can’t get through for the time being.”

Outside, the footsteps of a large number of wolves running were heard. It was like the horses of a mighty army. However, the wolves ran in the opposite direction and the howling gradually faded away. It went from being deafening to disappearing completely.

Soon, the surrounding area became incredibly quiet.

Lu Jiuchuan listened carefully in a confused manner and found that the wolves were no longer howling. He couldn’t help wondering, “Are they gone?”

Old Mo looked dazed. “They seem to be gone.”

The two of them were about to go to the door to look through the peephole when they heard a knock on the door. “Old Mo, are you inside?”

It was Xiao Lou’s voice.

Lu Jiuchuan was overjoyed. “Xiao Lou?”

The person outside seemed a bit surprised when he heard this voice. “Brother Jiu? Why are you also here?”

Lu Jiuchuan replied, “Let’s meet first.”

Xiao Lou said, “Old Mo, open the door. The wolves have been led away by us.”

Just now, Xiao Lou, Yu Hanjiang and Qu Wanyue had been passing by. The wolves found them and howled madly, surrounding them in an instant. Yu Hanjiang alone couldn’t deal with thousands of wolves. Xiao Lou was forced to tie the dongpo pork to the white silk and throw it away using the wind. The wolves were affected by the skill of this meat and quickly chased after it.

They found there was a house here. At first glance, it was obviously Old Mo’s Model Room.

The model room had no windows but Old Mol left a door for easy escape. The security door was very thick and a wild beast couldn’t force it open. Old Mo walked to the door and looked through the peephole to see not only Xiao Lou but also Yu Hanjiang and Qu Wanyue.

Old Mo said vigilantly, “Professor Xiao, you usually play escape games and you are the administrator of the largest escape room forum in Jiangzhou. I think your ID is Xiao Lou Listening to the Spring Rain All Night?”

“I’m not the administrator. I’m a moderator and my ID is Xiao Lou Listening to the Rain.”

Old Mo was relieved. This Professor Xiao was real!

Then he heard Lu Jiuchuan say, “Is Hanjiang also there? I remember that when you were seven years old, you were locked at home to do homework. You didn’t want to do it so you sneaked out the window to go out and play. You ended up breaking your leg and I was the one who took you to the hospital.”

Yu Hanjiang, “……”

XIao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang and seemed to say, ‘Were you so naughty as a child?’

Yu Hanjiang knocked on the door in an expressionless manner. “Open the door.”

They couldn’t be blamed for being suspicious. ‘Fake teammates’ appeared frequently in the secret rooms and they had to be on guard.

The words just now weren’t the secret code they agreed upon beforehand but something that everyone mentioned in their casual chats. In addition, Lu Jiuchuan’s words were a secret that only Yu Hanjiang knew.

Lu Jiuchuan signaled to open the door and Old Mo turned the knob with confidence.

The three of them entered the model room and Old Mo immediately locked the door. Yu Hanjiang walked to Brother Jiu and asked in a low voice, “Why are you eliminated? Who did it?”

Old Mo took the initiative to say, “It is Old Gui, We never dreamed that Old Gui was actually a traitor in the team!”

Qu Wanyue looked surprised. “What? Isn’t the traitor Liu Qiao’s sister? Old Gui…”

Xiao Lou couldn’t digest so much information for a moment and he looked doubtfully at Lu Jiuchuan.

Lu Jiuchuan didn’t explain and simply handed Xiao Lou the letter that Old Gui had left for him.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang read it together and looked at each other. Xiao Lou wondered, “Brother Jiu, do you believe him?”

Lu Jiuchuan frowned. “I hope it is true. I have only known Old Gui for a year but he doesn’t seem to be someone who is greedy for life and afraid of death. He has lived a long time and is very open about many things. I remember that Old Guil believes in Buddhism. Ordinary people who believe in Buddhism won’t kill innocent people indiscriminately, right?”

Xiao Lou remembered that in the past, they encountered the six reincarnation mechanisms and Old Gui had a great understanding of it.

