Ravid's roundhouse kick landed firmly on Faust's head. A blob of silver liquid spurted out of Faust's lips, and along with it flew out two silver teeth. Compared to the physical pain, Faust was more concerned about the question in his mind.
Why?
"Cough… Pfft…" Faust spat out more blood. His eyes widened as he looked at Feng Bujue. "What… what is going on? Earlier, I saw you…"
"Of course, it was just a show," Feng Bujue answered.
"Impossible, Ravid's illusions are unable to fool me…" Faust was only halfway through when Ravid cut him off.
"It was not an illusion." It ground its paws on the ground. "I know that you can differentiate between my illusions and reality, but placing a partial illusion on the real creature, you haven't seen that trick before, right?"
As Ravid spoke, it wiped its paw across its neck. Following that motion, a gash appeared on its neck, and blood poured out like waterfall. "If you want, I can perform a live heart operation for you."
Then, the illusion disappeared. The wound and blood all dissipated. "What you saw was… a harmless bullet flying toward my face and the illusion of my head exploding. It is the same with Billy's 'injury'."
"One of your fatal mistakes is your overconfidence in the statue and its trick. Every time, you allowed them to easily destroy this statue, and that meant that you only have a rudimentary understanding of their abilities," Feng Bujue added. "If you'd inserted more effort into the fight, paid more attention, and not tried to end it as fast as possible, you would have obtained more information on these three inmates… especially the changes and details of their fighting ability."
"That was your downfall," Billy said. "After we were tricked several times, you came out with the 'curse of the Master of Time'. After that, you didn't put in as much care during our escape attempts and mostly only resisted just for show before being killed.
"Actually I've always wondered why the new warden is so much weaker than Sam Montier, but unfortunately I was fooled by your talk of the curse…"
Faust gasped. "You all… came up with such a complicated plot before entering the door?"
"The plot is far from complicated," Feng Bujue said easily. "This is not some convoluted performance. I gave the suggestion out of an intention to test the speculation out, but who knew I would be right? Of course, even if my guess was wrong, we had nothing to lose. At most, there would be some time wasted. If everything is like you said, they would still walk in and hand me the gun to shoot you."
…
Ten minutes earlier…
Feng Bujue looked at the gathered trio, shrugged, and walked forward.
He only took a few steps to cross to the gate. His hand was already placed on the doorknob,, but just as he was about to push it open, he stopped. He paused with something on his mind.
"Hey! What now? Don't tell me you have some other request?" Ravid roared.
"No, wait…" Something flashed across Feng Bujue's eyes. "You've all been tricked!"
"What? Are you planning to abandon us…" Ravid raised its voice.
"Shush!" Billy stopped it and continued in a probing tone. "He means something else."
Feng Bujue let go of the doorknob and turned back to the large table. "The 'rotation' that you mentioned might be real, but it was triggered every time you 'killed' Faust, right? That is fairly suspicious…"
"It is fairly normal to be able to revive within a specific space. After all, we can do the same to you…" Aldan tried to explain.
"The issue is not with his ability to revive." Feng Bujue cut him off. "If this is a real curse by the Master of Time, why didn't he simply set it up so that once any of you step through the door, the rotation will trigger? That way, it might even sow discord between the three of you. Why must he make it so that the rotation will occur only after Faust is killed?"
"When the warden is still alive, he is around to contain the inmates, so the rotation occurs after the warden is dead. Isn't that completely logical?" Aldan asked.
"Ha!" Feng Bujue laughed. "It is only logical if the warden is stronger than you. But in reality, Billy alone could kill Faust. Should the two of you work together, you could do the same as well…"
"You mean…" Billy mumbled.
"It was Faust himself who told you about this rotation curse, yes?" Feng Bujue asked.
"Yes, that's true," Billy replied.
"Before Faust arrived as the warden, how well did you know him, especially his ability?" Feng Bujue asked. "How is he compared to Sam Montier?"
"Even though we haven't really fought him in the past, Faust is just slightly weaker than the twelve Keepers of Time." Billy thought about it. "Sam Montier… was originally the tenth Keeper. When he was the warden… there were no monsters, no rotation, and the three of us stayed obediently inside the small cells. Resistance was impossible. Even if we worked together and ambushed him, we wouldn't beat Sam Montier."
