Chapter 42
“That grilled catfish… smelled incredible.”
His craving was ignited, but his kitchen wasn’t set up for making grilled fish, and such a heavy meal wasn’t suitable for late at night anyway. Jiang Jitang frowned, looking at the kitchen storage cabinet. “How about something light for dinner?”
With all his orders completed and a day off tomorrow, Jiang Jitang, feeling completely carefree, even thought about opening a soda to celebrate. Too bad he was all out.
“Just one bottle of juice left. Need to stock up on soda and sour plum drink too… summer isn’t right without it… This fridge is still too small, can only buy a little at a time.” He pulled out the dinner ingredients, gesturing at the empty shelf in the refrigerator.
Ding!
[The Young Legion Commander’s Last Wish has been settled.
Rating: 
Score: 10 Points
Awarded: one Wishing Star
View details now?]
The notification bubble popped up, full of rewards.
“It’s settled already?” Jiang Jitang was holding the dinner ingredients, a soda tucked under his arm. He used his back to push the fridge door shut.
“A Wishing Star. That she became someone impressive… I’m not really surprised at all.”
Jiang Jitang had already lined up the ingredients neatly: eggs, cured sausage, and watermelon. The sausage and eggs were for clay pot rice, and the leftover quarter watermelon would be perfect for dessert.
He took out two separate cutting boards, one for ready-to-eat food and one for raw ingredients.
“Making dinner now. Can you read the details out loud?”
Notification bubble: …
Ding!
[Strong wish energy detected. Special task updated. View details?]
The special task update arrived even faster than the settlement details. Jiang Jitang put down the items in his hands and checked the time.
“View details.”
[Special Task: Please assist a specific team in completing the ‘Spot the Difference’ game challenge.]
[Participate in this activity?]
[You have five minutes to decide.]
[Task Details: This is a directed order, issued only to taskers with above-average logical reasoning ability.
The issuer requires the order taker to participate as external personnel in the ‘Spot the Difference’ game. Task location: an 18-story apartment building. Task time: 120 minutes. Task requirement: find and mark the ‘non-humans’ hidden among the tenants.
There are nine non-humans. They possess excellent disguise abilities and can impersonate humans. However, due to varying disguise skill levels, some non-humans may make errors during transformation. Observe carefully; do not overlook any suspicious points.
Furthermore, most non-humans are not familiar with the true details of the identities they impersonate. Investigations can be based on this.
For each disguised entity caught within the time limit, receive 10 points. Successful marking grants an additional 5 points. Incorrectly identifying someone results in a complaint and a loss of 30 points. Catching all nine and successfully marking them yields 300 points, one Wishing Star, and a game souvenir.
There are 36 tenants. The tasker must visit them door-to-door with the identity registry and confirm their identities.
For each tenant, the tasker can ask three questions based on the registry content. Within one minute of the questions being asked, the tenant must provide at least one answer, and it must be a clear, direct, and truthful response.
While disguised, the non-humans cannot use any attack skills or actions against the tasker. When not disguised, they may attack, but attacks cannot cross the doorway.
The same question cannot be repeated. Additionally, the order taker can use special abilities and items for self-defense when attacked. However, when not under attack, only non-harmful marking items can be used.
Taboo: Do not enter the rooms.
If the final point total is negative, the order taker will randomly lose one organ.]
Jiang Jitang’s interest was immediately piqued.
The special tasks seemed to have been upgraded too. Game time was now 120 minutes, and the maximum points available became 300. Naturally, the difficulty had also increased.
One hundred twenty minutes to visit 36 tenants, minus time for climbing stairs and waiting for doors to open. That meant an average of three minutes to judge if a person was a non-human or not.
The conditions were harsh to begin with, plus this game had a major confusing factor – the authenticity of the identity registry was not guaranteed.
Because it was ‘not necessarily true’, there was a possibility of ‘humans using fake identities, or being somewhat disguised themselves’.
If he were the game designer, he would definitely include this twist.
So, asking questions based purely on the registry might lead him into a trap. For example, he might mistake a human with a suspicious identity for a non-human and lose thirty points.
Looking at it that way, it really did require above-average reasoning skills.
Well, at least a high school graduate level.
He, a university student, was perfectly capable.
