The magnificent banquet hall of the castle instantly plunged into a strange and comical silence.
Comical.
Extremely comical.
Jiang Yan, nestled in the arms of the giant, glanced at the long table where the people awaiting judgment were seated. On his aloof face was a trace of mocking laughter.
The players spent an excruciatingly long time recounting the conflicting memories forcibly implanted by the main system, trying to piece together clues about who had killed her husband. In the end, all they got were a pile of clues about "killing Jiang Yan" and "killing this boy."
Yet, the game rules required them to vote for the one who "killed the king."
No matter how you looked at it, this didn’t feel like a horror game. Instead, it seemed more like an absurd comedy dressed in the guise of horror.
“Don’t rush, everyone. There is still one lady who has yet to recount her experience from last night,” the steward said.
Everyone’s gaze fell on the vacant high-backed chair. Just then, two “bang bang” sounds came from under the long table—it was Geng Hui.
She struggled to crawl out from under the table.
She crawled very slowly, twisting her body like a real scorpion, slowly moving toward the chair, dragging behind her a trail of some unidentified pale yellow slime.
She was eerily quiet the entire time. She didn’t madly attack the other players like she had when Jiang Yan first saw her, nor did she scream hysterically like she had when she saw the boy’s corpse on the table. Instead, her eyestalks drooped, and her eyes turned numbly.
But everyone at the table clearly understood that this human girl, who had lost her normal body, had been thoroughly mentally broken by this damned and absurd game.
“Miss Geng Hui, can you still remember the pronunciation of human language?” The steward asked with a gentlemanly smile.
Geng Hui, who had lost her head, could only nod her tentacles up and down.
“Very well!” The steward smiled, “Then, may I ask, do you have anything to say now?”
The crowd fell silent.
Geng Hui swayed her tentacles and let out a sound from her throat, something like a beast’s growl, yet resembling a mechanical hum.
“It’s a ram.”
“What?” The steward asked.
Geng Hui slowly continued:
“As for... the memory of last night, my brain is fuzzy. Those images are like they are wrapped in a white fog.
“But, my memory is the same as Mr. Jian’s, different from everyone else’s.
“In my memory, after the wedding banquet ended, all the guests of the castle were invited to the castle’s back garden for a party. In the midst of red wine and lights, someone caught a ram with a butterfly net...
“I’m very sure, it was a ram.
“I don’t know who said it, but someone said, kill it... use its blood to sacrifice to the gods and celebrate this grand wedding.
“Immediately after, everyone started to make a commotion, pointing silver-tipped knives at that ram, who didn’t know where it came from... I felt that this was too cruel, so I prepared to leave.
“But, someone stopped me and said to me: ‘Isn’t it that humans always pride themselves on seeking harmony while respecting others’ customs?’ I hesitated, thinking it would be impolite to leave like this. At least, I should say something to Jiang Yan.
“However, just as I was about to turn around and find Jiang Yan—
“I saw someone use the silver-glinting knife tip to slit... Yan Ji’s throat...”
As she finished, her entire body began to tremble, as if trapped in the fear of witnessing a murder.
“Yan Ji?” The boy with the colorful braids raised an eyebrow, “When did he start being called Yan Ji? He clearly is...”
The speaker, with colorful braids, slightly paused.
Upon hearing this, Tao Shi’s gaze moved back and forth between the boy with colorful braids, Geng Hui, and the dead boy on the long table. He asked, “Are you... classmates?”
The boy with colorful braids nodded thoughtfully and said, “But…”
“But what?” Tao Shi asked.
The boy with colorful braids said, “But... I seem to have... forgotten his name.”
The crowd was somewhat shocked.
“He’s not called Yan Ji. Geng Hui remembered wrong. I remember he should be called...” The boy with colorful braids thought hard, and finally, helplessly turned to look at his father, “What was his name again, Dad?”
The crowd looked at the middle-aged man, who quickly said, “How would I remember the name of your classmate, Dad?”
“He must be Yan Ji,” Geng Hui said firmly.
“Are you sure your brain hasn’t created an illusion due to the change in form?” Jiang Yan asked.
“I’m sure.” Geng Hui flicked her tentacles. “Because... before he died, I had always secretly had a crush on him.”
“Right! Lu Chen!” The boy with colorful braids finally remembered the name.
The middle-aged man’s face immediately became difficult to look at.
Jiang Yan raised his eyebrows slightly and began to carefully observe the boy’s corpse at the center of the long table, comparing it to the boy who was smiling at him on the divinity panel.
To be honest, he hadn’t paid attention to whether there was a difference between these two faces before.
Boys around seventeen or eighteen years old, with black hair and fair skin, tend to have some common features.
Although people who are familiar or close to them can tell the difference at a glance, for strangers, when they suddenly look at two boys who have similar hairstyles, heights, clothing, and both are beautiful and clean, it's actually hard to tell the difference.
