Vol. 6 Ch. 35

The three locked eyes, and the atmosphere seemed to freeze after Leon casually said, "Lifting the fatigue state isn't particularly important to me."

To Constantine, Leon's statement carried two layers of meaning.

The first layer implied that Leon's abilities made the fatigue state a negligible hindrance, so much so that he didn’t bother prioritizing tasks to lift it.

The second layer, however, hinted at Leon's stance on Constantine's earlier suggestion of "withdrawing."

In essence, it said, "We're both phantom players, so let’s team up and take down that group of dragons."

The ambiguity of Leon's words was deliberate, forcing Constantine to interpret them however he wished. Leon, meanwhile, left himself room to retreat unscathed, no matter which interpretation Constantine settled on.

It was this very vagueness that Leon used to probe Constantine.

Leon waited quietly for the fire dragon’s response, curious about how sharp Constantine's strategic mind would prove to be.

After a pause, Constantine replied coolly:

"You don’t need to put so much effort into testing me, Leon."

Leon remained silent, unfazed. He had anticipated that Constantine might see through his probing, though he hadn’t expected him to address it so directly.

"We're on the same side, so you'd better focus your efforts on finding the source of the plague."

Leon raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did you use the [Roster] to check my identity?"

The fire dragon nodded expressionlessly.

"After you handed me the item card, you were the first one I verified."

Leon acknowledged this with a knowing smirk.

"If I were a phantom, you’d have eliminated me right away, wouldn’t you?"

The silence that followed was confirmation enough.

Constantine’s earlier assertion—"We're on the same side"—became definitive. Knowing Leon’s identity and confirming it through the [Roster] made such confidence possible.

From the beginning, Leon hadn't expected his superficial test to yield much. He had handed over the [Roster] knowing full well that Constantine, despite his brute-like demeanor, had survived for millennia and was far from stupid.

(Though Leon had decapitated him once in the past—brain and all—but that was a different story.)

This test wasn’t truly about confirming Constantine’s identity; it was more about gauging how Constantine currently perceived Leon.

An enemy?

A friend?

A comrade?

Unfortunately, Leon could only confirm that Constantine had indeed used the [Roster] on him.

Constantine elaborated further:

"The humble fire dragon’s answers are watertight, leaving Leon with nothing to pick apart."

Even so, Leon gleaned a critical piece of information—Constantine had used one of his [Roster] checks.

Earlier, when Rosvisser noticed Constantine's total task count, Leon had observed that Constantine had completed five tasks.

The [Roster]’s condition was that it activated once for every two tasks completed.

This meant Constantine had only one more opportunity to verify someone’s identity.

If he wanted to continue probing others, he would need to complete additional tasks.

Assuming Constantine was a phantom player, his current situation would align perfectly with Leon’s earlier analysis:

His playstyle, his identity, and the [Roster] would remain in conflict, leaving him with irreconcilable dilemmas.

Now that Leon was certain Constantine had already used one verification, this stalemate would escalate even faster.

In the meantime, all Leon needed to do was continue observing Constantine’s actions.

"Since we're on the same side, let's work together," Leon suggested with a casual tone.

"If we combine our strengths, we should be able to find the plague source quickly."

If Constantine wasn’t a phantom player, agreeing to Leon’s suggestion wouldn’t matter much. But if he was, then whether he agreed or refused, his decision would significantly impact his strategy moving forward.

After a brief pause, Constantine nodded and said, "Alright."

That single word revealed more than he likely intended.

In Leon’s mind, he was already considering Constantine as a potential phantom player. Even so, he hadn’t expected such an easy and straightforward agreement.

"Okay, let’s move out," Constantine said politely, even adding a courteous gesture for Leon to lead the way.

After finalizing their plan, the three headed toward the castle’s underground area.

Having taken a break earlier, Leon subconsciously quickened his pace this time.

What surprised him was how efficient Constantine was throughout the mission.

Constantine’s speed and focus were uncharacteristic of someone ranked in the bottom five on the [Supervisor] task leaderboard.

Watching the fire dragon charge ahead and complete tasks like a machine, Leon couldn’t help but second-guess himself.

Could he have been wrong? Perhaps Constantine wasn’t a phantom after all, and his low ranking was simply because other players like Aurora and Noa had outperformed him?

Leon thought back to Constantine’s [Roster] item. If Constantine wasn’t a phantom, he might simply be completing tasks to use the roster and verify identities.

But if Constantine was a phantom, everything he was doing now could be a strategic setup, playing the long game to deceive and eventually corner the "good" faction.

"This mechanism involves three layers of digging, and they even used tensors for testing," Leon muttered, distracted by his thoughts as Constantine completed yet another task.

Constantine casually handed a task hint card to Leon.

Leon glanced at the card before taking it. The information read:

[Task Hint]

The castle’s main gate is heavily rusted and takes a long time to open due to the corrosion.

Once the plague source is destroyed, the twelve-hour countdown will immediately stop.

However, during evacuation, players must wait fifteen minutes at the castle’s exit for the gate to open.

Note: Although the countdown stops, any player suffering from poisoning or illness when the countdown ends will still experience the effects of their condition.

The detailed description on this hint card made it far more intricate than previous tasks.

Leon began analyzing the information carefully.

"In other words, once the countdown stops, we’ll have to wait fifteen minutes to evacuate. For the ‘good’ faction, this is advantageous," Leon remarked.

"But during that fifteen-minute wait, the effects of negative states won’t disappear."

"In other words, if I enter a critical black state, even if I destroy the plague source, I still wouldn’t survive to win the game."

Constantine followed Leon’s reasoning and added:

"Once the bracelet turns black, the player has ten minutes before they inevitably die. There’s no task to reverse that state. And since the gate takes fifteen minutes to open..."

"That five-minute gap is enough to decide the outcome of the entire game."

As Constantine spoke, he glanced at Leon’s wrist, noting that his bracelet was still in the yellow state.

"You really don’t plan on doing a recovery task? What if it suddenly turns black while we’re running around?" Constantine asked pointedly.

In the face of such hidden and unforgiving rules, even Leon had to let out a deep breath, muttering under his breath:

"You’re right. I’d better go find a recovery task."