Deceitful Game

Chapter 73 Saviors and Traitors

Chapter 73 Savior and Traitor (Third update, please vote!)

The protector raised his head, ready to face his judgment.

Above the four of them, in the very center, were four round, white electric lights pieced together. This was the only light source in the pitch-black space—making it look like an interrogation room.

He looked at the lamplight, not at the sunflowers on the table.

"Congratulations, protector, your personal time has run out."

The host announced, "The first one to leave."

The iron rings binding the protector's hands disappeared.

The protector's breathing gradually became rapid. He gasped for breath a few times and let out a cry of "Ah!" in frustration.

"Deceitful games are pretty good."

In that instant, the thought suddenly popped into the protector's mind.

At least here, he can do whatever he wants.

He wanted to save others, so he did just that.

No one will blame him for this; in fact, some will support him. Those he saved will repay him, instead of bowing their heads and ignoring him.

Perhaps he should have come here from the very beginning.

He raised his hands, looked at his wrists which were red from being strangled, and slowly stood up from his seat.

The protectors truly realized—

He is free.

However, the price was that—in order to save him, the monkey was dragged into an even deeper abyss.

The monkey finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He leaned back, completely relaxing.

Even though he was still locked in the chair—and time was almost up—he still felt an unprecedented sense of relief.

"I'm actually quite useful."

He said self-deprecatingly, "Although I'm neither smart nor courageous."

"I'll help you! I'm still here—"

A yellowish-brown light ignited in the protector's eyes, and he said without hesitation, "Don't give up!"

Just like back then, he didn't even think before grabbing the monkey that was about to fall.

That was a spiritual resonance from the realm of virtue.

It was at this moment that Mingbo first saw the resonance color of the Domain of Virtue.

Mingpo then realized that the colors of the Domain of Virtue and the Domain of Slaughter were remarkably similar!

They're both yellow—so similar they could almost be confused.

However, their essence is completely opposite—one participates in the game to save others, while the other participates in the game to kill others.

"—That scared me to death."

Lin Ya murmured softly, "I thought the sunflower was going to explode—"

Her fear was not an act.

Her palms were truly sweaty. The back of her clothes was completely soaked with cold sweat, as if she had just jogged for half an hour.

Her heart was still pounding, and she was even feeling dizzy due to her high blood pressure.

"What's there to be afraid of?"

Mingpo wasn't sweating at all.

He simply stated calmly, "He has no chance of passing."

"Why?"

"Because in that case, the monkey might die."

Mingpo spoke softly, turning to look at Lin Ya: "Even if it's just a 'possibility'—it still needs to be avoided."

That meaningful gaze left Lin Ya somewhat bewildered.

—In the first game, the "wolf's" gaze was quite easy to understand. Even with his mask on, she could guess roughly what he was going to do.

But now, she couldn't quite understand Mingpo's heart.

"Uncle, come here—"

Suddenly, the monkey spoke up, saying to the fat man, "Could you help me wipe the sweat off my right hand? My hand is a little stiff."

"----good."

The protector glanced at the host and, seeing the black cat licking its fur without any reaction, walked over.

Inside that silver, reflective device, sweat was indeed steaming like vapor.

But he suddenly froze as soon as he reached out his hand.

Three chips silently appeared on the back of the monkey's hand.

Without making a sound, the protector reached out and swept the chips, taking the three chips into his body.

The host remained silent on the matter.

The protector suddenly raised his head and looked at Mingpo and Lin Ya.

He finally realized what the monkey was up to.

The monkey cleared out all his chips beforehand and handed them over to his teammate—so that even if he fell to fourth place, there would be no consequences!

—So, this is how the game is normally played?

That's why the host specifically said, "Trading and manipulation are allowed."

Because this game, without considering "directly blowing up other people", is meant to be played by cheating!

Killing someone will grant an extra "day" of reward; this is an additional rule added by the host.

Without this rule, killing someone at the start of the game would yield zero reward.

Since the "first, second, and third people to leave the table" have not yet been determined, chips will not be allocated!

At least one person must have left the room before there will be any benefit from blowing them up!

So, the correct way to play this game —

It should mean that both teams' "upper table" members are guaranteed to pass the "lower table" level and leave, and then they start competing one-on-one.

In this way, each side has one person who has gained freedom, who can walk behind the others and openly spy on their actions.

You can see how many seconds the dealer timed it!

As the timer above his head ran out, the game would enter a completely transparent state. The protector couldn't help but have a strange thought: in a normal "pass the parcel" game, would it also be possible to trade chips in advance?

