When the plot-skips players into the game world

Just at that moment, a gunshot suddenly rang out from below. Soon after, another followed.

Aiwass felt a slight tightness in his heart. But his pace down the stairs didn't quicken; it actually slowed significantly.

He pressed himself silently against the wall, tiptoeing down the stairs. Meanwhile, he drew the pistol from beneath his coat, holding it slightly lowered and hidden in the shadow of his slightly larger sleeve.

Unlike when Aiwass arrived, the lamps at the entrance were now lit.

From a distance, he saw a young man with brown hair and handsome, deep-set features holding a gun, standing at the reception desk. The smoke from the muzzle of the gun had not yet completely dissipated.

The frail young man who had previously been lying on the counter was now twisted and collapsed backwards onto the shelves, lifeless. He had been shot in the forehead and the chest, his blood slowly seeping out.

As if aware of something, the young man slightly turned his head and saw Aiwass, quietly standing against the wall.

The tall and strong man with black hair stood as straight as a statue. The light from the hall projected over him, casting half of his body into shadow.

The youth's pupils contracted slightly at the sight.

He tossed the gun on the counter and spread his arms wide to show he meant no harm.

"Calm down... Mr. Agni. Don't attack me, my weapon has already been put down,"

the young man said in a deep voice. "We're on the same side."

"You know me?"

Agni said slowly, continuing his descent down the stairs.

His footsteps were deliberate, creaking on the somewhat worn wooden floor, exerting immense psychological pressure.

At this moment, a flash of lightning struck outside, and for an instant, it illuminated Agni's face through the window, followed by a roll of thunder.

"I am Jacob Alexander. A reporter for 'The Cattle and Bay'..."

As he spoke, he saw that Agni's slow, heavy steps showed no sign of stopping, which made him reflexively take a half step back and disclose more precise information: "What I mean is, I know the 'you' from the level above.

"I know that the 'you' at this moment is different from the 'you' above, so I guess we're on the same side. I think you are... Living Silver?"

"Continue."

Agni said tersely.

Jacob breathed a sigh of relief.

"Since you say so, I think we indeed are on the same side, right?"

He hurriedly continued to explain, "The thing is... You might not know this, but the flow of time in every layer, or the time nodes we enter, are different. At least they are asymmetrical. In another timeline, I've already communicated with 'you,' and I've even conducted some experiments to establish certain rules—"

"Have you seen the couple arguing in room 204? That woman is Jacaranda, but she isn't right now. She came from a higher level down to my level earlier, and we have already exchanged information. I think she will soon come down to this level... She can corroborate what I'm saying.

"The reason I killed the man at the reception desk is simple. Because I believe he is Merlin—or rather, I believe I shouldn't let him become Merlin.

"According to my investigation, the people in this hotel include you and your daughter Daiya in room 202, the old Inspector in room 203, the couple in 204, the dance girl in room 205, and me in 206... exactly seven people. Room 201 is empty, and with this receptionist, there are no other people left—no one is in the kitchen, and I have already searched the basement."

Mr. Reporter raised his hands, speaking earnestly and quickly, "Therefore, this receptionist, who is an additional person, is an unstable factor.

"Merlin said he would 'enter the role of any person in any layer of the dreamland at any time.' But he didn't say 'he must enter the body of one of us seven,' so we can't rule out the receptionist.

"And considering Merlin can't enter a body that we are already controlling, and if someone else arrives, he would be pushed out, which would immediately reveal whether or not he is Merlin. From this perspective, we need to eliminate everyone outside of our group of seven as much as possible. Because he is on the fringe, the 'real host' won't come down, and we can't verify the truth... Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Watching Agni continue to move towards him at a slow pace, the reporter's forehead began to sweat.

With a resigned sigh, he lowered his hands, "Fine, if you want, just kill me then. It seems I can't reason with you... that's also a piece of information."

Agni then pressed the pistol against his forehead. Feeling the cold touch of the gun barrel, the reporter closed his eyes.

"—Bang."

Aiwass mimicked a gunshot with his mouth.

He looked at the "reporter" who closed and then shockingly opened his eyes with a smirk: "My dear Detective, you seem to have little confidence in my brain."

"...You are?"

"I am Fox."

Aiwass said with a grin, not concerned about revealing his identity.

"So it was you—"

The reporter said through gritted teeth, "Just love scaring me, don't you?"

"No one else has come down yet."

Aiwass didn't respond to the reporter's comment: "Quite calm, aren't they? Or maybe... they have poor hearing and can't hear gunshots?"

"Maybe they're scared and hiding in their rooms."

The reporter calmed down and continued with his analysis, "Fox... no, to prevent the disclosure of your identity, I should still call you Agni for now.

"Listen up, Agni. To make a long story short—since each of us appears in different layers of the dream, it means there's only one original inhabitant in each layer of the dream. If another person appears, it indicates that this is not the topmost layer. Similarly, the more people that appear, the closer we are to the bottom."

"Not bad."

