Playoffs

After the meeting, Bai Liu stayed behind to consult with Wang Shun.

"I investigated the players who died at the hands of the Joker and the Executioner during the previous matches." Wang Shun clicked on the system panel and handed it to Bai Liu, "We can see that the Joker's killings were completely random on the field, but the Executioner would control him, so the players that the Joker actually killed in the end weren't the ones that the Joker himself wanted to kill, but the ones that the Executioner wanted to kill."

"To put it simply, the Joker is the executioner's killer." Bai Liu summarized succinctly as he pondered, "But it's a bit strange, the Executioner's own skills aren't weak, and he can even ignore the Immunity Medal, so why would he use the Joker's hands to kill people?"

"Well, I also find this a bit strange." Wang Shun sighs, "Other than that, and on top of all the weirdness, I went and investigated all these players that died at their hands, and found out that these players were more or less involved in the Heretic Smuggling Incident."

Bai Liu raises an eyebrow; "Oh?"

"Like this Ka Bala Guild roamer, who got his head shot off by Joker in the last game." Wang Shun tapped on the system panel and pointed at the man on it, "Do you remember this [Blood Reishi] thing? A heresy used by a group of investors to clutch the blood of children to renew their lives."

"This wandering away is one of the bodyguards that one of the investors keeps in the game as a punching bag."

"Aren't all those investors locked up?" Bai Liu inquired.

"Yes." Wang Shun nods, "but not all of the people around them are incarcerated, and some of these people are players, and can use various props to cover up and escape."

Bai Liu seems enlightened, "So the executioner steps in, and punishes them in the game."

"And what you said, why would the Executioner use the Joker's hand to carry out the execution, that wasn't actually the case before." Wang Shun slid the panel to the next page, "When Adversary was still in Deer Hunter, the main attacker was the Executioner himself, this battle group usually doesn't kill people, and the Executioner even uses the skill [Sinner's Well] to release the players who are locked in before the game ends."

"But after the Adversary left the Deer Hunters, the Executioner himself took over the tactician's position, and he handed over the task of being the main attacker to the newcomer Joker."

Wang Shun took a deep breath, "And then something changed."

Bai Liu looked at the densely arranged, grayed down pictures of players on the panel and narrowed his eyes, "He's starting to kill people."

Community Psychological Counseling Room.

Lu Yizhan's shirt is half off, revealing his right shoulder, a still-unhealed wound from Daniel's bullet, which Liao Ke changes with rubber gloves, disinfects the never-healing wound to no avail, presses the cotton, wraps the bandage, and sighs.

"This wound won't heal." After changing it, Liao Ke put a hand on Lu Yizhan's shoulder, "Get up!"

Lu Yizhan was slapped by him with a jolt, grimaced and screamed in a s-ha-s-ha manner, "Old Liao, what are you slapping!"

"It still hurts?" Liao Ke laughed, "I thought that if you dared to block Daniel's Soul Shattering Shot, you could already scrape your bones with this guts, and you would actually still cry out in pain?"

Lu Yizhan said sadly: "At this time, you are still making fun of me."

"Playing the Gamblers down there, against that old fox Charles." Liao Ke took his gloves off and tossed them into the medical waste can, pressing down twice on the no-kill sanitizer to wipe his hands, "How do you set up your tactics?"

"Charles guessed that he would play a fake match, first a wave of counterattacking and frantically chasing to suppress us, pulling up their win rate, then abandoning the match and surrendering when their win rate is at its highest, he should press us all the way at that moment." Lu Yizhan put his clothes back on and buttoned them up, his expression composed, "If he wants to act, let's accompany him to the end."

"That means this isn't a hard fight." Liao Ke nodded in understanding and the conversation took a steep turn, "What about the unknown there, what do you do?"

Lu Yizhan's hand stopped when he reached the last button, and he lowered his eyes without speaking.

"...... You guys haven't made up yet?" Liao Ke was a little surprised, "I thought you two had already talked about that incident earlier when you asked me to get Cyn's help."

"Not so much right old Lu, you two before more than three hundred world lines are the main vice team, big and small fights also countless, how come this time on such a little thing, you two cold war for so long?"

"Where have I ever fought with him, it's all about him beating me unilaterally, I've never fought back okay." Lu Yizhan spread his hands helplessly.

