Charlie did not answer.
Qi Si continued on his own. "A beam of light shone into a dark iron tower, exposing all the filth and sin within. And so, that beam of light became guilty."
"If murder is the standard by which sin is judged, then all the crimes we committed were buried in the past. When the dust had settled, you insisted on digging up rotten graves, turning their stench and bloodiness onto the surface, and calling it justice—don't you think that's ridiculous?"
"That's right, I'm guilty!" Charlie burst into laughter. "Every one of us is guilty, myself included! This is a carnival of sin. What a wonderful theme!"
Qi Si stared at his mask and sneered. "But unfortunately, you aren't the dawn that pierces the darkness. You're merely a stage clamoring for attention. You put on this little trial of sinners for no reason other than to draw the audience's eye—so tell me, have you designed a way for yourself to die?"
Charlie straightened up, and his voice turned colder. "Sir, I'm afraid you've forgotten that this is my home ground! You actually dream of judging the host on his own stage. How laughable!"
"Oh?" Qi Si turned his gaze toward the empty Seat No. 2. "Then why did you keep Seat No. 2 and place three chips on it?"
The players all recalled that before the "Fox Hunt" game had begun, Charlie had placed chips in front of every seat, including Hansen's, though he was already dead.
At the time, they had assumed it was a lazy design choice by the Instance. Since it had not known who would die in the first act, it had simply treated every seat the same.
Looking back now, that was complete nonsense. The Instances in the Eerie Game had always