Card simulation, starting with the Goblin Deserter

"The person who was strangled will have their tongue sticking out, their face will be purplish-black, but their jaw will be clenched tightly, and their lips will have a strange bluish-purple color."

Brand frowned, recalling his professional knowledge: "It's like being poisoned by some kind of deadly poison, having a full-body spasm, almost biting off your tongue, and then being patched up with a sheet."

Soraka immediately realized, "So, he was poisoned first, then strangled?"

"The purpose of strangulation might not have been to kill him, but rather to silence him?"

Brand nodded approvingly: "A clever lady!"

Hayes frowned and raised a new question: "Where did the poison in his body come from?"

"And there are signs of a struggle on their clothes. If they were attacked within the secret realm... then why don't we have any?"

Hayes killed the only goblin guard in the entire dungeon, and besides, the other party had no hostility; he was just the examiner who distributed the questions.

There's no reason for the secret realm to target only two people. If they were killed by some rule or monster, then the four of them shouldn't have escaped either...

At that moment, Hayes had a sudden thought: "Is it possible that they aren't enemies, but friends?"

"The two encountered a battle outside the secret realm; the signs of the fight and the poison were all from that battle! And they were only halfway through the fight when they were swept into the secret realm..."

Upon hearing this, Brand and Soraka both showed expressions of sudden realization, while Gentry remained somewhat bewildered.

"So strangulation wasn't really meant to kill, nor was it to silence him. The real purpose... was to end his companion's suffering from the poison!"

Hayes' eyes lit up, feeling that he wasn't that far from being an "intelligent protagonist"!

Soraka, who reacted the fastest, followed Hayes's train of thought and immediately covered her mouth in shock: "The other person ended their companion's suffering, but committed suicide by hitting their head against a wall because they couldn't accept the other's departure."

"My God, how romantic! It's like a double suicide pact from a romance novel!"

Suicide pact...? But both victims were men! They should have been best friends or brothers...

Hayes twitched his lips, and was about to correct Soraka's words when he caught a glimpse of a note floating out of nowhere outside the cell.

The familiar handwriting reappeared.

[Brilliant deduction, Miss Jessie Soraka! You are the best detective this round!]

Hayes: ? ? ?

Holy crap!

It really was a double suicide pact! These two men with thick eyebrows and big eyes are actually gay!

At that moment, Hayes felt he was still a long way from being an "intelligent protagonist"...

At this point, Brand looked at the handwriting on the note and became displeased: "I obtained this crucial information through the autopsy; shouldn't I be the best detective?"

Gentry, standing outside the door, chimed in, "Yeah! Our team should be the best detective!"

Hayes also had something to say: "Wasn't the most crucial information deduced by the two of us?"

"This Best Detective award is well-deserved!"

Just as the group was about to start arguing, Hayes even pulled out a wooden stick, intending to subdue them by force, when suddenly the surrounding walls began to shake violently!

"What the hell?" Hayes braced himself with his stick and quickly pulled Soraka to his feet.

The butler and Gentry weren't so lucky; the sudden accident, which resembled an earthquake, knocked them both to the ground!

Cracks burst forth from the wall, and pebbles continued to fall from above.

"Haise, it looks like this place is about to collapse!" Soraka grabbed Hayes's arm tightly, her expression panicked.

After a brief moment of thought, Hayes picked up Soraka and carried her to his feet.

"Wrap your arms around my neck!" With a low growl, Hayes shot out of the cell like an arrow flying close to the ground.

As he looked up to observe the trajectory of the falling stones from the ceiling, he unleashed the power that the Dragon Pill had granted to his body to the extreme, racing through the dungeon at a speed that no ordinary person could ever achieve!

In that instant, Soraka, lying in Hayes' arms in a "princess carry" position, even forgot about the danger around her.

She stared blankly at Hayes' profile, feeling as if the person holding her was a powerful beast!

"Wow wow wow!"

"Detective Hayes displayed terrifying physical abilities! While carrying Detective Soraka and running at breakneck speed, he still managed to precisely dodge falling rocks from above—that was absolutely spectacular!"

Suddenly, a magnetic, teasing voice, as if coming through a microphone, rang out from above Hayes and his companion.

Not only that, but a burst of enthusiastic applause and laughter suddenly erupted around them, seemingly in gratitude for the wonderful performance!

Hayes continued walking, his mind filled with doubt. He shouted, "Solving the problem should send us to the next level, right? What's with this attempt to kill us?!"

The voice burst into laughter: "Who said this is a prank on you?"

"Now... I'm sending you to the next level."

Click!

The collapse of an entire wall was something even Hayes, moving at high speed, couldn't escape!

Holding Hayes, Soraka, whose head was facing right, watched helplessly as a huge rock crashed down on her, her eyes tightly shut in fear!

This time, I'm going to die...

boom!

The sound of a boulder smashing into flesh and blood filled the air, and splattered blood onto Soraka's face, slowly warming.

She suddenly opened her eyes and looked at Hayes, who was turning to the side and using his back to block the rocks with his flesh and blood. She burst into tears and sobbed.

"Hays, you..."

She wanted to say, "Put me down and run away yourself; maybe you'll survive."

Before she could even speak, Hayes grinned and said, "It's nothing!"

Compared to the feeling of death, this pain was like a tickle. Hayes did not try to be brave. As the number of times he died in the simulated world increased, his tolerance threshold for all pain far exceeded that of ordinary card masters.

But in Soraka's eyes, Hayes at this moment... deeply touched her heart!

Suddenly, several bright beams of light shone on the two of them, as if several invisible spotlights had converged upon them.

The next second, a crisp snap of fingers echoed throughout the entire dungeon!

The voice, in a high-pitched, melodious tone, called out into the microphone: "Ladies and gentlemen—"

"Please welcome our number one guest for today's program—"

"The detectives of Team A, who brute force their way through the first round and then display astonishing wisdom in the second—"

"Patton Hayes!"

"And, Jessie Soraka—"

"Ta-da! Here we go!!!"

A deafening roar came from all directions, accompanied by the host's screams!

In the dungeon, Hayes stopped in his tracks, his face filled with astonishment.

He stared at the giant rocks that had been suspended in mid-air since the snap of his fingers, momentarily forgetting that Soraka was still in his arms.

pat!

Another snap of the fingers.

Hayes and Soraka witnessed everything around them—the walls, the floor tiles, the cells—falling backward as if they were origami sheets.

Behind those thick walls was a stadium filled with thousands upon thousands of goblins, complete with countless lights and special effects, a dazzling spectacle!

In the center of the arena, a gigantic goblin, incredibly obese, wearing a pure white mask, with belly fat piled up to the height of two or three stories, held a microphone and shouted in a tone familiar to Hayes and the other two.

"Welcome to the final recording of Goblin Detective!"

"I am the host of this program, Goblin King!!!"