Whack-a-Mole

“There are so many rats!”

“I’m most afraid of mice!”

"What's going on! Didn't rats used to only be found in slums?"

Luo Tan lowered his head and carefully observed the culprit who was moving between the skirts of the ladies and making them pale, and then he found out——

[This isn't actually a mouse, it's a woodchuck.]

Woodchuck? How is that different from a mouse?

Someone hurriedly asked the person walking beside him, but he only got a shaking head in response.

[Isn't this the protagonist of the whack-a-mole game? ]

An image involuntarily emerged in Luo Chen's mind: numerous rat holes were unevenly scattered in the open land, and marmots would randomly spawn in the rat holes. Players could use a small wooden hammer to hit the marmot's head to drive it back.

She squatted down, staring at the woodchuck running around in panic on the ground, thinking:

【Actually, they don’t want to bite people. 】

[Groundhogs are actually very timid. They dig a hole in the ground and just want to find another hole to get back in. But there are too many people here, blocking their way back, so they seem to attack people.]

Is that so?

Following the female voice's instructions, everyone tried to make way for the woodchuck. They were surprised to find that the woodchuck, which was able to find its way back, no longer frantically bit around, but instead rushed towards the next hole with determination.

"But we can't just let them run wild here."

Someone asked this question.

After all, although groundhogs will not actively attack humans, since they have dug these holes, they will not stay in the holes quietly. Once they come out to carry food back to the holes, they will still collide with humans.

Luo Tan made a decision:

【Then try whack-a-mole. 】

She turned to her doomed partner and said, "I'm sorry for your dagger again."

Andre: ?

Luo Chen pulled out the jewel-encrusted dagger that Andre had given her from her waist, then rushed directly to the marmot closest to her. While it was dazedly chewing on the pastry without any defense, she knocked it out with the scabbard.

"puff!"

The woodchuck staggered and fell straight into the hole it had dug with such great effort, and it was obvious that it would not be able to climb out until it woke up.

Luo Tan blew a breath of air on the scabbard with satisfaction. The next second he suddenly remembered what the scabbard had just touched and took a cold breath, then spat for a long time.

But regardless, she said with emotion: "It feels like playing whack-a-mole."

Since she started it, others soon followed her lead.

Almost everyone had a lightweight dagger for self-defense. Even if they didn't, there were always substitutes in such a large dinner venue. Some nobles even took off their velvet hats filled with precious feathers.

At first, it was only men who played whack-a-mole, but gradually, ladies began to join in, holding up their skirts.

Suddenly, accompanied by the sound of "Puff, Puff, Puff", everyone in the dinner room started playing whack-a-mole. Every time a groundhog popped out of its head, it was slapped back the next second.

The number of groundhogs is limited, but human enjoyment is endless. Soon, no groundhogs came out of any burrows in the banquet hall.

The noble lady who was having a great time playing whack-a-mole complained, "Why are there no more whack-a-mole to play with?"

"We didn't make them all faint, did we?"

"No way! There were so many moles just now! How could this happen?"

"Hey, you shouldn't have hit the last gopher just now, you should have let me hit it, wuwuwu, now there are no more gophers to hit!"

“…”

At this moment, the big screen in the banquet hall slowly lit up, and an old man wearing a mask appeared on the screen. He seemed to be in a place with very weak light. Because of this, the audience could only see his face but could not see the layout of the environment he was in.

"Who is this?"

"I seem to be seen in the news quite often recently. Oh, I think he's the founder of parachute."

"Hasn't he been arrested?"

"Yes, the reason why they didn't allow the news to be reported before was to collect evidence and avoid making any surprises. How did he end up on TV?"

"Is it a scheduled program for National Day? Based on my experience, it should be for the criminal to personally state his crime and then apologize to the people of the country?"

"ha?"

“…”

The person who should have been most shocked than the astonished audience should have been the founder of Parachute himself. He thought he would see the dinner being destroyed by rats, everyone at a loss, and even those in power being frightened and hiding behind the curtain.

Instead of——

Although the dinner scene was a bit chaotic, people did not seem panicked. Some people even seemed inexplicably unsatisfied. And none of the woodchucks he had placed high hopes on appeared in the camera.

He was very confused. Could it be that the command he gave was wrong and the mice didn't come at all?

That's not right. There are clearly holes dug by groundhogs on the ground.

He had a bad feeling in his heart, and for the first time felt that the situation was out of control, but he couldn't figure out the reason after thinking about it, and he no longer had time to hesitate, so he could only act according to the original action plan.

In just a few tens of seconds, he thought so much. Fortunately, he was wearing a mask, so outsiders could not see the changes in his thoughts at all. They just thought that he was as gloomy as ever.

He said loudly: "Next, I want to play a game with everyone present."

"The name of this game is 'Guess Who I Am'."

Everyone: "Who wants to play games with you?"

"That's right."

The founder smiled slightly: "You can't refuse. Long before the banquet started, I sent our company's A-level experimental subjects into the venue. Now, they are hiding beside each of you. If you can recognize their identities and kill them, then you can survive. Otherwise-"

As his smile gradually grew, even the mask could not hide his ugly snake-skinned face, and he spoke word by word: "Every ten minutes, I will instruct a random subject to kill the human closest to it."

"The mouse game just now was just a warm-up. Now, let's get into the real game!"