Chapter 31

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It was difficult for Shen Mu to tell which of the two Lovers he’d roped together was the Werewolf.

Based on what Lin Huiru had done during the preliminary round alone, it was already impossible for his younger sister, Shen Xin, to show sympathy toward Lin Huiru. However Shen Mu also remembered seeing Xie You’s helpless expression when she’d mentioned Lin Huiru, and the nickname she’d assigned her, ‘young miss’…

Junior sister also seemed to have motives for killing Lin Huiru …

Next, Shen Mu clicked on the game rules, checking the updated information.

‘This round of the game includes the Death Speech mode. The number of post-death speeches available is equal to the number of wolves in this round. There are three speeches in total, so the first three players to be eliminated are able to leave their last words. Their testaments will be displayed via the mobile phone.’

‘In this round, there will be a Sheriff. The election of the Sheriff will take place prior to the initial round of speeches during the first day. Players who wish to be considered as a candidate for the Sheriff can press the ‘participate’ button in the identity implementation section of their mobile phone. The election will take place between 9:00-9:01, and during this time the indicator in front of the candidates will turn yellow. The election process will begin with a number being chosen at random, after which the corresponding candidate player will have the opportunity to speak. After all electoral candidates have finished speaking, the players who’ve chosen not to apply for the position of Sheriff will be able to vote for one of the candidates. Players will have one minute to vote. If they enter their vote after this timeframe, it will be counted as abstaining. The player with the most votes will be elected as the sheriff. From there onwards, their vote will be equivalent to 1.5 votes, and after the Sheriff’s death, they can choose to hand over the Sheriff badge or remove it entirely from this round of the game.’

‘While the Sheriff is being elected, candidate players can choose to relinquish their place at any time. After withdrawing, although the yellow indicator will disappear, players who relinquish their position as a candidate will not be able to vote during the election.’

‘While running for the position of Sheriff, if two candidates receive an equal amount of votes, both players will make another speech, and all other players will be able to vote. If there is another draw, there will be a round of Foreign Assistance——In this round, with the exception of the two candidates who received a draw, all other players will be given the opportunity to speak based on their numerical order. After a round of speeches, voting will recommence for the two candidates. If the third round remains a draw, there will be no Sheriff.’

‘During the regular game speeches, Werewolves can choose to self-destruct. After the Werewolf self-destructs, the current round of speeches will end immediately. No players will be voted out during this round.’

‘If the Werewolf chooses to self-destruct while the Sheriff is being elected, players will immediately enter the night phase and the election of the Sheriff will recommence the following day. If there are no candidates on the second day, or if another wolf self-destructs during the voting process, then there will be no Sheriff in this round.’

‘When there is a Sheriff on the field, in the event of a peaceful night where no one is killed, the speaking order will begin from the player beside the Sheriff and the Sheriff will speak last; if one player dies during the night, speaking order will begin from the player beside the deceased; if multiple players die during the night, it is equivalent to a peaceful night and the speaking order will begin from the player next to the Sheriff. If there is no Sheriff, following the occurrence of a peaceful night or one in which multiple players die, speeches will begin from a random player.’

The remaining rules were all similar to those of the preliminaries. On odd numbered days, speeches would go in a clockwise direction, and on even numbered days, speeches would be anticlockwise. Each person would speak for three minutes and during their speech, other players could not interrupt.

After reading the rules, Shen Mu put his phone down. Regarding the new rules regarding the presence of the Sheriff, death speech, and self-explosion, Shen Mu had already anticipated that these might show up. After all, Werewolf games normally included death speeches and a Sheriff. When the rules that dictate the players’ speeches were announced in advance, Shen Mu had become even more certain of his own thoughts.

However… The rules were a little different from those in the outside world. Generally, when playing Werewolf, they would commence with the election. In order to give every player a chance to speak, the identities of the first players to die during the night would be announced following the Sheriff’s election. But in this round of the Suspended Life Game, Lin Huiru, the first to be eliminated, only had a single opportunity to speak, and that was by choosing to leave a Death Speech.

