Chapter Ch204.1 - Reasoning

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

The incandescent lamp in the bathroom of the student dorms flickered, and the tap was running.

Beneath the cover of the sound of water, Raphael’s eyebrows jumped as he blurted out, “Silver Armor, Nicholas, and Serra are all the King of Hearts?”

Wu Jin leaned against the yellowing white porcelain wall tiles and nodded, “They’re all K.”

“As for Lin Qingshan––”

“He might be, or he might not be. But that has no effect on the outcome.”

Wu Jin raised his chin slightly and spoke quickly amidst the sound of running water. “The bloody word ‘15’ appeared on the first night, and the last one to leave the training room was Silver Armor. Regardless of whether K was Silver Armor or Lin Qingshan, this moment was when it started.”

Raphael quickly recalled the scene, “The first player was indeed eliminated after evening training.”

Wu Jin: “He knocked him out, then took him into Silver Armor’s bedroom and made his move.”

Raphael’s expression stilled. He was inevitably thinking about the Silver Armor’s closed room murder––

Wu Jin nodded to him, “Yes, the first one to be eliminated became the life-saving capsule in Silver Armor’s bedroom. Then, K got the ‘face’ from the capsule. Fortunately, he became the first player to learn about the rules.”

“When you eliminate them, you can put on their face and inherit ‘everything’.”

The windows of the training room in the old building faced north and were damp, covered with a thick layer of moisture. Wu Jin finished speaking up to this point, and Raphael frowned hard. He subconsciously reached up to touch his face.

Wang Shu’s camouflage fit perfectly on his skin, and there was a contact surface between the camouflage and his real skin, a delicate and breathable isolation film. He remembered that the AI had applied a layer of liquid on his face before putting on the make-up. After the liquid dried, it wouldn’t be impossible to tear off the entire ‘face’ completely.

If one’s psychological quality wasn’t high enough, they would be shivering from listening to Wu Jin’s talk at this time.

Raphael was quiet for a short moment, then said, “You mean to say that only K himself knows about changing skins.”

Wu Jin made a sound of affirmation and enunciated every word carefully, “All the closed room murders, blood deterrence, and psychological pressure comes from one weapon.”

“––The fact that the information we have at hand is unequal.”

Amidst the sound of running water, Wu Jin continued to speak, “K is very smart. He discovered the rules when he killed the first player, and the rules inspired him to play. So, he went back to the studio and wrote down the first number.”

Raphael: “15.”

Wu Jin smiled broadly with Wang Ping’s face, “Then, K used Silver Armor’s face to provoke &#k2018;himself’ for the sake of the subsequent murder.”

“At night, everyone went back to their own rooms. The King of Hearts had both Silver Armor and Lin Qingshan’s faces on hand. The first knock at the door that night was for the King of Hearts to lead all the players out so that they could watch as &#k2018;Silver Armor’ opened the door, then locked the door again.”

“He wanted the necessary conditions for a locked, closed chamber to be established.”

Raphael narrowed his eyes, “But everyone saw Silver Armor inside the room. Who was knocking––”

Raphael suddenly stopped.

If there was nobody outside knocking at the door, then there was only one other explanation. Silver Armor had knocked on the door from inside the bedroom!

Along with the sound of water and the narration, the scene seemed to embed itself into his mind. The King of Hearts who held two faces stood in Silver Armor’s bedroom, looking at his victim’s life-saving capsule, smiling creepily as he knocked on the wooden door––

Wu Jin saw that he’d thought it through and nodded before continuing, “When the players went back to bed, the King of Hearts began to set up the scene. He set up traces of fighting in the room, spread the red paint all the way to the training room, changed the 14 to 9.

Finally, in the training room, he tore off Silver Armor’s face and stuck it on the wall for the final chapter of his ‘provocation’. Then, he put on Lin Qingshan’s face and came back to knock on the door for the second time, leading all the trainees over to see the life-saving capsule in Silver Armor’s room.”

“This is the ‘closed room murder’ scene that everyone saw on the first night.”

Raphael lifted his head up abruptly.

Wu Jin spoke faster and faster, “Of course, there’s another reason for covering the wall in red. The fingerprints. At the start of the competition, each player left their palm prints on the wall. Now that I think about it, it should be the flaw that the program team left behind for ‘those who change their skin’.”

Raphael figured it out, “The faces can be changed, but fingerprints can’t?”

The light in Wu Jin’s eyes was bright, “Yes, that’s it. The King of Hearts painted over the whole wall. However, with the intrusive thoughts over ‘a whole path of bloodstains’ and ‘Silver Armor’s face’, none of the trainees were able to think of how the first things that K really wanted to destroy were the fingerprints on the wall.”

“The next day, K hid in the training room with the identity of ‘Lin Qingshan’. He intercepted the itinerary information for the ‘stage rehearsal’ and stole one of the 14 costumes that had been sent to the training room.”

“Because––he was already preparing to replace the next person.”

Raphael’s lips were pressed tight.

Finally, everything was connected together. K, who had already put on the performance costume, had gone to the B1 mechanism floor beneath the stage in advance. During the interval in the performance, he replaced Serra and took his face, then stuck Lin Qingshan’s face on the mechanism to act as a deterrent.