Also, judging by the reward of 300 points for catching and marking all, but a penalty of 30 points for each mistake, as long as he could ultimately identify all the non-humans, he had ten chances for error.
The key point was that it looked really fun, very much like those mini-game ads he sometimes skipped, but more engaging.
“Accept.”
With a rumble, he found himself in front of the apartment building under the night sky.
It was in the middle of nowhere, pitch black all around except for the faint light coming from the apartment building ahead. A sign in front read ‘Neighborhood Apartments’.
Jiang Jitang looked up for two seconds, then hugged the identity registry and started his door-to-door visits.
“Knock knock.”
The door of unit 101 opened, revealing a young woman in pajamas, wearing glasses, her hair tied up casually. She looked at him, puzzled. “Yes?”
“Hello, I am a non-human investigator,” he quickly assigned himself a title. “I will now ask you three questions. Please answer truthfully.”
She nodded.
This resident matched ‘Ms. Huang, single female’ in the identity registry.
Suspected online worker, receives more than three packages daily, meals are mostly takeout, likes taking out trash late at night. A clear headshot was included. Resident No. 1’s appearance showed no obvious problems.
If following the expected script, Jiang Jitang should now ask questions based on the information in the registry. For example, ask about the late-night trash habit.
But he refused to follow the script.
“First question: Are you, both physically and mentally, consistently, from birth, an animal of the kingdom Animalia, phylum Chordata, class Mammalia, order Primates, superfamily Hominoidea, family Hominidae, genus Homo, species H. sapiens? Please answer yes or no.”
“Second question: If you answered ‘yes’ to the first question, are you lying on this specific question? Please answer yes or no.”
“Third question: At this very moment, is the face you are showing me your true face, which allows for appropriate modification but does not change its essence? Please answer yes or no.”
The NPC fell silent. The NPC was stunned.
You’re not playing by the rules!
Good grief, he’s exploiting a loophole.
Literally, one asks ‘Are you human?’, one asks ‘Under this specific condition, are you lying?’, and the last one directly asks ‘Are you showing your true face?’. Only non-humans have shapeshifting abilities; humans do not. At most, humans can disguise and modify.
The questions seem independent, but in reality, their core is the same.
Wow, you can’t ask the same question three times, so you ask the same thing three times in a roundabout way?
The most brutal part was he even specified the precise scientific definition of ‘human’.
Those who weren’t physically and mentally consistent from birth and answered using a stolen identity – excluded.
Those with transformation abilities, currently maintaining a human form – excluded.
Those fitting the general idea of ‘human’ but not the zoological definition – excluded.
“Answer to the first question: Yes.”
Run, everyone run.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” Jiang Jitang politely closed the door and went to knock on the one opposite.
The door opened, revealing an elderly man with dark skin and age spots. He held a spatula and wore an apron, looking confused. “Young man, who are you looking for?”
Jiang Jitang glanced at the identity registry and noticed the mole shown on the right cheek in the photo was on the man’s left cheek.
Hmm, a free point.
“Hello, sir. I am a non-human investigator. I will now ask you three questions.”
He enthusiastically repeated the three questions.
This time it was the old man’s turn to fall silent. His face stiffened, and within the time limit, he ground his sharp teeth and answered: “Third question: Yes.”
The moment he uttered that sound, the old man’s skin tore apart, ripped by his suddenly expanding interior, revealing a huge, slimy fish head. A slender tongue shot out, aiming to wrap around Jiang Jitang in the doorway.
Jiang Jitang had been watching him closely. The instant the man’s expression changed, Jiang Jitang had the prepared color bomb ready. The moment the ‘Yes’ was shouted, Jiang Jitang threw it, hitting the true skin.
Swoosh. The entire fish turned pink. Only the still-crimson tongue lashed out unwillingly towards Jiang Jitang, seemingly trying to drag him inside.
Jiang Jitang confidently held the door: Done. Dodge.
…
He didn’t dodge.
Strangled by the tongue around his neck and nearly suffocating, Jiang Jitang used all his strength to slam the door shut.
Driven by force, the door slammed into the frame so hard the wall cracked. The protruding tongue went limp, hanging lifelessly.
Jiang Jitang covered his slimy neck, dry heaving. This was worse than death.
