Chapter 10: Four People Remaining |
Mo Qian asked somewhat cautiously,
"Lawyer Chen... Out of all the lawyers surnamed Chen I have interacted with, you shouldn't be one of them. Who is Chen Yan to you?"
"Stop guessing blindly. Nobody in my family is in this line of work."
Fox calmly stated,
"Unlike you, I didn't have someone pave the way for me. Your life has been smooth sailing."
"Heh, so you are just a little thug."
Fish sneered,
"You want to mix in a law firm with no connections in your family? Do you have a network? Calling yourself a lawyer... You are probably just a salaried lawyer! Did you hear some half-true gossip from somewhere and think you got a handle on me?" A so-called salaried lawyer was simply an employee who had no stable source of cases and could only take
commissions handed down from other lawyers. Because they had no network, no source of cases, and no team, it was very difficult for them to get any large contracts if they worked as independent lawyers.
Mo Qian felt a considerable sense of superiority towards this kind of person... After all, he had many such laborers working under him.
"Not necessarily."
Fox smiled.
"Stealing personal information is not a massive deal, but it is not a small one either. The most crucial point is that quite a few people actually know about this, Boss Mo." Glancing at Rabbit and Raccoon, Fox continued, "That big data algorithm your company uses... It is actually just a shell, isn't it? That so-called big data algorithm that 'relies on user profiling to accurately analyze interests and needs' is entirely fake. The truth is that your company's input method itself is a trojan horse program—it monitors the user's input and browsing history in the background, and on mobile phones, it even eavesdrops on the microphone and tracks the usage of other applications. It is only by relying on this intelligence that you can analyze a user profile. GouLe Group initially wanted to buy your algorithm, but later bought your entire company because they realized you never had any algorithm to begin with. So, what do you think? If this matter is exposed, will GouLe Group cut off the tail to save the body, or fight to the death to protect you? This already counts as the crime of illegally obtaining citizens' personal information, and it absolutely falls under the category of 'particularly serious circumstances'. Causing major economic losses or severe social impact comes with a minimum of five years, and if it attracts intense social scrutiny, the sentence will only increase, never decrease."
At this point, Fox looked at Raccoon and Rabbit, delivering a simple, concise, and powerful question:
"Can you trust the words of a person like this?"
"If I do not change my vote, you are the ones who will die!"
Fish cursed angrily.
"What are you acting for? Acting like a pure white lotus! You speak as if you do not want to kill the others!"
He completely dropped his pretense and sat up straight. He even tore off his mask under everyone's gaze!
That fat, dumpling-like face, along with dark little eyes that glinted with a cunning light, were now bursting with bloodshot veins, making him look exceptionally ruthless.
"Come on, I took off my mask! Is this against the rules? Are you going to kill me?!"
Mo Qian roared at the Host. His face flushed crimson, and veins bulged on his forehead.
'...Mania?'
Rabbit stared at him blankly, feeling a chill run down her spine. Seeing no response from the Host, Mo Qian cursed and slammed the mask in his hand onto the table.
"I would like to see how you manage to vote me to death."
Mo Qian sneered coldly.
"A contest of hand speed, is it? Then let us see whether the wolf dies, or I die!"
He had already made up his mind to change his vote. Even if those three collaborated—no matter how they voted, Mo Qian would match their vote.
He knew that if Raccoon refused to cooperate with him... or rather, if he could not trick Raccoon into giving him her vote, it would be almost impossible to survive his own round.
The advantage of an earlier narrator was just as immense as the disadvantage of a later one... This damn game was fundamentally unfair!
But fortunately, as long as he could kill those two smartasses, Wolf and Fox, he still had a sliver of hope! The two girls, Rabbit and Raccoon, both looked quite young and were far from resolute.
As long as Fox and Wolf were not around to cause trouble, he was confident he could persuade them! Kids at this age were just beginning to realize the importance of money.
An executive seat in a listed company and a few million in hush money would probably be enough. As for this, he did not plan on regretting it or reneging on the deal—even if everything the Host said was true, he had no intention of participating in the next game.
He still had his own career, his own company... and his own wealth and glory waiting to be enjoyed!
Mo Qian had a total of eight chips. Even without counting the clearance reward, it was enough!
