Rainy Night Theater (26)

Sun Hao paused, his tone carrying a hint of defiance. “I don't believe in this nonsense. If I don't follow the script, can he still force-kill me?”

Bai Ci stood to the side, not speaking, just listening quietly.

After hearing the pattern, Zheng Ba stared intently at Cheng Xi and Bai Ci, his tone filled with fear and disbelief. “So that means... the next to die is me?”

His voice trembled slightly. The lingering fear from just triggering the trap hadn't dissipated, and now learning that he was the next target made his state of mind fluctuate wildly.

Fu Yan said in a serious tone, “I don't think this is a coincidence. Since we know this death order, the most important thing is to protect Zheng Ba.”

“As long as nothing happens to him, according to the pattern, the people after him won't be in danger. We'll also have more time to look for clues and beat this game.”

“I get it. It's just like that movie—the Grim Reaper kills people in order. As long as the person before is alive and well, the ones after won't have any accidents.” Sun Hao wagged his finger.

Zheng Ba seemed to think of something at this moment, and his expression changed dramatically—even more than his reaction to hearing he was the next to die.

He suddenly pushed Sun Hao's hand away and took a few steps back, his eyes full of wariness and suspicion as they swept over Fu Yan, Sun Hao, and Cheng Xi. “How can I trust you guys?”

Sun Hao frowned. He was sick to death of these overthinking NPCs. “What do you mean? How could we harm you? Right now we're trying to find a way to protect you, yet you suspect us instead?”

“Protect me?” Zheng Ba's tone was sharp and defensive. “None of your three names have homophonic numbers. According to the pattern Bai Jiu mentioned, you aren't even in the death order.”

“Is it just us who deserve to die? Oh, right, you guys are those third parties! Is playing the good guys fun?”

Saying so, he turned to look at Bai Ci, his tone softening slightly as he reached out. “Bai Jiu, come with me.”

“Both of our names have homophonic numbers. We're the ones in the same faction. The three of them can't be trusted at all. Only by staying together do we have a chance of surviving.”

Bai Ci looked at Zheng Ba's outstretched hand. Unshaken, she simply shook her head gently.

She knew very well that Zheng Ba himself was a ghost from the Ninth Round. To her, Zheng Ba was essentially a quasi-Werewolf and couldn't be trusted at all.

Meanwhile, Fu Yan, Sun Hao, and Cheng Xi, despite their different identities, were all players, making them the relatively safer side instead.

“I won't go with you,” Bai Ci said calmly. “I believe they won't harm us.”

Zheng Ba's face instantly darkened. His eyes were filled with disappointment and anger, but he didn't force the issue further.

Seeing Zheng Ba suspecting them, anger welled up in Sun Hao. He couldn't help but take a step forward, wanting to argue, “Why are you being so unreasonable? We're trying to protect you out of goodwill, yet you suspect us of being the third party?”

“Can you calm down and use your rusty brain to think? If we were the third party, we would have killed you long ago. Why would we be wasting our breath on you here?”

But as soon as Sun Hao took a step forward, Zheng Ba retreated in a panic, the wariness in his eyes deepening, terrified that Sun Hao was about to attack him.

“I...” He seemed to want to say something, but at that moment, he suddenly turned around, ran toward the second-floor dormitories, and slammed his door shut with a loud bang.

Sun Hao had been waiting to hear what Zheng Ba had to say, and hadn't expected him to suddenly turn and run. He was momentarily stunned by this behavior.

In that brief moment of daze, he had actually let a limping guy escape.

Coming back to his senses, Sun Hao gritted his teeth in frustration and turned to Fu Yan, his tone filled with complaint and confusion. “Why didn't you stop him?”

“He's staying in his dorm alone now. If the third party comes knocking on his door, he won't have any ability to fight back. Isn't this just sending himself to his death?”

Complaining aside, Sun Hao didn't actually blame Fu Yan, because he knew that the main reason was that he himself had spaced out and failed to stop the guy in the first place.

Fu Yan's tone was calm, even carrying a hint of indifference. “There's no saving those bent on their own destruction.

“He doesn't want to believe us and insists on staying alone. Even if we stopped him, he wouldn't listen and would only suspect us more.”

“Instead of that, we might as well let nature take its course and just do our own thing.”

Cheng Xi also nodded in agreement, her tone carrying a bit of indifference. “I agree. There's no need to stop him.”

“Even if I go to the trouble of trying to convince him, he won't necessarily listen. Instead, he'll just question and scold me. What's the point?” She paused, making a shrugging gesture. “It's just an instance. The most important thing is to have fun. I don't even care about my score anymore, so why should I go up there and take that kind of abuse?”

“Speaking of targets to protect, don't we have a well-behaved one right here?” Saying so, she turned to look at Bai Ci.

Sun Hao followed Cheng Xi's gaze to Bai Ci, froze for a moment, and then came to a sudden realization. He slapped his head, which had been sluggish from anger. “Oh! Right, how could I forget?”

“According to the pattern, after Zheng Ba comes Bai Jiu. She's our final safety net. We really should focus on protecting Bai Jiu.”

Sensing the three of them staring at her, a look of confusion appeared on Bai Ci's face. She tilted her head slightly, her tone carrying a hint of puzzlement. “You guys seem to be talking about things I don't understand.”

I know you three are players, but are you not even going to act in front of an NPC? You're practically saying outright that this is an instance.

Though, since she wasn't a real NPC herself, she didn't exactly have the standing to condemn them for it.

Cheng Xi rested her elbow on Bai Ci's shoulder and asked with a smile, “Aren't you scared?”

If Bai Ci were a real NPC, hearing this group of people whose names didn't have homophonic numbers talk about such bizarre things, and seeing them treat this dangerous situation like a game, she really would have become suspicious and started imagining terrifying things.

But fortunately, Bai Ci was a fake NPC.

Bai Ci shook her head, not a trace of fear in her eyes. “I'm not afraid.”

“When I discovered this pattern and chose to tell you, it meant I believed you were all good people. My intuition told me so too.”

“Even if you really are bad people, I'm just an ordinary college student right now, and Zheng Ba, the only one who could be considered on my side, is injured. Even if I wanted to resist, I wouldn't be able to against you guys.”

She paused, her tone carrying a bit of self-deprecation, yet she was very calm about it. “If you really have to kill me, please make it quick and painless.”

“And rather than you being the third party, I'm more inclined to believe that we, whose names were changed, are the sacrifices of this game. And you guys are just the unlucky bastards dragged in to make up the numbers for a match.”

Bai Ci tried her best to cover for the other three players, finding a reason to gloss over why their names didn't have numbers in them.