The guests’ rooms were very close to each other, so even though Ye Pingjun wasn’t moving fast, he still reached Room 2’s door in just a few seconds. He reached out and opened it. The door wasn’t locked at all.

Inside, No. 2, who was sitting blankly in the room, stiffly turned her head.

Its arm was broken.

Earlier at dinner, Mo Bai sliced open No. 2’s clothing. The butler had ordered the maid to leave a similar wound on No. 2’s body, and the maid had simply bitten its arm off.

When No. 2 saw Ye Pingjun enter, its expression twisted ferociously. It opened its mouth, about to roar, but Ye Pingjun stepped forward and slashed the thin line at its throat with one swipe of the Corrosion Claw.

No. 2 opened its mouth, but no sound came out.

Ye Pingjun kicked the door shut tightly, trapping himself and No. 2 inside the room.

No. 2 lunged at him. It had the strength of a B-rank monster. It was quick to move, unable to die completely, and even able to function after losing its head. To players who didn’t know the truth, it was extremely troublesome to deal with.

But Ye Pingjun had previously studied and summarized the structure of hundreds of human-shaped models. His understanding of these puppets was second only to the Count himself. Dealing with them was practically effortless.

With just a few swings of the Corrosion Claws, he severed the lines controlling No. 2’s limbs and jaw, restricting the puppet’s mobility.

Then he cut the lines controlling No. 2’s cervical spine, spine, and lumbar spine. After that, No. 2 couldn’t move at all.

Ye Pingjun knew that even so, No. 2 wasn’t truly dead. It could still be repaired.

The only way to kill it was to pull out the vast majority of the thin lines inside its body, so that the one behind the scenes would completely lose control over it.

Ye Pingjun flipped the puppet over. He sank the Corrosion Claw into No. 2’s back and gently hooked out a thread that was only 0.5 mm thick.

“Even thinner than the thinnest string found in failed models,” he muttered as he picked up a fountain pen from the table. The Count was a classy person. How could a classy gentleman’s guest rooms not have writing tools? Therefore, pens and paper were standard supplies in every guest room.

Ye Pingjun rolled the fine thread around the pen, turned it a few times, then gave it a firm yank. A portion of the lines inside No. 2’s body was pulled out.

The moment he held the lines, light faded from No. 2’s eyes. It became indistinguishable from the human-shaped models in the storeroom.

Then the cluster of removed lines began to glow faintly as it transformed into a card.

【

Name:Manipulation Thread (操纵线 - CāoZòngXiàn)

Type:Item Card

Rank:C

Effect: Nearly impossible to detect. It can be used to manipulate small objects, creating the illusion of telekinesis.

Usage:Wrap the thread around your five fingers to use it. Please wear gloves to avoid scratching your fingers.

Uses:1

Details:An important prop used for puppet shows by the Smiling Circus, gifted by the circus leader to Count Leon. Count Leon used it to create movable puppets and promised to return the favor with a living puppet. Don’t underestimate its low rank, as it originally was only at this level. Its power increased solely because of Count Leon’s puppet-making skills. Without a puppet, this thread is nothing more than a magic trick prop.

】

“What kind of messy story background is this?” Ye Pingjun stared at the card description, unable to understand why a C-rank card needed such a complicated backstory.

He put the card away and stored it in his temporary prop slot for his AI assistant to keep.

The three prop slots did not restrict cards obtained inside the instance. No matter how many players drew, they could take them all out. The three slots only restricted what could be brought into the instance.

After finishing everything, Ye Pingjun stuffed the lifeless No. 2 under the table. Out of sight, out of mind.

His tasks for the night were completely done.

Having worked nonstop all night, Ye Pingjun sat in a chair and began reviewing their plan.

Mo Bai’s plan could be summed up in four words: divert the trouble eastward. (T/N: Redirect danger elsewhere)

She wanted to use one person to lure the Count and the Phantom Butterfly away. As long as those two A-rank monsters were gone, no one would protect No. 1 and No. 2.

And Player No. 11, who hunted other players, was the perfect bait to draw the Count and the Phantom Butterfly away.

