Chapter 117: Lies and Redemption
"When did you start suspecting me?"
Song Qi ignored the fleeing tourists around her and her incredulous classmates, asking with curiosity.
"From the moment you started talking to me. When we made eye contact, the emotions you displayed were too shallow."
Lin Ye's acting skills surpassed hers.
"Oh dear, that's such a failure. I always thought my acting was quite good, don't you think so, Classmate Sun?"
Song Qi revealed a cheerful smile, glancing at Sun Yuhang who remained by her side.
"Xiao Qi, what are you talking about? How could you possibly be a cultist? There must be some misunderstanding..."
Sun Yuhang looked at Lin Ye with hopeful eyes, wishing this was all just a mistake, that their graduation trip hadn't ended, that tomorrow he could still confess to Xiao Qi at the scenic spot as planned.
"That could still work, as long as she's willing to cancel the ritual. I'll spare her life. I don't like killing young people - that's why she's still alive now."
Lin Ye slipped his right hand into his coat pocket as he spoke. "Xiao Qi, you heard him. Please abandon the ritual. You must have been deceived by those despicable cultists. It's not too late to turn back now."
Sun Yuhang spoke in an almost pleading tone, but as he saw Song Qi's calm expression, his heart slowly sank and his voice gradually faded.
"It's been too late for a long time. And the only reason he doesn't kill me is because killing me would completely activate the entire ritual, and the monster below would go completely out of control. Once the ritual is canceled, he'll definitely kill me immediately. Public Security Bureau members never let any cultists escape, even if that cultist is their own family member."
Song Qi looked calmly at Lin Ye, as if seeing her father's figure behind him.
If she hadn't wanted to complete the ritual to control the monster and destroy that city, she would have activated the ritual long ago to perish together with Lin Ye.
"Then guess what's in my pocket?"
Lin Ye focused his attention on Song Qi. He had to confirm the size of that thing.
"...Impossible. You couldn't have obtained it..."
Song Qi stared at Lin Ye's pocket, her breathing becoming rapid.
"Since I knew you were planning to perform a ritual, how could I just stand by and do nothing? Although the cliff below is dangerous, there's more than one way to retrieve things. If you don't believe me, you can try activating the ritual."
Lin Ye urged with a look of indifference.
"Impossible. If you had the ritual core, why wouldn't you just kill me directly?"
Song Qi glared at Lin Ye, unable to accept that he would spare her despite knowing she was a cultist.
"I believe people should have a second chance to choose, even if they're a cultist."
Lin Ye spoke words that made him want to vomit, step by step approaching Song Qi.
"Activate the ritual, and you'll know whether I'm telling the truth. But if you activate the ritual, I'll have to kill you, because you'll have abandoned your chance to choose."
"I don't believe it! I don't believe there are law enforcement officers like you!"
Song Qi activated the ritual.
But before she activated it, Lin Ye had also activated a ritual.
In four different locations around the hotel, four artworks emitted a faint glow and, under Lin Ye's control, began the ritual to connect to the divine seat.
These four positions coincided exactly with Song Qi's ritual, and under the suppression of the divine seat, the summoning ritual was delayed.
So nothing happened.
Song Qi stared blankly at Lin Ye.
Lin Ye withdrew his right hand from his pocket and slowly opened it before Song Qi, saying:
"I told you everything was under control. Of course the ritual core is in my hand."
Special skill Cunning activated. At this moment, truth ceased to be real, and false flowers bloomed in Lin Ye's hand.
A semi-transparent colored glass sphere appeared in Lin Ye's originally empty right palm.
When he obtained the Cunning skill, Lin Ye had thought about many things.
He had considered using this skill to boost his combat power, or through description, make others believe he possessed some powerful treasure or skill.
But he quickly abandoned these ideas.
Because he didn't believe the system would allow him to obtain powerful strength in this way.
Like the special skills he had obtained before, this skill definitely had some underlying rules that the system hadn't described.
And the word "believe" was too vague - how could he truly make someone believe something?
And who should he make believe?
This skill was far more troublesome than Inspiration, with extremely high difficulty of use.
In the end, Lin Ye chose Song Qi as the target of his deception.
As long as he could deceive Song Qi herself, the other unaware observers would naturally believe Lin Ye too.
He had been performing the image of an omnipotent person all along, just to make Song Qi believe that he could really obtain the ritual core.
All the performance was for that moment when he opened his palm.
The difficult part of this deception was that Lin Ye had to find an excuse for why he wasn't killing Song Qi.
This was hard, because Lin Ye didn't want to spare her at all.
People should have a second chance to choose, provided they've paid the price for their first choice.
But fortunately, Song Qi herself desperately wanted Lin Ye to truly be willing to spare her.
Not because she wanted to survive, but because she hoped someone would make that choice.
So in the end, she convinced herself, accepting Lin Ye's lie even before seeing the glass sphere.
Song Qi looked at that colored glass sphere, as if seeing another ending, another outcome where even someone like her could obtain redemption.
"Officer, thank you for giving me a choice. Please proceed."
Song Qi walked up to Lin Ye, revealing a fragile smile, and bowed her head in respect.
Before the connection with the divine seat was completely severed, Lin Ye cleanly pierced through Song Qi's chest, shredding the tendril core within.
He could have waited longer, letting Song Qi discover she had been deceived, letting her die in pain and hatred.
But Lin Ye's heart softened. There was one thing he hadn't deceived Song Qi about - he truly didn't like killing young people.
Sun Yuhang knelt beside Song Qi's body, silent.
"Is it over?"
Jiang Yu ran out from the emergency stairwell, followed by Feng Youcai whose outer clothes were soaked with blood and green fluid.
"It's over."
Lin Ye had to thank the fortune cookie. His luck had been good this time. If Jiang Yu had been nearby, he really wouldn't have been confident about deceiving the intuitively sharp Jiang Yu, especially since they had explored the cliff together before.
Wang Yao: Are you okay, dad?
Feng Youcai: I'm fine. Luckily Xiao Jiang was here this time, or we really would have crashed and burned. They actually hid a large number of Masked Figures in secret rooms. The walls were too thick - couldn't sense them at all.
Jiang Yu: Hehe, with me here, how could I let anything happen to my teammates?
Lin Ye: Do you want to collect some loot? After escorting these tourists partway, we should probably head back.
Jiang Yu: Yes! I want to bring back souvenirs from the Luxury Hotel!
Feng Youcai: I want to take a mini fridge and a few cases of premium red wine to try.
Wang Yao: You should really drink less... I want to take some high-end toiletries.
Lin Ye: Good. Let's take the tourists back to their rooms to pack their belongings, and collect the loot each of us wants along the way.