“Besides the reason that ‘as long as you stay on a floor where someone has died, you will be safe’, 13mArk was probably hiding in room 1108 for another reason.”

Li Ang collected the scraps of paper and said calmly, “Those bamboo hats.

Judging from our experiences over the past few days, the strength of those tall, thin bamboo hats is probably far greater than that of the terrifying old man.

They were attracted by something and began appearing in the hotel on the third night.

And the death of players can appease them and make them leave—Ω died before 3:30 the day before yesterday, so the tall, thin bamboo hats didn't appear.

The same goes for 13mArk yesterday.

13mArk probably thought at the time that the tall, thin bamboo hats were killing people at random, and that he could avoid being randomly selected by hiding on the eleventh floor,

transferring the risk to others.”

“Is that so...”

Mule and Liu Wu-dai exchanged glances. In fact, when they heard the news that 13mArk was staying on the eleventh floor last night, they had vaguely guessed this.

Hiding on a floor where someone has died is indeed one of the options for passing safely,

but this selfish behavior will inevitably make him a target of public criticism.

“The hotel accommodation guide states that having people staying on the floors can effectively calm the hotel's restlessness.

This also means that if there are floors without people staying on them, it will cause some bad things to happen in the hotel.”

Li Ang said calmly, “For example, that terrifying old man, compared to the day before yesterday, he no longer needs to lock onto players based on their breathing, and he can harm players before curfew time arrives.

His overall strength has also been further improved—this is very likely the backlash caused by 13mArk's behavior.”

Mule nodded silently in her heart.

13mArk's behavior undoubtedly violated the hotel rules and the tacit understanding between players.

Even if he survived last night,

today he might be tied up by other survivors to settle accounts, punished, or even killed directly at night...

to reduce the probability of the tall, thin bamboo hats appearing,

and eliminate the potential threat of 13mArk repeating his old tricks at night.

In other words, the Dolphin Hotel has set up rules full of traps,

which, on the surface, is a test of players' ability to survive independently,

but in reality, it is also a game between players.

Players must consider whether others are trustworthy, and must consider whether their trust will be betrayed, leading to their own death.

If others are selfish, then all the risks will be transferred to them.

In this situation, every word and action of others will become suspicious.

Are they secretly colluding, are they discussing whether to sneak into other people's rooms at night and secretly kill a player to calm the hotel's restlessness and allow them to survive better?

Once the bond of trust collapses, it will be difficult to rebuild.

The poisonous wine of suspicion and distrust will become more mellow with the passage of time and the fall of each player.

Others are hell.

13mArk was not the first to understand this, he was just the first to put this theory into practice and paid the price.

“But one thing is very strange, why did 13mArk's plan go wrong?”

Li Ang rubbed the beard on his dragon head mask (he made another piece of clothing with mud), and said calmly, “The woman in red not only appeared on the tenth floor where Kafi died,

but also went directly to the eleventh floor where Danfei died, and killed 13mArk.

Why could she do that?”

“Maybe the woman in red has undergone some kind of mutation?”

Liu Wu-dai said calmly, “Or did 13mArk's behavior cause the hotel to become restless, causing the rule that floors where people have died are safe to become invalid?”

“Could it be that we misunderstood?”

Hei Shengzi thought for a while, and said uncertainly, “The accommodation guide only said that floors where people have died do not need to be occupied for the next 180 hours,

but it didn't say that the floor is as safe as the elevator room.

Anomalies can also enter floors where people have died and launch attacks.

And didn't Li Risheng just test it?

During 01:11 to 06:07,

not only the elevator room, but the entire elevator shaft can cause lethal damage to anomalies.

When the woman in red dragged 13mArk's body into the elevator shaft, it was not the safe time for the elevator shaft,

so she could do that.

The hotel rules have not become invalid.”

“If we understand it this way, it makes sense.”

Bai Haozheng nodded and said in a deep voice, “I was thinking just now, whether all of us players can leave our respective floors tonight and gather on a floor where someone has died,

unite to increase the chances of survival,

but I'm afraid this method won't work.

First of all, the woman in red has the ability to enter floors where people have died.

Secondly, the rule that having floors not fully occupied will cause the hotel to become restless has been verified as correct yesterday.

If we all stay together, I'm afraid it will cause an even stronger backlash,

such as the terrifying old man completely解除限制(jiechu xianzhi, removed restrictions),

anomalies in the 复位 (fuwei, reset) number attacking us,

and attracting the tall, thin bamboo hats.

