As Wang Ao said this, he lowered his head slightly and watched Lu Ce from the corner of his eye, with a trace of smugness in his gaze.
After all, in his experience, everyone who came looking for him asked that question.
No matter how crazy or mentally unstable the person before him was, he did not believe Lu Ce would remain unmoved by this.
"I can answer you. I can tell you the truth, as long as you agree to play a game with me..."
At that moment, the staff members from Jiu Tian who had been monitoring every player's livestream were all dumbfounded and gathered in Lu Ce's stream.
They had never expected the game, which had shown little progress until now, to encounter such an unexpected turning point here.
:Wait... was it really that easy? He just said it outright?
;Why do I feel like this patient is not sick at all? He looks like the most normal one.
:Everything is scary when compared. Compared to Mask Bro here, everyone seems pretty normal.
:But would an NPC in this game really reveal such crucial information so easily? Or has he encountered players like this before?
:The comment above is kind of terrifying when you think about it.
Listening to Wang Ao's words, nearly everyone was excited.
Except for one person...
"Shouldn't you be asking a doctor who the sickest person is? What does that have to do with me?"
Lu Ce dug at his ear and spoke with some confusion.
"Y-You don't want to ask that?" Wang Ao completely lost it. He could now basically confirm that the person before him was different from anyone he had met before.
So he cautiously asked,
"Brother... are you new here? Are you going to stay here too?"
"If so, everyone seems to have their own room. Why did you come looking for me..."
Wang Ao's voice carried barely concealed retreat, and even a hint of grievance.
He had suffered so much torture here, yet someone had come to torture him today!
"If you insist on making me ask you a question, I suppose that's not impossible..."
Lu Ce stroked his chin and spoke thoughtfully.
"What?" Red light instantly flared again in Wang Ao's eyes, and bloodthirsty desire resurfaced.
Upon hearing Lu Ce's words, before Wang Ao could react, the livestream viewers were the first to let out a sigh of relief.
They had thought Lu Ce had truly become so insane that he would actually refuse such an easy way to clear the game.
Then, amid everyone's anticipation, Lu Ce's Gluttony Mask formed a pondering expression. (ˉ﹃ˉ)
He then leaned forward mysteriously and asked Wang Ao,
"Have you actually realized something?"
"What?"
"The phrase 'five characters' has three characters..."
"Five... what?"
After waiting so long, Wang Ao's mind instantly buzzed. For a moment, he could not process it.
"Why would 'five characters' have three characters? Wait..."
He counted on his fingers a little, then raised his head with a pained expression, glanced at Lu Ce, and nodded speechlessly.
"When you put it that way, 'five characters' really does have three characters. So what?"
"So 'six characters' also has three characters, right?"
Wang Ao: ...
"So six equals five!"
His expression had gone numb. After living here for so long, this was the first time he had wanted so desperately to leave. He did not want to stay in this damned place anymore!
Lu Ce did not expect an answer from him at all and continued talking to himself.
"Following that logic, seven also equals five, and eight also equals five..."
"1 = 2 = 3 = 4... = 0!"
"I've discovered the grand unified equation of mathematics!"
"So eating ten bowls of rice equals eating three bowls of rice equals eating zero bowls of rice, which equals not eating at all, right?"
"I'm kind of hungry..."
At that moment, Wang Ao suddenly lunged forward, grabbed Lu Ce's hand with utter sincerity, and said earnestly,
"Bro, I think your illness is a little too serious. Worse than mine."
"For some reason, this creepy asylum didn't deliver the medicine today. That's really irresponsible."
"Tonight—when night comes, you should take my medicine. I think your condition is a little serious."
:In ancient times, Kong Rong gave up pears. Today, Wang Ao gave up medicine!
:Wang Ao has been tortured senseless. Seriously, is that even a question a human being could come up with?
:I feel like Mask Bro is the one actually playing the game. His whole thing is playing around!
:Poor Wang Ao! Wang Ao has been played to the point of breaking down.
After feeling sorry for Kolk and Long Wu, people were now feeling sorry for Wang Ao too!
Lu Ce could be called the world's greatest cardiologist—he had everyone worried sick!
"Wait, no!" Wang Ao abruptly released Lu Ce's hand. Violence, confusion, and chaos flickered constantly through his eyes.
I think I'm the crazy one.
What am I doing?
Why do I care what this guy's question is? Why do I care what's wrong with him?!
I want to... I want to... hehehehe...
As he thought this, that perverted expression slowly returned to Wang Ao's face. He grinned stupidly, drool slowly spilling from the corner of his mouth.
"Sir, I know the answer to your question. I know all the answers."
"But if you want to know the answer, I have one condition. You have to play a game with me before I'll tell you."
This time, Wang Ao's chaos finally gained the upper hand, preventing him from following Lu Ce's rhythm.
"What game?" This was the first time Lu Ce had truly responded to his question.
Excited red light flashed in Wang Ao's eyes, as though he had finally arrived on his home turf. He pulled out a sheet of metal from beneath himself.
The metal sheet was covered in mottled rust, but aside from a few chips along the edge, it gleamed with sharp reflections. It had clearly been sharpened often and turned into a knife!
The metallic surface reflected the excitement on Wang Ao's face. This was where his illness truly lay!
He looked at Lu Ce and said,
"Watch carefully."
Then, he pressed one hand flat against the ground and began wildly swinging the knife in his other hand!
With the tip pointed downward, it repeatedly struck through the gaps between his five fingers. It moved so fast that afterimages appeared.
He was literally dancing on the tip of a knife!
Yet his technique was clearly not that good. Amid those swinging afterimages, the sounds of flesh being sliced and spurts of blood erupted from time to time, drawing pleased groans from Wang Ao as the excitement in his eyes grew stronger.
At last, he stopped. Blood from his palm had already soaked into the ground, dark red blood winding across the floor.
He handed over the metal sheet, still smeared with blood and flesh.
"Your turn. One hundred times." As if he had entered his own domain, Wang Ao grinned broadly like the laughing Joker from a DC movie.
Lu Ce slowly raised his head. His mask wore a huge smile (*^____^*), and he accepted the bloodstained metal sheet.
"Same as before, Mr. Chen. I love you. This time, I mean it..."
Before you continue