Lu Jiuchuan added, “He was very decisive when he killed me and I couldn’t even react. Perhaps this was an act for the other side to see because Xu Muran, the leader of the hunters, appeared. This Xu Muran is actually our former captain. What a bastard! He died in the Nightmare Room and chose to be a hunter!”

Yu Hanjiang quickly tore the letter to shreds.”Brother, think carefully. You came out of the J of Clubs Nightmare Room and met your teammates in the main city. Was there anything wrong in the process?”

Lu Jiuchuan carefully recalled his experience at the time. “In the J of Clubs Nightmare Room, the eliminated people didn’t gather. I was alone in the secret room and Tang Ci was the same. After I came out, I went to the underground factory that was our base. I arrived and found that Old Gui was waiting for us there, followed by Huaying and Tang Ci.”

Xiao Lou asked a question. “Old Gui’s strength isn’t the strongest in the team. Didn’t you have any doubts about how he managed to make it out of the NIghtmare Room alone?”

Lu Jiuchuan was stunned for a moment before smiling bitterly. “At that time, I was seriously injured. Tang Ci lost his legs and Old Gui and Huaying were covered in blood. We were too busy with treatment and didn’t have time to consider all these details.”

Xiao Lou asked pointedly, “What about the contract book? Didn’t you check it?”

Lu Jiuchuan once again explained helplessly, “The contract book was on me. I didn’t think about it at the time. Then when I woke up and checked it, I found that the only names on it were me, Tang Ci, Old Gui and Huaying. The names of our other teammates were erased.”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged looks.

They weren’t dead but they were seriously injured and on the verge of death. It was definitely more important to heal each other first. They probably couldn’t imagine that Old Gui had become a hunter.

Yu Hanjiang opened his mouth. “It seems that the names of those who die in the ordinary secret rooms will disappear from the contract book. If they survive the Nightmare Room, they will reappear in the book. Old Gui took advantage of when Brother Jiu was unconscious to take the contract book and sign his name. Then he pretended that he survived the Nightmare Room.”

Xiao Lou wondered, “However, he didn’t survive and chose to be a hunter. How can he sign the contract book? I remember that the contract book must be signed by challengers. Once signed, they will be bound to a team and sent to the same secret room.”

A thought flashed in Lu Jiuchuan’s mind. “The brush. He has the brush!”

Xiao Lou was stunned before quickly understanding. “You mean, the brush of Old Gui can sign the contract book?”

Lu Jiuchuan nodded. “His brush can write on the surface of any object and change the color. He used his name to write the words’ Gui Yuanzhang’ on the contract book. On the surface, he signed the contract but in fact, the contract book didn’t recognize him and he wasn’t bound to us as a team. His name is only floating on the surface of the paper and he won’t be pulled with us when entering the secret room. Perhaps he can go with us to the Q and K secret rooms by relying on the hunters’ method?”

Xiao Lou followed this line of thought and analyzed it. “The hunters can also enter the secret rooms we entered. In the Q secret room, Old Gui used his identity as a hunter to stay in the merpeople’s palace. His goal was to assassinate Liu Qiao and Old Mo. In the secret room, everyone appeared together at the mass burial site but don’t forget, the big boss of the K Secret room is a hunter and the master of the mass burial site. Old Gui can also use the hunter’s passage and appear at the mass burial site!”

On the surface, Old Gui had teleported to the secret room with them and his name was on the contract book. Yet in fact, this was all a disguise and it was an impeccable disguise!

Yu Hanjiang said, “In other words, the contract book is the only way to test if a person is a challenger or not. Gui Yuanzhang might be a hunter but he had the all-purpose brush that can forge his signature on the contract book to make people mistakenly think he is a challenger?”

Xiao Lou thought about it. “Perhaps this is the reason he went undercover. It is only when using the brush that the undercover agent won’t be suspected by anyone. The other hunters can’t sign their names, right?”

Everyone, “……”

The more Xiao Lou thought about it, the more shocked he became. If this was the case, the depth of Old Gui’s planning was truly admirable!

