"What? Kid, are you serious?"
"Execute no one? How are the good guys supposed to win?"
"Yeah, Lin Jie, did you get something wrong?"
Zheng Yi analyzed the situation. "The werewolves haven't lost a single member, while the good guys have already lost two."
"Our top priority is to execute a werewolf as soon as possible, reduce their numbers, and prevent them from controlling the vote!"
"If we forgo today's execution, the werewolves can kill any good guy tonight, and it'll be three against three!"
"At that point, we won't be able to execute anyone even if we want to."
Xia Qu quietly picked up the thread. "But the witch still has her poison. Maybe she can eliminate another werewolf?"
Zheng Yi shook his head. "We can't pin our hopes on the witch! We can't pass up any chance to execute a werewolf! Besides, if the witch poisons a good guy by mistake, we'll lose everything!"
"Exactly! Lin Jie, what on earth are you talking about?"
Lin Jie looked around at everyone. "We still can't win if we don't forgo the execution."
"Think about it. What conditions do we need to meet to win?"
"We execute a werewolf today, poison another tonight, and have the guard protect exactly the right person for a peaceful night. Then, the next day, we execute the last werewolf."
"It sounds simple, but it's very hard to pull off!"
"First, the werewolves choose their victims very randomly. Can the guard really protect their exact target?"
"Second, if we make even one wrong execution, the good guys lose immediately!"
"Right now, the good guys outnumber the werewolves four to three."
"If we make one wrong execution, we'll reduce our own numbers instead. With that shift in the balance, the werewolves will outnumber us!"
"We have to find all three wolves in one go!"
"We can't make a single mistake!"
Chen Li said bluntly, "Then we just don't make any mistakes! We have to at least try, right?"
"Yeah, if there's a chance to win, we shouldn't give up!"
Lin Jie looked at everyone. "I understand that you all want to win. In that case, let me ask you: are you confident about whom to execute on this first day?"
"Are you confident you'll definitely pick a werewolf?"
"Even if we get lucky and pick a werewolf this time, what about the executions after that?"
"We have no room for trial and error!"
"Remember, our only hope of winning is to find all three werewolves!"
Everyone fell silent. They were completely like headless flies right now. Never mind finding three wolves-they couldn't even find one.
"Remember, if we mistakenly kill even one good guy, the good guys lose immediately."
"Which of you can take responsibility for that?"
No one spoke.
No one had the ability to find three wolves, and no one had the courage to take responsibility for getting all the good guys killed.
After a long silence, Zheng Yi spoke.
"You're our only hope. Do you have a way to find all the werewolves in one go?"
Zheng Yi held out no hope. Even for Lin Jie, it would be normal not to manage it.
But Lin Jie nodded with absolute certainty. "I do have a way to find all the wolves in one go!"
"But it requires unanimous trust from everyone!"
"I need all of you to abstain from this round's vote and give me one more night to check someone!"
"Just once... just once..."
"As long as I complete tonight's check, I promise you all-"
"Tomorrow, the game will end!"
"The good guys will win!"
Lin Jie's impassioned speech stirred everyone.
The driver, Chen Li, was fired up too. "Fuck it, I'm going all in!"
"We're dead either way. We might as well take a gamble!"
"I believe you! I abstain! The good guys will win!"
Xia Qu thought for a while. "I believe you too, Lin Jie! I abstain."
Li Xin naturally followed Lin Jie's arrangements. "Lin Jie, you saved my life. I'll follow your lead and abstain."
Zhou Lan nodded. "I'm not confident I can find all the werewolves either. Kid, don't let me down. I abstain."
Liu Yunyun followed suit. "Same as everyone else. I abstain."
Zheng Yi sighed helplessly. "With the good guys practically guaranteed to lose, it'd take a miracle for you to turn the tide and reverse things, Lin Jie."
Then he changed tack. "But I believe in miracles."
"I abstain."
Lin Jie looked at everyone with relief.
It seemed they were all worth saving.
He turned to God and said firmly, "Lin Jie abstains."
God laughed loudly and clapped. "Splendid."
"Today was a peaceful day. No one was executed."
He tilted his head, his gaze sweeping over everyone, seemingly regretting that no one had died.
"The game continues. Night has fallen. Please close your eyes."
Before his vision went dark, Lin Jie felt everyone's gazes resting on him in reliance.
He closed his eyes.
A wild conjecture had formed in Lin Jie's mind.
The atmosphere of this Werewolf game was very unusual.
First, not a single werewolf had made a bold false claim.
After all, werewolves pretending to be the seer was a common move in Werewolf.
Yet today, everyone who had pretended to be the seer was a good guy.
Second, when Lin Jie had posed his four questions, not a single person had responded to one of them: "Are any of you the seer?"
After all, if no one counterclaimed the seer against Lin Jie, then Lin Jie had to be the one true seer.
The werewolves weren't stupid. They could see Lin Jie's abilities too. If they let his seer identity become firmly established, their situation would become extremely dangerous.
Why hadn't they chosen to counterclaim?
Lin Jie had even given them plenty of time and offered quite a few words of encouragement.
Even so, no one had dared claim it.
Were all the werewolves simply too cowardly?
There was one last thing Lin Jie found strange, and it was also the most crucial:
Everyone was far too much like a good guy.
Everyone was actively looking for ways for the good guys to win.
Everyone was actively trying to find ways to execute werewolves.
Everyone was thinking from a good guy's perspective.
Everyone had even followed Lin Jie's proposal and unanimously chosen to abstain.
That was what Lin Jie found most unbelievable.
Why?
Weren't there three werewolves among them?
Couldn't those three werewolves have seized the opportunity to control the vote and won outright?
Why did everyone regard Lin Jie as the good guys' savior, without a single werewolf stepping forward to oppose him?
And so, Lin Jie arrived at a wild, bold conjecture.
Once every possibility had been eliminated, whatever remained, however unbelievable, had to be the truth.
There were no werewolves among these people at all!
Everyone was a good guy!
Someone else had killed the crazy old man at night!
!
Could it be...
A sensation like an electric shock coursed through his body. He understood everything.
Lin Jie recalled the scene when he first entered the room.
Back then, God had still looked like a werewolf, taking great bites out of a corpse.
God!
It was God who had killed the crazy old man at night!
It was also God who had killed the chubby boy during the day!
From beginning to end, the one doing the killing had always been God!
God was the only werewolf in the entire game!
"Seer, please open your eyes."
God's voice was devoid of emotion.
Lin Jie opened his eyes.
"Seer, please choose the target you wish to check."
Lin Jie held out his hand, curling four fingers into an arc and pressing his thumb against their tips, forming a number that belonged to none of the players.
"0."
That was God's position.
God's previously calm expression changed, his eyes widening in shock.
He had never imagined that a human would actually dare to check God's identity!
But rules were rules.
"This person's identity is..."
Reluctantly, God raised his fist, curling his middle three fingers and pointing the fingers on either side downward.
A wolf's claw.
God was a werewolf.