In the upper right corner of the empty factory, a surveillance camera subtly rotated, its lens reflecting Caleb standing before a square, low table.
Behind the surveillance camera, in a dim room, a tall man wearing a black and red cloak sat in front of several monitors. The man's hands were crossed over his chest, and beneath his cloak was a hideous, scarred face. His eyes were deep and fervent, fixed on the screen. Upon noticing Caleb pull out the small piece of paper, the man slightly straightened his posture. His face was clouded with gloom, and he stiffly reached out to touch a nearby Pig Head Mask. After a while, he seemed to recall something, and the expression on his face was replaced by a strange confidence, though his eyes contained an even greater, chilling killing intent.
"Hey! Are you done yet? We're running out of time!" John shrieked hysterically: "Oh, f—k… f—k you, get me down from here."
Caleb ignored him, fully concentrating. It took him about a minute and a half to read through all 100 quotes, and there wasn't much time left before the 'Adding Fuel to the Fire' device activated.
'These negative short comments all look pretty similar on the surface…' He began his second read-through, thinking in his mind. 'What's the connection? Connected to what? There must be a connection!'
Time passed by second by second, and Caleb's heart gradually sped up due to tension. The Concentration Stance could only make his brain clear, but with the initial activation of 'Super State,' his brain transitioned from mere clarity to Active.
'The connection must be the opening video footage, right? The game system wouldn't arrange meaningless content…' He began to recall the video footage he saw when he entered the game.
'Student jumped from a building? What was the reason for that?'
The video footage in his memory froze on the two students making sarcastic remarks.
"He really jumped, but he's just putting on a show to clear his name." "Yeah, after doing something like that, if it were me, I wouldn't have the face to continue living in this world…"
Caleb instinctively grasped these two sentences. What did the student who jumped do? To clear what accusation?
"Mom and Dad… I'm the one who implicated you…"
There was also the last sentence spoken by the boy who jumped. Suddenly, Caleb's hand, which was flipping through the papers, paused. On the white paper below, a 'quote' was clearly printed:
[His parents should bear primary responsibility for this! This is a failure of family education!]
This 'quote' clearly fit Andrew's last words. 'A very obvious clue.'
After extracting the paper, Caleb continued to look through the rest. There seemed to be a chain reaction between clues. Once Caleb successfully found the first clue and had a vague idea in his mind, the subsequent clue-finding process immediately became much simpler.
"This should be the second sentence."
'Quote':
[Those who commit school bullying should all be sentenced!]
The connection lay in the four words 'school bullying.' With the appearance of this sentence, a corner of the background story of the scene was also revealed.
"Is the cause of the story a school bullying incident?" Caleb instantly recalled the TV puppet's narration earlier. In this game, his assigned identity was a journalist who reported the truth of an incident against his conscience for profit. And John, in front of him, was a hired internet troll and keyboard warrior. "A bit interesting."
Combining these clues, the general storyline became clear. Most likely, the character Caleb played made a false report about a school bullying incident. To increase online popularity, he found John to build momentum for his report. This kind of situation, this common media hype tactic, is all too common in today's internet age.
Next, as Caleb continued to look for more clues, the paper recording the third quote was directly outlined before Caleb's eyes. This was a unique manifestation when triggering the clue-solving effect of the 'Concentration' Stance.
[Such scum is unforgivable, they should just die immediately.]
This clue appeared at the end of the 100 quotes; flipping further down revealed 'quotes' that were clearly unrelated.
'So, there are a total of 3 clues related to the password!'
...The activation time for the 'Adding Fuel to the Fire' device was down to the last two and a half minutes. The password to disable the device was hidden within these 3 sentences. The timer was counting down second by second. Below the timer, there was a rotary combination lock that required turning the correct 3-digit password to unlock it, and only then would the death countdown on the timer stop.
'Among 100 sentences, only 3 are related. Could the number of these short comments be one of the password digits?' If that were true, what would the other two digits be? And in what order would the three digits on the combination lock be arranged? If all 3 digits had been found, then the order could be tested using the most basic method. But if the digits weren't all found, even if only 1 digit was unknown, the number of possible arrangements would be countless.
Sweat was already trickling down Caleb's forehead, and his heart rate accelerated to a person's resting heart rate.
"Still not done? No time left, oh my god, I don't want to die," As the activation time for the 'Adding Fuel to the Fire' device approached, John's shouts grew more anxious: "Oh God, after that incident happened, I quit the internet keyboard warrior business. Why, after so long, are people still holding onto this…"
'Hmm?!' John's seemingly inadvertent remark carried a strong sense of design. This guy clearly understood what the deep voice said. Then, as arranged by the game system, he threw out this big clue to the player through seemingly casual complaints before death. It should be noted that the system would not arrange irrelevant content. John's so-called 'that incident happened' must refer to the school bullying incident in the background story.
'The mastermind's original intention in designing this death game should be to punish the target.' Caleb had not watched the Saw film series and did not understand the original intention behind the 'death games' in the movies. 'The content of the 3 short comments all point to that unknown school violence incident. The game designer's purpose in doing this must be to evoke John's memories of it, right?'
Thinking this, Caleb shook his head slightly.
'It seems my starting point was wrong. The password digits are not hidden within the 3 sentences, but need to be obtained from John's memories and narration.'