Merlin's Double Game (Third Update)

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

This ceremony originally had two lines.

The closer you get to the Top Layer, the more detached you become from reality, making it easier to investigate the whole story and thus get a higher score.

However, the closer you get to the Bottom Layer, the higher your chances of winning.

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

The ritual that Weizhe created wasn't actually difficult. Its main challenge lay in starting immediately after reading the rules, without giving any time for discussion or reflection.

On your own level, there is no need to conduct any investigation.

All you need to do is kill everyone immediately and then commit suicide... then start investigating on the next floor. If you find more corpses on the next floor, immediately commit suicide again to chase after the ascendants on that floor. In this way, you gain control of the "floor".

So, if you make sure you're the first to die, and that after your suicide there are absolutely no ascendants in that level immediately, then you've found Layer Zero.

Therefore, the lower a person's social standing, the more influence they have.

With this strategy, whoever reaches Layer Zero first is guaranteed to win—not only guaranteed to win, but can also eliminate anyone at will.

"Because if the person who killed everyone in their birth level successfully reaches and identifies the Layer Zero, then only they will know whether this is the Layer Zero or not, and everyone else's information will inevitably be problematic. They only need to find anyone who is not in their team, and then kill them by means of suspecting that they are Merlin, or by discussing descending together... Then regardless of whether this person is Merlin or not, they will be directly judged as the loser."

Iver spoke slowly, word by word, as the muzzle of the gun was pressed against Pure White's temple.

Jacaranda's gaze hardened, while Huoyin remained silent, keeping his eyes closed.

Chunbai sighed, "Whether you believe it or not... I didn't do such a thing."

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

Seeing that Chunbai was not angry at all and could even remain calm in this situation, Iver's tone also softened. "After all, among everyone here, you are the lowest level."

"And what about Merlin?"

Jacaranda couldn't help but ask, "Has this reporter already admitted that he is Merlin?"

Although she had just testified for the reporters, she was quickly persuaded by the Fox and the pure white logic.

The Fox and the pure white fox belong to two opposing camps, and Merlin cannot simultaneously play both roles. Therefore, the logic they both agree on is more reliable than the one presented by the reporter.

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

Iver calmly said, "There are three possibilities. One is that this is the Layer Zero, in which case you absolutely cannot kill the reporter—if you do, I will kill Pure White."

"One possibility is that this isn't the Layer Zero, but the First Layer. Excluding the lying reporter, the living silver came from at least the Fourth Layer or higher. So Sherlock is on one of the floors in 567, and when he comes down, he'll bring a lot of intelligence and will push Merlin out."

"The worst-case scenario is that this isn't the First Layer or Layer Zero, but the Second Layer or third floor. In that case, at least one of my companions is on the Top Layer Bottom Layer the other is Topaz. Perhaps we should wait here for the person from the Top Layer to bring back intelligence before making a decision—he's investigating and gathering evidence alone, so he'll likely get the most information and be able to traverse the most floors."

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

"—No need to wait any longer."

Just then, the reporter suddenly spoke up.

His expression suddenly turned cold.

His fingers were firmly interlaced, and his body naturally leaned back.

He spoke slowly in a cold, arrogant, and calm tone. "Ask whatever you want, I'm here."

Without a doubt, the reporter had become a "detective" at this point.

How many floors did you go down?

Iver asked.

"Three floors. On the First Layer, I met Mr. Topaz, who was playing the role of Dancer. He was acting very stupidly and investigating at a snail's pace... but I couldn't see that he was finding anything out. On the Second Layer, I saw the bodies of the couple and the monitor... The third floor is here."

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

"Judging from your actions and the atmosphere at the table... I suspect that Merlin was just using my body. So he must have accompanied one or more of you down several levels."

"But since there were three bodies in my second descent, and they were all present—why don't you let him tell you if the numbers I gave are correct?"

"Yes."

