Why it never ends

Chapter 1252 Analysis
Out of habit, Simona and Zoe remained in their previous seats, while others—such as Tom—had their seats taken by new guests and had to move to the other side.

In the silence, Simone felt a growing impatience. It seemed that everyone was just like last time, intending to wait until Mrs. Blancbo announced that they were free to move around before getting up.

This is certainly a prudent strategy, but it's also a huge waste of time.

The table was silent. Simona glanced casually at Sire and Clara beside her, only to find them both looking down at their phones beneath the table in similar postures. The moment one stopped tapping, the other would either let out a chuckle or simply look up to meet their gaze.

Simoya was lost in thought for a while when she suddenly realized that the two of them were simply chatting on their phones, and they were having a great time.

She immediately turned on her phone, but the group she had just created that evening was completely silent; no one was speaking.

Meanwhile, Zoe stared blankly at the table and yawned listlessly.

Simoya suddenly became sullen.

“Simoya…” A voice floated in from the left front. Simoya looked up and saw Tang An staring intently at her. The moment their eyes met, he tossed her a folded piece of paper.

Simoya reached out and pressed the piece of paper, sliding it in front of her. Simoya, Klar, and Zoe simultaneously snapped out of their own little worlds and their attention instantly returned to Simoya.

She opened the note, which contained a short sentence: Would you like to go for a walk outside?
Simoya resisted the urge to roll her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

Suddenly, Si Lei's foot gently bumped against her foot under the table.

"What are you doing?" Simoya asked coldly.

"Check your phone," Si Lei mouthed.

At that moment, Simoya felt a third of the subtle irritation she had felt earlier subside. She took a deep breath, as if trying to isolate herself from her previous emotions with a few deep breaths.

As she looked down to pick up her phone, Si Lei reached out, circled around the back of her chair, and tried to poke Zoe with his finger, but Zoe dodged him.

"What are you doing?" Zoe mouthed the question.

"Look at your phone."

Simoya had already opened their four-person group chat, and to her surprise, Silei sent a very long message: "Hi everyone, I just exchanged ideas with Klar, and we think the four of us can split up tonight—Simoya and Zoe, Klar and I, our two groups will do different things, and we'll meet up again at dawn."

"Before we talk about our division of labor, let's talk about this game. Both Krall and I find it very strange because it lacks clear winning conditions and rules."

"Yes, Mrs. Brownbo did say that whoever stays until the end will receive her 'big gift.' But what does 'staying until the end' mean? Is simply being present enough? Can I just wait until the last round or near the end before entering the game? Or is simply staying present not enough, and players also have to complete tasks while avoiding being eliminated?"

"If that's the case, then what are the conditions for obtaining an identity and mission? Why did some people get an identity in the first round of the game while others didn't? Is the identity randomly assigned each round, or does it stay with the player until the end of the game once it's confirmed?"

"If it is the former, then does the task change with the identity or is it firmly bound to the identity? If a certain task is completed in this round of the game, and a new identity is drawn in the next round, will the most important task of this round be settled on the player or the identity?"
"If it's the latter, then how is the vacancy filled when a player is absent from a round of the game, or when a player leaves midway? Can identities be inherited and transferred? Can a player hold multiple identities? And also..."

Simoya read quickly, but upon reaching this point, she immediately scrolled down the entire comment section rapidly, tapping the screen about ten times before finally reaching the bottom. She suddenly realized that the two police officers had probably been brainstorming together earlier, which was why Si Lei was able to suddenly throw out such a long string of analysis.

"...Therefore, I believe that the first priority for all players participating in this game is to figure out the winning conditions and the rules of the game. Given that none of us have received our identity information yet, and this information will only be given to us one by one during the free time after the banquet (it is possible that some of us will suddenly receive our identities later), we must take the initiative as soon as possible to obtain more clues so that we can get out of our current state of not understanding anything."

"We believe that a key breakthrough lies in—why would the old lady recreate the night when old Brombo was poisoned?"

Simoya's gaze lingered on this line for a moment. She pursed her lips tightly and held her breath, deep in thought.

--why?
Because it was a night she could never forget?
Because she was still bothered by the murder case that was never solved back then?

"Of course, we can't know the answer to this question right now. The old lady has the final say on it, but that doesn't stop us from using it as a crowbar to confront her. That's what Simona and Zoe need to do next: stake out Mrs. Brownbo's bedroom door tonight, try to see her, and then question her about this question."

"Both Clare and I believe that the old lady's choice is highly suspicious, not only because it simultaneously satisfies the characteristics of a criminal returning to the crime scene to relive the crime and a perfect criminal voluntarily revealing his criminal facts before his death—don't forget, Mrs. Blambaugh recently received threatening photos from the 'District 12 assassins'."

"Moreover, if this game truly and accurately presents everything that happened at the castle that night, it means that the game's creators have an omniscient perspective—which, of course, includes the murderer's perspective."

Simoya heard Zoe gasp beside her. Clearly, Sire and Clara's highly unconventional reasoning had directly pointed the finger at Mrs. Brownbo herself as the murderer—they had even found a motive!

"As for me and Clara, we'll be talking to other players tonight to see if we can get any more useful information out of them. We plan to create the identity of 'investigative police' for ourselves and tell the other players not to worry about us."

"Because we and everyone else are in different slices of time. Whatever we do will not affect the players in the present moment, but their actions can affect us—we exist in the future of this night."