Aiwass nodded, "But there's one more problem. As you said—on one hand, different layers have different time flows, or different starting points. This can lead to a lack of synchronization in our progress.

"Moreover, if someone from among us arrives at a higher level but lacks the courage to come down... like Lulu. Could that lead us to believe that we have not yet descended to the bottom when in reality someone has simply not yet arrived?"

"Then we must use the process of elimination."

The reporter pondered for a moment and then said earnestly, "Considering that if we don't quickly explain the principle to others... there might be someone who kills everyone on this layer. So I decided to descend quickly... in fact, I've already gone down two layers.

"On my original layer, I didn't see anyone. In order not to miss meeting others, I immediately committed suicide and moved on to the next layer. On the layer above this, I met Jacaranda. At that time, I suspected that the receptionist was Merlin... because he was deliberately stalling, looking for excuses to make me wait longer."

The young Jacob squinted his eyes, "I wanted to conduct an experiment. So, after I had an agreement with Jacaranda, I killed the receptionist first, and then came to your level through suicide."

"You were verifying whether both receptionists are the same, right?"

Aiwass replied, "If the two receptionists are different, then it means one of them is Merlin."

"Exactly. And by descending one more level, we can find out which receptionist is the normal one."

"But you've overlooked another possibility—the receptionist could also be one of us."

Aiwass spoke leisurely, "Moreover, with your verification, Merlin could also perfectly disguise as the receptionist."

"—That's why I chose to kill the receptionist."

The reporter replied, "In any case, it reduces variables. Not only that, but I will kill the receptionist on every level. If he is an ascender, then let him tell me himself."

"...I see. I understand your thinking now."

Aiwass squinted his eyes.

If the receptionist is not an ascender, then killing the receptionist increases the cost for Merlin to possess someone; if the receptionist is an ascender, then if he is killed, he will fall to the next level with his memories intact.

"Following this train of thought, we can kill anyone like this. Since we were born on levels 1-7, and the goal is level 0. That means even if this is level 1, we can at least die one more time."

Aiwass pondered, "As long as there are memories after death, it can prove one's authenticity, right?"

"But there's a variable to eliminate."

The reporter continued calmly, "If someone claims to have committed suicide and descended to this level, but no one on his previous level can verify his identity—then there's a possibility that he's Merlin pretending to have descended."

"I've considered that, so I confirmed a code phrase with Jacaranda when we communicated. This proves that we have definitely communicated and both descended from the upper level."

"But even so, there's another problem..."

"—The time lag."

Aiwass took over, "The time you wait for Jacaranda to descend is also time being dragged out. And according to the previous conjecture, the more time that is delayed, the more unstable the lower level becomes."

Mr. Reporter snapped his fingers and smiled with satisfaction, "Exactly."

"So what's your plan?"

Aiwass asked.

"—Very simple."

The reporter, who shared the same name as Aiwass's grandfather, replied, "We die together, we live together."

Saying that, he took the revolver from the table, aimed it at Aiwass's forehead.

"If you're not Merlin, then you're the real Fox."

The reporter said calmly, "We'll go directly to the next level—when Jacaranda descends and sees us in this position, she'll definitely understand what happened. She'll also find someone to accompany her and mutually verify through killing each other."

"Jacaranda and I can verify each other, you and I can verify each other, and she can bring another person. In this way, we will have confirmed the identities of four people... We just need to eliminate Merlin from the remaining three."

"...Huh, teams of two, huh? Fine, let's do it your way. Then we'll go to the next level for further investigation, partner."

Aiwass chuckled lightly, fearlessly raising the gun and aiming at the reporter's forehead, then used his other hand to move the reporter's gun from his own forehead down to his heart.

"You shoot first."

Aiwass said indifferently, "Even if my heart is shot, I can pull the trigger instantly."

"All right."

The reporter's mouth curved upward slightly.

After a brief pause, two gunshots sounded consecutively in the hall.

Just like the beginning of the ritual... Aiwass felt his consciousness slowly sinking in the dark depths of the sea.

Then, he suddenly felt a bit suffocated. He awoke with a start, as if emerging from water and causing ripples.

—It was like he had dozed off, and he opened his eyes.

A very light voice came from behind him, "Daddy...?"

"...Why aren't you wearing clothes?"

Aiwass looked at the wet clothes laid out in front of him and his mouth slowly curved upward.

He turned around, spread his arms, and showed off his newly-changed clothes: "What are you talking about, Daiya? I am fully dressed."

Daiya stood there stunned for a while, then slowly nodded, "Right..."

"How did you come to think I wasn't dressed?"

Aiwass didn't get angry but asked patiently.

"...I don't know."

Daiya covered her forehead, appearing troubled, "It feels like I had a nightmare... dreaming of daddy swimming in the river with nothing on..."

Aiwass walked over and gently touched her hair.

"It's okay."

He said softly, "Get some good sleep, Goodnight."

Through his fingers, Daiya's tea-colored hair was fine and soft, touching it felt warm.