Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Some of those present looked at the man with contempt. Others grieved in silence, unwilling to condemn him from the moral high ground. After all, it had not happened to them. If they found themselves in the same circumstances, who knew what choice they would make?

Lu Qian entered the small room at the far left of the first floor. A few minutes later, her portrait on the large screen turned gray, signifying her elimination.

At the same time, the second square block from the left at the top of the marble wall retracted, revealing a dark opening. Seconds later, a transparent cube packed with neatly stacked bundles of US dollars filled the hole.

The prize now stood at twenty million dollars.

“That was rather sad to watch. Still, everyone, please try to keep your spirits up, especially Mr. Liang Chen, Number Two. Tomorrow is your home round. You must tell me which event you’ve chosen before six this afternoon. The rest of you may get something to eat in the restaurant and replenish your strength, or go back to your rooms and rest.”

With that, Tina walked away. The people gathered in the lobby dispersed as well.

Lv Chao was the last to leave. Like a walking corpse, he waited until everyone else had gone upstairs before taking an elevator alone and returning to his room in a daze.

Chen Nuo lay spread-eagled on his bed. He needed to unwind. The painful parting he had just witnessed had shaken him deeply and left him pondering a question: Would I die for someone I loved?

After thinking for a long time, he discovered that his most honest answer was, I don’t know. Perhaps that was because there was no way to imagine such a thing. He had no lover or partner. Without someone specific in mind, it was difficult to predict what he would do.

But he had now experienced the cruelty of this game firsthand.

Chen Nuo had drawn Number Eighteen. Before his turn came, he might have to endure more than a dozen contests. Unless they defeated the Featured Player every single time, random elimination would happen again and again.

As the game progressed, their numbers would dwindle. The Mastermind could never be selected for random elimination, which meant Chen Nuo’s own chances of being selected would climb higher and higher. He might be eliminated before his turn ever came.

They had lost the very first contest. The people whose turns came later would have far more time to devise ways to win their own rounds. Everyone would choose the event that benefited them most. Defeating them would not be easy.

Becoming the final winner would test both body and mind, but it would also require luck. Luck could not be controlled, which meant the odds of being the final winner were vanishingly small.

Wait. They did not necessarily have to play to the end to win.

They had three Mastermind votes. If they identified and voted out the Mastermind hidden among them, the game would end.

But who was it? Lu Qian had now been ruled out. Excluding Chen Nuo himself, nineteen suspects remained.

Every one of them was suspicious. The problem was that Chen Nuo could not tell who was acting.

The Mastermind had to be extraordinarily cunning. They would never expose a flaw easily. Finding definitive proof of their identity was all but impossible.

Yet they could not casually call a vote and rely on blind luck.

What were they supposed to do? Was there any way to see through the Mastermind’s disguise?

After lying on his bed and thinking for more than ten minutes, Chen Nuo abruptly sat up.

He had remembered someone: the tarot reader who claimed to possess psychic abilities, Saisi.

Before the incident, she had used her tarot cards to discover that their group was “in an extremely dangerous situation.” In hindsight, her reading had unquestionably been accurate.

Chen Nuo now believed she might have been telling the truth. Perhaps she really did possess some unusual sensitivity or psychic power.

Could she use a tarot reading to reveal which of them was the hidden Mastermind?

At the thought, Chen Nuo rose, eager to find the “witch” at once. But he did not know which room Saisi occupied.

All their rooms had been assigned on the eighth and ninth floors. Chen Nuo could have asked at the front desk, but showing up at her room uninvited seemed too presumptuous.

Everyone would be in the restaurant at lunchtime anyway. He could speak to her then.

At noon, Chen Nuo took an elevator to the buffet restaurant on the second floor. The morning’s mental and physical exertion had left him genuinely hungry. The restaurant’s selection was as lavish as ever, with different dishes at every meal. Perhaps it was the K Organization’s way of rewarding the contestants, or perhaps it was a display of wealth for the global dark-web audience.

Aside from Lv Chao, most of the tour group was eating in the restaurant. As Chen Nuo selected dishes from the dazzling spread, his eyes searched for Saisi.

Before long, he spotted her sitting alone in a corner, far from everyone else. She was eating a plate of vegetable salad and had taken no meat. He guessed she must be a strict vegetarian.

Whether it came from aloofness or eccentricity, her unsociable nature suited him rather well. Chen Nuo was not fond of socializing either.
Chen Nuo carried his plate over to Saisi. “May I sit here?”

