Chapter 17 ~ Second Game Pt.8 ~
At the start, Gu Yian only guessed that they had to kill the little girl to clear the game.
However, just now they had Mr. Demon’s personal acknowledgment that this clearance was set in stone.
Gu Yian’s guess was correct.
The Student looked at the Witch, looked at Gu Yian, and then looked at the silent Merchant.
He asked cautiously, “How do we kill her?”
The Student asked about the key point.
Gu Yian and the Merchant both happened to look at the Witch.
The Witch didn’t disappoint everyone’s hopes and she showed great confidence on this matter.
“So long as she appears, I have a way to kill her.”
The most critical step of killing the demon had a candidate and all that was left was fishing the little girl out.
The little girl wasn’t a fool and knew that Gu Yian and the others wanted to kill her, so she went to hide and wouldn’t come out.
Gu Yian thought for a moment and then said, “Let’s summon her then, since she’s a demon now. We’ll go to the office building and see if we can find information on summoning the demon.”
The materials found by the Merchant didn’t mention a specific summoning ritual.
When the Student heard this, they were terrified. “We still have to go to the office building? Didn’t you all find a way to escape this game already?”
Gu Yian explained, “So long as she doesn’t come out, and we have no way to kill her, then one person still needs to die every night. If I, the Merchant, and the Witch are all dead, then can you survive the seventh night?”
The Student didn’t say anything. He wasn’t dumb and, among the four players, he was the weakest.
Mr. Demon said the game would end the day of the eighth night. He definitely couldn’t survive the seventh night.
The four living players walked up to the grassy lawn once again.
This place was a verdant green patch previously, but this time there was an addition of the monkey-looking man’s corpse.
Gu Yian glanced at the body and then remembered how everyone had found a note from the Butcher’s body.
She asked, “Does he have any props on him?”
The Merchant answered, “No. He probably sold them. People like him get rid of their goods quickly and they won’t keep them for days.”
Gu Yian’s thoughts flickered and she seemed to accidentally ask, “Mr. Merchant, how come you’re so clear on this?”
The Merchant candidly replied, “I’m a businessman and I often deal with these types. Generally, if the source of the goods are unknown, then the purchasing price will be much lower.”
Gu Yian’s suspicions were somewhat dispelled. She recalled their seating order at the time and felt that she was thinking too much. She asked another question, “Did you find any props on the real Liar’s body?”
The Merchant replied with regret, “He had none.”
Immediately, he changed the subject and comforted himself, “It’s hard to get useful props. It’s common to see none.”
The four of them stood there, waiting for the night to arrive.
The Student was somewhat at a loss and he scratched his head. “Did I have the wrong impression? Before, I felt that this game was super hard; I couldn’t even touch the door to the main story, there wasn’t enough time, I could only find little clues no matter how I searched, and I narrowly got played to death by those ghosts. But why is there so much time now?”
He stood there and didn’t know what to do. There didn’t seem to be a place where he could help the three other people.
The discussion between the three also appeared to reach its end and now they just needed to wait for the arrival of the fourth night.
The Student’s head was empty but, when he remembered what just happened, he had a question.
“Um, Sage.”
He called out to Gu Yian.
The Student asked, “I know that the little girl is the demon we need to kill. Then if you had agreed to achieve the wish of the demon, um, I should say God, at the very beginning, could we have left earlier?”
Before Gu Yian spoke, the Merchant helped her answer.
“The one at the beginning was a trap. If we knew we had to kill a demon at the start, then what would we think of? It would be them, Mr. Demon, the being we should call God.”
“All of our actions would have been confined to the round table. We would kill each other until everyone was dead and there would be no escape.”
“It’s only when we left the round table and found the information we have now that we knew the real demon is actually that little girl; the little girl who turned from a victim into a murdering demon.”
The Merchant finished speaking, thought a while, and then added, “This game had a lot of traps. For example, if Miss Sage had not gone to the security booth, then everyone’s thoughts would have been limited to the office building. The office ghosts chased us into finding incomplete information and suggested that we should dig up the little girl’s body. Fortunately, Miss Sage warned us. And if I hadn’t seen Miss Sage after I found some of the truth and the ghosts took it easy on me by throwing me out the office building, then I might have ignored the other things hidden in the dark and resorted to other actions.”
