Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 47
Ke Yuxiao’s words seemed quite reasonable. After hearing his explanation, Li Buhui immediately stopped what he was doing.
He said, “But this is strange. If the little girl who trapped us is an evil spirit, without helping her, we can’t leave. But if we do help her… it might lead to other problems. What should we do?”
Upon hearing this, Yin Jiujui responded, “Guessing now is useless. Let’s not blindly open doors. Let’s look for clues first.”
……
Five minutes later.
Zhou Qian hadn’t found any clues and was instead chatting away in a corner near the window with Wu Ren.
He eventually said, “So, do you understand? Those of us in odd-numbered positions should actually unite.”
“You’re just spouting bullshit. I don’t understand a thing you’re saying,” Wu Ren replied. “Unite odd-numbered positions 1, 3, 5, and 7? But numbers 3 and 5 are already your people. And among 2, 4, 6, that Situ Qing at position 2 seems to be someone you brought too.”
“Time will pass, and everyone’s score will decrease. If we get to that last step, what I’m suggesting is the most likely scenario. Firstly, when it really comes down to it, everyone will probably not cooperate but fight on their own. That’s the first point.”
“Secondly, and more importantly, when the strong ones run out of resources, they are more likely to be killed by the weaker ones because their motive to acquire points is stronger. So, the people in even-numbered positions will probably target me first.”
Wu Ren narrowed his eyes and asked, “What does it have to do with me if they target you?”
Zhou Qian whispered, “If you kill me, you’ll likely be killed in turn. How is that unrelated to you? In this ranking system, both of us, at opposite ends, are equally unlucky.”
Wu Ren didn’t even want to think about Zhou Qian’s logic. He felt his head was about to explode. But after glancing at his watch, he saw a message from his gambler.
[What he said is right, but it’s based on excluding various special cases and simplifying the complicated situation. There are still huge variables. Your main goal is to acquire life points. You might as well just listen to what Zhou Qian really wants.]
Clearing his throat, Wu Ren said to Zhou Qian, “Alright. What do you want me to do after all this talk?”
Zhou Qian smiled and said, “For all the problems I just mentioned, there’s a solution. You are the strongest… so you should lead us.”
Wu Ren looked at Zhou Qian with astonishment. Zhou Qian continued, “If everyone fights on their own, no one can protect themselves. But teaming up can break the logic I just mentioned. When all seven of us form a team, we can break the game.”
Pausing for effect, Zhou Qian, with his dark eyes fixed on Wu Ren, said, “Consider this realm as a kingdom. Now, my people and I are willing to crown you as the king. We will act as your guards. Anyone who resists us will be eliminated.
“As the king, you need to declare—’Whoever dares to harm another, you’ll kill them.'”
“Wu Ge, only someone as strong as you can be a king, and only you saying this will have real deterrent power.”
“Afterwards, you can order your guards, like me, to collect all the life points hidden in this instance. We’ll all be running errands for you…”
Zhou Qian concluded seductively, “Think about it, Wu Ge. As long as you say those words, the world will be yours.”
Wu Ren glanced at his watch again, then said to Zhou Qian, “The world will be mine? Huh, but I’ll be controlled by you, right? I’ll be just a bullshit king—a puppet controlled by you.”
“You’re wrong. Our relationship is mutually restrictive,” Zhou Qian stated seriously. “Among everyone, you’re the one who can kill me the easiest. But I’m also the one you’d least dare to kill. Therefore, the cooperation between the two of us is actually the most reliable and stable. We can fully trust each other.”
Wu Ren, as well as his gambler, couldn’t find any logical flaws in Zhou Qian’s words for the moment.
Zhou Qian was indeed the one he least dared to kill.
If he killed Situ Qing, the second strongest, he might not be afraid. The rest of the people were weaker than her. After leaving this room, everyone might act separately. Even if he ran out of mana, encountering someone with weak attack power, relying on some protective gear and health potions, he might just survive.
On the contrary, if he killed the weakest, Zhou Qian, the probability of encountering someone with strong attack power without mana would be much higher. In the worst case, he might run into Situ Qing, and perhaps there would be no way out.
But after all this thinking, from this perspective, the person Wu Ren should kill the most wasn’t Zhou Qian but the biggest threat to him, Situ Qing. But Situ Qing’s life points probably weren’t much more than his, so rashly killing her might not be a good deal.
What should he do?
Should he really do as Zhou Qian suggested?
After thinking for a while, Wu Ren decided to stand up and temporarily stay away from Zhou Qian, as if he felt that Zhou Qian was some kind of terrifying, bewildering poison. “I’ll look for clues first.”
Watching Wu Ren’s back, Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes and smiled, then finally began to get up and explore.
Zhou Qian first glanced at the people busying themselves in the not-so-large study, then turned around to look at the windowsill. The windowsill was covered by thick curtains, and no light from outside could penetrate in. There were no clocks in the study, so no one knew what time it was in the game.
As he approached the curtains, Zhou Qian heard a private message from Qi Liuxing in his headset. “What were you talking to Wu Ren about?”
After listening to Zhou Qian’s reply, Qi Liuxing asked with some surprise, “Do you really support him being the ‘king’?”
“Of course.”
“?”
“I think he could be useful.”
“…”
“But—” Zhou Qian’s pupils darkened in a place where others couldn’t see, “I mainly want to test him.”
“What do you mean?” Qi Liuxing didn’t understand.
Zhou Qian explained, “Someone wanted to target me last time but didn’t succeed. Will they do nothing this time?”
Qi Liuxing became serious. “Do you suspect that among Rain Man Wu Ren, Female Warrior Yin Jiujiu, and Ordinary Faced Li Buhui, one of them might be from the Peach Blossom Legion?”
“Of course,” Zhou Qian said. “And you’re wrong. What if all three of them are?”
Qi Liuxing: “This…”
“But even if someone is from the Peach Blossom Legion, their primary goal is to survive. So, no hurry. Let’s support Wu Ren as the ‘king’ for now. It’s beneficial from a game perspective. Plus, whether or not he’s from the Peach Blossom Legion, it’s a move worth playing.”
As Zhou Qian said this, he pulled the curtains open. Dust accumulated over the years immediately rose into the air. He stepped back, covering his mouth and nose. As the dust settled, he looked at the window.
It was boarded up from the outside, and the view was completely obscured. However, there was a circular hole in the glass, surrounded by numerous cracks. He wasn’t sure what caused the hole.
He tried to push the window but couldn’t. He then took out a hammer from his bag, seemingly planning to force the window open. At this moment, he received a message from Li Xuehai: [Since it’s an escape room, they won’t allow such a simple way out. Be careful of traps.]
“You, being such a traditional person, know about escape rooms?”
Zhou Qian said to thin air and then swung the hammer down. He then received a string of [……] from Li Xuehai.
“I have a reason for smashing the window. There’s a blurry spot on the glass, which makes it hard to see, but I think there’s something between the cracks of the wooden bars outside. I need to take it out and see. Also—”
While Zhou Qian was speaking, he was also simultaneously explaining it to Qi Liuxing through the hidden earpiece.
“Weren’t we just debating several issues? Whether the little girl is an evil spirit? Should we tell her who killed her? Which side should we stand on? Who killed her?”
“Let’s set aside these currently undetermined issues. One fact is almost certain. The little girl and her witch mother are on opposing sides. The little girl is likely trapped by her mother.”
“When Li Buhui went to open the door, he didn’t feel that the door was jammed or sealed. He just felt that when he was opening the door, the little girl was holding onto the doorknob, preventing him from opening it.”
“So we can infer… the witch mother didn’t seal the study door. Otherwise, the little girl wouldn’t need to stop him herself.”
“Therefore, the witch mother might have sealed the little girl, but her target isn’t the study. It’s the entire house, like the main door and all the windows and balconies. But the door from the study to the living room, or to the corridor, wasn’t sealed by the witch mother. It’s just the little girl who doesn’t want us to go out.”
With a “clang”, Zhou Qian had already smashed the glass and began to move the broken pieces one by one.
At the same time, he said, “If you do something that displeases the little girl, your life points will drop. But what if… you try to break the seal set by the witch mother who is opposed to her?”
After clearing the debris, Zhou Qian put on a protective glove to avoid risk and to avoid touching things like blood, which he disliked. He then grabbed the hammer and tried to hit the place where the wooden bar was.
To everyone’s surprise, Zhou Qian managed to break the wooden bar with just two hits.
But beyond the wooden bar, there was something else—a large piece of metal. When the hammer hit the metal, it made a loud noise.
However, the thick and sturdy metal seemed to be welded firmly onto the window.
Outside the glass window, there was a wooden bar, and outside the wooden bar was metal. No one knew what might be beyond the metal. At this moment, Qi Liuxing came over, looking thoughtful. “This is like a matryoshka doll. Layer upon layer. It’s weird. Why not just weld the metal directly? The wooden bar inside is meaningless.”
“It’s not strange at all,” Zhou Qian said to him. “Take a wild guess. Why is this happening?”
Qi Liuxing frowned, seemingly deep in thought.
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Ke Yuxiao also approaching. Meeting Qi Liuxing’s gaze, Ke Yuxiao gave him a gentle smile. The look was full of wisdom, as if he had seen through everything.
Feeling a bit annoyed, Qi Liuxing tried to keep a straight face. “Both of you know the answer but won’t tell me, and you both look like you’re testing me? That’s not fair.”
Zhou Qian and Ke Yuxiao exchanged smiles. Zhou Qian then extended his gloved hand.
He had suspected that something was hidden between the wooden bar and the glass. As he was breaking the glass and wooden bar, that thing fell and landed in the gap beneath the window. Now, with the help of the gloves, Zhou Qian retrieved it.
Everyone saw what it was.
It seemed to be a hand, but an extremely bizarre one. The hand had only four fingers; the index finger was missing. The middle, ring, and pinky fingers were all fused together, with green wrinkled skin covered in red spots. Some parts even sprouted gray-white hair, which was quite disgusting.
Nonchalantly lifting up this strange hand, Zhou Qian waved it in front of Qi Liuxing. Not afraid of ghosts, Qi Liuxing was nevertheless disgusted and turned pale.
Seeing this, Ke Yuxiao stepped forward, pulling Qi Liuxing back a step and giving Zhou Qian a disapproving look.
Zhou Qian gazed thoughtfully at him and then raised an eyebrow, asking Qi Liuxing, “Why do you think this hand was stuck between the glass and the wooden bar? Care to use your imagination?”
After a moment, Qi Liuxing got it. No longer just trying to act mature, he truly frowned in concern. “The witch locked up the little girl. Initially, she only sealed the window with wooden bars. But the little girl managed to smash the glass with her bare hands, breaking the wooden bar and reaching out…”
“Her hand, protruding from the window, might have attacked someone, so it was probably cut off by someone, or even her own mother.”
“After that… her witch mother re-sealed the window with new wooden bars. Not only that… she added a layer of metal, welding the window shut completely! That’s the real reason for the presence of both metal and wood.”
“Exactly. And she wasn’t just mindlessly smashing the window. She used force very cleverly,” Zhou Qian added. “Before I smashed the window, I saw there was a hole in the glass. Now, it seems that hole was exactly the size of her fist.”
“Could it be that the little girl is really an evil spirit? Judging by this hand, her body has been eroded by an evil spirit, and she has become some kind of monster,” Qi Liuxing said. “Is her mother the benevolent party?”
At this moment, everyone received a system notification.
[The player attempted to break the glass, triggering the “Guardian’s Seal” protection. Everyone’s life points have increased by 1. At the same time, surveillance of this house will become stricter.]
Zhou Qian glanced at his card, noticing the number “24” remained unchanged. However, the countdown below it had reset to [59:59].
After looking at each other for a while, the one who spoke up was Female Warrior Yin Jiujiu. She first pointed to several places in the room. “A large mirror is shattered, a smaller one is painted black, and the compact mirror has also been broken… We didn’t know the reason then, but now I think I have some idea.”
Lifting a photo album, Yin Jiujiu said, “If you come closer, you’ll see that the little girl was very cute when she was younger. She was probably human at that time. But there’s a photo later on… her face is smeared with ink. I tried using a tool to clean the ink and saw her face. She indeed… looked like a monster.”
“Everyone guessed back then, wondering if her evil spirit is similar to that of a vampire, afraid to see its reflection. But I’ve come across another possibility—”
“From the photos and from the mirrors, the little girl realized she had turned into a monster. Unable to accept it, she destroyed all the mirrors in the room and blackened her own image in the recent photos.”
The author has something to say:
Li Xuehai: Can’t you be less rebellious?
Zhou Qian: Can’t you be less conservative?
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