He remembered that at that time, he handed the new contract book to Brother Jiu’s group of four to sign. Old Gui was the last to sign and Xiao Lou didn’t suspect him. He naturally didn’t pay attention to whether Old Gui used the quill brush that came with the contract book when he signed it or his own brush.

The simple brush card was used to the extreme by Old Gui and he actually played the big role of a ‘spy.’

Lu Jiuchuan took a deep breath and looked serious. “I am willing to believe him for now. If he was on the side of the hunters, he had countless opportunities to do something to us. For example, we were tracked by the hunters in the Headless General’s Tomb. The underground tomb was about to collapse. He just needed to block the exit to bury all of us alive.”

Xiao Lou nodded. “There is also the mass burial site in the K secret room. Brother Jiu, your clues were transmitted across time by relying on his letters. If he did something to the clues, Hanjiang and I wouldn’t have been able to successfully solve the case.”

Old Mo and Qu Wanyue listened with confused expressions and finally understood.

Qu Wanyue’s voice trembled. “I can understand why he didn’t tell us. After all, the more people who know, the easier it is for someone to show something. However, as you said, he had many opportunities in the Q and K secret rooms. Why drag it out until the two jokers secret room?”

Yu Hanjiang told her, “My guess is because if we successfully clear the two jokers secret room, we can go back. The hunters might also be able to get the highest reward. This secret room is the decisive battle so the big move naturally must be left until the end.”

Xiao Lou nodded in agreement with Yu Hanjiang’s words. “Perhaps Old Gui relied on being the only one in the Card World who can ‘sign the contract book’ with his own brush to make a deal with the high level hunters and deliberately dragged it out until the two jokers secret room. So the previous few times, we survived despite encountering the trouble of being chased by hunters. It is due to this that the hunters didn’t fully trust him. Thus, he decisively killed Brother Jiu and Old Mo to prove his loyalty.”

Old M suddenly wondered, “No, he also killed Mr Tang. How come we haven’t seen Mr Tang?”

Lu Jiuchuan’s expression changed. “What did you say? Tang Ci also…”

He was the first to be stabbed to death and Tang Ci was still alive when he closed his eyes. Meanwhile, Old Mo was the last to die. He said, “I saw it with my own eyes. Old Gui threw Mr Tang into the fire and Mr Tang was burned to death!”

Xiao Lou declared very firmly, “Tang Ci isn’t dead.”

Lu Jiuchuan’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

Xiao Lou explained, “His defensive mecha isn’t even afraid of hellfire, let alone the fire set by the hunters. Old Gui deliberately saved Tang Ci by throwing Tang Ci into the fire. The hunters probably thought that Tang Ci’s defense mecha was used up but I know that when the mecha was dismantled to make the stoves, Mr Tang actually left one behind just in case.”

Lu Jiuchuan smiled and sighed with relief. “That’s good. He killed me and left Tang Ci behind. It is probably because Old Gui thinks that Tang Ci is smarter than me?”

Yu Hanjiang glanced at his brother and seemed to be saying, ‘You are quite self-aware.’

Xiao Lou felt a lot more relaxed. In fact, all the way to the present, he often wondered if there was a way for them to clear the secret rooms. The hunters were so strong and outnumbered them. They could also replace the identities of natives in the Card world or pretend to be their teammates. Under such a terrible disadvantage, how could they find a turning point?

Now he found it.

Fortunately, Old Gui was far-sighted. He personally became a hunter in order to find out the details of the hostile force.

It was as Old Gui said. It was only by going back in time with their memories, changing what happened and eliminating the hunters in advance that they could break the game.

Xiao Lou looked at his teammates. “Mr Tang is very smart. He was let go by Old Gui so he must’ve realized that Old Gui is a double undercover agent. Next, they should figure out ways to get the details of the hunters before finding the right time to start the time reversal.”

Yu Hanjiang wondered, “What do you think is the right time?”

Xiao Lou answered, “The best time is to wait for us to go back. So we have to find the exit of the Nightmare Room as soon as possible.”

Not proofread