Song Jinbo opened his mouth wide and stayed like that for a long time before he decided to shut his eyes and put on an expression that said “Enough with the nonsense, just kill me”.
“Listen, I know that this is a materialistic era in which people are only interested in money. Words like ‘being passionate about contributing to Dragon City’ aren’t as believable as ‘being lured over by monsters a long time ago and intentionally joining the hunting squad to cause destruction’, but you have to trust me. I was framed!”
Meng Chao grabbed Song Jinbo’s shoulders and shook him fiercely. “Open your eyes wide and think about the loopholes. Rattlesnake Xiang Wei hid in the ruins and accidentally saw me. Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong also hid in the ruins and accidentally saw me. Snake Eye Mo Lan even escaped from me while I was held back by collapsed ruins and didn’t even think about dealing a second blow to her to make sure she’s dead, even though I’m a Heaven Realm superhuman?
“And finally, even after these three people saw that I joined the monsters and betrayed Dragon City, they managed to escape from Leprosy Village?
“Don’t you think that it’s too much of a coincidence?
“They were buried in an area filled with smoke and plenty of broken walls and shattered concrete. Just how low are the chances of them escaping from me after seeing me?”
Song Jinbo was slightly stunned. He opened his eyes and began thinking about this seriously.
Meng Chao started rambling like a machine gun, “It’s clear that this is a trap. I’ve been framed by someone.
“But that person isn’t just thinking about framing me; it wants to set up the entire lair. If you still refuse to see the truth and let yourselves be fooled by the enemy, in less than twenty-four hours, you’ll definitely regret it!
“In any case, I must meet Saber Jin Wanhao, and you must open a green channel for me so that the villagers can move outside!”
Song Jinbo narrowed his eyes. The hesitation that appeared in him a moment ago turned once again into great wariness. “You want the villagers to run out and cause chaos in the lair?”
“You’ve seen the current situation in Leprosy Village. We’re all Dragon Citizens who came from Earth. We must help each other and go through trials together!
“If we still give discriminatory treatment to the villagers at this point in time when we’re supposed to fight together and treat them as third-class citizens, it will only add to our misunderstandings and resentment. In the end, we will give the enemy all sorts of chances to break us!
“Don’t go thinking that the disasters in Leprosy Village have nothing to do with you or that the villagers will just sit by and accept their death. If you save Leprosy Village, you’ll be saving yourselves and Dragon City. You have a big head, can’t you figure out this simple thing?”
Song Jinbo fell silent.
“Alright, I won’t bother to persuade you. Just take me to Saber Jin Wanhao so that I can persuade him!”
Meng Chao thought for a while and asked, “Also, where are Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong and Snake Eye Mo Lan? How many veteran hunters escaped from Leprosy Village? If there’s a need for it, I will go meet them and have them confront me. We’ll find the loopholes in the enemy’s scheme together!”
Song Jinbo was silent for a long time before he hissed, “I won’t tell you. I’ve already told you too many things.
“I might not be a good person and a little scared of death, but I know what will happen to me if I end up as a monster’s puppet. The monsters will either use all sorts of strange vermin and methods to eat away my brain so that I would turn into a human-shaped puppet or be subjected to biochemical technology and become something that is one hundred times more terrifying than the villagers.
“No matter what happens, both of those fates are worse than death.
“So, just kill me! I’ve already accepted my fate the moment I ended up in your hands!”
He gritted his teeth and craned his neck, revealing his thick blood vessels and nerves. They were all pulsating.
Meng Chao could not attack him.
Since Song Jinbo was not a monster’s puppet and seemed pretty loyal to Dragon City, it was impossible for Meng Chao to really interrogate and torture him, even if Su Mulian could heal him perfectly.
He thought about it and picked some adhesive liquid from Sleeping Lizards and other anesthetic materials from the pile of monster materials he brought. He covered Song Jinbo’s mouth and nose, then pressed down on the spot above his neck artery, which cut off oxygen supply to his head and made him fall unconscious again.
Once Meng Chao was certain that Song Jinbo was unconscious, he tapped the door of the refrigerator for A’Ji to crawl out.
Meng Chao, A’Ji, and Su Mulian looked at each other.
Meng Chao scratched his head. “You heard what he said. So? You couldn’t have believed that I killed Bullet Xue Rui and wanted to kill Snake Eye Mo Lan, right?”
Su Mulian and A’Ji looked at each other and quickly shook their heads.
Su Mulian said fearfully, “I trust you, Meng Chao.
“You might have done… a lot of bad things, but you won’t betray Dragon City and join the monsters.”
Even up to this moment, Meng Chao could not figure out why Su Mulian was so scared of him.
That fear was like a brand burned into her DNA, and it came from deep within her.
It made it impossible for him to understand why she chose to believe in him so much despite the fact that she was so scared of him.
However, no matter what, trust was a good thing, especially when they were in such a complicated situation.
A’Ji nodded and stressed his words. “Me too, Big Brother Chao! I trust that you’re a good person!” He paused for a while before he became puzzled again. “But how are we going to explain what Xiang Wei, Zhou Chong, and Mo Lan saw? Could it be that they were all lured to the monsters’ side and are framing you?”