After the Student heard the Merchant’s analysis, his entire person felt unwell.
It turned out they encountered so many dangers.
The Witch agreed a lot with the Merchant’s words and she recovered her previous elegance as she nodded and said, “If it weren’t for the Sage warning me, then I would have also ignored how all the clues I found were under the chase of the ghosts.”
The Merchant sighed, “Miss Sage is indeed a sage.”
The Witch inclined her head.
The Student nodded vehemently and then there was deep respect in his eyes when he looked at Gu Yian.
Gu Yian was speechless and didn’t know what to say.
She listened to their discourse and deeply felt the might of imagination.
They spoke as if she had insight into everything, but their words also seemed to make sense.
Gu Yian was silent for a second before she still spoke, “You all guessed wrong. I’m not a sage. When the second night came, Mr. Demon protected me and that’s why I can stand here right now.”
This clearly happened not long ago but Gu Yian felt as if a long time had passed.
At the time, she had been standing unsteadily in the gale and that person touched her and protected her through the second night.
Once Gu Yian said this, the Merchant, the Witch, and the Student looked at her with even more amazement.
The Merchant said, “To be loved by God is even more rare than being a sage. You’re the first person I’ve ever seen.”
The Witch smiled. “It’s also my first time seeing this.”
“And me, me too,” the Student echoed.
At the end of this conversation the mental condition of the Merchant, the Witch, and the Student was immediately different. They were full of confidence of surviving and it was even more than when they thought Gu Yian was a sage just now.
They were playing God’s Game.
What were they afraid of when they had someone God loved here?
Gu Yian saw that she couldn’t explain things clearly and so she let them think whatever. It was always good for everyone to have the spirit to move.
In this silence, the darkness struck Gu Yian and the others.
Right after, a brightly lit building appeared without noise in front of everyone.
A row of words was displayed on the red screen.
“You all should die!”
The Witch told them, “Don’t look back, there’s me.”
The hissing wind already came to their ears.
The Merchant took the lead and rushed into the entrance, Gu Yian followed right after, and the Student was half a step behind Gu Yian, on the basis of being responsible for protecting Gu Yian as agreed upon.
The Witch said, “Their strength has increased. Take care not to leave me too far.”
Who knew what method she used, but the Witch obstructed the ghosts and made them keep a constant distance from the four players.
The Merchant led the way and Gu Yian’s group of people quickly went up to the third floor to break into an office.
On the way, the Student saw the corner of the stairs and couldn’t help but say, “It was right here that they tripped me three times.”
Gu Yian turned her head and advised him, “Speak less.”
Her gaze swept across the Student’s face and, with his tender and smooth skin, he didn’t look like he had fallen many times.
It looked like veteran players all had way outs.
The Merchant had insight into the measures those ghosts would use and, at the forefront, he blocked the physical attacks the ghosts would make; however, this also made their entry into the office especially messy.
“It’s a good thing I had made a mark.” The Merchant found the place where he previously marked a sign.
He called over Gu Yian, “Sage, take a look, which one of these documents do we need?”
The Merchant had found the self-review books of the students. It was a particularly thick stack.
Gu Yian pulled one out, looked at the date of the self-review book, and then compared it to the date in the work log in her hand.
This was the time after the female student’s death and a large number of students began to die, spreading her return as a demon.
The teachers made the students write self-review books probably because they were aware of the rumors of a demon. They wanted the students to reflect on their own conduct of spreading rumors.
There would definitely be upset students among these who would write the ritual for summoning the demon in their self-review book.
“Are there any from 503?” Gu Yian asked.
The Merchant frowned, “The ones here are arranged by class.”
Gu Yian flipped quickly through her log and found the page that recorded the female student’s death.
Fortunately, the recorder wrote down the class of the deceased.
“Third year in middle school, Class 5. Find the self-review books of this class.”
“Okay.”
