abcnovels
Chapter 319: 318: Public Execution!
Chapter 319: 318: Public Execution!
Chapter 319: 318: Public Execution!
Translator: 549690339
“Don’t you plan to search the first-floor rooms again?”
Fu Yangxia indeed wanted to do so, to see what was different about other people’s rooms. However, seeing Du Gang standing in the hallway outside the living room, he said, “What if that hexagonal tool is in their rooms?”
Du Gang glanced at him, casually saying, “There is no need. So many people have searched one by one. If they found anything, there would have been a commotion. They wouldn’t keep it from us…”
After a series of searches, he found out that the werewolf was not simple, not a common person. If uncovered merely by the slip he carelessly left behind, then it was most likely a ploy.
High heels wouldn’t be found on the second floor either. There must be a secret room or a place to hide things in this villa.
Not only the high heels, but that hexagonal tool is also hidden somewhere.
He made this judgment purely because this place was a mission world. If they didn’t want them to see the identity inside the identity machine, they should have not created the hexagonal hole in the first place.
But they did. Clearly, they wanted some of them to see the identity inside.
Two possibilities exist.
The first one, the identity inside, is the identity everyone chose at the beginning of the game.
If that is the case, the hexagonal tool might be very hard to find. It’s possible that many people will have to die for it to be activated, it would be the final escape method.
The second one, the identity inside, was not the one everyone chose at the beginning, but was changed by the werewolf!
He had been puzzled yesterday about why six hours were allocated for the night.
But now, after seeing these hidden things, he was wondering whether that time had been reserved for the werewolf?
For the werewolf to find the tools? Or to hide things?!
If the second possibility held true, then the werewolf might not have already accessed the machine upstairs…
While he was pondering, someone came down the stairs in the living room. It was Liang Chu, who came down alone.
Liang Chu seemed to fear the main door in the living room. After going down the stairs, he sped up and briskly got out of the living room.
He was originally headed straight for Du Gang, but his expression changed slightly when he saw Fu Yangxia. However, he quickly recovered.
Du Gang squinted his eyes, smiling faintly, “Well? Have you found any clues?”
Seeing his demeanor, Liang Chu was first taken aback, but quickly reacted. He responded with a smile of his own, “We didn’t find any clues, but we discussed and decided to let you two up…”
“Besides, you haven’t eaten yet, right? There’s food upstairs!”
After his remark, Du Gang did feel a bit hungry.
This body is excessively frail, after series of analysis, his brain has been running low on energy.
Du Gang nodded his head, “Okay, we’ll go up and eat.”
Quickly, Du Gang and Fu Yangxia followed Liang Chu upstairs.
“What’s upstairs?”
When climbing the stairs, Du Gang casually asked.
“There is a kitchen, a storage room, a gym, a study, a balcony and so on. You’ll see it for yourself!”
Du Gang nodded and didn’t ask any more questions. There were many things he couldn’t ask with Fu Yangxia present. Even if he did, he estimated Liang Chu wouldn’t answer.
Next, the three of them kept silent, bearing the fear emanating from the door of the living room, quickly climbed up to the second floor.
The moment they reached the second floor, the terror disappeared, as if they had entered strictly defined territory.
Upon reaching the upper floor, the first thing they noticed was what looked like a balcony. On it, there lied a tatami about thirty centimeters above the ground. Instead of a window, an ill-fitting door stood.
A double door similar to the one on the first floor, but this one held no terror. It even had an inexplicable attraction, tempting one to enter.
If it weren’t for the hint of red light seeping through the cracks of the door, perhaps no one would want to open it.
“The outside of this door should be the balcony, but now, it has become a deadly spot!”
Liang Chu shrugged, having passed through multiple times, he had developed a resistance to this sort of appeal and wasn’t affected by it.
Du Gang curiously asked, “Has no one tried to open the door and take a look inside?”
Liang Chu rolled his eyes, “Who would dare?”
“The red light leaking from around the door is clearly the same as the one on the first floor. Both are gruesome and bone-chilling, with the only difference being that the first floor’s door didn’t hide its terror, while this one on the second floor, masked itself.”
