Inside the game. Thora glanced at the extra 30 points on her screen. Finally, she'd climbed out of the lowest ranks. After taking down the high-tier Infected earlier, she'd already felt stronger than when she first logged in. Now, after killing a player, her overall power had clearly jumped again. She pulled up the leaderboard. Luke and the others hadn't changed much, but Ashley had shot from the bottom tier into the top tier. Huh? And Number 79 is right behind me? How'd he rack up those points? Then, Thora remembered how Ashley kept trying to join their team, and Draven had rejected her every single time. Had Tristan and the others also recognized her character name, tried joining, and gotten rejected as well?She immediately checked her system messages. Sure enough, all of Tristan's and the others' team requests had been denied. Thora's expression darkened. She scanned for Draven, but she didn't see him anywhere. While she'd been busy farming points, he must have slipped away. Just as she was about to go look for him and settle the score, Draven suddenly appeared in front of her. But Thora didn't look at him. Her eyes locked onto the gun in his hand. "Where did you get that?" she asked, completely forgetting about confronting him. Draven tilted the gun slightly, his tone smug. "Dropped from a monster I just killed." In the game, all hostile NPCs were called "monsters". Those Infected were human-shaped. Hearing that, Thora felt a little jealous. "Why did all I get was a dagger?" Draven smirked. "Guess I'm lucky." Thora pressed her lips together, annoyed. It was the first time anyone had flaunted luck in front of her. She even felt like leaving the team and taking him out herself. "Trade," Draven said. A system prompt appeared instantly. "The other party has requested a trade." "Accept," Thora said, confused. Draven stepped up to her with the gun and grabbed her hand. Thora tried to pull away, but his grip was firm. He looked straight at her and placed the gun into her palm. Ding! "Trade successfully!" "You're giving it to me?" Thora was surprised. She hadn't expected him to hand it over. Draven shut the trade window casually. "I've got more than one." Thora didn't ask further. He'd leeched plenty of her XP anyway. She'd consider the gun as payment. She put the gun away, then remembered something important. "Give me leadership." Draven guessed what she wanted. He was unwilling, but he still passed the leadership rights gloomily. Once she had control, Thora didn't say anything else and kept moving toward the city center. Her main goal was to find the twelve cards. Each card was hidden on a different person. Only in crowded areas would clues show up. It was the main quest, completely hidden. Without triggering the hints, there was no way to progress. Each card was worth 50 points. Twelve cards meant 600 points—way more efficient than farming monsters."What're you staring at?" Thora asked, noticing Draven looking up at the sky. His expression was serious, but he just shook his head. Thora didn't think much of it and kept moving. ... Outside the game. "What the hell is happening?!" Valen slammed his fist on the table. Jeremy said seriously, "These candidates' brains are in a deep sleep. When they die in the game, their consciousness is tricked into thinking they actually died, causing a state of pseudo–brain death. If they can't wake up soon, this false death can trigger real death." The examiners went silent, then grim. If this situation couldn't be controlled, dying in the game meant dying in real life. Even worse, the players inside had no clue.They'd assume death was just elimination, so they wouldn't resist. And the ones doing the killing wouldn't know either—they could accidentally kill teammates. Just thinking about it sent chills through the examiners. That was far scarier than the infighting in the first two rounds. "Have you found the cause yet?" Valen asked, his voice edged with barely restrained fury.