The old man's attitude was very firm, and he kept repeating that sentence no matter what the players said.
Elvia stood in the crowd, listening to the players making many excuses such as they sprained their ankle and couldn't walk, it was going to rain tomorrow, etc. However, the old man remained indifferent and his expression did not change.
He lowered his head and thought for a while, then suddenly said to the old man, "Can we thank the castle owner in person before we leave? After all, we have disturbed him so much, but we are leaving without even seeing the castle owner. This is too rude."
Unexpectedly, the indifferent old man raised his eyelids slightly and looked at him after hearing Elvia's words.
Something is happening!
The players immediately echoed him, looking at each other and saying how much they wanted to meet the owner of the castle, and how they couldn't feel at ease if they couldn't meet him, with a very sincere tone.
The old man listened to everyone praising the castle owner, and his expression finally eased a little: "Well, since everyone is so sincere, I will go and ask the owner for his opinion."
After the old man finished speaking, he closed the stone door and walked upstairs with his cane. The players originally wanted to follow the old man upstairs, but he warned them not to enter the room where the castle owner was at will.
The players could only stand on the first floor and wait for the results.
At this time, the players were distributed according to their teams. Zhou Zhou and his three companions stood together, the other two stood together, and the remaining eight stood together and looked at Elvia from time to time.
Finally, a player from the group of eight came over. Elvia's expression was even colder than the old man's, and there was always a sense of oppression from him, making him difficult to approach. Even Lan Ya from the same team tried to get as close to Zhou Zhou as possible and did not dare to talk to him.
The player hesitated beside Zhou Zhou for a long time before asking Elvia, "Well, can I ask how you knew that the old man would let us stay if we wanted to meet the castle owner?"
Elvia glanced at him, and when he looked away, he found that Zhou Zhou was also looking at him curiously, so he explained, "The clothes that the old man wore were the butler's uniform. From the fact that he could decide whether we should go or stay, it seems that the old man has a lot of power as the castle butler. In addition, he was very respectful to the castle owner in his words last night. If we want to meet the castle owner, the butler must inform him and cannot make decisions on his own."
Zhou Zhou suddenly realized that this was the case, but he really wanted to meet the owner of the castle. Last night, the old butler repeatedly warned them not to go out in the middle of the night and not to disturb the owner of the castle. He didn't know what the owner looked like or what kind of person he was.
Soon, the old man came down from upstairs: "The master promised to meet with you."
The players immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Does this mean they don’t have to leave here for the time being?
Just as the players were happy, the old man continued, "But he still needs to make some preparations, so please wait a moment."
The player immediately waved his hand: "Don't worry, don't rush, take your time to prepare."
Everyone looked at the stairs eagerly, but after a long time no one came down from upstairs. The players were very confused and didn't know what the other party was preparing for and why it hadn't been ready for so long? Even the old man who was standing motionless like a sculpture next to him couldn't help but go upstairs again.
When the old man came down again, he was still alone.
"I'm so sorry, the master may need some time, please be patient. There are playing cards in the castle to help you pass the time."
Although the old butler is old, his etiquette is impeccable and he is worthy of being a butler. Naturally, everyone had no objection. It didn't matter whether the castle owner came or not, as long as he didn't drive them out.
The butler handed the cards to the players and went upstairs with hurried steps.
There was only a group of players looking at each other in bewilderment in the lobby on the first floor.
"Are we really going to play cards here?"
"If we don't play, what if the other party is not satisfied and asks us to leave? It's better to play than to fail the mission."
"Okay, that's all we can do for now."
Because there were so many players, everyone formed a circle and sat cross-legged on the ground.
Each person was dealt five cards. Zhou Zhou looked at the patterns on the cards and fell silent. What should he do since he didn't recognize the patterns on the cards at all? There seems to be a witch on this picture, a child on another card, and the other cards have completely different patterns, so what is going on? How to play?
He looked around and saw Lan Ya and Alvia looking at the cards in their hands very calmly, seeming to be very familiar with them.
Zhou Zhou immediately leaned over to Alvia and whispered, "Al, how do we play this?"
Although the volume was lowered, everyone still heard what Zhou Zhou said.
One of the pink-haired players widened his eyes and said, "There's only one way to play this kind of card game, and it's been popular for decades. You don't know how to play it?"
As he spoke exaggeratedly, he looked Zhou Zhou up and down, and his expression seemed to be asking which remote area Zhou Zhou had run from.
"But I really can't." Zhou Zhou is not as cautious as before. His attitude is very frank and he doesn't feel embarrassed at all. He doesn't know how to play at all and he can't pretend to know when he doesn't.
Elvia glanced at the player whose speech and expression were very exaggerated. The cold gaze made him shrink his neck and dare not speak anymore. Then he explained the rules to Zhou Zhou.
However, his explanation was extremely brief, to the point that even other players felt it was too brief and not suitable for beginners.
Zhou Zhou nodded seriously: "Okay, I understand."
Lan Ya on the side was hesitant to talk. In addition to the obvious rules, there are actually many hidden rules. These must be gradually explored by oneself in the process of playing. But if someone introduces these hidden rules, it can help to avoid detours, but Al didn't say these at all.