"But you are really quite indebted sometimes." Liao Ke nodded approvingly, "Obviously at the beginning you and Xiao Cen agreed to stay at the Deer Hunter to defend Bai Liu to win the league, but as a result, when things came to a head, you ran away, and also delegated your own bottom card to Bai Liu, so how do you let Xiao Cen accept it?"

"If I were Sham, I'd beat you up too!"

Lu Yizhan stilled and sighed, "So I also knew it was my fault that he punched me and didn't hit me back ......"

"Xiao Cen usually beats you up and that's it." Liao Ke asked suspiciously, "How come this ...... time?"

Lu Yizhan was silent longer this time as he buttoned up the last button and said very softly, "Hit his bottom."

"We don't share the same philosophy, this is not something we can talk about."

Philosophical discord, four simple words, and the apparent peace he'd spent over three hundred world lines trying to maintain fell apart in that moment, while Cen Buming stood outside the door, calmly holding his gun up to him and saying, "Do it again, and I'll still shoot.

It's like doing it again, Lu Yizhan still couldn't get to Bai Liu the first time he met him.

For Lu Yizhan, what's not done is not done.

For Cen Buming, what's done is done.

"Ideas at odds?" Liao Ke frowns, "Is this about Sham killing those people? That's how you've been laying out work for Sham before."

"His status is that of executioner, and shooting players who cross the line is exactly what he, a hunter who walks the line between the Heresy Handling Bureau and the game, should be doing, and that's what you would have had him do when you were a deer hunter, so why would you say that the philosophies don't mesh?"

"It's not the same." Lu Yizhan was quiet for a long time and shook his head, "Because he doesn't believe in [the Judge] anymore."

"His execution, losing the [trial] loop, is something I can't recognize."

The executioner who had lost the [Judge], the hunter who had been abandoned by the [Prophet], was acting more and more paranoid, and he began to execute according to his own perceived judgment, but for now at least he hadn't crossed the line yet, and the ones who killed were indeed the ones who deserved to be killed.

But when will he cross that line and be the subject of the judgment execution by the Judge?

Liao Ke was stunned, and he, too, fell silent, and after a long interval he spoke, "Are you going to [judge] him?"

"I hope that day doesn't come." Lu Yizhan looked up, he wore a smile and his eyes were a little red, "I don't want to judge him."

"...... If I had known, I wouldn't have wanted a hunter."

Liao Ke sighed with complicated eyes.

It's kind of funny when prophets say they knew it.

But Lu Yizhan is like that, the more he cares about the people, the more the last minute, the more he dares not look at the ending, that skill, [listening to God's only words], God has already written the ending for each of them, Lu Yizhan just need to prophesy, can peep into a corner.

Lu Yizhan doesn't believe in the ending, doesn't dare to see the ending, doesn't want the ending--

--He would rather struggle to the last moment like an ordinary man who knows nothing, then fall to the end of God.

Sinchimani family.

After Phoebe gets the power of the guild and comes back strong, her father disappears - or sniffs a bad smell and runs away is more accurate.

This man had always been arrogant and conceited, thinking that he could accept life and death, measuring and testing everyone with life and death, but when it really came to this moment, he was still cowardly, far less calm than the two children he had raised.

Before he leaves, the man is determined to leave Phoebe in a bit of trouble, and he leaves a suicide note handing over Phoebe's heirship to Daniel, and to make matters worse, Daniel, who has been in hiding, is really back, and he's about to turn eighteen.

In five days, it would be Daniel's bar mitzvah, and according to the rules of the Sinchimani family, the child who comes of age is ready to inherit, and he deserved to become the new generation of heads of the family on his eighteenth birthday.

It's not such a simple matter, or at least Phoebe, the strong-armed former heir, won't let it go that easily.

She already has most of the power of the Sinchimani family and the Guild behind her, so if Daniel is going to take over, he's going to have to kill Phoebe as a roadblock in order to make it to the top, but obviously, that's not going to be easy.

The head of the family disappears, leaving behind a letter to replace the successor, and the eldest son, who has been missing for more than a month, suddenly returns, accompanied by a coming-of-age ceremony.

--The entire Sinchimani family was caught in a stormy atmosphere, the servants trembling as they lowered their heads to wipe down the decorations, they could smell the gunpowder and blood in the air that was about to explode.

While everyone expects Phoebe and Daniel to have a confrontation before the bar mitzvah, Phoebe Sinchimani, the current de facto head of the family, calmly approves of the bar mitzvah and invites a large number of VIPs to what looks to be a rather large-scale bar mitzvah.

