Zhou Jing Nian gnashed his teeth in fury, but there was absolutely nothing he could do against that psychotic Game Master.
The Game Master turned to look at us and nonchalantly continued:
-"You have at most two hours to vote. Within those two hours, you can end the voting whenever you like. Alright, now I will tighten the rules a little bit, because I know all too well that there are a few clever alecks among you trying to find a loophole in the game."
Saying this, the Game Master raised his hands high again, his tone becoming noticeably more serious and cold:
-"You must absolutely not write down or speak of your role, or anyone else's role ( except during voting ), in any form whatsoever, including using ciphers or Morse code. Do not show your role cards to others. If anyone accidentally sees it, both individuals involved will be punished instantly."
He paused briefly, his eyes sweeping across each person before curling into an eerie smile:
-"In particular, it is forbidden to use signaling actions, body language, or intentionally arrange objects to secretly convey messages to one another. Don't think that because you tap your fingers on the table a few times, cough, pick up a leaf, or smear a bloodstain that I won't know. Even using euphemisms or telling metaphorical stories like 'seeing the location in a dream' will be counted as breaking the rules! Anyone who intentionally bypasses the rules... will be torn to shreds by my hounds right on the spot. Do you have any other questions?"
Seeing everyone dead silent, the Game Master waved his hand to signal:
-"The voting... officially begins!"
Instantly, three massive dog cages slowly lowered to the ground from the high tree branches. Inside sat three ferocious hounds, their bloodshot eyes reeking of a murderous aura. My eyes narrowed slightly as I noticed a strange detail: these three dogs all had names! Engraved on their cages were three letters: J, K, and A. Notably, all three of them were in a sitting posture.
Based on the strict rules the Game Master had just announced, these three dogs could completely be classified as suspects. Could they possibly be hidden Wolves?
But wait, something isn't right here. The Game Master didn't distribute role cards to these three dogs. In other words, they couldn't possibly be players, because from the very beginning, the Game Master had confirmed there were exactly 10 role cards.
-"Sigh, I'm overthinking things again..." - I sighed softly, shaking my head to dismiss the thought.
The voting officially commenced, and everyone around began eyeing each other warily and with deep suspicion. In order, the first turn for discussion belonged to Seat Number 2 - Zhou Jing Nian. He cleared his throat and spoke first:
-"Whoever the Wolf is, you'd better stop hiding! Don't make everyone here sacrifice themselves in vain just for your single miserable life. As for clues, to be honest, I don't have too many. But based on what the Game Master just said, it seems like Miss Yun Xiao Yao - Seat Number 6 - and that little girl Guo Xie Ruo - Seat Number 4 - are not as simple as they look, huh? That seemingly normal act of plucking a leaf from her hair turned out to be a secret signal you two set up while the Game Master was reading out the roles, didn't it?"
Due to Zhou Jing Nian's directly aggressive question, the atmosphere instantly froze. All the doubtful eyes around the round table shifted toward Guo Xie Ruo ( Seat Number 4 ). The young girl began to panic, hurriedly trying to clear her name:
-"It's not... it's not what you all think! Don't listen to that crazy Game Master's instigations. Big Sister Yun Xiao Yao and I really didn't have any plan or secret signal! There just happened to be a fallen leaf stuck in her hair at that time, and I saw it so I took it off. Is even doing that not allowed?"
It was now Seat Number 3 - Mo Feng Yan's turn to speak. He shrugged slightly and spoke casually:
-"Let me say this first: I don't mean to defend anyone. But I think little Xie Ruo makes a lot of sense. Who knows, maybe this is just a psychological trick to divide us played by that lunatic Game Master? In this game of life and death, who knows if he's lying to us or not, right?"
When it came to Seat Number 6 - Yun Xiao Yao, her suppressed anger from earlier finally erupted. She abruptly stood up, slamming her hand hard against the round table:
-"What exactly do you mean by that, Number 2?! You're a grown adult, yet you're scrutinizing and bullying a child like little Guo Xie Ruo?"
Zhou Jing Nian was no pushover either; he raised an eyebrow, his attitude thoroughly defiant:
-"You getting so defensive and angry only makes you more suspicious! Now I have every reason to suspect that you and that girl are the Wolf and Betrayer duo. Based on what the Game Master just said, there are clearly a few new bloodstains on the corpse. Wasn't it you who secretly smeared that blood onto the dead body to serve as a hidden signal for Guo Xie Ruo to see?"
The girl at Seat Number 4 - Guo Xie Ruo - heard this and her face turned utterly pale, her panic written all over her face:
-"No, that's not true! What you're fabricating is completely absurd! Big Sister Yun Xiao Yao and I didn't even know each other before this. How could we possibly trust each other easily enough to exchange life-and-death secret codes like that?"
Zhou Jing Nian ( Seat Number 2 ) let out a cold laugh, then suddenly whipped his head around to look at Guang Jun Ning ( Seat Number 8 ):
-"Is what that girl just said true? You know these two, don't you?"
Guang Jun Ning ( Seat Number 8 ) calmly looked at Zhou Jing Nian, then gently shook his head, dropping a sentence that completely overturned his deduction:
-"Yes... They really don't know each other. From the entirety of mission one until now, Guo Xie Ruo has always stayed by my side."
