Sun Hao stared at his empty hand and took several deep breaths to gradually calm his racing heart.
At least they had finally gotten a clue about the Ninth Round, even if it was just this single, isolated sentence.
He turned and quickly walked out of the study, heading toward the second-floor dorms.
He had spent almost the entire nighttime phase searching for the booklet; he wondered how things had gone on Zheng Ba's end.
Just as he stepped onto the second-floor corridor, he saw Qi Lixin, Zheng Ba, and Cheng Xi standing outside Fu Liu's door, all peering inside.
It seemed they had discovered that Fu Liu was dead, which meant Bai Ci and Fu Yan should be inside the room.
Sun Hao unexpectedly locked eyes with Zheng Ba. He walked over and gently patted him on the shoulder, a gesture that was partly comforting and partly asking about the clues.
Zheng Ba stiffened at the pat. He turned his head and glared at Sun Hao, his voice lowered, though the irritation and frustration in it were still clear: “Didn't find it.”
Sun Hao nodded understandingly. In truth, he hadn't harbored much hope that Zheng Ba would find any clues anyway.
Without asking further, he used the shoulder-patting motion to squeeze his way into Fu Liu's room, his gaze quickly sweeping over the two people inside.
Fu Yan was crouching beside Fu Liu's corpse, carefully examining the marks on it with a solemn expression.
Compared to Fu Yan, who was clearly a player, Sun Hao was more concerned about Bai Ci's state.
Bai Ci stood on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall with her head down. Her long hair hung down, obscuring most of her face. Sensing footsteps entering the room, she turned to look over.
Her eyes were red, showing she had clearly been crying, but her gaze remained firm without any signs of breaking down. Her mental state was much more stable than he had anticipated.
Confirming the situation, Sun Hao quietly let out a sigh of relief.
In some instances, certain things could only be triggered if NPCs were present. Since he couldn't be sure if this was the case for the current instance, it was better to err on the side of caution and keep an NPC alive.
Bai Ci was the most clear-headed and analytical among the surviving NPCs. Qi Lixin's merit was that he was easygoing, while as for Zheng Ba... Sun Hao didn't even want to contemplate such a stroke of bad luck.
Having finished examining the body, Fu Yan stood up. Seeing Sun Hao enter, he asked, “Sun Hao, did you guys find anything when you went to look for clues last night? And what's the deal with Fu Liu?”
“Fu Liu was already dead before our operation started last night. The third party did it,” Sun Hao said, unable to help but sigh. “As for the clues, the situation is more troublesome than we anticipated.”
“During the night, the locations of those logbooks change. Furthermore, once it switches to the daytime phase, the nighttime booklets disappear.”
“What is certain is that the content in those booklets is indeed different from what we see during the day. The records of the Ninth Round are there.”
“My teammate didn't manage to find the location of the nighttime booklet. I had slightly better luck and found it under a pile of old newspapers in the study.”
“But by then, it was already time for the phase transition. Time was too tight, and I only had enough time to catch a quick glimpse of a single sentence.”
“‘Ninth Round: Source of Plague. Game Status: Uncompleted. Number of Survivors: 0.’”
Hearing this, Fu Yan couldn't help but feel disappointed. Rather than resolving their doubts, these few words brought even more mysteries.
“This vaguely aligns with our previous guesses, but it's too vague. We have no idea what the Ninth Round's gameplay actually was, nor do we know why everyone wiped out back then, leaving the game uncompleted.”
“It's related to fire,” Bai Ci reminded them, which was also something they had previously deduced.
“There's fire in the cave scene. If we were to set fire to the theater...” Qi Lixin seemed somewhat tempted.
“Are you serious?” Sun Hao rolled his eyes. If Qi Lixin couldn't catch the sarcasm, then there was nothing Sun Hao could do. “If we're lucky, we'll become the second Ninth Round. Two nines make eighteen—what a coincidence.”
Zheng Ba was also highly resentful. “Isn't this basically saying nothing at all? We still don't know who the third party is, we don't know how to end the game, and we don't even know who's going to die next.”
Fu Yan fell silent for a long moment, a weary expression appearing on his face. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and said helplessly, “Things have come to this, and I don't have any other ideas either. We can only wait until tonight to look for new clues.”
But there were too many variables. By the time night fell, how many of them would still be alive?
“If anyone wants to go look around somewhere, go ahead and try your luck. Maybe you'll find other clues. But remember, whenever you enter any scene, you must go in pairs. Absolutely do not act alone, lest you give the third party an opportunity to strike.”
Everyone nodded in agreement; no one raised any objections.
At this moment, they were like a solitary boat on the vast ocean, drifting aimlessly, praying to find a sliver of hope.
Just then, Cheng Xi pulled several compact cameras out of her backpack, walked over to everyone, and distributed them one by one.
“Take these cameras. For my work, I spent a lot of money to have a synchronization function installed in them. This means that no matter what any camera shoots, the other cameras can access and view the photos once connected to the system.”
“If you find anything unusual or suspicious in a scene, take a photo. Even if an accident happens while two people are acting together and they don't make it, the photos will still be there, leaving clues for the survivors.”
Cheng Xi was considering the worst-case scenario. Although it sounded grim, her intentions were good, and it was highly practical.
Everyone took the cameras and thanked her.
After handing out the cameras, Cheng Xi's gaze fell on Bai Ci. Her tone softened slightly as she took the initiative to say, “Bai Jiu, let's move together today.”
She figured that since they were both girls, they could look out for each other by sticking together.
Moreover, Bai Ci must be devastated by Fu Liu's death. Even if she just accompanied her, she could offer some comfort to this girl who had just lost her boyfriend.
Bai Ci looked up, a look of understanding and gratitude on her face, and nodded gently. “Okay, thank you.”
Now that she had a partner, where should they go next?
Bai Ci had her own thoughts on the matter. There was a high probability that no more clues remained in those scenes.
The core of this Magnolia Theater had never been about having them search for clues or solve secrets. Instead, it was meant to drive them into a corner and force them to slaughter each other, completing a battle royale game.
It had meticulously arranged those theatrical scenes, laid traps, and even created a third party to sow discord, all for the purpose of accelerating the game's progress and pushing the battle royale to happen.
Since they were unlikely to gain anything more from the scenes, they might as well take an alternative route and look for a breakthrough elsewhere.
An idea slowly began to surface in her mind.
Rate on N.U.
