Game of Deception Chapter 12: The Murdered Lin Ya

At this point, the eyes hanging around the black cat's neck looked aningfully at Raccoon.

Realizing sothing, Raccoon turned pale.

Without a mask to hide behind, her expression was instantly exposed to the others.

Combined with her identity and the cause of her death, her cri was practically self-evident.

"...I see. The further forward the seat, the lighter the cri?"

Fox caught on quickly. "Then it seems the old bear really didn't kill anyone..."

"Heh heh heh..."

The mouth hanging around the black cat's neck chuckled with amusent. "Be glad you ran into . Other Hosts wouldn't be nearly as talkative... But I've never liked being a riddler. As long as newcors can spot the inconsistencies in the ga and ask , I'll do my best to answer."

"I understand," Fox muttered. "Because the seating arrangent was actually decided before the ga even started, it's not a rule of this specific ga, but an unwritten rule of the entire Ga of Deception..."

At this, Fox suddenly froze.

He jerked his head up and stared at Wolf.

If...

If a seat further back ant a heavier cri, then what about Wolf, who didn't even have a seat...?

"According to my original plan, you weren't supposed to play this ga. It should have been [Escape the Sheepfold]. Unfortunately, soone died before the ga began... so we didn't have enough people."

The mouth on the black cat's back sighed and spoke thodically, yet its lips curled into a mocking sneer. "Or rather, you should be rejoicing.

"'Wolf' was originally ant to be the faction opposing you. If it weren't for the fact that soone sought their own death and perished unexpectedly before the ga was confird, combined with Rabbit's invitation...

"Judging by your personalities and level of unity, if the original ga had proceeded normally, I'm afraid no more than two 'sheep' would have escaped 'Wolf's' hunt. You might have even been completely wiped out."

...Wolf is our enemy?

Rabbit, Fox, and Raccoon were stunned by these words.

Because according to the Host, this ga was "fair."

If they went by that underlying rule...

That ant Wolf alone was roughly equal in strength to all twelve of them combined!

Among their twelve, there were smart people like Fox and Fish, second playthrough players like Bear and Butterfly who brought back information, and physically powerful fighters like Dog. And this entire team of theirs was judged by the Host to be on the sa level as Wolf?

Was it precisely because Wolf was too strong that this ga—one with almost no room for strategy and heavily reliant on luck—was chosen... to hinder his performance and balance his strength?

Rabbit suddenly held her breath.

Her mind went completely blank. The lingering fear and terror rising in her heart made her gasp uncontrollably, as if she were having an asthma attack.

She suddenly figured sothing out—

Why, when she walked out the door, the person on the ground was covered in blood, yet "Mr. Ai" only had a few drops of blood on the tip of his left shoe?

He showed absolutely no signs of a struggle at the ti and carried no sharp weapons. Yet the wounds on that person were as exaggerated as those of Dog, who had been torn apart while trying to escape the giant sword's execution.

Unless...

A single attack from Wolf ant death!

This ga lobby had no other decorations, yet there just had to be a door with no handle that only allowed exit and not entry, just like the "gate to a sheepfold."

If they could leave by clearing the ga, they wouldn't actually need this door at all.

And Rabbit had seen it very clearly back then: outside the door was a gray world devoid of color and sound.

Given that this ga should normally have thirteen people, that twelve giant swords hung over their heads ready to execute anyone they fell upon, and that there was a "seating order based on cris, where further back is more disadvantageous"...

Then what were the original chanics and rules of this ga supposed to be?

In a daze, Lin Ya guessed the truth.

It was probably either sothing like hide-and-seek, or an escape-and-hunt scenario akin to Identity V.

They likely needed to leave in a specific order, and failing to et certain conditions would result in execution by the giant swords...

Lin Ya felt her heart pounding endlessly, beating so hard she could clearly feel the thumping in her neck.

—Would Fox really participate in such a cruel and dangerous ga a second ti?

If it were her, she would never dare to join such a brutal ga again.

She just wanted to co back to life.

Lin Ya had no idea why she had died.

She only rembered that when she felt suffocated and her consciousness blurred, her body beca incredibly heavy and completely immobilized. It was as if her eyelids had been sealed with cent; she couldn't move a muscle.

