Things became more and more weird. Joel thought to himself, although he felt this way when he met the monster with the fish head before, thinking of this, he took out the strange bubble from his "backpack" and took a look. The smoke-like thing rolled in the bubble, and from time to time, two faces appeared, one human face and the other fish face.

"What is this?" Anthony, who was thinking about things, suddenly raised his head and looked at him, and then noticed the water ball in Joel's hand.

"Treasure." Joel said lightly.

"Is it the magic props dropped by the monster who killed people in the city? It turns out that you have such a good thing." Anthony immediately shook his head slightly, "Now isn't the time to talk about this."

Joel saw Hemi's hands tightly grasping the hem of his clothes, and the girl sat upright, looking a little uneasy. Joel was silent for a moment, and then stood up from the girl, "Since we already know the clue, let's go and find Feiyu and the others now and ask where the two surviving guys came from."

"Are two survivors..." Anthony tapped his chin and looked at the slightly transparent ghost. "Mr., are there any restrictions on the use of cultists' 'pray'?"

"Of course there are," the old man nodded, then reached out to touch his beard. "After all, what they worship is not a kind thing. Their 'pray' must be sacrificed for sacrifice. Moreover, if the two 'pray' are too close, the sacrifices required will be greatly increased. According to the wishes of 'pray', the things that need sacrifices are different."

"According to the book in your hand, if 'pray' takes away life, things with the same life must be sacrificed, and if 'pray' power, things with the same power must be sacrificed."

"If the 'pray' offering is not prepared sufficiently, 'pray' will not be responded; if the price required for 'pray' exceeds the limit that the prayer can bear, even if the 'pray' is sufficient, 'pray' will cause irreversible harm to the prayer, such as losing mind, sudden death or even turning into meat paste."

"What a dangerous means," Anthony commented.

"After all, the existence they worship is such a dangerous thing." The old man said lightly.

"That is, if those two people also drank 'pil blood', there might be no danger in a short period of time," Anthony said, looking at Joel standing next to him, "but it is not completely impossible, so we need to hurry up and interrogate them immediately, otherwise they may die because of 'pray' at any time."

"Then leave it to me and Alps," Joel said to Anthony in a low voice, and he subconsciously glanced at Hemi, who was sitting on the edge of the bed behind him, "You go directly to the inner castle and let them assist you in investigating the wine merchants in the city."

"Okay." Anthony also stood up, but he paused immediately. He looked at Joel, "But aren't you going to take Hemi and Simoken to leave Jin Falls? If you drag it down, there might be no chance..." Anthony looked at Joel worriedly and said, "Tomorrow, the Duke of Golden Falls will open the city gate and let the troops and mercenaries outside the city enter Jin Falls. After that, if you want to leave Jin Falls, you may be regarded as a deserter."

Joel thought about it, and he looked back at Hemi again. When he looked at Anthony again, the other party had already stuffed a heavy bag into his hand. "This is the money needed to purchase supplies. You should take Alps to help you purchase supplies you need to go to the south, and then leave Golden Falls immediately." Anthony said with a relaxed smile, "Let me leave the matter here to myself. When this is done, I will go to the south to find you."

Before Joel could say anything, Anthony patted his shoulder, then walked around Joel to the old man and placed the book in his hand on the table. "This book is very good. If you have the chance to borrow it, please read it," Anthony looked at the old man, "Sir, come back and ask you for advice."

"Yes." The old man's ghost agreed slightly, but his face was still expressionless.

Then Anthony turned around and left the room. Joel stood there and didn't know what to say. After the door was closed, Joel lowered his head and looked at the purse in his hand. Wow, it was really heavy, he thought to himself.

"He will die." The old man said to Joel.

"I know." Joel put his wallet in his "backpack", but the mercenary would not really die, Joel comforted himself.

"Many people will die." The old man said to Joel again.

"I know." He looked at the old man impatiently.

"Mr. Contin," Hemi spoke at this time, and Joel looked at her, "Do we have to leave?"

"Must." Joel replied decisively, the city might be destroyed, and I cannot let Hemi and Simoken take such risks. At this time, Joel thought of Kadiya for no reason.

"Mr. Contin..." Hemi said nervously, while Joel immediately frowned and looked at the old man's ghost, but Hemi had no idea about his actions, "Mr. Contin." She called again.

