Li Ang raised his right hand, a five-centimeter square of green, thin-film electronic chip resting in his palm.

【Name: Mastiff-Type Anti-Theft Tracking Chip】

【Type: Portable Item】

【Quality: Excellent】

【Effect: Anti-theft tracking. Forms a link with three or fewer pieces of your own equipment. When the equipment moves a certain distance away from the chip, the user can activate the chip to teleport to the linked item's location.】

【Consumption: Consumes spirit energy proportional to the teleportation distance and the user's life essence strength.】

【Cooldown: 24 hours】

【Equipment Requirement: Intelligence stat of 13 or higher】

【Note: Currently linked to – Mercury Blood Amber】

【Note: Cannot be used within 5 seconds of attacking or being attacked】

【Note: This chip is compatible with Future Tech Co., Ltd.'s 8848 Titanium mobile phone. 8848 Titanium mobile phone, exclusive one-to-one secret key, automatically explodes ten meters away from the user, leaving thieves nowhere to hide】

The red-clothed old woman couldn't see the 【Mastiff-Type Anti-Theft Tracking Chip's】 item description (Li Ang had chosen not to reveal it),

But that didn't stop her from guessing what had happened.

In the rules of the Killing Game, most equipment items had an implicit binding attribute.

The equipment on a player belonged to them.

Even if someone else stole it during normal times or in battle, they couldn't use its effects (this rule was mainly to prevent high-level players from plundering resources from low-level players).

The implicit binding attribute had to be解除解 (jiechu) - removed after the player died, or through a voluntary trade, before it could be used normally.

In addition, when a player died, the equipment they were holding became unowned and could be picked up.

But items in their inventory would directly disappear from the world, unlike in a web-based monster-killing game where they would drop as loot (this was also to prevent level crushing).

Having consumed the Mercury Blood Amber and 13mArk, the red-clothed old woman understood

That 13mArk had anticipated his own death and stored away his equipment, not leaving it for the red-clothed old woman.

He had also left the most easily hidden and most crucial item

To the player companion who had come to support him.

"..."

Black snowflake-shaped baleful energy swirled around the red-clothed old woman, healing her body's injuries as quickly as possible.

The chip in the Dragon Head White Coat's hand that could teleport him near the Mercury Blood Amber

Was probably not bound to the red-clothed old woman's own Mercury Puppet – as the item's owner, she should have been able to see whether her equipment was bound.

The red-clothed old woman's gaze slowly shifted to Li Ang's feet.

There, a small, oval-shaped blob of liquid, like a silver slime, was slowly moving toward her.

Another piece of... Mercury Blood Amber.

Mercury Blood Amber could be split and cut into multiple pieces, forming different individuals.

But only a piece with a total volume of 80% or more could activate the clone effect and obtain skills and equipment from the user.

Besides that, fragments of Blood Amber also had cohesive properties.

Smaller fragments, if left unattended for a period of time, would actively move toward the larger fragments.

Last night, 13mArk must have hidden an extra, smaller piece of Mercury Blood Amber on the eleventh floor where he died and left it for Li Risheng.

He guessed that the red-clothed old woman would consume the Mercury Blood Amber and use its clone effect.

His goal was to have Li Risheng use the cohesive properties of the Mercury Blood Amber fragment to find the red-clothed old woman's location.

Then, using the 【Mastiff-Type Anti-Theft Tracking Chip】, he could teleport directly near her.

The reason 13mArk hadn't used the chip to escape before was probably because the item was still on cooldown.

Wanli Fengdao's arm had been chopped off by the red-clothed old woman and then healed by the Dragon Head White Coat, growing back anew – at the time, the red-clothed old woman had only thought that Li Risheng was good at healing.

She hadn't expected that the latter had used vines and a small portion of Mercury Blood Amber to create Wanli Fengdao's right arm.

Creating an opportunity for teleportation for him.

In other words, at that time, Li Risheng had already guessed that the red-clothed old woman would capture Wanli Fengdao.

And to track her, he had been willing to use his teammate as bait...

"It's not about selling out teammates."

Li Ang seemed to have read the red-clothed old woman's thoughts and casually shook his head, saying, "The combination of Mercury Blood Amber fragment + tracking chip can work on anyone.

Just now, upstairs, I had originally planned to deliberately make a mistake, let myself be seriously injured by a monster, and lure you into attacking me.

I didn't expect Liu Wudai's miniature missile to be so effective,

And Little Knife Bro didn't have any flight skills and was too slow,

So he was captured by you before I could."

That still doesn't erase the suspicion that you deliberately let your teammate get captured, does it?