Gu Yian and the Merchant skimmed the books while the Student acted as their lookout.
CRASH!
BOOM!
CRACK!
The ghosts caused countless objects to fall to the ground.
They were heavily blocked outside by the Witch.
The Witch used her own methods to cut off those ghostly shadows that wanted to impede Gu Yian and the others’ actions.
“Found it.” Scanning the self-review books, Gu Yian found one from the stack that wrote down the ritual to summon the demon.
Hearing this, the Merchant was about to stop.
But Gu Yian said, “While the Witch can still hold on, we’re going to find more and cross-check. There can’t be any mistakes in the ritual or we’ll waste our opportunity.”
The Merchant nodded and rapidly flipped through the self-review books of other classes, his hand almost leaving an afterimage.
The Student watched them search and felt extremely nervous, but there was no place for him to help.
“I have one here,” the Merchant said.
“I found another one,” Gu Yian said at the same time.
They didn’t use words to communicate and instead directly exchanged the self-review books in their hands.
“They’re the same,” the Merchant stated after reading.
“Mine are the same too,” Gu Yian confirmed.
“The winds press in, a call goes out,” the Merchant raised his voice and said this phrase. ¹
The Witch heard the meaning in his words and withdrew her hand, coming to where the Merchant, the Student, and Gu Yian were.
The Merchant told them, “Follow me closely.”
He opened a window, stepped onto the window sill, looked down, and threw out an object in his hand.
“This space is unstable, be quick.”
The Merchant jumped after he finished speaking.
Gu Yian didn’t hesitate and, only holding onto one self-review book that had the ritual for summoning the demon in hand, she flipped onto the window sill.
The Student was half a step behind her and said, “Pardon me.”
They had discussed before entering that the Student was responsible for protecting Gu Yian.
In an instant, Gu Yian felt someone wrap an arm around her waist from behind.
There was an ice-cold breath.
It was so very cold.
Her body stiffened.
That person brought her and dropped from high in the air.
The Student’s terrified shout could be heard against the sky, “Why did you jump?! AH! Witch, don’t kick me!!!”
Chapter 17 ~ Second Game Pt.8 ~
At the start, Gu Yian only guessed that they had to kill the little girl to clear the game.
However, just now they had Mr. Demon’s personal acknowledgment that this clearance was set in stone.
Gu Yian’s guess was correct.
The Student looked at the Witch, looked at Gu Yian, and then looked at the silent Merchant.
He asked cautiously, “How do we kill her?”
The Student asked about the key point.
Gu Yian and the Merchant both happened to look at the Witch.
The Witch didn’t disappoint everyone’s hopes and she showed great confidence on this matter.
“So long as she appears, I have a way to kill her.”
The most critical step of killing the demon had a candidate and all that was left was fishing the little girl out.
The little girl wasn’t a fool and knew that Gu Yian and the others wanted to kill her, so she went to hide and wouldn’t come out.
Gu Yian thought for a moment and then said, “Let’s summon her then, since she’s a demon now. We’ll go to the office building and see if we can find information on summoning the demon.”
The materials found by the Merchant didn’t mention a specific summoning ritual.
When the Student heard this, they were terrified. “We still have to go to the office building? Didn’t you all find a way to escape this game already?”
Gu Yian explained, “So long as she doesn’t come out, and we have no way to kill her, then one person still needs to die every night. If I, the Merchant, and the Witch are all dead, then can you survive the seventh night?”
The Student didn’t say anything. He wasn’t dumb and, among the four players, he was the weakest.
Mr. Demon said the game would end the day of the eighth night. He definitely couldn’t survive the seventh night.
The four living players walked up to the grassy lawn once again.
This place was a verdant green patch previously, but this time there was an addition of the monkey-looking man’s corpse.
Gu Yian glanced at the body and then remembered how everyone had found a note from the Butcher’s body.
She asked, “Does he have any props on him?”
The Merchant answered, “No. He probably sold them. People like him get rid of their goods quickly and they won’t keep them for days.”
Gu Yian’s thoughts flickered and she seemed to accidentally ask, “Mr. Merchant, how come you’re so clear on this?”
