A ghost storyteller can lose his life but cannot lose his job

Chapter 8 Rat Sacrifice
Lunlun is a ghost?

Modify the rules?
No, if the rules could be modified she would definitely use it in a more efficient way, so this is the way the rules allow.

Zhong Xie's mind moved, his spirit sank into the sea of consciousness, and the surrounding environment suddenly changed.

"Let's go to the third floor."

The lizardman Kuster had no objection, stood up from the dining table and walked towards the stairs.

Zhong Xie's sea of consciousness is based on Miss Black Goat's home, so the third floor in the sea of consciousness is the real game venue, which is basically the same except for the stairs at both ends.

The twelve rooms on the third floor are arranged neatly, namely the conference room and rooms 1 to 11.

Zhong Xie stood at the door of Room 11, following his memory to replicate the "ghost's" route, walking from Room 11 to Room 1, and finally stopping briefly at the door of Room 5.

In front of him was a tightly closed thick wooden door. Zhong Xie looked at the gold-plated number "5" on the house number, recalling that the "ghost" at that time also paused here for a long time.

However, he did not hear the exact location, he only knew it was Room 4 or Room 5.

why here?

Because did the participants in Room 4 or Room 5 show any abnormality?

The first group of ghosts' footsteps were coherent, indicating a clear goal, except for a long pause in room 4 (or 5).

On the second trip, the ghost neighbor carefully observed each room, discovered the room number of the "widower", and then disappeared into room 11.

She could have observed the room on her first trip, but she didn't. She had to wait until her second trip to start looking for the "widower".

why?
A flash of inspiration came to Zhong Xie's mind, and the fragmentation process gradually became clear.

It’s very simple, the first ghost is No. 11, and the second ghost is the neighbor!
When No. 11 passes by here, the neighbor kills him and replaces him, carrying out the subsequent actions.

The reason why the footsteps disappeared into Room 11 was very simple. After turning on the light, the neighbor was no longer a ghost. She could use some kind of ghost story ability to leave Room 11.

The rules only state that participants are "invincible" while the lights are on, but they do not say that any creature is prohibited from using ghost story abilities.

The neighbors should be able to just disappear.

This is why there is no participant in room 11; he or she has been killed by the neighbor when the lights were turned off.

Secondly, the neighbor is not among the current 11 participants; she is an outsider hidden outside the game.

She cannot be dealt with by voting because she is not in the game at all during the lights-on and voting stages. Only after the lights are turned off will she enter the game to hunt by killing ghosts and replacing them.

This is the truth behind why she can become a "ghost" in every round.

Rereading the rules of the game with a guess in mind, Zhong Xie immediately discovered the hint in the rules - a pseudonym.

[During the lights-on and voting phases, all creatures cannot be harmed, and during the lights-off phase, no one is allowed to leave the room at will. ]

"All creatures" is mentioned in this and only one rule, while the rest of the time it is mostly "participants", "characters", "ghosts", "other identities", etc., which means that there are indeed creatures other than participants in the game.

Neighbor.

The neighbor is within the rules, she cannot harm the participants at will, and during the lights-out phase she needs to kill and replace the "ghost" before she can leave her room to search for the "widower".

It seems that the "ghost" is the most unlucky person in the whole game, because this identity will inevitably leave his room and be completely exposed to the danger of neighbors.

The essence of this game is completely different from what normal people understand. What Mouse Mom said, "We are a family," is not just talk. If you want to kill your neighbors, you must gather the strength of the entire family.

So how do you kill your neighbor?

marry?

Thinking of this, Zhong Xie looked at Mr. Kuster happily. The way he followed closely behind him was like the follow mode of Pokémon.

He asked, “Do you know what our greatest advantage is?”

"What?" Kuster was puzzled. He just felt that the current situation made the ghost story hopeless.

In his prime, he would have easily crushed his neighbors, but now all we can say is that the future is promising.

If there is still a future.

"Miss Black Goat is a rule-based person, so she knows that you are now - the second strange story will also be a rule-based strange story, but she doesn't know what your rules are, so your strength depends entirely on imagination." Zhong Xie smiled and said, "Let's go, I'll take you to the marriage."

"Marriage?" A big question mark popped up in Kuster's mind.

But Zhong Xie had no habit of explaining to Pokémon. He returned his consciousness to reality and looked at the time again. There were only seven minutes left until the vote.

There are at most two rounds left, and the second round is crucial. He must make sure everything is under his control. If he wants to fight against his neighbor, he must use every bit of strength.

Otherwise you die.

-

"I will make sure you all survive."

"Only if you listen to me."

As these two rather conceited words were uttered, everyone's attention was focused on Zhong Xie.

