Chapter 14 ~ Second Game Pt.5 ~
Once these words were said, as expected, the Liar had a large reaction.
He approached Gu Yian and looked down at the work log, whose pages were somewhat yellow.
“How is this related to clearing the game?”
The Liar didn’t move to take the work log in Gu Yian’s hands and this made Gu Yian trust him a lot.
Gu Yian flipped through the log pages, quickly scanning the contents. “From the handwriting, this was all recorded by one person. The security captain was responsible for writing a log and recording the matters of the school every day. He took this as his own diary and, after the death of a student, he also recorded his own speculations.”
“The one who died was the little girl?” The Liar asked.
Gu Yian looked at the information written down on the page. “No, many people died.”
The Liar didn’t ask anymore. He stood there, overcome with boredom as Gu Yian read.
Gu Yian read for a while and then suddenly realized that a period of time had passed.
“The third night is about to come. It’s time to go back and we’re going to run.”
Gu Yian warned the Liar and ran out of the security booth.
The energy she saved before was for her to sprint right now.
The Liar’s legs were long and in two to three steps he passed Gu Yian, who had started running first, and ran ahead of her.
He looked back. “You aren’t going to make it like this. What’ll you do if it turns dark midway?”
Gu Yian spat out two words while she ran, “Run first.”
They could talk about it after they ran to that point.
The Liar abruptly stopped and said, “I have a way.”
Gu Yian saw the Liar stop and, out of trust for him, she also quickly stopped.
Then she saw the Liar come close to her straightaway.
She had a bad feeling.
Taking her completely by surprise, the Liar reached out and directly picked her up in a princess carry.
He looked especially relaxed and he even ran quickly while carrying someone.
But Gu Yian felt a little unstable.
After all, the sudden weightlessness and the world spinning in sight easily made people feel uncertain.
Gu Yian’s body reflexively stiffened.
For a moment, she also didn’t know where to look and so she just looked at the Liar’s eyes.
Those pair of eyes were very beautiful, unlike normal people whose eyes had some traces of blood vessels or were muddy.
They were very black and white, clear, clean, and completely perfect as if belonging to a child.
The path from the grassy lawn to the security booth was evidently very short for the sprinting Liar.
Gu Yian had just averted her line of sight from the Liar’s eyes when she realized that the Liar had already stopped.
“Be careful not to lose your balance,” the Liar said.
He released her.
Gu Yian was prepared and she grabbed the Liar’s arm with her free hand to steady herself.
Extremely cold.
The Liar’s body temperature was very low.
Just like before, when the second night arrived, Gu Yian felt it was ice-cold when she touched his hand.
He was clearly a person with this sort of physical strength, so his body should always be maintaining a regular temperature.
Doubts flashed through Gu Yian’s mind as she withdrew her hand and looked at the lawn.
At this moment, that place wasn’t deserted and, instead, there stood a person with a face filled with nosiness.
Gu Yian remembered that this man was the person holding the merchant card.
The Merchant saw that Gu Yian and the Liar noticed him.
He strode over and asked, “Are you wanting to go in? I managed to escape with great difficulty.”
Gu Yian showed the log in her hand. “Did you find clues? Why don’t we exchange?”
The Merchant’s eyes sharpened, fixing on the log in Gu Yian’s hand.
A hearty smile immediately appeared on his face. “If you didn’t say this, I would have suggested it too. In order to show my sincerity, I’ll tell you a bit of what I know first.”
The three of them stood in the shape of a triangle.
Gu Yian silently agreed that she and the Liar were on one side and the Merchant also knew that the Liar was Gu Yian’s teammate. Neither of them kept their conversation away from the Liar.
The Merchant said, “The ghosts have a restriction. There’s many of them, but they cannot directly cause our deaths, including that girl we heard. I was chased and jumped from the third floor and, with the grass acting as a cushion, I left the office building through a mistake due to a strange combination of circumstances.”
Gu Yian listened to the Merchant and didn’t believe everything.
Things absolutely weren’t as coincidental as the Merchant said, where he accidentally jumped and was able to leave the office building.
Look, there was a certain degree of danger for people jumping from the third floor, even if there was soft grass acting as a cushion. The height had to be at least four meters so, after the Merchant jumped down, he definitely prepared some way to remove his momentum.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have his current clean appearance and would instead be in a sorry state.
However, that the Merchant was willing to reveal this was already enough to prove his sincerity.
Gu Yian agreed, “The ghosts probably aren’t as strong as we think. At the beginning, they used music and death notices to exert psychological pressure on us and then their eerie appearance behind us created an even larger terror for us. Just now you said there were many of them and this is important. In order to kill us players, they sent out so many ghosts to hunt us down, which means they aren’t strong. Maybe the only thing we have to worry about is the little girl in the music. She’s the leader and the strongest.”