Staring at the door emitting red light, Du Gang muttered, “The stilettos, could they possibly be inside there?”
Liang Chu, intrigued by his words, crossed his arms and slowly said, “You mean, the werewolf might not be afraid of that red light?”
Du Gang shook his head, “I don’t know. Maybe the red light disappears when night falls. Unless someone dares to venture out in the darkness, there’s no way to confirm it.”
The group didn’t linger there; although the red light didn’t give them the same terror as the first floor, it kept luring them like the Big Bad Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, ceaselessly tempting them to open the door.
There was also a small living room on the second floor, co-existing with the balcony within the same space. Even though they weren’t close to each other, the red light visible from the balcony made them quickly move towards the corridor up front without lingering.
Unlike the layout on the first floor, the corridor up front was a somewhat straight path, three times as wide as the one on the first floor, roughly three meters wide.
On both sides of the corridor, there were several doors leading to other rooms.
As Liang Chu was walking, he introduced, “This one is the kitchen, there’s a small storage inside, stocked with food…”
“This one is the study, it contains lots of books, all of which I’ve never seen before…”
Du Gang nodded, although he had no idea why the World Will provided them with this layout, there might be a clue inside.
“This is the training room, it contains a lot of workout equipment, all quite ordinary as if designed for regular people…”
Before long, the three of them reached the very end, “in here are the bathroom and the restroom…”
Liang Chu was familiar with these facilities; he’d seen them in other worlds and could easily name them.
He laughed, “Let’s go, head to the kitchen and grab something to eat.”
He didn’t mention it before, but once he did, Du Gang really felt hungry.
In fact, his mind started to get a little fuzzy.
A normal human body requires energy for the brain, even if he wanted to think, his body wouldn’t allow him to at this moment!
Du Gang nodded, “Alright, let’s eat first.”
Liang Chu glanced at Fu Yangxia. He wanted to talk to Du Gang alone, but it was hard to pull him away from Fu, so he had to find an excuse to leave.
If he didn’t leave soon, it would become too obvious that he was being too nice to Du Gang.
“By the way, in which room are the others?”
Du Gang asked as Liang Chu was about to leave. They had just passed several rooms without entering any.
Liang Chu laughed, “Apart from the kitchen, they’re in other rooms looking for clues!”
They scattered?
Du Gang sighed, which meant that the true werewolf could now act alone. But it wasn’t a pity, opportunities like these were plenty.
He nodded, quickly entering the kitchen with Fu Yangxia.
Upon entering the kitchen, Du Gang paused, because he noticed that the decoration style here was similar to that in the spaceship, which was quite odd.
The kitchen was big, longer than nine meters and over four meters wide, divided into two parts. One was for basic cooking ingredients and utensils, clearly for cooking.
The other part was the ready-to-eat food area with lots of snacks and foods that Du Gang recognized: bread, snacks.
He casually picked up a piece of bread, turning it over and over, trying to see if there was a place of manufacture on it.
Unfortunately, besides a cartoon image, there were no other text details.
The cooking area was spotless and unused. Du Gang naturally didn’t plan to use it either; not to mention the cleanliness, only he knew how to use it while the others didn’t, which would become a problem.
However, he still opened the bread and ate as he walked over.
An induction cooker, a gas stove; these were the cooking tools laid out before him.
But Du Gang’s focus was on the wiring. He wanted to see where the electricity and natural gas in this place came from.
Unfortunately, he didn’t find it!
Neither the induction cooker nor the gas stove had any external wires or pipes connected to them.
“Does it work?”
Du Gang muttered and extended his hand, lightly pressing the switch on the induction cooker.
“Beep~~!”
A familiar yet strange sound, lasting for about two seconds, rang out.
This sound left Du Gang in a trance. It was as if he was back on Earth, back in his familiar home…
In contrast, Fu Yangxia eating bread on the side and watching his actions showed no signs of surprise.
As he savored his food and observed Du Gang’s actions, he quickly asked when he saw him in a daze, “Did you find anything?”
Du Gang immediately sobered up and, observing Fu Yangxia’s expression, knew without much thought that this guy had absolutely no understanding of induction cookers or natural gas.
