N-M Chapter 162 Temporary Cooperation
Chapter 162 Temporary Cooperation
Chapter 162 Temporary Cooperation
When Li Jiuhe said this, not only was Yin Nan surprised, but everyone else was also astonished.
Everyone looked at Ma Li, who lowered her head slightly, looking thoughtful.
Yin Nan's surprised expression quickly turned to curiosity, and he said to Li Jiuhe, "Detective Li, are you joking? What does my struggle with Lin Shouye for the main body after the skinning process have to do with your partner?"
"It really has nothing to do with her." Li Jiuhe nodded. "We just happened to stumble upon it and ended up getting involved."
Just then, Ma Li gradually began to show joy, as if she had confirmed something, or more accurately, found a trick. She then looked up at Yin Nan.
Yin Nan frowned, and almost at the same moment, he also felt that something was wrong with his body.
He then waved his hands dismissively: "Impossible! To seize the main body of the suit, you need to soak your body in the medicinal solution. At that time, only Lin Shouye and I were present. There was no partner like you, and no third person joined in!"
"You wouldn't know that."
This time, Ma Li chimed in, "No wonder I felt unwell after my two ant chicks died in the solution, and I had a strong reaction to it, along with a strange sense of control. So that's why!"
Li Jiuhe nodded: "At that time, their protective shells hadn't taken shape yet, so you didn't know what happened. But now that they're basically complete, your sense of control should be getting stronger and stronger."
Ma Li said, "It has indeed become very strong. After what you just said, Brother Li, I suddenly understood. Now I can control this body."
The two ants that were previously responsible for tracking Lin Shouye were instantly drowned as Lin Shouye was immersed in the medicinal solution.
At the time, Ma Li was incredulous because her ant larvae were not ordinary life forms and could not possibly be so weak. How could they suddenly become so fragile?
Only now did she understand that one reason was that the liquids were special, and the other was that they had inadvertently become involved in the struggle for the main body of the suit, and had achieved a silent victory by dying.
Of course, this victory directly benefited Ma Li, because Ma Li and her ant offspring could be considered as one person.
Therefore, with Ma Li's vitality, she could completely overwhelm Yin Nan and Lin Shouye.
Yin Nan sensed something was wrong and tried to get closer to Li Jiuhe again, but his body suddenly froze at that moment.
This feeling was similar to Lin Shouye's earlier realization that he had lost control of his body; a sense of pain and helplessness arose within him.
Yin Nan's legs buckled, and he knelt on the ground with a thud. Then, his waist lost its support, and he ended up lying face down, his hands gripping the ground tightly.
The fusion of Yin Nan and Lin Shouye's heads and skin also stopped, and in their place grew a layer of downy hair that broke through the skin.
This layer of down is very fine and small, and it is all black.
Immediately, two small holes appeared on Yin Nan's head, and two tentacles as thick as chopsticks emerged from them.
Yin Nan let out a heart-wrenching scream, and his pained expression quickly froze.
At the same time, his eyes involuntarily closed slowly, and his life came to an abrupt end, just like Lin Shouye's before him.
But his body remained lying on the ground, and he was even slowly crawling.
"Have you already gained control of this body?" Li Jiuhe asked Ma Li.
Ma Li nodded, then gave a disgusted look: "But I don't want to control him. It's disgusting. Just thinking about that medicine vat made me want to vomit."
"Do with him as you please. His existence is actually meaningless now," Li Jiuhe said.
"Really?" Ma Li breathed a sigh of relief.
After receiving Li Jiuhe's affirmation, she did not hesitate and stopped the fusion and evolution before the body she had just acquired had completely transformed into the deformed appearance of a giant ant.
Then, Mali immediately gave up on this life, just as she usually manipulated the ant larvae to eliminate a target by self-destruction.
The deformed, skinned body, which was still crawling unconsciously, suddenly shuddered, then collapsed to the ground, and died completely.
The strange death of this skin signifies the death of Lin Shouye, and also the death of Yin Nan.
They probably never imagined that two people who had tried so hard to plot against each other would end up dying together, their lives intertwined. Lin Jianguo and Lin Siyu stared blankly at this scene.
They were shocked and terrified tonight. At first, they thought their family members had lost control, but later they discovered that Lin Shouye had orchestrated it all.
Little did he expect that the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind; Lin Shouye was outmaneuvered by Yin Nan once again.
