The barrage froze briefly the moment He Yu appeared, then instantly exploded—
“Don’t know why... but I think 2333 is kinda handsome...”
“He’s always been handsome! His face is even more perfect than the Mechanical Planet people’s.”
“Ugh, I can’t believe I got charmed by someone from a garbage planet. When he landed just now, my legs actually went weak.”
“??? It’s just a pair of wings that don’t even increase combat power. What kind of reaction is this?”
“Oh my god, wake up! This is a garbage planet contestant with combat power 8!!”
......
The comments flooded wildly across the screen.
“Hmph.” Wanrenzhan snorted coldly, nose practically pointed at the sky. “What are you showing off for? Isn’t it just a pair of wings that can fly? I’ve even got a spaceship outside.”
He Yu looked at him expressionlessly. “Oh.”
Wanrenzhan: “???”
He took a step forward, but Gedai and Annie stopped him.
“Calm down. We’re waiting for the murderer. Don’t make too much noise.”
Wanrenzhan could not calm down!
He Yu simply had that kind of ability. Even replying with a single word was enough to make him furious.
Eugene moved closer curiously and peeked behind He Yu.
“Where are the wings? They actually looked pretty cool.”
He suddenly lowered his voice.
“I’ve got a lot of equipment. How about we trade?”
As he spoke, he rubbed his hands eagerly.
—After seeing He Yu’s two flying entrances and landings, Eugene kind of wanted to try it too.
He Yu: “Not trading.”
Eugene: “...Come on, let’s negotiate a little more, I—”
His voice stopped abruptly.
Nearby, Zhen Xing and Cheng Zhao moved almost simultaneously. Their bodies flashed forward at terrifying speed, rushing toward the student dormitory building.
“Blood smell!” Eugene threw out a sentence and chased after them.
The others immediately followed.
He Yu had already tested the speed of Federation experts before, so he had never intended to chase them directly. He merely lifted his foot and slowly walked toward the direction they had vanished.
By the time He Yu reached the dormitory building, Eugene and the others were already surrounding a corpse with grim expressions.
He Yu approached.
“The person’s already dead,” Eugene explained to He Yu.
He Yu nodded.
On the ground, Qiong—her hat brim lowered—was checking a smart brain device. She connected the dead person’s smart brain to her own, attempting to see the murderer through the victim’s records.
He Yu crouched beside her.
Qiong lowered the smart brain and let out a long breath.
“There’s nothing. The death signal only shows that he suddenly collapsed.”
“Death signal?” He Yu lowered his gaze toward the tiny smart brain.
He knew what the device was. He currently had one himself, designed in the form of a ring. Unless the wearer willingly removed it, it couldn’t be taken off by any means.
But after all, his understanding of cosmic technology was still insufficient. There were many things He Yu didn’t understand.
Tang Ke looked surprised.
“You don’t even know that?”
Wanrenzhan immediately sneered, “Heh, you don’t even know something this basic? Just how garbage is your planet? Or are you personally just ignorant?”
He Yu pushed up his glasses calmly.
“Disrespecting your teacher. Minus one credit point.”
The moment the words fell, Wanrenzhan’s smart brain received a credit deduction notification.
Wanrenzhan: “???”
His ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) eyes widened in disbelief.
“Hey, are you insane?!”
He’d already deducted one point this morning, and now another one was gone. Out of five credits, only three remained.
Once all credits were gone, students would be expelled.
Was He Yu trying to eliminate them this way?!
Zhen Xing frowned.
“Quiet down. The murderer just killed someone right under our noses.”
And they still knew absolutely nothing.
Grinding his teeth, Wanrenzhan snapped, “He’s deducting credits whenever he wants. He’s trying to eliminate us this way!”
The way he looked at He Yu seemed ready to spit fire.
Qiong ignored him and explained to He Yu:
“A death signal is triggered when the smart brain detects its owner has died. It sends an emergency signal to nearby responsible personnel while simultaneously scanning the surroundings to record the murderer.”
None of them were remotely worried about Wanrenzhan’s accusation.
