There's No Way to Respond to That

The "spectator" being referred to was, of course, the Peeper.

As for whether the Peeper would choose Ren Yi's room, Ren Yi felt fairly confident.

From the very beginning, Ren Yi's seemingly mad behavior had been a calculated move—a way to "deliberately leak information" and "draw attention."

Of course, on the surface, he could explain it away by claiming he was a Poison Apprentice who wanted to bait the Anomaly into killing him.

During today's exchange, no one had tried to dictate the Peeper's actions; most had simply offered suggestions.

First, the Peeper could choose to verify a double room. That way, provided they didn't account for the Anomaly withholding its kill for the first two nights, the best-case scenario would be identifying two good players at once.

Furthermore, after seeing the layout of the rooms, the Peeper would likely deduce that the double rooms were the most probable targets for trouble tonight, further increasing the chances of them being checked.

And between the two double rooms, the one containing Ren Yi was undoubtedly the more "attractive" choice.

Therefore, Ren Yi was about eighty percent certain that the Peeper would witness their little performance.

As for the remaining twenty percent—what if the Peeper wasn't acting rationally?

Then it would just be a one-for-one trade. If the Peeper watched, it was a massive win; if they didn't, it wasn't exactly a loss.

He wondered if the Anomaly could still spectate after being "sealed." If not, it seemed like things would get a bit boring.

Ren Yi was the only one left in the room, but just in case there were any "eyes" watching, he spent the entire night acting "restless," "grim-faced," and "lost in thought." The next morning, he stepped out of the safety pod with expertly faked dark circles under his eyes.

As for the key, the moment Ren Yi stepped out of the safety pod, it vanished into thin air.

As soon as Ren Yi left the room, he saw Lu Zihan across from him.

The two made eye contact. Lu Zihan's expression twitched slightly, as if he wanted to laugh but was forcing himself to hold it back.

【Hey, Old Lu. Seeing me come out alone, you should hesitate, then look terrified, keep your distance, and ideally go take a look at my room.】

Ren Yi had no choice but to send him a message.

Even though no one else was around, Ren Yi felt they should adhere to the principles of An Actor Prepares.

Lu Zihan had a moment of realization and immediately scrambled back several steps. Once Ren Yi continued walking forward, Lu Zihan crept toward the room behind him with a suspicious air.

By the time Ren Yi reached the hall, half the players had already arrived.

A variety of steaming breakfast dishes had appeared on the massive round table at some point, but no one seemed to have touched them.

As the remaining people trickled in, more and more gazes fell upon the empty seat for Player 4 next to Ren Yi.

Finally, when Lu Zihan emerged from the corridor looking pale, the atmosphere instantly froze.

Most people made an imperceptible move to shift further away from Ren Yi.

Ren Yi watched all of this with interest.

Ren Yi noticed that the child, Player 2, who was closest to him, didn't show any fear. Instead, he was watching Ren Yi with a scrutinizing gaze.

"No. 3," the child in seat No. 2 spoke solemnly, asking the question everyone already knew the answer to. "Where is No. 4?"

"No. 4 is dead," Lu Zihan chimed in from the side.

"His head was clean off. It was a gruesome death."

Lu Zihan swore he was putting every ounce of his life's acting skills into this performance.

"Is that so?" Player 2 responded meaningfully.

"Sigh, this is a bit of a problem..." Ren Yi rubbed his temples as if he had a headache, though a bright red curve still hung on his lips.

"Everyone, if I told you an Anomaly came in last night, killed my roommate, and then left, would you believe me?"

"Since you've put it that way, I have to ask," the woman in the tracksuit, Player 6, said while crossing her arms.

"How did the Anomaly break into the room? I believe everyone saw yesterday that those rooms don't look like they can be breached by physical force."

"Also, how did it leave? In which direction? Which room did it return to?"

"Sigh..." Ren Yi sighed again and shrugged with a helpless expression.

"Honestly, at a time like this, it would probably be more convincing if I just picked one of you and accused you of being the culprit."

"But unfortunately, everyone, I cannot answer those questions."

Ren Yi spoke clearly, enunciating every word.

"Because that Anomaly... it appeared out of thin air."

"What do you mean 'out of thin air'?" Player 2 asked with a frown.

"Sudden appearance, vanishing on the spot, ignoring obstacles, spatial movement—something like that," Ren Yi listed off casually.

"I was having a friendly face-to-face chat with No. 4 when that thing suddenly appeared behind him," Ren Yi's face darkened.

"It was nearly three meters tall, sickly greenish-black, with a metal hood over its head and blades for hands... Of course, those details aren't very important."

Ren Yi leaned back. "In any case, if any of you ran into him, the chances of surviving would be close to zero."

"Actually, to be honest, that fellow seems to be right here among us now. Thinking about it is quite... thrilling."

Ren Yi's scrutinizing gaze swept over everyone.

Up to this point, everything he had said was the absolute truth. Even if Wang Zhixin were here using his Lie Detection ability, he would only get a result of "perfectly true."

"I retreated as fast as I could, but No. 4 didn't make it. That thing took his head off in one go and then vanished into thin air."

"It appeared from the air and vanished back into it."

"In short, it's a shame, everyone. It seems our 'impenetrable' rooms are no different from paper in front of that thing."

"You..." Zhang Qiuqiu, sitting in seat No. 7, clutched her chest. Her face was pale, but she spoke firmly.

"You're too cold-blooded. That was a human life! How can you talk about it so casually?"

The table suddenly fell silent.

Ren Yi fell into deep thought.