Jiang Xia also looked at Haibara Ai and nodded to her in greeting.
Then he followed her gaze toward the speaker.
Professor Moriarty's voice soon rang out, continuing to announce the rules:
"Since this is a game, there naturally have to be rewards—if you successfully clear it, I will grant you one wish that conforms to the laws of nature."
"A wish that conforms to the laws of nature?"
Kudo Shinichi's eyes lit up. Anonymous knew quite a bit about the Black Organization and seemed to possess technology that could make people grow and shrink... Revealing that information definitely would not exceed the bounds of "natural laws"!
"That's right." As if he had seen through Kudo Shinichi's thoughts, Professor Moriarty suddenly smiled. "Of course, rewards always come with risks—the usual rules. You will wager your lives. If you fail during the game, then once the game ends, those eliminated will die immediately."
"..."
Struck by the overly weighty word "death," the atmosphere instantly became grave. The two high school girls huddled together, wary and frightened.
Kudo Shinichi recalled the terrifying death rate in the last Cocoon and felt his heart sink.
He suddenly realized that this was actually an open and aboveboard trap—if anyone failed, the wish of the players who cleared the game would definitely be "remove the death penalty on the eliminated players."
In other words, if any one of them was "eliminated" during the game, then this round would have been for nothing. And if they were all wiped out... then they would be wiped out in reality as well.
"The basic rules have all been announced. As for the rest, experience them for yourselves in the game." A crisp voice came from the speaker. Professor Moriarty clapped his hands and said warmly:
"Then, let the game