As Wang Zichen drove the armored vehicle away, Mu Chenyi, who had been running north, suddenly changed direction and headed south!
In the fifth death replay, Old Zhao showed them the weapon capable of killing the final boss—it was hidden beneath the lakeside of the southern Forest Park!
The road was eerily quiet. Mu Chenyi pulled down the brim of his hat, walking along the deserted city streets.
Upon returning to the city, he found it oddly empty, as if all the monsters had vanished. Not a single green-haired creature was in sight. It was an unsettling scene, but Mu Chenyi wasn't particularly surprised.
Perhaps those monsters had all rushed north to hunt him down or had gone to besiege Old Zhao's location…
"Chen Wan'er, oh Chen Wan'er, you truly surprised me!"
Mu Chenyi murmured to himself.
He could hardly believe it—the seemingly harmless, adorably naive Chen Wan'er was actually the mastermind behind it all!
Yes, based on the information he had gathered from multiple death replays, he had deduced that Chen Wan'er was the real final boss, the very source of this apocalyptic disaster!
Previously, he had been fixated on the idea that their human identities had been exposed on their way to meet Wang Zichen.
But after several death replays, he finally realized that their exposure had actually happened when he made that phone call to Chen Wan'er!
And Chen Wan'er—was the true boss!
That was why he had just parted ways with Wang Zichen and Chen Wan'er without any explanation, choosing to act alone!
In the fourth death replay, Wang Zichen had been shocked that the monsters could find his underground base so easily. But these creatures didn't actually have a keen sense of smell to distinguish humans.
Otherwise, it would be far too overpowered—if the green-haired monsters could sniff out a human the moment they entered this world, how was anyone supposed to survive?
So, these monsters didn't have the ability to detect humans on their own!
The reason Wang Zichen's underground base was compromised wasn't because the monsters were overwhelmingly strong—it was because there was a traitor among them!
That traitor couldn't be Wang Zichen, and it certainly wasn't Mu Chenyi himself.
That left only one possibility: the traitor was Chen Wan'er. It could only be her!
This also explained how, in the fifth death replay, Old Zhao's fortress was exposed.
But what truly cemented Mu Chenyi's suspicion was how those green-haired creatures had set up a trap in the blind spot of the fortress's surveillance!
How did the monsters know exactly where Old Zhao's cameras couldn't see?
Simple. Because the one controlling them—was Chen Wan'er!
Chen Wan'er had been in the monitoring room the whole time, watching everything unfold.
She knew exactly which areas Old Zhao couldn't monitor, so she strategically set up a trap there, waiting until nightfall to capture all three of them in one move!
Just the thought that the true boss had been by his side all along sent a chill down Mu Chenyi's spine!
He had been staying with the leader of the green-haired monsters all this time, mistakenly believing that the first "human" he met was actually the supreme ruler of this disaster-level apocalypse in Jiangcheng!
Leaving Wang Zichen behind was not a choice, but a necessity.
By acting alone, he at least had a chance to reach the weapon hidden beneath the lakeside.
And this was where the advantage of his Death's Eye came into play!
In the fifth death replay, they had already reached a dead end—by that time, Old Zhao had already told Chen Wan'er about the weapon at the lake!
Once Chen Wan'er knew that a weapon capable of killing her existed at the lakeside, even if she couldn't approach it herself, she could still set up a heavy defense around it.
By then, there would be no chance for them at all!
So now, there was an information gap between him and Chen Wan'er. And this gap would completely disappear once Chen Wan'er and Wang Zichen arrived at Lao Zhao's place.
He had to make full use of this window of opportunity before she discovered the truth and reach the weapon hidden in the lakeside!
And as for the ticking time bomb that was "Chen Wan'er," someone had to take the fall for it. The best candidate? Wang Zichen.
Why was Chen Wan'er disguising herself as a human?
Why, when she received his call, did she choose to meet him in human form instead of directly sending the green-furred monsters to kill him?
Mu Chenyi was puzzled—he never believed in coincidences!
But one thing was undeniable—the probability of Chen Wan'er being the final boss had now soared to over 80%!
There was also another point—her so-called "skill" was extremely suspicious.
She could briefly control the green-furred monsters for a few seconds.
Well, wasn't the final boss also capable of controlling the green-furred monsters?
Was there really such a perfect coincidence in the world?
He had already been skeptical about Chen Wan'er's identity as a human, and now, her assigned skill just happened to be controlling green-furred monsters?
And if he remembered correctly, she had only revealed her ability after Wang Zichen explained the rules of the Doomsday Descent game to them in detail.
Why hadn't she mentioned her skill when they first met?
It wasn't because she deliberately hid it from them.
It was because, at that time, Chen Wan'er didn't even know that skills existed!
Only after Wang Zichen explained everything, including his own prophecy-type ability, did she fabricate this "temporary control over green-furred monsters" skill to deceive them!
This boss was incredibly cunning!
At this thought, Mu Chenyi quickened his pace.
He had to get to that weapon before Chen Wan'er realized what was happening!
Just now, he had deliberately run toward the north in full view of Chen Wan'er and Wang Zichen to mislead them.
By doing this, he had planted the idea in Chen Wan'er's mind that he was heading north. If she wanted to send the green-furred monsters to hunt him down, she would order them to head north, rather than coming south—where he was actually going.
After running for a while, he suddenly noticed a bicycle lying on the ground. Without hesitation, he got on and started pedaling at full speed toward Forest Park.
Along the way, he encountered a few scattered "humans." However, he quickly pulled up his mask to cover his face and kept his distance from them.
Finally, after twenty minutes, he arrived at Forest Park—and saw the very same lakeside from the surveillance footage Lao Zhao had shown them in the fifth Death Replay.
The lake's surface was covered with floating dead goldfish. The once-clear water, murky from years of tourist visits, had turned into a foul-smelling yellowish-brown sludge. A disgusting stench filled the air.
He stopped the bike and took off his jacket.
Staring at the revolting water, he gritted his teeth, pinched his nose, and jumped in!
The thick, filthy water nearly made him vomit his breakfast.
But knowing that his life was at stake, he forced himself to endure the nausea and dived deep into the lake.
Fortunately, he had learned swimming in high school. Controlling his movements, he peered toward the bottom of the lake.
It wasn't long before he spotted two small boxes resting on the lakebed.
Two?
How could there be two boxes?
He swam closer and picked them up to examine them carefully.
Both boxes looked exactly the same from the outside.
On their lids, there were two different emoji faces.
One featured the infamous "Death Smile"—eerily similar to the unsettling fake grins worn by the green-furred monsters.
The other bore a "Sad Face", its mouth curved downward, the exact opposite of the Death Smile's upward arc.