The Liar listened to Gu Yian’s analysis and his eyes were as blank as always.
He didn’t like hearing long talks.
The Merchant listened seriously and then nodded. “I also think it should be that little girl. I found some information in the office building.”
“Campus bullying?” Gu Yian asked.
The Merchant glanced at the log in Gu Yian’s hand. “You found this too?”
“Yes.”
Gu Yian raised her head and looked at the sky. “We can talk about this later after we go in. So much time has passed, it stands to reason that the third night is coming.”
She calculated the time. From when the gale stopped, and the sky turned white, to the time it took returning to the grassy lawn, it should be the same as the time from when she left the round table to when the second night arrived.
She was a little puzzled as to why that little girl’s voice still didn’t sound.
The little girl shouldn’t let go of them for being out of the office building.
The Merchant was also uncertain and he guessed, “Maybe the time from day to night isn’t fixed. It all depends on the demon.”
Gu Yian raised an eyebrow and looked at the Liar.
Although the Liar’s mind was wandering, he still left some attention on Gu Yian.
He reacted to Gu Yian’s gaze immediately and said to the Merchant, “A game is a game because it has rules. The duration of a day will have a fixed value.”
The time of day set in a game will be definite.
He was implying he didn’t agree with the Merchant saying the time wasn’t fixed.
Gu Yian smiled and looked at the Merchant. “What Mr. Liar said is exactly what I want to say. If there’s no accidents, the third night should be here.”
The Merchant looked at Gu Yian and the Liar with contemplative eyes.
His eyes probably revealed one meaning.
In a game where life and death were at stake, how come you two seem to have come to have a date?
Gu Yian pretended she didn’t understand his gaze.
Because Mr. Liar was a good teammate who defended his companion, if they were misunderstood then they could be misunderstood.
Gu Yian thought for a moment and then said, “The arrival of the third night shouldn’t need the little girl’s announcement. She just needs to kill people according to Mr. Demon’s rules. We can only wait for that moment to come.”
The Merchant sighed, “If it really comes, then you two can go in. I finally got out, so I won’t involve myself in this trouble.”
“Then you’ll wait until we’re all dead and clear the game alone?”
Gu Yian asked this pointed question in a flat tone.
Her lips curled into a smile. “Mr. Merchant, we already guessed that the little girl will follow Mr. Demon’s rules and kill one person a day. So long as the people in the office building aren’t dead, you’ll forever be safe outside.”
“But are you sure your guess about the way to clear the game is correct?”
The Merchant’s emotions didn’t fluctuate too much at Gu Yian’s words.
He asked instead, “Why do you have to go in and send yourself to die?”
“Is it kindness?”
“Or is it because you’re a saint?”
Gu Yian wasn’t annoyed either. “There’s nothing wrong with kindness and I’m also not a saint.”
She changed the subject, “We have seven players in total and, according to the rules, one person will die a day. But Mr. Demon said the game will not end until the eighth day. If we don’t look for clues, then we’ll all die before the eighth day arrives.”
Gu Yian paid attention to the sky at this time. “Everyone knows this point, which is why they took the risk to leave the round table and enter the office building to search for clues. Why would we risk doing this? It’s just for a little chance to survive. We all want to clear this game alive and live a few more days in our real world.”
The Merchant said nothing.
He had no expression on his face.
The Liar, who had been silent, inched over to Gu Yian’s position at this time. He shuffled over until he was beside her.
He was tall and when he lowered his head it made him seem a little bullied.
The Liar said quietly, “Just ignore him. Whatever he can help you with, I can too.”
Gu Yian was observing any changes in the Merchant’s expression but, upon suddenly hearing these words, she couldn’t help but glance at the Liar.
The Liar’s expression was serious, his eyes clear, and it gave people a sort of feeling that he could do what he said.
Gu Yian shied away from his line of sight, but then immediately looked back.
She gave the Liar a meaningful look, signalling for him not to care about this matter.
Her efforts in persuading the Merchant to go in with her wasn’t as open as what she said.
Everyone wanted to live and, although she had a bit of this thought, the greater thought was that she was worried about the Merchant being outside alone.
This round was all veteran players. The Merchant had the ability to come out when the other three players were still stuck inside, so he had the ability force himself in.
He also didn’t come out normally; he came out only after grabbing a clue.
For this sort of person, how could Gu Yian be at ease without him being in her line of sight?
What if, when she and the Liar went inside the office building, the Merchant did something to them in secret?
People would do many things in order to live a while longer.
Gu Yian didn’t want to become a sacrifice for the Merchant’s survival. She had to swindle the Merchant back into the office building again.
For people like the Merchant, she couldn’t become his enemy.
Becoming his teammate was the most ideal situation.
Gu Yian turned back to stare at the Merchant.
The Merchant was smart and he would know what choice he should make.
Now it depended on which of them could waste more time.
