079 Dekan’s Method of Reasoning
“Are you saying that when the six corners of the formation are illuminated by red light, the vampire might appear?”
“Eliminate the ‘might.’ If we lose two more people, we’ll have to face Vampire Count Augustine.”
Carefully observing the pedestal beneath the piano, it seemed to be a large coffin embedded in the ground.
It must be the hiding place of the “Vampire Count Augustine.”
“So how did the master of the mansion die?”
Lilith still asked, not quite understanding.
“It looks like suicide, right?”
Generally speaking, scenes that appear to be suicides are often not what they seem.
But to be honest, as a seasoned professional, Dekan felt this was indeed a suicide.
In a world like this, there’s no need for murder to be so fancy.
“So why did he commit suicide?”
“Perhaps he was controlled by the vampire and wanted to sacrifice us, but at the last moment regained some rationality and, in his struggle, dealt himself a fatal blow.”
As Dekan stated this conclusion, the long-stalled task prompts finally began to update.
[Vampire Count Augustine was severely injured after being hunted down by the Church. In his dying moments, he sealed himself in a magical coffin.]
[He enslaved the lingering souls of witches and werewolves, and cursed the mansion, constantly eroding the master’s mind, forcing the master to offer sacrifices. If six souls of level three or higher are offered within three days, Count Augustine will resurrect.]
[Years later, the master of the mansion invited a group of friends over for a visit.]
[Planning to offer sacrifices to Count Augustine.]
[However, the master of the mansion retained a sliver of clarity. He knew the consequences of his actions, and in that brief moment of regained self-awareness, he chose to commit suicide.]
[He also became the first sacrifice.]
[However, two people have already been eroded by the mansion’s curse, gaining the powers of a werewolf and a witch, and are about to free Count Augustine.]
[The core storyline is complete.]
[Information unlocked. The task for the Reverse Challenger is: summon the level six vampire Count Augustine; after the task time limit ends, Count Augustine will be teleported to a random coordinate in the Challengers’ original world.]
“Did you really deduce correctly?”
Lilith was in shock.
She had been contemplating how to solve the master’s murder case, not expecting it to be so simple.
“It’s all thanks to my lady’s hints,” Dekan said, retreating behind Cornelia with a smile.
In truth, Dekan was mainly relying on luck.
If he had finished his explanation and the task prompt hadn’t updated, he was prepared to create another hypothesis.
Until he succeeded through guessing.
After all, the first third of the information was directly provided by the Shadow World.
And gathering clues could only yield the middle third of the information.
So the remaining last third was likely to depend on reasoning.
As long as he reasoned correctly, the Shadow World should update the prompts.
Moreover, he already knew the conclusion: “Killing six people will cause the vampire to appear.”
With the conclusion in hand, he could fill in the process; if necessary, he could keep trying until he got it right.
Cornelia maintained her calm poker face, seemingly hiding her prowess.
This time, Lilith stared at Cornelia for a long time before finally showing a relieved smile.
She was completely impressed by Cornelia’s intelligence.
It was evident that the Shadow World wouldn’t make a mistake in selecting the detective’s identity.
At first, Lilith had even felt that she was smarter than Cornelia; now she only felt ashamed.
“So, what should we do next?”
Lilith respectfully asked Cornelia.
Cornelia remained silent.
She didn’t know.
She only knew they would soon be hunting.
“My lady means we should proceed according to the original plan. Let’s first investigate the circumstances of the Three Kingdom Knights’ deaths,” Dekan explained Cornelia’s intention earnestly.
The reason he didn’t rush to bring out the werewolves was that—
This location was too terrible.
If they couldn’t control the enemy and forced them into a corner,
Then the enemy might sacrifice voluntarily, leading to a total of six deaths, and the vampire would appear right in the living room.
Although Dekan could use an all-out attack to incapacitate the vampire,
It didn’t mean the vampire would preferentially attack Dekan.
He couldn’t ensure the safety of the others.
So they needed to lure the enemy to a better position first.
Everyone nodded frequently and headed toward the direction of the bedroom.
Everyone understood that for ordinary challengers to win, they had to win during the day.
Otherwise, by nighttime, they would almost certainly meet with defeat.
As a result, everyone publicly shared their room numbers.
Lilith and her guard were in rooms 201 and 202.
The twin sisters were in 101 and 102.
Dekan and Cornelia were the first to go to the bedroom last night.
Next were the twin sisters.
Then came Lilith and her guard, followed by the three Kingdom Knights, whose room numbers must be the remaining 103 to 105.
First, Lilith’s guard attacked the door of room 103 but couldn’t shake it at all.
This indicated that the blessing on the door hadn’t been compromised.
However, just as everyone was about to go to the next room, Cornelia frowned and sniffed.
She gradually knelt on the ground and leaned toward the gap by the door of 103, increasingly focused on the smell.
“There’s a smell of blood.”
Cornelia said with certainty.
“That’s impossible. The room hasn’t been broken in. How did the people inside die?”
Lilith said, filled with confusion.
The perpetrator couldn’t have entered through the window either, as the windows were as indestructible as the walls and couldn’t be breached from outside.
Next, they tested the doors of rooms 104 and 105, and the results were the same.
The blessings on the doors were intact, and there was also a smell of blood coming from within, while the carpet in the hallway showed signs of having been cleaned of bloodstains.
The three Kingdom Knights must have been killed in these three rooms.
“They were living separately…”
Lilith bit her lip, her expression conflicted.
This was not hard to explain.
Fourth-tier knights probably couldn’t withstand an attack from a level six werewolf, even if two were to stay together.
So they likely opted to stay separately to increase their survival chances.
Even if disaster struck, they could leave more information for their companions.
But the problem was, why were three people killed in different rooms on one night?
Wasn’t the witch only able to break the blessings of two rooms?
The strangest part was that the blessings on the doors had not been breached at all.
Things were becoming increasingly complicated.
A locked-room murder mystery that would decide their fate lay before them.
If the reasoning succeeded, it would mean victory for the ordinary challengers.
If the reasoning failed, they could very well meet utter annihilation.
But Dekan didn’t need to reason.
If he wanted to know the truth, wouldn’t it be far more efficient to directly capture the culprit and interrogate them rather than deducing?