"I'm listening," Joel replied, but his eyes were staring at the old man, and the ghost looked at him without caring about it, his eyes shining with a light of reason and depth.

"Mr. Kang Ting, I don't want to leave Golden Falls." Hemi, who finally mustered up his courage.

It came again. Joel sighed secretly. He was already a little bored, "This is not your duty, you don't need to take it." Neither you nor me can stop this disaster. Joel wanted to tell her, but he was still waiting to hear what Hemi would say.

"I know," Hemi replied, "I have thought about what you have said to me."

"But even so, I don't want to leave Golden Waterfall City just like that."

"What can you do if you stay?" Joel asked with a frown. He didn't want to say anything that would hurt her, but if she insisted on doing this, Joel didn't care to tell her this.

"I don't know." Hemi said frankly, "but even so, I want to stay and try what I can do with this."

Joel looked at the old man, you told her something, his eyes seemed to be asking the old man like this, but the ghost did not answer him. "Maybe you will die," Joel swallowed and said, "Maybe Simoken will die." The most terrifying thing is that I will not die.

Hemi bit his lip, "You can take Sister Simoken to leave first..."

"Nonsense." Joel said sternly, "How is this possible?" Putting aside Joel's personal emotions, Ximoken could not leave Hemi alone and leave here alone. "Do you want Ximoken to take this risk with you?" Although this made Joel feel a little uncomfortable, he could only say so at this moment.

"I won't let Sister Simoken take risks," she paused, "I don't want you to take risks either, Mr. Contin."

“So I’ll do my best to do what I can.”

What you can do? Joel felt something was wrong, "What can you do?" Joel asked in confusion.

Then she fell silent, and then Joel could only look at the old man again, "What did you say to her?" Joel asked angrily.

But it was not the old man who answered Joel, but Hemi. "Mr. Contin, please don't make things difficult for him," she begged. Joel suppressed his anger, but the look at the old man still contained anger, "I just want to ask you for something."

"What?" Joel asked. If she wanted to ask me to let her stay, I would decisively refuse her, Joel told herself.

"Please believe me." Hemi said sincerely, "Please... believe me once."

Joel opened his mouth, but could not say the words of rejection, and finally fell into silence.

...

When Anthony returned to the first-floor tavern, Alps was talking to Meca and Mozi, and he was a little surprised.

"So you are the player Kassba said to have saved Coria from the mad dog. This is really surprising," Meka said with a smile. "It turns out that it was Drake's instructions to go looking for Liehua at that time."

"Fortunately, I met you guys from the Ghost Sword Brigade on the way, otherwise I might have taken my companions to Shilu Castle directly. Fortunately, President Kasperba told me about the situation in the south and the whereabouts of Ms. Liehua, otherwise we don't know when we will return to the north this time." Alps said with a hearty smile.

"That guy, Kasperban, although he is a star player, he has no awareness at all that a star player should have. He always does something without worries," Meka sighed and said, "Fortunately, she told you the whereabouts of Liehua. If she told other guys who were ill-hearted, she wouldn't know how big a mess she would have to do."

"The president has always been very accurate in looking at people." Mozi, who had been silent, whispered, but Alps noticed that her eyes were very serious.

"It's a big fun thing to know about the 'Scarlet Rose'!" Alps smiled heartily.

"Please don't tell these things," Meka said with a faint smile. "Although Casper looks careless, she actually feels quite troubled by her overly enthusiastic fans."

"This is the so-called trouble of celebrities." Alps nodded and said, unconsciously posing as if he felt the same.

"What are you talking about? Are you so happy?" Anthony asked in confusion after approaching.

"Ah, nothing. How about it, has Joel already explained the matter to you?" Alpine asked, looking at Anthony who was sitting next to him without hesitation.

"Well, I got a lot of unexpected and useful information." Anthony said with a heavy expression.

"Oh?" After hearing his words, Meca immediately showed an interesting expression.

"Then you know 'that thing' too." Alps said lightly.

"Well," Anthony nodded, "I calculated the time. When the 'that thing' happened, the people from the Ghost Sword Brigade had not yet arrived in Golden Falls, so their suspicion could be ruled out."

"It's true." Alps nodded in agreement.

"What is the 'that thing' you've been talking about?" Meka asked in confusion.

