Chapter 978: I Am Your Reference Material

The moment Philibert finished speaking, the muscles on the round-faced man"s face trembled.

The middle-aged man"s implication couldn"t be clearer.

Why couldn"t they kill Lin Sanjiu and then ask Natasha what she had discovered as a way to clear the level? Why did they have to keep Lin Sanjiu alive to ask the question?

The answer was simple— the middle-aged man didn"t trust Natasha.

Without Lin Sanjiu, who had observed the situation, they would not be able to refute whatever Natasha said. That was why they had to keep her alive.

Lin Sanjiu breathed a sigh of relief in her heart, feeling cold sweat trickling down her back, blending with the dampness of her clothes and the lake water. She had actually thought she was going to be attacked by Philibert just now because she couldn"t think of any reason why he wouldn"t kill her— but it was strange, why didn"t Philibert trust Natasha?

No, upon careful consideration, there was more than one problem... If Philibert didn"t trust Natasha, why would he leave Lin Sanjiu, who was definitely an outsider, alive?

Did that mean that, in Philibert"s eyes, there was no fundamental difference between Lin Sanjiu and the other group members?

This was even more strange because there were four pedal boats available to clear the level. Even if Philibert believed he had the upper hand, there was still a high probability that he would clear the level together with his group members...

"Hey," Lin Sanjiu gestured with the gun towards the round-faced man, "I won"t kill you. You can turn around and leave now."

The round-faced man was taken aback, obviously not expecting this— after a moment of thought, he tightly pursed his lips, a vein popping up on his cheek.

Since Philibert had already shown his distrust towards his own group members, it was only natural for Lin Sanjiu to take advantage of that. Letting the round-faced man go was meant to further intensify their division— she couldn"t afford to kill anyone now, she couldn"t force them back into a united camp.

The sound of water receded as the round-faced man disappeared among the pedal boats in a few breaths.

"Tell me," Philibert"s voice sounded from afar, ethereal and serene, "what did Natasha discover underwater? Did you see it?"

"I saw it," Lin Sanjiu answered loudly, wading through the water and approaching a yellow duck-shaped boat, glancing inside. There weren"t many pedal boats as damaged as the Frog Boat, most of them, like this yellow duck, appeared relatively st.u.r.dy from the outside, albeit a little dirty, with empty bottles and skewers under the seats. She looked disappointed and s.h.i.+fted her gaze away, "But I"m not stupid... I told you, if I tell you, you"ll just kill me."

Her words hung in the air for a while, but Philibert didn"t respond— it was only Zao Peng who suddenly exclaimed, "It"s been 21 minutes!"

As if a string had been abruptly cut, a loud sound of water emanated from the pedal boat graveyard in the distance, followed by a heavy "thud" as something fell into one of the pedal boat cabins.

"What are you doing?" Zao Peng exclaimed in a low voice.

The response came from the voice of the droopy-faced man.

"If Philibert doesn"t take action, am I supposed to stand in the water and wait to drown? If that woman doesn"t die, we"ll all have to start looking for boats!" He seemed unaware that his shouting could carry quite far across the serene lake surface, "I advise you to get on board as well—"

He didn"t finish his sentence; it turned into a cry. The cry, accompanied by the sounds of pedal boats colliding and tipping over, sank heavily into the water. The surrounding pedal boats were also swaying, and the lake surface was filled with creaking sounds of boat bodies; Lin Sanjiu quickly looked over and saw that about twenty or thirty meters away, the bow of a cartoon animal boat was being pushed back and forth by the waves, making it difficult to see which boat sank along with the droopy-faced man.

"What"s going on?" the round-faced man shouted from a distance; he had swum quite far in such a short time.

"I don"t know!" Zao Peng shouted, "That boat seemed intact, not a single damaged spot!"

If there weren"t any damaged spots, how could it sink immediately?

How was this possible?

Didn"t this mean that all of her previous speculations were completely wrong?

In a state of shock, Lin Sanjiu stood there for a few seconds until she felt the water level rising towards her chest again. Finally coming to her senses, she hurriedly slung the long gun over her back with some effort and clumsily climbed into the yellow duck boat.

Without her physical enhancements and with her clothes and shoes soaked long ago, it felt like her body weighed over a thousand catties. As she struggled to climb out of the water and into the boat, the yellow duck boat swayed creakily for a while.

When she raised her head, she met Philibert"s gaze.

His hair was neatly combed again, wet and slicked back, his gray eyes still gentle and composed. The only difference was his wet, clinging, and dark clothing, outlining his physique.

The middle-aged man sat in another pedal boat nearby, smiling as he looked at Lin Sanjiu through the boat"s doorway.

"You see, I"ve been sitting here for almost a minute, but you have no abilities, so you didn"t even notice me getting in. Sorry to startle you."

Lin Sanjiu stared at him, slowly exhaling a breath.

"Although I"ve been sitting for a minute and this boat hasn"t sunk, I still can"t trust it enough to step on it and walk to the rental point... After all, if this boat starts to sink on the way back, I won"t have any way to turn things around."

"You..." Lin Sanjiu suppressed her astonishment, "Don"t you think that killing me would make the pocket dimension disappear?"

Philibert slowly took out a folded A4 paper from his pocket. His entire body was soaked, but the paper remained untouched by even a single droplet of water as he smoothly unfolded it in his hand.

He raised the paper and gestured towards Lin Sanjiu, making a humming sound.

"...I don"t think so. Tell me, what did Natasha discover underwater?"

d.a.m.n it, of all times to be caught.

Lin Sanjiu"s previous speculations about Natasha had been shattered by the sinking boat just now, and now she couldn"t even come up with a suitable excuse. If Philibert had spared her life only because of her speculations about Natasha, then she didn"t even have the last bit of capital to ensure her own survival.

"Why do you believe that I"m not the one who created the pocket dimension?" she thought quickly, desperately looking for a question to buy herself some time, "Why don"t you tell them?"

Philibert remained silent, merely turning the piece of white paper in his hand towards her, revealing a small block of black ink.

Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes and scanned the paper, her expression filled with surprise.

"I am your reference material?"