Inside the Seven Sins Temple, the sound of noisy discussions was incessant.
"Is that guy a special ops soldier?"
"How can he see in the dark? He didn’t use night vision goggles, did he?"
"We can’t team up with him in future combat trials..."
Moriyama Yasurou was observing the entire time; the trial had already begun before the elevator doors opened. Fushimi Roku and Matsusaka Shintaro hid in the elevator shaft, and after the first salvo was over, Fushimi Roku took advantage of the pause to change magazines and approached to slay seven people, as if slicing through melons and vegetables.
At this moment, the participants had started to notice the pattern.
Afterward, Fushimi Roku led the way, tracing the path to the auditorium, and found the cult’s gathering place. He tossed a grenade, lured out several believers, and slaughtered them one by one, scaring Matsusaka Shintaro into a stupor, too frightened to even make a sound.
Fushimi Roku told him to go shut off the circuit breaker, and he obediently complied, fearing that he might lose his head.
Now, Fushimi Roku, like herding sheep, had trapped the cult members on the flat surface of the World’s Navel.
The giant screen was displaying Fushimi Roku’s action of wiping his sword. He carefully examined the long knife in his hand, noticing the numerous nicks on it; even the most outstanding swordsman needs a good sword to display his swordsmanship.
After chopping off so many heads, the blade was bound to be dull.
After all, human neck bones are equally hard.
"He’s much more formidable than I imagined," A-Qi sighed, "At first, I thought this trial was imbalanced, after all, there’s only one ’Ghost’, but one hundred and fifty-nine ’Humans’, the disparity in numbers was huge. In my imagination, at most he could kill ten people..."
He paused, looking at the scores on the giant screen: "Now, it seems likely he might achieve the Hundred Killings achievement."
Moriyama Yasurou had become somewhat numb, sitting expressionlessly in her seat, not voicing any opinion.
Back then, that pretty boy slacking off at the police box seemed like an idiot, appearing only capable of tricking little rabbits like Minamoto Tamako, relying on living off women to become a criminal police... that was her lasting impression of Fushimi Roku.
Never in her wildest dreams did she think that guy was actually a monster...
If this trend continued, Fushimi Roku might single-handedly annihilate the entire cult.
Hmm, too violent, men really are no good.
Moriyama Yasurou also thought about the details of his everyday interactions with Minamoto Tamako, feeling an inexplicable strong sense of disconnection — like zero-experience blank slate Minamoto Tamako could really tame a man ?
"But, that’s just the way it is," A-Qi turned a chip between his fingers, confidently saying, "The massacre stops here."
Moriyama Yasurou listened closely. Participants had spontaneously organized a betting game, replacing the croupier in collecting chips, and currently, the odds for 9527 weren’t high; the vast majority still had more faith in the cult with armed believers.
She turned to inquire A-Qi why he said ’the massacre stops here’; the latter explained to her that all the believers living in the World’s Navel were thoroughly brainwashed death warriors. The flat level they were on was wide in view, well-lit, with complete fire safety systems, and no hiding spots; as long as they held out for another half hour until the trial time ended, the loser would undoubtedly be the ’Ghost.’
Moriyama Yasurou also realized the unreasonableness of ’Hide and Seek,’ leaning forward, staring at the screen with a frown, she said: "If everyone hides together until time’s up, wouldn’t that be unfair to the ’Ghost’?"
"Haha!" A-Qi suddenly laughed.
"What are you laughing at?"
"A laugh of delight."
"I get that, so what are you delighted about?"
"Of course, I’m proud of my intellect..." A-Qi quickly covered his head as she raised a fist: "Don’t hit the head! Why are you so violent? Can’t you calmly solve problems with words?"
"Spit it out!" Moriyama Yasurou urged.
A-Qi pursed his lips, feeling a bit disappointed, and wanting to show off in front of others, deliberately raised his voice, saying: "Didn’t you notice? For the ’Ghost’ to win, they need 159 points... but before the trial started, the broadcast said there were 158 people."
"You should have learned basic addition and subtraction in elementary school, right? If killing one person earns 1 point, how does the ’Ghost’ get 159 points? Even if they slaughtered everyone, they’d still be 1 point short, so do they need to kill themselves at the end?"
"The rules of the trial didn’t explain how to earn points, nor did they state where the threat of the ’Humans’ would come from — if my assumption is correct, the ’Humans’ may not necessarily be killed by the ’Ghost,’ nor does the ’Ghost’ necessarily need to kill the ’Humans’ to earn points."
"This way, the trial rules seem more reasonable."
Upon hearing this, the surrounding participants gathered around, chattering in agreement with A-Qi’s conjecture. He looked at Moriyama Yasurou smugly, noticing she seemed unconcerned, still frowning at the screen, and couldn’t help but ask: "Why, do you see any problem with what I said?"
"No... I was just thinking, if the countdown ends and the ’Ghost’ hasn’t reached the target, what punishment the designer has in store for the loser." Moriyama Yasurou side-eyed him: "Will it result in death?"
"Of course!" A-Qi said resolutely.
"How do you plan to kill him? Do you have the power to deal with him?" Moriyama Yasurou asked.
"This involves my second assumption," A-Qi raised a second finger, loudly announcing, "Everyone, think hard, what other ways can the ’Ghost’ earn points? What danger might the other participants face?"