Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes.

Chapter 270, Section 13: Testing the Rules

"Who killed Number 1?"

Hayato turned his gaze away from the snake's corpse on the cross and couldn't help but be the first to ask a question.

No one answered his question.

However, most players' attention was focused on number 5, since the creature nailed to the cross should be the animal represented by number 1, the snake.

Of the known clues so far, ravens are capable of killing snakes, and ravens must have wings. Only number 5 has revealed that he has wings.

Park Min-woo also said that he has wings, but his information was refuted by Taki.

Therefore, number 5 is the most likely suspect.

"It wasn't me! Last night I told the devil to kill Number 9!"

Number 5 immediately refuted this, saying that he did think he was very likely the Raven, but he believed that Number 9 was most likely the Cat, so he designated Number 9.

Uesugi: "."

"I, Lu Wuwu," No. 5 wanted to say something, but it was probably related to reality, and the bottleneck was being imposed again.

Nobi is silent; a rift of trust has now appeared among the players.

He and Taki shared the same idea: to cooperate as much as possible, because only by collecting enough information could they deduce more clues.

However, veteran players know that the greatest reward in the game lies in completing the ending, and according to the normal gameplay logic, it is highly likely that only by surviving can one complete the game, or rather, only by surviving can one achieve a relatively good ending.

The earlier you die, the worse the ending reward you receive.

New players may not understand this principle, but under the current known rules, getting them to be open and honest is not an easy task.

creak.

The door was opened, signifying the start of the second day.

Another scroll fell out of the angel statue.

Nobita got it first, opened it, glanced at it, and then showed it to everyone.

The drawing above is similar to yesterday's, this time it's a beetle stepping on a snake, a bat, and a spider.

"An animal is restrained by three animals, and then it restrains another three animals in the same way. That's roughly the pattern."

Tian looked at the others and spoke up.

"I suggest that anyone willing to disclose all their information step forward, promise to reveal all steps in subsequent rounds, and guarantee their authenticity. In this game, we don't have much time to waste."

After saying that, he silently walked out of the crowd.

Uesugi glanced at him a few more times, surprised that he was so bold as to choose an extreme and be completely honest.

Did he discover some pattern and believe that doing so would maximize profits?

The player Tian always gives the impression of being a man of few words and rarely says anything unnecessary.

Every time I speak, I am conveying useful information.

Nobita naturally agreed with his approach and walked over to him.

"Add me one!"

Hayato, Uesugi, and No. 5 were also with them.

After exchanging glances, the last three players silently stepped forward.

Park Min-woo opened his mouth, then hesitated, glancing at Ethan, who hadn't moved, and at the team standing on the other side.

Just as he was about to say something, Ethan chuckled hoarsely and looked at Tian.

"So this is what you wanted to verify."

As soon as he finished speaking, the candlelight around them turned deep red and began to flicker without any wind, casting shadows of people on the walls that constantly changed into the shapes of various animals.

The angel statue closed its eyes, while the demon statue opened its eyes.

You cheated. Game over. Erased.

The sound seemed to come from nowhere, echoing throughout the entire secret room.

"You can't take a joke—"

Hayato and No. 5 couldn't help but curse in unison. The next second, a large amount of water gushed out from the tiny, dense pipes, as if flooding the secret chamber.

The ground quickly became wet, the water level rose rapidly, and the water was slightly turbid, as if it had been diverted from a lake. In just over ten seconds, the water reached up to the calves.

Tian wasn't too surprised. He just stood there, staring at the holes where the water was flowing, lost in thought.

"Your so-called cherishing of opportunities is actually wasting precious opportunities. It would be better if everyone just played their part freely and fulfilled their responsibilities."

Ethan chuckled indifferently, closed his eyes to process the memories of this round of the game, and waited to die.

Most veteran players have experienced a variety of ways to die, but Hayato's group and new players haven't experienced the fear of death firsthand, so they mostly seem a bit panicked.

Park Min-woo choked on some water and started coughing incessantly, his heart pounding uncontrollably.

It's so real, it doesn't feel fake at all.

Whether it was the fishy smell mixed with the water or the suffocating feeling of not being able to breathe, all of these were faithfully fed back to his brain by his five senses.

The immense fear of life and death compelled him to instinctively want to survive.

"Don't panic. Pay attention to your surroundings if you can. If you can't, then you'll end up like me." Ethan had somehow gotten to his side, patted him on the shoulder, then crossed his arms, smiled, and began to sink into the water.

