Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 46
The room suddenly became silent.
When no one spoke, the crackling sound of wood burning from the fireplace became especially pronounced.
Casually walking up to the fireplace, Zhou Qian, with half of his face illuminated by the firelight, gave Qi Liuxing a knowing look. Qi Liuxing quickly took out something resembling a Bluetooth earpiece from his bag. This pair of earpieces was called [Secret Call], a small tool given to Zhou Qian by [137] in the previous instance, which allowed two people to chat privately without being overheard.
Now, Qi Liuxing approached the bookshelf, pretending to look at book titles but was actually speaking quietly with his back turned to the others. “Hmm? What’s the situation? I think your third point was spot-on and critical. There are many hidden plot points in this instance. By triggering these plots, we can either increase or decrease our life points. So the rankings earlier really aren’t important—at least not now.”
After some thought, Qi Liuxing added, “I think the early stages are primarily for exploration. Once all areas are explored and everyone’s life points rankings are solidified, some will start killing based on the situation.”
However, Zhou Qian decisively responded, “You’re wrong.”
Qi Liuxing turned his head to glance back and noticed Zhou Qian standing by the fireplace. Facing the flames and his back to the crowd, nobody would suspect that he was discussing anything. The rest of the teammates began exploring the room, seemingly not noticing Zhou Qian’s actions. Qi Liuxing then asked, “What do you mean?”
“Currently, I rank first, Li Buhui is second… and Wu Ren is last.” Zhou Qian queried, “Did you notice that the rankings might have a hidden pattern when viewed from another angle?”
After mentally reviewing the rankings, Qi Liuxing exclaimed, “Oh, I see… If we rank by combat capabilities or killing abilities… Wu Ren would be first!”
Without considering the cunning use of skills or rare items to counter-kill or escape, purely based on combat capability, it was easy to see that the combat rankings of players were inversely related to their life points. Zhou Qian, having the highest life points, also had the lowest combat capability under normal circumstances.
Zhou Qian added, “Furthermore, the system mentioned that players with higher points can’t obtain cards and points from players with lower points after killing them. But this doesn’t mean that high-point players can’t kill those with fewer points. So, in this game, players can freely kill each other. The significance of points is only relevant to whether one can obtain cards after killing.”
Qi Liuxing, taken aback, realized the implications.
Zhou Qian continued, “The life point rankings are merely a smokescreen. As you mentioned earlier, the ranking can change drastically as we uncover the story. But our combat capabilities won’t change, which is the real deciding factor in this game.”
Based on combat capability, the player rankings were: 1. Wu Ren; 2. Situ Qing; 3. Ke Yuxiao; 4. Yin Jiujiu; 5. Qi Liuxing; 6. Li Buhui; 7. Zhou Qian.
People with relatively lower combat capabilities were actually the ones with more points right now.
Wu Ren, who was ranked first, could target everyone ranked below him.
As for Situ Qing, she wouldn’t target Wu Ren. In extreme situations where she needed to kill for points, she would be inclined to target those ranked 3 to 7.
The same logic could be applied to others.
Zhou Qian mused, “Players with higher combat capabilities will target those with lower capabilities. How will the ones with lower capabilities respond?”
Qi Liuxing quickly replied, “If it were me, I’d be wary of those ranked higher in combat. Perhaps… take the initiative and strike first.”
Zhou Qian nodded. “Exactly. Assuming a ‘kill or be killed’ situation, disregarding teaming up, morals, friendships, and the like, and just focusing on maximizing personal benefits and minimizing risks…”
“If you see Yin Jiujiu, ranked ahead of you, running out of mana, knowing that she might try to kill you when her mana recovers in an hour, you’d strike first and kill her.”
“From the perspective of my own survival, I need to analyze the choices of others. So, based on the analysis above, temporarily excluding all special cases, I can abstract the predicament I’m facing into a simple problem—”
“First, everyone wants to kill me. I am the ‘lamb to the slaughter’, and the remaining six of you are hunters.”