Would the school really allow He Yu to expel them like that? Obviously not. It was clear he was just messing with Wanrenzhan.
Eugene added, “Makes it easier for the Federation to investigate crimes. Also easier for family members to seek revenge.”
He Yu understood immediately and nodded.
—In this regard, the Federation and Blue Star were very different.
Blue Star handed everything over to the law. But in the Federation, above the law stood strength.
Had those experts killed few people?
He Yu looked at the projected footage Qiong had displayed. The smart brain hadn’t detected danger beforehand, so it hadn’t scanned the surroundings.
But the instant the victim died, the device noticed and recorded everything.
Black emptiness.
Everything appeared normal.
—The victim was struggling.
There was no trace of the murderer. No other figure had appeared either.
Qiong said, “Either the murderer has some other killing method, or they possess invisibility equipment.”
Gedai frowned.
“Invisibility equipment is one of the rarest equipment types. Extremely hard to obtain. Are you sure?”
Qiong lifted her hat slightly.
“Otherwise? Is there another explanation?”
He Yu was still watching the video.
His gaze swept toward the time display in the lower right corner.
“Twelve minutes? The victim took twelve minutes to die? What was his combat power?”
Qiong checked the smart brain.
“B-rank.”
Cheng Zhao frowned suspiciously.
“A high-level S-rank murderer needs twelve minutes to kill a B-rank?”
“That’s unreasonable,” Annie added. “An S-rank killing a B-rank should only take one second.”
Even Yuan Ze couldn’t understand it.
“Why would a powerhouse like that target students in this school whose strength is still so low?”
“A psychopathic serial killer? Like Earlie, enjoys torturing people?” Tang Ke guessed.
He Yu’s gaze remained on the corpse.
Federation people were probably too accustomed to killing, so aside from checking the wounds, nobody had carefully observed the victim’s other conditions.
“What are you looking at?” Eugene couldn’t help asking.
Wanrenzhan sneered, “Scared by a dead body? You’ll die even worse someday.”
His voice sounded sinister and cold.
He Yu ignored him and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“The victim was definitely suffering. Those twelve minutes must’ve been extremely painful. He bit through the corners of his mouth, and his palms are torn open from clawing at himself.”
He glanced around the area before suddenly asking everyone:
“At this hour, everyone should be asleep in the dorms. So what do you think the victim was doing here?”
They were currently behind the dormitory building, at the back entrance.
The front entrance remained open at night, but the back door was locked at designated hours.
Why would a student still come here this late?
Wanrenzhan said irritably, “Is that important? High-level S-ranks are rare in this instance. We just need to test everyone in the school who’s S-rank and we’ll find the murderer.”
He Yu glanced at him.
“Investigations begin by analyzing motives and behavior. When the murderer’s identity is unknown, deducing things from the victim’s behavior is an excellent breakthrough method.”
He withdrew his gaze and said flatly:
“How much does your planet ignore basic knowledge? Or are you personally just ignorant?”
—The exact same mockery had been thrown back at him.
Wanrenzhan: “???”
He was about to say something else when Eugene interrupted excitedly.
“What are you trying to say? Did you discover something?”
He Yu pushed up his glasses.
“The victim appeared here, and the murderer knew the victim would appear here. Therefore, it’s highly likely...”
He swept his gaze across everyone.
The Federation’s excessively advanced technology, combined with their obsessive pursuit of combat power, seemed to have gradually caused them to neglect some of the most basic analytical abilities.
Smart brains could identify murderers. Killing was commonplace.
Therefore, investigation, analysis, deduction, peeling apart clues—these weren’t abilities Federation contestants particularly needed.
But He Yu was different.
A hall-level actor who had portrayed countless roles. His perfectionist personality had given him abilities worthy of those roles.
Eugene’s eyes lit up.
“Right! Doesn’t that mean the murderer could be his classmate, homeroom teacher, grade supervisor, or even school leadership?”
He Yu nodded.
“Very possible.”
He slowly stood up. His deep black eyes swept across the darkness around them before he suddenly added—
“What if the murderer never actually left?”