Saisi looked at him in surprise. “With so many empty seats, why do you want to share my table?”

“I wanted to talk. We’re members of the same tour group. We should get to know each other better.”

Saisi gave a cold snort. “Don’t you think that, under the present circumstances, ‘getting to know each other better’ is exactly what everyone wants to avoid?”

Chen Nuo had only meant it as a pleasantry. It was not until she pointed it out that he realized how foolish it sounded. “Getting to know each other better” also meant learning what another person was good at, then devising countermeasures in advance. Naturally, that was the last thing anyone wanted.

“It was just something people say. I wasn’t trying to gather intelligence.” Chen Nuo smiled awkwardly. Saisi did not object to him sitting down, so he set his plate on the table and took the seat across from her.

“It makes no difference whether you investigate me. You already know what I’m good at. I told you before,” Saisi said dismissively.

“Reading fortunes with tarot cards?”

“No. I possess psychic powers,” Saisi said. “I doubt you’ll find a second person in this tour group with the same ability.”

“That’s true. If you really do possess psychic powers, there probably aren’t many people like you anywhere in the world.”

“The fact that you said ‘if’ tells me you have doubts.”

“If I doubted you, why would I have come over to talk? Besides, I’ve already seen proof once, haven’t I?”

“So you struck up a conversation because you want to coax some useful information out of me?”

“Not useful to me. Useful to all of us.”

Saisi glanced around. Once she had confirmed that no one else was nearby, she lowered her voice. “You want to know who the Mastermind is?”

Since she had stated his purpose outright, Chen Nuo saw no point denying it. He nodded. “If you can work out who it is, we can call a vote and end the game.”

“I’ll tell you again: you don’t ‘work it out.’ You divine it.”

“Sorry, I forgot again. Can you divine who the person is?”

Saisi fell silent for a moment. She took her tarot deck from the shoulder bag she always carried, spread the cards with one hand, and laid them across the table.

“Don’t think. Choose three cards and hand them to me one at a time.”

Chen Nuo did as she instructed, selecting three face-down cards at random and passing them to Saisi in order. She silently examined them, betrayed no reaction, then shuffled them back into the deck.

“I don’t get to see them, or hear what the three cards mean?” Chen Nuo asked.

“I only asked you to draw. I never said I’d predict your career or love life.”

“I don’t need to know about those. At least tell me which three cards I drew.”

After a moment’s consideration, Saisi said, “The Magician (I), The Lovers (VI), and The World (XXI).”

“What do those three cards mean?”

“All I’ll say is that it’s an extremely unusual combination. I can’t tell you anything else.”

“Then let’s get back to the point. Can your tarot cards reveal which of us is the hidden Mastermind?”

“Why do you think I haven’t called a vote yet?”

Chen Nuo paused. “You mean the tarot cards can’t tell you?”

“Of course not. Tarot isn’t omnipotent. It can’t give you the answer to everything, so don’t imagine otherwise, young man.”

Slightly disappointed, Chen Nuo said, “All right.” Still unwilling to let it go, he added, “Then why did you have me draw three cards just now?”

“I’ve asked many people to draw cards. You’re no exception. You said we should get to know each other, didn’t you? This is how I learn about all of you.” Saisi stood. “I’m finished eating.”

Chen Nuo shrugged, dismissed the matter, and began his meal.

Saisi headed for the exit of the buffet restaurant. Before leaving, she glanced back and gave Chen Nuo a long, meaningful look.

Tarot cards truly couldn’t provide the answer to everything. But they could provide that answer to her.

She already knew who the Mastermind hiding among them was.

But why should she rush to call a vote and end the game so soon?

At least one person would die each day. That meant the prize would grow by at least ten million dollars every day. Better still, the longer the game continued, the fewer people would remain to split the money.

She was absolutely certain she could win her own contest. Only a handful of people in the entire world could rival her “special skill,” let alone the twenty-odd members of this tour group.

As for everyone else’s contests, if they lost, they would naturally be eliminated. If they won and someone else was selected, that had nothing to do with her. If she herself was selected, she would call a vote immediately, tell everyone who the Mastermind was, and end the game on the spot.

In other words, this game posed no danger to her at all. She was certain to win.

The only question was when.

The longer she waited, the larger her share would be. What did she have to fear? Ideally, every last one of them would die until only she and the Mastermind remained. Then she would walk away with two hundred million dollars.

Saisi gave a cold smile and left the buffet restaurant with a spring in her step.