“Second, if the top-ranked hunter kills me and loses their mana for an hour, they will surely be killed by the second-ranked person, taking the initiative of striking first. The same logic applies to others.”
Qi Liuxing frowned. “So, we have to analyze the choices of each person? Hmm… If I think in sequence from the beginning, it’s hard for me to analyze.”
Zhou Qian said, “Right, so we should deduce from the back to the front.”
“Ranked 6th is Li Buhui. Firstly, he can kill me.”
“For those of you ranked in the top five, you can kill him anytime, whether his mana is depleted or not, it doesn’t affect you much. So even if he kills me and drains his mana, he doesn’t care, because even at full energy, he can’t beat any of you.”
“Secondly, as per our previous analysis, if you kill me and lose your mana, Li Buhui will surely kill you. He still doesn’t fear losing his mana because the person who might’ve preemptively targeted him, me, would have already been killed by you.”
“So, what would you do at this time?”
Qi Liuxing quickly replied, “Li Buhui can freely kill without hesitation. If I guess his choice, then to avoid being killed by him, I certainly won’t kill you.”
“Then we can make predictions for two people—Li Buhui might kill me; you won’t kill me.”
With that said, Zhou Qian continued, “Let’s deduce from the back to the front again. The one ranked before you is Yin Jiujiu, in fourth place. Assuming she’s smart and can analyze everything we’ve said…”
“That means she knows you’d be wary of Li Buhui and won’t kill me, her, or anyone else. In other words, she has anticipated your prediction. Under such circumstances, she’d dare to make a move on others!”
Zhou Qian’s voice deepened. “By this logic, the Rank 3rd Ke Yuxiao won’t make a move, but the Rank 2nd Situ Qing will.”
“So, to simplify things, in extreme cases, those ranked in even numbers are most likely to target me.”
After a silence of thirty seconds, Qi Liuxing finally comprehended everything and exclaimed, “Impressive…”
“I think my doctor is even more impressive. He sent me a message a few seconds before I figured it out.” Zhou Qian looked up and smiled silently towards a certain direction in the void, then turned his gaze back to the flames in the fireplace.
“Of course, this is a simplified analysis, excluding many special cases. The real situation might be different. However, the three people in even rankings, excluding Situ Qing for now, Yin Jiujiu and Li Buhui are still the ones I need to be cautious of.”
After a pause of three seconds, Qi Liuxing said, “So now we have anticipated their predictions. You’ve explained all this to me… You actually want me to help guard against them, right? Speaking of which—”
At this point, without relying on a private chat earpiece, Qi Liuxing walked to the fireplace. “You’ve been staring at this for so long. What’s in here?”
Beside the coat rack was a cane.
Zhou Qian took the cane, stirred the logs, and pulled out a charred object—shockingly, it was a burned human head.
“What the hell is this?” Qi Liuxing frowned.
“When Li Buhui went to open the door, a ghostly figure of a little girl appeared, preventing him from doing so and asking him to find her murderer,” Zhou Qian said. “Perhaps this little girl was killed in this room.”
After a pause, Zhou Qian added, “Not only was she killed, but she might’ve also been dismembered. We’ve found fingers, some hair, and a skull… There should be other body parts to find.”
Qi Liuxing wasn’t afraid of ghosts, but hearing about a murder or words like “dismemberment” instinctively made him uncomfortable. He said to Zhou Qian, “Let’s look together then. Since we’ve already discovered it, the exploration itself isn’t dangerous. We might lose some points at most. But given that we only have so many hours to survive, it’s better to leave the study sooner.”
While discussing the situation related to the little girl’s body, the two openly conversed aloud, and the rest, hearing it, began to search for related items.
They boldly opened all the cabinets and took down each book from the shelves to inspect.
Qi Liuxing pulled open the large cabinet near the fireplace. The cabinet was mostly empty, with hardly anything inside. But strangely, there was a frame inside.
