Chu Tianqiu stood frozen in place with wide eyes. He had contemplated countless ways to lose, but never this one.

“What Tiantian created were… ‘doors’?” Chu Tianqiu said in a daze. “She transformed the original ‘door’ leading to Earth-Rabbit’s room into a ‘Door of Collapse’…”

“How about that?” Qi Xia said. “Simple structure, using local materials, and even if it failed, it wouldn’t matter. After all, only your people would want to enter this ‘door.’ Even if the other side of the ‘door’ was a hellish cauldron of oil, it would count as her success.”

Chu Tianqiu was momentarily speechless, as if he also understood where Jin Yuanxun had gone.

He turned around expressionlessly and found Jin Yuanxun slowly walking toward him from the darkness nearby.

“Bro…?” Jin Yuanxun seemed to see his savior. “You… why did you come here too?”

Chu Tianqiu no longer had the face to answer this question.

He should have thought of it earlier. If a person was to disappear from the venue with a “character,” the most likely scenario was “collapse.”

But because everyone assumed the consequence of “collapse” was “death,” he could never figure out Jin Yuanxun’s motive for collapsing.

Now it seemed Jin Yuanxun didn’t even know he was “collapsing.” It must have been when he started using “Leap” to control the people in the room, he happened to trap himself and Tiantian in the same room.

So Tiantian made a quick decision to trick Jin Yuanxun into “entering the door,” ultimately unlocking the room.

“Qi Xia…” Chu Tianqiu turned back to look at him. “How exactly did you do this? Did you plan from the very beginning to eliminate me, the ‘Commander,’ in this manner?”

“How should I put it, Chu Tianqiu.” Qi Xia shook his head and answered while standing in the “door.” “You’re carrying so many ‘eyeballs,’ and now you’ve gained an ‘echo.’ If I really entered a game with you, the one who would lose could only be me.”

“You…”

“So I had to think of a way to make you lose before you could activate your ‘echo’.” Qi Xia said while touching the door frame. “I was already planning this the moment the game started. Once we truly entered a game together, you could even directly use ‘Heaven’s Vigor’ to kill me, right?”

“So are you going to rush in now and kill me?” Qi Xia asked again.

“I could, but I don’t want to.” Chu Tianqiu shook his head. “A loss is a loss. You clearly gave me many hints, but I couldn’t find the answer. This time, I’ve lost wholeheartedly and with conviction.”

“Yes, I gave enough hints.” Qi Xia said. “Tiantian was sent by me from the very beginning to a room where one of the ‘doors’ could collapse. She continuously observed the differences between the two types of ‘doors’ on site. Then I learned from your camp how to obtain an ‘echo’ and had Zheng Yingxiong relay it to her. During this period, Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin’s attacks were all to make everyone among you filled with suspicion and unable to cooperate.”

The more Chu Tianqiu listened, the more incredible it seemed. He appeared to be making meticulous plans at every step, but the reality was that he had been following Qi Xia’s footsteps all along.

“As long as you didn’t trust your own people, there was a possibility you would use ‘Morphing’ yourself. I felt the time was about right, so I decisively gambled with Yan Zhichun, leaving you enough time to act.” Qi Xia said. “Because I believe that among all the people on my side, you understand me the best. If you used ‘Morphing,’ you would only transform into me, so I told Chen Junnan that there would be a ‘strange me’ appearing at that time.”

Chu Tianqiu shook his head helplessly. “So Zhang Chenze was also your doing. Her appearance directly led to our failure.”

“Lawyer Zhang is a very interesting person.” Qi Xia said. “No matter how critical the situation, she will always respond to the scene with the calmest mindset, so she could adjust her mentality the fastest and go alone to the enemy camp to continuously deduct points. This kind of accurate and efficient way of doing things—in the team, besides me, only she could handle it. None of the others could.”

Chu Tianqiu’s lips were tightly closed, saying nothing.

“However, you got one thing wrong. Zhang Chenze’s appearance didn’t directly lead to your failure, but rather was meant to force you into this game venue.” Qi Xia said. “Deducting a few points would briefly intensify your sense of crisis. At that time, Yan Zhichun would appear to tell you that I arranged to meet you at the ‘river path,’ and you would have no choice but to appear. Everything fell into place naturally. Although no one was a mole, they were all acting according to my plan—no different from being moles.”

“I didn’t expect you had already built this ‘door,’ and even sent Jin Yuanxun out midway.” Chu Tianqiu said. “Rather than saying the ‘continuous point deductions’ increased my sense of crisis, it’s more accurate to say Jin Yuanxun’s disappearance made me even more confused.”

“That could only be considered a coincidence.” Qi Xia said. “I didn’t tell Tiantian how to handle this kind of situation. She made the decision herself.”

“What a ‘made the decision herself.'” Chu Tianqiu laughed. “Almost everyone on my side was making their own decisions, but the actual situation was like scattered sand.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia chuckled softly. “Do you know about octopuses?”

“Octopuses…?” Chu Tianqiu said with furrowed brows. “Of course I know about them.”

“Octopuses have nine brains.” Qi Xia said. “One main brain is located in the head, and the other eight auxiliary brains are in its tentacles. So every octopus in motion is like one captain leading eight teammates. The main brain issues commands, which the auxiliary brains receive and execute independently. I won’t try to control my teammates, merely issue commands. How they execute them is up to them to decide. They are my limbs, and I’m willing to accept all consequences for this.”

“But I feel I’m not an octopus, but a shark. I only have one brain and one body, while the others are small fish independent of me.” Chu Tianqiu said. “I must say your team is truly too powerful. Even Han Yimo’s existence left me helpless.”

“Han Yimo?” Qi Xia shook his head. “Unfortunately, I never hinted at anything to Han Yimo. Like I said, everything was ‘free development,’ and I accept all results. Moreover, I didn’t want to use Han Yimo’s ‘echo’ to secure my victory. That would make me feel extraordinarily bored.”

Chu Tianqiu felt that all the efforts he had made from beginning to end seemed to have hit a sponge.

He had been carefully guarding against moles and constantly monitoring Han Yimo’s state of mind, yet he never imagined that Qi Xia had never cared about Han Yimo’s condition and had never planted any mole.

“I don’t regret losing.” Chu Tianqiu replied.

“To be honest, you can’t really be considered to have lost.” Qi Xia said. “This type of game isn’t your area of expertise. Next, I have other tasks for you to handle.”

After hearing this, Chu Tianqiu’s expression changed as he asked, “You… are assigning tasks to me?”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded. “Others don’t understand you, but I do. I know what situations can bring out your potential.”