Chen Li swallowed nervously. "What makes you say I'm the Guard?"
Lin Jie was speechless. "I haven't even said you're the Guard yet. Why did you give yourself away?"
Realizing his slip of the tongue, Chen Li looked even more uncomfortable.
Lin Jie collected his thoughts. "There's plenty of evidence that you're the Guard, too."
"First, my hearing is very good. During the Witch's turn at night, I heard Xia Qu rustling as she moved."
"But somehow, I didn't hear the Guard moving. At the time, I thought the Guard was an expert who carefully kept his movements quiet."
"Now it seems it was simply because he was sitting too far away from me!"
"I'm number nine, and you're number four. We're exactly as far apart as we can be."
Chen Li pressed his lips together awkwardly. "That doesn't prove I'm the Guard, does it?"
Actually, everyone had already realized Chen Li was the Guard when they saw the look on his face as Lin Jie hit the mark.
But Lin Jie continued anyway. "That's only one part of it."
"Second, this was also on the first day. At the time, I was focused entirely on Xia Qu's expression."
"But thinking back now, there was someone else who was just as surprised that day-you!"
"Because the heal and protection canceled each other out. So aside from the Witch, the other person who would be shocked was the Guard!"
Chen Li thought back. He did seem to have let out an exclamation of shock.
"Third, during the second day, when we heard 'a peaceful night,' everyone's first thought was that the Witch had finally used her unused antidote."
"Only you suddenly said, 'The Guard is awesome!'"
"Because you were the Guard yourself! Of course you thought you'd protected the right person, so you exclaimed proudly."
"Am I right?"
"Besides that, there were plenty of other details. When you argued with Zheng Yi, you nearly revealed your identity as the Guard."
"When Liu Yunyun died today, you pounded the table in frustration."
"That was because you hadn't managed to secure a peaceful night, wasn't it?"
"In short, all these clues pointed to the Guard..."
"Being you, Chen Li!"
After listening to Lin Jie's flawless deductions, everyone froze for two seconds before bursting into praise.
"Amazing!"
"You even noticed tiny details like those."
"With a Seer like this on the good team, we've got this game in the bag!"
After Lin Jie exposed his identity, Chen Li wasn't annoyed at all. Instead, he was full of admiration. "Lin Jie, you're awesome!"
"But I'm no slouch either! I really am the Guard! Heh, the Witch didn't use her potion on the second day!"
"So that peaceful night was all thanks to me protecting the right person!"
Everyone was speechless, though what he said was indeed true.
"By the way, who did the werewolves attack on the second day?" Lin Jie asked casually.
"You, of course! You stood out the most then and seemed the most like a good guy, so of course I protected you. Not just on the second day, either. I protected you last night, too." Chen Li was immensely proud.
Lin Jie couldn't help thinking more highly of Chen Li.
He looked toward God, who raised his eyebrows at him.
So that was it. God had already intended to kill Lin Jie.
No wonder God hadn't chosen to kill Lin Jie last night and had instead vented his murderous intent on the person beside him.
It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to kill him. He hadn't been able to.
If not for Chen Li, Lin Jie would already be dead.
"Thank you very much. If the good team wins, you'll deserve a great deal of the credit."
Hearing the praise, Chen Li proudly patted his chest.
Everyone looked expectantly at Lin Jie.
Since he could precisely identify every power role through so many details, surely Lin Jie had already found all the werewolves, too.
"So what's next?"
But Lin Jie waved a hand. "What do you mean, what's next? I've finished."
Zheng Yi asked in confusion, "That can't be right, can it? You've only identified the Witch and the Guard, and you're the Seer."
"What about everyone else's identities?"
Lin Jie replied calmly, "There isn't anyone else. Those are all the roles."
What?
The entire room erupted.
Everyone began discussing their questions.
"What about the werewolves? There are still three werewolves!"
"Exactly! After listening to all that, I just want to know who those three werewolves are!"
Lin Jie shook his head helplessly.
"If there were three werewolves, the game would already be over!"
Zhou Lan was puzzled. "Kid, what do you mean?"
Lin Jie paused. "Think about it, everyone. What are the victory conditions for the good team and the werewolves?"
Xia Qu was the first to answer. "The good team needs to execute all the werewolves. The werewolves need to kill all the power roles or all the ordinary villagers."
After saying that, she finally realized something was wrong. "Huh?"
The others began thinking, too.
Lin Jie chuckled. "Looks like someone finally noticed."
"The Seer, the Witch, and the Guard are all still here."
"The werewolves have no reason to kill themselves."
"So the three people who died-the crazy old man, the chubby boy, and Liu Yunyun-could only have been three ordinary villagers."
"If there were still three werewolves, all the ordinary villagers would already be dead, and the game would have ended long ago."
"Zheng Yi, Li Xin, Zhou Lan, are you three wolves, then?"
Li Xin hastily denied it. "I'm not a wolf! I'm an ordinary villager!" She didn't want to endure the pain of being mistaken for a werewolf a second time.
Zheng Yi also said, "But I'm an ordinary villager?"
Zhou Lan asked in confusion as well, "Strange. I'm an ordinary villager, too."
They looked at one another.
Xia Qu looked bewildered. "Lin Jie, are you saying there are fewer than three werewolves?"
"But I clearly remember the rules explicitly saying there were three werewolves?"
Lin Jie said solemnly, "No. The rules were false."
"Or rather, the rules played a word game."
"Please think back to the explanation of the rules on the first day."
Everyone began recalling it.
At the time, the rules had been presented through God's narration and the images on the murals.
Lin Jie added, "This was what the rules said:"
"[In a small village lived nine villagers.]"
"[They lived and worked in peace and harmony, until-]"
"[Someone died a gruesome death at home!]"
"[This person had been disemboweled by sharp claws, their neck bitten through by sharp fangs!]"
"[Everyone discovered a large number written in blood on the wall-'3'.]"
"[And so everyone realized-]"
"[Three werewolves had infiltrated the village!]"
Chen Li scratched his head. "What's wrong with those rules?"
Lin Jie smiled. "Did you notice? From beginning to end, the rules never explicitly stated that there were three werewolves!"
"The reason we all thought there were three werewolves was that the number in blood on the wall misled us!"
"Think carefully, everyone. In the scene depicted in the mural, who could have written that number in blood?"
"How could someone who had already been disemboweled still have the strength to write a number on the wall?"
"That leaves only one possibility-"
"The one who wrote that number was the werewolf!"
"It was false information provided by the real werewolf!"
Everyone finally understood. "So there were never three werewolves?"
They questioned Lin Jie again. "Then who exactly is the werewolf?"
The corners of Lin Jie's mouth lifted slightly. "Didn't the rules already tell us who the werewolf is?"
"Someone was disemboweled and died a gruesome death at home."
"Before our game began, wasn't there also a corpse that had been disemboweled and met a gruesome death?"
"And isn't the culprit responsible for that person's death-the werewolf who killed him-sitting right there?"
Lin Jie extended his hand, pointing his finger straight in one direction.
Everyone followed the direction of his finger.
There, at the end of his finger, where everyone's gazes fell, sat a figure.
God.
God sat upright at the head of the round table, wearing a werewolf mask, a faint smile on his lips and his hands folded on the table, watching everyone without a word.
Noticing everyone's gazes, his smile widened.
Through his open mouth, everyone saw-
Sharp wolf fangs.