We woke up once again in an incredibly bizarre place. It was an open clearing nestled right in the middle of a deformed forest. The surrounding tree trunks were charred pitch-black, standing bare like the gaunt arms of demons. From the branches, a viscous, foul-smelling slime continuously oozed downward. The ground was stained a desolate, solid black, with only a few withered, yellow blades of grass sparsely piercing through. Casting my gaze into the distance, all that could be seen was a thick, frigid shroud of fog.
I hurriedly looked around. The others had also just woken up at the exact same time as us. Counting both myself and Yashu, there was a total of 10 players in this round.
Right at that moment, from a high treetop, a figure wearing a strange, smiling mask suddenly spoke up. His voice echoed with a sinister, eerie charm, laced with a hair-raising madness:
-"WELCOME, ALL OF YOU, TO MY PLAYGROUND!"
The bizarre atmosphere around us caused a new player to look completely bewildered. He panicked and shrieked loudly:
-"What kind of ghostly place is this?! Someone please tell me what's going on?!"
Seeing that everyone else around him maintained a terrifyingly silent and calm composure, he began to lose control, laughing forcedly as if about to go mad:
-"Ah… I get it! This is definitely a reality TV show, right? You guys staged this on purpose to surprise the contestants, didn't you? Isn't that right?!"
Everyone remained completely silent. But before anyone could speak, that man lost all his patience and rushed recklessly toward the base of the tree where the masked figure stood:
-"You're the Show Manager, right?! Hurry up and take me back right now! I'm about to be late for work!"
The masked figure lowered his head slightly to look down at the man, letting out a mocking sneer:
-"I am the Game Master of this mission, not the manager of some trashy show."
Seeing the man continue to scream disruptively, the Game Master gave a slight wave of his hand. Instantly, the iron cages hanging suspended from the tree branches rattled and plummeted down. A pack of hideous hounds lunged out from within, completely surrounding the poor man.
The wretched man struggled frantically, using what little strength he had left to drag a nearby chair over. He hastily sat on it, straining his body in an attempt to climb over to our side to beg for help. But the ferocious hounds gave him absolutely no chance to do so. They pounced and dragged him down, tearing into him with brutal savagery.
-"YOU PEOPLE ARE CRAZY! ALL CRAZY!!!"
The agonizing screams echoed throughout the entire forest. A few new players, unable to bear this horrifyingly bloody sight, quickly turned their faces away and gagged. This move could be considered "killing the chicken to scare the monkey" to establish authority, couldn't it?
But deep down, I always felt that something wasn't right. Was this Game Master really this short-tempered? To directly resort to murder over just a few lines of argument, it seemed the upcoming developments would be far more brutal. I needed to exercise maximum caution.
Waiting until the screams faded entirely, the pack of hounds began to ravenously devour the remaining scraps of flesh left on the black ground before they finally agreed to return to their hanging cages. Only then did the Game Master dust off his hands, continuing in an amused tone:
-"Now! What an exquisite warm-up session! Now, everyone gather over here."
He pointed his gaunt finger toward a large round table placed right in the dead center of the forest. Around the table were 10 wooden chairs corresponding to the 10 original players - well, to be exact, there were only 9 people left now.
Right behind the round table, I also observed 10 tattered tents arranged in an arc. It seemed that would be our resting place when night fell.
Following the masked figure's command, the 9 of us silently advanced toward the large round table, sitting down one by one in the exact positions he had prearranged. The Game Master stood perched high on the treetop, crossing his arms and looking down at us with an air of condescending superiority, before starting to loudly announce the rules of the game:
-"Allow me to reintroduce myself once more. I am the Game Master of this mission. The game you are about to participate in is incredibly simple. It is called: Werewolf - a folk card game that is already all too familiar to the human world. The core rules are not complicated at all: Divided into two factions. The Villagers faction must find and completely eradicate the Werewolf faction. Conversely, the Werewolf faction will attempt to disguise themselves, deceive, and eliminate each Villager one by one to claim the ultimate victory."
Seeing everyone still listening in silence, the Game Master curled his lips into a smile and continued:
-"However, in my playground, there will exist exactly 5 types of role cards: 1 Werewolf, 1 Guard, 1 Coward, 1 Traitor, and the remaining 6 cards are normal Villagers."
As soon as he finished speaking, he waved his hand, causing a role board made of demonic energy to materialize and float in mid-air. The information was very brief and easy to remember:
[ Wolf ]: The objective is to eliminate the Villagers faction. When the number of Villagers equals the number of Wolves (meaning only 1 person remains), or the Villagers faction is completely wiped out, the Wolf wins and receives an extremely generous reward.
[ Guard ]: Has the right to protect 1 person each night (including themselves), but is absolutely forbidden from protecting the same person for two consecutive nights.
[ Coward ]: Granted immunity from death exactly once if unfortunately voted by everyone to be hanged during the day.
