Zhou Qiming’s horizons were completely expanded after facing veteran players in the battle space.

Beyond realizing that he was just a pawn, he also gained a crucial piece of information—

The condition of the 4444 Administrator indeed made him incredibly hard to kill.

However…

Zhou Qiming could!

Perhaps it was because he had once killed the 4444 Administrator in the game?

There must be some kind of bond between him and the 4444 Administrator.

Items bound between the two could be transferred back and forth effortlessly.

And beyond that, there was another hidden, even more brilliant effect!

Normally, even if a player managed to kill the 4444 Administrator, it would only cause him to enter an untraceable “death state.”

After that, no matter what, it would be impossible to “kill” a death-state player again.

But according to what a veteran player told Zhou Qiming…

If Zhou Qiming was the one who killed the 4444 Administrator while in normal state—

Then there was a high chance he could truly kill the 4444 Administrator!

The【Reincarnation Key】would drop directly and bind to him!

From then on, he could take the Administrator’s place!

Of course, on the surface it seemed like it would be pretty easy for him to replace the 4444 Administrator due to his special condition.

But in reality, it wasn’t that simple.

Because he had to kill the Administrator while he was in a normal state.

If the Administrator actively switched to death state…

Then Zhou couldn’t lock onto him, and naturally couldn’t land the kill.

So for this mission, it was essential to make sure the 4444 Administrator remained in normal state.

And Zhou Qiming had to land a one-hit kill during that state!

Otherwise, if he missed once, the Administrator would be on alert, and trying to kill him in normal state again would be way harder.

But here’s the problem—

Even in his normal state, the Administrator was still an Administrator!

With that kind of strength, there’s no way Zhou Qiming could take him down alone.

That’s why he brought in external help.

Zhou Qiming knew the woman in white couldn’t kill the 4444 Administrator no matter what.

But the Reincarnation Wraith’s strength could at least hold him off somewhat.

Originally, Zhou Qiming’s plan was—

To have Wang Hai and Wang Lin trap Huang Bo, the light-element user, inside the Mirror Palace of the Void.

That way, this unpredictable and dangerous factor wouldn’t show up and stir trouble at Apartment 4444…

If the light element showed up, the 4444 Administrator would be scared out of his mind and flee instantly, making him even harder to kill.

Once they were sure the light element wouldn’t interfere, Zhou Qiming would lead the team inside Apartment 4444, always ready to assist the woman in white in killing the Administrator.

The Administrator might not take the woman in white seriously.

But Zhou Qiming could find an opportunity to strike from the shadows.

As long as the Administrator died at his hands while in normal state—

Zhou Qiming could take his place!

Unfortunately, what happened afterward, Jiang Ye knew too.

Plans never keep up with changes.

Because Jiang Ye went to Apartment 9669 for “reinforcements,” Wang Hai and Wang Lin couldn’t keep the light-element Huang Bo contained.

And in the end, the light element did show up at Apartment 4444, messing up Zhou Qiming’s entire plan.

At least, it looked like it messed up Zhou Qiming’s plan.

But in truth…

Zhou Qiming gave a sarcastic laugh as he spoke:

“Actually, I was hoping the light element would come to 4444 and mess everything up.”

“Because, strictly speaking, this plan wasn’t really mine. It belonged to the one pulling the strings behind me.”

“On the surface, it looks like all I have to do is kill the 4444 Administrator in normal state, and I get to replace him…”

“But I’m not stupid. Now that I know I’m just a pawn, what kind of fate would I have after replacing the 4444 Administrator?”

“Let alone anything else—just in the game, what happened to me after I killed the 4444 Administrator?”

“So at the time, I was already quietly planning to escape my fate as a pawn.”

Jiang Ye listened and fell into thought.

Suddenly, using his expendable clone—his own likeness—he asked Zhou Qiming:

“So when you challenged me in the battle space, it wasn’t because someone ordered you to—it was your own decision?”

“…” Zhou Qiming looked a little embarrassed at that.

Back then, he was full of confidence.

He’d secretly used a Luck Item on himself.

He thought that if he died at Jiang Ye’s hands, he might be able to steal his abilities.

But who would’ve thought…

That even a virtual battle in the battle space could actually kill him for real!

And that kind of death couldn’t even be reversed with a Resurrection Stone!

Even now, Zhou Qiming still felt a chill when he thought about it. His gaze toward Jiang Ye held a trace of fear.

He sighed lightly and said slowly, “When the light element went wild and the plan was disrupted, I was supposed to match with veteran players in the battle space and receive the next instruction.”

“But I had my own little plan, which ended with me dying by your hand in that duel.”

It was absurd when he thought about it—

He’d even used a Luck Item.

And ended up “luckily” dead!

Maybe it was a fake Luck Item?

Zhou Qiming grumbled inwardly.

