Chapter 849: In a Hurry

We sat in the empty small house as the end drew near, our minds filled with questions from all we had seen and heard in recent days.

"Zhichun, are we wrong?" Zhang Qiang asked beside me.

"I... don't know..." I sighed, truly unsure how to explain it.

The vast city, which seemed to have at least several thousand people active in it, had yielded only one "Dao" from start to finish for us.

Where exactly had things gone wrong?

"I think there are two possibilities..." Zhang Qiang murmured softly. "Maybe we've experienced a low-probability event... We're the only ones who retained our memories... Everyone else never even conceived of hiding the 'Dao'..."

"But that's impossible," I interrupted Zhang Qiang. "The 'Hui Xiang' is the key to retaining memories, and the bells here ring every day—how could only we have kept our memories?"

"Then this is all so contradictory..." Zhang Qiang shook his head in frustration. "So many people retaining memories and continuously participating in the game, yet no one hid the 'Dao'... Could they all have died in the game? If not, how would they bring the 'Dao' with them to rebirth?"

From what we could guess, there didn't seem to be any bias—there were indeed many people here who had retained their memories earlier than us and started collecting "Dao" sooner.

In any environment, I always assume I'm not the strongest and that there are others more powerful than me, and this place is no different.

For instance, I'd heard about a "Participant" who was on a rapid rise, always gathering a group to scheme something, and you could often hear about them on the streets.

Zhang Qiang and I didn't fit in with groups and never bothered to inquire about the Participants' purposes, so whenever we saw their organized activities, we'd hurry away.

I always held one firm belief—

A Participant is still just a Participant; no matter how strong, they couldn't surpass Baiyang.

That leader couldn't stir up any real trouble; they'd hit a wall when they encountered Baiyang.

But where did their "Dao" go? Could an entire "Organization" fail to hold onto even one "Dao"?

"Qiang Ge, what's your second possibility?" I snapped back to attention and asked.

"That is... there are other 'Thieves' here," Zhang Qiang said with a serious face. "If we can think of it, others can too. Maybe there's a larger, more organized group also collecting 'Dao' and hiding them where we could never find."

Zhang Qiang's idea still left me with many doubts.

As I said, if there are several thousand people active in the city, and many have gained "Hui Xiang"... then the "Dao" they've earned should be plentiful.

No... more precisely, "Dao" is the only currency here, so everyone would do everything possible to preserve it.

Even if someone had only one "Dao" on them at the time of "Yan Mie," they absolutely wouldn't just discard it.

From this, it follows that there should be a massive number of "Dao" hidden around. If the other thieves' group could sweep up that quantity and leave only one fish that slipped through the net, it would mean their group is even more astonishing—likely needing several hundred to a thousand people. But that clearly doesn't make sense.

In a place where even "Sheng Xiao" can't unite, could someone have organized a thieves' group of several hundred?

No matter how much Zhang Qiang and I discussed, we couldn't reach a conclusion. Perhaps the complexity of this place far exceeds our imagination.

The "Feisino Theorem" states that people have two ears but only one mouth, meaning we should listen more and speak less.

I decided to quietly wait for "Yan Mie" and then listen to what Baiyang had to say. He spoke of "cooperation" rather than "utilization," which proves his proposal benefits Zhang Qiang and me as well.

I choose to trust the strong.

Although he broke the rules by choosing suicide, for some reason... I always felt he would return.

Sure enough, as I expected, when I opened my eyes in the room again, I saw the three "Sheng Xiao" neatly arranged inside.

Aside from me and Baiyang, everyone else wore expressions of surprise.

Baiyang seemed to have just calmed down; he took a deep breath and said softly, "Good thing I made it."

Before Zhang Qiang and I could speak, Mian Yang's emotions flared up.

"Baiyang... you..."

"Long story short, I'm in a hurry," Baiyang interrupted anxiously. "Do you believe me now?"

"You... you..." Sha Pi Quan Ye stared at Baiyang with an incredulous expression. "You clearly broke the rules... How is this possible?"

"So I said, sometimes you don't need to look at what's written in the contract; you have to use your own brain."

Baiyang reached up to touch his mask and noticed the gun barrel at his temple was gone, which put him at ease as he continued, "Let's cooperate. Anything said here can't be monitored, because as you all know, everyone who comes to the 'Mian Shi Fang Jian' values their life more than anything, so no one dares to break the rules."

"But how did you find that out?" Mian Yang asked.

"I can't tell you that," Baiyang refused outright. "Person-Dog, Mian Yang, let's get to business. Are you interested in rebelling with me?"

Zhang Qiang and I felt our hearts skip a beat upon hearing that; the situation seemed exactly like last time—we needed to quickly grasp our "Memories."

Baiyang was powerful, but every word he said could get Zhang Qiang and me killed a thousand times over.

We didn't even consult each other; we immediately tried to gain "Hui Xiang."

But this time, it felt strange—the bells outside rang only once, and I seemed to find a delicate tipping point, allowing me to gain "Hui Xiang" and immediately cut off my thoughts, stopping the swaying bells from ringing further.

Baiyang ignored Zhang Qiang and me the whole time, fixing his cold, piercing eyes on the two "Sheng Xiao."

"Re... rebel...?" Mian Yang was slightly stunned. "Rebel means...?"

"This whole place is a scam; even the paper on us doesn't have a word of truth. Rebelling means we get 'Tian Long' off that seat and become the masters ourselves," Baiyang said. "Otherwise, you'll regret passing up this opportunity sooner or later."

"You..."

Sha Pi Quan Ye and Mian Yang both widened their eyes in an instant, and Zhang Qiang and I quickly bowed our heads.

Though we weren't "Sheng Xiao," we knew that was enough to get us killed.

"You said to bring down who...?" Sha Pi Quan Ye asked, his voice trembling.

"Tian Long," Baiyang said. "We make him die."

After hearing that, Sha Pi Quan Ye slowly reached out and grabbed Baiyang, turning to Mian Yang and saying, "Something's wrong—go get help!"