But in the end, these two agents still managed to seize the initiative without making a sound.
At this moment, both of their expressions were numb.
Lin Siyu stared at Yin Nan's head, her hand gripping the black bracelet tightly until her knuckles turned white.
For a moment, she wanted to just die and never face any of this again.
"Brother Li, how were you so sure I could control their bodies?" Ma Li secretly asked Li Jiuhe.
Li Jiuhe shrugged: "Have you forgotten that I have precognitive abilities?"
The two ant chicks drowned when Lin Shouye was soaked in the medicinal solution, but Li Jiuhe didn't think much of it at the time.
Later, Ma Li kept saying that she felt unwell, that she could smell the blood and other strange odors in the medicine, and then she even felt as if she had touched another kind of life.
Although Ma Li wasn't sure, Li Jiuhe thought it might be related to the vat of medicinal liquid, so he asked her to observe and analyze it further.
It wasn't until he heard Yin Nan's explanation of the reverse skin test that he suddenly understood.
However, Li Jiuhe was still not sure if Ma Li could gain the upper hand in the end, but he could reset the mission. Even if this guess was wrong, there were other ways to salvage the situation.
"So the final boss has been caught, is the case closed now?" Ma Li asked again.
Li Jiuhe nodded, then shook his head: "There's still a little bit left to finish."
"Is it not over yet?" Ma Li patted her stomach. "Luckily, we used our basic abilities without any problems, otherwise we would have been in big trouble in this haunted house scene."
She looked up at the villa. "The Rubik's Cube Haunted House? This sequence item is extraordinary; it possesses such powerful abilities right after awakening."
Neither the person nor the insect remained inside the villa; instead, they exited through the front door and headed towards the backyard.
As for Lin Jianguo and Lin Siyu, they remained sitting on the ground, while Yangyang was still fast asleep on the bed on the third floor.
Their role and mission are now complete.
Li Jiuhe and Ma Li soon arrived at the row of houses where the servants lived.
Ma Li looked surprised: "Brother Li, you're not going to pull another amazing plot twist, are you? Could the culprit be someone living here?!"
"Twist my foot!" Li Jiuhe laughed. "Logically, there shouldn't be any problem, but I'm worried that if this case isn't handled perfectly, it will affect our ability to pass through this haunted house scene."
"Oh." Malice nodded, seemingly understanding, "The cook and the maid are both accomplices in this case."
Li Jiuhe said, "They are not only accomplices, but also double agents. Otherwise, think about it, Yin Nan is just a head and a skin soaking in a vat of blood, how could he communicate with Lin Siyu through the bracelet? He doesn't even have hands, and he can't telekinesis, so someone must be doing this for him."
Ma Li suddenly realized: "The chefs seem to be helping Lin Shouye prepare Yin Nan's human skin, but they're actually secretly helping Yin Nan do things in return! But why would they do that?"
"I guess—they were probably intimidated," Li Jiuhe analyzed. "Imagine someone you killed and then skinned alive, suddenly coming back to life with a ferocious expression and making threats. None of these ordinary people would be able to remain calm."
"Understood."
Ma Li clapped her hands and went into the room.
Before long, she pulled out the cook and maid who were hiding inside, one in each hand. The two were ashen-faced and kept begging for mercy, their hands and feet bound with strong duct tape made of black ants.
The two were then dragged back to the main building of the villa.
Following Li Jiuhe's instructions, Lin Jianguo called the police, and soon police cars stopped outside the villa, with several officers rushing into the villa.
They all seemed to recognize Li Jiuhe and Ma Li, nodded to them, and without saying a word, began to cordon off the scene.
"Let's go," Li Jiuhe said to Ma Li.
The two arrived at the front entrance of the villa. The front gate had been opened due to the arrival of the police, and there was noise and alarms outside, but it was pitch black and they could not see anything.
Ma Li laughed and said, "So it turns out that the police have to come to open the door for us."
Li Jiuhe nodded: "Yes, the plot must have progressed to this point."
Ma Li hesitated for a moment, her lips moved, but no sound came out.
"Speak your mind if you have any thoughts," Li Jiuhe reminded him.
Ma Li whispered her thoughts: "I have a feeling that this time we've worked seamlessly together and cracked the mystery. Given the level of horror this haunted house is and its ever-evolving nature, it might even learn on its own and improve the subsequent haunted house scenes based on our solution—"
Li Jiuhe understood what she meant: "So, the situation might change, and the haunted house might make it harder for us to continue this collaboration?"
