723 Second Round

 

After entering the theme park of life and walking through the maze of memory, eventually, they arrived at the hotel of despair. Every tenant here had their own identity, and they each represented something. They would follow the black box’s rules and select the last survivor. Everyone had the right to decide other people’s lives, but they had no right to decide their own lives.

Han Fei lowered his head, and blood leaked out of the corner of his mask. The fiery pain didn’t disappear. His face appeared to grow into the mask.

“What if we didn’t choose anything? What will happen? Why should we listen to the order of a killer?” The woman didn’t want the party to be led by the killer, but the hotel owner interrupted. “At least the killer got something right. The black mist is coagulating. Eventually, it’ll form a tide to swallow the hotel. If this place is ruined, we’ll end up in the same state as those who were forced to leave the hotel.”

“Death?” There were only two choices, either they followed the killer’s rules, or all of them would die. The wall clock ticked. With each passing second, the atmosphere became more oppressive.

“How about we follow the killer’s orders for now? Based on his tone, the killer’s mind wasn’t in the right place. Perhaps he imagined everything.” The magician sat on the couch and played with his dolls. He didn’t look at anyone. He seemed to be talking to the dolls.

“No.” The officer rejected it. He glared at the magician. “Everyone, calm down. There is a poker card in the victim’s sleeve. The chance of the magician being the killer is very high!”

“I’m a magician, not a clown. A joker poker card doesn’t mean anything.” He raised his head, but he didn’t look at the officer. He stood up and walked towards the mute girl at the corner. The girl sensed that and shivered even harder. “I’m a kind person, and I love to be with kids. The reason I’m a magician is to bring smiles to children.” He knelt before the girl. He removed one of his dolls and placed it in the girl’s hand. “Can you tell me your name? I’ll write your name later so that you can leave here alive.” The magician was facing away from everyone. They could hear his words, but they couldn’t see what he did.

A few seconds later, the girl reached out to paint a small flower on the muddy wall. “Is your name Flower?” The girl nodded mechanically. The fear in her eyes subsided. They were replaced by confusion.

“Alright. I understand.” The magician touched the girl’s head. “Children are our future and hope. If only one of us can leave here alive, I personally hope that it’s you.” The magician appeared to have made his choice. Then, he returned to his seat.

The officer’s face darkened because the scriptwriter openly went against him, and the magician also ignored him.

When the clock showed 23:55, everyone could hear the rain dripping. The black rain became heavier like it was trying to wash away the hotel. The raindrops hit on the walls. The party looked out the window. The black mist mixed with the black rain. The world was collapsing on them.

“Are you sure you’re not going to follow the killer’s orders? Do you plan to die together?” The magician ignored others. He removed the doll near his heart, picked up the pen on the table, and wrote down Flower on the doll. “Hopefully, the black box can understand my thoughts.” The magician tossed the doll into the box. “I wish for her to be the last survivor.” The doll fell into the box and disappeared silently. The other travelers looked at the magician in shock.

Giving others your vote was the only leverage to ensure one’s survival. However, the magician used his vote without hesitation. It was like he really wanted the girl to survive until the end. After that, the girl stood up and walked unsteadily to the table. She slipped a paper into the box.

“I don’t think the girl voted voluntarily. None of us know the magician’s real name, but the girl dropped her vote directly. I suspect the magician has hypnotized the girl to make her do something against her will.” Mad Laughter narrowed his eyes. He was confident and sharp. He treated this as a real game. After the game was over, he’d kill everyone.

“Perhaps we don’t need to know each other’s name. We can vote with the impression we have of each other.” The magician pointed at his brain. “If you don’t believe me, you can try it. Once the vote is successful, you’ll have this feeling of tossing said person’s soul into the abyss.”

“You know so much.” The officer became more reticent but also more dangerous. “The person we choose will receive a new life. Why would it feel like you’ve dropped them in the abyss?” The scriptwriter was confused. He took out the paper and pen from his pocket. He scribbled a name and put it into the black box. When the paper disappeared, the scriptwriter was startled. Then, he turned around to smile at Mad Laughter.

Then, everyone else started to vote. After the scriptwriter was done, Mad Laughter walked to the table. He wrote down a name and dropped it into the box.

The hotel owner sighed. He and the worker walked forward together. They wrote down each other’s names.

“You’ll regret this.” The officer said. But as more people cast their votes, he started to feel uneasy. He walked to the middle-aged woman and tried to persuade her to vote for each other. But the woman shook her head. She tossed the ball of paper she had into the black box. Han Fei walked to the table and voted for his wife.

The people who hadn’t voted were the officer and the fugitive.

