Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 76 Discussion on Evidence

"Of course, I can’t be one hundred percent sure.

"Because Ghosts who inherit a player’s identity might not necessarily continue with that mission; it’s possible a Ghost might simply leave after possessing a player’s body.

"To determine if there’s a Ghost in the team, and who it is, I conducted a specific experiment."

"Experiment?" Ao Yong asked coldly. "What experiment?"

Li Ang smiled. "Open your WeChat."

Ao Yong took out his cellphone with his right hand and opened WeChat—this account was a secondary one he had set up specifically for this purpose, containing nothing but the newly created player private chat group.

Wait, it wasn’t completely empty. In the ’New Friends’ section of his contacts, there was a friend request from ten minutes earlier.

The requester was named "Yoko Himawari," with the message: "Old classmate, long time no see, let’s add each other on WeChat."

Yoko Himawari’s profile picture featured a cute and sexy young lady in silky pink pajamas, pouting at the camera. Her personal signature read, "Your tavern has closed for me~"

Without a doubt, such a profile image, friend request, and personal signature screamed online scammer.

Once added, a deluge of money-grabbing schemes would follow: everything from "That jerk gave me money for an abortion; to get back at him, I’m going to send the money on," to "It’s my birthday, I want a birthday red envelope," or "My grandfather works hard picking tea leaves in our hometown; dear brother, please buy a few pounds."

These scamming tactics are often designed by psychologists. While they might appear superficial and crude, they are actually tailored for user filtering. Their purpose is to sift out individuals with low emotional intelligence who are easily deceived. The scamming teams, typically consisting of unattractive men, just need to follow their script systematically to easily trick victims out of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Ao Yong had received this obviously fraudulent friend request ten minutes earlier but hadn’t paid it any attention.

"You rejected this friend request, didn’t you?" Li Ang asked, tilting his head. "Actually, that’s my secondary account."

A long time ago, to alleviate boredom, Li Ang would look for online scammers on WeChat. He would pretend to be a young lady or a young man, engaging in chat and voice calls (using a disguised voice). He aimed to deceive scammers into confusion, prompting them to offer him money, all to sharpen his emotional intelligence and eloquence.

Later on, Li Ang felt this method of making money was too slow and inefficient. Moreover, chatting with scammers, who were often unattractive men, was rather disgusting. So, he abandoned this promising venture of "scamming money from scammers."

Ao Yong glanced at the profile picture of the lady in pink pajamas on the screen, then back at Li Ang, unsure of what to say.

"Don’t look at me like I’m some kind of pervert, okay?" As if seeing through Ao Yong’s pig-nose style breathing Mask, Li Ang seemed to glimpse the expression on Ao Yong’s face and pursed his lips, annoyed. "I found this image of the lady in pink pajamas online for the WeChat profile picture. Next to her, using a photo editing app on my phone, I added a Talisman I found on the fifth floor."

Huh? Ao Yong unconsciously looked at his cellphone screen again but could only see the young lady, not the so-called Talisman.

"You see, Ghosts can’t see Talismans," Li Ang said. "Whether real or photoshopped, they can’t perceive them. When you asked us to come down, I used this WeChat profile picture to add both your and the Plague Doctor’s WeChat accounts to test which of you is a Ghost. The Plague Doctor immediately accepted my friend request and asked who I was, but you didn’t."

Ao Yong lifted his head and said huskily, "Perhaps I simply didn’t notice at the time."

"Correct. I considered that possibility, so I set up a second test." Li Ang smiled, his eyes crinkling, and gently patted the Mask on his face. "See what’s on my forehead?"

Ao Yong remained silent.

Li Ang laughed. "Can’t see it, can you? Actually, a yellow paper Talisman has been stuck here all along. I’ve been standing here with this Talisman on my forehead, cosplaying a zombie this whole time, and you never showed any sign of abnormality. So, you must be the Ghost that possessed Ao Yong’s body during the day, right?"

After a long silence, Ao Yong slowly stood up and began to clap. "You... are very smart."

"That’s what everyone says," Li Ang nodded. "It’s probably because I drank too much ’Brain Gold’ and ’Growing Happiness’ when I was young."

Ao Yong ignored Li Ang’s rambling and asked nonchalantly, tilting his head, "Then, how did you know I was Xu Tuoan? After all, shouldn’t the engineer, Xu Tuoan, be *this* one?"

Ao Yong pointed to the Ghost outside the air wall, the one whose tongue had been cut out.

"He’s not an engineer," Li Ang said, glancing at the Ghost calmly. "He’s the soul of the Lost Airship."

Ao Yong squinted. The Ghost became even more agitated, opening its tongueless mouth to howl incoherently, arms flailing, as blood and tears streamed from its eye sockets.

Li Ang continued, "When the Plague Doctor went downstairs to turn off the power, he was chased by the old Ghost that had possessed the Lost Airship’s body, along with another Fierce Ghost.

"Initially, I also thought that Fierce Ghost was the soul of Engineer Xu Tuoan. But when I realized the number of Ghosts didn’t add up, I began to suspect that the Ghost might be the soul of the Lost Airship. The old Ghost who had possessed the Lost Airship’s actual body was likely in the main control room, monitoring and, at the same time, holding the Lost Airship’s soul hostage, forcing him to impersonate Xu Tuoan to match the Ghost count.

"After adding the Plague Doctor on WeChat, I confirmed he was alive and asked him about the situation in the power distribution room. He told me that only the old Ghost was knocking on the door. Although the other Ghost was also looking for him, it wasn’t very aggressive.

"Since the Lost Airship wore a black headscarf during the mission, we never saw his face, so we couldn’t identify him.

"If I’m not mistaken, before the Lost Airship died, his tongue had been removed to prevent his Ghost from speaking recklessly and revealing the truth, right?"

Outside the air wall, the body of the Lost Airship slowly removed its headscarf, revealing a face identical to the Ghost beside it. It laughed sinisterly, the stump of its tongue visible in its mouth.

Meanwhile, the real Lost Airship’s soul, helpless, began to weep. He suddenly lashed out with a punch at his own body, only for his wrist to be violently seized by that same body and thrown to the ground.

"The information sent by the Information Broker didn’t include a photo of Engineer Xu Tuoan, but it did have one of the last victim—the one crushed by the billboard," Li Ang said, pointing to the Ghost in dress pants. "When that man died, he was dressed to the nines. So, by process of elimination, one could deduce that the Ghost inhabiting Ao Yong’s body is Engineer Xu Tuoan."

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