"That's possible," Ma Li nodded. "Of course, this is just my feeling and guess, and it may not be correct."
Li Jiuhe frowned slightly: "Your guess makes some sense. Well, if there's an exit after leaving this scene, you should leave the haunted house first. I can handle the rest of the scenes by myself."
Ma Li's throat moved, as if she wanted to say something but stopped herself, and in the end she didn't say anything.
The two stepped out of the front yard and disappeared into the darkness.
The scene before them changed, and Li Jiuhe found themselves standing in a dimly lit passageway, which appeared to be the connecting passageway between scenes in the haunted house.
A dim yellow light shone overhead, and the passageway was only wide enough for three people to walk side by side.
Turning around, I saw the gate behind me that read "House of Blood Curse," but it was closed and could not be opened again.
A few meters ahead was a wooden staircase leading upstairs, suggesting that there was no other way out of the haunted house except to go upstairs.
Li Jiuhe and Ma Li exchanged a glance.
"It seems like once you enter, you have to leave through the exit at the other end of the haunted house; there's no turning back."
Ma Li patted her ample chest, reassuring herself, "It's okay, it's okay. Although I'm terrified of ghosts, thankfully you're here. So—let's keep going!"
She didn't tell Li Jiuhe that, in fact, after discovering that she had seized the highest right to life in the blood vat of medicine, her abilities had increased by one point.
Although this evolution is less advanced, the looseness of the facial makeup is already more pronounced.
Ma Li believes that the mask will soon fall, and her freedom will arrive soon.
So to be honest, she was actually hoping to leave this terrifying haunted house as soon as possible.
Once outside, when the mask falls off and becomes useless, she will leave a farewell note for Li Jiuhe and Luo Shuo, and then leave gracefully.
All of this was best done before Tongcheng was able to emerge from the abandoned wooden hut.
Otherwise, when that big shot from Tongcheng returns, as a top-level investigator, Li Jiuhe will have to follow his orders, and she will most likely be sent to the shelter.
The thought of entering the shelter made Ma Li instinctively feel resistant.
She also wants to travel with the ant larvae to see the beautiful landscapes, witness more wonders of the world, and see the entire sequence diagram!
Lost in thought, she and Li Jiuhe went up the stairs to the second floor.
Li Jiuhe took this opportunity to claim the reward for the mission of "solving the mystery of the haunted Lin family".
The reward rules were a choice of two out of four, and he chose one point and one time anchor reset.
The frequency of resetting time anchors is now quite high, and this function is very practical. It can reduce long wait times in the story and make it easier to quickly process the reset story.
Soon, the person and the insect arrived at a half-open door in the second-floor corridor.
Above the door were the words "Hell on Earth," but behind the door was still complete darkness, and nothing could be seen.
Li Jiuhe turned to look at Ma Li: "Watch out, this scene might be even more terrifying and bloody."
Ma Li couldn't help but shudder, and subconsciously reached out to grab Li Jiuhe's clothes: "You—you go first, I'll follow you."
Suddenly, Ma Li felt a warmth in her hand; she had been taken by Li Jiuhe, who then stepped inside.
The two were momentarily blinded, then their vision cleared.
Upon closer inspection, they realized they weren't in some unfamiliar scene, but rather in a passageway transitioning to a similar scene from before.
Looking around, they found the door with the words "Hell on Earth" written on it behind them, but the door was closed and no longer ajar.
The passage they were currently in led to another door with the words "Night School Ghost Stories" written on it.
Just now, they stepped directly into the "hell on earth" haunted house, and then stepped out again.
"What happened?" Li Jiuhe asked in surprise.
Ma Li reacted quite quickly this time: "Has that scenario—been broken?"
Li Jiuhe was skeptical, but when he turned around and pushed the tightly closed door, it didn't budge.
There's no way they can turn back here; it seems the haunted house scene, a veritable "hell on earth," has indeed been dismantled.
Li Jiuhe recalled that they initially chose to enter from the left side of the haunted house entrance, while the right side of the entrance was also an entrance. The first floor had two entrances, but after reaching the second floor, players who entered the haunted house from either direction would encounter the same scene, and there was no longer a distinction between left and right.
"Be careful, those who came in before us are already ahead of us. I wonder if they've solved all the haunted house scenes on the second floor," Li Jiuhe reminded them.
