Chapter 12 : The Murdered Lin Ya

At this point, the eye hanging from the black cat’s neck looked toward Raccoon with great interest.

Raccoon realized something, and her face turned pale.

Because she no longer had a mask covering her, her expression was instantly exposed before the eyes of the others.

Combined with her identity and cause of death, her crime was basically self-evident.

“…So that’s how it is. The farther forward the seat, the lighter the crime?”

Fox reacted quite quickly. “In that case, it looks like Old Bear really didn’t kill anyone…”

“Heh heh heh…”

The mouth hanging from the black cat’s neck laughed pleasantly. “Rejoice. The one you encountered was me. Other hosts aren’t nearly as talkative as I am… But I’ve never liked being a riddler. As long as a newcomer can discover something unreasonable about the game and ask me about it, I’ll answer as much as possible.”

“I understand,” Fox murmured softly. “Because seating is actually determined before the game is chosen, it doesn’t belong to this game’s rules, but rather to the hidden rules of the entire ‘Deceitful Game’…”

At this point, Fox suddenly froze.

He abruptly raised his head and looked toward Wolf.

If

If the later the seat, the heavier the crime, then Wolf, who didn’t even have a seat, wouldn’t he be…?

“According to my original plan, the game you were supposed to play wasn’t this one, but [Escape the Sheep Pen]. Unfortunately, one person died before the game began… so there weren’t enough people.”

The mouth on the black cat’s back sighed, speaking slowly and methodically, though the corners of its mouth curved upward mockingly. “Rather, you should be grateful.

‘Wolf’ was originally on the side hostile to all of you. If someone hadn’t just happened to seek death and accidentally died before the game was confirmed, and if it weren’t for Rabbit’s invitation

Judging from your personalities and level of unity, if the original game had proceeded normally, under ‘Wolf’s’ hunt, the number of ‘sheep’ who could have escaped would likely have been no more than two at most. It might even have been a total wipeout.”

…Wolf was our enemy?

Hearing this, Rabbit, Fox, and Raccoon all felt stunned.

Because according to the host’s explanation, the game was “fair.”

If one followed that underlying rule

In other words, Wolf alone and the twelve of them together were roughly equal in strength!

Among the twelve of them, there were intelligent people like Fox and Fish, second-run players like Bear and Butterfly who had returned with information, and a powerful martial-type fighter like Dog with extremely strong physical ability. Yet only when their entire team was added together did the host judge them to be on the same level as Wolf alone?

Was it precisely because Wolf was too strong that this game, which basically had little room for strategy and relied largely on luck, had been chosen… in order to drag down his performance and balance his strength?

Rabbit abruptly held her breath.

Her mind went blank. The lingering fear and terror rising in her heart made her gasp uncontrollably, as if she were having an asthma attack.

She suddenly understood something.

Why was it that when she went out the door, the person on the ground had been drenched in blood from head to toe, yet “Mr. Ai” only had a few drops of blood on the toe of his left shoe?

At the time, there had been no signs of struggle on his body at all, nor was he carrying any sharp weapon. Yet the wounds on that person’s body had been as exaggerated as Dog’s when he escaped the giant sword’s execution but had cracks burst all over his body.

Unless

A single attack from Wolf meant death!

This game hall had no decorations whatsoever, yet it happened to have a door without a handle, one that could only be exited and not entered, just like “the gate of the sheep pen.”

If they could leave after clearing the game, then that door would not actually be needed at all.

And back then, Rabbit had seen very clearly that outside the door was a gray world without color or sound.

It was already known that under normal circumstances, this game should have had thirteen people. There were twelve giant swords hanging over their heads that would execute people if they fell, and there were also “positions arranged by sin, with the later positions being more disadvantageous”

Then what should the original mechanics and rules of this game have been?

In a daze, Lin Ya guessed the truth.

It was probably either something similar to hide-and-seek, or an escape-and-hunt game like Identity V.

They probably needed to leave in order, and if certain conditions were not met, they would be executed by the giant swords

Lin Ya felt her heart pounding uncontrollably, beating so hard she could clearly feel it pulsing in her neck.

A game this cruel and dangerous, and Fox still wanted to participate a second time?

If it were her, she would never dare participate in such a brutal game again.

She only wanted to come back to life.

Lin Ya had no idea why she had died.