If you sincerely wanted to save your teammate, you could have used the tracking chip on the twelfth floor to directly rescue Wanli Fengdao.

Why wait until I brought Wanli Fengdao down to the eleventh floor before arriving so late.

The red-clothed old woman's thoughts churned, and Li Ang smiled, "The reason I didn't rush over immediately was because this chip has limitations,

And the second reason is that I wanted to see which floor you were going to take Wanli Fengdao to?"

What?

The red-clothed old woman's heart lurched, and even the black ice crystals surrounding her paused imperceptibly.

"As a monster, it's strange that you would risk being counter-killed by the player and bring him to another floor to devour, instead of just killing them directly, isn't it?"

Li Ang said calmly, "Monsters aren't squirrels with hoarding tendencies.

They don't need to bring their food back to their nests before they can enjoy it.

Unless, she isn't a real monster,

But a player disguised as a monster."

Li Ang paused, looked at the still-silent red-clothed old woman, and sighed, "It's boring when no one responds.

Dan Fei, can you stop pretending?

From my perspective, you're like a firefly in the dark, exceptionally conspicuous."

"...Dan Fei?"

The red-clothed old woman took a deep breath and slowly opened her mouth, her voice hoarse and low, like iron scraping against iron, making it impossible to tell if it was male or female. "How did you know?"

"There are two reasons."

Li Ang said calmly, "First, I have a skill that allows me to distinguish between players and monsters."

In Li Ang's eyes, a line of words was clearly floating above the red-clothed old woman's head: "I slept with Rudy Joseph's wife at the Royal Oasis Hotel in Port-au-Prince."

Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti.

And according to Mule and Bai Haozheng, both Kafi and Dan Fei were from Haiti.

"Second, it's the floors here."

Li Ang looked around and said lightly, "According to the hotel's accommodation guide,

Having people stay on the floors can effectively calm the hotel's agitation.

And floors where people have died don't need to be occupied for the next 180 hours.

Fourteen players correspond to fourteen floors.

The Killing Game hints that players need to each stay on a floor.

Even if a player dies,

It won't cause the hotel to become agitated because they died on their assigned floor.

The so-called agitation refers to two things: one, the anomalies in the hotel will become more aggressive, like tonight when all the players gathered together, causing all the monsters to go crazy.

And two, it refers to those tall, thin figures with conical hats whose identities are unknown."

The red-clothed old woman pursed her lips tightly, not making a sound.

Li Ang continued, "Let's review the previous six nights.

On the first night, Kafi was killed by the red-clothed old woman shortly after curfew. The conical hat figure didn't appear that night.

On the second night, Dan Fei stayed in room 1172, leaving a record on paper that there were signs of a fight in the room, as well as one of Dan Fei's hands and one of his feet. It was speculated that Dan Fei had met with misfortune. The conical hat figure didn't appear that night.

On the third night, the red-clothed old woman appeared, taking the elevator from the first floor to the eighth floor, then to the twelfth floor, and then continuing upward. That night, Ω on the first floor and 13mArk received a note that said, 'Keep the doors clean.'

The Mind-Hiding Ghost on the twelfth floor saw a woman in a kimono in a dream and killed her before waking up.

The tall, thin figures with conical hats appeared that night, saying 'One is missing' and climbing up from the first floor all the way to the twelfth floor, killing the Mind-Hiding Ghost.

On the fourth night, Bob on the ninth floor spent a long time in a dream and died, the time of death unknown. The elevator didn't open that night. The red-clothed old woman didn't appear.

The tall, thin figures with conical hats appeared, continuing to say 'One is missing' and climbing upstairs.

Hei Shengzi and I sat in the elevator to monitor the tall, thin figures with conical hats, and we discovered that they disappeared on the eighth floor.

The room on the ninth floor was a mess, and Bob was no longer there.

On the fifth night, 13mArk on the eighth floor discovered the red-clothed old woman before curfew and was attacked by her.

He realized that the red-clothed old woman possessed the Mind-Hiding Ghost's skills.

After a struggle, he escaped into the elevator shaft, seeking Bai Haozheng's help.

The tall, thin figures with conical hats didn't appear that night.

Ω was discovered missing by the players the next morning. There was no note in the room, and the time of disappearance was unknown.

On the sixth night, 13mArk, suspecting the other players, secretly hid in room 1108, believing that he was staying on a floor where someone had already died and wouldn't be attacked.