Park Min-woo grinned; he simply couldn't do that.

But since he couldn't swim, he could only flailing his hands haphazardly, watching helplessly as he was submerged wave after wave of water until he could no longer breathe.

Gululu.

So sad.

His vision gradually blurred.

"Ugh—vomit!!"

Inside the detention room.

Park Min-woo suddenly clutched his throat, widened his eyes, and leaned over the bed to dry heave, his heavy breathing resembling that of a diesel engine.

"Hey, baby, louder! Give me some excitement!" the captain chuckled slyly.

Park Min-woo had no time to care about him; he clutched his heart tightly with one hand and held the other in front of his eyes.

His pale complexion gradually calmed him down.

He did indeed return to reality.

He looked at the clock on the wall.

12:1.

Including the time he spent gagging, that means only a few seconds, or even a fraction of a second, passed during his time in the game?
No. Or perhaps what I just experienced was a hallucination caused by some kind of mental illness?
Soon, the information that appeared before him put his mind at ease.

You played a game.

[The title of this game is "Silver Cup Manor"]

[Game Rewards Announcement:]
】

[Ranking List (Silver Cup Manor):]
1. Hao

2. Field

3. Yui

It's true. Whew. He completely relaxed, breathing in the not-so-fresh air.

In reality, he was much like the character in the game who was submerged in water.

There was nowhere to turn for help; all that could be seen was a vast, empty ocean.

The waves kept crashing against him, determined to pull him completely to the bottom of the sea.

The federation said they could help him, but after his heart died, all he could see were abysses. Before he sank, he just wanted to hold on to something and fall to the bottom with it.

Or, kill this man-eating ocean.

But for him, this was simply a pipe dream, no different from Don Quixote, or more accurately, even more difficult.

The appearance of the game was like a ship sailing towards him, clearly visible, and it was the only thing that could truly save his soul.

We must hold on tight; we must not let go, even at the cost of our lives.

"Stop pretending. No one will care about this kind of trick."

The person on the opposite bed sneered at Park Min-woo, who was staring blankly, realizing that they had seen through his little scheme.

Park Min-woo had recovered and didn't say anything. He moved his body little by little and slowly lay back on the bed. Looking at the bed board above him, which had stopped shaking, he slowly regained the thinking ability he had when he was studying. His brain, which had been rusty for a month, seemed to have been lubricated, and his thinking became clearer and clearer.

As a sophomore majoring in English at Korea University, he had some understanding of European and American history, whether by choice or by circumstance.

With the knowledge accumulated during high school, perhaps we can analyze something from the game.

I never imagined that my past self would help my present self in this way.

The only thing he lacks now is social skills; he finds it difficult to determine whether someone is trustworthy based on what they say.

He only vaguely understood one thing: excessive enthusiasm usually means someone wants something from you. He learned this from that female classmate.

Therefore, the most important thing right now is to determine whether or not we should trust those veteran players.

"Damn it. I should have read more novels and read more comics."

Player Lobby.

The figures of the nine players solidified again around the round table, and they looked at each other in bewilderment.

Nobita and Uesugi frowned, seemingly lost in thought. Tadashi's eyes were unfocused, as if he were flipping through information. Hayato, on the other hand, looked like he wanted to say something, but whatever he said would probably be nothing good.

Taki looked around and, seeing that no one spoke, broke the silence first: "I'll go first. I was killed on the first night, but it was pitch black and I couldn't identify the attacker. But... it hurt a lot, a lot of pain."

She emphasized the pain, which went deep into the bone marrow.

"We..." Nobita came to his senses, his face showing a hint of defeat, "we were completely wiped out on the second day because we had agreed to share all the real information with each other in the back, but then the game was inexplicably judged as a failure, and a large amount of water was poured in, drowning us."

"It must be the game's host who said we were cheating; this must be a hidden rule. If we want to cooperate in the future, we can only do so through hints."

"Or you could try writing in the other person's palm."

After saying that, he looked at Iwasaki, hoping to know what Iwasaki and the other two had gone through.

Iwasaki's black mist form fluctuated slightly, and he did not immediately respond to Nobi. The black mist condensed into a pair of smoking eyes, which were fixed on Uesugi.

Uesugi, a professional information broker, understood what he meant: information needs to be exchanged for information, not for the two nonsensical exchanges between Taki and Nobita.

"Our goal in the game is to escape the dungeon."

"Here's another tip for us to play our roles well."