She only remembered that when she had felt unable to breathe and her consciousness had grown hazy, her body had been so heavy that she could not move at all. Her eyelids felt as though they had been sealed shut with cement, and her body could not move even a little.

That should have been some kind of sleeping pill taking effect.

The worst part was that her death could easily be judged as suicide.

Because only the previous day, in a fit of emotional agitation, she had written a suicide note.

But in truth, after she finished writing it, she had already felt much better. It was like a weight-loss plan; merely listing it out made it feel as though she had already exercised.

After that, she had invited a few people close to her over for hotpot and had drunk quite a lot.

The reason Lin Ya had been cyberbullied was very simple.

Because that day, during her livestream, just like usual, she had taken a call and analyzed a young boy who seemed rather deeply in love.

He was a vocational college student. His girlfriend was his childhood friend and elementary school classmate, and the two of them were now in the same city but not the same school. Not long before that, one of his friends had told him that he had discovered his girlfriend was still working as a hostess at a nightclub. So that hotheaded young man had argued with his friend on the spot and even gotten into a fight, beating his friend into the hospital.

Afterward, he personally went to look for her and discovered that what his friend had said was true. Then he and his girlfriend had a public quarrel. The girl became emotionally agitated, burst into tears on the spot, and had security throw the young man out.

Then he came to consult Lin Ya. He asked her whether she thought this relationship was still worth maintaining.

Lin Ya felt that, of course, it was not.

So when the other party consulted her, she said with great certainty that “the other person doesn’t like you,” and “she should respect your opinion more,” repeatedly emphasizing that he should break up as soon as possible.

Although she had already felt at the time that the other party’s tone was a little off—he was sobbing while speaking, and his words were starting to become disjointed.

But at that time, there were many concurrent viewers, and she felt that if this story were made into clips, it could go viral. So she did not comfort him. Instead, she kept emphasizing that the young man should call the girl immediately and make things clear with her, and she even demanded that he not hang up the live connection. When the young man seemed unwilling, she even said that “she could question the other party for him.”

In the end, Lin Ya never expected that… the young man would not even go through the process of confronting the other party, arguing with her, or breaking up. He directly jumped off a building.

Although he did not die on the spot, he ended up paralyzed, vegetative, and disabled for life.

His mother rushed over from the countryside, crying while causing a scene with a banner, and wanted to sue Lin Ya and demand compensation from her.

For a while, this matter caused a huge uproar.

Although Lin Ya had consulted a lawyer and confirmed that she should not need to bear any legal responsibility, or at least not criminal responsibility, netizens believed she should at least bear indirect responsibility. Because if her attitude had not been so forceful at the time, if her emotions had not been so intense, or if she had advocated reconciliation back then, or even just comforted the other person’s emotions a little, the matter would not have developed to that extent.

Lin Ya felt extremely wronged.

Because livestreaming was supposed to be emotional!

Since someone had called into a streamer, that meant they had already prepared themselves to become show material and clips. The voice changer Lin Ya prepared for callers was precisely so the content could be made into videos without violating other people’s privacy.

Lin Ya believed that she had neither incited the other person to die nor lied. She had even advised him to break up and live a good life for himself. Yet the other person had not listened to her and had chosen to jump from a building on his own. What did that have to do with her?

Was she supposed to be unlucky just because she encountered a freak?

So Lin Ya had a huge argument with the netizens.

As a result, she was directly doxxed, and people dug up her past extreme remarks to attack her.

She could no longer stream normally. Although her account was not banned, whenever she started streaming, either people came “after hearing her name,” or they came over to vent malice.

Although she believed she was not wrong, and there were actually quite a few people online who believed she was not wrong either—at least in terms of public opinion, it was almost evenly split—Lin Ya’s own mother did not think that way.

She also believed Lin Ya was at fault and even planned to sell the house to pay compensation.

Thus, the pressure from her family became the final straw that crushed her.

Lin Ya cried as she wrote her suicide note.

Part of it came from the grievance she felt because she believed herself to be completely innocent; another part came from a hatred that wanted to make her mother regret it.

She imagined that if she really died, and her mother saw the suicide note and regretted everything bitterly, she could feel satisfaction through that method, carrying out a “revenge only she herself knew about”

So in truth, by the time she finished writing it, she had already more or less recovered. It was really just throwing a tantrum.

But after that, she somehow died inexplicably.

When she woke up again, she had already appeared by the round table.