Being in the same clothes made it easy for K to replace ‘Serra’. After he met up with all the trainees, the 1st Serra’s life-saving capsule was naturally mistaken for Lin Qingshan’s.

Finally, he used ‘Serra’ and replaced ‘Nicholas’––

Raphael slowly opened his mouth, “He’s climbing up.” From the start, he’d gone up to 9th place, and was now at 2nd place. K constantly replaced players who had similar body figures to his, and his ranking soared. Raphael looked at Wu Jin and said, “What are you going to do?”

Wu Jin went over to the tap and reached for the knob, “Keep him in Nicholas’s body.”

“Then,” Wu Jin showed him the photograph, a sharp light in his eyes.

“Blow him up.”

The rusty metal parts of the faucet ground together, and the sound of running water finally stopped.

The two of them went back to the dorm one after another. Wang Shu’s expression was complex. Joining hands with Wu Jin to fight against the King of Hearts was undoubtedly the best option, but he still had a psychological shadow regarding Wu Jin from the previous round of elimination matches.

However, two minutes ago, Wu Jin had actually been very direct in proposing alliance terms.

He’d sent over the ‘nightclub cross-dressing black history’ photo to him directly. Wu Jin had even said generously, “… I might need your help or maybe I won’t. Until then, take this gift. Remember, you can eliminate Wang Ping at any time. I’m offering you my sincerity, and you just need to accept it.”

These familiar lines reminded Raphael of the Godfather of Sicily from those ancient movies! Out of respect for his ancestors in Sicily, Raphael didn’t hesitate to reach out and bump fists with Wu Jin.

An alliance was reached.

However, as he walked down the corridor, Raphael always felt that something wasn’t right…

He could use this photo to eliminate Wang Ping.

Wang Ping could use this photo to eliminate Nicholas.

Wang Ping could use this photo to eliminate himself––

“!!!” Raphael suddenly realized. Wu Jin’s ‘blowing up’ was in fact self destruction. Wang Ping was intended to be a discarded card right from the start! Wu Jin’s generous ‘gesture of sincerity’ was nothing but a garbage photo…

Raphael had been caught off guard and tricked again, and his pace immediately picked up.

Wu Jin, who was walking up in front, heard that Raphael’s steps were speeding up from behind him.

Raphael must be so angry that he wanted to seek him out to obtain justice.

Wu Jin quickly accelerated, running happily as he touched his own flat face, “You promised! You already said we’d form an alliance! You can’t go back on it ahhhh, don’t hit me––”

There was a crash.

The two of them finally went back to the dorm room.

Wang Ping’s expression was friendly, while Wang Shu’s expression was livid. The remaining two roommates greeted them curiously while Wu Jin tucked Wang Shu into bed before straightening up and sitting down to discuss things with the other two roommates.

The night passed by. The third day of the competition was the first round of ‘100 into 60’. The dormitory atmosphere was no longer as active as it had been last night.

“I’m guessing that K will give priority to the popular players who will take up votes on the stage.” One roommate speculated, “Now, the biggest problem is, the competition has already been ongoing for three days, but there’s no way to accurately figure out one’s own ranking.”

Wu Jin suddenly said, “That makes sense!” So, with a big wave of his hand, he opened up the fan forums and skillfully posted <Rap Class 2, little brother support post. Hit a +1 beneath your favorite contestant!>.

A few minutes later, they’d collected some sample data.

Wang Shu and his roommates, “……” Why are you so skilled at this? Aren’t you a survival show trainee?!

However, they’d collected over 160 samples, and the popularity distribution for Rap Class 2 was somewhat clear. Nicholas was first in the class, followed by Leica, then there were two players in the middle rankings, next was Wang Ping and Wang Shu, followed by another of Leica’s contestants who’d fallen out of the middle, and lastly, the two roommates.

For a moment, everyone turned to look at Wu Jin at the same time: Had this person really started off with an initial rank of 96?!

Wu Jin turned his head with a whoosh to look at Wang Shu: Brother, you’ve also gone up by a whole segment?

Wang Shu turned his head away. Crosson Show’s A-level trainees got along with each other day in and day out, and it was impossible for them not to recognize each other. Ever since he’d discovered Wu Jin was in his class, he’d learned from Wu Jin and added some scenes in for himself…

In order to prevent their two roommates from being eliminated, Wu Jin generously shared a variety of vote canvassing tips. It included, but wasn’t limited to, snatching stage time, pretending to forget words during rap, then pretending to freestyle in order to show off their skills, acting tragic in their self introductions, attacking their teammates in the forums for using half-open mic (which was true), and doing back flips crazily in front of the camera in order to gain attention…

The two roommates were completely won over by these tips.

Their original doubts that ‘Wang Ping might be an undercover agent sent over by the King of Hearts’ instantly dissipated. How could this be an undercover spy? It was simply like a targeted poverty alleviation blessing that had been sent to their dorm! So, while Wang Shu watched on stiffly, the two roommates were determined to express their loyalty to Wu Jin. The team of four got along together smoothly.

The sky slowly grew bright.

The bell in the training room rang out, and they passed through a messy and chaotic corridor.

“How many are left?” Wu Jin asked softly.

Raphael made a gesture.

9.