Chapter 1 The Chill of an Autumn Morning

The morning sun, barely approaching six o'clock, had yet to paint the sky with its colors.

The castle and the surrounding mountains remained shrouded in a thick mist and shadow.

The main hall on the ground floor.

The chill of late autumn seeped through the castle's floor-to-ceiling windows, casting a cold and deathly pall over everyone.

Based solely on the existing information from the Shadow World, no one could discern how to deduce the identity of the traitor.

In the initial stages of the Shadow World, information is extremely limited for the challengers in the open.

No one knew what effects the traitor's Blood Authority could have, nor what their mission objectives were. However, everyone could see that the Shadow World's information stated that the traitors held mission objectives distinct from those of normal challengers.

That meant that when advancing their objectives, the traitors would inevitably take action, and these actions were likely to leave openings.

Therefore, a detective with professional insight and extreme mental acuity was needed to seize these clues.

The detective also needed to be someone whose trustworthiness was absolute, a central point where other challengers could safely provide information, and who could bear the responsibility of uncovering the traitor's identity.

Correspondingly.

The detective was also the most vulnerable to the traitor's machinations.

The other normal challengers had to find ways to protect the detective.

However, this detective seemed quite capable in combat himself…

In the hall, the challengers were clustered in roughly four different locations.

They held no trust for strangers and were cautious even in casual conversation.

Their only trust lay with their companions who had entered the Shadow World with them.

It was easy to see that there were four teams of three challengers each.

This meant that there was definitely a team with two treacherous individuals.

Or two teams with one traitor each.

Those selected as traitors in this kind of challenger-versus-challenger Shadow World were often challengers who already harbored extremely twisted minds, perfectly embodying the traitor's position.

For example, the Rebirth Church hoped to bring about natural disasters in the real world, yearning for slaughter or seizing others' treasures.

There was a high probability.

That the two traitors were members of the Rebirth Church, with perfectly disguised identities in the real world, without any flaws.

Even their companions who had entered with them were unaware of their true identities as members of the Rebirth Church.

Therefore, even though Lan Qi and Xuboli'an clearly seemed to be on the same team as Frey, they still failed to gain the trust of the other nine people.

"…"

Outside the window, the ancient trees swayed in the wind, rustling, the only sound that broke the silence of the empty banquet hall.

No matter where they stood, the challengers all focused on Frey, waiting for him to speak first and organize the most basic exchange of information.

Frey expressionlessly glanced at the crowd, seemingly not caring which of them was problematic.

He neither offered an opinion nor showed any emotion in his eyes.

This silence did not make people feel doubtful, but instead made many challengers feel a little relieved.

Although this detective seemed strange.

His calm, absolute confidence was more reassuring than a detective who was flustered and knew he couldn't shoulder the heavy responsibility.

"Let's do simple introductions. The three of us are from the Hutton Kingdom, Yikelite Academy."

Frey simply said this, his gaze looking at the three people closest to them along the top of his sunglasses.

He didn't say anything more, and his meaning was very clear.

It was this group's turn to speak.

Whether they said a lot or a little was up to them.

Regardless of the amount of information, it would become the basis for Frey to weigh their credibility.

Perhaps Frey couldn't immediately deduce the true identities of the challengers at this time, but in the future progress of the Shadow World, anything anyone said now could become a flaw or a key clue.

The first group was a team of three, eye-catching and quite distinctive.

"You guys are from the Southern Continent too? We're from the Canberra Kingdom, the Pete Rossi Merchant Guild."

Stepping forward and speaking to Frey was a young man who looked about eighteen or nineteen years old.

When he looked at Frey, he seemed relieved, his eyes unreservedly showing his enthusiasm and desire to perform.

"I believe you'll know at a glance who the young master is."

The young man said with a slightly smug expression.

Behind him stood a man who appeared taciturn but extremely handsome, his eyes deep, like an unfathomable lake, and a beauty mark at the corner of his eye made him even more charming.

On the other side was a doll-like, exquisite woman, her hair and eye color similar to the handsome man, as if they were siblings.

Frey looked at Lan Qi, as if he wanted to say something, but decided against it.

Lan Qi just smiled helplessly.

In the distance.

"My identity in this Shadow World is [Geographer]... Let me see the effect..."

The young man hadn't stopped talking, seemingly checking the Shadow World information panel while saying,

"I can know the approximate map and terrain of the vicinity, for example, the Lichtenstein Castle we're in is located in a continuous mountain range, separated by the edge of the Honin Empire's national defense barrier in the rear, and in front there is only a cliff 890 meters high, with a bridge connecting it, the only available path from the city-state to Lichtenstein Castle..."

Just as the young man was about to reveal all the geographical information in this way, the male guard behind him coughed lightly, finally startling the young man into stopping.

Obviously, it wasn't a good thing for this idiot young master to say too much in public.

Some key information was better told to the detective in private.

Directly revealing his identity would easily allow the challengers to confirm the authenticity of his information, which could indeed gain the trust of the detective and regular challengers.

But exposing the extremely valuable function of [Geographer] would also attract the attention of the traitors, making him the most dangerous person after the detective.

Xuboli'an and Lan Qi stood behind Frey without saying a word, silently absorbing this information.

The Canberra Kingdom was the best of the kingdoms on the Southern Continent in terms of overall national strength, and it was also a kingdom that had maintained neutrality for many years. Both the Southern Continent Shadow World Management Association and the Card Maker Association headquarters were located in the Canberra Kingdom.

It was also one of the countries most difficult for the Rebirth Church to infiltrate.

The name of the Pete Rossi Merchant Guild was also quite prominent among the kingdoms of the Southern Continent.

Although Lan Qi was also a wealthy young man, when it came to family wealth, the Pete Rossi Merchant Guild was probably several orders of magnitude richer.

If this young man was truly the young master of the Pete Rossi Merchant Guild, then this noble identity that was likely to be directly recognized would not be a preferred choice for a fake identity.

It was obvious that this guy's brain wasn't working very well, and he was the type being dragged through the Shadow World by his two dads on the team.

(End of chapter)