Chapter Seven: Rose Manor (Six) — A Review on the Eve

Room 3. The curtains, having been blown open by the wind, had not been drawn shut again, and Qi Si had no desire to risk his life by getting out of bed to close them.

Through the translucent glass, the garden outside the ancient castle was laid bare. Under a moonless night, the tangled vegetation resembled dark, purple-hued festering sores. The boundaries between branches, stems, and leaves had blurred into indistinct, thick clusters of shadows, filled with ghostly silhouettes.

Miss Anna, dressed in black, stood in the center of the sea of roses. Beneath the pale, solitary moonlight, she looked like a tombstone. She stood motionless, silent, yet emanated a palpable sense of sorrow, though the cause remained unknown.

The light was too dim for Qi Si to determine which way she was facing or if she was looking at him. But one thing was certain: if she discovered he was still awake, the player’s end would be miserable. It was only reasonable for a host to be angry upon discovering a guest was feigning sleep to deceive them. Based on the description of the key's properties, one could infer that once that happened, the bedroom door would no longer be enough to hold Miss Anna back.

As for what she would do once she entered...

Driven by a sense of humor only he could understand, Qi Si thought to himself, "It’s not like she’s here to discuss emotional problems."

He suddenly felt curious. The rules stated that "only ghosts can kill humans." What could Miss Anna, a living being, possibly do to him, and how would she treat him? Perhaps it would be an interesting death experience—at the very least, more interesting than dying of illness. Miss Anna’s aesthetic was very much to his liking, and she seemed quite interested in him; she would likely dispose of his corpse properly...

At this thought, Qi Si felt a stir of excitement. But he quickly reminded himself that there were many other instances of this bizarre game he could choose from. Dying in the first one would be a terrible waste; he had to survive at least until the second to break even.

Never mind, he would endure it... As for death, it was better to leave that to the other players.

On the bedsheet before him, a few rose petals had fallen at some point. Qi Si blew on them gently, watching as they trembled and drifted to the floor.

On the other side of the large bed, Lin Chen was fast asleep, muttering incoherent nonsense, completely oblivious to what had just transpired. He even turned over, rolling up the majority of the quilt and pinning it beneath him, before resuming a rhythmic snoring a few seconds later.

Qi Si twitched his eyes in silence, but he felt himself relax. He remained prone on the bed, unmoving. His physiological heartbeat and pulse slowed over time, and accompanied by Lin Chen’s rhythmic snoring, sleepiness soon washed over his brain.

Qi Si yawned and drifted into a deep slumber. When he opened his eyes again, it was already dawn.

In the garden facing the floor-to-ceiling windows, Miss Anna’s ghostly figure had vanished, leaving behind only a vibrant, fervent sea of roses.

The somber tolling of a bell pierced the gloomy, silent air, striking five heavy notes that rippled through the morning chill, the echoes ethereal and lingering.

It was five in the morning.

The brief sleep had been of little help; Qi Si felt as though he were buried under a fatigue that filled his soul like stagnant water. He sat up wearily, brushed the rose petals off his clothes, and looked toward the door.

Withered petals lay scattered on the floor, forming a small pile that served as a testament to the events of the previous night.

"Qi... Brother Qi, why is the chair overturned?" Lin Chen had finally woken up, noticing the wide-open curtains, the toppled chair, and the red dress scattered on the floor. His face turned pale. "Did something happen last night?"

"Yes." Qi Si calmly got out of bed, closed the curtains, stood the chair back up, pressed it against the curtains once more, and then picked up the red dress and tossed it into the corner. He said nonchalantly, "Miss Anna came by."

Lin Chen jumped out of bed, exclaiming, "Why did she come here?"

"You should ask her that; how would I know?"

***

Qi Si sat on the chair and recounted everything that had happened the night before from start to finish, including some of his deductions regarding the points of death. He intentionally omitted the encounters in other rooms—for instance, the sound of rustling vines and screams coming from Room 2, which likely meant someone had died.

Qi Si was terrified he might laugh while describing it—he had never been able to control his emotions well when facing death.

Lin Chen digested the information blankly, sighing in relief, "I'm glad I fell asleep early last night." Or more accurately, he had been knocked unconscious early.

Running Qi Si’s words through his mind again, he asked, "Brother Qi, how did you know that as long as we weren't caught awake by Miss Anna, nothing would happen?"

