"However, with strange wheat fields one moment, an old man knocking on doors in the middle of the night the next, and even a bizarre Mountain God, the village had too many supernatural events. This is why he temporarily suppressed that speculation in his heart."
Cao Hongbo pondered carefully for a moment, looking slightly hesitant. "Wouldn't that be a bit far-fetched? If you said he could deduce, from that table of poisoned food, the possibility that the villagers might have died inexplicably due to water poisoning, I would find that quite reasonable. But to have had such a suspicion all along..."
Ge Ying didn't continue to argue but directly countered, "Then why did he choose to be the first to try the food every single time?"
"This..." Cao Hongbo was immediately left speechless.
Indeed, something as thankless and risky as testing for poison—without some degree of confidence, no player would dare to do it.
"Professor Cao, what we're live-streaming right now isn't some ordinary player. Think about his first instance."
When Ge Ying first heard that a player had cleared a solo instance in under three minutes, he instinctively assumed it was just a gimmick fabricated by marketing accounts to attract traffic.
However, after witnessing the recording of that live stream with his own eyes, his skepticism vanished instantly, replaced by boundless shock.
"I believe most of the netizens watching, including us here, must have wondered: why did Master Xu Xi seem to gather almost no clues, yet still clear the instance directly?"
Ge Ying smiled slightly.
"It's precisely because his thought process operates on a different level than ours. To use an analogy, a kindergarten child needs to count on their fingers to calculate single-digit addition or subtraction, but any upper-grade student can glance at it and know the answer."
"What might be just an ordinary decoration or extremely commonplace small talk to us could, in his view, be a crucial clue. That's the gap between him and us."
Although he wasn't clear on exactly how Xu Xi detected the poison in the food, it was obvious the other party had accurately determined the food was indeed poisoned through some means.
Hearing this, Cao Hongbo also recalled that video that could be called a miracle. Gradually, he was persuaded by Ge Ying's words.
Yes, if he hadn't suspected something all along, who would be so bold as to be the first to test for poison every single time, and even be able to discern whether the food was poisoned or not?
In the real world, if villagers kept dying continuously in the same manner, people's first thought would be that some kind of infectious disease was raging, or perhaps a large-scale poisoning incident. Ruling out disease, to carry out poisoning, the water source becomes a feasible and relatively low-difficulty method.
But inside the instance, they took it for granted that it was the work of supernatural beings, never even considering possibilities like disease or poisoning.
The reason for this preconceived notion was that the real world lacks the mystical forces present in the instance, so they naturally look for answers in more scientific directions.
Xu Xi was different from them. They were now deducing the cause from the result, while he had considered this aspect from the very beginning.
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
This was Cao Hongbo's current state of mind.
Song Yan glanced at the silent Cao Hongbo, thinking he didn't agree with Ge Ying's words, and said, "It seems our two expert gentlemen have different views. That's fine, we can continue watching."
[Are you guys saying Master Xu Xi already suspected the water source might be poisoned after hearing the initial instance background from Village Chief Zhu???]
[Bro, while I admit my IQ isn't great, isn't comparing me to a kindergarten kid a bit too much?]
[The person above, you have to consider who you're comparing yourself to. Compared to Master Xu Xi, if you still have kindergarten-level intelligence, you should be secretly celebrating.]
[Joking aside, but have you all forgotten which program we're watching?]
[Daily question: when will this program shut down?]
[This instance is so sneaky, leading the players toward the supernatural direction while secretly poisoning them itself.]
[With the Mountain God and live sacrifice thing coming up, I felt the instance situation was almost clear. How did a poisoning incident pop up again?]
[It does feel a bit out of place. Like I'm watching a horror movie that suddenly turns into a suspense film halfway through.]
[Heavens above, this faithful maiden is willing to trade ten years of this program's lifespan for Master Xu Xi to safely pass this instance.]
[So ruthless, ten years is too little. Make it a hundred. And bless Master Cheng Xu while you're at it.]
...
Following Village Chief Zhu's directions, the six of them arrived in front of one of the village's vacant houses.
"This is the place."
According to Village Chief Zhu, this household originally housed a man in his sixties living alone. One day, returning from visiting neighbors, he had just reached his doorstep when he broke out in sweat on his hands and feet, collapsed on the ground, and passed away not long after.
The group drew a bucket of water from the well.
To the naked eye, the water was clear and transparent, seemingly fine, but no one dared to touch it or try drinking it lightly.
Soon, Village Chief Zhu entered the courtyard from outside, carrying another chicken.
After comforting his wife and grandson, he had hurried over.
If the water was poisoned, it would be a major event for the village.
If the water wasn't poisoned, then the fact that his family's food had been mysteriously poisoned was no small matter either.
In short, he desperately hoped these experts could help him figure out the whole story.
Under Village Chief Zhu's experiment, the chicken that drank the water didn't last long before it started convulsing and died, just like the chicken that ate the cooked rice earlier.
"It seems it really is because of this well water," the Suited Man said gravely.
"This... how could this be?" Village Chief Zhu looked utterly bewildered.
The players were thinking much deeper than Village Chief Zhu.
The Long Dress Girl reminded them, "The question is whether only this well's water is problematic, or..."
Village Chief Zhu's expression changed drastically, and he slapped his thigh. "Oh no! If the villagers have all been drinking the well water—"
"Village Chief Zhu, please calm down." The Suited Man quickly stopped the Village Chief, who was about to go gather the villagers. "It's already evening. The villagers have probably eaten most of their dinner by now. If something was wrong, there would have been an uproar already. It wouldn't be this quiet. Listen, you can still hear the old folks chatting nearby."
Hearing this, Village Chief Zhu also calmed down.
That was true. The villagers liked to chat outside their doors for a while after dinner, only closing their doors to guard against Old Man Liu before dark.
If he listened carefully now, he could faintly hear some conversation.
If every household's well was problematic, there would have been chaos long ago.
Seeing that Village Chief Zhu had taken his words to heart, the Suited Man breathed a sigh of relief.
He had almost let the other party alert the enemy.
"Village Chief Zhu, it was precisely because your family's well became unusable that you came here to fetch water. Otherwise, you wouldn't have discovered this well was poisoned."
"So what we need to determine now is even more crucial: is it only this household's well water that's poisoned, or is the well water of every villager who died in the past three years poisoned?"