She wanted to tell Zhou Zhou the rules, but no one could wait that long, so they just told him to try it out first. There was no punishment anyway, it was just a way to kill time.
Sure enough, in the first round, Zhou Zhou was the first to be eliminated. He propped up his chin and watched other players continue to play until the last player left was the player with pink hair.
He took out the last card he had placed on the ground with a little pride and showed it to everyone: "I'm so sorry, I won."
This player is very proficient in card games. He has loved playing this game since he was a child. He was really surprised to suddenly find out that there are still people who can't play it. A newbie should just watch from the side first. After watching a hundred or eighty games, he will be able to get the hang of it. If he tries to play without knowing anything, he will definitely be the first to be eliminated.
But his pride did not last long. From the second game, Zhou Zhou seemed to have mastered the rules of the game, and he and Al became the ones who remained until the end.
The final winner was Alvia. Zhou Zhou almost won. He looked at the last card in Alvia's hand with annoyance and muttered unhappily: "I must beat you next time."
Elvia did not refute, but the pink-haired player stared at Zhou Zhou suspiciously. Is this really the first time playing? Could it be that he was pretending? You can learn it just by following the brief explanation and playing it for a while, are you kidding?
In the following many games, Zhou Zhou and Elvia won and lost half of them. The players on the side had become numb. They were probably just there to make up the numbers.
The pink-haired player kept staring at Zhou Zhou, his expression changing constantly.
"You can't count cards, can you?" The pink-haired player suddenly said to Zhou Zhou.
Zhou Zhou won the last round against Elvia and was very happy when he heard the other party say this. He asked with a curious attitude: "What is card counting?"
The other party suddenly felt very aggrieved for some reason: "Forget it, I will definitely beat you next time!"
He hummed twice, pulled the cards towards himself and began to shuffle them.
Alvia's eyes occasionally cast towards the stairs. Another hour passed, and still no one came down.
The pink-haired player was shuffling the cards, and suddenly he didn't pick one up properly, so the cards scattered all over the floor. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, gathered the cards together, and shuffled them again.
While shuffling the cards, a rough big hand suddenly stretched out from the side, holding a card.
It must have been because it was scattered too far away just now, so the player didn't see it. He didn't think much about it and took the card and merged it into the other cards.
Then he turned around and said thank you to the player next to him.
The player next to him was confused: "…Why are you thanking me?"
"You picked up a card for me." The pink-haired player said casually, his eyes dropped, but he saw the other person's white and thin hands supporting his chin.
? ? ?
He lowered his head in confusion. The rough big hand was clearly next to his right leg, so whose hand was it?
He turned around slowly, only to find that there was no one behind him.
Looking at the ground again, his hand was blocked by his knees and he could only see the part above the wrist. When he moved to the side, he finally found that there was only a broken hand.
This rough big hand was cut off at the wrist, but it seemed to have its own consciousness and moved from time to time.
The player didn't dare to move. His pupils constricted instantly as he looked at the flexible severed hand.
The severed hand seemed to notice that the player was looking at him, and it used its nimble fingers to climb up to his knees.
The player opened his eyes wide in horror, and a feeling of hair standing on end and numbness reached his brain from the knee where the severed hand was climbing. Almost instantly, he screamed and jumped to his feet, trying to get the severed hand off his knee.
The opponent's sudden action also scared the other players present. Everyone was very surprised to see the pink-haired player jumping around like crazy.
"Bah."
A severed hand was thrown into the middle of the crowd, and it even tried to use its fingers as support to stand up.
In the center was an empty space for cards, so everyone saw the wriggling severed hand almost at the same time. The textures on the fingers and the light pink nail caps are all intact, and even as the severed hand moves, the bones slightly protruding under the skin can be seen. No one can say this is a model, it is clearly a real hand!
The severed hand finally stood up with four fingers and began to move.
All the players present were shocked. Those who had just been playing cards harmoniously stood up suddenly and fled in all directions.
The severed hand moves very fast and moves towards the players. Once it gets close to a player, it will crawl up the player's body along the ankle, scaring the players into shaking their legs wildly.
The screams in the castle hall almost broke through the roof. No one would remain calm after seeing such a strange thing.
In order to get away from this strange severed hand, several players ran upstairs.
The old butler heard the scream and hurried down the stairs with his cane, but he bumped into the player who was running away in fear.
How could an old and frail butler possibly defeat a young and strong player who was rushing around out of fear?
So he was knocked down all of a sudden.
Behind the old butler was a gray-black stone brick wall.
The panicked players watched as the butler fell backwards and hit the wall.
In an instant, his limbs and head were separated from his torso and shattered into pieces like a puppet.
The player watched in horror as the old butler's head slowly rolled to his feet. His old, sagging face faced him, his cloudy eyes staring at him.
“Boom!”
This was the last sound the player heard. His heart beat violently, and the sound was so loud that it seemed to echo throughout the entire castle. Then, his eyes rolled back and he knew nothing.
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