Even if a player dies in the process of dealing with the corridor anomalies, or even if we actively kill a member to appease the tall, thin bamboo hats,

I'm afraid we won't be able to deal with a large number of corridor anomalies.”

That's not necessarily true.

Hei Shengzi almost retorted Bai Haozheng. He had witnessed the scene last night where Li Ang, dressed in a Fuwa Huanhuan costume, punched the clown's face to pieces.

Hei Shengzi originally thought that he and Bai Haozheng were the two strongest players in this script mission, but now it seems that Li Ang should also be included.

The Plague Doctor's eyes twitched, and a rather complicated expression appeared on his face.

Deep down, he hoped that all the players would gather together—the terrifying old man had been缠着 (chanzhe, entangling) him for two nights in a row. If it weren't for the constant support of his companions, he would have died without a trace.

The analysis this morning,

firstly, proved that hiding on a floor where someone has died is useless,

secondly, it proved that gathering together is useless, and players still have to live on their own floors.

For the Plague Doctor, neither was good news...

“There's even worse news.”

Li Ang shook his head and said lightly to Bai Haozheng, “You forgot one thing, 13mArk.”

“Hmm?”

Bai Haozheng reacted instantly, and frowned, “You mean 13mArk was...”

If that's the case, the situation is even worse...”

Seeing everyone looking at him with puzzled eyes, Bai Haozheng explained, “After the woman in red dragged 13mArk into the elevator shaft, she used some method to open all the elevator shaft doors from the 14th to the 8th floor in order to shake off Li Risheng who was chasing after her.

In the subsequent tracking, they were not found anywhere.

13mArk is indeed dead, and he died before 3:30, otherwise the tall, thin bamboo hats would not have appeared,

but what if he died on a floor other than the eighth floor?”

Wanli Fengdao opened his mouth, understanding what Li Ang and Bai Haozheng meant.

The hotel accommodation guide stipulates that each floor needs to be occupied, except for floors where someone has died.

Assuming that the woman in red dragged 13mArk to the eighth floor where he was originally supposed to stay, killed him and ate him, that would be fine.

But if 13mArk died on floors that had already had deaths, such as the 12th, 11th, 10th, and 9th floors,

then the death event would be repeated,

equivalent to wasting an opportunity to鎮壓 (zhenya, suppress) the floor's restlessness.

Bai Haozheng, Hei Shengzi, Mu Yin Zhi Gui, Danfei, Kafi, Bob, 13mArk, Hagoromo Kokoro, the Plague Doctor, Li Risheng, Mule, Liu Wu-dai, Wanli Fengdao, Ω.

Fourteen players correspond to fourteen floors,

According to the original plan, even if a player died unexpectedly,

the remaining number of survivors could fill the other floors of the hotel,

but now 13mArk, whose place of death is unknown, has become the biggest flaw for the survivors—they may forever lack one spot and never be able to fill the hotel floors.

“The woman in red may be eating 13mArk on any floor, anywhere.

If she killed 13mArk in a hidden corner on the left side of the corridor on the fifth, fourth, third, or second floor,

and we don't know this, and continue to live on floors 5, 4, 3, 2, etc.,

it is equivalent to repeating 13mArk's mistake last night.

This has become an unsolvable situation.

No matter what, the hotel's restlessness is inevitable.”

Li Ang spread his hands and sighed, “So now, we have two choices in front of us.

First, continue with the original plan, and everyone returns to their respective floors. The hotel's restlessness is unavoidable, everyone relies on their own abilities, and fate decides who can survive, and who the tall, thin bamboo hats will grab.

Second, do not follow the original plan, and everyone gathers together tonight. This may cause the hotel to have a higher intensity of backlash and completely解除限制(jiechu xianzhi, remove restrictions) the hotel's anomalies.

The specific benefits, roughly speaking, are that we can unite as one and gather the strength of the remaining players.

With the former, one or two people may die.

With the latter, if we are not careful, everyone will be wiped out.

So, what are your opinions?”

Li Ang, who put the two choices in front of everyone, scanned the 1108 room, observing the expressions on everyone's faces.

“A player's place of death is unknown, causing the survivors to inevitably suffer a higher intensity of attack...”

Bai Haozheng lowered his head and thought for a while, remained silent for a long time, sighed, and looked up at everyone and said, “My personal opinion is that everyone should stay together.