"I guessed," Qi Si said with a muffled chuckle. "Since being awake or asleep is determined by the game's mechanics, I certainly wasn't the only one who woke up at night."

"A sustainable game must have a way for players to survive. If Miss Anna went from door to door, she couldn't possibly kill every player who woke up. Therefore, I deduced that Miss Anna has specific conditions for killing."

"Combined with her asking me over and over if I was asleep, I suspect her condition for killing is 'discovering that a player remained awake at night'."

Lin Chen was awestruck, praising him from the bottom of his heart: "As expected of Brother Qi! If it were me, when she tried to trick me by saying she knew I was awake, I would have been so scared I'd have opened the door."

"It’s just a logic problem," Qi Si said. "You need to be clear about one thing: through the door, Miss Anna cannot be one hundred percent certain if the player inside is awake. Otherwise, she wouldn't need to ask so many times; she could just break in. By the same logic, I suspect she is also bound by rules and cannot disturb players who are asleep."

"Once she breaks in, she faces two situations: either she gambles correctly, finds a player awake, and successfully claims a life; or she gambles incorrectly, finds no one awake, and violates the rules, receiving some unknown punishment. Weighing the risks and rewards, she must make her decisions more cautiously."

Lin Chen squinted. "But either way, she can't guarantee that the person in the room is 100% awake, right? As long as you don't open the door, even if you make a noise, you can just say you're a restless sleeper or talking in your sleep."

Qi Si nodded. "So, she either gives up on killing or tries to compare the probability of people being awake in each room and chooses the one with the highest chance to take a gamble."

He paused for a moment and changed the subject. "Lin Chen, have you ever opened a blind box?"

"...Huh?"

"Imagine there are three blind boxes, each containing a cat—some dead, some dying. But one box is special; once opened, it releases poison gas, killing the cat inside regardless of whether it was alive or dead."

"If you open a box with a live cat, you get an equal weight in gold; if you open a box with a dead cat, you are killed. You can try to guess if the box is special or if the cat is alive by knocking on it or weighing it."

"You studied the first two boxes and think the cat in the second one might be alive. Do you weigh the third box first, or do you open the one in your hand?"

Lin Chen understood and continued, "You'd definitely have to try them all, otherwise you can't be sure if the second box is special or if it will poison the cat."

Qi Si sighed with mock regret. "Then you discover that the third box is made of a different material and is clearly the special one. You're happy, thinking that as long as you open the second box, you'll get the gold. But then you realize you don't know if the cat in the second box is still alive after all this time."

Lin Chen grabbed his hair in frustration. "Can I just not open any of them?"

"Of course you can." Qi Si rested his index finger on his knee, tapping it rhythmically. "By the same token, after Miss Anna visited Brother Shen’s room and came back, she couldn't be sure if I had fallen asleep during that time, so her safest decision was to choose no room at all."

"In other words, as long as everyone is smart enough, last night was a silent night."

Lin Chen listened to Qi Si’s logical analysis with a blank expression, feeling as though he understood something, yet also feeling like he understood nothing at all.

Qi Si had no intention of explaining further. In his view, he had already done his duty. If it weren't for the fact that this "tool" was still useful, he wouldn't mind if Lin Chen were dragged out by Miss Anna and buried in a hole right now—he might even stand by and cheer.

The morning was still early. Qi Si walked to the desk, tore off a sheet of papyrus, and picked up a pen to scribble on it.

Lin Chen cautiously leaned in and saw him writing:

【2. The exact time can be determined by counting seconds.】
【3. There is doubt here as to who the "guest-loving" Miss Anna actually is.】
【4. You can avoid fulfilling Miss Anna's requests by pretending not to know, but you cannot let her discover you are awake.】
【5. There may be two Miss Annas.】

This was undoubtedly an interpretation of the rules on the system interface—or, more accurately, the "cracking of the rules" required by the main quest.

After reading it, Lin Chen was confused. "Brother Qi, what’s this about two Miss Annas?"

Qi Si set down the pen without looking up. "I told you, the Miss Anna in black was watching me from outside the window, while at the same time, there was a knocking at Shen Ming’s door."

"Based on the current situation, Miss Anna is still within the realm of physical attacks; otherwise, she wouldn't be stopped by a door and unable to judge the status of a player through it. Since she cannot clone herself, there must either be two of her, or there is another main NPC of equal status in this instance."

