Death Progress Bar Chapter 22
Despite having to suffer some pain, Shi Jin was very satisfied with the results of today's test.
First of all, he determined the plot had loopholes—his brothers did not necessarily want to kill him; at least, Rong Zhouzhong either did not want to or wouldn't really do it even if he thought about it.
Secondly, the fluctuation of the progress bar was very problematic, and he needed to a.n.a.lyze the correlation between it and danger one more time.
Finally, the increase and decrease of the progress bar may be influenced by other things in addition to the lethal factors or his understanding of the lethal factors was too limited.
Xiao Si's expression showed it didn't really understand.
Shi Jin explained, “The lethal factors can be divided into subjective factors and objective factors. Lian Jun's progress bar is affected mostly by objective factors, such as the state of his body, whether there are people aiming for him nearby or whether the location he's in is dangerous, and so on.
My situation is different—my progress is going up and down randomly, just like a roller coaster. It's influenced by many subjective factors, for example, my brothers or some unknown person intentions to kill me and such.
The difference between me and your Darling can be seen clearly when we compare our ways of death: if Lian Jun's progress bar fills up, he's going to die right away, but in my case, the plot will take over and I will have to pa.s.sively follow it until it ends with my death, like in the book.”
Xiao Si looked to be deep in thought.
“There's another significant difference between Lian Jun's and my progress bars—the fluctuation of his progress bar is related only to his health or the increase of lethal factors in his vicinity, and the fluctuation of my progress bar may also be related to survival factors.”
Xiao Si was puzzled.
Xiao Si still couldn't quite comprehend the difference. It was originally heavily damaged, and being bound to Shi Jin limited its abilities further. As a result, it wasn't actually all that smart.
Seeing its frustration, Shi Jin scratched his head. He did not know how to make it understand the details, so he decided to simplify his explanation: “You see, my progress bar is actually influenced by both lethal and survival factors. I used to believe that my brothers were lethal factors, but now I think they might in fact be survival factors. Of course, it does not rule out the possibility that some of them do want to kill me, but at least Rong Zhouzhong and Shi Weichong should not be considered lethal factors right now.”
This time, Xiao Si managed to follow Shi Jin's meaning.
<…> His blind optimism made Xiao Si speechless, and it felt it had to pour cold water on this plan:
Therefore, even if Shi Jin more or less a.n.a.lyzed the reasons for every increase and decrease of the progress bar, it did not help him to find an answer to the most fundamental question. On the contrary, removing Shi Weichong and other brothers from the list of murder suspects actually made things much more complicated.
When Shi Jin believed his five brothers were guilty, he only needed to focus on dealing with them, but now that the murderer could be anyone he might provoke him or her by accident, so his every step had to be as cautious as if he was walking through a minefield.
Thinking about this, Shi Jin felt a little despairing.
“Oh well, we've still made some progress. At least we know who we should suspect.” Shi Jin quickly pulled himself together. He found some paper and a pen, then promptly wrote down the names of his five brothers, drawing a circle around ‘Shi Weichong' and ‘Rong Zhouzhong'. He thought aloud, “Big Brother and Third Brother have been ruled out, and I haven't contacted the remaining three brothers yet. That leaves us my brothers' friends, relatives, subordinates, business partners, compet.i.tors…”
Xiao Si continued to pour cold water:
He tried to narrow the scope of suspects further: “What if we only consider interested parties…”
Xiao Si:
The a.n.a.lysis seemed to have reached a dead end. Shi Jin sprawled on the sofa, feeling brain-dead, and Xiao Si accompanied him in his daze.
A few minutes later, Shi Jin sat up, his eyes flashing light like the TV detective's who had found a vital clue to solving the case. He said excitedly, “Xiao Si, we have neglected a very important issue—the motive. Why would someone want to kill an underage high school student? What makes him special?”
Startled, Xiao Si tried to follow his train of thoughts and replied hesitantly,
Except for that, there didn't seem to be anything significant about ‘Shi Jin'. Shi Jin nodded his head vigorously and discreetly encouraged the system to think things through: “Now if we take these two things into consideration and sift through the possible suspects again, the people who have the motive to kill the original ‘Shi Jin' are…”
The lightbulb seemed to flash above Xiao Si's head, and it roared,
Shi Jin almost choked to death trying to stop himself from screaming in despair.
<… and="" their="" mothers="" and="" other="" family="" members!=""> Xiao Si continued, its mechanic voice becoming excited.
Xiao Si started to feel anxious.
Influenced by him, Xiao Si agreed with an enthusiastic “uh-huh”, echoing,
Xiao Si was so moved it wanted to cry, but it was afraid Shi Jin would scold it for being too noisy, so it tried to choke its emotions back. In the end, what it let out was,
Shi Jin: “…”
When Shi Jin walked into the dining room, Lian Jun was already present, and there were seven or eight dishes on the table. Shi Jin gave them a cursory glance and found that unexpectedly, most of them were his favorites.
“Sit.” Lian Jun put his tablet down when he saw Shi Jin come in.
Immediately, Shi Jin sat down and smiled at Lian Jun as always, trying to flatter him again with his usual lack of skill: “Jun-shao, you seem to be full of energy today.”
Lian Jun eyed him briefly and picked up his chopsticks. “Don't smile, your swollen face is too ugly.”
Shi Jin: “…”
Even so, they had a quiet meal in a fairly harmonious atmosphere. When dinner was over and Shi Jin was about to leave, Lian Jun called out, “I have something to tell you.”
Shi Jin turned back at once and sat down, looking attentive.
Lian Jun asked the waiter to bring them something to drink and said, “Usually, I would simply command my subordinates without discussing anything with them in advance, but your situation is somewhat special, so this isn't an order, but a request. The government wants us to cooperate with them for a task, and I'm thinking of letting you go.”
Shi Jin was surprised for a moment, then nodded his head to show he understood—when he decided to follow Lian Jun, he already knew it wouldn't be all flowers and sunshine. It was obvious he couldn't just eat for free and laze about, so he had been mentally prepared to fulfill some a.s.signments.
“Don't agree too fast.” Lian Jun raised his hand to stop him and elaborated, “You would need to partic.i.p.ate in this mission alone, without Gua Two—the only people you will cooperate with will be from the official side, what's more, this task is rather dangerous. You can decide whether you want to take part in it or not, I'm not going to force you.”
Independent task? And Lian Jun wanted to let a rookie undertake it?
Taken aback, Shi Jin was asked, “Jun-shao, why would you want me to go? Aren't you afraid I'll screw up?”
“It doesn't matter if you screw it up, this time I can help you out even if you do,” Lian Jun answered, his slender finger circling the rim of the gla.s.s. “As for why I want you to go… The objective reason is, your age and qualifications make you the most suitable person. Letting you go is the optimal choice.”
Shi Jin decided to probe further: “Is there any subjective reason?”
Chapter 23 >>
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