If he didn’t understand these things, naturally he wouldn’t know the function of wiring and piping.
Nevertheless, this also meant that on these wires, the World Will didn’t give them any room to manipulate.
Thinking about this, Du Gang was suddenly taken aback and turned around to walk outside.
“Where are you going?”
Fu Yangxia hastily asked.
“To use the bathroom!!”
Du Gang replied curtly without looking back.
Since there were no wires here, was there any plumbing in the bathroom?
Upon hearing this, Fu Yangxia didn’t follow. Instead, he eagerly began to tear open the packages containing foods he had never seen before.
Soon, Du Gang reached the bathroom and after a quick investigation, he showed a look of disappointment.
“The plumbing is standalone, it doesn’t connect to the first floor, it seems there’s nothing to be done there…”
“This suggests that the World Will’s power is confined within this villa…”
Du Gang frowned, “This world is indeed different from the others…”
“Could it be that this place is a field specifically created by the World Will for outsiders like us?”
Without much thought, he understood that this was definitely the case.
The small world couldn’t only consist of this tiny place, this must be an area specifically set up by the World Will.
He quickly fell into doubt again, “Wasn’t it said that Red World Will is very powerful, and at odds with Heavenly Court?”
“Why then, would the two factions collaborate to establish this Wolfman Kill game?”
Firstly, the venue must definitely be provided by the World Will, which is evident from the electric and water systems here.
However, the mission content was sent down by the Heavenly Court.
It’s neither killing any Child of Heaven nor stealing any treasure from this world. Instead, they are making us play a game of Wolfman Kill.
Although it is a mission of the Red World, it still seems strange no matter how you look at it.
“Does Heavenly Court want some of us to die?”
Based on the current intelligence, the death rate in the Red World is extremely high, reaching more than 95%.
From this, three possibilities can be derived. The first is that the Red World dominates everything.
The second is that Heavenly Court dominates everything!
The third is that Heavenly Court and the Red World cooperate to lead, with the purpose of sieving out the best?
“Could it be that this mission is designed to eliminate a portion of us and keep only the best?”
Du Gang stroked his chin, pondering to himself. Only this possibility made sense given their current situation.
Otherwise, as per usual, they would cooperate to win and face the pursuit of the world together.
However, now their biggest enemy is not this world, but other people!
In the Wolfman Kill game, the aim appears to be to find the wolfman but, in actuality, before the wolfman is identified, we have to make others look like the wolfman to ensure our own survival!
“This means that even if the number 3 dies today, I could still be driven out by them tomorrow!”
“Therefore, we must find the wolfman as soon as possible!”
Du Gang, feeling a bit heavy-hearted, returned to the kitchen. Not having the mood to choose his food, he randomly picked something and started gobbling down his meal at the dining table.
In the time that followed, he also searched the other rooms on the second floor but found no useful clues.
Eventually, time was running out. Before the public voting was about to start, everyone descended to the first floor and entered the conference room.
[Free Speech Phase, everyone can speak. Voting will commence in half an hour]
As the electronic voice rang out, someone finally couldn’t contain themselves any longer.
Player number 6 was the first to stand up and declare, “Numbers 1, 2, and 3, start explaining!”
He was clever, not saying anything else and instead pulled the three people onto the stage.
This was an open move; no one would object.
Following the trend, Liang Chu said, “Du Gang, you seem to have not mentioned from which direction the sound came from…”
Du Gang originally wanted to frame the number 3, let him take the blame, but when it came down to it, he found it hard to speak up.
He slowly stood up and said, “From where the sound came is no longer important, isn’t it?”
“As I said before, the high-heeled shoes are a tool of the wolfman. Where he wears them is entirely up to him; you all understand this!”
“In light of the world’s difficulty, and our current situation, the real wolfman is not among the three of us…”
After hearing his intentions to broaden the scope of the wolfman, number 6 quickly stood up to refute: “How do you know that the wolfman can wear high heels at other people’s doors?”
“What if the high-heeled shoes are a restriction placed on the wolfman by Heavenly Court? He’s only allowed to wear them when he goes out…”
“Hehe!”