However, the red-clothed old woman still appeared in room 1008, first eating his Mercury Blood Amber, then climbing up to room 1108, subduing 13mArk on the eleventh floor, beating him severely, and dragging him into the elevator shaft,

And blocking me from coming to his aid by releasing light mine traps.

The tall, thin figures with conical hats didn't appear that night.

The tall, thin figures with conical hats appeared around 3:30 on the third and fourth nights.

They killed the Mind-Hiding Ghost on the third night,

And disappeared suddenly while heading to the ninth floor on the fourth night – Bob had already died before that.

In other words, the pattern of appearance for the tall, thin figures with conical hats is that they chase after the death of players.

If a player dies before 3:30 on a given night, they won't appear.

If no player dies before 3:30 on a given night, they will appear and follow a certain rule to kill players.

This is what the accommodation guide refers to as agitation."

"That's not right."

The red-clothed old woman said in a low voice, "Since you know I'm a player,

Then Kafi, Dan Fei, the Mind-Hiding Ghost, Ω, and 13mArk, who died before this, are all suspects.

Why are you certain that I'm Dan Fei?

Furthermore,

The note left by Dan Fei on the second night clearly stated that

Nothing happened between 00:30 and 03:15.

At 03:16, the telephone on the right side of the eleventh-floor hallway rang, and the caller ID showed 101#. Dan Fei was suspicious and didn't answer. The phone hung up after three rings.

At 03:30, Dan Fei heard the telephone ring again, from next door, and didn't answer.

At 03:31, the telephone in Dan Fei's room rang, and Dan Fei decided to answer it.

Note that the time was already 03:31 when Dan Fei decided to answer the phone in room 1172.

No players had died before that.

And according to your hypothesis, the tall, thin figures with conical hats should have appeared in the hotel at 03:30 because no one had died.

The actually observed facts contradict your hypothesis."

"It doesn't contradict it."

Li Ang shook his head. "The tall, thin figures with conical hats do kill based on whether or not someone has died,

But the Killing Game never arranges inevitable death situations.

Before the killing, the hotel must meet the conditions to trigger the tall, thin figures with conical hats.

That is, agitation – someone is not staying on the floor they're supposed to be on."

"..."

The red-clothed old woman's breathing hitched.

Li Ang continued, "On the third night, I felt something was a little strange.

The Mind-Hiding Ghost died that night, and he had already killed the woman in the kimono in his dream – at the time, I thought it was his act of killing the monster that had attracted the conical hat figures.

But combining it with the experience of players killing monsters after that, it's not the case.

On the third night, the red-clothed old woman, which is you,

Took the elevator upward from the first floor before 03:30.

The elevator doors opened when passing floors 1, 8, and 12.

Why weren't Ω on the first floor and 13mArk on the eighth floor taken away by the tall, thin figures with conical hats that night? Instead, it was the Mind-Hiding Ghost on the twelfth floor who was taken away?

Judging from the route of the tall, thin figures with conical hats, the first person to die should have been Ω."

The red-clothed old woman didn't answer. Li Ang said to himself, "Now it seems, their notes saved their lives.

They received the note 'Keep the doors clean' and spent the entire night cleaning every door in their rooms, including the outside of the door.

I think you must have used the rules in the hotel's accommodation guide to leave food scraps outside the doors of the rooms on floors 1, 8, and 12, right?

Ω and 13mArk narrowly escaped death thanks to the notes,

While the Mind-Hiding Ghost was unlucky enough to be lured by you leaving food outside door 1208,

Causing the Mind-Hiding Ghost to violate the rules, attracting the conical hat figures and being killed.

The reason you disguised yourself as the red-clothed old woman, took the elevator, and left food outside the doors of three rooms

Was so that you could act like a ghost, making the players think you were a real hotel monster, and they wouldn't dare to open the door easily, so they wouldn't discover your flaws and your behavior of leaving food outside the door.

And second, it was so you could test the effects of violating the hotel's rules.

If the tall, thin figures with conical hats killed all three players in one go, that would naturally be the best, as it would calm the hotel's agitation to the greatest extent and also reduce the number of unstable factors.

If the tall, thin figures with conical hats only killed the player on the first floor, that wouldn't be bad either.

At least it would prove that the tall, thin figures with conical hats only act once a night, and they prioritize players on lower floors,

Eliminating the risks for you.

And the reason you didn't use this trick after that is also very simple.

You learned from someone that the Dolphin Hotel would refresh notes like 'Keep the doors clean' in the players' rooms, which was aimed at you.

The trick of leaving food outside the door could no longer work. On the contrary, it would make the players suspect your identity,

So you changed the way you harmed them, such as killing them directly."