[ Traitor ]: Belongs to the Wolf faction, but the Wolf and the Traitor do not know each other's identities. Only when the Wolf wins does the Traitor win. Special note: If the Traitor dies along the way but the Wolf faction still wins the final victory, the Traitor will be resurrected.
Yashu was sitting right next to me. She leaned in slightly, lowering her voice to whisper:
-"I feel like this mission is going to be extremely tense."
I gave a subtle nod, clenching my fist as I replied:
-"Indeed. If either of us is unlucky enough to draw the Wolf or the Traitor card… things will truly be a massive trouble."
-"Does anyone have any objections?" the Game Master continued to ask. Waiting for a few seconds but seeing no one utter a sound, he then declared further: "If no one has any questions, then I shall announce the game rules: You are not allowed to write down your identity, or give your identity card to others to read. If violated, that piece of writing will disappear, and that person will be severely punished! In addition, these are the laws for you."
As soon as he finished speaking, an old wooden board abruptly lowered from the tree canopy along a long strand of spider silk, dropping right before our eyes:
+Rule 1: The Wolf is a traitor; he HAS NEVER belonged to your Villagers faction.
+Rule 2: The Wolf HAS NEVER been an outsider; he is ONE OF THE NAMES who have sat at this round table.
Everyone around closely stared up at the board to read. I also silently memorized every single word into my mind.
Reading through it, it seemed these two rules were completely contradictory and conflicting. Because the sentence above firmly asserted: "The Wolf does not belong to the Villagers faction," yet the very next sentence claimed: "The Wolf has never been an outsider."
But could the truth really be as simple as a mere contradiction?
I narrowed my eyes, staring intently at the lines of text. Rule 2 clearly wrote: "The names who have sat at this round table." That meant the man who had just been torn apart by the dogs also entirely had the possibility of being the Wolf.
If this hypothesis was correct, it would explain quite a few things that were initially absurd. For instance, why he suddenly struggled so frantically, trying with all his might to drag a nearby chair to sit on it no matter what before dying. Did he do that to fulfill the condition of "sitting at the round table" in order to activate the game?
My thoughts were suddenly cut short by the voice of the Game Master. He raised both hands high, his mask grinning from ear to ear:
-"Let the card dealing begin!" That figure waved his hand forcefully, and 10 cards suddenly shot out from inside his wide sleeves, hovering in the air before dropping precisely onto the 10 chairs around the round table.
Looking at the mysterious card resting neatly in my position, my heart involuntarily skipped a beat, and my fingers trembled slightly. I glanced over at Yashu and saw that she had already flipped her card to look with a pensive expression; the other players around also shared similar countenances. Taking a deep breath to regain my composure, I carefully picked up my card and flipped it open:
{ Coward }
In my heart, I secretly let out a sigh of relief. I began to focus on carefully reading the lines of text curving across the surface of the card:
{ Coward }
-Description: You were born faint-hearted, clinging to life and fearing death. One night, you were suspected by the villagers and voted to be hanged. Out of fear, you fled before the Judge could pass trial. But could you be that lucky next time?
-Function: Immune to death caused by voting once.
The Game Master slightly nudged his smiling mask up a bit, speaking in a mocking tone:
-"Since there is currently a player existing in the form of a soul, we have one extra card left over. Therefore, I shall take the liberty of pinning this card tightly to his chair, and anyone is forbidden from touching it! My hounds are very ferocious."
As soon as he finished speaking, that ownerless card slowly descended, sticking rock-solid to the wooden chair that was stained with smears of the ill-fated man's fresh blood. Looking at it, it was obvious there was absolutely no way to remove it anymore. The Game Master spoke up once again:
-"Alright! Since it's a game, we should know who our companions are, shouldn't we? Now I will directly read out all of your names, to save the trouble of long and bothersome introductions."
PLAYER LIST:
-Seat No. 1: Chen Ying Ke (Deceased)
-Seat No. 2: Zhou Jing Nian
-Seat No. 3: Mo Feng Yan
-Seat No. 4: Guo Xie Ruo
-Seat No. 5: Chu Hao Cheng
-Seat No. 6: Yun Xiao Yao
-Seat No. 7: Lin Kai Ze
-Seat No. 8: Guang Jun Ning
-Seat No. 9: Zhao Tianxia (Me)
-Seat No. 10: Qing Yashu
The moment I heard the name Chu Hao Cheng at seat number 5, my heart instantly skipped a beat. This name... sounded strangely familiar!
I hurriedly cast my gaze toward seat number 5. Right at this moment, the tall man sitting there was also looking blankly toward me. His appearance had changed so much that no wonder from the moment I woke up until now, I hadn't recognized him at all: He had completely erased his previous fierce, tiger-and-leopard tattoos, his hair was neatly groomed, and his face radiated a thoroughly gentle and honest demeanor.
-"Tianxia...?" - He suddenly blurted out upon seeing my face clearly.
For those who have forgotten, this was the very man who had once gone through life and death with me, accompanying me in the first mission in the Bizarre World [ The character Chu Hao Cheng appeared in Chapter 4! ]