novelraw Chapter 52 : Chu Hanyue’s Guess
Chapter 52 : Chu Hanyue’s Guess
Chapter 52: Chu Hanyue’s Guess
“Name?”
“Bai Yu.”
“Age?”
“Twenty-eight.”
“Occupation?”
“Botanist.”
“What exactly happened when you awakened?”
“I was in the greenhouse of the botanical garden, pollinating a dying Venus flytrap, and then the oracle descended.”
“How did we find you?”
“I… I just wanted the nearly withered orchid at home to bloom again, and then… it grew all over the balcony, and your people came to the door.”
In the interrogation room, facing Chen Mo’s questioning, Bai Yu—wearing glasses and carrying a quiet, refined air—answered in an orderly manner.
A gentle smile lingered constantly on his face, making him seem harmless.
But from the depths of those seemingly calm eyes, Chen Mo caught a faint trace of deep vigilance.
“What do you think about the deaths of Hailan and Qi Jiang?” Chen Mo suddenly asked.
Bai Yu’s smile stiffened slightly, but soon returned to normal.
“I feel very sorry.”
He adjusted his glasses. “They were our teammates. I don’t understand why something like this happened.”
“Who do you think the killer is?”
“I don’t know.”
Bai Yu shook his head. “Before things are fully investigated, I won’t easily suspect any teammate.”
……
“Name! Age! Occupation!”
Facing the same questions, Meng Chao—wearing smoky eye makeup and dressed like a rock singer—looked extremely impatient.
“Meng Chao! Twenty-two! Lead singer at a bar!”
“What were you doing when you awakened?”
“Screaming high notes in a KTV! Then the oracle came! And after that, all the glass in the room shattered from my voice!”
“How were you found?”
“I got thrown into the station, and then your people dragged me here!”
Meng Chao slammed the table, angrily demanding, “Can you people even do your jobs?!”
“You keep us locked in here, and one person after another ends up dead!”
“Didn’t you say the nation was our strongest support?!”
“I say you can’t even catch a damn mole!”
“I’m done playing along! Let me out!”
Chen Mo watched her coldly without saying a word.
Only when Meng Chao finished cursing in exhaustion did he wave his hand, signaling her to leave.
……
When it was Chu Hanyue’s turn, the atmosphere in the interrogation room dropped to freezing point.
The girl, whose face remained cold from beginning to end as if she cared for nothing, simply stared at Chen Mo quietly with her ice-blue eyes.
“Name?”
“Chu Hanyue.”
“Ability?”
“Freezing.”
“Who do you think the killer is?”
“Don’t know.”
No matter what Chen Mo asked, her replies were only the briefest possible words.
……
When it came to Mo Fan’s interrogation, the young man—somewhat neurotic, always clutching his drawing board and muttering to himself—showed a strange smile when facing Chen Mo’s questions.
“You… want to know who the killer is?”
He spoke in a mysterious tone.
“You know?” Chen Mo’s eyes turned sharp in an instant.
“I… painted it.”
Mo Fan turned his drawing board around, revealing a chilling painting.
The background was the very interrogation room they were in now.
In the painting, Chen Mo and several experts sat before the table.
Behind them, an indescribable monster formed of countless twisted shadows and eyeballs opened a gaping, bloody maw as if ready to devour them all.
“He… is among us.”
Mo Fan pointed at the painting, laughing like a madman. “He’s watching us, mocking us, toying with us…”
“You’ll all soon become his new creations…”
As Chen Mo looked at that eerie, Cthulhu-like painting, and then at Mo Fan’s nearly deranged face, he felt a chill crawl up his spine.
……
The interrogations ended, but not a single valuable clue was obtained.
Leaning wearily back in his chair at the command center, Chen Mo stared at the surveillance screens showing the four players isolated in separate rooms.
Isolation and close monitoring had not brought safety—on the contrary, suspicion and fear kept compressing and heating within the sealed space, until they were on the verge of explosion.
“Director,”
a psychology expert stepped forward, handing him an evaluation report, “their mental health is already at the critical point. If this continues, I’m afraid they’ll lose control.”
“After all, they’re all Transcendents. If they go berserk…”
Chen Mo fell into a long silence as he stared at the report.
After a while, he spoke slowly, “From now on, lift the isolation measures on the 【Radiance】 players.”
“Open the public rest area, cafeteria, and training grounds inside the base, and allow them to move freely.”