All those who were waiting for the struggle were dumbfounded.

Everyone in the Sinchimani family knows what Daniel's Bar Mitzvah means, so the more they don't understand Phoebe's intentions - it has to be said that Phoebe is even more unpredictable and temperamental than her father, and the fact that no one can read her mind at all makes everyone fear her even more.

Even though she's only sixteen, no one thinks Daniel will succeed in taking power from her.

The day of Daniel's birthday will surely be the anniversary of his death.

It may have been a great bar mitzvah or a great jubilee laying of the foundation stone.

Through the long shadowy corridors, looking down from the jogging platform of the corner staircase on the second floor, were servants earnestly cleaning up, and all sorts of expensive decorations were beginning to be embellished around them, all in advance preparation for the ball in five days' time.

While Phoebe rested one hand on the fence, her eyes downcast, her long curly blonde hair falling from her shoulders as she silently watched the people in front of her, Daniel leaned against the staircase, grinning as he fiddled with one of the flowers placed beside the stairs, and Daniel, with unwashed greasepaint on his face and bloody footprints as he walked around, was a bit more casual in his outfit than Phoebe's demure clothes.

"A coming-of-age gift for me?" Daniel gave a cheeky grin, "You're really in the mood."

"Not afraid I'll kill you?"

The servants below were silenced, their backs bowed down, pretending they heard nothing.

Phoebe looked down at Daniel with her eyes up, then said, "Are you really ready for betrayal?"

"I've never been loyal to you." As if he had heard a funny joke, Daniel shrugged his shoulders and smiled provocatively, "And talk about betrayal?"

Phoebe didn't answer.

Daniel withdrew his eyes in boredom as he bounced and hummed a little tune as he walked past Phoebe, his tone a twisted one of excitement, "The godfather would be so happy if he could get this family."

Daniel popped up, one bloody footprint at a time, spreading deeper and deeper into the corridors, all the way to where the light couldn't find it.

Phoebe withdrew her eyes from the bloody footprints he had left on the floor, and then with an afterimage to the flowers where Daniel had scratched bloody fingerprints, she spoke faintly, "Replace the bouquet."

The servant came up to replace the flowers with a shock: "These are your and Mr. Daniel's favorite flowers, how did they get caught like this?!"

"Change it." Phoebe lowered her eyes, "Daniel doesn't like the flower now, so naturally he'll hurt it."

--Finally, it's come to this.

The next day, the rental house.

A group of people gathered at Bai Liu's rented house and prepared to log in to the game, Du Sanying sat next to him, hesitant and afraid to go forward, Mu Sicheng saw him like this, and swept over and pressed Du Sanying's shoulder: "What's the matter, why haven't you come out in the past few days?"

Du Sanying quickly backed away as he pressed himself against the wall in terror, shaking his head frantically, "Don't come near me!"

"You're going to be playing soon, and it's going to be bad luck!"

Mu Sicheng was unconcerned and waved his hand, "No matter how unlucky you are, you can't be any less lucky than this Bai Liu guy, he's our tactician, what do I care about this bit of bad luck of yours?"

Bai Liu : "...... indeed."

"Why have you been avoiding us lately?" Mu Sicheng asked suspiciously, "I was looking for you to come out for dinner yesterday, but I couldn't find you for half a day, so I called and found that you had already run out."

"Wang Shun said you don't even come to our games anymore, what's wrong with you?"

Du Sanying lowered his head, his voice was weak: "...... Aren't you guys playing a very important playoff game, I'm afraid that if I'm there and you guys are unlucky, what if you lose the game ......"

Several people were quiet.

On the contrary, Bai Liu was calm - he knew why Du Sanying didn't come to see, but he never liked to force others, so when Du Sanying really resisted, Bai Liu wouldn't be like Mu Sicheng who chased after Du Sanying to come to dinner to see. But if Du Sanying's attitude is more hesitant and not so resistant, Bai Liu will extend the olive branch.

Like right now.

"Do you want to come watch then?" Bai Liu inquired softly, "It's the semifinals today, four to two."

"It should be a good game."

Du Sanying's eyes were visibly shaken, and he bit his lower lip, but he didn't say anything.

But it didn't go away either.

"If you want to come and watch, just come and watch." Bai Liu didn't force himself, "It's no fun for Wang Shun to watch the game alone, it's good for you to accompany him."

"You don't have to come if you want to!" Mu Sicheng slipped past Du Sanying and swore, "Then you have to come!"

