Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

The next day, I was assigned to clean the study. I prayed to the angel that the door to the room opened was the room of the tarantula.

The potion was found smoothly. With the help of Yui, who was in charge of tidying the room, Iwasaki transformed into a tarantula and crawled into the gap of the drawer. He found a red cross pattern that matched the one on the wardrobe. He tried to bite it with his mandibles but found that he couldn't bite it. So he changed his approach and spun silk to cover it up.

He wasn't sure if this would work, but there was no other way. Once everything was done, he left the room and transformed back into human form.

Having to endure another painful transformation after half a day, Iwasaki's face turned a little pale, the same color as Aoi's.

However, as long as you can pass the level, all the effort will be worthwhile.

Yui opened the drawer, but nothing happened.

The drawer was empty, and deep inside was a silver necklace that looked like a badge, with a ram's head and a five-pointed star protruding. It was more like a stamp than a necklace badge.

Her first thought was whether it was related to the goat room.

Or does it simply symbolize something else?

No, this pattern seems familiar.

It's probably not a place they can manage, otherwise they would be very familiar with it if they saw it so often.

"Master bedroom." The three of them gathered briefly, and Yui took out her badge to tell the other two her thoughts. However, Iwasaki recognized the source of Yui's familiarity at a glance.

If you walk straight down the corridor from where they go to pick up their tasks each day, you will arrive at the very conspicuous master bedroom.

And on the door panel of that room, there was a pentagram pattern.

It's just missing a sheep's head.

But that place was off-limits to them; the manor was more dangerous at night than in the morning, when the owner might be in his room.

Even during the day, it's difficult to approach them because the butler is basically stationed nearby.

“No, the butler leaves.” Oshima said, revealing his discovery. “Every afternoon, around four o’clock, he leaves briefly for ten minutes, every single day.”

Iwasaki nodded slightly. He knew this pattern, but he didn't grasp the timing as precisely as Oshima.

This is probably the opportunity the game gave them.

“We can take advantage of this opening to enter the room,” Iwasaki decided.

Without further ado, let's choose today.

After waiting anxiously for the butler to leave, Iwasaki, under the cover of two lookouts, quickly crossed the corridor and arrived at the door of the master bedroom.

On the wooden panel of the door, there is a fairly clear pentagram symbol.

On the door handle, you can see a groove that fits perfectly with the ram's head emblem.

Press the badge down, give it a gentle push, and the door opens.

Iwasaki held his breath, paying close attention to every detail of the room.

This is a living room with a luxurious bed, heavy curtains, and exquisite cabinets, but it's a bit too ordinary.

Iwasaki watched the carpet under his feet and slowly walked in.

The room was empty, giving him the same feeling as the study and dressing room—it had been tidied up, but no one had lived there since, at least not for the next few days.

My gaze swept over the various odds and ends, past the neatly folded bed, and soon settled on an exquisite metal box.

Iwasaki leaned very close, examined it carefully, and tried to open it, but failed.

There is a rotating disc on the box.

Similar to the digital dials often found on modern suitcases.

What's special is that instead of numbers, three patterns are displayed on it.

After selecting a pattern, you need to press a small button below to confirm.

He first memorized the original pattern, then spun it around. The image that appeared in his mind was the red octagonal cross he had seen on the question paper in the owl's room last night.

This pattern is indeed present here.

Then he chose a pentagram and an infinity symbol for the other two patterns.

Hey.

A recessed area appeared on the side, where the ram's head emblem was needed.

Iwasaki hesitated, wondering if he would die if the password was incorrect.

There was a rustling sound from the two people outside the door; it must be the butler returning.

He quickly put the box down and tried to put the pattern back in place, but found that once the badge groove appeared, it could not be removed.

"You'll have to adapt to the situation from here on out."

After saying this, Iwasaki pressed down on the badge.

Click.

thump.

The door closed automatically.

The badge necklace in Iwasaki's hand seemed to come alive suddenly, instantly wrapping around his hands.

The badge detached from the necklace and floated up, two dark red lights igniting in the empty eye sockets of the ram's head, staring menacingly at Iwasaki.

Iwasaki blinked hard, trying to memorize everything that happened so he could use it in the next round of the game.

next second!

The badge transformed into a silver shadow, carrying immense force, and slammed into Iwasaki's head.

A dull, cracking sound.

The head exploded like a watermelon shot by a sniper rifle, with blood, brain matter, and shattered bone fragments splattering radially onto the expensive carpet and walls.

The badge fell onto the carpet, stained with warm red and white substances.

The door slid open silently.

Shinji Higashiyama stood outside the door, his calm gaze sweeping over the blood-soaked carpet in the room. He sighed softly.

"You guys are really going to add to my workload."

Thank you to "Book Friend 20230516234020935" for the donation.

Note 1: Twelve animals: Raven (night vision), Snake (small), Scarab (small), Shadowcat (night vision), Crocodile (no potion), Bat (night vision), Owl (night vision but no potion), Tarantula (small, night vision), Lizard, Deer, Goat (no potion), Mouse (small)

Chapter 276: The Two Groups Meet

The three of them, including Iwasaki, always shared information and never kept any clues to themselves.