One would be used to resurrect, and the rest could be kept as trump cards. He always wondered...
why some companies could rise so rapidly. They either suddenly churned out some inexplicable advanced technology, or they possessed an unreasonably brilliant eye for investments.
They were all just a bunch of cheaters! Bah!
But now, he was going to become a cheater like them too! Hooray!
As long as he could buy off these two girls, he would have a chance to get the chips in their hands. Whether by buying or snatching.
They probably held over a dozen chips between them. Those stupid mortals completely failed to realize the value of Time Chips!
Using them to kill people, relying on them to learn skills... such barbaric and primitive behaviors were utterly useless.
They simply did not know how to use them! Finance, finance was the true king of this world!
If he could accurately return to a specific hour in the past, he would practically be a stock market god! No, not practically—if a person could foresee the future and also return to the past, they were a stock market god!
A dozen or so modifications to history... his wealth could easily multiply by dozens, hundreds of times!
What was GouLe Group? He could just turn around and acquire them!
Just imagining these things made Mo Qian tremble with excitement. Sure enough, satisfaction and confidence echoed within Mo Qian's heart.
In this world, knowledge determined everything! And the words Mo Qian spoke clearly stumped Raccoon and Rabbit.
They truly did not know how to vote out a specific target when there was no team voice chat, not even paper and pen, and the other party was dead set on matching their vote. But it was obvious that peace was no longer an option.
"How about we... write a blood letter?"
Glancing at the mask Mo Qian had taken off, Raccoon hesitated slightly.
"We can use my mask. Maybe dip it in the blood on the floor?"
"That is a good idea."
White Rabbit agreed.
"The only problem is, if we do that..."
Fox looked at Ming Po.
"'Wolf' might also be voted out. Even if the three of us vote for the same side and no one changes their vote, Boss Mo actually only has a fifty percent chance of dying."
The other fifty percent chance... was that Mo Qian just happened to guess correctly.
In that case, the one eliminated would be Ming Po, the narrator.
"Hah, I do not mind either way."
Ming Po chuckled. There was not the slightest tremor in his voice; instead, there was a hint of excitement.
"Or rather, this is exactly how we should do it."
It was only now that he finally felt a sense of thrill. It was as if his skin had become abnormally sensitive, to the point where even the trembling of every single hair became incredibly distinct.
Tiny currents of electricity crawled up his spine like insects, and even his teeth felt slightly numb. What Ming Po had said earlier was no bluff.
He was genuinely willing to gamble his life against Mo Qian—not 'willing to settle', but 'wanting to'. Compared to the previously complex randomized voting, this current situation—a direct gamble determining life and death based solely on Mo Qian's single choice—made Ming Po feel much more stimulated!
Just then, a fragment of a memory suddenly flashed before Ming Po's eyes. He was wearing a wingsuit, standing at the peak of a snowy mountain.
Like jumping off a cliff, he lunged forward! He wasn't leaping from a helicopter; he was jumping directly from high up, scraping right past the cliff face!
He dove headfirst, as countless sharp, shattered rocks and towering crags brushed past him. He simply spread his arms, flying from the snowy peak over jagged debris, soaring past cliffs and forests...
It wasn't until he saw a village that he suddenly deployed his parachute. The memory fragment ended there.
Yet Ming Po remembered with absolute clarity—at that time, his heart was beating so violently, and his emotions were intensely exhilarated.
'...I see.'
Ming Po himself came to a realization: it wasn't that he lacked a sense of fear. Perhaps his fear was just much duller than a normal person's.
The emotional threshold required for him to feel thrilled was higher than that of ordinary people... probably to the extent that he could casually and peacefully stroll through a haunted house or play a horror game from start to finish without his heart rate changing.
Only an even more stimulating, more dangerous game could make him feel a sense of existence. And he was indeed seeking this kind of thrill.
'Could it be that I eventually died in some kind of extreme sport?'
This thought popped into Ming Po's mind. Seeing Ming Po agree, Raccoon untied her mask and began to prepare the
"blood letter". Looking at Raccoon's beautiful face underneath the mask, Rabbit stared blankly for a moment, then her eyes suddenly widened. "Wait, Raccoon... Are you that... Molijiang from Music Note?"
Rabbit remembered; she had swiped past her short videos late at night! Seeing that figure wearing a white helmet, dressed in a white dress, and riding a white motorcycle, Rabbit indeed thought for a moment,
"Wow, she's so cool."
