When the plot-skips players into the game world

Aiwass carefully hid his gun, donned clothes identical to those he wore earlier, and stepped out the door, only to see the couple from room 204 arguing again.

Their postures were as odd as before—the woman's half-foot rested inside the room as she held the doorknob from outside, her body twisting outward.

Having been through this before, Aiwass paid special attention to her center of gravity this time... and found it was placed on the foot that was leaving the room.

Standing at the doorway can mean two things. Either someone wants to enter, or they want to leave.

And this woman obviously wanted to leave.

Yet when she had seen Aiwass the last time, she had immediately entered the room. Furthermore, after she went in, not a sound came from her... and even the "husband" inside didn't speak a word.

Why was this so?

—Now was the time to find out.

"...If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have ended up like this…"

The woman was mid-sentence when she looked up and saw Aiwass, who had silently approached.

Agni faced her with a slight smile, displaying his habitual expression.

Although he hadn't seen his reflection, it seemed Agni's appearance wasn't as friendly as Aiwass's. Despite the identical smile, the woman shuddered with fear.

She abruptly stopped talking and deftly withdrew her right foot, which was about to step forward, planning to return to her room.

In her eyes, there was genuine fear and wariness.

But at that moment, Agni stepped forward and used his foot to stop the door from closing.

The fear on the woman's face deepened, and she instinctively tried to close the door harder but didn't dare to hurt Agni.

"Do you know me?"

Agni began, the smile unwavering in his eyes.

Before she could answer, Agni extended his calloused, large palm: "Let me introduce myself. My name is Agni, a teacher. I live right next to you."

"Oh, I'm Jane..."

The woman timidly replied, lightly holding Agni's fingertips then quickly let go as if electrocuted: "I am a... um, a small businesswoman, sort of."

"Oh?"

Agni maintained his smile, politely inquired: "That's great, do you happen to have any medicine for colds and fevers? My daughter is sick, and we need some medicine."

The woman turned and looked back at the man in the room, seeking his opinion.

He was a gaunt man who had been pacing the room. Upon seeing Agni enter, rather than rebuking Agni for coming in uninvited or greeting him, he stood rooted to the spot, immobile as if frozen.

Compared to the seemingly younger, plain-looking woman, he looked at least a decade older. Well over forty.

The man's face was flushed red, and he was as ugly as a monkey—not out of embarrassment or anger, but it resembled symptoms of inflammation or an allergy. If not for the absence of the smell of alcohol, one might suspect he had been drinking.

"Cold medicine... we should have some, let me check..."

He said, rummaging through a backpack in the corner of the room.

He looked hesitantly from side to side before producing a bottle of pink alchemical potion.

"This... might work."

The man, gaunt as a monkey, approached, looking at Agni with some apprehension.

He seemed nervous, but his speech was smooth. The man skilfully introduced: "This is a 'Hibernation' potion; drink it, then sleep off the illness, and wake up feeling refreshed and rejuvenated!"

"Bring that one, too."

At that moment, Jane spoke up on her own initiative.

She reminded him: "The 'other' one."

"Oh, I completely forgot!"

The man slapped his forehead, feigning a realization: "You must want this!"

As he spoke, the man pulled another small box from the backpack.

—It was a little metal round box, the size of a bottle of essential balm.

As Agni's gaze locked onto the familiar object, he became intensely focused.

"You must be acquainted with this, Dream Intoxicant. Just a lick will give you a peaceful, good night's sleep. Quite often, the discomfort of a fever is due to poor sleep and restless nightmares, but a hit of this will do the trick."

"...This thing, it's expensive, right?"

Aiwass picked up the Dream Intoxicant. Engraved upon it was the image of a crescent moon with a human face, and below it, the inscription read "1811-01-022, Living Silver Workshop."

"...A batch from ten years ago, huh? Isn't this expired?"

Encountering the Dream Intoxicant in the Dream Realm ritual made him feel a bit peculiar.

He hadn't used the Dream Intoxicant in his ritual this time. Since the Hall of Silver and Tin was quite safe, not to mention being watched over by Aiwass's Ritualist teacher, Ibn. The Dream Intoxicant would be saved for the next advancement.

The next time he advanced, he would most likely still be in Eagle Cape Village. In such a chaotic and unstable sleep environment, he would need the Dream Intoxicant to prevent being awoken.

"No worries, the date marked on it is fake. This item came out less than two months ago, but no one would buy it without such a label..."

As though he understood Agni's hesitation, the man explained: "This is an imitation—the effect isn't as strong as the real thing, but it definitely works a bit. Don't worry, it's absolutely harmless to your body. You see, with the storm raging outside, I can't run away, can I?"

"Then I really owe you one."

Agni smiled amiably again: "How much does it cost?"

"You focus on getting your daughter well first; we can talk about money later; it's not urgent."

The middle-aged man said with a smile.

"I really appreciate it."

Agni nodded his head in polite gratitude.

As the two smiled and watched him, he stepped back and closed the door himself.

He departed with big strides, the heavy steps of his large body echoing away with thudding sounds.

But Agni stood in front of the stairs, his face expressionless, for a little while. He then crept back silently, positioning himself in front of the pair's door.