"Hmm…" Feng Bujue crossed his arms before his chest and nodded. "Then that solves the question… If the person sent by Master of Time couldn't even complete his job, why would he even send him here? Wouldn't it be easier to use a spell? Since Faust is here, it means that the Master of Time approves of his power and believes that he can contain the three of you. But… the way Faust handles this prison is more than a reliance on pure strength…
"Furthermore… who is to say that the curse is real? From my perspective, if it is real, the Master of Time could have easily placed an aggressive boar to guard the door. Why would he need a warden?"
Feng Bujue raised his finger.
"So, I believe the curse is a lie made up by Faust."
"Then why…" Ravid thought about it.
To save time, Feng Bujue said, "I have a plan. Mind lending me your ears?"
…
Back to present…
"Of course, I wasn't doing all that just for them," Feng Bujue told Faust. "Even though I believed you should have the last potion, whether or not I'd obtain it after killing you, that is an unknown. Therefore, I came up with this solution to trick the potion from you.
"The chance of negotiation with you was very low. Like you said, based on your speculation, when I walked through the prison gate, we would be enemies. You were not wrong, but since I knew that beforehand, I could use that knowledge against you.
"I'd already obtained a lot of information from Billy and the rest. I knew you would have known about me when you obtained the potion and come up with your own prediction of my actions. Since you allowed me to interact the three of them, I put on this show of double-crossing them before your eyes to surprise you.
"What is seen is far more convincing than what you hear. So, after the ambush, I used a powerful skill at the level of Wicked King Immolation Black Dragon Wave.
"Naturally, Billy was only pretending to be injured; he's completely unharmed. We discussed beforehand that if I successfully activated the skill, he'd stomach it for a bit before escaping using the cover from the black flame and illusion.
"The parting words from Aldan were to make you believe that my betrayal was a complete surprise. The show with great sacrifice worked. Seeing Aldan's retreat, you believed that everything you saw was real.
"Therefore, after Aldan retreated, you lowered your guard and handed me the potion. You were even careless enough to appear before me in your true form because you couldn't wait to share the genius of your plan with me. After all, I'd shown that I was your ally and would not return to this place to expose your trick. Furthermore, you've used this plot to trick them for so long already, but without someone to gloat to, how is one going to know your brilliance?"
Faust glared at Feng Bujue. "Tsk… aren't you doing the same thing now?"
"That's different. You merely wanted to gloat." Feng Bujue chuckled. "But I'm showing care to those at the gate of death so that you won't die knowing nothing."
He used the antidote, and the system announced, "Current quest completed. All main quest completed. You have completed the scenario. You'll be automatically transported after sixty seconds."
"He's right." Aldan leaned in to Faust's ear and whispered darkly. "You are going to die, and I guarantee, before you die, you will fully experience what the meaning of terror is."
Ravid threw punches at the air, and it was clear who they were meant for.
Faust knew that this was where his life ended. He turned his vicious gaze toward Feng Bujue. "Why did you help them? Do you know the price you'll need to pay for antagonizing the Master of Time?"
"I also have a question." Billy turned to Feng Bujue. "Why didn't you betray us near the end? If, ten minutes ago, you just walked in and didn't share your plan with us…I believe you would have succeeded. The ending wouldn't have been much different from our acting. For you, that would finish the quest, right? And that would have saved you the trouble of antagonizing the Master of Time."
"Haha…" Feng Bujue laughed. "Regarding the issue of making enemies, I considered it long and hard. If you didn't say anything and I didn't say anything, who will know that I was involved in this jailbreak? I am just a traveler from another world, a small character not worth mentioning. After you kill Faust and escape, and assuming no one breathes a word about the things that happen here, who will know of my involvement?
"Furthermore… if you think about it, what have I done? It was not me who attacked Faust. I didn't lay a finger on him, so his death has nothing to do with me, right?" The man shamelessly washed his responsibility away from this crime. "With regards to why I helped you, I've told you already…"
A smile appeared on his face, and it spoke of a deep-seated madness. "I am not one to stick by parties or clans."