Li Ang briefly explained the background of the situation to Tang Ranno, then continued to refresh the Anti-996 License project page on his tablet computer, yet he found no trace of garbled characters.
"Hmm... there are three possibilities," Li Ang said seriously. "First, the page has been reset, and the Cognitive Bias Curse has been removed. Second, the curse was specifically targeted at Xia Junqiang, and once effective, the caster immediately canceled it. Third, we haven't met the conditions to trigger the curse."
Tang Ranno frowned in thought and quickly caught on.
The first possibility was unlikely. The Anti-996 License page had a significant number of visits; if the Cognitive Bias Curse affected every visitor, a chain of deaths would likely have surfaced by now. The second possibility could not be verified at the moment, as the two players couldn't just enter Xia Junqiang's room and search his computer. Even if they were to find an information peddler and buy hacking software to try to invade Xia Junqiang's private computer, it wouldn't be realistic—there was too little time left, and it was debatable whether that computer was even still functional.
The third possibility, however, was the most likely. If the unknown caster had spread the Cognitive Bias Curse widely across web pages and set certain trigger conditions—for example, the curse only activating if the viewer had red hair—then it would indeed be possible to narrow the scope and precisely curse specific groups.
But the problem was, heaven knew what characteristic of Xia Junqiang had met the curse's trigger conditions. Li Ang and Tang Ranno were not Mysterious scholars and didn't have time to investigate the specifics of how Xia Junqiang was cursed.
The goal of the first mission phase was to ascertain Xia Junqiang's cause of death. They suspected he died from a curse but hadn't clarified the exact trigger process, thus failing to meet the first phase's completion requirements.
As the deadline for the task approached, the atmosphere between the two players grew increasingly strange.
In regular world cooperative tasks, completing them was ideal; however, not much was lost if they failed. And once the time limit expired and the friendly-fire shield between them deactivated, their first instinct would likely be to guard against an attack from the other.
There was no trust among players. A stronger player could easily dominate a weaker one, using the weaker player's real identity and safety as bargaining chips, threatening to strip them of all their equipment and items before packaging and selling the victim off. Such acts were quite common overseas. Some players of low moral character even formed Hunting Brigades to actively seek out supernatural events and hunt down other players unfortunate enough to cross their paths. Both Lone Wolf Players and various official organizations detested the Hunting Brigades, yet as long as there were benefits, there would be conflict and slaughter.
If I can't think of a way out of this, I'll just have to fight him head-on... Tang Ranno's expression remained cold, but her mind raced. If it really comes to a fight, I'm afraid I'm no match for him. This guy's basic attributes are alarmingly high, not at all like the constitution a player of my level should possess.
Although Tang Ranno was a player above level ten, she wasn't entirely a combat specialist, nor had she joined any organization. She also maintained only a casual acquaintance with members of the Special Affairs Bureau. If it really came down to fighting Li Ang, Tang Ranno didn't think she held an advantage—even with a golden retriever with supernatural abilities by her side.
This is difficult... Tang Ranno sighed inwardly, but her expression remained unchanged—any slight flicker could arouse his suspicion and intensify his killing intent towards her.
"I have a way to verify the third possibility," Tang Ranno said, "but I need to send a message to my friend."
"Oh?" Li Ang raised an eyebrow. "That friend you mentioned, are they a Mysterious scholar?"
"More or less. She's done some research into mystic rituals," Tang Ranno replied vaguely, her eyes fixed on Li Ang, awaiting his consent.
From the beginning of the mission, the two players had stuck to each other like conjoined twins, primarily to prevent the other from notifying official organizations and betraying them. Contacting a third party could be seen as a provocation and also risked leaking intelligence.
"Hmm..." Li Ang frowned in thought for a moment, then nodded and handed back the tablet computer, which belonged to Tang Ranno.
She took the tablet, placed it on the coffee table, and after swiping a few times, found a QQ contact named "Polar Bear" (whose avatar was a polar bear). She sent this contact a photo of Xia Junqiang's screen, along with the message:
"Hello, I just encountered this supernatural event. I suspect it's a Cognitive Bias Curse from mysticism. Can you find out its trigger conditions, how it functions, and its target?"
After sending the message, Tang Ranno and Li Ang waited quietly for several minutes, silently staring at the tablet screen.
This "Polar Bear" QQ contact was actually Tang Ranno's roommate and best friend, a young Russian model. Several months ago, they were randomly selected by the System to become players at almost the same time. Since then, Tang Ranno and her roommate had supported and encouraged each other, struggling to survive terrifying and desperate tasks. During this time, their pure bond had rapidly intensified.
The QQ account she was currently using, as well as Polar Bear's, had been registered previously and were completely empty of content. The two had agreed that in an emergency (like being held hostage, coerced, kidnapped, or forced into a regular task), they would use these two QQ accounts to communicate. When contacting each other, they could also use their tone, word choice, and punctuation to convey their current situation and make covert requests. (For example, starting with the words "Hello" meant she had entered a regular task and was with another player she didn't know. No punctuation at the end indicated she was still relatively safe...)
Tang Ranno sent her request, which included a hidden signal, to her roommate who was versed in mysticism. Her roommate responded swiftly, preparing to support Tang Ranno while typing back:
"The garbled characters on the screen are indeed the Cognitive Bias Curse.
"The source and the practitioner of the curse are unknown.
"The curse's trigger condition was an ideological leaning towards the broad masses of working people, possessing robust and unpretentious values, and harboring hatred towards business owners who exploited the surplus wealth created by laborers.
"The curse's ultimate aim was to further solidify the afflicted person's worldview and values, making them resilient, tenacious, and unyielding."
As her roommate provided the explanation, Li Ang and Tang Ranno also heard the System's prompt, informing them that the first phase of their mission was completed and they were moving on to the second phase.