Although the 300 points seemed handed out for free, dealing with monsters still involved risks.
“Gag.”
[Disguise General Qing Shi has been marked.]
A message also appeared about Jiang Jitang receiving fifteen points. He immediately forgot the nausea of nearly being tongue-strangled and headed for the second floor.
Points, here I come.
“Knock knock.”
The door opened, but only a crack.
“…” The young man inside, who looked like a recluse, saw the door blocked by Jiang Jitang’s arm, leaving only a narrow gap. He pushed hard, but it didn’t move.
The young man looked up and saw Jiang Jitang’s friendly smile outside. Their eyes met.
Jiang Jitang quickly scanned the other’s face.
No appearance issues, so identification relied on questioning.
“Hello, I am a non-human inspector. I have three questions. Please answer carefully.” Jiang Jitang ignored the tenant’s scowl. He calmly delivered the three questions.
The recluse’s face soured further. He understood the core of these questions: Are you human or not?
“Second question: Yes.”
“!” Almost the instant the young man said ‘Yes’, a pink-purple color bomb was thrown through the crack, hitting the face covered with pustules.
The starting sounds of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ are different, so the mouth shapes differ. Jiang Jitang was watching closely; at the first sign, the ball was thrown.
Bang. The young man’s skin instantly turned taro purple. The dense pustules on his face burst open, bulging with numerous eyes. They all stared unwillingly at Jiang Jitang through the narrow gap – Jiang Jitang had started closing the door the moment he threw the ball, leaving no opening.
Hehe I won’t fall for the same trick twice.
Once the door closed, the sickening feeling of being watched by countless invasive eyes vanished.
Even without a slimy tongue like the fish-head monster, those stares felt like tangible, invisible fingers.
They tried to strip his clothes, viewing him with aggressive possessiveness, seeking to control and claim him.
So disgusting, nauseating after just one second of contact.
He wanted to disinfect those eyes with acid.
“Was that extra hundred points today for psychological damages?” Jiang Jitang felt soul-wounded; even the subsequent fifteen points couldn’t heal it.
What were these things? He felt deep sympathy for the players trapped inside; they must face even worse.
Fortunately, the following non-humans weren’t like this, even if their looks were stranger, actions more violent, and styles more horrifying.
One non-human, whose skin was riddled with holes full of insects, even had a fairly friendly chat with him.
This was a very emotionally stable non-human. Its interest in humans paled compared to its interest in bugs. But Jiang Jitang was very interested in its cratered face.
Such classic ‘pore territory’ would lure anyone who enjoys watching pore-cleaning videos for stress relief.
“Seen those satisfying pore-cleaning videos? Maybe you should relocate your little bugs and get a facial.”
The Insect Master looked at him like he was crazy.
“No, I don’t need that.”
“Blackhead extractors are very gentle tools; they won’t hurt your little friends.”
The response was a slam of the door: The Insect Master was touched and declined the friendly suggestion.
Jiang Jitang shrugged and moved to the next tenant. He was on the 17th floor, only two left.
Using the golden three questions, he finished the game in under an hour, with three colored balls still unused.
[Tasker has caught all hidden entities within 120 minutes. Game complete. Player has cleared ‘Death Apartments’ instance.]
[Game over. External personnel have 32 minutes remaining.]
[Congratulations on completing the ‘Spot the Difference’ challenge. Obtained 300 points, one Wishing Star, and the ‘Screaming Key’ souvenir.]
[Screaming Key: A sensitive, fragile, somewhat neurotic key. If evil creatures are present in the room, it will scream when turned. Screaming consumes energy; it needs 24 hours rest after use before working again. Note: Its scream is very loud. Use with caution.]
This was his first non-consumable item. Its function seemed useful. Was the original game harder? The previous games seemed to be third-tier or variants.
As if confirming his thoughts, three extremely disheveled players appeared. Their limbs were intact, and they seemed unhurt, but their mental states were strained to the breaking point.
“External aid?” the red-haired woman in the middle asked hesitantly. She looked East Asian. No proof, but she seemed like a compatriot.
Jiang Jitang nodded.
“So… we passed?” another tall white man asked, incredulous.
As for the last one, a jewel-bedecked but equally ragged middle-aged woman, she had already slumped against the wall, as if she couldn’t move another step.
