NOVEL NEXT Ch. 23
Chapter 23: Everyone
Lu Feng and the other four sat in silence inside the room.
No one had rested for the entire night, yet at this moment, none of them felt the slightest bit of sleepiness.
The scene of Su Qi’s tragic death from ten minutes ago was still vivid in their minds.
That horrifying, bloody sight was destined to remain unforgettable for the rest of their lives.
Based on the previously discovered hidden rule—that Evil Spirit Followers would not be attacked by the Evil Spirit—Su Qi was almost certainly an ordinary player.
Everyone sat in silence, the room filled with dead stillness.
Finally, Lu Feng spoke,
“Does anyone feel sleepy? If so, go get some rest first.”
Everyone shook their heads silently.
Their expressions looked grim, and the heavy air only became more stifling.
Knowing that they could not continue like this, Lu Feng forced himself to gather his energy, raised his voice slightly, and said,
“In that case, let’s begin.”
At his words, everyone lifted their heads, looking at him with faint confusion.
“…Begin?”
Lin You asked in surprise.
Lu Feng gave a small nod,
“Begin exploring the old mansion and complete the first task—”
“Su Qi’s death bought us two days of safety, so we must make full use of this time… Don’t forget the content of the fifth game rule.”
The fifth rule:
After the game ends, all players on the winning side will be revived, while all players on the losing side will be erased.
“Su Qi’s death is only temporary. As long as we win, she will come back to life.”
Lu Feng said quietly.
“Then… what about the five people chosen as Evil Spirit Followers?”
At that moment, Liuli suddenly spoke,
“So, for the survival of the other thirty-two people, those five must be sacrificed, is that it?”
For a moment, everyone felt choked by the question, not knowing how to respond.
Only Lu Feng shook his head.
His eyes carried a coldness as he spoke slowly,
“…This is an irreconcilable, fight-to-the-death game. Just as ordinary players face attacks from the Evil Spirit while Evil Spirit Followers do not, they only need to hide themselves well and wait for the Evil Spirit to kill everyone else to claim victory…”
“Everyone fears death. If we ask the Evil Spirit Followers to step forward now, would they be willing? If they never reveal themselves, the number of people killed by the Evil Spirit will only increase until, in the end, the five of them achieve victory, and the other thirty-two become sacrifices… In the end, they too are only trying to survive.”
“So, I don’t believe we are wrong for wanting victory. This game is not like the ‘Trolley Problem,’ where one must choose to sacrifice the few or the many. Here, both sides struggle with everything they have, each trying to live.”
(A classic human ethical dilemma, the “Trolley Problem”: on the left track are five people, on the right track only one person. As a trolley approaches, will you change the track to sacrifice one life to save five, or leave it to continue, sacrificing five to save one?)
After saying this, Lu Feng turned to Liuli.
A trace of suspicion rose in his heart,
“Liuli… are you feeling sympathy for those Evil Spirit Followers?”
Liuli shook her head,
“No, I just wanted to confirm your thoughts…”
As she spoke, her gaze lingered on Lu Feng.
A faint tenderness glimmered in her eyes,
“Now, I’m relieved.”
That ambiguous look was immediately noticed by Yu Mo.
She bit her lip in frustration, her expression dimming further.
“In that case, let’s not sit here wasting time. Let’s hurry up!”
Lin You immediately stood up.
“Right, the sooner the better!” Zhang Tong added.
With a goal set, they found new motivation, and the suffocating gloom pressing on their hearts finally eased a little.
Because the old mansion was far too large, Lu Feng had no intention of splitting everyone up.
On one hand, it was for efficiency; on the other, for safety.
Standing on the third floor, Lu Feng looked down toward the hall on the first floor.
After so long, the people who had been gathered downstairs were already gone.
Su Qi’s corpse, along with all the blood and filth, had completely vanished.
The air had become fresh again, and that nauseating stench had disappeared without a trace.
It was hard to imagine that just over an hour ago, such a brutal massacre had taken place here… yet now, everything had returned to its original state, as if nothing had ever happened.
The group, however, did not find this surprising, because last night Lin You had told them something else—
Wu Fan’s corpse and blood had also disappeared, and the broken window on the third floor had been completely restored, as though nothing had occurred.
From the looks of it, this old mansion possessed some kind of power that erased corpses and restored everything back to its original state.
The group was already used to it.
However, what could be restored were only objects, not the hearts on the verge of collapse.
Walking down the third-floor corridor, the group could hear various sounds coming from the surrounding rooms—
The hoarse sobs of despair and pain…
The helpless howls of madness…
And even…
“Ah… ah…”
From a room up ahead came the hurried gasps and moans of a man and a woman.
The unmistakably intimate sounds left the group staring wide-eyed at one another, faces full of shock and awkwardness.
“Seriously… someone can still do that in a situation like this?”
Lin You scratched his head in embarrassment.
“No, maybe it’s precisely because things have become like this… that they choose to indulge recklessly, embracing a doomsday mentality to enjoy one last bit of bodily pleasure.”
Lu Feng sighed as he spoke.
At the same time, he could not help but worry—what if someone developed suicidal tendencies?
Each time someone died, the remaining players’ time was reduced by two days… In the most absurd and extreme case, if half of them committed suicide, the Evil Spirit Followers would win outright.
But the moment this thought came to mind, Lu Feng realized something was wrong.
He recalled what he had just said in the room—
They only need to hide themselves well and wait for the Evil Spirit to kill everyone to win…
Wasn’t the Evil Spirit Followers’ victory condition far too simple?
Ordinary players had to endure a deadly attack from the Evil Spirit every two days, uncover clues hidden in the mansion, and search for the Evil Spirit’s true name and cause of death.
Meanwhile, Evil Spirit Followers only needed to disguise themselves to win?
Was such an unbalanced condition really fair?
From the perspective of game balance, it was clearly unreasonable.
Then… why had the rules been written this way…?
Right, the rules were incomplete.
There were three hidden rules that only the Evil Spirit Followers could see, and one of them had already been uncovered by Lu Feng.
Which meant…
Among the remaining two hidden rules, there must be information that severely restricted the Evil Spirit Followers—enough to directly alter the outcome of the game!
Only that could explain why the victory conditions of both sides seemed so unequal!
So then… what exactly was the content of that rule?
Lu Feng’s heart sank, bit by bit.