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

After a brief silence, Pure White sheathed her sword. Iver pondered for a moment, then slowly sheathed his gun as well.

"I am Fox."

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

"... Of course, we should find Miss Lu Lu first."

The detective gave a slightly disgusted look. "My floor, then Mr. Topaz's floor, then Mr. Living Silver's floor. And then the three of you."

As he spoke, he pointed to Iver, Jacaranda, and Pure White: "The three of you can't be Merlin, because this body was just taken over by Merlin. That means I came down from at least the Sixth Layer."

"In other words, if Miss Lu Lu isn't on the Seventh Layer, she's on the First Layer. I'm worried that if she's on the First Layer, she'll commit suicide twice and be eliminated... so let's go down as soon as possible."

He spoke as if he had realized something.

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

As if he had thought of something, he paused slightly and calmly looked at Iver: "If they don't want to, then why don't we go down and take a look first?"

Seeing the detective's gaze, Iver remained silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

His eyes gradually brightened.

"Interesting...this is getting interesting."

He murmured to himself.

Seeing the detective's reaction, Iver realized that his previous deductions still had a flaw—the "Sure-Win Method" was based on the premise that Merlin was not present.

Merlin can disguise NPCs as ascendants, making the Layer Zero appear not to be the Layer Zero, thus luring them to continue descending. From this perspective, without Merlin, the ritual would be fundamentally unfair.

Because as long as the person in the First Layer chooses this strategy, their win rate is extremely high. And no matter how others play, it won't affect their win rate.

Just like in a Jenga game, removing the Bottom Layer affects all the bricks above it, but removing the top bricks has no effect on the bottom layer.

Would Wei Zhe really create such a flawed ceremony? Furthermore, almost all seven people are connected. And although there are nine seats on the first floor, the rooms only go up to Room 206. Where would two more people stay? If the number of rooms changed, why didn't the seating arrangement change?

Taking all the above into consideration, Iver very boldly came up with a possibility—

—From the very beginning, this has been a seven-person ceremony. This is Ritual Site specifically for Vacancy Ritual.

So nine seats aren't an excessive number, but rather an implication. Besides the front desk, there must be another "entity" in this hotel.

In other words, Merlin must have been involved in this ceremony.

This ceremony was originally based on the presence of Merlin!

So, who induced Iver to come up with this Sure-Win Method?

—It's still Merlin.

In this way, Iver understood why Merlin's acting had been so poor before.

It's less about letting the water flow and more about not even bothering to play the part properly. Because that's simply not important.

So that's what they were waiting for me.

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

"... What, you stupid Fox? What kind of trick are you up to now?"

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

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

Iver replied honestly, "I don't know if this is the second test Merlin has given me."

Even if the "Sure-Win Method" merely "exists," they could very well be on the Layer Zero right now. If the pure white of the First Layer were to be removed, they would now be on the Layer Zero.

As long as this is the Layer Zero, Iver cannot lay a hand on the detective.

Otherwise, Sherlock would have been eliminated by him.

However, if this is not the Layer Zero, but Iver considers it to be the Layer Zero and therefore chooses to kill others or stop committing suicide, he will be stuck on this floor and eliminated.

This is the first level of the game.

The reporter, who previously resembled Sherlock completely, suddenly began to act like Sherlock. If Iver were to follow his advice, they should commit suicide together. In other words, the current "reporter" is now urging Iver to take action.

But here's the problem...

Is this really Sherlock descending upon the "journalist," or Merlin simply adopting a different tone and taking the role more seriously? Is his word believable or not?

This is the second level of the game.

Now Iver has nowhere to escape. He has nowhere to gather evidence, and Pure White won't provide him with any more information.

Yes or no, it is the Layer Zero.

Yes or no Sherlock.

There are four possible combinations when paired.

—All of them are Iver's puzzles; you lose if you answer one of them wrong. You win if you answer both correctly.

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

Iver chuckled softly, "But I accepted."

Update complete!