Ah, one more thing… Shen Mu lightly supported his chin. When a Sheriff was present in the outside world, they would be able to decide upon the order of the speeches, choosing whether to start from the right or left of the Sheriff or the deceased. They could even choose to speak first, and once every player had spoken, they could conclude with a guide for who to vote out. But in this round of the Suspended Life Game, the power of the Sheriff wasn’t as high, mainly due to the advantages of the Sheriff Badge and the additional 0.5 vote.

Although it was still early, Shen Mu had no intention of continuing to rest inside his room. Glancing at the sun outside the window, he tidied up a little. Then Shen Mu decided to go out.

As he pushed the ancient door open, it issued a “creak” sound. The shady corridor was quiet and peaceful. Shen Mu advanced through the passageway, coming to the empty hall on the ground floor only to find that someone was already standing at the door, a tall man sporting a slim physique.

Hearing the noise, that person turned his head toward him. Upon seeing that someone was coming, he nodded in a friendly manner, however his gaze was indistinct, obscured by his glasses.

It was the two-faced man with glasses! Shen Mu remained calm and collected, nodding at him amicably. Seeing No. 4 standing by himself next to the building’s front door, he had already begun to speculate as to his purpose.

Sure enough, as Shen Mu approached the bespectacled man, he spoke, “If you want to leave the building to walk around, I’m afraid that it isn’t possible.”

“Is the door locked?” Shen Mu asked.

“You can say that.” The sound of the man’s voice was deep and low, generating a feeling of warmth, “I’m inclined to believe that the game venue was sealed off by the system, rather than the door simply being locked.”

“Those glass windows probably aren’t ordinary glass windows either!” Shen Mu nodded in agreement. If someone really tried smashing the glass, he didn’t know if it would be in vain, or whether it would be judged as a violation.

At that moment, a noise came from the entrance to the staircase. The two looked back and Shen Mu recognized the girl who’d appeared as No. 8, the one from the photos whose appearance was delicate and lovable.

Seeing that there were already two people standing before the building’s front door, No. 8 was first startled, then after a pause, slowly walked over, “Can I ask, what you guys are doing here?”

As she approached, No. 8’s facial features became even more clear and refined. Her voice was very soft. Even in such an environment, her hair was still meticulously braided, making her look like an exquisite doll. She was the type of girl that aroused men’s protective instincts.

No. 4, the man wearing glasses, simply stood by the door and looked at her with a smile that wasn’t a smile. No. 8 shifted her gaze away from him and turned to look at Shen Mu again.

Shen Mu: “Look at the scenery.”

“…” No. 8 lowered her eyes, her body trembling slightly, appearing embarrassed and lost. The scene was quiet for a few seconds, before No. 8 spoke again. “Then you can appreciate it, I’ll go back first.”

Seeing that the two of them weren’t about to answer her, No. 8 turned and was really about to leave. After taking two steps, she remembered something, and glanced behind her, saying in an amicable way: “In fact, you can go upstairs and look, you can see it more clearly upstairs.”

“Thank you,” Shen Mu said with a smile, “I’ve finished looking.”

No. 8 looked towards No. 4.

“Okay.” Unexpectedly, No. 4 agreed, smiling at No. 8, “But shouldn’t this beautiful lady introduce herself first?”

“Bai Lin.” No. 8 answered softly, before looking at the numbers on Shen Mu and No. 4’s chest, asking, “You guys are No. 4 and No. 2? Why didn’t I see you yesterday?”

“En,” the bespectacled man smiled in a relaxed manner, “I spent too much energy while I was in the forest yesterday and fell asleep as soon as I arrived. I’ve been resting the entire time.”

Shen Mu: “Me too.”

“So it was like that,” Bai Lin nodded. After seeing that both Shen Mu and the bespectacled had no intention to say anything else, she asked again, “What are your names?”

“Du Xiulin.” The glasses man no longer concealed anything, stating his own name.

“An Mu.” Shen Mu followed by providing his ‘name’.

In the last round, Shen Xin had changed her own name to Qiu Kexin. Because of this, Shen Mu had discovered that the system didn’t restrict the use of pseudonyms. Reporting real names didn’t affect the game, but…

The biggest disadvantage of revealing your own name was that other players from the game could potentially find them in the real world and retaliate. In the rules of the Suspended Life Game, although it was prohibited to cheat in the real world through the exchange of identities, secret signals and other means of communication that might allow game secrets to be revealed, it didn’t prohibit violence toward other players.