"...If you sold that stuff to Agni and he finds out, what then?"

From inside the house came the man's urgent, hushed question, "He's got a gun, do you want to die?"

"You don't know shit," the woman's coarse voice replied, "Do you really believe that's his daughter? He must have recognized us, that's why he came over to ask for some medicine to calm the little one down..."

Just then, two gunshots rang out from downstairs.

Agni was now standing at the door. He could finally be sure... with the soundproofing of this inn, everyone must have heard the gunshots.

He still quietly stood at the door, listening to the movements inside.

The woman instinctively screamed in fear, but her scream was cut short as someone quickly muffled her mouth.

"Quiet, do you want to die?!"

The man's voice became vicious, "Pretend you didn't hear anything, got it?"

"...Is it Agni? That psychopath..."

The woman's voice trembled.

"—Don't guess wildly, don't talk!"

The man, now paranoid and completely different from his previously amicable demeanor, warned, "There could be someone outside listening right now!"

Agni's lips curled up slightly, and this time he truly left quietly.

He walked down the stairs, finding the "journalist" impersonating "Jacob" in the lobby.

Unlike before—this time, aside from the journalist and the corpse of the receptionist, there was also an old man wearing vest-shaped iron plate armor.

The old man had dark skin like charcoal and blue pupils. He was eyeing the journalist warily, his right hand hovering over the hilt of the Elf Short Sword at his waist. Clearly, he was an old Inspector.

The two men were standing off in silence at this moment. Perhaps they had already said all there was to say, and were now waiting for something.

They noticed Agni's appearance almost simultaneously. The journalist instantly relaxed, his tension easing.

The old man also shifted his wary gaze to include Agni. Though he did not seem very aggressive, he just stood there watching without a word.

The journalist greeted Aiwass, "You're finally here—aren't you a bit too late this time?"

"I came down right after I resurrected, I think it may be due to different flow speeds."

Agni said gravely. Out came the lie.

Yet the journalist simply nodded, as if agreeing with something.

He turned and addressed the old man, "Can you believe me now? I am the Detective, and that burly fellow is the Fox."

The old man dressed as an Inspector just shook his head, saying seriously, "To be precise, for now, we can only be sure that at least one of you two is not Merlin."

"You're Pure White, right?"

Agni suddenly spoke, with a very confident tone.

The old man slowly turned his head, looking at Agni with some surprise, "I have only spoken one sentence... how could you tell?"

"I guessed."

Agni said with a smirk.

His smile, however, appeared somewhat sinister, "There's only seven of us. Exclude me, exclude the Detective, exclude Lulu, exclude Jacaranda. You're clearly not Topaz. That leaves only Pure White and Living Silver.

"A choice between two. No matter how you responded, I would use your reaction to confirm your identity."

How he guessed wasn't important. What mattered was the other person's reaction.

"Quite the 'Fox'."

The old Inspector admired, but did not let go of the hand resting on the hilt of his short sword, "But I still can't rule out the possibility that one of you is Merlin."

"Oh, there's no need for that. He is the Detective," Aiwass said cheerily, looking towards the journalist, "Right?"

"Did you confirm each other's identities in some way?"

"Sort of."

Aiwass's smile faded slightly, becoming more of a smirk, "His response to me was undoubtedly the 'Detective's' response to the 'Fox'.

"With that, there are two of us on your side, two on ours. Four identities are now locked in, with three remaining."

"—Lulu, Living Silver, Topaz."

The journalist added, "Among the remaining roles, there's your 'daughter', the husband from that couple, and the dancer."

"Why can't it be the doorman?"

the Inspector disguised as Pure White countered, "It's possible the Fox's daughter is the redundant one, which would leave the man, the dancer, and the receptionist."

"Just to be clear," Aiwass said, without so much as glancing at the journalist and focusing on the old Inspector, "my mission compels me to protect my 'daughter.' So I won't let you lay a hand on her."

"Unless there's conclusive evidence she is Merlin, I would never harm a little girl. Not even in a dream."

Pure White replied without hesitation.

Hearing this, Aiwass smiled faintly, "That's good to hear. After all the promotion rituals we've gone through, we finally have a team of normal people."

He said, turning to the journalist, "Don't you think so, Detective?"

"Indeed, it's quite rare to find normal teammates,"

The journalist nodded in agreement, "They only think about how to betray you, with no sense of morality."

"I wonder how Lulu is doing..."

Aiwass sighed, "I'm actually a bit worried about her. She's either on the lower levels or the higher ones... If it's the lower levels, she might accidentally die through. If it's the higher ones, she might get quite a shock."

"Don't worry too much," the journalist sincerely consoled Aiwass, "You have to let her grow strong on her own, right? She can't depend on you forever. It's better to grow up in a dream than in reality, and most people don't even have this opportunity. Instead of worrying pointlessly, let's go check on those remaining few.

"Now that the three of us are together, we can at least be sure that two among them are not Merlin. With multiple witnesses present, searching for evidence now makes sense."

"...Indeed."

Aiwass showed a smile, nodding at the journalist with a meaningful glance, "Let's follow your lead for now...

"My great Detective."