Seeing that the other party wasn't continuing to pretend to sleep but had opened their eyes, Clara immediately withdrew her hand.
Caleb's face showed a mix of genuine and feigned confusion. His eyes bewildered, he asked, "It's you... Why are you here?"
Clara watched his expression with her dark eyes, as if seeing through everything. Her red lips parted slightly, uttering two words, "Caleb Chase."
Caleb paused for a moment, his expression unchanged, "You've got the wrong person. While my surname is Chase, my name isn't Caleb."
Clara didn't seem bothered at all. A smile appeared on her face as she said, "Well, calling you Werewolf can't be wrong, right?"
Caleb instantly came to a realization. Looking at her, he muttered, "You're the Seer..."
Clara didn't deny it, merely asking, "So, Mr. Werewolf, are you going to make a move on me now?"
Caleb didn't answer immediately.
During last night's public vote, the Seer had had one chance to check identity cards. It's obvious that his identity had already been exposed at that time.
But, the other party hadn't pointed him out on the spot then. Instead, she was revealing herself now.
Caleb had never seen a Seer who was so eager to reveal their identity to a werewolf. And besides, from the looks of it, the other party seemed to know his true identity as well.
After some thought, he asked, "What do you want?"
Clara gave a light laugh and said, "Simple. We cooperate. In this Instance, I won't reveal your identity, and I'll help you win."
Caleb listened silently. Her identity was clearly not part of the werewolf faction. Helping him meant she would fail this Instance and receive no points reward.
Clara observed the changes in his expression and continued, "But I have one condition. After this Instance ends, you have to help me with something."
Caleb's expression remained unchanged. He looked up at her, pondered for a moment, and asked, "With what?"
The smile on Clara's face gradually faded as she spoke, "I have a Pokémon left behind in a very high-difficulty Instance. I need a teammate who's strong enough to go in with me and find it."
Caleb fell silent for a moment, looked into her eyes, and said slowly, "I'm ranked 29 902 on the player leaderboard. There are twenty-nine thousand nine hundred and one players stronger than me. I don't understand why you're asking me."
Clara: "Because you are the only player in recent years to have come out of a punishment Instance alive."
"You know I've been to a punishment Instance?" Caleb was taken aback.
Clara revealed, "I was also in that Transformation and Substitution Instance."
"Oh." Caleb understood now, but that wasn't a reason for him to go help.
A very high-difficulty Instance? It sounded extremely dangerous. He didn't want to risk taking his Pokémon there.
Who knew if it might be something like a rampaging Hoopa summoning all Legendary Pokémon for a massive battle?
Caleb didn't consider himself particularly powerful. He was just a poor player trying to earn points to retire early in the Pokémon world.
Of course, he wasn't afraid of the other party revealing his identity either. At worst, he could also claim to be the Seer and challenge her claim.
After all, his Pokémon was just a level 5 Caterpie that couldn't beat anyone. Moreover, he could always eliminate this Seer before the next public vote began.
He just didn't know how strong that Zoroark was. But he feared nothing. With Mimikyu's current strength, plus the enhanced Disguise and the damage bonus from the Gigantamax Slayer, few Pokémon could be its match in a one-on-one battle.
Unless the opponent knew all of Mimikyu's abilities and had prepared countermeasures in advance...
Clara could tell what he was thinking just from his expression. After a moment of silence, she said, "I guarantee you won't be in any danger. After finding that Pokémon, I'll transfer 100 000 points to you."
As she spoke, she took out a rope shimmering with a golden light from her player inventory and handed it over.
- Super Escape Rope (SSS-grade item): Upon use, you can instantly escape an Instance without any penalties. Disappears after one use...
Caleb: "..."
This was just about finding a poor Pokémon left behind by its trainer in an Instance.
Rounded up, it meant getting 100 000 points for free, taking a huge step forward on his path to settling down in the Pokémon world. So he thought of taking this deal...
....
At noon, the players responsible for repairing the electrical switches in the North and East Wings had successfully completed their tasks and returned to the hall...
No. 1, the old man, looked at the empty seats for No. 2, No. 6, and No. 9, and asked, "Where are those three?"
The trio of sisters, No. 7, No. 11, and No. 12, looked at each other and shook their heads, indicating they didn't know.
The muscular man thought for a moment and said, "There shouldn't be any danger in this castle, right? Could the three of them have gotten lost?"
The old man frowned, thought for a bit, and said, "Let's go check on them."
So, the group hastily headed towards the West Wing.
Soon, they smelled a mellow, sweet aroma of wine in the corridor.
"Is that a wine cellar?" the muscular man wondered, looking at the staircase leading underground.
The old man glanced at it with his cloudy eyes and said flatly, "Let's go down and see."
Then, downstairs, they found the three of them, dead drunk, lying on the ground in a deep sleep.
Everyone: "..."
Coincidentally, at that moment, Dmitri felt the sudden urge to pee from drinking too much, which prompted him to awaken.
Opening his eyes and seeing everyone in front of him, he was startled and asked in surprise, "Why are you all here?"
The muscular man gave him a cool glance and asked fiercely, "Did you complete your task?"
Dmitri stammered, "N–no."
The muscular man wanted to say more but was interrupted by the old man, "Forget it. I just checked; the electrical switches here control the West Wing area. They don't affect the power supply to the second floor and the hall. It's fine if they're not repaired."
Dmitri sobered up a little, scratched the back of his head and said, "I'm really sorry about that. By the way, the wine here is great. Have some too!"
The others, of course, had no objections...
Dmitri secretly shook Caleb and Wang awake, saying, "Bros, wake up. You can sleep back in your rooms!"
"What time is it?" Caleb sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked bewildered upon seeing so many people, "What happened?"
"We slept for too long," Dmitri helped him up and said to the old man behind them, "Um, uncle, we're going back to our rooms to sleep now, okay!"
Before going upstairs, Caleb subtly nodded to Clara.
Earlier, while Wang and Dmitri were asleep, he had used the hidden paths marked on the map for werewolves to move conveniently to go to the North and East Wings and sabotaged the electrical switches they had just repaired.
This meant that the castle remained without electricity. Later, when night fell, the place would still be enveloped in profound darkness...