CH 7

Ch7 - Three People Become Ghosts

There were originally 12 people on the bus. One person violated the rules, leaving 11 people. Now a ‘ghost’ was out and there were 10 people left. The job of voting hadn’t become easier due to the decrease in number. Rather, the pace of the progress became difficult and slow.

After Jiang Fang stopped expressing his opinion, the irritable and talkative university student Wu Yukai wanted to become the opinion leader again. He didn’t dare question others as arrogantly as before but he still hated the fat man for voting for him. Therefore, he bit at the fat man, saying the fat man deliberately led the rhythm to vote for him. Then he resolutely voted for the fat man.

The fat man received a second vote from Zhao Guanglu. He couldn’t give a reason. He just felt that this fat man had a yin atmosphere. These two votes were considered emotional votes. There wasn’t enough persuasiveness but it was enough to make the people who received the votes panic.

Yet in the face of such a situation, the fat man could actually be stable. He leaned back against his chair expressionlessly and took out a cigarette. Since he didn’t have a lighter, he simply held the cigarette in his mouth.

The fat man bit the filter and said he was an ordinary game programmer who worked in a third-rate game company that was about to close down. He was 34 years old and had done nothing with his life. He stated coldly, “My wife and I divorced early and my daughter followed me.”

“Two days ago, she was at home. Then she was gone.”

“You vote.” The fat on his face moved as he spoke like he didn’t care. “After voting for me, I will die and can go see my daughter.”

His words made the atmosphere in the bus even more depressing. Zhao Guanglu was also divorced so he felt a bit of empathetic regret after listening to these words.

…No one would give the third vote anymore.

Nan Zhou watched all of this calmly and curiously. In fact, even if the fat man didn’t say this, everyone wouldn’t easily vote for him. The third vote was the third vote. Normal people didn’t want to shoulder this responsibility.

After Liu Xiao’s matter, the group didn’t become more decisive. If the dead people were really ghosts then they wouldn’t have any psychological burden. However, every player was a living person and had their own lives.

Nan Zhou talked about the art course he taught. Li Yinhang talked about the strange things she encountered at her work. The man and woman who sat together testified for each other and talked about how bad their community property manager was. Qin Yadong said he was just an ordinary civil servant who worked from 9 to 5. His life had no waves apart from the leader occasionally being stupid. He just wanted to live quietly until death with his salary.

People who met by chance were talking about their lives in vivid detail. They each had their own hardships and reasons.

…In order to live. Or to kill others and earn points.

As a result of some discussion, Nan Zhou got two votes. The two votes were cast by the couple who got on the bus together and sat in the same row. They wondered how Nan Zhou escaped from the person who checked the car in the morning and how he got onto the seat without disturbing anyone.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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Time passed by in seconds. The unspeakable sense of urgency made everyone cast their votes based on their feelings. The fat man who got two votes from Zhao Guanglu and Wu Yukai voted for Qin Yadong behind him. He insisted that he didn’t feel anyone behind him when he got on the bus.

Qin Yadong shrugged helplessly without any anger. He acknowledged this vote and didn’t even retaliate, instead voting for Jiang Fang. He explained, “Mr Jiang, I’m just worried… there might be situations where the ghosts deliberately identify teammates to win everyone’s trust.”

Jiang Fang nodded and turned the silver bracelet on his wrist around with a smile. “Mr Qin is right. There could indeed be such a situation.”

Xie Yangyang was really uncertain and chose to abstain. At present, only Jiang Fang, Nan Zhou and Li Yinhang had the remaining votes in their hands.

There were less than three minutes left before reaching the next tunnel. If they passed through this tunnel, this round of voting would be void. On the human side, there would only be two more rounds to vote. The probability of accurately picking out two ghosts from 10 people was too low.

…In order to ensure the survival of everyone in the end, it would be difficult if they didn’t exclude a few wrong options during the voting process.

At present, Nan Zhou and the fat man had two votes while Jiang Fang and Qin Yadong had one vote each. Excluding one abstention vote, three other votes weren’t cast. Those who had voted couldn’t help focusing on these three people.

