Hate / Wandering

By this time, Lin had already noticed the problem.

Sue, Mobius, Vill-V, Aponia, Elysia...

Isn't this a bit too much of a coincidence?

Five rounds have already passed, but no one has drawn the King twice? And it's not just the King, even the choice of the Little King has not been repeated.

"Then let number four carry out King Eri's orders." This time, Elysia didn't dwell on Lin. She smiled and looked at Aponia, who had already expected this. She turned over her card and calmly waited for the order.

"Hmm... this is a real dilemma, Aponia. What kind of order should we issue?" Elysia smiled, her eyes narrowing. "We don't know each other well enough yet, so let's start by getting to know each other—"

"You're Nun, so do you have a boy you like?"

This is already a rather radical personal question, but in the normal King's Game, this is just a trivial appetizer.

The Nun glanced at the lie detector with her clear eyes, then closed them, as if considering how to answer the question.

When everyone else thought she was going to choose dare, she quietly said, "I... don't."

"..."

Silence.

The lie detector was completely silent, without even a warning.

"Hmm..." Elysia's expression was a little strange, but since the lie detector didn't go off, she couldn't say anything.

"Wait a minute, who is that Xiao Wang?"

Everyone looked at each other, except for one person who kept his head down and remained silent.

"Mobius?" Vill-V noticed something was wrong and tilted her head to ask, "You drew the Little King?"

"No."

The lie detector beeped shrilly: "Beep—"

"..."

She could only stiffly flip over the cards. "How could I possibly like someone..."

"Drop--"

"..."

As everyone else's attention was drawn to Mobius, Aponia quietly opened her eyes, a flash of crimson appearing in them.

Chapter 143 Disgusting

Currently, the kings are Su, Mobius, Vill-V, Aponia, Elysia, each different. If someone is deliberately trying to mess with him, then he probably won't be able to draw a king. Next might be...

Mei, with a meaningful smile, held the king between two fingers and showed it off.

"Please, all of you... tell the person on your right a 'shameful little secret'."

This is the first... and possibly the last general command in this King's Game. However, although it is a command given to everyone, Lin feels that it is still targeting him.

Because Aponia allowed him to ignore the next order, which was a trivial "joke" to everyone, it felt like he was being manipulated by Tian Ji's horse racing strategy.

And sitting to Lin's left... is Mobius.

Her expression was particularly resentful after being "forced to confess," and it became even more pronounced after she learned that she was going to tell Lin a shameful little secret.

"What are you looking at? Are you looking forward to it?"

"Yes, I'm really looking forward to it," Lin replied truthfully, without even the lie detector going off.

"..."

Mobius gritted his teeth, glared at him, and lowered his voice. "If you dare to tell anyone, I'll turn your head into Parvati's head."

In the darkness, Lin felt a chill, like icy needles piercing his back.

Whether his eyes were open or closed seemed irrelevant; after being imprisoned, his senses had lost their original function.

"You really are in a sorry state, locked up by the afterimages of a bunch of defeated opponents."

After an unknown amount of time, a cold voice came from the depths of the darkness.

"..." The voice was so ancient that even Lin took a long time to recall it. He twitched his lips and asked, "You...?"

"Surprised?" There was a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "You're right. While you're here day after day, year after year, reminiscing about the past, you probably don't realize that someone is fulfilling your past dreams, and it's me."

"..."

"I'm just here to see how pathetic you are now, after all those confident promises you made. I have no interest in helping you get out of here."

"... Can you find Raiden Mei?"

"What good will it do if we find it? What good will it do if we don't?"

"Please keep an eye on her for a bit, I'm almost... unable to hold on any longer." Lin Qiang struggled to stay conscious against the deep darkness, pleading earnestly.

"..." She hesitated for a moment, "I see, your memories are almost gone... It's unbelievable that you would place your hopes on a Herrscher from ten thousand years in the future. Have you already given up?"

"You said something wrong... I haven't given up on my dream, and it won't be you who makes it happen..."

"We are pioneers forging ahead in the darkness, and those who follow will traverse our path, crossing our stagnant end..."

Perhaps angered by those words, she remained silent for a long time, refusing to speak further.

The next one to draw the King is Pardo, who was a bit hesitant today.

She was unusually quiet today, perhaps because her experience of observing people's expressions and demeanor on the Dusk Street had made her feel that the people around her were not to be trifled with.

"You can order Brother Lin to stop worrying about what I eat from now on..."

"Can't."

Pardo could only dejectedly tell everyone not to stop her from enjoying her vacation to the fullest.

Next came Eden and Hua, and sure enough, there wasn't a single duplicate king. This confirmed Lin's suspicion that the order in which the kings were drawn was predetermined, and the fact that he hadn't drawn one yet meant that this was a game specifically targeting him.

The only one who can control the order in which kings become kings is...

"Sakura is queen this time!"

Lin gazed at the two pink-haired girls. Elysia was to Sakura's right, while Sakura silently turned over her cards.