Chapter 14 ~ Second Game Pt.5 ~
Once these words were said, as expected, the Liar had a large reaction.
He approached Gu Yian and looked down at the work log, whose pages were somewhat yellow.
“How is this related to clearing the game?”
The Liar didn’t move to take the work log in Gu Yian’s hands and this made Gu Yian trust him a lot.
Gu Yian flipped through the log pages, quickly scanning the contents. “From the handwriting, this was all recorded by one person. The security captain was responsible for writing a log and recording the matters of the school every day. He took this as his own diary and, after the death of a student, he also recorded his own speculations.”
“The one who died was the little girl?” The Liar asked.
Gu Yian looked at the information written down on the page. “No, many people died.”
The Liar didn’t ask anymore. He stood there, overcome with boredom as Gu Yian read.
Gu Yian read for a while and then suddenly realized that a period of time had passed.
“The third night is about to come. It’s time to go back and we’re going to run.”
Gu Yian warned the Liar and ran out of the security booth.
The energy she saved before was for her to sprint right now.
The Liar’s legs were long and in two to three steps he passed Gu Yian, who had started running first, and ran ahead of her.
He looked back. “You aren’t going to make it like this. What’ll you do if it turns dark midway?”
Gu Yian spat out two words while she ran, “Run first.”
They could talk about it after they ran to that point.
The Liar abruptly stopped and said, “I have a way.”
Gu Yian saw the Liar stop and, out of trust for him, she also quickly stopped.
Then she saw the Liar come close to her straightaway.
She had a bad feeling.
Taking her completely by surprise, the Liar reached out and directly picked her up in a princess carry.
He looked especially relaxed and he even ran quickly while carrying someone.
But Gu Yian felt a little unstable.
After all, the sudden weightlessness and the world spinning in sight easily made people feel uncertain.
Gu Yian’s body reflexively stiffened.
For a moment, she also didn’t know where to look and so she just looked at the Liar’s eyes.
Those pair of eyes were very beautiful, unlike normal people whose eyes had some traces of blood vessels or were muddy.
They were very black and white, clear, clean, and completely perfect as if belonging to a child.
The path from the grassy lawn to the security booth was evidently very short for the sprinting Liar.
Gu Yian had just averted her line of sight from the Liar’s eyes when she realized that the Liar had already stopped.
“Be careful not to lose your balance,” the Liar said.
He released her.
Gu Yian was prepared and she grabbed the Liar’s arm with her free hand to steady herself.
Extremely cold.
The Liar’s body temperature was very low.
Just like before, when the second night arrived, Gu Yian felt it was ice-cold when she touched his hand.
He was clearly a person with this sort of physical strength, so his body should always be maintaining a regular temperature.
Doubts flashed through Gu Yian’s mind as she withdrew her hand and looked at the lawn.
At this moment, that place wasn’t deserted and, instead, there stood a person with a face filled with nosiness.
Gu Yian remembered that this man was the person holding the merchant card.
The Merchant saw that Gu Yian and the Liar noticed him.
He strode over and asked, “Are you wanting to go in? I managed to escape with great difficulty.”
Gu Yian showed the log in her hand. “Did you find clues? Why don’t we exchange?”
The Merchant’s eyes sharpened, fixing on the log in Gu Yian’s hand.
A hearty smile immediately appeared on his face. “If you didn’t say this, I would have suggested it too. In order to show my sincerity, I’ll tell you a bit of what I know first.”
The three of them stood in the shape of a triangle.
Gu Yian silently agreed that she and the Liar were on one side and the Merchant also knew that the Liar was Gu Yian’s teammate. Neither of them kept their conversation away from the Liar.
The Merchant said, “The ghosts have a restriction. There’s many of them, but they cannot directly cause our deaths, including that girl we heard. I was chased and jumped from the third floor and, with the grass acting as a cushion, I left the office building through a mistake due to a strange combination of circumstances.”
Gu Yian listened to the Merchant and didn’t believe everything.
Things absolutely weren’t as coincidental as the Merchant said, where he accidentally jumped and was able to leave the office building.
Look, there was a certain degree of danger for people jumping from the third floor, even if there was soft grass acting as a cushion. The height had to be at least four meters so, after the Merchant jumped down, he definitely prepared some way to remove his momentum.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have his current clean appearance and would instead be in a sorry state.
However, that the Merchant was willing to reveal this was already enough to prove his sincerity.
Gu Yian agreed, “The ghosts probably aren’t as strong as we think. At the beginning, they used music and death notices to exert psychological pressure on us and then their eerie appearance behind us created an even larger terror for us. Just now you said there were many of them and this is important. In order to kill us players, they sent out so many ghosts to hunt us down, which means they aren’t strong. Maybe the only thing we have to worry about is the little girl in the music. She’s the leader and the strongest.”