The item used to lure No. 11 was Ironhide Skin.

At dinner, Mo scratched No. 1 and No. 2’s clothes while wearing the Ironhide Skin, and this had four goals:

First, using the rules to remove No. 1 and No. 2 from the dining area so the players could avoid dying during the dinner event.

Second, making No. 11 realize that damaged clothing was very dangerous, thereby tempting him to covet the Ironhide Skin.

Third, attracting the Count’s hatred and ensuring the Count’s nightly visit would definitely target Mo Bai.

Fourth, attracting the Phantom Butterfly’s hatred so it would also decide to attack Mo Bai while the maid and butler were absent.

Although the Count and the Phantom Butterfly had an agreement that the Phantom Butterfly would protect No. 1 and No. 2, the castle also had rules stating that guests had to stay inside their rooms during certain hours.

Thus, Mo Bai deduced that the Phantom Butterfly only protected No. 1 and No. 2 during the noon maintenance period. At other times, it couldn’t interfere with them since there were servants guarding the doors, after all.

And as Mo Bai predicted, her actions during dinner provoked the hatred of all the intended targets, marking the beginning of their plan.

To strengthen No. 11’s resolve, they had to make themselves seem insignificant, harmless, and completely unthreatening, then pass the intel they had gathered on to No. 11.

Once No. 11 learned that the Count might launch a surprise attack on Mo Bai that night, he would worry that the Count might take the Ironhide Skin or that Mo Bai might hide it. If she died, he would never find the item again.

This situation would definitely make him act out of desperation that night.

To ensure No. 11 would steal the Ironhide Skin, they had to make him believe that “The Count had already killed Mo Bai, and since the Count already visited one room tonight, he wouldn’t visit another, meaning it was safe.”

Only then would No. 11 lower his guard and dare to steal the item. Otherwise, he would suspect a trap and escape empty-handed.

Therefore, Room 4 needed a corpse to fool him.

Thankfully, the storeroom on the second floor contained countless human models. Before returning to their rooms at noon, the three of them went there and found a model with a body shape and hairstyle similar to Mo Bai’s. Ding Xun, who was fast and accurate with her strikes, sliced the model in half with one sword stroke to recreate wounds similar to No. 12’s. Then Mo Bai used the Corrosion Claws to destroy the model’s face. With that, the fake corpse was complete.

Mo Bai’s current form was only 158 cm tall with a petite figure, and the model they chose matched that.

Since the model wasn’t alive to begin with and was now cut cleanly in half, it was very easy to carry.

Mo Bai carried one half in her arms, wrapped it in Ironhide Skin, and transported it back to her room in her wheelchair, which was the best means of transport.

Meanwhile, the other half was carried by Ding Xun. She took off her trench coat and wrapped the remaining half inside it. Ding Xun was the tallest among the players, and her coat was the largest, so carrying half a body was easy.

Even so, it was still suspicious.

But they only needed to fool No. 11. As long as Gu Tiandong successfully draw No. 11’s attention, the three of them could bring the fake corpse back to the room without issue.

At night, Ding Xun utilized her Super Intuition to listen for the maid and butler.

Mo Bai had already memorized the castle layout at noon. She determined that they were on the second floor, and the maid and butler’s rooms were on the first floor. Walking from the second to the first floor took around ten minutes at a normal pace, which was more than enough time for them to act.

As long as Ding Xun heard movement outside, she would immediately put on the Prying Lenses to check. Once the servants left the second floor, she would open the door and bring Mo Bai the other half of the body.

When they tested the door in the morning, it made an old, creaking sound that could alert the servants.

But Mo believed that at night, the door might not make any sound.

Since the Count could manipulate the castle itself, he probably didn’t want the maid and butler to discover his hobby, or the fact that he wasn’t as refined as he appeared. If he suddenly broke into a player’s room and the player tried to escape, wouldn’t the noise alert the servants?

Therefore, Mo assumed the doors would be silent at night.

Sure enough, the creaking noise was gone when Ding Xun opened the door.

