The class monitor's possession ability was honestly just too underhanded for a game that relied so heavily on trust and suspicion.
Ren Yi understood clearly that if the original Player 11 hadn't been possessed and had lived until today, she certainly would have come forward to claim the Poison Apprentice role to set the record straight.
If that had happened, Ren Yi's identity as the "Poison Apprentice" in the eyes of Player 2, the Peeper, would have clashed with the original Player 11's claim.
Once a conflict arose, Ren Yi would have been thrust back into the spotlight, falling under everyone's suspicion.
After all, in this game, the "innocent" status given by the Peeper wasn't an absolute guarantee of being a good person; it only proved that the certified person hadn't killed anyone on that specific night.
Once new clues appeared or someone else stepped up to rebut him, the suspicion on him would grow again, and he might even be voted out as an Anomaly.
But unfortunately for the others, all those possibilities had been buried by the great class monitor, Ms. Zhang Qiuqiu, within her pale blue vertical pupils.
By possessing Player 11's body, she had completely erased the original Player 11's identity and eliminated the possibility of a role conflict.
This allowed Ren Yi to hide safely among the group and reap the rewards without lifting a finger.
"Underhanded. Truly underhanded."
Ren Yi didn't hold back his internal praise for Zhang Qiuqiu, the smile on his face growing even more radiant.
Just then, Player 2 gave a light cough to clear his throat, signaling everyone to look over. His tone turned serious once more.
"Alright, everyone, don't panic."
"With the rooms collapsing, our situation is becoming increasingly dangerous. We must find more clues as quickly as possible."
He paused before continuing, "Before we go looking for new clues, let's exchange what we found while exploring our rooms yesterday."
"I think it's strange that we didn't find any keys yesterday."
"Perhaps it's because we didn't cooperate and everyone was working alone, causing us to miss key evidence."
"I'll go first," Ren Yi spoke up, his tone flat.
"Yesterday, I was in a sealed room with only one entrance and encountered a demon statue. It looked very eerie."
"Aside from that, I didn't find anything else."
He didn't mention the black viscous substance on his hands, nor did he mention that his nose had been stained.
However, the Player 6 girl actually noticed a detail.
Her gaze fixed on his nose, her brow furrowing slightly. With a hint of confusion in her voice, she asked,
"Player 3, did your clown nose turn black yesterday?"
"I noticed it yesterday but didn't have a chance to ask. Where did you rub against something?"
Fine, I guess you noticed after all.
During the day, he lacked Anomaly-level perception and couldn't notice the abnormalities on his own body.
He had clearly washed his nose last night, yet Player 6 still remembered.
Ren Yi feigned a look of bewilderment, gave a helpless shrug, and answered honestly.
"I don't know. I might have accidentally brushed against something while exploring the rooms yesterday. I didn't pay much attention to it."
After that, a few others began to share their findings one after another.
Before even the fourth person could share their clues, Player 2 and the Player 6 girl's eyes lit up simultaneously, as if they had realized something.
The two exchanged a look, seeing the same certainty in each other's eyes, and then simultaneously looked toward the fireplace in the corner of the hall.
Without any further complications, the group immediately gathered around the fireplace. Looking at the dust-covered hearth, they all began to help clean it out.
The dust was thick. It took quite a while of cleaning before the full extent of the fireplace was revealed.
Since the fireplace was tall and the flue inside was narrow, the group discussed it and decided to form a human ladder.
Player 2, being the smallest and most agile, would climb the human ladder to check the situation inside.
There was nothing for Ren Yi to sabotage here, nor could he cause trouble.
If he intentionally sabotaged them or prevented the group from finding the keys, he would easily expose his identity, which wasn't worth the risk.
Meanwhile, he was making calculations in his head.
Tomorrow, the location where the keys appeared should change.
Otherwise, if the Participant side always had keys, it would be like they had a cheat active, which wouldn't fit the fairness of the game.
Though... this game didn't seem to have much fairness to speak of in the first place.
Regardless, he believed the Alliance wouldn't leave such a glaring loophole.
At that thought, Ren Yi's heart grew heavy.
He suddenly realized a serious problem.
It seemed their Anomaly side wouldn't be able to kill anyone tonight.
Lu Zihan, the player with the "shield-piercing" ability who could bypass the sealed pods to kill, had already been sealed away to play games with Lord Cha.
Lord Cha, who possessed shadow-related abilities, was also sealed, joining Lu Zihan in their forced retirement.
Although Zhang Qiuqiu had possessed Player 11's body, her ability was possession; she didn't have the ability to penetrate the sealed pods. She couldn't enter a room locked with a key to kill.
And as for himself, he was equally powerless against a sealed pod locked with a key; he simply couldn't break through.
In that case, even if the Locksmith didn't act to protect the good people tonight, the Anomalies still wouldn't be able to kill anyone.
Everyone had a room to stay in, and the rooms would be locked with keys. They had no way in.
What should he do?
Should he utilize the double-room situation again and intentionally stay with someone?
Then he could repeat his old trick, kill his "roommate," and frame it as being killed by the Anomaly with teleportation abilities?
After all, the Participants didn't know that Lu Zihan, who possessed teleportation, had been sealed.
Perhaps he could argue that the Anomaly could still teleport and move freely at night to kill people inside their rooms.
But Ren Yi quickly dismissed that idea.
Something occurred to him, and a spark of inspiration flashed in his eyes.
Indeed, the perspective of the Participants was completely different from the perspective of the Anomaly side.
Lu Zihan's "shield-piercing kill" had not only been witnessed by Ren Yi as a "witness at the scene" but had also been recounted by Player 2, the Peeper, the following day.
This event had undoubtedly left a deep enough impression in the hearts of all the Participants.
Therefore, they didn't know that Lu Zihan had been sealed.
Nor did they know that the Anomalies were completely helpless against them inside the sealed pods tonight.
As the game reached this stage, there was still one Special who hadn't been found.
The Locksmith had been hiding among the group all along, never exposing their identity.
They hadn't found a trace of the Locksmith and couldn't be certain who it was.
After all, the Locksmith had no reason to reveal their perspective when speaking.
Over the past few nights, the Locksmith's skill hadn't even been triggered, except for perhaps yesterday when they followed Player 2's advice and protected Player 2, the Peeper.
Back when everyone first gathered on the first day to analyze the rules, they had said it.
In the first two nights, the Locksmith was a defensive role.
But now that the numbers had dwindled significantly, the situation was different.
At this thought, the corners of Ren Yi's mouth curled into an eerie smile once more.
A bold plan was quietly taking shape in his mind.
Setting Ren Yi's internal thoughts aside for a moment, on the other side, Player 2 had already climbed into the fireplace flue via the human ladder.
Before long, his excited shouts echoed down: "Found them! I found them! There are keys here! So many keys!"
Rate on N.U.