It’s like how most people can’t distinguish the members of idol groups.
It's like how Jiang Yan and Cao Youfeng who look completely different but some people always feel they strangely resemble each other.
Just like the target of Geng Hui’s attack earlier—a black-haired, fair-skinned, male high school student.
Although, these kids should call him “uncle.”
Jiang Yan carefully observed, but the difference between a clean, living person and a pale corpse is still noticeable. If they look quite alike and the observation is a bit hurried...
Jiang Yan: “663, do you think we look the same?”
663 was silent for a moment, then answered: “I think... they all look the same as you and Cao Da, and the four of you.”
Jiang Yan: “....”
Geng Hui and the boy with colorful braids were still arguing.
“It’s impossible... He’s Yan Ji!” Geng Hui retorted.
“A girl shouldn’t mistake the object of her crush,” Cao Youfeng said.
“She also had a crush on Lu Chen!” the boy with colorful braids mocked, “Not just Yan Ji and Lu Chen, do you believe that in some time, she might end up having a crush on you?”
“You’re talking nonsense!!” Geng Hui retorted.
“You totally are!! Everyone in the school knows!”
“They’re talking nonsense!”
“Didn’t you blush when you were looking at Cao Da?”
“I didn’t!!”
“You totally did! When you first saw Jiang Yan, weren’t you also embarrassed?!”
“You’re talking nonsense!!”
“Ah.... Jiang Yan didn’t have clothes on when he first appeared in this copy. It’s normal for girls to blush,” Jian Hou muttered quietly.
Jiang Yan: “....”
“No!” The boy with colorful braids, looking disdainfully at the now lifeless Geng Hui, said, “She’s like this! Everyone in the school knows! As long as there’s a good-looking guy, she likes them!”
“You’re talking nonsense! You’re talking nonsense! Nonsense!!!” Geng Hui screamed with a hoarse voice.
Seeing that she was about to lose control again, a mass of green mist enveloped her.
“Please do not forget that you are a human, madam,” the steward said lightly.
The cold, misty air instantly brought peace to Geng Hui.
Yes... she is human.
Although she has turned into this... but she is not a monster... she is a human...
Human.
Geng Hui looked at the corpse of her former classmate lying on the long table, and the emotions belonging to a human instantly surged in her heart.
Why... why was she dragged into this strange game... Why, in this strange game, did they have to label her with this stigma?
Why? She has tried so hard.
She has tried so hard to live, tried so hard to resist all of this, so why are these things happening to her?
Her tentacles visibly drooped, she wanted to cry, but she had already lost her tear glands.
She could only tremble uncontrollably.
She had no tears, and without a voice that belonged to humans, she couldn’t make the sound of warm sobs, but everyone at the long table knew—she was crying.
All she wanted now was to go home... She missed her mother...
The boy with colorful braids, dissatisfied, pouted, “It’s true... everyone in the school knows.”
“I... I didn’t...” Geng Hui hoarsely retorted.
The boy with colorful braids was about to say something, but was interrupted by the giant steward, who raised his hand: “Now is not the time to argue, dear guests.”
The middle-aged man quickly pulled the boy with colorful braids, and he immediately closed his mouth.
The steward pointed at the corpse on the long table and said, “Who he was... is not important.
“He was your friend, and now he is killed by one of you. Who killed him, the entire giant tribe does not care.
“The reason he is here is simply because two murders happened in the castle last night, so we want you esteemed guests to find clues from your friend’s death to see if it has anything to do with the person who killed our king. That’s it.
“As for who killed this poor human boy, and what his name was, we do not care, as long as his name is not Jiang Yan.” The giant shrugged indifferently, “We just want to know who exactly killed our king.”
The crowd fell silent.
“So! Dear esteemed guests...”
The giant rested one hand on his chin, and the other lightly patted Jiang Yan's waist with a casual rhythm, his pale green eyes half-closed like a lazy cat, looking not like a [Judge], but more like a guest watching the spectacle.
He showed no sign of caring about the king's death whatsoever.
The giant slowly announced, “Everyone, the voting begins now.”
The broken light refracted by the crystal made people's heads dizzy, and everyone’s faces at the long table looked terrifyingly grim.
Who killed the Giant King?
No clues at all.
The last player had finished speaking, but there were still no clues.
Jiang Yan thought, the memories of the group and the memories of Geng Hui were not completely unrelated. At least one thing was the same—
the white sheep.
But... what does this have to do with Yu Xiu’s death?
Nothing at all.
“No one is voting?” The giant scanned the players and real NPCs at the table, smiling mockingly. “Then I will count down from three!”
“Three!”
“Two!”
“One”
“I, I... I vote for Jiang Yan!” Jian Hou slowly raised his hand.