Buddhist player

Once they discovered they had a way out, the atmosphere within the team visibly became much more lively.

After all, compared to struggling to survive in a haunted house, searching for clues to find the origin of the haunted house, finding the backpack, getting the car keys, and then escaping, it is undoubtedly easier.

"Alright, let's assign tasks."

The bard closed the gate again and clapped his hands.

"Now that the customs clearance process is clear, our top priority is to find our lost backpack, retrieve the car keys inside, and escape. For this, my personal suggestion is..."

"idiot."

Before the bard could finish his sentence, Yuan Qing, who had barely spoken before, spoke up.

"……what?"

Completely surprised that the usually taciturn opponent would suddenly pull such a stunt, the bard was visibly taken aback.

"In ancient times, when besieging a city, the strategy was to surround three sides and leave one side open. That car parked outside was a blatant trap; only an idiot would fall for it."

Yuan Qing glanced at the bard, his face expressionless.

"If escaping is truly the way out, there's no need for a car; we can simply retreat along the mountain road."

"Walking along an empty mountain road in this kind of thunderstorm weather would be idiotic."

Clearly disliking the other party, the Fierce Tiger King glanced at Yuan Qing and sneered.

"I thought you could say something, but it turns out you're just a talker who only knows how to talk big."

"Wait, we don't need to argue."

Seeing that the situation was getting out of control, Dao Ke Dao Chang Fei Chang Dao quickly stepped in to act as a peacemaker.

"The beginner's trial is not very difficult, and the process is actually quite clear. After all, all our backpacks are missing, and there happens to be the car we came in outside. There are still four hours until dawn, which is not enough time for us to solve the root problem of this haunted house. So finding the car keys and escaping is most likely the right thing to do..."

"oh."

He was interrupted by Yuan Qing, who remained indifferent.

"In this situation, if you still harbor any illusions, you are either an idiot, a fool, or both."

The Tao that can be spoken of is not the eternal Tao: "..."

...This girl looks pretty good, but why is her mouth so sharp?

"Um... I have something to say."

Just as the situation in the team reached a stalemate, Bai Chen coughed and raised his hand with an innocent look on his face.

"We may very well have been misled."

"...Misleading?"

Upon hearing this, everyone turned their attention to this.

"Yes, time is a typical example."

As he spoke, Bai Chen raised his phone.

"Although your two phones show 3 a.m., my phone shows 11 p.m., a difference of four hours."

Bai Chen paused at this point, then added his own explanation.

"Therefore, I suggest you all first check the time displayed on your phones and compare it."

Upon hearing this, the others immediately took action, even Blowing Maple Leaf hurriedly searched for his phone on his person. Only Yuan Qing remained still, merely frowning as he looked at Bai Chen, as if he had seen through his little scheme.

"Uh... mine also shows around 3 a.m.."

After glancing at his phone, Blowing Maple Leaf hesitated before speaking.

"...11 p.m."

Looking at his phone, which he had just found on the sofa, Tiger King's expression turned rather unpleasant.

Their reasoning about the way out was based on the premise that there were still four hours until dawn. However, when even the time metric was flawed, their reasoning was riddled with holes.

"Why...why are the times different?"

Unconsciously, the bard was somewhat dumbfounded.

"It's simple, the time on some of our phones has been tampered with by ghosts."

With a slight shrug, Bai Chen took a cigarette out of his pocket, lit it, and held it between his fingers.

—This time it's barbecue flavored.

"Don't forget, in the preamble, we were attacked at the same time, so the time on our phones must have been changed at that moment."

"you……"

Looking at the person in front of him who was smoking when no one else was around, Dao Ke Dao was hesitant to speak.

"Want one? This is high-end stuff, you can't buy it anywhere else."

Looking up at the other person, Bai Chen raised an eyebrow.

"So what's the point of falsifying the time? Is it just to cause us to misjudge the situation?"

The bard sat back down on the sofa, his brow furrowing unconsciously.

"Here, the car."

Bai Chen did not answer directly, but simply pointed to the car outside with the incense stick in his hand.

"Actually, you don't necessarily need a car key to start a car; you can just dig out the ignition wires. I happen to know a little bit of this technique, and if you don't believe me, I can go and start a car outside right now. But the problem is..."

Looking up at everyone, Bai Chen smiled innocently.

"I can help start the car, but is any of you brave enough to drive it?"

As Bai Zhi finished speaking, the entire hall fell into an extremely eerie silence. For a moment, it seemed as if only the endless clamor of the torrential rain outside remained in the world.

In the end, it was the timidly raised hand of the fallen maple leaf that broke the silence.

"Um... what should we do now?"

"Take it one step at a time and explore this villa. Our primary goal is to find our lost backpack; everything else can wait."

Bai Chen flicked the incense ash off his hands and stood up from the sofa.

"To be efficient, let's explore in groups of at least two. The reason for grouping is that in this situation, more people may not necessarily be effective. Otherwise, it would be too strange for all six of us to be crammed into the toilet or kitchen."

"Are we really going to divide into groups?"

Unconsciously, the bard seemed a little hesitant.

"In horror movies, group operations usually involve..."

"Reality is not a movie; efficiency comes first."

Bai Chen reached out and tapped his head.

"And considering that we were only attacked and managed to wake up safely, we shouldn't face any fatal danger, at least in this early exploration phase... Also, you all remember the name of this instance, right?"

"...A wish?"

"That's right, so what we're going to do is very likely to fulfill the wish, or rather, the obsession, of one of the ghosts in this haunted house. Of course, this is just my personal speculation, and without concrete evidence, it shouldn't be taken seriously. Just listen to it casually."

With the incense stick in his mouth, Bai Chen looked at the crowd.

"Let's divide into groups freely. We have six people, so I suggest we split into three groups... but never mind, two groups will do."

"So, what do you all think?"