They had been arguing about the issue of "ghost" from the very beginning, but there was no substantial progress. Even the man with the saber was annoyed by the argument and just watched coldly from the side.

There was too little information in the first round of the game, and the participants were very cautious. It seemed that they would only have a chance after the number of players decreased again in the second round.

"The neighbor is not among us. The ghost is dead, so he is also not among us." Zhong Xie took the layout diagram in front of the man with the saber and circled Room 4 and Room 5. "The neighbor is not a direct participant in the game, so he is not among the 11 participants. In the first round of the game, Room 11 was the ghost, and he was killed after passing by here. Then the neighbor replaced the ghost. All the noises we heard afterwards were made by the neighbor."

Monkey Spirit No. 2 was surprised: "Aren't you No. 8? How do you know so much?"

"I am Rat." Zhong Xie revealed his identity. He had realized the real way to play this game.

Zhong Xie went on to say, "The ability of mice is to dig holes. They can move freely through the holes, which the other five mice can prove. In the first round of the game, I dug a hole down to the second floor. I followed the ghost and heard the whole process."

Then he pointed at No. 4 the Exploding Corpse and No. 5 the Man with the Sabre and said, "You should have been able to hear that No. 11 stayed near you for a while. That's because he was killed by his neighbor. All subsequent ghosts were replaced by neighbors."

"Indeed, it stopped." The man with the saber nodded in agreement. He thought about Zhong Xie's words and admired the rat's courage.

Digging a hole downwards and following the ghost throughout the process?
Is this something a normal person can do?
"So No. 10 was right. The ghost neighbor did enter Room 11, and he didn't hear the footsteps wrong." Zhong Xie looked at No. 10, and No. 10 knew that the other party was speaking for him, and nodded repeatedly in gratitude.

The saber man asked, "So you mean the neighbor is hiding in room 11?" "Not necessarily." Zhong Xie shook his head, "Maybe he went back to his room. In short, be careful of these two areas during the lights-out period."

He glanced at everyone. "We must share the character's ability information. If we want to defeat our neighbors, we must unite the strength of our entire family. Our only enemy is our neighbor. As for the ghosts... play less Werewolf. Ghosts are not enemies, but our bridgehead to face the threat from our neighbors. They are the most critical part of us."

Everyone was stunned by Zhong Xie's fright. This situation was beyond their normal cognition, but when they thought about it carefully, it seemed reasonable.

The core goal of the game is to kill your neighbors, whether they are ghosts or not is not important.

But this neighbor is more cunning and more powerful than expected. How can they stand a chance of winning?

"My character is the Black Goat. My ability is to block any room during the lights-out phase. The creatures in the room cannot leave until the lights are turned on or they die. This ability can only be used once in the entire game." The man with the saber said, and then added, "Secondly, if I can create the time and distance for the knife, I should be able to restrict my neighbors for a period of time."

眼见参与者里的最强者都说话了，剩下的玩家纷纷开口将自己的角色能力告知，除钟邪外还有1、2、3、6、9五个房间的参与者是鼠。

The character who explodes corpse No. 4 is Mr. Kuster, and his ability is very simple, which is that he cannot become a "ghost".

The character No. 7 is Rat Mom. When she is in her room, the rat characters in the room are not affected by the ghost story ability.

Character No. 10 is a cat, whose ability is to monitor the movements of all mice in real time during lights out. He vaguely knows that Zhong Xie went to the second floor.

However, he was suspected of being a "ghost" just now. If he claimed to be a cat, it would be easy to confirm the assumption that No. 11 was a mouse and was eaten by him. He would be 8% voted out in the first round, so he did not say it explicitly, but just hinted wildly that No. Zhong Xie should speak.

As for the missing character No. 11, it is a human, and there is no chance to know the human character's abilities yet.

"It's pretty much what I guessed. We are one, and these abilities are linked." Zhong Xie analyzed, "The cat is the information transfer station for the mice, and it is in charge of dispatching the six mice. When a mouse becomes a 'ghost', its own ghost story ability is enhanced, and it can attract neighbors to the room of the mouse mother. Miss Black Goat seals the room, and the ghost mouse uses the 'invincible' state given by the mouse mother to kill the neighbors."

He said helplessly: "The ability of the 'human' character may be related to attracting neighbors, but there is no way to verify it now."

"What should we do now?" The saber man asked Zhong Xie directly. His analysis so far made him trust Zhong Xie. "If I can become a 'ghost', with your help, I may be able to fight against the neighbors."

"No need." Zhong Xie looked at the time again. There were still three minutes left, enough to explain the plan clearly. "My ghost story is called 'Widower'. As the name suggests, other creatures will die if they marry him."