“But,”
his eyes turned razor sharp, “raise the surveillance level to the highest!”
“I want to see every word they say, every exchange of glances, every subtle movement!”
“We’ll play along—pretend to let our guard down, and give the mole another chance to strike.”
“The snake… will always come out of its hole again.”
“This time, I’ll catch it with my own hands!”
……
Inside the base cafeteria, the atmosphere was stifling.
The four surviving players—Bai Yu, Meng Chao, Chu Hanyue, and Gu Fan—each occupied a different corner of the room, keeping a wide distance between them as they watched one another warily. No one spoke first.
In the end, it was the hot-tempered Meng Chao who could no longer endure the suffocating silence.
She carried her tray over and slammed it down hard on Chu Hanyue’s table, the sound sharp and grating.
“Hey, ice face,”
Meng Chao’s tone was full of provocation, “don’t you have anything to say?”
Chu Hanyue didn’t even lift her eyes. She simply stirred the soup in her bowl with a spoon, her voice icy cold: “Say what?”
“Say who among us will be the next to die?”
“You!”
Meng Chao was choked speechless by her words, her face flushing red. “I’m trying to find a way to survive! Not just sitting here waiting to die!”
“And have you figured one out?”
Chu Hanyue finally raised her head, the ice-blue in her eyes utterly devoid of emotion. “Under official surveillance, Hailan died, Shiyuan died, and Qi Jiang died.”
“Do you really think we’ll live to the end?”
Meng Chao opened her mouth but found herself unable to argue.
“Don’t you think something feels off?”
Chu Hanyue suddenly lowered her voice. “Think about it—from start to finish, hasn’t everything been just a little too coincidental?”
“The officials told us the nation was our backing, told us to believe they could help us win the game.”
“And what happened?”
“Our people were killed right under their noses, inside their most heavily guarded conference room.”
“Then, they conveniently steered us to suspect the one whose power seemed most like the ‘killer’s’—Shiyuan…”
The anger faded gradually from Meng Chao’s face. She wasn’t stupid—Chu Hanyue’s words ignited the spark of doubt long buried in her heart.
“You mean…”
“Li Wei.”
“That so-called 【Gun God】, the guy who’s acted all righteous from beginning to end.”
“He’s a cop—an official himself.”
“When Hailan died, the murder weapon was his dagger.”
“When Shiyuan died, it was his hand that struck.”
“After Qi Jiang’s death, the authorities immediately pinned everything on a so-called ‘imitator.’”
“Don’t you think Li Wei is the most suspicious candidate for the 【Shadow】 mole?”
“And the officials are his accomplices!”
“They lured us here just to help him wipe out every member of our 【Radiance】 faction!”
“After all, the officials don’t care who wins or loses—they only care whether these Transcendents can be used by them.”
“So why couldn’t the authorities help 【Shadow】 win?”
“If we assume Li Wei is 【Shadow】, and only one player can survive in the end—who do you think the officials would choose?”
Chu Hanyue’s reasoning was like the whisper of a demon, making the blood in Meng Chao’s veins nearly freeze.
She recalled Li Wei’s face, always full of righteousness, recalled Chen Mo’s impassioned speeches, and felt an uncontrollable chill creeping down her spine.
Seeing Meng Chao’s grave expression, Chu Hanyue stood up and left. “Everything I said is just my guess. You don’t have to take it seriously.”
……
In another corner of the cafeteria.
Bai Yu watched Mo Fan, who was clutching his drawing board and wildly smearing something onto his tray, hesitated a moment, then carried his own tray over.
“Mo Fan, aren’t you going to eat something?” Bai Yu’s voice was gentle.
“God is watching us…”
But Mo Fan didn’t look at him. He muttered to himself, his eyes hollow and manic. “Eyes everywhere… The walls are watching us, the ceiling is watching us, even the food on the plate… is watching us…”
He suddenly lifted his head, staring hard at Bai Yu, a strange smile curling his lips.
“A grand festival dedicated to ‘God.’”
“Composed with our fear and suspicion as the melody, with our dying wails as the chorus.”
“To play the symphony named ‘Victory.’”
“To please that great ‘God’!”
Bai Yu was so startled by his madness that he stepped back half a step.
“You… what are you talking about?”
“I’m saying we’re all sacrifices.”
Mo Fan lowered his voice, leaning close to Bai Yu’s ear. “Hailan was the first sacrifice, Shiyuan the second, Qi Jiang the third.”
“Now, it’s our turn!”