“Write! I need to see you write down my name!” The officer who represented justice was also the first to resort to violence. In comparison, the fugitive did feel more like an officer. The officer beat the fugitive. He poked his fingers into the fugitive’s broken stump. After the endless torture, the fugitive was forced to write down the officer’s name. “Please don’t misunderstand, everyone. Violence is never the solution. I’m forced too.” The officer then wrote down the fugitive’s name. Before he found a new target, he needed the fugitive to keep him alive. Everyone had voted, but nothing changed. Just as everyone thought they had been tricking, the clock struck midnight. The two clock hands overlapped, and a strange sound started in the room. Everyone turned to the sound. Black mist unfurled from Lee Guo Er’s skin. It looked like her skin had burst. Her fair skin turned black, and her body was soon enveloped by the black mist. Then all the black mist rushed to the black box. When the mist dispersed, Lee Guo Er was gone, like everything about her had been wiped away.

“The hotel is built inside the brain. The people here should be in soul form. Perhaps there’s still a chance for her to be awakened.” Han Fei switched on masterful acting. Everything that happened here affected him. However, he couldn’t show any flaws. He needed to survive until the end to make real changes. The black rain outside the window slapped like waves. The ten people watched the couch Lee Guo Er was lying on earlier. The person disappeared just like that.

“The killer isn’t lying. The person with the lowest vote will die.” The magician walked to the couch and caressed the surface. No one could tell someone was lying there earlier.

Mad Laughter was not as confident after he saw Lee Guo Er disappear. Instead, the craziness in his eyes was invoked. It felt like he had been through this before.

“The killer didn’t do anything in the first round. He’s probably afraid of exposure.” The officer’s tone changed too. If he didn’t force the fugitive to write down his name, he’d end up the same as Lee Guo Er. Everyone else had their own partners. The officer and the fugitive were forcibly bound together. There was no trust at all between them. It was too much of a risk for them to leave their lives in each other’s hands.

After Lee Guo Er disappeared, the mist outside the hotel faded slightly. However, 10 minutes later, the mist returned. The old hotel couldn’t handle it for long. It was like a broken boat caught in a storm.

Bang!

One of the windows on the second floor was blown open. Black rain blew into the room.

“I’ll go close the window.” The worker was about to leave when the scriptwriter said, “You better don’t leave our sight.”

The magician also smiled, “Didn’t you realize it? The longer we drag this out, the harder the storm. The killer is urging us to pick the last survivor.” He touched the dolls and walked to the mute girl again. “This is so cruel. So many of us adults have to fight with a small girl.”

“Stop lying to the girl.” The woman didn’t know the girl, but she felt the magician had been using her. The girl’s eyes were different from before. It felt like she was slowly losing herself.

“How am I lying to her? I’m the only one protecting her.” The magician walked to the girl again. No one stopped him. They didn’t mind the magician using the girl as his ‘insurance’. The girl was very weak. Any adult could control her. If they couldn’t control her, they could easily kill her. That was the reason she’d be able to survive until near the end.

“Wait. I suspect you’re threatening her.” The officer spoke. He hauled the girl from the corner and had her sit on the chair next to the dining table.

“Fine. I won’t touch her. Let her make her own choice.” The magician shrugged. He wrote down the name Flower and then tossed the paper into the black box. The second round started. Different from last time, the officer felt very uneasy. When the black box took the vote, it was not based on the name on the paper but on whom the voter was thinking about when they cast a vote.

The magician purposely wrote the name Flower twice openly before everyone as if to prove that point. The name on the paper didn’t count. The vote inside the voters’ heart was the only important thing.

“Your turn.”

The black mist caused the whole building to creak but the magician appeared to enjoy this moment.

The officer looked at the magician darkly. He knew that forcing the fugitive to write his name won’t work anymore. The fugitive could think about someone else when he cast his vote. Violence couldn’t change someone’s mind. As the note said, every persona and soul was equal. Last round, everyone had their partners, but what about this round?

The officer lowered his head to hide the murderous intent in his eyes. If he couldn’t get others to vote for him, then how else could he avoid becoming the person with the least vote? The answer was simple. Kill all the competition before the voting phase was over.

“There are ten of us. If we vote for each other, we can survive until the end. However, if there’s an accident, the person who didn’t vote for the victim is the killer. Then, they’d be the one not having any vote in the next round, so we don’t need to worry for now.” The scriptwriter said that purposely to stabilize the officer. “Before the voting phase is over, we should investigate the hotel to find out the killer’s real motive. Perhaps we can find another solution.”

“You have a point.” Mad Laughter and scriptwriter voted; the hotel owner and worker voted; Han Fei and his wife voted for each other.

Only the officer and fugitive were left. When they were thinking, Mad Laughter suddenly said, “Cast your vote on the scriptwriter. He voted for me, and I voted for you. So if you vote for him, all three of us will survive.”

If Mad Laughter was telling the truth, then the fugitive would die; if Mad Laughter was lying, then both the fugitive and the officer would die.

This was supposed to be a simple game, but it became so complicated due to Mad Laughter’s single sentence.

 

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