That must have been the effect of so sleeping pills.

The worst part was that her death could easily be ruled a suicide.

Because just the day before, she had written a suicide note in a fit of emotional distress.

But in reality, she had felt much better after writing it. It was like a diet plan—just listing it out made her feel as though she had already exercised.

After that, she invited a few close friends over to her place for hotpot and they drank quite a bit of alcohol.

The reason Lin Ya was cyberbullied was very simple.

During her livestream that day, as usual, she had connected with a young boy who seed deeply infatuated.

He was a vocational school student. His girlfriend was his childhood sweetheart from elentary school, and they now lived in the sa city but attended different schools. Not long ago, a friend told him that he had discovered his girlfriend was still working as a hostess at a nightclub. The hot-headed kid imdiately got into a huge argunt with that friend, even coming to blows and putting his friend in the hospital.

Afterward, he went to see for himself and found out his friend was telling the truth. Then he and his girlfriend got into another argunt in public. The girl beca emotionally hysterical, started crying on the spot, and had the security guards throw the young man out.

So, he ca to consult Lin Ya. He asked her if she thought there was any need to maintain this relationship.

Lin Ya felt that, of course, there was no need.

Therefore, when he asked for her advice, she stated with absolute certainty, "She doesn't like you," and "She should respect your opinions more," repeatedly emphasizing and urging him to break up as soon as possible.

She had already sensed that his tone wasn't quite right at the ti—he was whimpering as he spoke, and his words were starting to make little sense.

But there were a huge number of concurrent viewers then. She felt this story would go viral if clipped, so she didn't comfort him. Instead, she kept insisting that the boy call his girlfriend imdiately to set things straight and demanded that he not disconnect the call—she even said, "You can have her question him," when she saw the boy was reluctant.

As a result, Lin Ya completely failed to anticipate that... the young man would jump off a building without even going through the process of confronting, arguing with, or breaking up with the girl.

Although he didn't die on the spot, he was left paralyzed, in a vegetative state, and permanently disabled.

His mother rushed over from the countryside, making a scene with banners and weeping loudly, threatening to sue her and demanding compensation.

The incident caused a massive uproar for a while.

Lin Ya had consulted a lawyer and confird that she shouldn't have to bear any legal responsibility—at least no criminal liability. However, netizens believed she should bear at least indirect responsibility—because if her attitude hadn't been so aggressive, her emotions not so intense, or if she had advocated for reconciliation, or even just comforted him a little, things wouldn't have escalated to that point.

Lin Ya felt incredibly wronged.

Livestreams were supposed to be highly emotional!

Since he connected with a strear, he should have been prepared to beco content for entertainnt and clips. The voice changer she prepared for callers was specifically so videos could be made without violating anyone's privacy.

Lin Ya believed that she neither incited him to die nor lied to him, and she even advised him to break up, live a good life, and treat himself better. However, he didn't listen to her and chose to jump off a building on his own. What did that have to do with her?

Was she just supposed to accept her bad luck for running into a lunatic?

So Lin Ya got into a huge argunt with the netizens.

As a result, she was directly doxxed, and people dug up her past extre comnts to attack her.

She was no longer able to stream normally. Although her account wasn't banned, whenever she went live, people either ca "drawn by her infamy" or just to vent their malice.

Even though she thought she was right—and actually, there were quite a few people online who agreed with her, keeping the public opinion roughly split down the middle—Lin Ya's own mother didn't see it that way.

She also believed Lin Ya was at fault, even planning to sell their house to pay compensation.

Thus, the pressure from her family beca the straw that broke the cal's back.

Lin Ya wrote her suicide note through streaming tears.

Part of it stemd from the grievance of feeling completely innocent, while another part was born of a hateful desire to make her mother regret her actions.

She fantasized about actually dying and how remorseful her mother would be upon seeing the suicide note, finding a twisted satisfaction in this thod to carry out a "revenge only she knew about"...

So by the ti she finished writing it, she had pretty much recovered. It was really just her throwing a tantrum.

—But after that, she died inexplicably.

When she woke up again, she was already appearing at the round table.

Who was the one who killed her?