He took out the frame and noticed some glass fragments on the inner side of the wooden frame.
“This…This is…”
Qi Liuxing began, but Zhou Qian finished his sentence for him. “It’s a mirror frame. Look over there—”
Following the direction of Zhou Qian’s finger, Qi Liuxing saw a trash can.
Setting one end of the frame on the ground so that it leaned against the tall cabinet, Qi Liuxing walked over to the trash can. He quickly realized that it contained many shards of a mirror.
Returning to the wooden frame, he noticed a brown rope attached to one side. He looked around and saw Zhou Qian heading somewhere.
Following Zhou Qian, Qi Liuxing saw two nails on the wall. It appeared Zhou Qian had the same realization—there used to be a mirror hanging on the wall in this study. For some reason, someone shattered the mirror, threw the fragments into the trash, and placed the frame back in the cabinet.
Why was the mirror shattered?
Zhou Qian, too, couldn’t figure out the reason. He then began searching the desk for clues.
Ignoring the many details on the tabletop, he opened a drawer. Inside were some hair bands, hair clips, and, surprisingly, another mirror. This one was much smaller, about the size of a palm, and oval-shaped. It was weird, though—someone had painted it black, rendering it useless as a mirror.
A large mirror had been shattered, and a small one had been painted over.
Was someone avoiding looking in mirrors?
What happened next seemed to confirm Zhou Qian’s suspicion. Yin Jiujiu suddenly produced something resembling a makeup compact. The mirror inside it was also broken; its fragments mixed with the powder, creating a chaotic mess.
The group gathered and briefly discussed.
“Why doesn’t she dare to look in the mirror? Is she a vampire?”
“We shouldn’t make wild guesses without new evidence.”
“I agree. We only know she might be an evil spirit. Whether or not she fears mirrors, we can’t say.”
“Hold on. Look at this,” Yin Jiujiu’s voice called from the desk. She held up a photo that Zhou Qian had noticed earlier but hadn’t examined closely.
The photo depicted what seemed to be a witch’s execution. Yin Jiujiu read aloud from the back of the photo—
“Evil witches… are the flowers of evil spreading like a disease in this town! They grow in power, harming the innocent. They will be punished! My mother is also a terrifying witch! She claims I am an evil spirit… and says she will kill and seal me!”
“Damn it, I am just a living human being. I am not an evil spirit! My mother has gone mad… She’s insane!”
“I’ll report her to the town leader! Before she kills me… I’ll have her reported! Then she’ll end up like the woman in this photo, burned alive by flames. Then I won’t die!”
After reading this, Yin Jiujiu commented, “It seems that the little girl was probably killed by her mother. I think her mother wasn’t caught. At least not before her daughter’s death.”
Li Buhui, who had the second-highest number of life points, immediately responded, “What are we waiting for? Let me try opening the door. Maybe if we tell her this, she’ll let us out. And then we can explore other places. Perhaps opening the door will cost me some life points, but maybe solving the little girl’s problem will earn me some. Either way, I think it’s worth the risk!”
It was Ke Yuxiao who stopped him this time.
“No, wait.”
Normally mild-mannered, Ke Yuxiao’s tone was now firm, almost reprimanding, indicating the seriousness of the situation.
Ke Yuxiao was a very mild-mannered person. Zhou Qian’s impression of him was that he was the type to leisurely water plants and play with birds, living a quiet and peaceful life. However, his tone at this moment was quite stern, almost bordering on reprimand. It was clear he considered the situation very serious.
Li Buhui, taken aback by his shout, asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ke Yuxiao said, “Assuming our conjecture is correct, the owner of this room is a witch. She believed her daughter to be an evil spirit, so she killed her. She then hid different parts of her daughter’s body in various locations within this room to seal this ‘evil spirit’. Based on this theory, the entity that has trapped us now is the ‘daughter’s’ soul. But should we really help her?”
“She claims she’s not an evil spirit, but what if she really is one…”
“If we hastily release her, what might happen?”
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