Chapter 342: Cooperation Contract

Words : 1398 Updated : Oct 15th, 2025

Chapter 342: Chapter 342: Cooperation ContractThe ancient castle was huge, "the missing guest" could hide anywhere, and searching alone made it difficult to scour every part of the castle, especially with the limited time for the task at hand, so cooperation among the players was the best solution. However, trust could not be established among players, and cooperation had its pros and cons. "Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could leave after completing the task?" the doll-faced player said with a smile, "If I’m the first to get through, I’ll definitely share the answer with each of you." No one picked up the conversation. The young man sitting next to the man with the dark face said impatiently, "Do you think this task is simple? When we entered the villa, our luggage was taken away. I’ve searched the rooms on the first and second floors and haven’t seen any suitcases. They’re hidden in some godforsaken place." The players had brought various "practical tools" with them, but as soon as they entered, the servants took them, never to be found again, and they wouldn’t give them back even when asked. "That mute Butler seems quite capable," said the tall and thin man, "He and the owner of the castle might both be key to the task." "Is it not the owner of the castle who killed someone and hid the corpse?" the burly man suggested, bringing two bottles of liquor with a mouthful of alcohol on his breath. The only female player who stayed in the lobby last night, the refined woman, moved aside with disgust, "Would such an obvious thing be put in a copy for you to do? You can try submitting the task if you don’t believe it." The burly man actually went ahead with it. The refined female player, Fang Min, rolled her eyes and looked at the man with the dark face, "You Qiwen, stop beating around the bush. We’re all here to complete the task. Excluding Mr. Xu and the Ma Family Couple doesn’t look like cooperation." Having introduced themselves to each other before, the man with the dark face, You Qiwen, stated bluntly, "The Ma Family Couple met the castle owner, He Pu, in private. Why would He Pu want to see them alone? Fang Min, as for Mr. Xu whom you also met last night, he reeked of the smell of a corpse, probably not a good sort." Fang Min frowned, "No need to mention Mr. Xu, but do you suspect the Ma Family Couple of colluding with the castle owner?" With a guest missing from the castle, the owner of the castle was naturally a suspect. "That doesn’t prove anything," Flay, the tall and thin man, mused, "The castle owner could have set up a ruse to cause infighting among us. On the surface, the task for this copy seems simple—the missing guest is inside the castle, and the murderer is definitely in the castle, too." "Either way, I don’t recommend cooperating with these three," said You Qiwen, his face serious, "The Ma Family Couple haven’t come out to search for clues at all, just staying in their room." "Maybe these three are just waiting to pick the fruits of others’ labor," the long-haired female player sitting in the corner combed her long, black hair and slowly raised her pale face, "Is that why they’re not in a hurry at all?" "That’s possible," You Qiwen said, "Anyway, we need to be cautious of both the people in the castle and these three." When the topic turned back to cooperation, even though they had excluded Xu Huo and the Ma Family Couple, the remaining nine people could not let down their guard. After some deliberation, Flay, the tall and thin man, said, "I have a prop that, when written with agreed-upon content, makes the signatory manifest the word ’contract’ on their forehead if they violate the terms, and only those who signed the contract can see these words, which will disappear once the terms are fulfilled or the time limit is exceeded, and it’s essentially without side effects." As he spoke, he took out a piece of parchment and proactively wrote a highly binding content on it, setting the time, content, and possible forms of punishment, and then signed his own name, "You can inspect it." "Who will sign?" he asked. With myriad strange props in the game, who would rashly sign their name? "I’ll do it," said the long-haired female player, "Can it work with a fake name?" Flay nodded, "Yes." The long-haired female player wrote down the name "Wei Landeng." The others quietly observed the changes. A few seconds later, the name signed on the parchment seemed to soak into the paper, and the contract officially came into effect with the terms stating: "Reveal a secret to the others within three minutes, or you will lose a feature or an item, or die." The three minutes quickly passed, and the word "contract" in white lettering appeared on the foreheads of Flay and Wei Landeng, visible only to those who had signed the contract. Wei Landeng took out a small mirror to check her own forehead. "Everyone can only see the breach of others and not their own. This contract is called the Spirit of the Contract, and it’s mainly about the spirit, so although I wrote down the punishment, there will not actually be a punishment even if the contract is broken," said Flay, "And this contract only lasts for one month; it will disappear after a month, whether the terms have been met or not." Now that both he and Wei Landeng had broken the contract, there was no punishment as stipulated in the contract, and Wei Landeng also told the others, "You can indeed see the word ’breach.’" "Time to fulfill the contract," Flay paused before adding, "As a child, I stole money from my dad and blamed it on my brother." No sooner had he spoken than the two words disappeared from his forehead. Wei Landeng nodded, "I like to watch people sleep sneakily." As her words were about to end, the contract showed it was fulfilled on the parchment, and then the writing disappeared. "Your hobbies are certainly unique," the doll-faced player laughed, saying, "Okay, I think this way is pretty good, I agree." The others also agreed after a moment of thought, seeing this method as a way to prevent anyone from acting solo and to save everyone from mutual suspicion. Before writing the formal contract, they tested the effect with a simple command, and after confirming that everyone involved could indeed see the word "breach," they wrote the actual contract. The contract was quickly completed, with players signing or stamping it, leaving their mark on the contract. The binding force of this contract was not strong, not even specifying punishment measures; it simply required that the player who found "the missing guest" must share the method to complete the task with the other players within two hours. Flay took the contract, his gaze lingering on it for two seconds before putting it away, smiling and saying, "Now let’s discuss the next steps." After the formal agreement on cooperation was reached, everyone divided up the search areas. They would search the first and second floors as well as the botanical garden and the regular garden again in one day’s time; if they still hadn’t found "the missing guest," they would have to go to the third floor and the maze. "There’s also the servants’ quarters and the kitchen, but Mr. Dong, the Butler, said that we shouldn’t roam the third floor as we please, so to avoid raising any alarm, it’s best to mention it before anyone goes up there," said You Qiwen. Sёarᴄh the ηovёlFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The others nodded in small groups of three or two, just as Xu Huo was coming down from the second floor, and they couldn’t help but cast their eyes toward him. Facing everyone, Xu Huo smiled and asked, "Are you guessing whether the next one to come in is a man or a woman?" Flay stood up, "It was just a misunderstanding yesterday, and we have more important things to do here, so I hope Mr. Xu won’t hold a grudge."

Chapter 342: Cooperation Contract

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