Zhou Jing Nian fell speechless upon hearing this, his face freezing in embarrassment as he couldn't utter another word. Yun Xiao Yao took full satisfaction in his defeat, letting out a soft huff before finally sitting back down in her chair. The discussion once again hit a dead end, with no one able to find any new clues.
A short while later, Seat Number 5 - the tall, muscular man who was also my new teammate, Chu Hao Cheng - suddenly spoke up with an incredibly serious expression:
-"I'm not very good at this brain-racking deduction stuff, so to be honest, I haven't found any clues yet. However... I am quite certain about one thing: the person who killed the victim is the culprit!"
The rest of us nearly fell off our chairs upon hearing that. Good grief, I actually thought he had made some groundbreaking discovery; the atmosphere here was supposed to be dead serious.
Since the people sitting before me had all finished speaking, the next turn for discussion shifted to me. I cleared my throat and calmly stated my deduction:
-"Right now, I have something that I'm not entirely sure about yet, but I think sharing it at this moment will be useful for all of us. I suspect that the corpse of the person who died on the first night - Seat Number 1 - is actually a Wolf."
Everyone around instantly fell silent, the atmosphere turning ice-cold. Mo Feng Yan - Seat Number 3 - marvelled softly, clapping his hands as he teased:
-"That matches my thoughts exactly, my friend. And it seems... your petite little teammate already knew that beforehand, didn't she?~"
As he spoke, he glanced over toward Yashu. Hearing this guy suddenly mention her name, Yashu's shoulders trembled slightly with wariness. This Mo Feng Yan guy hadn't seemed like a normal person from the very beginning: he woke up later than everyone else, played the peace ambassador to mediate, and now he had even seen right through the secret unspoken exchange between the two of us from last night.
Seeing everyone looking at him, Mo Feng Yan ( Seat Number 3 ) laughed it off, raising both hands defensively:
-"Ah, looks like I accidentally stole the spotlight. Go ahead, please continue, my friend."
I withdrew my gaze and continued my analysis:
-"For now, this is merely at the level of speculation. If the new bloodstain on the corpse of the person who died on the first night wasn't caused by Yun Xiao Yao, then it's highly likely that it was blood from the victim, Lin Kai Ze, getting onto the body."
Seat Number 6 - Yun Xiao Yao - widened her eyes in horror upon hearing this:
-"You mean... that Game Master stitched the corpse back together just so it could turn into a Wolf?!"
-"Exactly. Do you all remember what that person desperately tried to do right before dying? He fought tooth and nail to climb onto a chair and sit down. At the time, we thought he was crazy, but that action actually had only one sole reason: to activate the rules of the game."
I tapped my fingers on the table, repeating every word:
-"There are two core rules that everyone surely still remembers clearly. The first rule: The Wolf is a betrayer; he HAS NEVER belonged to your Villager faction. The second rule: The Wolf HAS NEVER been an outsider; he is ONE OF THE NAMES that sat at this round table. If we think about it carefully, the person who died on the first night indeed never belonged to the Villager faction, because in essence, he is the Wolf. The deceased was also never an outsider, because he managed to sit in a chair at the round table before drawing his last breath. Furthermore, the reason the Game Master intentionally taped the role card so tightly onto the dead person's chair is that he didn't want anyone to flip it open and discover that the card read 'Wolf'."
After listening, the girl at Seat Number 4 - Guo Xie Ruo - shivered, her voice trembling slightly:
-"The Wolf... turned out to be the person who died on the very first night? This sounds absolutely insane..."
I sank into thought, casting my gaze toward the scarecrow in the distance:
-"Personally, I still feel like something isn't quite right here, but as for what exactly is wrong, I can't articulate it clearly at the moment. All in all, let's not rush things; let's just wait until tonight passes and see what happens."
-"There really is a flaw here," Mo Feng Yan - Seat Number 3 - leveled his voice casually. "If the Game Master went to all the trouble of organizing a life-and-death game of this scale, why on earth would he be kind enough to leave the Wolf dangling right in front of the meeting table for us to see so easily? Wouldn't doing that be equivalent to personally cutting short the players' deduction time? I believe that for someone as barbaric and psychotic as him, mercy is absolutely out of the question."
As soon as he finished speaking, I immediately chimed in:
-"There's one more thing. I'm highly curious as to how that corpse managed to move to Lin Kai Ze's tent. This dead person was torn to shreds by the hounds on the first night; even if he is now heavily stitched back together with thread, it would be extremely difficult for him to move such a long distance on his own without leaving any dragging marks on the ground."
For a brief moment, I suddenly felt a strange rapport between myself and this Mo Feng Yan guy. It was as if the two of us were taking turns filling in the blanks of a jigsaw puzzle of deductions.
Mo Feng Yan suddenly turned to look at me, a smirk playing on his lips filled with hidden meaning:
-"Oh? Didn't you just say 'as for what exactly is wrong, I can't say at the moment'? Why the sudden talkativeness?"
I froze for a second at his retort. However, caught up in the heated debate, absolutely none of us noticed that the Game Master standing up on the tree branch was currently lowering his head slightly, wearing a quiet, sinister smile...