Even though Iwasaki was brutally blown to the head in the master bedroom and turned into a bloody mess on the carpet, Yui and Oshima were still able to continue playing based on the information they had discussed with each other before.

Although they hadn't had a chance to tell them about the metal box yet, they could tell that now wasn't the best time to enter the master bedroom.

Following the game's logic, since Iwasaki discovered a strange and special problem in the owl's room, along with a pattern behind it, it most likely means that there are also clues to be collected inside the other two doors that open at night.

Only by collecting all the clues for these three doors can the secret of the master bedroom be safely unlocked.

Compared to the orderly progress of the manor, the situation in the dungeon was much more complicated.

At least the manor is only dangerous at night, but in the dungeon, any communication is risky, and no one knows if they will suddenly malfunction and be judged to be cheating.

However, after discovering that the angel statue offered one prayer opportunity per day, things changed again.

If Takii implies that Nobita killed her, then Nobita, as a shadow cat, only needs to kill one more animal that counters him to fulfill the requirement of killing two animals and leave the dungeon.

However, the randomness of the demon's killings remains a problem. After the initial excitement, once she calmed down, she realized that using prayer like she had done before to know a player's animal identity was not as useful as she had imagined.

Since only two or three animals can ultimately control a single animal, other players still need to guess based on their own judgment.

One night passed, and Hayato died. No one claimed the kill, so it's highly likely that Hayato chose the wrong target, triggering a counter-kill.

The creature nailed to the cross in Hayato's room was an owl with outstretched wings.

Takii was completely unharmed.

The next morning, the prison had just opened.

“I hope,” Tian stepped forward and stood in front of the angel statue, making a prayer gesture, his voice clear, “that the request to kill me tonight will be given priority.”

After he finished praying, he felt a response, then turned around, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, his face deliberately contorted into a stiff, provocative expression.

“I am a lizard. I don’t know which of you is a crocodile, but you can try killing me.”

He spoke with his fist loosely clenched.

It's like luring other players to kill him so that he can turn the tables and kill them back.

This is a deception tactic that players came up with through offline discussions.

When telling the truth, clench your fists loosely; when telling a lie, cross your arms over your chest; and when saying the opposite, open your palms flat.

However, these requirements cannot be conveyed to the three new players at this time.

Tian's statement suggests that he has most likely confirmed his identity as a lizard.

Taki was a little surprised; she hadn't expected angels to be used in this way. Using an angel's prayer to publicly beg for death was an unexpected strategy, yet it was still within the rules.

Tian Jing stood for a moment, confirming that she had not been judged to have cheated, before bending down to pick up today's chart of restraint relationships.

It's a goat.

Moreover, like yesterday's crocodile, there is one animal that has a conflicting or mutually restraining relationship with the animals that appeared in the previous rounds of the game.

The animal involved in this conflict was a wolf spider.

Since the restraint relationship paper was drawn and thrown down by the servants, could this be some kind of hint from them?

This implies that the crocodile, goat, and owl are special.

Is this meant to remind them to prioritize killing these three animals?

The so-called mutual restraint is actually a smokescreen. In reality, these three animals cannot restrain the animals that are in conflict; instead, they are restrained by each other.

However, this would violate the rule that one animal can control three animals.

No. There's another possibility.

That is, there is a thirteenth animal!

An animal deliberately obscured, confused, and concealed by the game!

This is the conclusion Tian reached after integrating the information over the past few days.

The game itself is called Angel Game, and while the number 13 is not directly associated with the devil, it does imply betrayal and death.

Furthermore, the core of this game is to incite mutual suspicion and killing, so while the game is called Angel, it is actually Demonic.

He hasn't shared this conclusion with the other players yet.

Although the evidence is not convincing enough, after this round of the game, we should have obtained evidence as to whether there is a thirteenth animal in the game.

His defining characteristic is that he has the ability to be reborn, and during yesterday's Q&A session, he used the question to describe himself.

Yes, the questions are ones you can ask yourself.

The question is whether it is a reptile.

Regeneration and crawling are the key factors that have been identified among these twelve animals, essentially locking in the lizard.

Even if it's uncertain whether it's a reptile, the regeneration alone is enough to basically confirm that it's a lizard. The problem is that it just gives him an extra layer of insurance, making it even more certain.

Lizards are countered by crocodiles and tarantulas.

Don't forget that there are only nine players in the dungeon, so there are three animals that are not available in each round.

They are just unsure whether there will be a rotation. For example, it might not happen this round, but it might happen in the next round. And the player's animal identity changes every round, and it can only be determined at the end of a round.

Based on his experience from several rounds of the game, Tian was certain that he had never seen a deer, a tarantula, or a bat.

If he's not mistaken, the drop tomorrow will be for owls, and there will definitely be bats among them. And the bat-counter chart that appeared before did indeed include owls.

He is only restrained by two kinds of animals, and now there is a high probability that one of them does not exist.

So as long as the crocodile chooses him, and then follows his prayer, it can successfully and accurately kill him.

The most uncertain aspect is whether the angel's prayers will still be effective after darkness falls and he closes his eyes.

The other players had some understanding of Tian's strategy.