Try it even if it was wrong. These three people had the ability to reduce the probability of finding a ghost from 2/10 to 2/9 or even 2/8.

Li Yinhang could feel everyone’s hopeful gazes. She couldn’t think about them. Her fingers tightly grasped the edge of her seat as she wondered why that man had just said those words.

She wasn’t sure if her guess was correct and she didn’t want to rashly become the person who decided life or death. As she was hesitating, there was the sound of clothes rubbing as someone stood up behind her.

Nan Zhou stood up and walked forward. He stepped on the ground with his leather shoes. The pace was very slow and didn’t sound anxious at all. Nan Zhou walked slowly to the front in full view of everyone.

Li Yinhang watched Nan Zhou sit down beside the person she suspected. She reflexively stood up and stared at Nan Zhou.

Jiang Fang, who was sitting in front of her, raised his head slightly and smiled at Li Yinhang. “Miss Li, did you think of something?”

No one noticed the small movements on their side. Nan Zhou’s behavior was too weird and all their attention was drawn to him.

Nan Zhou didn’t seem aware of his abnormal behavior. After sitting down, he deliberately tidied up his wrinkled coat before turning his head. “Sir, what do you think is the biggest difference between human players and ghost players?”

“……”

This question was too direct and the effect was naturally explosive. The fat on the face of the fat man who was questioned shook slightly. He stared at Nan Zhou and spoke in a bad tone, “Mr Luo, what do you mean?”

Nan Zhou seemed unable to hear the upset tone of the fat man and continued to ask, “What do you think is the most important thing when playing this game?”

The fat man didn’t mess around and replied, “Of course, it is to find the ghosts.”

“No,” Nan Zhou refuted it seriously. “It is to understand the rules of the game.”

He turned to look at Liu Xiao who had fallen to the ground. The white pulp of the cap had turned into a gray-white semi-liquid. Before his death, Liu Xiao tried to change his fate by offering to identify his two teammates. However, he actually had no idea who his teammates were.

People who were about to die wouldn’t give up on even the smallest hope. At the moment of life and death, even if he didn’t drag his two teammates to die with him, he wouldn’t have given up on asking them for help. Yet before he died, Liu Xiao’s gaze toward everyone was dazed, filled with hatred and not specific.

This confirmed Nan Zhou’s conjecture. Nan Zhou had guessed this from the beginning of the game. The mushroom had told them many rules of the game. However, the most important thing Nan Zhou heard was—

“This is a fair game.”

What did this fairness mean? For ghost players, the game was fair. For human players, the game was equally fair.

“Therefore, the ghosts couldn’t be in the bus from the beginning.”

“If this was the case, the ghosts would have a lot of information in advance. This isn’t fair to the human players.”

“Similarly, the ghosts won’t know who their teammates are.”

“The reason is as above. It wouldn’t be fair to the human players.”

“The three ghost players should’ve been transferred to this bus at a special time after receiving the basic rules.”

“No matter which side, we don’t know who our companions are.”

“People are looking for their companions and the ghosts are also looking for them.”

Nan Zhou murmured to himself before looking at the fat man again. “This is the only way to play.”

The fat man’s mouth twitched slightly and the muscles in his cheeks were on the verge of losing control. “Mr Luo…”

“My last name isn’t Luo nor am I called Luo Yan.”

Nan Zhou stated, “I saw this name on the missing person notice posted on the box and used it.”

The fat man’s complexion changed drastically when he heard this and he stood up suddenly, but Nan Zhou grabbed his wrist. He didn’t seem to use much force but the fat man’s face was pale and his thick lips trembled. Nan Zhou still looked forward. Despite the fat man’s violent pulling, he remained motionless and his tone was calm. “Now I will answer the question I just asked—What is the difference between a human player and a ghost player?”

“The difference is that the human player already in the bus will only focus on observing people.”

Nan Zhou watched the fat man. “The ghosts are newcomers so only they will observe the surrounding environment more carefully than anyone else.”

“Therefore, the ghost is the most vulnerable to being exposed when just teleporting in.”

“Sir, do you think this is right?”