Meng Chao pondered it for a moment. “The chances of that aren’t high. The Deification Capsule’s first appearance was just five days ago, and it’s only yesterday that they decided to spontaneously form a hunting squad consisting of employees from various insurance companies.
“The news about a tactical commando squad formed of experienced, veteran hunters entering the lair to investigate this matter only appeared recently, so it’s impossible for the monster to have dragged Man-eating Shark Zhou Chong and Snake Eye Mo Lan to its side in just two short days.
“So, I’m more inclined to believe the possibility that someone pretended to be me and intentionally killed others in front of their eyes as well as chatted happily with Bloody Slaughter Gao Yang. With this method, they could turn me into a bad guy.”
“But what should we do now?” A’Ji could not figure it out. “The hunting squad was only formed hastily yesterday, that’s true, but you only joined spontaneously at midnight. No matter how smart the abnormal beast is, it would have been impossible for it to have predicted that you’d join and prepare everything meticulously in advance.”
“There’s nothing strange about that,” Meng Chao said faintly. “I’m the youngest Heaven Realm superhuman in Dragon City and an internet celebrity with millions of fans. I’m the idol of countless young adults and teenagers, and ever since my debut, I’ve killed countless monsters. I also crushed the enemy’s schemes in Raging Waves, Blessed Paradise, and Noble Descent Hotel. I’ve been a thorn in the monster civilization’s side for quite some time now.
“Fingerprints, blood samples, and hair samples aren’t that difficult to gather, either. I’ve been injured heavily multiple times, and I’ve laid in medical cabins for days. If monsters came up with a way to infiltrate hospitals at one of those times, they could get everything.
“Then, they could split up my fingerprints, hair, and blood samples into several batches so that the abnormal beast who snuck into Dragon City to cause major damage could take them around. If an abnormal beast noticed me while it was fighting against humans, it could frame me in passing. If it succeeded, it would severely damage the image of a ‘hero’ in millions of youngsters’ hearts, which would be killing two birds with one stone.”
“That… makes sense.” A’Ji wiped off cold sweat. “Then what should we do now? All the people in the lair think you’re the monsters’ puppet now. They will definitely not listen to your explanation, and once they find you, they will do everything they can to kill you!”
“Even if they were willing to listen to us, we don’t have much time left,” Su Mulian said. “We only have ten hours left. It’s not easy to prove Meng Chao’s innocence in such a short time and get the gangs’ trust.
“If we go over that time, Wild Wolf will lead most of the villagers to seek shelter outside. Then, both sides will clash against each other. If there are major casualties, Meng Chao’s crime as the monsters’ puppet will become true!”
After that was said, both villagers looked glum. They felt that the situation had descended into chaos that was bound to end in their failure.
“Don’t look so dejected. The situation isn’t as bad as you think it is. On the contrary, I think that the abnormal beast took a narrow path, and it’s gradually showing a fatal weakness.” Meng Chao narrowed his eyes. “Originally, based on the abnormal beast’s plan, all the villagers would have exited the village and engaged the gangs in a major clash.
“Then, the abnormal beast and its puppets would seek to take advantage of the situation and cause further trouble in the disaster that will benefit them.
“During that chaos, even if there were loopholes in how it framed me, no one would have the time to think about it carefully, and just like what Ms. Mulian said, my crime would be set in stone.
“In conclusion, the abnormal beast’s original scheme had a really high fault tolerance rate. No matter how much we struggled, it’d be useless. Having a small loophole in the plan is fine.
“But the abnormal beast didn’t expect that I wouldn’t die in the super crystal bomb’s explosion nor would get killed by Bloody Slaughter Gao Yang. Instead, I crushed its first scheme and obtained Wild Wolf’s trust, so the villagers now stand their ground. I’ve bought us a precious twelve hours!
“Since the two sides are yet to engage in a real clash, the middle management and higher management of the gangs still retain calm minds and clear logical thinking.
“The matter about me joining the monsters is just an extra that the monster casually injected into its scheme. It was never supposed to be important, but now, it was suddenly brought under the spotlight, and it’s naturally sticking out like a sore thumb.
“Trust me, while we’re feeling troubled by this, that really smart abnormal beast must also be feeling troubled, because its scheme has left the trajectory it planned. I’m like a side character that keeps jumping up and down trying to steal the spotlight from it. I’m causing the script it plotted meticulously to go into paradoxical directions, and it’s a mess now.
“I believe that Man-eating Shark and the rest will be able to figure out something strange about this sooner rather than later. They’ll realize that it’s too much of a coincidence that they saw me committing all those crimes at the same time.
“The abnormal beast is now forced into a corner, however, and it shifted the center of its scheme on the ‘fact’ that I ‘joined the monsters a long time ago’. It might seem like it forced me to a dead end, but if we look at it from another angle, as long as I can prove my innocence, I’ll be able to obtain most people’s trust, even Saber Jin Wanhao’s, and break this strategy that is supposed to promise certain death to me!”