The Merchant candidly replied, “I’m a businessman and I often deal with these types. Generally, if the source of the goods are unknown, then the purchasing price will be much lower.”
Gu Yian’s suspicions were somewhat dispelled. She recalled their seating order at the time and felt that she was thinking too much. She asked another question, “Did you find any props on the real Liar’s body?”
The Merchant replied with regret, “He had none.”
Immediately, he changed the subject and comforted himself, “It’s hard to get useful props. It’s common to see none.”
The four of them stood there, waiting for the night to arrive.
The Student was somewhat at a loss and he scratched his head. “Did I have the wrong impression? Before, I felt that this game was super hard; I couldn’t even touch the door to the main story, there wasn’t enough time, I could only find little clues no matter how I searched, and I narrowly got played to death by those ghosts. But why is there so much time now?”
He stood there and didn’t know what to do. There didn’t seem to be a place where he could help the three other people.
The discussion between the three also appeared to reach its end and now they just needed to wait for the arrival of the fourth night.
The Student’s head was empty but, when he remembered what just happened, he had a question.
“Um, Sage.”
He called out to Gu Yian.
The Student asked, “I know that the little girl is the demon we need to kill. Then if you had agreed to achieve the wish of the demon, um, I should say God, at the very beginning, could we have left earlier?”
Before Gu Yian spoke, the Merchant helped her answer.
“The one at the beginning was a trap. If we knew we had to kill a demon at the start, then what would we think of? It would be them, Mr. Demon, the being we should call God.”
“All of our actions would have been confined to the round table. We would kill each other until everyone was dead and there would be no escape.”
“It’s only when we left the round table and found the information we have now that we knew the real demon is actually that little girl; the little girl who turned from a victim into a murdering demon.”
The Merchant finished speaking, thought a while, and then added, “This game had a lot of traps. For example, if Miss Sage had not gone to the security booth, then everyone’s thoughts would have been limited to the office building. The office ghosts chased us into finding incomplete information and suggested that we should dig up the little girl’s body. Fortunately, Miss Sage warned us. And if I hadn’t seen Miss Sage after I found some of the truth and the ghosts took it easy on me by throwing me out the office building, then I might have ignored the other things hidden in the dark and resorted to other actions.”
After the Student heard the Merchant’s analysis, his entire person felt unwell.
It turned out they encountered so many dangers.
The Witch agreed a lot with the Merchant’s words and she recovered her previous elegance as she nodded and said, “If it weren’t for the Sage warning me, then I would have also ignored how all the clues I found were under the chase of the ghosts.”
The Merchant sighed, “Miss Sage is indeed a sage.”
The Witch inclined her head.
The Student nodded vehemently and then there was deep respect in his eyes when he looked at Gu Yian.
Gu Yian was speechless and didn’t know what to say.
She listened to their discourse and deeply felt the might of imagination.
They spoke as if she had insight into everything, but their words also seemed to make sense.
Gu Yian was silent for a second before she still spoke, “You all guessed wrong. I’m not a sage. When the second night came, Mr. Demon protected me and that’s why I can stand here right now.”
This clearly happened not long ago but Gu Yian felt as if a long time had passed.
At the time, she had been standing unsteadily in the gale and that person touched her and protected her through the second night.
Once Gu Yian said this, the Merchant, the Witch, and the Student looked at her with even more amazement.
The Merchant said, “To be loved by God is even more rare than being a sage. You’re the first person I’ve ever seen.”
The Witch smiled. “It’s also my first time seeing this.”
“And me, me too,” the Student echoed.
At the end of this conversation the mental condition of the Merchant, the Witch, and the Student was immediately different. They were full of confidence of surviving and it was even more than when they thought Gu Yian was a sage just now.
They were playing God’s Game.
What were they afraid of when they had someone God loved here?
Gu Yian saw that she couldn’t explain things clearly and so she let them think whatever. It was always good for everyone to have the spirit to move.
In this silence, the darkness struck Gu Yian and the others.
Right after, a brightly lit building appeared without noise in front of everyone.
A row of words was displayed on the red screen.