She rushed across to the opposite diagonal room, tossed the half-body onto the wheelchair, casually grabbed the prepared Mo Bai, and left the room within ten seconds.

On her way back, she tossed a pen from the room toward Ye Pingjun’s door as a signal.

Once Ye Pingjun heard the signal, he immediately knocked on No. 11’s door to proceed with the plan.

No. 11 also knew time was critical, so he didn’t waste a second. Their exchange lasted only about 20 seconds.

After Ye Pingjun finished speaking, he ran to the corner of the hallway to wait. Once No. 11 entered Mo Bai’s room, Ye Pingjun rushed back and slipped into Gu Tiandong’s Room 5.

Their teamwork was perfect. The whole thing took under three minutes, and by then, the maid and butler were just returning to their rooms.

What followed next was No. 11’s solo performance.

For Mo Bai, it didn’t matter whether she managed to escape Room 4 or not. What mattered was that the Ironhide Skin ended up in No. 11’s hands.

Before entering the instance, Mo Bai had carefully searched the trading market and bought a C-rank card called Breath Transfer (气息转移 - QìXīZhuǎnYí) for 2000 points.

She bought it specifically for the Phantom Butterfly.

Originally, the Phantom Butterfly’s hatred followed the Ironhide Skin. But once Mo Bai met it in real life, it locked onto Mo through the combination of the Ironhide Skin and Mo’s personal scent.

The Breath Transfer card could transfer a player’s scent onto another object. The effect lasted only 30 minutes, and it was a hidden-type card. Its effect is average, and the duration is short, so its price was only 2000 points.

But on this race-against-time night, 30 minutes was more than enough.

Mo Bai used the card to transfer her scent onto the Ironhide Skin. With No. 11 taking it, both the Count and the Phantom Butterfly would chase him.

No. 11, the Phantom Butterfly, and the Count would all meet in Room 10, and it wasn’t hard to imagine No. 11’s fate.

And the moment the Phantom Butterfly entered Room 10, Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun would move to eliminate the two hidden monsters.

Although No. 1 and No. 2 were punished tonight, they weren’t killed. The Count could repair them, and Mo Bai believed the damaged-clothing trick could be used only once. Tomorrow morning, the two puppets would appear at the dining table with injuries, which would be troublesome.

They had to truly die.

Once those two hidden monsters died, the Phantom Butterfly’s lodging fee would be wasted, making it useless to the Count.

An A-rank monster would never tolerate another A-rank monster in its territory, especially after meeting face-to-face in the same room.

If the Phantom Butterfly failed to provide a satisfactory lodging fee tonight, it would surely be expelled by the Count.

Mo Bai’s plan for the night would solve two hidden monsters, the Phantom Butterfly and No. 11. Three threats in total.

But they needed a bit of luck for the plan to succeed.

Whether it was the servants not hearing their movements, No. 11’s greed and desperation blinding him to the fake corpse, the Phantom Butterfly choosing to attack Mo Bai during the night, or the Count being furious enough to ignore the Phantom Butterfly’s explanations and insist on expelling it... all of it required good fortune.

Ye Pingjun’s Luck stat was crucial tonight.

According to the rules, the Count wouldn’t enter anyone else’s room for the rest of the night, meaning they should safely get through.

But if the Count got angry enough to break the rules and start killing, they had one last backup plan.

Ye Pingjun entered Gu Tiandong’s room partly because it was closer than Ding Xun’s, but also to help Gu Tiandong keep an accurate track of time.

Three minutes after Ye Pingjun left the room, Gu Tiandong would open his door and shout into the hallway: “Is anyone there? I’m starving in the middle of the night! Bring me some snacks!”

His shouting would attract the maid and butler over. With more people around, the Count definitely wouldn’t dare act.

As for why Gu Tiandong was tasked with drawing attention, it was mainly because everyone else was sneaking around outside their rooms. Only Gu Tiandong would still be inside his own room, so he could openly and legitimately call out for service.

As the sound of the servants’ footsteps approached, everything unfolded exactly as Mo predicted.

The night passed safely.