Who killed her?

Was it her roommate? Or the other friends who had come over to drink that day? Or had someone else come in?

But no matter which one it was, none of them made sense.

Because her relationship with her roommate and friends was very good. Lin Ya was certain that none of them had any motive to kill her.

However, her death had come at far too convenient a time. It happened right after she had written the suicide note… yet she had not told anyone about this, and no one had seen her suicide note.

Such a coincidence.

It was as if

…someone who knew this information had come back from the future to kill her.

Originally, Lin Ya had no clue about this at all. Only after she heard about the function of Time Chips did an idea suddenly appear in her mind.

Could someone have used Time Chips to return to the past and changed some future she still did not know about by killing her?

That was

A murder that existed only in the cracks of time.

Just realizing that the person who wanted to kill her was inside this game made Lin Ya feel afraid.

It was like opening the door to return home, only to hear the sound of a thief rummaging through boxes and cabinets inside the room where only she lived.

Perhaps there were people brave enough to enter angrily, shout at the other party to stop, or even beat the other party up. But Lin Ya was the type who would immediately lock the door from the outside, run far away, and then call the police.

But

Lin Ya looked at Raccoon and Fox at this moment, and intense unease rose in her heart.

Unlike her.

Whether it was Raccoon or Fox, both clearly intended to participate in the next game.

According to Lin Ya’s analysis, Wolf should be someone who pursued stimulation, and he might even be addicted to it. He might even have a certain degree of high-functioning antisocial personality tendencies.

Judging from his reaction after surviving the previous round, high-risk behavior could already trigger the neural reward mechanism for him.

Not to mention, he had originally been selected by the host as the “killer.”

Just as the host said… he had “talent” in that area.

He would definitely continue participating in the Deceitful Game!

…Then, under such circumstances, could she still obtain Wolf’s friendship?

Would he give up two other teammates he could ally with in order to cooperate with her, someone who would run away as soon as she won?

Or rather, had there truly been anything like “friendship” between them from the very beginning?

“The narration phase of the fourth round has ended. Entering the discussion phase.”

At that moment, the host’s announcement fell.

Everyone subconsciously turned their gaze toward Wolf.

Fox, Rabbit, Raccoon… clearly, the three of them were the “majority” who could decide Wolf’s life or death, yet from some unknown point onward, they had become Wolf’s puppets.

It was as if any one of them except Wolf could possibly die.

This clearly went completely against the rules of the game, yet everyone thought it was only natural.

Suddenly, Wolf turned his head and looked toward Lin Ya.

“Do you trust me?”

He asked, “Can you trust me under any circumstances?”

“…I can!”

Lin Ya hesitated for an instant, then nodded forcefully.

Immediately afterward, Wolf looked toward Raccoon and asked the same question.

“I can! I definitely can!”

Raccoon said without hesitation.

“Then, let us first confirm one thing.”

Ming Po raised one finger and said with refined grace, “This round will be the last time anyone dies in this game.

In other words, if Raccoon can survive until the next round, then no matter who dies this round, none of us will kill her next round. Is that acceptable?”

Seeing that no one objected, Ming Po removed his own mask.

Ming Po broke his mask into two halves and dipped them in blood, writing different instructions on each half.

“For this final round, let’s not play any gambling duels, vote-binding, or things like that. That would be so boring. Let’s return to psychological warfare… just like at the beginning.”

Ming Po smiled, his gaze profound. “Now anyone could die. Isn’t that interesting?”

Lin Ya stared blankly at Ming Po.

When he removed his mask, some blood stained his face.

This gave his handsome face an eerie, chilling wickedness at this moment.

In that instant, Lin Ya felt as though she had become that young female detective who saw Hannibal.

Immediately afterward, Ming Po handed the mask, now split into two halves, to Raccoon and Rabbit.

Raccoon nervously opened the mask and saw a single sentence written on it:

“Rabbit will vote blue. I will vote red. You decide whether we live or die.”

Rabbit carefully lifted the mask and saw this sentence written on it:

“Raccoon will vote blue. I will vote red. You decide whether we live or die.”

“—Shh.”

Ming Po raised a finger, making a gesture for silence.

He smiled and slowly, clearly pressed the button on his right.

A deep and magnetic voice sounded. “Don’t say it aloud.

“Just vote directly, ladies.”

(End of Chapter)