Anthony looked around quietly, then leaned forward, and Meka leaned over, and then Anthony whispered in a low voice that only two people could hear, "A traitor appeared among the players. He had been connected to the Black Tree Party, the Beggar Brotherhood and even the Wizards from the beginning."

Anthony saw a look of surprise on Meka's face, and then became serious and solemn. She thought for a while, then nodded and replied in a low voice: "This is true. There was a situation where a player colluded with the bandit NPC and ransacked passers-by. However, the player was exposed on the forum afterwards, and was chased and revenged by many players."

Players stand on the side of NPC to harm other players. This may seem ridiculous, but in fact, as long as they have enough benefits, many players will do this without hesitation. Players are such a group with a very blurred boundary between good and evil.

"Only we know about this matter at the moment," Anthony whispered again. "We cannot see this matter open, because as long as the players who stay in the city on 'that day' are suspected."

"Is this a range too large?" Meka frowned, "Even if players outside the city are excluded, the number of players in the city alone may have exceeded 200. How can we find this 'traitor' among so many people? Is there no suspect?"

"There is a suspect at the moment," Anthony paused, "but it was just a suspect."

"Who is it?" Meka asked in confusion.

"Flying Fish." Anthony said this name reluctantly because based on his contacts during this period, Anthony did not think Flying Fish would be a traitor, but this guy might have had similar behavior before... "He killed the contact on the same day that the 'traitor' met secretly with the contact of the Black Tree Party and the Beggar Brotherhood."

"Is that flying fish from the Knights of the Iron Chain? This is indeed suspicious." Meka nodded, "Did he say anything about this?"

"We asked him," said Alps, who had been listening to the side, "he said that he was looking for Simoken that day, but he was found when he sneaked into the Black Tree Party's room, and he accidentally killed the npc."

"Simoken?" Meka was surprised.

Alps pointed to Simoken, who was serving the wine glass for the guests not far away. Simoken also noticed Alps' movements, and then showed a puzzled expression.

"He said he killed it by mistake?" Meka rubbed her brows, "It's really a coincidence."

"It's really a coincidence." Anthony nodded, "But even so, as I said before, players in the city were suspected of 'that day'." It's just that Feiyu's suspicion is particularly serious.

"Then let's sort it out," Meka calmly analyzed, "You said there was a 'traitor' among the players. And this traitor has a connection with the Black Tree Party, the Beggar Brotherhood, and even the wizard. So the question is, what kind of connection does they have? Generally speaking, players will betray the player's camp and turn to help the hostile camp when they have extremely attractive interests, that is, the player will assist these npcs to harm other npcs, even players for this benefit."

"Same, what purpose will these hostile NPCs pay so much for buying a 'changing mercenary'?"

Alps suddenly thought of something, "When we interrogated the Black Tree Party member, he told us their boss - that is, the contact person - to ask them not to pursue the identity of the player."

"That is to say, the player gets a mission similar to 'spy' or 'lazy'." Meka nodded slightly, "What do they want to get? Or what do they want that player to do?"

"There are several possibilities," Anthony said, "one is 'they want the player to secretly deal with another player or npc', or 'they want the player to obtain intelligence from the player's camp or even the npc', and 'they want the player to help them achieve some goal'."

"The first guess is entirely possible," said Meka. "Hasn't Anthony been attacked by some enemy before?"

"And at that time I might have been influenced by the wizard's spells," Anthony added.

"Didn't that mad dog suddenly appear halfway through?" Meka said in confusion, "Can it be that mad dog is this 'traitor'?"

"No, the mad dog probably hadn't arrived in Golden Falls at that day," said Alps. "Look, didn't the mad dog come to Golden Falls after the craftsmen from Sentinel Town?"

"And that day the mad dog did not kill me decisively. He had many more chances, but he didn't do that." Anthony also showed a puzzled look, "At that time, I really didn't know if it was good luck or something else."

"That is to say, the only one of the killers sent to attack Anthony that time was npc?" asked Meka.

"At least that was the case at that time." Anthony nodded and replied.

"Then the first guess needs to be changed," said Alps. "It seems that the instructions of 'handling other players' should not exist or have a high priority."

"When you said 'that day' was before the Duke's banquet?" Meca asked, looking at Anthony.
To be continued...