"I'm telling you, you should have come to see the last game, I was an ace in the last game and the other team got beat up by me ......"

Mu Sicheng chattered on and Du Sanying tried to run away in panic, but was held down with a smile by Mu Ke next to him, "As a member of the Wandering Circus, it's also an important duty to witness our winning the championship."

"But just in case ......" Du Sanying was in tears of fear, "You guys need to stop touching me!"

"I don't want anything to happen to you guys!"

"Not really." Liu Jiayi waved her hand, "You're still behind Bai Liu when it comes to getting us into trouble."

Tang Er nodded approvingly.

Seeing that a group of people were about to make Du Sanying pout, Bai Liu saved the day at the right time by holding out his hand and raising his eyes, "Wanna come into the game with us and watch the game?"

"We wouldn't have gotten this far if it weren't for your help, and you deserve to be a part of witnessing our victory."

Du Sanying stared blankly for a long, long time before he tremblingly put his hand on Bai Liu's palm, and he let out a hard, choked sigh, "You'll definitely win!"

Even if he could only remember seven days, he could still feel that these people were his last friends in this world, they were very important to him, so he was willing to use up all of his luck in exchange for the victory of these people.

--It doesn't matter if he spends the rest of his life in misery.

Game, viewing pool #2.

The crowd kept pouring in, twice the size of the last competition, and Mu Sicheng was almost shocked when he entered, the crowd was so dense that he couldn't even see his face in the stacks.

"The Deer Hunters are very popular this year." Wang Shun took a deep breath to adjust his mind and explained, "Plus we won Golden Dawn before and it's the semi-finals again, compared to the Killer Sequence versus Gambler's Guild where the winner was probably already decided, our victory this time is even more uncertain, so the audience for this one is with exceptionally large."

"The betting rate has also had a particularly erratic opening trend, having ebbed and flowed three times, with a high of 4 and a low of just under 0.3."

"As I said in the pre-match meeting before, the core of this match lies in the Executioner and the Joker, the Executioner is very aggressive, and although the Joker is a newcomer, his defense is very high, I estimated that he can resist at least one full shot." Wang Shun exhaled, "And both the Executioner and the Joker have a big skill that can jump the deathless gold disk to death in the beginning, [Sinner's Well] and [Soul Shattering Gun], if they are circled, it's not just a matter of attrition ......"

"[Sinner's Well] off-site deaths, shattered guns with absolutely no way to resurrect ......"

"I won't let the team get hit by bullets." Tang Er hit spoke abruptly, his gaze condensing, "Opening, I will control the Joker."

Wang Shun gave Tang Er a complicated look in his eyes.

Both [Executioner] and Joker are in the main attack configuration, a very rare [double main attack] team, which puts quite a bit of pressure on the opponent's main attack, so it's only right that their ace in the hole this time around is Tang Er, who has the most experience and the best mental condition to play.

"Easy, easy, easy!" Mu Sicheng came over smugly, as he wrapped one hand around Tang Er to beat him, and pressed one hand on Bai Liu's shoulder, "There's still me, the ace rover!"

"So what if they have a double main attack, I can clear them out just the same!"

"Don't take this lightly." Bai Liu calmly turned his head to look at everyone as he pulled on his gloves, his posture in preparation for battle, "As soon as you see Daniel in a shooting motion, remember how we agreed?"

"The nearest team member quickly clear away the team member targeted by Daniel, never let Daniel shoot." Liu Jiayi repeated with a grave expression.

"Uh-huh." Bai Liu looks up, "That's our most important tactic for this game, so please keep it in mind."

"Both sides have forfeited the single and double matches, and have directly entered the group match process." The host waved his hand, "The group match is about to begin, please ask the tacticians of both sides to come forward and shake hands."

Bai Liu turned around and he stepped up the steps to the front, on the other side, Cen Buming took off his blindfold and with his eyes lowered, he put the [Death Ring] on his right hand.

The moment he put on the ring, his appearance changed, fading into something else, into his own original form, and Cen Buming turned coldly to the incredulous eyes of his crew and stepped onto the stage.

Tang Er from the opposite side hit Cen Buming whose pupils shrank at the sight of this appearance.

Bai Liu also raised an eyebrow, he quickly calmed down and extended his hand with a smile, "So it's Team Cen, nice to meet you."

Cen Buming faintly looked down at Bai Liu without reaching out, "You were testing my identity the first time we met, you guessed who I was long ago, didn't you?"

