Chapter 191: Inferiority And Arrogance
With Lu Jinzhao’s encouraging tone, her previous affirming attitude, and the topic shifting to an area she was relatively skilled in, Tian Lei’s speaking speed gradually quickened, and her expression became more animated.
“.Based on the Death platform information I’ve collected and learned, one thing can be confirmed: it’s almost impossible to completely avoid triggering the Ghost’s taboo inside the platform.”
“Whether it’s the mission or the roles we take upon entering, it’s extremely likely to directly cause us to trigger the Ghost’s taboo, leading to attacks from the ghost.”
“I think the ‘no one escapes’ mentioned in this information refers to us passengers, not those people inside the platform.”
Lu Jinzhao nodded, looking at her with expectant eyes, so Tian Lei only paused briefly before continuing:
“I think after we enter the platform, we’re most likely already the sinful bloodline mentioned in the information. As soon as we enter, the ghost will target us.”
This wasn’t hard to guess, but Lu Jinzhao still gave encouragement.
“The problem is, if the answer is that simple, it wouldn’t be a Death platform. So even though I think it’s highly probable this situation will occur, the dangers inside the platform are certainly more than just that.”
Tian Lei chattered on about her various possible crises and guesses, including but not limited to the people they encounter inside the platform after entering seeming like living people but actually already dead, or them gradually having the sin in their ‘bloodline’ awakened, step by step heading toward death, and the like.
“But I have another thought.” As she spoke, she glanced at Lu Jinzhao again, saw Lu Jinzhao gesture for her to continue, looking quite expectant, so she quickly said:
“It’s also possible that after we enter, we don’t inherit that sinful bloodline.”
At this point, her eyes brightened even more: “But everyone else inside the platform, all the original inhabitants—at least those we can contact—are all inheritors of that bloodline.”
“Only us passengers’ blood is clean.”
“And clean bloodline can exchange with sinful bloodline? Or sacrifice? Replacement? Anyway, whatever it is, that’s roughly the idea.”
Then what’s the difference between them entering and a ginseng fruit falling into Zhu Bajie’s mouth?
“It’s not impossible.” Lu Jinzhao nodded quite approvingly.
“Right? Given the train’s malicious sense of fun, I think this possibility is not low.”
“You came up with so much just from ‘no one escapes.’ What if from another angle?” Lu Jinzhao continued to ask.
For most of Tian Lei’s thoughts, she had already thought them through when she saw the Death platform information, but a small portion did give her new inspiration—angles and train of thought she hadn’t considered.
This made Lu Jinzhao see her value, further solidifying her idea of becoming ‘friends’ with Tian Lei.
“How to put it…” Tian Lei’s expression became hesitant.
“I think the platform name is very important. Heredity—this is definitely a very, very crucial piece of information.”
“After we enter the platform, we must investigate information related to the term heredity.”
“At least figure out what happened in that town—what the hereditary sin is, it might be useful.”
“From the current information, what happened in that town seems like the ancestral sin common in novels and film and television works, passed down to descendants, but in the Death platform, the truth definitely won’t be that simple.”
“But right now we know too little. Even if I give examples, I can list too many possibilities, so I don’t recommend starting from this point and making too many assumptions now—it might disrupt the train of thought.”
After she finished speaking, she looked at Lu Jinzhao somewhat anxiously.
Lu Jinzhao suggested considering other angles, but she said not to consider other angles too much—would this make Lu Jinzhao displeased?
To Tian Lei’s fortunate relief, Lu Jinzhao agreed with her view once again: “You’re right, there are indeed too many possibilities. Excessive speculation can lead to preconceptions, and this important core should instead be analyzed after entering the platform.”
Tian Lei got excited again: “You think so too, right?”
“Sometimes, I really think some people’s brains are stupid to the extreme, unable to grasp the key points, wasting time and energy on things where even discussion yields no answer.”
As she spoke, she suddenly stopped, cautiously glancing at Lu Jinzhao’s expression, discovering that the other party showed no displeased expression due to her ‘bold words,’ so she slightly relaxed but didn’t continue.
Lu Jinzhao showed no abnormality on the surface, but in her heart, she had a new discovery.
Very subtle. This classmate Tian Lei, although her wording was very cautious—”sometimes,” “some people”—this didn’t prevent Lu Jinzhao from seeing the arrogance and contempt existing in her heart.
Seemingly meek and submissive, with an overly introverted and troublesome personality, it was both the real her and a cover for her true inner thoughts.
She probably looked down on anyone she considered “stupid,” and truly believed from the bottom of her heart that dialoguing with such people was unnecessary.
Extremely self-centered.
Her proposal to meet was perhaps also part of observation.
Observing whether this teammate was another idiot.
But she had probably learned about “Lu Jinzhao” in advance, knowing her weird promotion path and speed from elsewhere, thus forming a basic understanding: this passenger named Lu Jinzhao was not simple.
Preconception.
After forming a blurry understanding, her own performance was particularly strong, instead reinforcing that blurry understanding, placing Lu Jinzhao at the same level as herself, or even a more mysterious and powerful position.
Her social anxiety and introversion were real, she might have some “lack of love,” needing recognition, with some inferiority complex, but her arrogance and ego were also real.
She indeed couldn’t refuse ordinary requests, and sometimes even seemed easy to bully, but essentially, she didn’t care about anyone besides herself; at certain moments, she would be more cold and ruthless than anyone.
To change this person’s perception, stronger means must be used to break her arrogance, making her establish an “absolute” understanding: the person in front of her is absolutely superior in both strength and wisdom.
Trigger her inferiority to cover that ego and arrogance, then Lu Jinzhao’s meaning to her would become different, and recognition and encouragement based on that would be more profound.
The smile on Lu Jinzhao’s face deepened slightly: “Now let’s mutually understand each other’s fate.”
The genuine surprise on Tian Lei’s face: “Eh? This…”
She somewhat wanted to refuse.
Very few people knew her fate; those who knew and would spread it had died in the platform. The few who knew now weren’t talkative. Unless necessary, she actually didn’t want to exchange her fate’s function with a teammate.
After all, her fate was very obscure, extremely hard to detect.
Sometimes even when teammates said they wanted to exchange information and fates, she would refuse at such times, then face exclusion.
But Lu Jinzhao wouldn’t give her a chance to refuse. [Tan Meng] emerged from Lu Jinzhao’s collar. In that instant, the Ghost’s aura filled this small guesthouse room.
Tian Lei’s wrist ached faintly. She probed a struggle but found she couldn’t budge Lu Jinzhao at all.
“Come on.”
Lu Jinzhao’s tone was relaxed, but her smiling eyes firmly expressed her idea: she wouldn’t allow this topic to be refused.