Everyone froze and stared blankly at He Yu.
He Yu continued:
“According to our deductions, this high-level S-rank murderer could clearly kill instantly, yet deliberately tortured the victim for twelve minutes. It was also a targeted killing...”
He tilted his head slightly. Reflected light shone across his glasses, carrying a chilling edge.
“So... what if they only leave after personally watching the victim die? You all smelled blood and rushed over immediately. At that point, the victim wasn’t even dead yet. Did the murderer really have time to retreat?”
Everyone: “???”
As if completely unaware of how horrifying his words sounded, He Yu smiled faintly.
“If they really do have invisibility equipment, then what a coincidence. I happen to own a piece of equipment capable of forcing invisible targets to reveal themselves.”
Everyone: “!!!”
Bullet comments: “He Yu... actually has that?”
Bullet comments: “Has my ass! I just painfully checked the backpack where he stuffed the salted fish earlier. There’s no such equipment in there at all!!”
BANG—
Nearby trees shook violently as an extremely fast shadow shot away from the branches.
Without a single moment of hesitation, Zhen Xing, Eugene, Wanrenzhan, Cheng Zhao, Gedai, Annie, Tang Ke, Yuan Ze, and Qiong all charged simultaneously, various weapons appearing in their hands.
No words were necessary.
They instantly sealed off every possible escape direction.
—That’s right. None of them could kill the murderer alone.
But they had ten people.
“Quit hiding your head and tail. Let me see who the fuck you are!” Wanrenzhan roared as his axe flew forward.
The figure pulled out a strange weapon resembling both a spiked club and a bladed mace, meeting the axe head-on.
CLANG!
Wanrenzhan’s axe was knocked backward.
He Yu had seen Gedai’s mechanical arms before—they transformed into twin blades.
Cheng Zhao wielded a long whip.
Yuan Ze’s weapon was stranger still. He Yu had never seen anything like it. One moment it became a blade, the next a staff.
Qiong’s weapon appeared to be a silk thread?
No. That thread tore through the air with a sharp sound. It looked soft, but anything it sliced through would absolutely be cut clean in half.
Meanwhile, the weapon everyone had been curious about from Eugene’s mechanical arms turned out to be—
Chainsaws.
Both his arms transformed into terrifying chainsaws.
Even stranger was Zhen Xing’s weapon.
It was a—
Rubik’s Cube?
When first summoned it had been tiny, but now a massive cube over a foot long floated before Zhen Xing, spinning so rapidly it became an afterimage.
Every twist and movement under Zhen Xing’s control unleashed a completely different terrifying killing technique toward the murderer.
The bullet comments had gone insane—
“AHHHHH TOO COOL! Expert battles are insanely cool!!”
“Oh my god, they’re all so strong! Even an S-rank expert got trapped by them!”
“I feel like I’m witnessing future big shots being born. This is only the first stage of the elimination round and they’re already this terrifying.”
“Every time I watch top players unite in this competition, it feels overwhelming. Ten people fighting together is so awesome!!”
......
“Wait! Ten people?!”
......
The audience suddenly shifted their gaze toward He Yu.
Only nine people were fighting.
He Yu stood calmly to the side.
Although he had been the one to lure the murderer out, the instant the murderer appeared, He Yu had very consciously reduced his own presence.
The closest person to He Yu was Wanrenzhan.
He Yu silently moved behind Wanrenzhan while steadily retreating farther from the battlefield, quietly stopping beneath a tree.
If you said he wasn’t scared...
Then why was he hiding farther back than anyone else?
But if you said he was scared...
Then why had he calmly pulled out his notebook and started writing?
Bullet comments: “......”
Bullet comments: “???”
Whether it was Eugene’s chainsaws or Zhen Xing’s Rubik’s Cube, both were troublesome weapons. But the shadow clearly possessed abundant combat experience and skillfully evaded every attack.
No single person there could defeat the murderer.
But against nine people working together, the shadow also had no way to break through.
Very quickly, the shadow threw out an object.
PAH!
