Chapter 235 Merlin's Double Game (Part 3)

Mr. Reporter—or rather, what Merlin told Aiwass when they first met was not wrong.

This ceremony originally had two lines.

The closer you get to the top, the more detached you are from reality, and the easier it is to investigate the story... and thus get higher scores.

But the closer you are to the bottom, the greater your chances of winning.

Because in this case, the advantage of dying quickly is the greatest.

The ritual Weizhe created wasn't actually difficult. The main difficulty was that it started immediately after reading the rules, leaving no time for discussion or reflection.

At my level, there is no need to conduct any investigation.

Simply kill everyone immediately, then commit suicide... and then begin your investigation on the next floor. If you discover any bodies on the next floor, commit suicide again and chase after the ascended individuals on that floor. This way, you gain control of that "first floor."

Then, just make sure you are the first to die, and after committing suicide, make sure that there are no promoted people on this level in the first place. Then you have found the zeroth level.

Therefore, the lower a person is, the more say he or she has.

With this strategy, whoever reaches the zeroth floor first will win - not only will they win, but they can also eliminate anyone they want.

"Because if someone who killed everyone on their spawn level successfully reaches and identifies Level Zero, then they alone will know if it's Level Zero, and everyone else's intelligence will be flawed. They only need to find anyone not in their group and kill them by suspecting them of being Merlin, or by planning to descend together... Then, regardless of whether this person is Merlin or not, they'll be declared the loser."

Aiwass spoke word by word, and the muzzle of the gun slowly touched the pure white temple.

Jacaranda's eyes became tense, while Huoyin closed his eyes and rested, too lazy to speak.

Pure White sighed: "Believe it or not...I didn't do such a thing."

"I didn't say you did it, sorry. But you certainly had the opportunity to do it."

Seeing that Chunbai was not angry at all and could remain calm even in this situation, Aiwass's tone became a little softer: "After all, among everyone here, you are the lowest level."

"What about Merlin?"

Jacaranda couldn't help but ask, "This reporter has already admitted that he is Merlin, right?"

Although she had just given evidence to the reporter, she was quickly convinced by Fox and Pure White's logic.

Fox and Pure White belong to two different camps, and Merlin can't play both roles at the same time. Therefore, the logic they both agree on is more reliable than the one given by the reporter.

"In short, we can't kill him."

Aiwass said calmly, "There are three possibilities. One is that this is the zero floor. In this case, you cannot kill the reporter no matter what. If you do, I will kill Pure White."

"One possibility is that this isn't Level Zero, but Level One. Excluding the lying reporter, Living Silver must have come from at least Level Four or higher. Then Sherlock is somewhere on Level 567. When he comes down, he'll bring a wealth of information and push Merlin away.

"The worst-case scenario is that this isn't the first or zeroth floor, but the second or third. Then at least one of my companions is on the top or bottom floor, and the other is Toppa. We should wait here for the person from the top floor to bring us information before making a decision. He'll be investigating and collecting evidence on his own, so he'll probably get the most information and be able to traverse the most floors.

"Daya, the reporter, the dancer—he must be one of these three. We might as well wait for him."

“—No need to wait.”

At this moment, the reporter suddenly spoke.

His expression suddenly turned cold.

His fingers were firmly crossed and his body leaned back naturally.

He spoke slowly in a cold, arrogant, and smooth voice: "Ask whatever you want to ask. I'm here."

There is no doubt that the reporter has become a "detective" at this time.

"How many floors did you descend?"

Aiwass asked.

"Three floors. On the first floor, I met Mr. Toppa. He was playing a dancer, acting very foolishly, and his investigation was proceeding at a snail's pace... but I couldn't see him finding anything. On the second floor, I saw the bodies of the couple and the Overseer... The third floor is here."

The detective said calmly, "However, I only descended three floors, but there are five people here... So I judge that I may have descended more than three floors.

"Looking at your actions and the atmosphere at the table... I suspect Merlin was using my body. He must have accompanied one or more of you down several levels."

"But since there were three bodies on my second descent, and they were all present—why not let him tell me if my figures are correct?"

"Yes."

Huoyin slowly opened his eyes and replied, "These are the people I killed."

After a brief silence, Pure White sheathed his sword. Aiwass, on the other hand, pondered for a moment before slowly sheathing his gun.