The Liar listened to Gu Yian’s analysis and his eyes were as blank as always.
He didn’t like hearing long talks.
The Merchant listened seriously and then nodded. “I also think it should be that little girl. I found some information in the office building.”
“Campus bullying?” Gu Yian asked.
The Merchant glanced at the log in Gu Yian’s hand. “You found this too?”
“Yes.”
Gu Yian raised her head and looked at the sky. “We can talk about this later after we go in. So much time has passed, it stands to reason that the third night is coming.”
She calculated the time. From when the gale stopped, and the sky turned white, to the time it took returning to the grassy lawn, it should be the same as the time from when she left the round table to when the second night arrived.
She was a little puzzled as to why that little girl’s voice still didn’t sound.
The little girl shouldn’t let go of them for being out of the office building.
The Merchant was also uncertain and he guessed, “Maybe the time from day to night isn’t fixed. It all depends on the demon.”
Gu Yian raised an eyebrow and looked at the Liar.
Although the Liar’s mind was wandering, he still left some attention on Gu Yian.
He reacted to Gu Yian’s gaze immediately and said to the Merchant, “A game is a game because it has rules. The duration of a day will have a fixed value.”
The time of day set in a game will be definite.
He was implying he didn’t agree with the Merchant saying the time wasn’t fixed.
Gu Yian smiled and looked at the Merchant. “What Mr. Liar said is exactly what I want to say. If there’s no accidents, the third night should be here.”
The Merchant looked at Gu Yian and the Liar with contemplative eyes.
His eyes probably revealed one meaning.
In a game where life and death were at stake, how come you two seem to have come to have a date?
Gu Yian pretended she didn’t understand his gaze.
Because Mr. Liar was a good teammate who defended his companion, if they were misunderstood then they could be misunderstood.
Gu Yian thought for a moment and then said, “The arrival of the third night shouldn’t need the little girl’s announcement. She just needs to kill people according to Mr. Demon’s rules. We can only wait for that moment to come.”
The Merchant sighed, “If it really comes, then you two can go in. I finally got out, so I won’t involve myself in this trouble.”
“Then you’ll wait until we’re all dead and clear the game alone?”
Gu Yian asked this pointed question in a flat tone.
Her lips curled into a smile. “Mr. Merchant, we already guessed that the little girl will follow Mr. Demon’s rules and kill one person a day. So long as the people in the office building aren’t dead, you’ll forever be safe outside.”
“But are you sure your guess about the way to clear the game is correct?”
The Merchant’s emotions didn’t fluctuate too much at Gu Yian’s words.
He asked instead, “Why do you have to go in and send yourself to die?”
“Is it kindness?”
“Or is it because you’re a saint?”
Gu Yian wasn’t annoyed either. “There’s nothing wrong with kindness and I’m also not a saint.”
She changed the subject, “We have seven players in total and, according to the rules, one person will die a day. But Mr. Demon said the game will not end until the eighth day. If we don’t look for clues, then we’ll all die before the eighth day arrives.”
Gu Yian paid attention to the sky at this time. “Everyone knows this point, which is why they took the risk to leave the round table and enter the office building to search for clues. Why would we risk doing this? It’s just for a little chance to survive. We all want to clear this game alive and live a few more days in our real world.”
The Merchant said nothing.
He had no expression on his face.
The Liar, who had been silent, inched over to Gu Yian’s position at this time. He shuffled over until he was beside her.
He was tall and when he lowered his head it made him seem a little bullied.
The Liar said quietly, “Just ignore him. Whatever he can help you with, I can too.”
Gu Yian was observing any changes in the Merchant’s expression but, upon suddenly hearing these words, she couldn’t help but glance at the Liar.
The Liar’s expression was serious, his eyes clear, and it gave people a sort of feeling that he could do what he said.
Gu Yian shied away from his line of sight, but then immediately looked back.
She gave the Liar a meaningful look, signalling for him not to care about this matter.
Her efforts in persuading the Merchant to go in with her wasn’t as open as what she said.
Everyone wanted to live and, although she had a bit of this thought, the greater thought was that she was worried about the Merchant being outside alone.
This round was all veteran players. The Merchant had the ability to come out when the other three players were still stuck inside, so he had the ability force himself in.
He also didn’t come out normally; he came out only after grabbing a clue.
For this sort of person, how could Gu Yian be at ease without him being in her line of sight?
What if, when she and the Liar went inside the office building, the Merchant did something to them in secret?
People would do many things in order to live a while longer.
Gu Yian didn’t want to become a sacrifice for the Merchant’s survival. She had to swindle the Merchant back into the office building again.
For people like the Merchant, she couldn’t become his enemy.
Becoming his teammate was the most ideal situation.
Gu Yian turned back to stare at the Merchant.
The Merchant was smart and he would know what choice he should make.
Now it depended on which of them could waste more time.