Her roommate? The other friends who ca over to drink that day? Or did soone else break in?

But none of those options made sense.

Because she had a great relationship with her roommate and friends, Lin Ya was certain none of them had a motive to kill her.

However, her death was too coincidental. It happened exactly after she wrote the suicide note... yet she hadn't told anyone about it, nor had anyone seen it.

Such a coincidence.

It was as if...

...soone who knew all this information had co back from the future to kill her.

Lin Ya originally had no clue about this, until she heard about the function of Ti Chips. Only then did a thought suddenly strike her mind—

Could it be that soone used Ti Chips to travel back to the past, killing her to alter so future she wasn't yet aware of?

That was... a murder existing only in the crevices of ti.

Just realizing that the person who wanted to kill her was in this very ga filled Lin Ya with dread.

It was like coming ho, unlocking the door, and hearing the sounds of a burglar rummaging through the apartnt where she lived alone.

Perhaps soone brave enough would angrily storm in to yell at the intruder, or even beat them up. But Lin Ya was the type who would imdiately lock the door from the outside, run far away, and then call the police.

But...

Looking at Raccoon and Fox right now, Lin Ya felt a strong sense of unease.

Unlike her.

Both Raccoon and Fox clearly intended to participate in the next round of gas.

According to Lin Ya's analysis, Wolf was likely a thrill-seeker, perhaps even addicted to it. He might even have so degree of high-functioning antisocial personality traits.

Judging by his reaction after surviving the previous round, high-risk behavior was already enough to trigger his neural reward system.

Not to ntion, he was originally selected by the Host as the "killer."

Just as the Host had said... he had a "talent" for this sort of thing.

He would definitely continue participating in the Ga of Deception!

...So, in this situation, could she still obtain Wolf's friendship?

Would he give up on two other teammates who could ally with him, just to cooperate with her, soone who would cut and run as soon as she won?

Or rather, from the very beginning, did such a thing as "friendship" even exist between them?

"The fourth round narration phase has ended. Entering the discussion phase."

Right at that mont, the Host's declaration fell.

Everyone instinctively cast their gazes toward Wolf.

Fox, Rabbit, Raccoon... even though the three of them were the "majority" who could decide Wolf's life or death, they had, at so unknown point, beco Wolf's puppets.

It was as if any one of them could die, except for Wolf.

This clearly ran completely contrary to the rules of the ga, yet everyone felt it was only natural.

Suddenly, Wolf turned around and looked at Lin Ya.

"Do you believe in ?"

He asked, "Can you trust under any circumstances?"

"...I can!"

Lin Ya hesitated for a split second before nodding vigorously.

Imdiately after, Wolf looked at Raccoon and asked the sa question.

"I can! I definitely can!"

Raccoon answered without hesitation.

"Then let's establish one thing first."

Ming Po held up a finger, speaking with a gentle elegance. "This round will be the final ti soone dies in this ga.

"In other words, if Raccoon makes it to the next round, no matter who dies this round, don't kill her in the next. Is that acceptable?"

Seeing no objections, Ming Po took off his mask.

He then snapped his mask in half, dipped his finger in blood, and wrote different instructions on each piece.

"For our final round, let's skip the gambling and hostage-taking nonsense. That's boring. Let's return to psychological warfare... just like at the very beginning."

Ming Po smiled, his gaze deep and profound. "Now anyone could die. How fascinating."

Lin Ya stared blankly at Ming Po.

So blood had sared onto his face when he removed his mask.

It added a chillingly sinister aura to his handso features.

In that mont, Lin Ya felt exactly like the young female police officer looking at Hannibal.

Imdiately after, Ming Po handed the two halves of the mask to Raccoon and Rabbit.

Raccoon opened the mask nervously, only to see a single sentence written on it:

"Rabbit will vote Blue, I will vote Red; you decide our life and death."

anwhile, Rabbit carefully lifted her half of the mask, which bore this sentence:

"Raccoon will vote Blue, I will vote Red; you decide our life and death."

"—Shh."

Ming Po held up a finger, making a hushing gesture.

He smiled, slowly and deliberately pressing the button in his right hand.

His deep, magnetic voice rang out. "Don't say it out loud.

"Just cast your votes, ladies."