It exploded.
Thick choking smoke instantly spread through the surroundings, causing Eugene and the others’ movements to stall slightly.
And in that brief instant, the shadow disappeared at incredible speed.
“Fuck!” Wanrenzhan cursed while charging forward a few steps.
The murderer had been injured.
So had they.
But none of the injuries were severe.
“What now? Keep chasing? They have invisibility equipment. The smart brain never recorded them.” Qiong withdrew her silk thread and frowned.
Wanrenzhan suddenly turned toward He Yu and shouted:
“Didn’t you say you had equipment that could reveal invisible targets? Why didn’t you use it?!”
He glared fiercely at He Yu, wildly seizing on what he believed was finally a mistake.
He Yu remained expressionless.
“Idiot. I was bluffing the murderer.”
Wanrenzhan: “???”
Just as he was about to start cursing again, He Yu’s wings spread open with a flap as he flew toward another direction.
Wanrenzhan froze.
“What are you doing?”
He Yu replied, “School staff are coming. Do you want to get mistaken for the murderer?”
Then he flew away.
The others vanished after him in flashing movements.
Wanrenzhan: “...??”
After leaving the dormitory building, they regrouped elsewhere.
Wanrenzhan had probably realized how stupid he’d looked earlier, because he now stared at He Yu viciously.
In truth, Wanrenzhan wasn’t stupid.
But he was impulsive and hot-tempered. Whenever he got angry or provoked, his behavior easily became extreme.
Now that he’d calmed down, he remembered his vote count and coldly questioned He Yu:
“Why didn’t you join the fight just now? You’re a training teacher. You’ve got an NPC good-guy identity. We can’t kill you, and the murderer probably won’t kill you either.”
Wanrenzhan sneered and stepped closer.
“You weren’t going to die anyway, so why hide your combat equipment? Are you really that cowardly?”
—He directly exposed He Yu’s behavior from earlier.
—He wanted the audience to dislike and despise He Yu!
A contestant who wouldn’t even approach battle should obviously disgust viewers, right?
Wanrenzhan’s logic sounded perfectly reasonable.
However—
“...But he only has eight combat points. He literally can’t help.”
“His combat equipment... forget it, I don’t even want to remember it.”
“Wanrenzhan, you’re overthinking this. Whether He Yu joins or not changes nothing.”
“Honestly it’s better he hid. With only eight points, one accidental hit and he’d instantly die.”
“I don’t want He Yu to die though. He promised a full-team clear. I want to see how he pulls that off.”
......
Wanrenzhan had no idea the audience found nothing strange about it.
After all, He Yu only possessed a pitiful eight combat points.
Unaware of this, Wanrenzhan coldly stared at He Yu, eyes full of provocation, seemingly convinced he had finally regained a point against him.
He Yu raised a hand and pushed up his glasses, speaking with perfect confidence—
“Not dying doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt.”
Wanrenzhan: “???”
His face filled with shock, as though he genuinely couldn’t comprehend how He Yu had managed to say something like that so righteously.
Nearby, Eugene took a deep breath.
“Even together, we probably still can’t beat the murderer. They’re too strong. Plus they have extremely rare invisibility equipment. This confrontation...”
He paused.
“...Aside from proving they’re strong, we gained no clues whatsoever.”
The opponent they had fought had been nothing more than a shadow.
A compressed silhouette.
Male or female. Tall or short. Fat or thin.
They couldn’t determine anything.
After the battle, the only thing they knew was that the person was extremely strong.
Strong enough that even together, they would struggle to win.
Beyond that, they had learned nothing.
“No. It’s not true that we gained nothing.”
He Yu suddenly smiled.
The corners of his lips lifted slightly. Under the lights, his exquisite features seemed to glow. His dark eyes curved faintly with amusement while his low voice sounded pleasant and magnetic—
“I think... I left behind some information about them.”
Everyone froze.
Gedai said in disbelief:
“They were wearing invisibility equipment—one of the rarest equipment types. Even the smart brain couldn’t scan them. What information could you possibly have gotten?!”