If both sides trade to their teammates in advance, then the two players left on the field will have zero chips.

The purpose of this game cannot be simply to kill people—the reason has already been explained above, because there is no benefit to it.

The answer is quite simple.

Originally, this game didn't allow trading chips at all.

Why did the host specifically leave out this rule allowing trading of chips?

Thinking of this, the fat man suddenly looked at Lin Ya.

He seemed to understand—

The host specifically stated that "no contracts will be drafted for them." Therefore, if the other party takes the chips and doesn't return them, there's nothing that can be done.

Therefore, this game tests whether the two teams can trust each other's teammates!

—And the game is fair.

Since the two of them can trust each other and are both newcomers, while the other side was assigned a clearly very smart veteran—that means the relationship between the members of their group must be terrible!

Thinking of this, the protector patted the back of the monkey's head helplessly.

You're getting impatient, monkey!

The monkeys didn't need to sacrifice themselves at all; they still had a chance of winning!

Upon seeing this, Lin Ya realized something.

Her mind raced, and she became excited.

She immediately turned to look at Mingpo and said, "Wolf, I'll go watch the monkey's timer for you!"

"My time was reduced by 37 seconds in the first round, and the monkey pressed the stop button at the fifth second, so my time should have been reduced by another 55 seconds!"

"So I only have 28 seconds left!"

The implication was that she hoped Mingpo could also win the dealer position—and then let her out first!

She didn't directly say "I'll hold your chips for you" because she was afraid that if she did, she would seem too obvious.

It's not too late to do this when the two of them face off.

Lin Ya thought to herself.

Although he wasn't exactly an experienced expert—as a wolf who entered the game at the same time, he probably didn't have much savings yet. After all, the ticket to enter the advancement game required "one day"—that's twenty-four hours!

The money she's lost so far doesn't even amount to half of the ticket price!

But Mingpo simply smiled slightly.

He gently countered with, "Is there really only twenty-eight seconds left?"

—What does that mean?

For a moment, Lin Ya was stunned.

Because Mingpo's tone was so certain, she really wondered if she had miscalculated.

She was worried that she might accidentally let something slip, so she kept telling herself that her timer really was sixty seconds, and that's how she had calculated it.

Did I miscalculate because of this?

Her actual remaining time was either five seconds more or five seconds less?

Lin Ya felt a chill run down her spine and began to doubt herself.

She quickly recalculated the actual time: subtracting 50 seconds, then 37 seconds, she had a total of 115 seconds.

No, that's not right!

She quickly realized that it didn't really matter whether it was 55 seconds or 60 seconds; the answer would be the same. Because if it were 6000 seconds, she had already added the extra five seconds to her total time—and she had set the minimum time she could, not actually betting on 55 seconds but setting it to 60!

So the answer should actually be the same—

But when she realized this, she was immediately filled with fear.

No, that's not right!

Why did she hesitate?

Does the wolf really suspect her?

Could the wolf set a timer shorter than that to blow her up?

But soon, Lin Ya realized—this was impossible.

Because the minimum time set for the wolf is very long, it should be at least fifty seconds or more.

In the first round, he took an extra 18 seconds of thunder after those two had already used up 38 seconds!

The first two men's timers were far shorter than hers—if his time wasn't also about that long, how could he dare to hold on so tightly?

"Why aren't you saying anything, Xiaoya?"

Mingbo spoke gently.

That deep, reassuring voice now sounded like a death knell.

Lin Ya's mind raced, and she came up with a barely usable excuse.

She smiled, her face pale. "Because I'm actually—not really sure if I have twenty-three seconds left on my head."

Although it is also a suspicion about "wolves", this suspicion is actually relatively reasonable.

After all, when the monkey sacrifices itself to eliminate the protector, the game is clearly a four-player game, not a team game. Her suspicion of her "teammates" is at most just paranoia, which is barely acceptable.

Before Mingpo could say anything, Monkey couldn't help but mock, "You can't even respect your own teammates? Huh? You don't even know how to suck up to someone's coattails, huh?"

"It's twenty-three seconds."

Mingpo's smile faded.

He began, speaking slowly, "Xiaoya, do you remember—what I said to you at the end of our first game?"

—What did he say?

Lin Ya was somewhat confused.

In the past few days, she has participated in seven or eight games non-stop, which feels like several months have passed.

She hesitated for a long time before she could barely remember.

Her voice trailed off: "Weren't you finally—analyzing dogs and pongs with me?"

She only learned how they died after listening to the wolf's explanation.

Is this a threat—saying that he also plotted against me?

"Ah, that's true."

Mingpo smiled but didn't say anything.