With everyone's strength, we should be able to survive the next two nights and make it to the end of the script time.”

“...”

Hei Shengzi was silent for a moment, and said slowly, “Each has its own advantages.

I have to think about this question first.”

Everyone's eyes turned to Hagoromo Kokoro.

The 日岛 (Ridão, Japanese) girl wearing a sailor suit has beautiful eyebrows and eyes, and it's hard to imagine that she is the same person as the sword-wielding修罗 (xiuluo, asura) with bulging veins all over her body last night.

“I... think it would be better to stay on my own floor.”

Hagoromo Kokoro narrowed her eyes and said cautiously, “The idea of gathering together is obviously inconsistent with the setting of this mission.

Isn't it?

Suppose a player dies on the first night,

On the second night, the remaining thirteen survivors felt that they should stay together and get through the rest of the time.

Then, is it possible for these thirteen people to survive?

If they can survive,

then the system has no need to set up the mission so intricate and complicated. It simply says that everyone should gather together and fight the anomalies to the death.

If the lineup of 13 people fails to survive the attack,

then with the 8 of us left, there is even less chance of surviving.”

The system will not set up a必死 (bisi, certain death) mission, nor will it set up the mission too simply.

“That makes sense.”

Li Ang nodded upon hearing this and looked at Wanli Fengdao, “What do you think?”

“I'm standing and watching.”

Wanli Fengdao grinned and said casually, “As for this question,

players who are confident in their own strength should prefer to choose to live alone, right?

If it was the corridor anomaly knocking on my door last night,

I should be able to deal with it independently.

Even if its strength increases by one or two levels,

I have a way to ensure that I don't die.

I choose to live alone.”

Xiao Dao Ge is not blindly confident. In fact, the players who are still alive and standing here more or less have one or two trump cards that are unknown to outsiders.

In addition, with Xiao Dao Ge's swordsman intuition...

He vaguely felt that among the people present, there was someone or some people who lied.

“One to two.”

Li Ang looked at Liu Wu-dai, “Miss Liu, what about you?”

Liu Wu-dai leaned against the wall, arms crossed in front of her, eyes lowered, “...Stay together.”

“Reason?” Li Ang asked with a smile.

“Intuition,”

Liu Wu-dai replied calmly.

Mule's eyes switched between Liu Wu-dai and Li Ang. The intelligence merchant considered for a while, looked up and said, “I'm the same as Miss Liu.

Intuition.”

In terms of individual strength, Mule, who owns dozens of high-level equipment, is definitely not weak.

Relying on the fire of the mechanical golem and defensive equipment, she estimates that she can hold out for a day—as long as she doesn't encounter a strange existence that is difficult to defend against like the Ouija board.

But Liu Wu-dai has said so, naturally she has her considerations,

Mule chose to believe Liu Wu-dai's intuition.

“Three to two.”

Li Ang turned his eyes to the Plague Doctor.

The latter was silent for a long time, and said in a hoarse voice, “I choose to live separately.

No reason.”

Everyone looked at him in surprise. Without a doubt, among the remaining survivors, the medical specialty Plague Doctor is the weakest in individual combat power.

From his point of view, it is natural that everyone gathers together, it is best to give full play to his healing abilities, and it is most likely to get protection from others.

“Three to three.”

Li Ang smiled and looked at the young leader of the Pi An organization who was thinking with his head down, “I wonder what your opinion is, Hei Shengzi?”

Hei Shengzi slowly raised his head and looked directly at Li Ang, “Can I ask first, what are your thoughts?

After all, you are the proposer of the proposal.”

“Me?”

Li Ang pointed to himself and shook his head, “I have no ideas.

In fact, whether I live alone or gather together, I am confident that I can survive.

This proposal is just to provide everyone with a choice.”

“Choice...”

Hei Shengzi let out a meaningful laugh, “There are only two options to choose from.

If more people choose to live alone, then those who choose to gather must yield to the former, otherwise they will be suspected of transferring danger.

If more people choose to gather together, then those who choose to live alone have to give up living alone and stick together for warmth—the hotel's restlessness is the same for everyone.

In the face of more violent anomalies, the survival rate of individual players drops sharply.

Essentially, is this just a compulsory majority rule?”

Li Ang smiled and did not explain anything.

“Since that's the case...”

Hei Shengzi glanced at everyone and said in a deep voice, “I choose...”