Chapter 399

Arthur didn’t bother changing his clothing. For one thing, he still hoped that he could fool someone, even if it wasn't Hameed. He did, however, make liberal use of his bandages, now washed if still a little - okay, significantly - stained. He took the opportunity to plaster it to his body and then wrap it around, holding it tight so that it wouldn't fall off. After that, he pulled his shirt back into position and began the rather painful process of finishing his healing.

He wasn't certain what else was happening, though his best guess was not a lot for the rest of the day. Chances were, the next opportunity was their next meal - which, he reluctantly skipped when it was brought - dinner and then, sleep once again. Each of those would likely be a potential period when attacks were allowed, though he assumed some other activity would be called at some point tomorrow.

Arthur tried to remember what kind of social activities or leisure things happened with the Malay nobility, but drew a giant blank. It wasn't as though that kind of information was covered in history classes. Most of Malaysian history had focused on the time period when Malaysia was Malaysia - and maybe a little of the time when it was Malaya. The daily lifestyles of those before colonisation was still not significantly covered, at least not in the school system.

Which, now that he thought about it, was a rather pernicious effect of colonisation. Why did he know more about how Victorian or even medieval Europeans lived than Malays or other orang asli? Even decades after the British had been kicked out, the need to provide students to other countries sot hat they could pass exams set by university boards not even in the country continued. bureaucracy and long-term change took forever, nevermind the fact that the funding and payment of study and research into such periods just were not present, so that no one had anything to draw from, even if they wanted to put together such a syllabus at the lower level.

Not to mention, of course, the rather concerning degree of bias that crept into history books as it stood. It wasn't just the overuse of AI and the lack of base sources being referred to when talking about events like World War 2 or the 'Malaysian Emergency', but also the desire to minimise or politicise events.

Like calling the civil war that raged through Malaysia an 'Emergency', so that international companies and interests could continue to do business in Malaysia and not pull out, or characterising the conflict between Singapore and the rest of Malaysia that resulted in its separation as 'minor disagreements'.

He'd literally seen that line before, in a plaque commemorating their independence.

By this point, being able to cultivate and pull energy into his system and thinking silly thoughts was second nature. He was in the process of churning refined energy from the cores on-hand into his dantian, swirling it around and around till it took the proper aspects and made it part of himself before moving on, draining the core on hand as quickly as he could.

The big advantage of moving to higher floors and bigger stones was that you could refine more energy from them, requiring you to hunt less and refine even faster, though there was somewhat of a hard limit due to ones own stats. Still, considering how little energy he had at the beginning, he was grateful for even the small amount of time he found to top up his reserves.

At the same time, he couldn't help but occasionally consider the remaining suspects. If he could, somehow, figure out who the killer was and lay out the evidence, he might be able to short-circuit the massacre and clear the floor. Of course, he didn't need to be told that making a false accusation was one way to get his head chopped off.

So, do it right or don't do it at all.

Five people left, with himself obviously not the killer. That left four - and, of those, Ramli was the most suspicious. For one thing, he used a throwing knife, just like the figure he had seen climbing around on the roof. 

However, just because he was the man on the roof, it didn't mean he was the killer. There had been no sign of struggle to the entry, and while the window had been propped open, it had been propped open. Which meant that whoever had done the killing would have had to slip out without disturbing the stick that held the window open - a difficult thing with how narrow everything was - or take the time to reposition the stick after they had exited.

Or come in through the door and then closed it again.

Since all the Second Chancers seemed to know something was up, the chances of someone opening the door to a stranger was very low. Which meant it was a friend of the first victim.

So - find out who the victim was friends with? Arthur made note to ask, though, he wasn't sure he could trust the information give to him either. Which meant however he asked, he had to do it in a way to not raise suspicions that he was trying for htis.

Next up...

Nor and Asman and Hameed. He had nothing to suggest any of them were the killer, or were not. They'd all been in the main room when he arrived, though Nor had been there earlier. Fast to throw suspicion on him, but during that period, Arthur assumed such games were allowed. 

If suspicious activity was a concern, all of them were potential suspects. Which, again, didn't help.

So....

"I got nothing, which is all kinds of sucking..." Arthur groaned to himself as he felt the beast core in his hand crumble away. He sighed, brushing himself off and reached for another. "This is why no one tries anything, eh?"

Maybe if he had a technique that increased his senses, if he had a way to become more sensitive or had time to chart out the positions of where everyone was. If the group wasn't out to kill one another, and had played the game the way it was supposed to, it would have been possible.

As it stood... 

"The killer might already be dead," Arthur grumbled as he returned to refining.

Unlikely, of course, what with the poisoning. But the poisoning might not even be the Tower-chosen killer's actions, but the opportunistic attempts of one of his compatriots.

If he couldn't work out who the killer was, did he have to become a murderhobo too, then? More and more, it really did look that way, which was depressing to the extreme.

"You can whine, but if you do, you won't be fine..." 

Groaning, Arthur made himself accept that this might be the only way forward. If so, he needed to stop reacting and start getting proactive. He couldn't just try to survive whatever was happening, he needed to start working out sneaky ways to assassinate the Second Chancers before they got him.

Unfortunately, for all his training, being a ninja or assassin just hadn't been something covered by his Tsifu.

But...

There was no better training than on-the-job training.