Du Gang snorted with laughter, “If the game was that simple, what were you guys looking so hard for clues during the day? You could just sentence someone based on the sound!”
“You guys looking so hard for clues, doesn’t that mean that in your hearts, the wolfman is not among us?”
“You’re talking nonsense…”
Number 6 got instantly agitated, opening his mouth as if ready to start arguing.
This reaction showed that he had a bad temper.
“Quiet!”
Seeing the situation, Liang Chu quickly stood up to calm everyone down.
As the last person to be transported in, and the one with the most experience, the crowd gave him face and silently turned to look at him.
He looked around to make sure no one was interrupting before he finally spoke, “Du Gang is actually right. There’s a high chance that the wolfman is not among them…”
“You…”
“Don’t hurry, let me finish first!”
No.6 was about to retort when he was quickly interrupted by Liang Chu.
He continued, “I know what you’re thinking, the game rules imply that we must vote during the day, but does that mean we must kill someone during the day?”
Everyone immediately turned their heads to look at him, seeming to not understand his intention.
Liang Chu laughed, “The daytime vote does not necessarily entail someone’s death, we can have a tie!”
“A tie?”
“Correct!”
He chuckled, “With one vote per person, we can achieve a perfect tie!”
“For instance, No.1 votes for No.2, No.2 votes for No.3…and so on. I’m No.9, I’ll vote for No.1. In this way, everyone will have one vote, and no one will die!”
“Furthermore, this will grant us more time to investigate the wolfman…”
“Wait a moment!”
At this, No.7 interrupted him, frowning, “If that happens, and someone ignores the rule during voting and votes for another person instead, this will result in two votes being cast!”
No.6, who had not really reacted until now, jumped up immediately after hearing this.
“Exactly, if the wolfman votes for me, won’t I die?”
As he spoke, his gaze lingered on Du Gang and the other two people, as if suggesting the wolfman was among them.
Having thought it over, Du Gang spoke, “If we want to proceed like this, we need to agree on one thing first, no matter who you think the wolfman is, no one can break the rule!”
“Otherwise, the next day, everyone will vote for that person!”
“But…”
“No buts!”
Du Gang chuckled, “Let’s establish one thing first, no one will disregard the rules, and there is only one wolfman. Even if he does vote, at most he can only kill one person during the night. But he will definitely die the next day!”
“So, if I were the wolfman, in order to conceal myself, I would definitely follow the rules this time!”
“In this way, as long as none of us votes arbitrarily, we can survive one more day. And one more day can grant us more time to find clues!”
This time, No.6, surprisingly, did not retort but fell silent. However, his eyes kept flickering as though deep in thought.
Seeing that no one else objected, Du Gang naturally wanted to put this method into practice. He swiftly rose to his feet, turned to look at Fu Yangxia, and said, “Fu Yangxia, you’re to vote for me, understand? You can’t vote for anyone else, or you will definitely die tomorrow!”
After hearing this, Fu Yangxia nodded, “I understand!”
Then Du Gang went on, “My vote goes to No.3…”
He looked toward No.3 and spoke, “Your vote goes to No.5. If you vote recklessly, you’ll definitely die on the morrow. Do you understand?”
No.3, just as before, shivered in fright and hastily replied, “I understand, I understand!”
Du Gang nodded, then left his seat, walking to each person in turn. He confirmed their commitment before returning to his own seat.
“All right then, if it’s like this, nobody will die today!”
He breathed a sigh of relief. He’d thought that he would have to let No.3 die in his place, but who would have known that Liang Chu had thought of this method.
This plan is actually quite simple, but being in the midst of it, he had not managed to think of it and thus diverted his attention to No.3.
I am not calm enough…
If I were, with my intelligence, I could have thought of this method easily.
However, thankfully, Liang Chu came up with it!
Seeing this, Du Gang turned towards Liang Chu. As luck would have it, Liang Chu was also looking at him, a spark of affirmation in his eyes.
Their gaze met, and they both nodded at each other.