"Hmph." Mouse Mother snorted coldly, probably having guessed something and venting her dissatisfaction with Kuster.

The other people present knew some common sense about ghost stories and guessed that this was the legendary mysterious and powerful rule-based ghost story. They couldn't help but respect Zhong Xie.

No one doubted this, because Zhong Xie had a peculiar aura from the moment he started speaking.

Confident and fearless.

Such a person must be an excellent ghost story teller, and his deeds during the lights-out stage are enough to prove this.

But doubts still exist.

For example, Monkey Spirit No. 2 had an exaggerated expression: "Marriage? You want your neighbor to marry him now? Are you kidding me?"

Zhong Xie explained: "Have you heard of de facto marriage? Living together without going through the formalities is considered a de facto marriage, and in practice it is a recognized marriage."

"So what?" The monkey was stunned for a moment, as this involved his blind spot in knowledge.

Zhong Xie looked at everyone and said, "To put it simply, I will try my best to find an opportunity to stay in the same room with my neighbor. The black goat will seal the room, and I can use my strange story to kill her."

"It's not that difficult." The saber man agreed, "We will fully support you."

"What about this round of voting? Should we vote for No. 11?" One-eyed man No. 1 thought of this question.

Zhong Xie nodded: "If there is a number 11, then vote for number 11. If there is no such option, then abstain. If there is no abstention option, then vote for any mouse character except me, and try to ensure that the number of participants does not decrease. You don't have to worry about dying from the vote, the only consequence is leaving the game."

He shrugged: "Read less infinite flow novels, they won't wipe out people at every turn."

"Is that so?" No. 1 Conqueror God.

"If you want to survive, listen to me." Zhong Xie's attitude was extremely firm. Seeing this, the others stopped talking and entered the voting stage.

[Please select the "ghost" from the previous round among the current participants]

[A: Voting candidates 2 to 10]

[B: Abstention]

Just as Zhong Xie said in advance, there was no number 11 in the options, but fortunately there was an abstention option, so the voting process was smooth.

[All players give up this round of the game, ghost hunting fails, victim No. 1 loses the game qualification, and is not allowed to leave the meeting room during the lights-out period]

"Is it okay for us to not leave here? Okay, okay." A look of joy appeared on No. 1's face.

Facts have proven Zhong Xie's words, and he now completely believes in No. 8's judgment.

"No. 10, take the doll at the end of the bed to No. 1. You stay in Room 1 for this round of the game." Zhong Xie gave No. 10 an order, "The ghost neighbor may be hiding in Room 1. There will be no one in Room 1 in the next round, and the character mask happens to be a rat mask. The rat mask is very important and cannot be left to the neighbor."

Number 10's original role was a cat, and he was stunned when he heard this: "What if she is really in the room, can I get the mask faster than her?"

"Of course, you are the designated participant, and you are not affected by the ghost story ability in the room. How could you be slower than your neighbor?" Zhong Xie asked back.

Seeing this, No. 10 didn't say much and agreed silently.

"Similarly, if the 'ghost' character in the next round of the game is Rat, the ghost must stay in his own room from beginning to end." Zhong Xie continued, "The most important thing is to ensure that the Rat mask does not fall into the hands of the neighbors. We need to ensure the safety of the second floor."

"But the ghost must take away a doll, otherwise it will die, right?" No. 6 asked.

Although it is not mentioned in the rules, it says that the ghost "must" do so, so the consequences of not doing so are obviously not as simple as losing the qualification to play the game.

Zhong Xie asked back: "As a ghost, you might die if you leave your room. How can you be sure that your neighbors are not lurking around?"

"I didn't dig a hole last round, but I can dig twice this round. First go to the 2nd floor and then dig to the 3rd floor. Just take the doll from one room. How about taking the doll from Room 11? That way there will be no loss of personnel." Influenced by Zhong Xie's operations in the last round, No. 6 came up with an effective plan.

"No, I have to go to other rooms to get the dolls. If the neighbors are there, they will give me the rat mask for free." Zhong Xie shook his head and refused firmly, "If I find the rat ghost running around, I will definitely kill him."

Then a grim look appeared on his face: "I'm unlucky to become a rat ghost. This is a necessary sacrifice."

Zhong Xie ignored the rats' thoughts and continued to issue instructions: "After the lights are turned off, everyone waits for my signal near the door. Rats must give themselves at least one chance to open a rat hole, but they must not go through the rat hole to other places."

With little time left for the vote, he did not give any further instructions and went back to his room with the participants to start doing stretching exercises.

Next it is time to test the neighbor’s IQ. If he is stupid, it will take two rounds, but if he is smart, he may only need one round to kill his neighbor.

This is a conspiracy.

(End of this chapter)