In other words, harming or even killing players in reality would not bring punishment from the system.

But hurting other players in the real world was an action that harmed others and didn’t benefit oneself either since you wouldn’t know who you’d be with in the next round. It wasn’t that once you killed a player, you’d reduce the number of competitors. The quantity of players assigned to each round was fixed, so even if someone was missing, another person would be assigned to take their place.

What’s more, the real world was a society governed by laws. Even if you lost your sense of reason during the game, most people would calm down when they returned to reality.

And… Only the winner could return to reality. The loser would fall into a coma for a period of time, or even indefinitely. Even if the winner had suffered from another’s schemes in the past, they’d still have the desire to continue on to the end of the Suspended Life Game, hoping to win it. On the other hand, retaliating against others in the real world might backfire. They might even be arrested and sentenced to prison. No matter how deeply they resented the winner, the risks were simply too high for most players to justify putting everything on the line for petty revenge. At the very least, even if you revealed your real name, your opponent would be in a coma for some time and therefore you would be safe in the short term. As for when the defeated re-entered the game post-punishment, they would either grow wiser and choose a calculative victory, or they would harbour even deeper resentment made all the more vicious by their experience, and decide to destroy indiscriminately for the sake of revenge. It would be hard to say what would happen then.

Although you couldn’t change your appearance within the game, most people didn’t have the ability to find other players in reality based on their image alone. Unless the other party intentionally left clues, all they would be able to depend on was luck, and if the player changed their name as well, identifying them was even less likely.

Surprisingly, Du Xiulin actually went to the second floor with Bai Lin. Shen Mu headed back towards his room via the corridor, only to find that Xie You was standing at its entrance. Her eyes darted away, thinking about something known only to herself.

Seeing that Shen Mu had come over, Xie You met his gaze, and Shen Mu realised that she was pondering about his identity. In such a situation where she’d been singled out as a lover, it was more likely to have been done by an acquaintance than a stranger. However, she was unable to speak her mind since the game had already begun and she needed to be careful of what she said.

Xie You nodded towards Shen Mu and said something slightly surprising: “Were you with No. 4 just now? Yesterday he came together with Lin Huiru.”

Shen Mu froze momentarily, before remembering that No. 4 and No. 5 were connected.

When Xie You had mentioned Lin Huiru, her expression hadn’t changed very much, but of course, she wasn’t stupid enough to look happy. Whether she was a Werewolf or not, after having experienced the game for some time, it was only natural that she’d be able to conceal her emotions.

“Is he called Du Xiulin?” Shen Mu asked.

Xie You nodded: “That’s what he said.” Then she thought of something and added, “Oh right, senior, please don’t tell my real name to others, okay? Just pretend that you aren’t familiar with me and that you don’t know what my name is.”

Shen Mu nodded to express his understanding, silently giving his teammate a like.

It would be inappropriate for “Unfamiliar people” to be seen standing together, as in the eyes of others, it would prove that they were affiliated. Thus, Shen Mu bid farewell to Xie You and returned to his room.

Xie You stood alone in front of the corridor window, watching the green leaves outside the window wave gently in the breeze, indistinguishable from their counterparts that existed in reality. Standing there, she recalled her first encounter with Lin Huiru and Du Xiulin the day before …

When Xie You had descended the stairs from the third floor, Lin Huiru and Du Xiulin had already entered the game building. In the lobby on the first floor, Xie You had observed their transformed uniforms, the numbers 4 and 5 on their clothes allowing her to deduct that numbers were arranged in order of the players’ arrival.

Xie You had formed a very deep impression of the two and Du Xiulin’s calmness and Lin Huiru’s nervousness had presented a sharp contrast. The three of them had talked a little, coming to understand slightly more about their current situation. When they’d learned that neither player No. 1 or No. 2 had opened their doors, and that there were no traces of other players anywhere else in the building, the lenses of Du Xiulin’s glasses had flashed with a reflective light, thinking thoughts known only to him.

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