Jiang Ye then asked, “So afterward, how did you come back to life?”

“Where exactly did you go after you revived?”

Zhou Qiming curled his lips. “I don’t know how I got revived either.”

“But it was probably because I was still useful to some people, so they brought me back?”

“After I was revived, I didn’t hide anywhere special. I just had a revival aura effect that made me invincible and undetectable for a while.”

“Of course, that effect faded quickly. I hid for a bit in the depths of the hallway on the 22nd floor.”

“Then I got a message from Ge Ge, and I realized—”

“That I probably didn’t have much time left. That I was about to be killed by that crazy woman.”

When Zhou Qiming said this, his tone was already filled with a kind of hopeless resignation.

But in Jiang Ye’s heart, some thoughts began to surface—

Zhou Qiming said he was trapped in a coffin after he died, and only got released by the 4444 Administrator once he received the “mission task.”

According to the【Mask of Deceit】, he wasn’t lying.

But that didn’t necessarily mean it was the truth.

Jiang Ye strongly suspected that Zhou Qiming might be missing a part of his memory.

After all, his resurrection this time was extremely bizarre.

Jiang Ye did believe that it was only because of manipulation by the one pulling strings behind Zhou Qiming that he managed to come back to life.

But there was a problem—

According to the information Jiang had gathered, there were actually two types of resurrection methods in the Doomsday Apartment:

Pre-death resurrection and post-death resurrection.

Pre-death resurrection refers to preparing for revival before actually dying.

In other words, a resurrection item has already been used.

Once death occurs, the resurrection effect is triggered automatically.

This is the more common form of resurrection in the Doomsday Apartment.

Most capable players will do everything they can to add this layer of insurance.

Post-death resurrection, on the other hand, means the person is already dead.

There’s no resurrection effect left to trigger.

So in theory, that person shouldn’t be able to come back to life.

However, if someone still alive wants to resurrect the deceased—

Then, based on the death level of the dead individual, different resurrection methods can be used.

Take Yu Hu, for example, who was already dead…

In essence, it was already gone.

There was no resurrection effect to trigger.

If Lin Ling wanted to bring it back, it would require a post-death resurrection.

And post-death resurrection is naturally much harder than pre-death.

Some post-death resurrection methods even require a very long time.

Now, based on Jiang Ye’s judgment, Zhou Qiming’s resurrection seemed to be a case of pre-death resurrection.

After all, the death level brought on by the【Dice of Fate】was extremely high.

If it were post-death, there’s no way he could’ve been brought back in such a short time.

So here comes the question—

Every kind of pre-death resurrection requires the player themselves to make preparations in advance.

Like using a resurrection item, or binding a Resurrection Stone…

There’s no way someone could achieve a pre-death resurrection without doing anything beforehand.

Which means, for pre-death resurrection, the player must have known about it in advance.

But the problem is—Zhou Qiming didn’t know!

He answered with the【Mask of Deceit】that he didn’t know why he was resurrected.

And the【Mask of Deceit】didn’t drop.

That means he wasn’t lying, and it also implies—

There was a pre-death resurrection effect on him that even he didn’t know about!

And this effect had to have been set up by himself.

But he had no knowledge of it!

So there was no doubt—Zhou Qiming was missing part of his memory!

Not knowing due to memory loss doesn’t count as lying.

So what part of his memory is missing?

Based on his experience, there are two possibilities—

The first is that, according to his memory, after dying in the game, he was immediately trapped inside the coffin.

He stayed trapped for a long, long time before receiving a “mission task” and being released by the 4444 Administrator.

But in reality, after dying in the game, he might’ve experienced something else.

And during those events, he bound some high-level resurrection method.

But because that memory was lost, he mistakenly thought he was stuck in the coffin the whole time.

That’s the theory Jiang Ye believed to be the most likely.

The other possibility is that a part of his memory went missing during his experience in the Newbie Apartment, after he came out of the coffin.

This is possible too, but Jiang Ye felt it was less likely than the first.

After all, the Newbie Apartment had a fixed timeline.

If he had memory loss there, the time wouldn’t add up, and he should’ve noticed something was off.

Of course, apartment time was already strange to begin with, so if his memory loss also affected his perception of time, it’s still possible…

But either way, based on Zhou Qiming’s inability to explain the special “bond” between him and the 4444 Administrator—

Jiang Ye leaned more toward the theory that—

Zhou Qiming didn’t die in the game and go straight into being trapped in a coffin.

Rather, he was missing a chunk of memory that occurred between dying in the game after killing the Administrator, and being locked in the coffin.

In other words, before he was sealed in the coffin, someone erased a portion of his memory…

And since he later became a pawn—

Then the one who wiped his memory was most likely the one pulling his strings behind the scenes, probably the owner of the apartment.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep