Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 80
6 p.m.
The setting sun slowly sank, the lake changed from green to red, and then merged into the inky darkness with the night.
Lights in the villa on the top of the mountain were lit, and from a distance, it looked like stars shining on the mountain’s peak.
That afternoon, the six players in the villa had tried to leave.
However, whether they walked to the front or back door, a system prompt would appear: [Warning, the player is about to leave the plot-restricted area. If you walk another 50 meters, the player will instantly die.]
Thus, the strategy to escape from the villa and save their lives was completely blocked by the system.
The players had no choice but to stay and adapt.
At this moment, in the dining room on the first floor of the villa, Ruan Mei and six “children” were having dinner together. Originally, the cook, the driver, and the driver’s friend were supposed to eat at a small table in the kitchen, but Ruan Mei invited them over.
At the dinner table, the cook was almost flattered and couldn’t help saying, “Madam is so kind!”
“It’s only right. Life’s tough for everyone,” Ruan Mei replied with a smile, gesturing for them to sit. “Help yourselves. These kids won’t eat much.”
The cook said, “Thank you so much, Madam. After I finish eating, wash the dishes, and help the kids wash their faces and feet, I will leave.”
“There’s no need. I’m used to doing all of this. If I wasn’t busy today, I wouldn’t have asked you to cook,” Ruan Mei said with a smile. “After you eat, you can go. You’re not in a hurry, but the driver is eager to go home. Let him wait a bit to take you back! Speaking of which… I’m a bit worried. It’s really far from the city here. When you three get home, please let me know.”
Hearing this, Zhou Qian exchanged glances with Bai Zhou, and the other four players from the Invincible Legion couldn’t help but grip their chopsticks tighter.
Everyone knew what Ruan Mei meant by this—once the three of them left, wouldn’t she be alone? At that time, she could freely start a massacre.
Ma Luoluo, Meng Pingping, and others died silently last night without making a sound, indicating that once players triggered the death condition, they couldn’t even use their items.
With their MP bar depleted and items unusable, all they could do was wait for their death, with no possibility of survival.
The constraints this instance put on players were too much.
The only consolation for the players was that some items without offensive or defensive capabilities could still be used.
At this moment, Ke Er and Ke San were privately chatting using such items.
Ke San: “Boss, what do you think? I feel like something’s off!”
Ke Er: “Indeed, it’s strange. Suffocation, drowning… We can avoid those. But other things are too difficult. You saw the toys Ruan Mei brought, didn’t you?”
At the dinner table, while scanning over the four of them, Zhou Qian obviously noticed that Ke Er and Ke San would glance at each other occasionally, as if discussing something.
However, Zhou Qian pretended not to notice and seemed distracted while enjoying his food. After a yawn, he nudged Bai Zhou with his elbow and pointed with his chopsticks.
“Zhou Ge, I want that.”
Only Bai Zhou probably understood Zhou Qian’s gestures and words.
Swiftly, Bai Zhou used a spoon to scoop out three snails from a plate of stir-fried snails, placing them in his empty bowl. He then used a toothpick to pick out the snail meat, trimming off the muddy tail, and finally placed it in Zhou Qian’s bowl.
“It feels like we’re back in the school canteen.” Zhou Qian chuckled, picking up the snail meat with chopsticks and eating it.
Bai Zhou slowly picked up the second snail and continued to prepare it, while Zhou Qian casually glanced out of the window towards the front yard.
The light inside the house illuminated the yard, revealing two parked cars.
When the cars arrived in the afternoon, Zhou Qian had specifically observed that the driver had driven Ruan Mei in one car while the driver’s friend came in another.
Why bring an extra car?
Upon noticing this, Zhou Qian paid extra attention.
In the afternoon, besides Zhou Qian, the other players naturally noticed this issue as well and quickly gathered in the front yard.
What they saw next was the driver and the driver’s friend parking their cars one after the other. Both of them got out of their vehicles and opened the trunks.
To the players’ surprise, both trunks were filled with toys. The variety of toys was vast, including small cars, toy trains, toy guns, and many boxes of small wooden sticks and blocks. One particular toy caught Zhou Qian’s extra attention—numerous mushroom tacks.
Ruan Mei didn’t bring clothes, commonly used children’s medicine, or books. Instead, she brought a plethora of toys and even used two cars to transport them, clearly revealing her malicious intentions. Given this, the toys likely had a direct relation to potential methods of killing.
The players all realized this.
Zhou Qian noticed that at that moment, Ke San volunteered to help “Mom” move the toys. He indeed carried a lot of toys upstairs, earning praise from the driver and the cook for being considerate.
When transporting the last toy, Ke San lingered upstairs for quite a while. Later, Ke Er, along with Ke Si and Ke Shi, also went up.
Before leaving, Ke Er called out to Zhou Qian. However, Zhou Qian was having Bai Zhou cut an apple for him into small pieces, so he told them he would join them in a bit to inspect the toys.
The reason they went to check the toys was to determine the exact types present.
Those small items couldn’t yet be considered crucial in determining whether the death condition had been triggered. After all, if one wanted to design toys as murder weapons and disguise everything as an accident, specific scenarios were necessary.
It was a test of the players’ imaginative powers—they needed to inspect each toy and ponder how Ruan Mei might transform them into lethal weapons under certain circumstances.
For the time being, Zhou Qian wasn’t particularly concerned about the toy details. What he cared about more was the every move of Ke San, Ke Er, and the others.
After they went upstairs, Zhou Qian, under the pretext of eating an apple, stayed in the kitchen. From the corner of his eye, he noticed the driver’s friend—he had just moved a box of mineral water from the back seat of the car to the storage room next to the kitchen. At that moment, Ruan Mei came over.
Upon seeing the driver’s friend, Ruan Mei handed him a cup of tea, thanking him profusely. The driver’s friend replied with a few polite words and, while accepting the tea, handed something to Ruan Mei. Peeking out from the kitchen, Zhou Qian noticed it was a car key.
Spotting this detail, Zhou Qian confirmed that the reason the driver’s friend drove an empty car over was because Ruan Mei needed a vehicle.
Thus, the car without passengers wasn’t solely for transporting toys. A previously unclear matter became evident to Zhou Qian at that moment.
……
Time returned to the present.
Zhou Qian withdrew his gaze and continued eating leisurely with his chopsticks. Bai Zhou had picked another piece of snail meat for him, and he ate it without hesitation.
Roughly 20 minutes later, dinner came to an end, and it was about time for the cook, the driver, and his friend to leave.
Zhou Qian kept his head down, focusing on his food. Ke San, after glancing at everyone, noticed a bead of sweat on Ke Er’s forehead.
Hmm? Did Ke Er think of another critical issue?
Ke San quickly messaged him through a private communication tool, asking, “Brother, what’s wrong?”
Ke Er replied, “I think… should we convince one of the NPCs to stay?”
Ke San inquired, “What do you mean?”
“Since I saw the toys this afternoon, I’ve been thinking… It’s too hard to avoid the risks in this villa. Drowning and suffocation can be avoided, but everything else is too challenging. Letting a child play on a swing and pushing him off, or simply throwing a child from the third floor… These methods are all too easy for Ruan Mei. Not to mention the various toys, which could correspond to countless murder methods.”
“Before seeing the toys, I thought we might stand a chance, even possibly killing Zhou Qian to claim a reward. But now, I realize it’s not that simple. With the addition of two cars full of toys, there are just too many ways for Ruan Mei to kill us and disguise it as an accident. It’s overwhelming. But I suddenly realized—”
Ke Er continued, “There’s one way to completely avoid all risks! We need to find ourselves a ‘witness’. We need to persuade the driver and the cook to stay. If they stay, Ruan Mei definitely can’t kill anyone!”
Realizing the strategy, Ke San laughed. “Exactly! You’re always the smart one, brother. There are so many ways to die; even if we avoid one, we might fall into another. But having a ‘witness’ will solve all our problems, won’t it?”
As they spoke, the driver and others were already standing up, saying their goodbyes to Ruan Mei, ready to leave. Ke Er signaled Ke San, who quickly approached the driver. “Uncle, auntie, I’ll miss you! Can you stay tonight and play with me?”
Ruan Mei, standing at the door, changed her expression momentarily upon hearing this. However, she quickly reverted to a gentle demeanor, patting Ke San’s head. “Sorry, but they need to go home. They have their children to take care of!”
“Please, uncle!” Ke San turned around and winked at the other players except Ke Er. “Come on, let’s ask them to stay! We’ll only be safe if they stay here!”
While Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou didn’t move, Ke Er, Ke Si, and Ke Shi approached, clutching onto the NPC’s thigh.
Feeling pressured, the driver and the cook exchanged glances, unsure of how to proceed. They wanted to leave but didn’t want to offend the children and, by extension, the Ke family.
Ruan Mei quickly reassured them. “It’s okay. You can go. I’ll handle the children. They’re just being spoiled!”
Ruan Mei’s words seemed to reassure them, like a calming pill. They immediately tried to push away the children in order to leave.
At this moment, Ke Er was clinging to the driver’s friend’s leg. The driver’s friend was trying to pry Ke Er’s fingers away.
Ke Er realized that he currently had the strength of a child and couldn’t match an adult’s force. In desperation, he quickly pulled out a prop.
[Item: Universal Adhesive]
[Function: Allows you to stick to anything. Hold onto it tight, don’t let go, and it will be yours!]
[Status: Currently Unusable]
Seeing the words “Currently Unusable”, veins popped on Ke Er’s forehead in frustration.
He had intended to use this adhesive to keep the NPC here, but who would’ve thought that this tool was also restricted by the system!
Wait, what about Zhou Qian? Why hasn’t Zhou Qian taken any action?
He clearly saw Ruan Mei enter his room last night, but he survived, which meant he was quite clever. He should know how to play in this instance.
Why isn’t he pleading for them to stay?
At the dining table, upon catching Ke Er’s gaze and noticing him desperately clinging to the driver’s friend’s leg only to be heartlessly pushed away, Zhou Qian chuckled.
Zhou Qian then stepped forward, taking a stride towards the door, and said to the driver and others, “If you can’t let us stay, can you take us with you? I don’t want to spend the night on the mountain. It’s too cold here!”
Hearing this, Ke Er and Ke San exchanged glances, quickly grasping the implication, and echoed, “Yes, yes, take us with you! We want to leave this place!”
Due to plot constraints, players couldn’t leave the “Mountain Top Villa” on their own. But if they could persuade the NPCs to take them, it would be like guiding the development of a new storyline. Consequently, the “plot-restricted area” would naturally be expanded, and they could then leave, escaping Ruan Mei’s slaughter.
Yes, Zhou Qian’s idea is good!
Ke Si and Ke Shi were a bit slow to react, but once they understood, they too immediately began pleading, expressing their desire to leave with them.
The cook, probably the most compassionate, melted at the children’s entreaties and immediately proposed to Ruan Mei, “What if… I take them with me?”
Ruan Mei’s face turned quite sour, but in order to maintain her facade, she suppressed whatever she was feeling and astonishingly agreed.
However, her consent came with conditions.
She said, “We only have two cars here, both are ordinary sedans. One car must stay here for any emergencies. As for the other… The driver will drive, his friend in the passenger seat, you can sit at the back, auntie, and you can only take care of two children at most. So—”
Ruan Mei sighed, looking at her “children” and said, “Only two of you can go.”
Out of the six players, only two could leave.
Previously, it was the players pleading with the NPCs, but now there seemed to be a brewing conflict among the players themselves.
Following instructions from Ke Er over the headphones, Ke San was the first to speak up, “I want to go! I’m the one who hates the cold the most! I want to leave! My brother Ke Er and I will go!”
With that, he pulled Ke Er’s arm. “Both of us need to leave together!”
“No, we want to leave too!”
“Yes, us too!”
These were the voices of Ke Si and Ke Shi.
“You all…” Ruan Mei furrowed her brows. “Hurry up and decide who will go, or none of you will! The uncles and aunties are in a hurry to go home. Don’t waste any more time!”
Zhou Qian spoke up, directing his words at Ruan Mei. “Mom, let us discuss for a moment. Give us five minutes?”
“Alright, only five minutes.” Ruan Mei’s expression was getting increasingly stern, but she suppressed something and beckoned the driver and others back into the house, saying, “Come, have some tea. Sorry about this. The more children, the more trouble!”
Outside in the front yard, the door to the living room was temporarily closed, leaving the six players to discuss. They couldn’t leave on their own but could only persuade the NPCs to take them. And only two of them could escape.
Before a formal discussion between the players began, Ke San used a private chat tool to ask Ke Er, “Brother, what do we do?”
Ke Er looked somewhat pale. “We must leave!”
“But only two out of the six can go. This goes against the strategy you set earlier.” Ke San reminded him, “If you fall out with Zhou Qian… you won’t be able to use him against the boss later. If he survives this, he probably won’t fall for your tricks so easily in the future. That reward from the Peach Legion Army…”
“No, that’s where you’re wrong. In this game, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests!” Ke Er seriously replied. “If we offend him now, so be it. If he’s lucky enough to survive, compared to me, his real enemy is still our boss. At that time, we still have room to collaborate. Besides…
“Heh, I think Zhou Qian won’t survive tonight. The villa is full of deadly traps. Except for leaving with these NPCs, I doubt anyone can escape alive!”
Peeking inside through the window, Ke Er’s gaze grew increasingly cold. “The more I think about it, the more I feel we can’t stay here. So many players have fallen in this instance… It certainly has its wicked ways.”
“I’ve already analyzed it with you at the dining table. After seeing those toys, I realized we absolutely can’t stay here! Toy guns, little wooden sticks… Each and every one of them is a deadly weapon! Ruan Mei could easily take one and insert it into our windpipe, and we’d be done for! The risk of death is inevitable.”
“All in all, the risks tonight compared to last night are on a completely different level. We have to leave!”
While Ke Er and Ke San were chatting privately, Zhou Qian glanced at them and took the initiative to speak up, rather rudely, “You guys really are wallflowers, huh?”
Seeing everyone looking over, Zhou Qian continued, “This morning at Ke Zheng’s house, based on how you acted in front of us… I thought you’d start treating me as your big brother from then on. But now…
“What are you doing? It was clearly my idea to leave with the NPCs and avoid the risk of death, but judging by your behavior, are you trying to snatch this opportunity away from me?”
This time, instead of pushing Ke San to the forefront, Ke Er finally stepped forward and said to everyone, “We need to immediately choose two people who can leave. If we delay too much, Ruan Mei won’t let any of us go. If that happens, no one will have a chance to leave. Why should it come to that? Those who stay and those who leave should communicate with each other. Cooperation for mutual benefit is the right way!”
“Oh? How do you propose we choose then? What’s fair?” Zhou Qian asked.
Ke Er then pulled out a deck of cards and said, “This is a standard deck of cards. It has two jokers in it.”
“To be fair, each of us will draw a card in turn. The two who draw the jokers will be the ones to go. If someone draws both jokers, then they can choose another person to leave with them.”
Apparently fearing the others wouldn’t agree, Ke Er quickly emphasized, “We have no skills right now, and any mildly offensive or defensive items are completely unusable. Fighting or arguing will be pointless and a waste of time. Drawing cards is the fairest way. Let’s settle this quickly and leave it to fate!”
Upon hearing Ke Er’s words, the gamblers in the virtual gaming hall all burst out laughing.
“Ke Er is kind of hilarious. He wants to play cards with Qian Ge?”
“Yeah, which is why I say, players should come here and watch the newbie videos!”
“Do you think he might cheat? Oh my god, is there really someone out there who doesn’t know how fast Qian Ge’s hands are?”
“I’m just waiting to see Ke Er get slapped in the face!”
Inside the game, Zhou Qian was completely unaware of the gamblers’ live discussions. However, he readily agreed to Ke Er’s suggestion. Since he agreed, Bai Zhou naturally agreed as well. Ke Er and Ke San were the initiators of this “draw the joker” game, so Ke Si and Ke Shi, the remaining two, had no choice but to reluctantly participate.
Without any ceremony, the six of them sat in a circle, and Ke Er placed the deck of cards in the middle, saying, “Anyone can draw first.”
“Hold on, I want to check the cards and your sleeves first. Who knows if you’ll try to cheat?” Zhou Qian said.
Ke Er laughed and simply took off his upper garment, baring his torso, saying, “Are you satisfied now?”
Zhou Qian didn’t respond to him directly but took the deck to flip through it, counted the cards, shuffled them a few times, and placed them back. He then looked at the other two. “You two should also shuffle. That’s the only way it’ll be truly fair.”
Upon hearing this, Ke Si and Ke Shi did indeed each take the deck, shuffling and counting to ensure it was a standard, unaltered deck of cards, before placing it back in the center of their circle.
Then, the six players were about to take turns drawing cards. Zhou Qian yawned and handed an orange to Bai Zhou. “Brother, can you peel this orange for me?”
Bai Zhou looked at him and, pretending to be unaware of his intentions, replied, “Peeling an orange can make your hands sticky, which might affect drawing cards—”
“I can draw for both of us!” Zhou Qian interrupted.
With that, there were really only five participants in the game.
The five took turns drawing a card and placing it in front of themselves. When it was Zhou Qian’s turn, he drew one for himself and then another for Bai Zhou, effectively taking Bai Zhou’s place in the “draw the joker” mini-game.
Throughout the process, Bai Zhou sat calmly next to Zhou Qian, steadily peeling an orange for him. Every time Bai Zhou took out a segment of the orange, he would meticulously remove the white pith, since Zhou Qian disliked the bitterness.
Seeing this, the gamblers began another discussion.
“You see, today they had two meals together, and this [137] helped Zhou Qian peel shrimp, pick out snail meat, cut fruit, pour water… At first, the other four were quite surprised. But now they’re not!”
“Oh! So we misunderstood Qian Ge! I really thought he was love-struck and in a relationship. Turns out it’s a strategy!”
“What strategy? I don’t get it.”
“Look, Zhou Qian is now using the excuse of eating an orange, letting [137] peel it for him. The real intention is to control the cards for both of them. This way, when he cheats, he has more control. Watch, he’ll definitely get both jokers!”
“I see! I understand now. If they were directly peeling and feeding oranges at this moment, the other players would definitely find it odd and suspect Zhou Qian.”
“But since they’ve already set the precedent during lunch and dinner… now their actions don’t seem out of place! So, no one suspects Qian Ge of cheating!”
“Exactly!”
“It seems we misunderstood Qian Ge. He wants to play the game properly. He wasn’t thinking about romance.”
“We overthought! We shouldn’t think too much!”
However, two minutes later…
“What… what happened?”
“What?! Did I see it wrong? How are both jokers in Ke Er’s hand?!”
“Dang! Qian Ge’s strategy must have been there! Where did it go wrong?”
“Qian Ge’s strategy must have been right. Could it be… Ke Er is even better at cheating?”
“Geez… did Qian Ge meet his match?”
Outside the game, the gamblers were filled with anxiety. Inside the game, Zhou Qian’s expression turned serious.
Having just eaten a segment of orange, when everyone revealed their cards and saw that Ke Er had both jokers, his face seemed to say, “This orange suddenly doesn’t taste so good.”
Ke Er kept the bigger joker for himself and naturally passed the smaller one to Ke San. He then stood up, bowed to everyone, and said, “Sorry. We will now wait for the driver. You all be careful tonight. You can still make it through. Hopefully, we’ll meet in other exhibition halls.”
Suddenly angered, Zhou Qian threw the remaining orange on the ground, shouting, “You definitely cheated! How could both jokers be with you?”
His face went pale, as if things had completely taken an unexpected turn.
Ke Er looked at him calmly. “Going downhill is just one way to escape. What are you afraid of? Does staying here really mean waiting for death?”
“You—!” Zhou Qian rushed forward, seemingly wanting to pick a fight with Ke Er. But Bai Zhou quickly stepped in to hold him back.
Zhou Qian’s actions seemingly affirmed Ke Er’s words.
Staying here was tantamount to waiting for death.
Seeing his actions, Ke Er took a deep breath, even more convinced that leaving was the right choice. As Ke Er turned to leave, Zhou Qian, still furious, tried to stop him again.
Bai Zhou wrapped an arm around Zhou Qian’s waist, preventing him from moving forward. “We all agreed to leave it to luck—”
“Luck, my ass! Don’t play the good guy here!” Zhou Qian angrily retorted, looking at Bai Zhou. “I don’t want to stay here! He definitely cheated. What about you… Ke Si, Ke Shi? Why are you standing there dumbstruck? Stop him!”
Bai Zhou continued to calm Zhou Qian, “Going after him now, even if you want to fight, is pointless. If we can’t decide, everyone will stay here. If there is real danger here, at least the two of them can escape, which is better than everyone perishing*.”
*The entire army wiped out (全军覆没) Idiom referring to complete annihilation/complete failure.
“You… You’re sick! Are you okay?! Is this how you play the good guy?” In his anger, Zhou Qian turned and threw a punch at Bai Zhou. “I might as well die fighting him! Who doesn’t know how to kill a fish and break the net*?”
*The fish is dead, and the net broken (魚死網破) Idiom referring to both parties are willing to fight to the bitter end, even if it results in mutual destruction.
“Zhou Qian, stop this.”
Bai Zhou didn’t argue. He just grabbed Zhou Qian’s wrist to prevent the punch.
The scene was chaotic for a moment.
Zhou Qian couldn’t catch up to Ke Er and Ke San because he ended up fighting with Bai Zhou.
The five-minute time limit soon arrived, and the driver, his friend, and the cook came out of the villa. The moment the driver pressed the remote to open the car door, Ke Er and Ke San swiftly opened the car doors and jumped into the back seats.
It was too late for Zhou Qian to do anything.
With anger in his eyes, Zhou Qian furiously stared at Bai Zhou and pushed him away. As the three NPCs got into the car and the driver started the engine, Zhou Qian rushed to bang hard on the car door.
Inside the car, Ke Er didn’t open the door.
He just slightly rolled down the window, and when he looked at Zhou Qian, there was a hint of mockery in his eyes.
Ke Er said, “If you have something to say, say it.”
Zhou Qian glared back. “You definitely cheated. I can see it!”
“Mm, I realized from the way you shuffled the cards that you’re one of us. You wanted to cheat too. But so what? You haven’t outplayed me,” Ke Er responded. “Play fair. You still have a chance. Find another way to escape from Ruan Mei.”
Zhou Qian’s eyes reddened further, and he roared in disbelief, “You’re so cold-hearted. How many people have you killed?”
“Quite a few, I suppose.” Ke Er smirked. “In this game, whose hands are clean?”
“How many have you killed directly?” Zhou Qian asked.
“Sorry, I’ve lost count. Maybe around ten or more. Not that many.” Ke Er rolled up the window and said to the driver, “Let’s go!”
The car left, moving out of the villa’s illuminated area, and slowly disappeared into the night.
At this moment, Zhou Qian’s expression completely changed.
He turned around, contemplatively gazing at another car left in the courtyard. Hearing footsteps behind him, he turned back to see Bai Zhou approaching.
Walking alongside the villa’s wall, half of Bai Zhou’s face was illuminated by the light, while the other half remained in the shadows.
Zhou Qian’s expression was entirely different from the anger he showed in front of Ke Er.
Looking at Bai Zhou, he smiled and communicated through a private chat tool, speaking in a relaxed tone, “Zhou Ge, your acting skills aren’t bad. Trained by the NPCs? After all these years, we still have that tacit understanding.”
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