“I’m guessing so,” Chu Tianqiu nodded.

“How is that possible…?” Yan Zhichun couldn’t understand. “You’re saying that after I won against Chen Junnan and brought the ‘characters’ over, he followed along pretending to be Xu Liunian?”

“That’s why I said it’s ‘absurd,'” Chu Tianqiu smiled. “This kind of tactic doesn’t seem like Qi Xia’s style—it’s more like Chen Junnan’s own style.”

Yan Zhichun felt that this matter revealed an incredible feeling.

Chen Junnan just like that, playing Xu Liunian who was playing himself, strutted right over…?

“Little Nian is still a bit inexperienced compared to them,” Chu Tianqiu said. “It might be somewhat difficult for her to play Chen Junnan, but for Chen Junnan to play her is really too simple…”

“This is troublesome now,” Yan Zhichun said with a frown. “It looks like Qi Xia chose the ‘Transformation’ for you, but in reality, the ‘Transformation’ exists simultaneously in both of our teams… Xu Liunian transforms into others, and others transform into her…”

“Qi Xia made a good move with this,” Chu Tianqiu said. “He took up one spot on our team and made it work for both teams simultaneously.”

“Now none of us can trust anyone…” Yan Zhichun hesitated again.

“It doesn’t matter. I said from the beginning that I don’t need you to be united—I just need you to exercise your individual abilities.”

“Wait, but this doesn’t make sense either…” Yan Zhichun suddenly thought of something. “Chen Junnan only had a ‘bao’ in his hand. Did he just cross the river with ‘bao’? Isn’t that against the rules?”

“The rule about ‘can’t cross the river’ is just speculation,” Chu Tianqiu said. “Since a person can operate in the opponent’s area with half a ‘character,’ it can only mean the rule isn’t ‘can’t cross the river,’ but more like ‘something will happen after crossing the river.'”

“But it seems like nothing happened to Chen Junnan…” Yan Zhichun frowned and looked in the direction Chen Junnan had left.

“Not only that, he also seemed to have walked into incredible luck, avoiding all of our people along the way,” Chu Tianqiu said. “All I could do was send him away. You help me find Zhang Shan and Jin Yuanxun. They’re easy to deceive, so this matter must be communicated to them both.”

After hearing this, Yan Zhichun felt something was strange.

“What?”

“You clearly know the other party is Chen Junnan himself, yet you still gave him a ‘character’?” Yan Zhichun frowned slightly and sighed deeply. “The ‘character’ I obtained from the opponent with great difficulty was handed over by you so easily, and even handed to him personally. This contradicts what you said. Didn’t you see through his identity before giving him the ‘character’?”

After hearing this, Chu Tianqiu didn’t get angry. He just smiled and asked calmly: “Yan Zhichun, do you know where the biggest hidden danger in this game is?”

“The biggest hidden danger…?”

Without waiting for her to answer, Chu Tianqiu reached out and tapped the screen behind him, producing an exceptionally crisp sound.

“It’s on this fragile screen.”

Yan Zhichun stared at the display screen behind Chu Tianqiu, as if thinking of something.

“When Chen Junnan just asked me why I didn’t gather everyone here, I realized something was wrong. He was testing me,” Chu Tianqiu said. “So I could only send him away immediately. I originally wanted to extract some intelligence from him, but now I can only make the best of it and give him the ‘cloth’ character that has the least effect. After all, it was his first time making such a bold move, so he was nervous inside. After getting the ‘character,’ he would leave quickly.”

“You’re saying…” Yan Zhichun nodded thoughtfully. “Once they all rush into our ‘Preparation Area,’ they don’t need to snatch ‘characters’ at all. They just need anyone to randomly smash the screen, and we’ll definitely lose. If you continued to let him stay here… he might have unexpectedly smashed the display screen with one punch…”

“The Chen Junnan just now was precisely testing whether I had thought of the ‘display screen’ point…” Chu Tianqiu said. “After all, the real Xu Liunian wouldn’t keep staring at the screen. She doesn’t care that much about winning or losing this game, nor would she care about what ‘characters’ I’ve formed. Only their Chen Junnan would do this.”

“No wonder,” Yan Zhichun nodded, connecting the whole matter in her mind. “No wonder neither you nor Qi Xia gathered everyone in the room immediately to start forming ‘characters’… Instead, you dispersed your forces as much as possible. At first, I didn’t quite understand…”

“That’s right,” Chu Tianqiu said. “There’s a trap in this game rule that’s not easy to detect—that is, ‘the Preparation Area cannot store characters.’ In other words, if you want to create with all the ‘characters’ on hand, you must have enough people staying in the ‘Preparation Area.’ This would cause the ‘front line’ to be lost, leave the home gate wide open, and might also allow the opponent to fully invade our area, thereby launching an attack on the display screen. So the first thing Qi Xia and I thought of was ‘defend.’ After defending our own territory, we would then召集 teammates back to ‘create characters’ in sequence. During this period, even if we lose ‘characters,’ we can’t retreat.”

“The ‘generals’ and ‘marshals’ of this game can be lost,” Yan Zhichun said. “The only thing we can’t allow is for the opponent to break into the ‘Preparation Area’… The ‘display screen’ is like the head of both teams.”

Chu Tianqiu nodded and looked at Yan Zhichun again: “Now it looks like our invasion teams each have successes and failures. How’s Wen Qiaoyun’s side?”

“Wen Qiaoyun… I don’t know,” Yan Zhichun shook her head. “The doors everywhere are closed. There’s no way to see through at a glance.”

“So be it. Go find Zhang Shan and Jin Yuanxun for me first,” Chu Tianqiu said.

…

Qiao Jiajin was standing in the river passage doing exercises when he soon saw Chen Junnan hurriedly run from their side across the river passage to the opposite side.

“Hey! Junnan, where are you going?!” Qiao Jiajin called out, but the other party didn’t respond. “Damn… isn’t that the other side? You’ve ‘crossed the river,’ come back quickly!”

He stood there stunned for three seconds, then heard the door open behind him. Chen Junnan hurriedly returned from the opponent’s area through the river passage to their own area.

“Huh…?” Qiao Jiajin blinked, feeling the situation was a bit strange.

After Chen Junnan entered, he thought of something, turned back to open the door and said: “Old Qiao, this young master scored again! Be careful yourself, and for fuck’s sake don’t believe me!”

“Ah…?” Qiao Jiajin hadn’t expected that in just a few seconds there would be so many things he couldn’t understand. “Junnan, weren’t you just… and now you’re…”

Chen Junnan smiled and raised his eyebrows at Qiao Jiajin: “Not strange. This young master’s ‘Echo’ is fucking ‘Phase Through Walls.’ I’m leaving!”

“Junnan, you really can do that?!”