High alert, initiate capture?
Zhu Yan understood.
With the fact of his younger brother's death right in front of her, his aunt must have realized it.
Coupled with the female voice broadcast earlier about the "three players" situation...
Zhu Yan knew with just a little thought that she must have blamed her son's death entirely on him.
The fact that the police department dispatched officers so decisively meant that his secret departure from the city as a player had definitely been exposed!
Zhu Yan really wanted to ask if staying to participate in the instance could eliminate some of the effects in the real world.
For example, if he could avoid being taken to the police station for questioning.
He silently repeated this thought in his mind, but the female voice did not respond.
"Please make a choice as soon as possible, player."
Zhu Yan thought for a moment and still chose "Yes."
He did not know what the police were plotting, but he was unwilling to just compromise like this.
In fact, he had no choice.
If he did not enter the instance and directly fought head-on in reality, the consequences would only be more severe.
Entering the instance naturally carried the risk of death, but he could also obtain more information.
After clearing it, he could also get rewards.
Zhu Yan inexplicably thought of the almost addictive, contradictory feeling when the rewards were distributed earlier.
No, he could not be like this. Keep it normal.
He told himself, pinching his palm again to concentrate.
"Please note, player, you will enter the instance [Cat and Mouse Game] in six hours."
"Thriller creature level: Lv.3 Ordinary Doppelganger."
Hmm, a level 3 Doppelganger.
His [Roleplay] was already at level four, and [Complain] was also at level three.
Both of these abilities were enough to deal with thriller creatures, and Zhu Yan couldn't help but feel fortunate.
What identity would the Doppelganger appear before him as this time?
"Instance Mission: Hide your identity and exit Anwu North Station. Do not get caught by the police!"
"Instance Time: Unlimited."
"Instance Location: Train G3075, Carriage 7."
Carriage 7 was exactly where he was.
The lighting in the carriage was soft, and the seats were comfortable, looking entirely unrelated to a thriller instance.
Zhu Yan tried to make his breathing longer until his abdomen relaxed again.
At any time, he should maintain his condition and keep a calm state of mind.
After confirming the broadcast had ended, he patiently finished reading his last ability.
"[Bully] Lv.2: Your physical violent acts towards specific targets will make them feel physically exhausted. This ability is ineffective against level three and above thriller creatures and players."
"This ability is ineffective against yourself."
This ability was much better than fighting.
Fighting could only attack a certain point, while this ability seemed to attack one point but actually covered the whole body.
The downside was that the level was too low to deal with the level 3 Doppelganger in the next instance.
He adjusted to a comfortable posture leaning against the back of the chair and entered the player forum.
The forum was as empty as ever. Zhu Yan patiently scrolled down the posts, feeling that there were more blacked-out avatars than before.
He came to find information on the Doppelganger.
In the last instance, the Doppelganger was so polite to him that it bordered on flattery, and even praised him as "charming." This should not be a coincidence.
Which of his actions had triggered the Doppelganger's reaction?
If this was true, then he just had to replicate that action once more to greatly increase his survival rate in the [Cat and Mouse Game]!
It was past ten o'clock, and the main lighting in the carriage dimmed.
The floor lights shone faintly. Zhu Yan shrank towards the window and drank a few more mouthfuls of hot, sweet milk tea.
He noticed that after the player account was activated, a magnifying glass-shaped search button appeared at the top of the forum.
He tried staring at it for three seconds, and mentally typed "Doppelganger" into the search box that popped up.
No one had posted. There was only a player with the nickname "Doppelganger," whose homepage was completely empty.
It seemed that everything was really just starting out. No one had even summarized a theoretically common creature like the "Doppelganger."
He returned to the homepage and patiently and carefully searched the comment section.
"I was eaten by a Doppelganger. So scary, goodbye world."
"In the novice instance, a Doppelganger ate my mother, and my mother let me survive. I'm so sad, our abilities feel useless against the Doppelganger."
Zhu Yan navigated through these desperate comments. After reading for a while, he barely found a relatively useful comment.
This was a comment under an experience request post. The poster chose to become a player early and wanted to know how to pass the novice instance.
"My novice instance took a long time. It was in a classroom. Over a dozen of us had to face over a dozen Doppelgangers of varying levels."
"I observed one thing that might help you."
"The Doppelganger group follows the law of the jungle, where the higher-ups directly command the lower-downs. We used this rule to determine the approximate level of each Doppelganger. At first, those of us with high abilities dealt with the high-level ones, and those with low abilities dealt with the low-level ones."
"Later, we focused our energy and took down a high-level one, and made it command and manipulate those low-level Doppelgangers."
"Out of thirteen of us, only five died."
Zhu Yan became interested.
So, it must be that some of his actions perfectly matched the characteristics of a "high-level Doppelganger."
Was it because his [Roleplay] level was three at the time, so the Doppelganger mistook him for a level 3 Doppelganger?
Zhu Yan thought for a moment and felt it was unrealistic.
The only function of [Roleplay] was deception. Judging from the ability description, the stronger the [Roleplay] ability, the higher the level of thriller creatures it could deceive, but that was it.
Zhu Yan closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and carefully recalled all the details about the Doppelganger's attitude in the instance.
...
Outside the train window, the night was dark and heavy.
Guan En propped up his eyelids, which were fighting sleep, and looked at the empty seat beside him. He always had a bad premonition.
Time was tight. The fastest way from where they were to Anwu City was by high-speed rail.
The ticket for this train was expensive but it was a direct route. Calculating it, they could arrive an hour earlier than that little brat Zhu Yan, enough to meet up with their colleagues in Anwu City and coordinate.
Thinking about it, it would be a short and convenient trip.
However, he felt that his boss was acting strange.
First, he was sleepy. The boss, who always had severe insomnia, actually slept like a log in the taxi.
After waking up, he was covered in cold sweat and dodged questions, as if he had been frightened by something.
Fifteen minutes after getting on the high-speed train, he went straight to the restroom, and it had been almost half an hour.
Guan En wanted to go ask him, but he was simply too tired.
He gripped the edge of the seat, but before he could stand up, he fell into a deep sleep.
"Loading abilities."
"Congratulations on becoming one of the first batch of beta players!"
...
On Train G3075.
Zhu Yan slowly opened his eyes, having a rough guess.
Thinking back, when the Doppelganger first entered the door, its attitude towards him was normal and cold.
However, after Zhu Yan transformed into his younger brother's appearance and explicitly showed the Doppelganger, its attitude noticeably changed.
If this was the logic—
Then the key was that Zhu Yan had transformed into someone else right in front of the Doppelganger!
So, "being able to transform into more than one form" must be the "attractive" trait in the eyes of the Doppelganger.
This time, he would display this skill once more to put his theory to the test.
He needed to find a way to be alone with the Doppelganger!
[Cat and Mouse Game].
Would the Doppelganger be playing the role of the "cat"?
Zhu Yan slowly exhaled. Having figured out a countermeasure gave him a sense of confidence, and he felt the tension completely leave his scalp.
Since nothing had happened yet, there was no point in overthinking it; he might as well get some rest.
Zhu Yan stared at his palm for another three seconds before closing the player interface.
He set his alarm, finding comfort in the firm support of the reclined seatback against the back of his head.
Slowly, Zhu Yan drifted into a deep sleep.