"This explains many contradictions. Why Miss Anna can be the main NPC while also having 'no malice toward guests'; why she is trustworthy one moment and dangerous the next; why she wears black sometimes and red at others."

"Before, I didn't understand why there was anything to fear about Miss Anna being a living human in an instance where only ghosts can kill. If the main NPC can't kill players, are we supposed to rely on player infighting to kill ourselves?"

"I originally thought the danger would come from the butler, but that was too far-fetched; the butler doesn't seem to have any autonomy. Now the answer is clear: this instance contains a ghost main NPC we haven't seen yet, or rather, another Miss Anna."

Lin Chen listened to Qi Si’s analysis, his scalp tingling. "Then can we try to team up with the human Miss Anna to deal with that ghost NPC?"

As soon as he finished, he saw Qi Si looking at him with a gaze of pity, as if looking at a child.

"Who told you that living beings are necessarily good and ghosts are necessarily evil? You were terrified of that human Miss Anna just yesterday."

Qi Si picked up the pen again and drew three circles on the paper, labeling them "Miss Anna," "Ghost NPC," and "Player," connecting them all with double-headed arrows.

"There are three possibilities: one is as you think—Miss Anna is kind and close to the players, while the ghost NPC is evil; another is the exact opposite. Of course, there is the worst-case scenario: the two NPCs are colluding, both wanting the players dead."

"Therefore, we need to figure out what kind of existence that ghost NPC—who we've heard but not seen—actually is. That will depend on our exploration of the third floor."

Lin Chen nodded solemnly, his trust in Qi Si deepening.

Qi Si stood up, walked to the wall, and picked up the red dress again. "However, I have some new ideas about the backstory of this instance."

He stared at the long dress and switched to the first person: "The girl and I were deeply in love, but we faced heavy resistance. She couldn't date me openly and could only knock on my door at night. Through a series of misunderstandings, she thought I was avoiding her on purpose and no longer loved her..."

Lin Chen listened to Qi Si's impassioned recitation, the reverence he had just felt quickly replaced by goosebumps.

He couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Brother... Brother Qi, why are you so sure the theme of this instance is love? Could it be that Miss Anna wants to maintain her beauty and keeps killing people..."

He subconsciously merged it with a horror story he had heard before: "I heard there was a Queen Mary in history who used the blood of young girls to bathe..."

Qi Si countered, "Do you remember what fruit was on the dinner table yesterday?"

Fruit? What did that have to do with this?

Lin Chen was stunned, and then heard Qi Si continue, "Ever since Albrecht Dürer created 'Adam and Eve' in 1507, depicting the forbidden fruit as an apple, the misunderstanding caused by that translation error has spread widely and become conventional wisdom."

"Judging by Miss Anna’s clothing, this instance should take place after the 17th century. At that point in time, the 'apple' imagery represents the forbidden fruit eaten by Adam and Eve, symbolizing love."

"Apples do not often appear in the diet of European nobility for dinner. Even if they did, they would be served as desserts like apples in syrup, not as whole fruits that guests have to grab with their hands and bite into."

"Combined with all these factors, it can be basically concluded that the apple at dinner contains a metaphor. As for why Miss Anna would put such an obvious metaphor on the table, it’s probably the same psychology as a serial killer who likes to revisit the crime scene."

Lin Chen listened with vacant eyes, finding it all absurd.

Logical reasoning wasn't enough; one also needed to know this kind of obscure knowledge? Were specialized students not meant to survive?

This was only his first instance...

Qi Si had always liked to make up lies to scare people. Seeing that his tool had been successfully intimidated by his far-fetched reasoning, he smiled and comforted him: "If you just want to survive, it’s actually not that complicated. You could just hide in your room and, in special situations, refer to the fourth rule—pretending you know nothing."

"Theoretically speaking, as long as you can be thick-skinned enough to sleep for three days straight, you might actually get through this instance safely."

Lin Chen’s eyes lit up; he was almost tempted to ask Qi Si to knock him out again.

Qi Si didn't give him a chance to speak, lowering his eyes as he added: "Of course, everything I’ve said is based on the first night's situation and could be entirely wrong. After all, the rules themselves might be misleading us..."

The moment the words left his mouth, a shrill, piercing scream echoed from outside the door, as if to turn into a blade and pierce through the room.

—Something had happened.