"Uh-huh." Bai Liu acknowledged unapologetically, grinning, "Mr. Cen Buming, a generation of hunters."

Cen Buming gave a faintly unnoticeable lurch, and quickly sneered and snorted, "It seems that Lu Yizhan that person not only even gave you the prophet status, but even told you about these things."

"--There's really enough trust in you as a [werewolf]."

"He didn't explicitly tell me who you are, but he stayed in your group before." Bai Liu's attitude was the same even after being ridiculed, "Lu Yizhan wouldn't stay in a guild for no reason, he's a [Judge] and you're an [Executioner], so it's a good guess as to who you are."

"He is no [Judge]." Cen Buming's right eye refracted an eagle-like sharp and eerie light in the daylight that shone down from above from the ornamental pool, "There is no such unjust [Judge] in this world."

"He stopped being worthy of being [the Judge] when he chose to be completely on your side, relying on his singular trust in you to save the people of this world."

"You are the error in the midst of his judgment."

"And I, as [the executioner], need to correct that error so he can continue to judge fairly."

Viewing Pool #1.

Lu Yizhan's chest pounded, and he covered it with a few choking coughs in an attempt to stop the inexplicable feeling of unease, but it didn't do much good, and his heart beat faster and faster, as if something was going to happen that he desperately didn't want to see happen.

"What's wrong?" Liao Ke came over worriedly, "Is the wound hurting again?"

"It's fine." Lu Yizhan paled as he gripped the heavy sword he kept at his side, trying to seek some sort of courage from amongst the Fang Dian's identical weapon, "...... It's just that my heart's a little sick."

Liao Ke looked at the opposite side of the team preparing to go on the field, relieved: "Charles this old fox will not be so desperate, at most the early pressure, late must abandon."

"...... Uh-huh." Lu Yizhan forced out a smile, he was silent for a long time before he suddenly opened his mouth and asked, "What do you think Cen Buming will do after he takes Daniel and meets Bai Liu?"

"...... Are you worried about that?" Liao Ke was stunned, but he quickly sighed, "Actually, I don't think Xiao Cen is as dangerous as you think, he's taking Daniel with him, on one hand he's carrying out the execution, on the other hand he's also supervising Daniel, with him around, Daniel hasn't done anything out of control so far."

"Like your guardian attitude toward heretics, I consider Sham to be Daniel's guardian."

In fact, Lu Yizhan thinks so too, and Cen Buming did do so before, which is why Lu Yizhan didn't intervene to deal with Cen Buming's use of the Guild to house Daniel.

"And for Bai Liu ......" Liao Ke sighed, "Should I say that you authorities are obsessed, or is it better to worry too much?"

"If Xiao Cen really wanted to lay his hands on Bai Liu, he would have already forced himself on Bai Liu when he was eighteen years old, the fact that he could be stopped by you shows that Xiao Cen was hesitant in his heart itself."

"You also said that Sham was aware that what he did that way was wrong, and that's why he kept telling you to kill him."

"He ...... just can't get past himself."

"It's like you can't quit saving any of the good guys." Liao Ke lets out a long sigh, "And Sham can't stand the thought of letting any of the bad guys go free."

"He's too afraid of a repeat of what happened in the First World Line, too afraid of innocent people dying because of his hesitation."

"And this is the last world line."

Lu Yizhan lowered his head, he clenched his fists and didn't say a word, then he stood up, "I'll use the skill [Listening to God's Only Words] ......"

"I equip [Prophet] Monster Book Identity to take a look at ......" Lu Yizhan's mouth and the hand that tapped out the skill panel were shaking, his eyes reddened, "Just one look... ..."

"I take a look at the ending Bai Liu wrote to Cen Buming and Bai Liu."

"Old Lu." Liao Ke pulled Lu Yizhan back, his eyes complex and indiscernible, "Have you forgotten? You are no longer a prophet."

"If even you don't believe in your own chosen [prophet], how are you going to get Cyn to believe?"

Lu Yizhan's hand that wanted to tap on the skill stopped, and he finally sat back down feebly, his eyes drifting off as he murmured softly, "...... You're right."

"I'm ...... no longer [a prophet]."

The host of Viewing Pool One raised his hand and signaled, "Will both tacticians please come forward and shake hands?"

"Go on Old Lu." Liao Ke patted Lu Yizhan's shoulder and urged, "Play the game first."

Lu Yizhan takes a deep breath and walks across the room to Charles.