“When night comes, everyone needs to observe everything closely, pay attention to every single noise…”
Once it was ensured that no one would die from the voting, everyone’s expression relaxed somewhat. There was no longer the drawing of swords, but a more amiable conversation emerged.
And so, in this easy-going atmosphere, half an hour passed in the blink of an eye.
[Please complete your vote within 10 seconds!]
At this time, the device above everyone’s heads reappeared. Where the mirror lens should have been, a digital keypad from 1 to 9 was revealed for everyone to cast their votes.
Du Gang did not rush to vote but instead carefully observed the device.
This device, although it emerges from the same aperture as the one used to check their identities, is not the same machine.
So…
There’s another device up there!
Du Gang looked upward, unfortunately, some sort of technology was used for the top. The opening from where the machine emerges was a pitch black, rendering it impossible to observe clearly.
At this moment, the 10-second countdown announced by the electronic voice was halfway through. Du Gang did not hesitate any longer and quickly pressed the No.3 key.
Everyone else naturally started to raise their hands and press the corresponding buttons on top.
However, only Player No.6 was currently looking towards Du Gang’s location and revealed a smile.
This guy…
Du Gang suddenly had a premonition of impending doom.
This guy, he didn’t vote for me, did he?!
With that thought, his whole body broke out in a cold sweat.
His mind was generating rapid thoughts when suddenly, he thought of something. He quickly lifted his head, looking at the surroundings of the aperture from which the machine up there emerged.
With one look, Du Gang’s pupils constricted!
The direction of the hexagonal screw surrounding the hole had changed!
The screw had been tampered with!
He had intentionally memorized the direction of the screws that were on top of everyone’s heads, especially worried that someone might secretly unscrew them and check the identities up there.
Du Gang swiftly turned his head to look at No.6, “Are you a fucking idiot?! Do you think that the identities up there are still the same?”
Listening to Du Gang’s roar, everyone was perplexed and bewildered.
At this moment, the electronic voice sounded again.
[Voting is over, the result is as follows:]
[No.2, No.6 ? No.3]
[No.3, two votes, No.3 player is judged by public vote, No.3 sentenced to firing squad execution!]
“Beep beep beep!”
Even before everyone could react, a crack appeared from the ceiling above No.3’s head. Suddenly a electronically controlled gun emerged, “Bang!”
A familiar gunshot rang out.
Du Gang quickly turned his head.
What he saw was a thumb-size hole appearing on No.3’s forehead.
In No.3’s eyes, there was an expression of disbelief. In addition to that, there was also profound bewilderment.
He didn’t know why he had died like this.
At this moment, it looked as if Du Gang saw bewilderment and confusion in the eyes of number 3.
It’s as if he was asking:
Wasn’t it said that everyone was voting by the rules? Why do I have two votes? Why am I dead?!
“Number 6, what did you do?”
At this time, the others finally reacted, shouting out one after another.
But Number 6 had a self-satisfied expression on his face, clearly showing that this was deliberate.
Then, the electronic voice rang out again.
[Number 3 is a civilian, the game continues, please return to your rooms within 30 seconds!]
At the same time, the devices in front of everyone were retracted back into the ceiling.
“Huh?”
Number 6 was stunned at this moment.
It seemed as if he hadn’t expected such an outcome, “How is this possible, he’s clearly a Wolfman!”
“Number 3 is a Wolfman!”
Under the eyes of everyone, Number 6 exclaimed in a panic: “Number 3 is a Wolfman, I have evidence, he’s a Wolfman!”
[Countdown: 25]
[Countdown: 24]
This counting sound, like a death knell, with Number 3’s corpse still lying here, no one dared to disrespect.
Liang Chu was the first to speak up, his eyebrows furrowed, he quickly said: “Let’s go back to our rooms first, we’ll talk about it tomorrow!”
Seeing this, the others didn’t have time to think and quickly left the meeting room.
However, everyone unconsciously stayed away from Number 6 when leaving, as if they genuinely thought he was a Wolfman.
Some even prayed in their hearts that Number 6 wouldn’t kill them during the night.
“You idiot!”
Du Gang, not in a hurry to leave, looked at Number 6 and scolded him, quickly asking, “Where’s the item?”
Number 6 incredulously shifted his gaze from Number 3 to Du Gang, he quickly pointed at the water dispenser on one side of the meeting room.
The water dispenser in the meeting room had been searched repeatedly by people and had nothing else in it.
This meant that he had hidden the item by the water dispenser after he found it.
“Number 2, believe me, I’m not a Wolfman!”
Only then did Number 6 start to panic, urgently speaking to Du Gang.
[Countdown: 16 seconds]
Du Gang, hearing the pressuring countdown, shook his head and said: “Go back first, we’ll talk tomorrow!”
With that, he quickly ran for the door.
At this moment, the others had already returned to their rooms.
Seeing this, Number 6 didn’t dare to stay any longer and quickly followed, running to the right.
After he left, Du Gang quietly took out a few small white packets that looked like seasoning packs from his pocket.
“Rip!”
He quickly tore open these small packets, smearing the white powder inside on the wall of the corridor.
If someone was here, they would find that this thumb-sized white bag is marked with the word “Desiccant”.
The food desiccant in his hand is made of calcium oxide, which has physical adsorption properties.
He found it in the kitchen on the second floor. His purpose was simple, to smear it on the white walls of the corridor. Once the Wolfman passes by and brushes up against the wall during the night, a white powder mark will be undoubtedly left behind.
As he had mentioned before, the corridor is only one meter wide. To hide one’s figure and not cast a shadow, one must walk next to the other wall.
Everyone is male here, their shoulders exceed one meter. To avoid casting a shadow, they must tilt their bodies to pass through.
Under normal circumstances, the Wolfman wouldn’t walk facing the wall. He could only walk with his back facing the wall as he needed to ensure that his shadow didn’t cross the line and leave any trace.
So tonight, anyone who comes out and passes by against the wall will definitely leave a mark on their back!
Du Gang walked rapidly, smearing as he went, starting from the living room, all the way passing through rooms Number 5, 4, 3, and back to his own room.
When he reached his room’s door, there were still five seconds left in the electronic countdown.
However, Du Gang pretended to overshoot his room and continued running without stopping, passing by room Number 1. Only when he reached door Number 9 did he pretend to react, and remorsefully said: “Dammit, I overshot my room!”
Then, with one second remaining in the countdown, he successfully returned to his room, Number 2.
At the moment he entered his room, Du Gang revealed a slight smile.
The desiccant he smeared on the walls outside five rooms would leave marks unless the Wolfman didn’t come over, otherwise…
After exhaling, Du Gang lay on his bed and started to listen carefully.
He wasn’t in a rush to consider Number 6’s actions. The current priority was to listen for the Wolfman’s movements.
Just then, the electronic voice rang out again.
[Close your eyes, it’s night time!]
[Wolfman, begin your action!]
Upon hearing this voice, everyone held their breath without exception, not daring to breathe loudly, intently listening to what was outside the door.
Time passed slowly.
A bead of sweat slowly ran down Du Gang’s forehead, but he didn’t hear any high-heel noises outside.
Had he not arrived yet?
Or was the Wolfman not wearing high-heels today?
Waiting was the most torturous, especially when there was a grim reaper outside, deciding your fate, it was all the more terrifying.
For a whole three minutes, Du Gang had prepared himself for death, and only then did the electronic voice from the ceiling finally come again.
[The Wolfman has chosen a target]
[Witch, please take action. The person the Wolfman chose to kill is him, will you use your antidote? Will you choose to use poison?]
[The Witch’s action is over!]
[Prophet, please take action. Please choose the player whose identity you want to check!]
[The Prophet’s action is over, night activities are over, good night!]
Du Gang listened to these electronic voices anxiously, and only after the final “good night” did he let out a sigh of relief.
“It’s not me!”
He couldn’t be sure of how the Wolfman kills, whether after deciding the target or after the Prophet’s action is over, but he was sure it had to be before the electronic voice said good night.
And now, he was alive, which meant, someone else was dead!
Who was dead?
With this feeling of survival against all odds, Du Gang slowly fell asleep.