With Lumine's suggestion in place, everyone paired up and once again dispersed throughout the castle.
Stopping outside a room, Lumine turned back to Firefly, who had been grouped with her.
"You stay here and don't move. I'll go in and test it."
"Alright."
Firefly nodded in agreement.
Once Lumine entered the room, Firefly began silently counting in her head. She needed to confirm whether the room Lumine had gone into showed any signs of temporal distortion.
"1… 2… 3… 4…"
In the livestream, seeing Firefly still standing outside counting obediently, the audience collectively wailed.
[Jing Yuan: Foolish girl! The spy is probably emptying the place right now!]
[Yukong: It's over—this pair is definitely coming back empty-handed today.]
[Silver Wolf: Is Firefly really that easy to fool?]
[Kafka: ...…]
The Stellaron Hunters were watching in agony. How could this girl trust people so easily? They desperately wanted to rush in and warn Firefly—she's looting everything inside while you're standing guard!
[Lisa: Speaking of which… doesn't this count as breaking and entering?]
[Yanfei: Absolutely. There's even a lookout involved.]
[Furina: When you put it like that…]
[Yae Miko: Yeah… 110 vibes. Totally.]
At this moment, many people couldn't help but picture the scene:
Lumine sneaking into the room, rummaging through valuables, while Firefly stood outside on lookout duty—ready to warn at the slightest disturbance.
After searching for a while, Lumine came back out.
"So, how long was I inside?"
"Hmm… about eleven minutes."
Hearing that, Lumine let out a sigh of relief.
"Then this room probably doesn't have any time distortion. My own timing came out to eleven minutes as well."
"Then… did you find anything?"
"Yes."
Lumine took out four coins.
"Four points!"
Firefly's eyes lit up. That was a great haul—finding four points in the very first room of the day.
[Herta: Sigh… is four points really that impressive?]
[Silver Wolf: It's over… if I'm not mistaken, the spy probably hid the skill card.]
[Feixiao: Only points and no skills—how are they surviving tonight?]
[Raiden Ei: The spy actually handed over the points?]
[Yae Miko: Before fishing, you have to throw out some bait.]
[Kamisato Ayaka: Only giving points while quietly hiding the skills.]
[Sushang: What's the big deal? With points, you can draw rewards anyway.]
[Guinaifen: If you can't win, more points won't save you.]
"Alright, let's move on to the next room."
For the rest of the day, the two of them searched the area thoroughly. As before, Firefly stayed outside recording time, while Lumine handled all the searching inside.
During this period, Lumine occasionally found more points—not many at a time, but altogether it added up to six or seven points.
5:00 PM.
Everyone regrouped in the dining hall.
"Any results?" Lumine was the first to speak, placing eight points on the table.
"Firefly and I didn't find any skills today, but we did get points. What about you all?"
"So many!"
Luocha was shocked. He'd only managed to find three points all day—how was Lumine pulling out eight so casually?
He immediately placed his three points on the table.
"I only found three points and no skills. But I calculated the time in the ballroom earlier—the ratio seems to be about 20 to 1."
"In other words… twenty minutes pass inside while only one minute passes outside!"
That was hardly good news. Everyone's expressions darkened. A twenty-fold time difference was terrifying.
On the other side, Jingliu also placed a single coin on the table.
"One point. No skills. However, the library contains numerous spatial anomalies. If you're not careful, you'll be teleported elsewhere."
"One of the passages near the entrance connects to a storage room."
This was the intelligence Jingliu had gathered that day. She'd originally planned to explore the library with Bronya, but hadn't expected so many spatial gateways inside.
"That's actually pretty good," Lumine said, her eyes lighting up.
"With the dining hall's back door blocked, I suggest we relocate our base to the library. Worst case, we can use the spatial gates to escape."
"Agreed."
"Seconded."
Lumine's proposal was unanimously approved. With the dining hall compromised—blocked behind and connected in front to a corridor with windows—the library was clearly safer.
"It's 5:17 now. We should head over quickly," Lumine said as she stood up, then added, "Also… if you pass by any windows or curtains, close them. All of them."
"Oh, right!"
That reminder hit home. If the curtains were drawn, that crow wouldn't be able to interfere even if it wanted to.
[Fu Xuan: Heh… this spy is really giving it her all.]
[Sampo: Now this is getting interesting—why isn't it dark yet?]
[Sparkle: I want to see blood everywhere!]
[Seele: Who do you think will be eliminated tonight?]
[Sunday: Luocha.]
[Jing Yuan: Luocha.]
[Herta: Luocha.]
[Ruan Mei: Luocha.]
[Jean: Uh… what's going on here?]
She didn't get it—why were all the big names pointing at Luocha?
[March 7th: Why Luocha?]
[Jing Yuan: From the start, Luocha has been very active and is subtly becoming the team's backbone. If a spy wants to sow discord, he's the first factor to eliminate.]
Jing Yuan saw it clearly. Luocha had indeed been holding the team together—so naturally, he'd be the first target.
[Seele: Then… who's next?]
[Herta: Arataki Itto.]
[Yae Miko: Arataki Itto.]
[Kafka: Arataki Itto.]
[Stelle: I get why Luocha's a threat, but what did Itto do?]
[Welt: Too many unpredictable variables. He has to go.]
[Kuki Shinobu: Wow… never thought Boss would get this kind of special attention.]
Shinobu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Who knew her unreliable boss would be "acknowledged" like this?
The group arrived at the library, greeted by shelves of books in complete disarray.
"There are three spatial gates here," Jingliu said, stopping in front of one near the main entrance.
"This one leads to the storage room. I haven't checked the other two yet."
With limited time, Jingliu had only been able to confirm this single route.
"Good," Lumine nodded. "Let's stop here for today. We'll investigate the other two gates tomorrow."
"And if Valerius shows up, we retreat immediately—no direct contact."
Now that they understood Valerius's behavior, there was no need to spend points gathering more intel.
They only had one objective now—
Hide.
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