"I am a fox."

He looked at the detective and confirmed, "If you are really a detective... tell me, what do you want to do most right now?"

"...Of course, we need to find Miss Lulu first."

The detective gave a look of slight disdain. "My floor, then Mr. Toppa's, then Mr. Living Silver's. And then there are the three of you."

He pointed at Aiwass, Jacaranda, and Pure White, saying, "You three can't be Merlin, because this body was just taken over by Merlin. That means I came down from the sixth floor at least."

"In other words, if Miss Lulu isn't on the seventh floor, she's on the first floor. I'm worried that if she's on the first floor, she'll commit suicide twice and be eliminated... So we should go down as soon as possible."

He said this, as if realizing something.

The detective glanced around, glanced at the cup on the table, and then looked at the gun in Aiwass's hand.

He seemed to have thought of something, paused slightly, and looked at Aiwass calmly: "If they don't want to, why don't we go down and take a look first."

Looking at the detective's gaze, Aiwass was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

His eyes gradually brightened.

"Interesting...it's getting interesting."

He murmured softly.

Seeing the detective like this, Aiwass realized that his previous speculation still had loopholes - the premise of the "sure-win method" was that Merlin was not present.

Merlin can disguise NPCs as ascended ones, making the zeroth floor appear to be something other than the zeroth floor, thereby tricking them into continuing to dive. From this perspective, if Merlin is not present in this ceremony, then it would be unfair.

Because as long as the first-tier players choose this strategy, their chances of winning are extremely high, and no matter how others operate, their chances of winning will not be affected.

Just like a game of Jenga, removing the bottom brick affects the bricks above; but removing the top brick has no effect on the bottom brick.

Would Weizhe create a ceremony with such a big loophole?

Moreover, these seven people are almost all connected. And although there are nine seats on the first floor, the rooms only go up to room 206. If there are two more people, where will they stay?

If the number of rooms has changed, why hasn't the seating area changed?

Taking all the above into consideration, Aiwass boldly came up with a possibility -

—From the very beginning, this was a seven-person ceremony. This was a ritual venue reserved for the ceremony of absence.

So nine seats isn't an excess, but a hint. Besides the front desk, there should be another "presence" in this hotel.

In other words, Merlin must be present in this ceremony.

This ceremony was originally performed with Merlin in mind!

So, who induced Aiwass to come up with this sure-fire winning strategy?

——It’s Merlin again.

In this way, Aiwass understood why Merlin's acting was so poor before.

Rather than saying they were letting the game go, it would be more accurate to say they weren't acting properly at all. Because that's not important at all.

It turns out it was waiting for me here.

"I'm thinking about a question right now," Aiwass said slowly, "Are you... really a detective?"

"...What's up, you stupid fox? What are you up to again?"

The detective frowned, "Do you think it's me or Merlin?"

"I don't know. I really can't tell."

Aiwass answered sincerely, "I don't know if this is the second test Merlin gave me."

If the "sure-win method" even just "exists", they are completely likely to be at the zeroth level now. As long as the pure white of the first level removes this level, they are now at the zeroth level.

And as long as this is Level Zero, Aiwass cannot attack the detective.

Otherwise Sherlock would be eliminated by him directly.

But if this is not the zeroth floor, and Aiwass thinks it is the zeroth floor and therefore chooses to kill others or not commit suicide himself, he will stop at this floor and be eliminated.

This is the first level of game.

The reporter, who had previously acted nothing like Sherlock, suddenly became like Sherlock. If he had followed his lead, Aiwass would have committed suicide with him. In other words, the "reporter" was now persuading Aiwass to take action.

But here comes the problem…

——Is this really the Sherlock that descended upon the “reporter”, rather than Merlin who changed his tone and began to act seriously?

Are his words credible or not?

This is the second level of game.

Now Aiwass had nowhere to escape to. He had no place to collect evidence, and Pure White would not provide him with any more information.

Is or is not layer zero.

It's Sherlock or it's not.

There are four possible combinations of two.

——All of them are difficult questions directed at Aiwass. If you answer one of the two questions incorrectly, you lose. You can only win if you answer all of them correctly.

"It's more like gambling than reasoning... a one in four chance."

Aiwass chuckled. "But I took it."

Update completed!

(End of this chapter)