“You all should die!”
The Witch told them, “Don’t look back, there’s me.”
The hissing wind already came to their ears.
The Merchant took the lead and rushed into the entrance, Gu Yian followed right after, and the Student was half a step behind Gu Yian, on the basis of being responsible for protecting Gu Yian as agreed upon.
The Witch said, “Their strength has increased. Take care not to leave me too far.”
Who knew what method she used, but the Witch obstructed the ghosts and made them keep a constant distance from the four players.
The Merchant led the way and Gu Yian’s group of people quickly went up to the third floor to break into an office.
On the way, the Student saw the corner of the stairs and couldn’t help but say, “It was right here that they tripped me three times.”
Gu Yian turned her head and advised him, “Speak less.”
Her gaze swept across the Student’s face and, with his tender and smooth skin, he didn’t look like he had fallen many times.
It looked like veteran players all had way outs.
The Merchant had insight into the measures those ghosts would use and, at the forefront, he blocked the physical attacks the ghosts would make; however, this also made their entry into the office especially messy.
“It’s a good thing I had made a mark.” The Merchant found the place where he previously marked a sign.
He called over Gu Yian, “Sage, take a look, which one of these documents do we need?”
The Merchant had found the self-review books of the students. It was a particularly thick stack.
Gu Yian pulled one out, looked at the date of the self-review book, and then compared it to the date in the work log in her hand.
This was the time after the female student’s death and a large number of students began to die, spreading her return as a demon.
The teachers made the students write self-review books probably because they were aware of the rumors of a demon. They wanted the students to reflect on their own conduct of spreading rumors.
There would definitely be upset students among these who would write the ritual for summoning the demon in their self-review book.
“Are there any from 503?” Gu Yian asked.
The Merchant frowned, “The ones here are arranged by class.”
Gu Yian flipped quickly through her log and found the page that recorded the female student’s death.
Fortunately, the recorder wrote down the class of the deceased.
“Third year in middle school, Class 5. Find the self-review books of this class.”
“Okay.”
Gu Yian and the Merchant skimmed the books while the Student acted as their lookout.
CRASH!
BOOM!
CRACK!
The ghosts caused countless objects to fall to the ground.
They were heavily blocked outside by the Witch.
The Witch used her own methods to cut off those ghostly shadows that wanted to impede Gu Yian and the others’ actions.
“Found it.” Scanning the self-review books, Gu Yian found one from the stack that wrote down the ritual to summon the demon.
Hearing this, the Merchant was about to stop.
But Gu Yian said, “While the Witch can still hold on, we’re going to find more and cross-check. There can’t be any mistakes in the ritual or we’ll waste our opportunity.”
The Merchant nodded and rapidly flipped through the self-review books of other classes, his hand almost leaving an afterimage.
The Student watched them search and felt extremely nervous, but there was no place for him to help.
“I have one here,” the Merchant said.
“I found another one,” Gu Yian said at the same time.
They didn’t use words to communicate and instead directly exchanged the self-review books in their hands.
“They’re the same,” the Merchant stated after reading.
“Mine are the same too,” Gu Yian confirmed.
“The winds press in, a call goes out,” the Merchant raised his voice and said this phrase. ¹
The Witch heard the meaning in his words and withdrew her hand, coming to where the Merchant, the Student, and Gu Yian were.
The Merchant told them, “Follow me closely.”
He opened a window, stepped onto the window sill, looked down, and threw out an object in his hand.
“This space is unstable, be quick.”
The Merchant jumped after he finished speaking.
Gu Yian didn’t hesitate and, only holding onto one self-review book that had the ritual for summoning the demon in hand, she flipped onto the window sill.
The Student was half a step behind her and said, “Pardon me.”
They had discussed before entering that the Student was responsible for protecting Gu Yian.
In an instant, Gu Yian felt someone wrap an arm around her waist from behind.
There was an ice-cold breath.
It was so very cold.
Her body stiffened.
That person brought her and dropped from high in the air.
The Student’s terrified shout could be heard against the sky, “Why did you jump?! AH! Witch, don’t kick me!!!”