"At the beginning."

Uesugi started from the beginning, clearly and systematically recounting the layout of the dungeon, the angel and demon statues, the scroll rules, and the question-and-answer session.

Finally, she concluded: "In short, it's an 'animalistic killing' that makes us distrust each other and kill one another."

"The purpose should be to achieve some kind of ritual."

After listening for a long time, Iwasaki slowly spoke:
"Our goal is to unlock the dungeon; it seems this game definitely requires our cooperation to complete."

"We do not have the so-called tips for playing a good role that you mentioned."

"I, Yui, and Shima work as servants at Silver Cup Manor. Every day, we have to complete the tasks assigned by the butler, such as cleaning a certain room or finding a certain item from the storeroom."

"But there are some unspoken rules within the manor, and violating them will result in death. Our original characters should have known these rules, but we didn't inherit any memories of them, and we can't ask, otherwise it will definitely arouse suspicion. We can only explore them at the risk of our lives."

"Besides the tasks that must be completed, in the early morning, you need to throw an animal card into a statue that looks like a little devil."

"Before dinner, we need to select three questions from a pile of papers and place them into the statue of the angel."

"Then dinner is prepared, and the portions are large, with most of it consisting of fresh meat. These dinners are placed in the dining room, but only the butler is allowed to stay there; we don't know who the owner of the estate is."

"The scene outside the window is rather remote, probably in the suburbs. There are other servants around, but they are not allowed to approach the house, and we are not allowed to leave."

"The rules we've figured out so far are: you can't leave your room at night; you must complete the tasks assigned by the housekeeper; and some rooms have certain taboos."

"The next day, Yui opened a wardrobe in a room and died instantly."

"On the fourth day, I let the island leave the room at night and die immediately."

"On the sixth day, I tried to hide in the room above the restaurant one night. I didn't die. I could faintly hear the sounds of people tearing and biting each other while having dinner downstairs. But the sounds got closer and closer, and my body gradually stiffened until I couldn't move at all. Finally, something ate me piece by piece."

Iwasaki recounted all the information he knew, without holding anything back.

The situation is now clear: the players have been divided into two groups with seemingly completely different identities, but with the same goal.

The servants knew some of the manor's rules and taboos, but were completely ignorant of the dungeon; the prisoners, trapped in the dungeon's so-called Angel Game, had no concept of the manor's existence.

Cooperation is the only way to beat the game.

"No. You just said you threw the animal cards into the demon statue in the early morning, not the angel statue?"

Uesugi went through the clues on both sides and immediately noticed something was wrong.

First of all, the scroll in the dungeon at dawn came from the angel statue, and it wasn't an animal card, but an animal restraint chart.

"Didn't that animal card contain the restraint information I mentioned earlier?"

“It’s a demon statue, its eyes are closed. The first day it dropped a raven, the second day it dropped a scarab,” Yui replied. Before Uesugi could ask why she knew so much about the animals represented by those simple lines, she added, “The cards were from the butler, I don’t know the exact number, you can only draw one a day, and each animal has a corresponding English word.”

From this perspective, the relationship between the statues in the dungeon and the manor is reversed.

Furthermore, whatever animal card a servant throws down, the angel statue in the dungeon will release the animal that that animal can control.

However, because it was drawn by lot, the servants did not have the opportunity to choose an animal.

On the contrary, they can choose which three dungeons to appear in the dungeon based on those three questions.

But what is its purpose?

Could this help them determine what animal someone is more quickly?

That could be explained in this way, since the game only lasts nine days. If no player manages to kill two people within nine days, the game will likely end in a mass extinction.

This game only allows one playtime per day, so everyone cherished it and discussed it for several hours before it ended because a player in Peach Blossom Village took ten minutes longer than the time limit for vegetables to ripen.

Ethan timed it perfectly, and as if he were running at full speed, he darted through the gates of Peach Blossom Village.

Iwasaki reacted quickly and immediately followed.

"What are you still standing there for?" Uesugi looked at the person who had disappeared in the blink of an eye, then turned around and found that Hayato was still sitting in his seat.

Hayato looked around blankly, then hesitantly pointed to himself.

"Huh? It's my ripening fruit?"

"Nonsense! The carrots you planted!"

If they weren't members of the same association, Uesugi would have loved to go up and grab a couple of handfuls himself.

　Thank you to "Longyu Xuanyuan" for the donation.
　　Thank you "giàoO(∩_∩)O" for the donation.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)