I bet that Moon/Xiao Yueqing is killed by Mr. Shang to make Lin Ling wants kill E-Soul
Okay, I know it's sound ridiciolius... but, somehow my bet is sound make sense.
First, Mr. Shang wanting Nice to reach the top 10 wasn’t about finding the truth—it was about revenge… killing E-Soul in the tournament. He basically knew what happened to Shang Cao.
But the problem is, before the competition and before Nice could reach the top 10, Nice killed himself, and Lin Ling replaced him.
Unlike Nice, who always obeyed him as a tool or weapon, Lin Ling would absolutely reject Mr. Shang’s orders if they involved killing E-Soul. He would even choose to resign if Mr. Shang gave orders that didn’t align with his values—just like how Lin Ling chose to save Xiao Yueqing in episode 4, even at the risk of losing Nice’s trust value.
So, Mr. Shang needed something that would make Lin Ling want to kill E-Soul. Not just an order, like with Nice—but emotions. Something like revenge
Actually, I feel something is off when E-Soul suddenly shows up right in front of Lin Ling.
It’s an isolated island where literally no one is supposed to be. Even Xiao Yueqing had to use a message in a bottle to try to get out of there. And then somehow, E-Soul appears like five minutes after Lin Ling arrives?
I think E-Soul must have used the same teleport gate that Lin Ling did—but here’s the question… why would E-Soul even need to go there and kill Xiao Yueqing?
E-Soul usually kills based on his mentor’s orders or his own goals. So what was the goal in killing Xiao Yueqing? Just because of Lin Ling? With the way E-Soul’s motives work, killing her doesn’t make sense—unless it’s connected to Nice, who became Shang Cao’s shadow. But Nice is already dead, and Lin Ling isn’t Shang Cao’s shadow. He’s more like Nice’s replacement… and eventually, he becomes his own person, The Commoner.
At first, I thought maybe E-Soul killed Xiao Yueqing because she had ‘betrayed’ Nice, Shang Cao’s replacement. He probably wouldn’t have any real grudge against Lin Ling, especially since Lin Ling was just a newbie hero.
However, after the latest episode… what if that wasn’t E-Soul at all, but Mr. Shang’s minions using E-Soul’s armor?
I’m so exhausted from rewatching again, but I remember Shang Cao was involved when Yang Cheng created the new armor as the new E-Soul. With Shang Cao’s memorial (which of course was in Mr. Shang’s hands), it would be so easy to create a new E-Soul armor for one of his minions—just strong enough to kill Xiao Yueqing using either fear value or just simple energy like a battery.
And honestly, I don’t think Mr. Shang would ever just let Lin Ling become the kind of hero he always wanted to be. Lin Ling is Nice’s replacement, and Mr. Shang still needed him to be his ‘Nice.’ He would monitor Lin Ling just like he did with Nice.
But because Lin Ling can’t be manipulated the same way, and because Mr. Shang needed to get rid of E-Soul (I think he had to rush, especially after Nice’s suicide, which probably put pressure on him), he tried something different… sending a minion disguised as E-Soul to kill Xiao Yueqing in front of Lin Ling. He could monitor Lin Ling when he met Xiao Yueqing, and at the same time, order his minion in E-Soul’s armor to kill her.
With that, Lin Ling would deliberately side with Mr. Shang to kill E-Soul without asking questions. Lin Ling is still naive in the hero world, just like Yang Cheng was at the start. He would never stop to question things, or take a step back to calm himself and consider the possibility that E-Soul didn’t kill Xiao Yueqing. Just like Yang Cheng.
If my theory is true, it actually creates a really interesting parallel between Nice–Lin Ling and OG E-Soul–Yang Cheng:
Yang Cheng replaced OG E-Soul → Lin Ling replaced Nice
Rock’s minions killed Shang Cao to turn Yang Cheng into their tool → Mr. Shang’s minions killed Xiao Yueqing to turn Lin Ling into his tool
Yang Cheng jumped to conclusions, never thinking Shang Cao’s killer might not be OG E-Soul → Lin Ling, of course, will jump to the conclusion that Yang Cheng killed his Xiao Yueqing
OG E-Soul was framed for a crime he didn’t commit → Yang Cheng (as E-Soul) will be framed for a crime he didn’t commit
Yang Cheng killed OG E-Soul for revenge over Shang Cao’s death → Lin Ling will deliberately kill Yang Cheng for revenge over Xiao Yueqing’s death.