Ma Li immediately went on high alert.
Li Jiuhe said, "That person must have entered the haunted house from the right entrance on the first floor, so the 'Blood Curse House' scene at the left entrance wasn't broken. And now the path on the second floor no longer distinguishes between left and right, which means they've already progressed further."
"Could this person be at that 'Night School Ghost Stories' right now?" Ma Li asked, pointing to the door in front of her.
"It's possible." Li Jiuhe was the first to approach.
But he soon discovered that the door was also ajar, just like the door to "Hell on Earth".
"Someone has already gone in, but we don't know if the trap has been broken." Li Jiuhe grabbed Ma Li's hand again. "Stay close."
He then pushed open the door and stepped inside.
The scene darkened and then brightened again. The two looked around and found that they had returned to a familiar transition passage.
Looking back, the door with the words "Night School Ghost Stories" written on it was already behind them, and the door was tightly closed, so they still couldn't turn around.
"It's been cracked again!" Mali exclaimed in surprise.
"Let's go, keep going!" Li Jiuhe didn't delay and quickly walked forward.
The next door was labeled "Neurotic Paradise," and the door was still ajar.
I pushed open the door and stood in the corridor once again.
"This—this is already the third scene on the second floor!" Li Jiuhe's premonition was growing increasingly ominous.
If the entire scene on the second floor has been deciphered, it means that the guy who was ahead of them had already obtained the haunted house's approval or some other rights, so their entry into the house now might be meaningless.
"I feel like we're doomed!" Ma Li said from behind, "How many scenes are there on the second floor of this haunted house? This is the third one already. If they've all been solved, will we be able to get out immediately, or will we be trapped here forever?"
Her concerns differed from Li Jiuhe's; she was worried that they wouldn't be able to get out.
"I don't know, let's go, continue!"
Li Jiuhe led Ma Li to push open a scene door that read "Corpse Oil Factory".
He took another step and returned to the passage.
"Hoo-hoo," Li Jiuhe exhaled heavily, "The fourth one. Based on the size of the haunted house, there are entrances and exits on the ground floor and outdoor activity space, so there are only one scene on each of the left and right sides. Upstairs, there are at most four or five scenes."
It seems that those people entered here a long time ago, and they have already deciphered the entire scene.
Of course, the difficulty involved is self-evident. The opponent must either be incredibly skilled or have taken a long time to crack the code, gradually working through all these scenarios.
If the Yuanmeng City Investigation Bureau had not been secretly controlled, investigators from the Northwest District Investigation Bureau or the General Bureau should have taken over the area long ago; it's impossible that they were allowed to succeed so easily.
"Damn it!" Although Ma Li was scared, she was even more unwilling to accept it.
She strained to open her eyes wide, staring at the blurry passageway ahead: "I wonder if there are any more?"
Just then, a line of familiar text appeared before Li Jiuhe's eyes; it was from the Death Pass.
I only took a nap; I didn't expect you to emerge from the first haunted house scene so quickly.
"You took a really long nap," Li Jiuhe thought to himself.
[I initially thought it was too late, and you couldn't possibly solve the haunted house in such a short time, but it seems there's still a chance! Don't worry, since you're fast enough, you should be able to make it to the last scene.]
Li Jiuhe's eyes lit up slightly: "So, the last scene of the haunted house is still there and hasn't been solved?"
That guy is incredibly strong, and his speed in solving the puzzles is already fast enough. Heh, but only whoever reaches the exit of the haunted house last will be able to get it to do something for them.
Hearing this, Li Jiuhe, who was walking towards the front of the passage, suddenly stopped.
"As expected, you've been hiding a lot from me."
"There's nothing I can do, you still haven't agreed to cooperate with me, is it my fault?"
"Then why are you telling me this now?"
"Because I discovered you actually have the ability to help me eliminate those people. So, how about it, do you want to cooperate now?"
"If it's the kind of collaboration we had before, I'm sorry, I haven't thought about it yet."
"No, I meant a temporary collaboration. If you go into the last scene and help me kill that guy, preventing him from being the first to reach the haunted house exit, I'll agree to do one thing for you."
Seeing that Li Jiuhe remained silent, the Death Pass immediately displayed more text.
[Including but not limited to leading you into the "Abyss," or a place where Yin and Yang intersect—]
It was clear that although Li Jiuhe deliberately didn't ask about those places again, this guy could still tell that Yan was concerned about these special places.
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