Chen Junnan glanced at Qiao Jiajin, and the two once again felt that familiar sensation.

In this noisy room, they felt exceptionally quiet.

It was as if every word the Earth-Mouse said could clearly reach their ears.

“Earth-Mouse…” Chen Junnan called out. “Do you really want to help Old Qi?”

The Earth-Mouse turned his head slightly after hearing this and asked, “What do you mean? You don’t trust me?”

“I…”

The Earth-Mouse’s reaction made Chen Junnan even more uneasy. He even began to worry that he had trusted the wrong person—perhaps the Earth-Mouse in front of him was actually “Heavenly Dragon’s” person.

“I think I understand now,” Qin Dingdong said from the side amid the noisy music. “You made a deal with this Earth-Mouse, right?”

“It’s not really a deal,” the Earth-Mouse said. “I just give them some intelligence and have them do something for me. What brilliant insights does this leader have?”

Chen Junnan also looked at Qin Dingdong at this moment. He felt his train of thought had already been led astray by the Earth-Mouse in front of him. Perhaps Qin Dingdong, who had just encountered this matter, would have some good ideas.

“Then I don’t understand,” Qin Dingdong said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “As an Earth-level Zodiac, don’t you normally see them?”

“I can see them,” the Earth-Mouse answered honestly. “We’re together at night.”

“Then why don’t you make a move yourself?” Qin Dingdong asked again. “Wouldn’t it be much easier for you to kill a Zodiac than for us to kill one?”

After hearing this, the Earth-Mouse didn’t answer immediately. His nose just twitched, causing the whiskers on his cheeks to tremble along with it.

He thought for a moment, then said, “I feel that relying on myself alone won’t work, so I need teammates.”

“This leader is truly quick-witted,” the Earth-Mouse stared at Qin Dingdong for a long time before smiling. “I’m ashamed of my inferiority.”

After hearing Qin Dingdong’s question, Chen Junnan finally understood where the sense of discord in this matter lay.

“You…” Chen Junnan turned his head to look at the Earth-Mouse. “Have you been lying to me all along?”

“How should I put it? Part of it was lying to you,” the Earth-Mouse answered. “But not all of it.”

“About the ‘Heavenly Dragon’s confidants’—that was a lie?”

“No,” the Earth-Mouse said. “I’m not sure whether these people are really ‘Heavenly Dragon’s confidants’ or not. I only know that ‘Heavenly Dragon’ values them greatly, that’s all. Having you fight them to the death is currently the safest method for me.”

“Then what did you lie to me about?” Chen Junnan asked. “You said you and I were once ‘teammates.’ Was that also a lie?”

Hearing this question, Qin Dingdong was stunned. “What?”

The Earth-Mouse still shook his head after hearing this. “That wasn’t a lie either. We are indeed teammates. You also know that we two get along well, right?”

“Then this is really strange. What did you lie to me about?” Chen Junnan became more and more curious about the Earth-Mouse in front of him. “Haven’t you been telling me the truth all along?”

“My lie is about Brother Yang,” the Earth-Mouse said. “I don’t want to help him eliminate any hidden dangers. I just want to help myself eliminate hidden dangers.”

“What…?”

“Since we’ve already talked to this point, I’ll be straightforward,” the Earth-Mouse said. “I will definitely board Baiyang’s ship, but I don’t care who’s actually steering it. In other words, if anyone chooses to ‘rebel,’ I’ll try to follow along and see.”

“Why?” Chen Junnan asked.

“Because I’ve had enough,” the Earth-Mouse said, pointing at his own neck. “You probably don’t know what kind of life I live every day… I could lose my life at any moment based on my superior’s preferences.”

The three people looked at his bare neck, not understanding what he meant.

The Earth-Mouse seemed to see the confusion of the three people, so he turned around and took out a collar from the cabinet behind him.

“As people under ‘Heavenly Mouse,’ the reason we could smoothly become ‘Earth-level’ is by becoming dogs,” the Earth-Mouse said. “Whenever I’m conducting a game, I wear this deadly thing. At that moment, as long as ‘Heavenly Mouse’ presses the button, I’ll die directly, without even needing any reason.”

“It can be like this?” Chen Junnan slowly frowned. “As a ‘Heaven-level,’ he can kill ‘Earth-level’ at will?”

“It’s quite laughable,” the Earth-Mouse said. “This was all voluntary on our part.”

“Hmm?”

“When we were still ‘Human-level,’ there was an opportunity for direct promotion right in front of us… the price was this collar. If it were you, how would you choose?”

Chen Junnan felt this was a difficult choice. No matter what, he couldn’t choose.

“I was too arrogant,” the Earth-Mouse said. “I thought that with my own ability, even wearing this collar, I could quickly be promoted to ‘Heaven-level’ and thereby completely escape all of this… but who knew that ‘Heavenly Mouse’ just wanted to collect a few disciples who could amuse him, and didn’t care at all whether we were promoted or not… The treaty we individually signed with him became shackles we put on ourselves.”

After saying this, the Earth-Mouse paused, then shook his head again. “No… that’s not right. I should say… he knows we can’t be promoted at all. So he can always treat us as slaves, letting us live when he wants us to live, and letting us die when he wants us to die.”

Chen Junnan felt this was somewhat absurd after hearing it. “Every time someone comes to participate in the game, you have to wear this collar yourself? Does this collar explode?”

“Yes,” the Earth-Mouse nodded.

“Then you can just not wear it. Why do you care about him?” Chen Junnan asked in confusion. “Could he really come down and kill you directly?”

“He will sooner or later,” the Earth-Mouse said. “The status of ‘Heaven-level’ is completely different from ‘Earth-level.’ They are people who stand beside those two Dragons… Even if they really came down and killed us, at most they’d just be scolded a few times. But what about me?”

Chen Junnan finally nodded after hearing this. “Then I understand. So the one you really want to deal with isn’t ‘Heavenly Dragon’ or ‘Qinglong’ at all. You don’t really want a true ‘rebellion’ at all. You just want ‘Heavenly Mouse’ to die.”

“Yes. Although I boarded this ship, I might disembark midway,” the Earth-Mouse said. “I must kill ‘Heavenly Mouse,’ but I won’t be foolish enough to offend ‘Dragon.’ Overall, I’m currently on the same ship as Brother Yang. I’ll help him within my capabilities, but I’ll also strive to protect myself.”

The Earth-Mouse’s explanation today gradually made the doubts that had troubled Chen Junnan for two days become reasonable.

Thinking about it this way, the Earth-Mouse might be the most reliable one among all the Zodiacs—at least until killing “Heavenly Mouse,” he would always be one of their own.

“You’re really a fence-sitter,” Chen Junnan said with a cold laugh.