Chapter 585: The First Death

As Lu Bingjun's statement concluded, the third round entered the voting phase. Everyone had already formed a clear view in their minds. The voting was completed quickly.

On the central platform, a blade plunged swiftly downward, driving hard into the sector corresponding to Wei Hongbing.

Her expression changed dramatically. Her body lurched once in a sharp spasm, then went still. Both hands gripped the fabric at her chest, and her reaction was visibly more extreme than anything seen before.

She remained locked in that rigid position, unable to move.

Severe chest pain genuinely robs a person of all ability to act. When Li Hui had suffered the same in an earlier round, the same kind of paralysis had set in.

So at first, no one paid particular attention.

It was not until the next round began that Wei Hongbing's hands fell limply to her sides, and the others realised something was wrong.

The blade above her sector had not risen again.

The first death in this game had occurred.

Bai Zhilan's expression darkened considerably.

She stared at the motionless Wei Hongbing on the large screen with something close to disbelief, murmuring almost to herself, "Why? She received the same as Li Hui. Both of them twice.

"Oh. I understand now."

She did not finish the thought, but Lin Sizhi and Tang Qing had clearly arrived at the same conclusion just as quickly.

Deaths in this game were not calculated purely by the number of Sudden Death Votes received.

The penalty acted directly on the player's heart. Which meant the health of a player's heart also determined how much punishment they could withstand before it became fatal.

Bai Zhilan stared at Wei Hongbing on the screen for a while longer, then quietly let out a long breath, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes.

"She should have used the assistance option earlier."

Under the game rules, inner room players had one opportunity to call for help from their audience representative. Using it meant the entire speaking time for that round would be given over to the audience player.

This could be thought of as a kind of decisive move, one that, used at the right moment, might save a life.

But Wei Hongbing had died before she ever had the chance to use it.

She had apparently assumed that since Li Hui had survived two rounds of chest pain, she would as well.

What she had failed to account for was the difference in their physical condition and the exact vote tallies.

Bai Zhilan composed herself fairly quickly, picking up her cup of tea with a hand that still trembled slightly and drinking from it slowly.

She looked at Lin Sizhi, "The two players from your community who were selected are both quite capable overall.

"In a game like this, that kind of advantage really does show."

Some of the inner room players might still have been reeling, but all three in the Audience Room were the sharpest players from their respective communities, and as observers they had a clear view of everything.

Under this game's mechanics, players from the same community could coordinate with each other.

The better a pair executed on that, the sooner they would secure an advantage.

Community 7's Li Hui and Shi Guoliang had shown almost no coordination whatsoever so far.

This was possibly because Shi Guoliang's board consistently offered him the lowest-risk options of anyone, and he had no interest in exposing himself to additional risk by actively taking pressure off Li Hui.

It was also possible that the two simply had a poor relationship in their community and had no desire to help each other.

Community 11's Xu Guangxin and Wei Hongbing had done somewhat better. Xu Guangxin had made some effort to provide cover for Wei Hongbing, but against the combined pressure of the other players, it had not been enough to protect her.

Only Community 2's Lu Bingjun and Deng Xiao showed the closest coordination.

Whoever attacked another player, the other would immediately follow up to reinforce it.

It was not a particularly sophisticated form of coordination, but it had been enough to give them an advantage in the game so far.

In the Offender Room, the surviving players stared at Wei Hongbing's body in shock. No one had expected death to arrive this quickly.

After a brief moment, Lu Bingjun was the first to regain his composure. He spread his hands and looked at the other players.

No one could speak, so there was no way to communicate.

But before long, the others understood what he was trying to convey.

"Why hasn't the game ended?"

According to the rules, the game would end under two conditions: if the Impostor died, or if any other player died and the Impostor chose to end the game.

Clearly, Wei Hongbing was not the Impostor.

And the real Impostor had no intention of ending the game.

Among all the players, the blonde-streaked Li Hui's expression was the worst.

He and Wei Hongbing had both been penalised twice, but she was already dead.

This was perhaps because Wei Hongbing was older and in poorer health, or because the exact vote tallies had differed between them, resulting in a different degree of cardiac damage.

Either way, Li Hui had clearly realised his situation was extremely precarious. He was potentially only one more bout of chest pain away from death.

Even if he was younger and in better physical condition than Wei Hongbing, the odds of surviving another round of chest pain were not good.

This time, Li Hui was selected as moderator.

But his mind was in turmoil and he could not bring himself to make a decision.

From everything seen so far, placing yourself last was the safest strategy for the moderator. But Li Hui no longer had room for that kind of calculation.

The others watched Li Hui. He was the moderator this round and would determine the speaking order.

Instead, Li Hui pressed the 'Help' button directly.

[Li Hui has used the 'Help' function. Tang Qing from the same community will speak on their behalf.]

[All originally scheduled activities for this round will be cancelled. All speaking time will be given to the audience representative.]

[For the voting phase, the audience representative may compel all players to vote according to either the 'Offence' or 'Health' criterion only.]

This choice surprised the other inner room players somewhat.

Using the assistance function at this moment seemed to forfeit the moderator's privilege of setting the speaking order.

But on reflection, the choice made sense.

Li Hui had no margin for error left. Even placing himself last in the speaking order would not guarantee safety given his speaking ability.

Tang Qing's performance during the preparation phase had already demonstrated that he was one of Community 7's most capable players. Handing over the entire round's speaking time to him was the best possible move for self-preservation.

In the Offender Room, everyone waited in silence.

Tang Qing's voice came through clearly from the room's speakers.

"By this point, the death case and the full picture of the incident are actually quite clear.

"It can be stated with reasonable confidence that the victim was an ordinary office worker who died of sudden cardiac arrest due to a heart condition.

"All six inner room players are guilty parties who contributed to his death, to varying degrees.

"As Wei Hongbing pointed out, the six players represent a boss, a senior executive, a landlord, a personal trainer, an office worker, and an unemployed person. All of them bear some responsibility for the victim's death.

"Up to now, attention has been focused primarily on the boss and the landlord.

"But I want to say that the player who bears the primary responsibility is someone else entirely.

"That person is Deng Xiao."