From the very beginning, he felt that something was off about the two of them.

Elysia must have planned this with Sakura beforehand, having Sakura, who was faster and more skilled, shuffle and deal the cards so that no one else, including Rin, would notice any cheating. Elysia, on the other hand, arranged the order of the Kings and encouraged everyone to play the King's Game.

So, Sakura's goal is...

Sakura's fox ears twitched. She glanced at the earphones Lin had given her hanging around her neck, then a complex look flashed in her eyes as she looked at Lin: "Number One, do you... hate me?"

...What's the meaning?

Lin said that he had a hard time understanding what Ying was trying to express. She gave Lin a feeling of being neither close nor distant, so when she asked this question, Lin did not rush to answer, but pondered the purpose of Ying's question.

Does she want him to hate her, or not hate her?

Lin asked himself, and it seemed that there was nothing about Ying that she should dislike, but there was nothing about her that she should like either.

Lin doesn't dislike Ying either. Her identity as an assassin is indeed contrary to his own, but there are too many things in this world that are beyond his control. Lin is no longer the person who only uses his own values to measure others.

Sakura's ambiguous attitude led Lin to give a vague answer, "I don't know if I like you or not."

"Drop--"

The lie detector went off.

The once lively atmosphere plummeted. Sakura stared silently at the lie detector that had sounded the alarm. The complexity in her eyes turned into self-blame and disappointment at this moment. Even Elysia, who had been watching this scene with a smile, was stunned. She looked at Lin in confusion, as if wondering why he would say those words.

"Keep going, keep going, it's my turn to draw the king now!" Only Mobius insisted on continuing, completely unconcerned. Everyone present could see through the trickery in this game, but they all tacitly refrained from exposing it.

Mobius was still trying to force that person to reveal their true feelings.

This time, even Xiao Wang didn't flip a card before advancing to the next round.

Lin reached out his hand to Sakura, who was preparing to shuffle the cards, and said to her in her bewildered gaze, "I'll deal the cards."

"Wait..."

Before Elysia could stop him, Lin took the cards from Sakura's hand. Then he glanced at Elysia indifferently, a look that made Elysia realize she was in big trouble.

Lin's fingers deftly cut, shuffle, and exchange the cards, his technique dazzling like magic, making the twelve playing cards seem like a whole deck in his hands.

"Lin... you're quite skilled at shuffling the cards..." Elysia chuckled awkwardly, trying to change the subject.

Lin calmly closed the cards and distributed them to the others. "When we were in school, Kevin once wanted to learn magic to perform for Mei, so I spent one night learning it first and then taught it to him."

... Does this mean he can easily mess with her?

However, Elysia was overthinking it; Lin wasn't intentionally targeting her.

He was retaliating against everyone who had just targeted him.

Chapter 144 Wandering

"I am the king."

The moment Lin received the card, there was no possibility that the King could be anyone else.

After dealing the cards, he didn't even glance at his own hand before turning it over. Then he looked at Elysia, who was trying to hide her cards, and said, "Number Three, report your weight."

Elysia's expression stiffened. "Can we switch to a dare?"

"Okay, the dare is to stand on the electronic scale."

"..."

Although Lin's expression remained unchanged, one could clearly sense the intense desire for revenge lurking beneath his expressionless face.

With lie detectors in existence, no one can lie.

Next, there was...

"Kevin, how many times did you secretly take pictures of Mei and bring them home in high school?"

"..."

"Vill-V, what inappropriate habits do you have when you're at work that involve fantasizing about the opposite sex?"

"Huh?"

"Mei, those cringeworthy remarks you made when you were in school."

"Puff."

"Su, what was your experience with a crush in junior high school?"

"Wait, why do I need it too? And did Kevin tell you this?"

Lin was king eleven times in a row, and each time the questions he asked were extremely sharp and almost fatal. Even they didn't realize that they could have such embarrassing moments.

Except for... Sakura.

When it was Sakura's turn last, Lin stared at her silently for a long time.

He couldn't think of anything that could embarrass Ying, even Hua and Lin could use her funny situation during her first mission as an example.

"Sakura... what kind of music do you like to listen to?"

After everyone present has had a special interaction, treat them differently when it's your turn. Whether this attitude is good or bad, it will create a gap in their hearts.

After all, this is tantamount to telling you outright: we're not familiar with each other.

Sakura lowered her head in a sullen manner, and after a long while, she finally uttered a single word in response.

"Yes, I like it too."

Um?

Sakura looked up, feeling a little strange. She saw Lin nod in agreement, but the lie detector did not sound.

Strange... It was just an ordinary, unremarkable agreement...

Sakura's mood suddenly improved a lot.

After Lin's rampage lasted for over an hour, the exposé finally ended, and everyone returned to their rooms to rest, awaiting their arrival at the deserted island.

Just as Lin was thinking this, he woke up to find himself with cold seawater splashing against his face. He was lying alone in the wreckage of the cruise ship, gazing at this unfamiliar island.