But after swiping through a few more of her videos, Rabbit's thoughts shifted to,
"Her underwear is showing, isn't this a bit borderline?", "Isn't she cold wearing so little? I find it cold riding an e-bike in this weather,"
and
"It isn't safe to wear a skirt while riding."
After a few more videos, Rabbit's thoughts turned into,
"I get the feeling she's going to get into an accident sooner or later."
Thinking of this, Rabbit looked at Raccoon.
'...Sure enough, she got into an accident.'
She thought to herself.
"You know me?"
Raccoon was a bit stunned, but also pleasantly surprised.
"Are you a fan of mine?"
"Uh... kind of." Rabbit answered vaguely. "I remember you have around a hundred thousand followers."
"Not quite, maybe seventy or eighty thousand..." Raccoon said somewhat shyly, her favorable impression of Rabbit increasing quite a bit. "Now that is interesting."
Fox suddenly spoke up.
"If that is the case, out of all of us remaining... besides Wolf, is everyone here an 'internet celebrity' of some sort? Could the selection of players be related to this? Or is it just a coincidence?"
"It is also possible that it is simply really easy to get famous in modern internet society..."
Rabbit did not give a direct response, only mumbling vaguely.
"Hmph."
Meanwhile, Mo Qian sneered. Pressing both hands on the armrests, he decisively finished casting his vote.
He took a deep breath, trying hard to calm the anxiety in his heart, and looked up at Fox.
"I really do not quite understand... Never mind those two. What were you thinking?"
Fox's voice was deep and serene.
"What was I thinking about what..."
"The voting in the previous round."
Mo Qian grinned, his mood mellowing out a bit, no longer as manic as before.
"Dog and Butterfly, being Returnees, saw at a glance that 'Wolf' was the most dangerous guy. In the last round, they intentionally wanted to vote him out... How did you know I would turn on them? Or were you also voting randomly? I refuse to believe a cunning guy like you would trust in luck."
According to normal logic, a scheming old fox like him should have prioritized taking out the wolf. At the time, he did not know Mo Qian would flip, nor did he know Dog and Butterfly were experienced Returnees.
At that moment, the most obviously dangerous element was the unpredictable wolf—a perfectly rational person like Fox should hate the uncontrollable more than anything. Fox just let out a chuckle but did not answer him directly.
It wasn't until the three of them had read the
"blood letter"
Raccoon wrote with her mask, brushed their hands over the armrests, and applied slight pressure with their left hands, that they cast identical votes.
"Fish"
had already finished voting just now, and the remaining three voted very quickly. The five minutes were not even needed before the results were in.
"Round three is over."
The Host announced the results. In that instant, Mo Qian subconsciously clenched his fists.
'...Who will it be?'
'Is it me, or Wolf?
Or... did someone change their vote, allowing this round to pass peacefully?'
Regardless of what he thought before, at this moment, Mo Qian's heart was truly in his throat. He even felt his thighs trembling uncontrollably...
Those few short seconds waiting for the results to be announced were even more agonizing than execution itself! Finally, the Host's answer was revealed:
"The minority is: Fish."
"Execution will now be carried out."
"I knew it! I fucking knew I could not win!"
Fish instantly lost all dignity. He slammed his fists against the armrests while his body went completely limp in the chair.
His voice cracked, but it grew even louder.
"You are all in on it together, no one can win against you... It is rigged, it is a black box!"
"We would not use such methods."
The Host sounded somewhat displeased.
"The game is absolutely fair—do not assume that just because you have used those cheating methods, everyone else will too."
"Liars! I don't believe it! I can't die, I have money!"
Fish yelled with disjointed logic. He wet himself.
Fish thought back to the agile movements Dog had used to dodge the Sword of Damocles at the time, but he simply could not replicate them... because his legs had gone completely soft and numb.
He could not even stand up.
"I don't believe it—"
His heart-wrenching scream was drowned out by the giant sword crashing down in an instant. Along with the vibration of the ground.
In a flash, the noisy voice vanished without a trace. The room returned to silence.
One giant sword after another was either stuck in the middle of the table or embedded in the seats. They looked just like tombstones.
Only four people remained at the round table. The game was not over yet.