"Oh? Have you finally taken an interest in staying?" Fox still wore the same smile.
"Sure, you can ask as many questions as you like."
Lin Jie pulled Fox into a quiet corner.
"I still have a lot of questions about this game."
Fox raised his eyebrows. "Oh? Ask away. I'll tell you everything I know."
Lin Jie said seriously:
"My biggest question is, why did everyone else have a normal role, while my role card alone was blank?"
Fox laughed and nodded. "Haha! You've hit the nail on the head!"
He grew serious. "Originally, this game was just an ordinary round of Werewolf."
"After all, how hard could a game arranged for newcomers be?"
"But I never expected someone to activate a Mutation in their very first game!"
Lin Jie was puzzled. "What's a Mutation?"
Fox smacked his forehead. "What a memory I have. I should have told you all this right at the start."
"The Realm of the Dead, which is where we are, gives everyone who arrives a ring."
"Everyone's ring contains the power of Mutation."
"Mutations come in different types, and the ways to trigger them vary too."
"Some Mutations can increase strength, some can increase speed. Others can increase intelligence."
"A Mutation's strength increases as the ring's rating rises."
"Some people can never raise their ring's rating in their entire lives, so naturally, they can never trigger a Mutation either."
"But what I never expected was that your ring, which should have had the lowest white rating, actually triggered a Mutation!"
"What's more, your Mutation actually changed the rules of the game!"
"This is a type of Mutation we've never seen before. That's why I invited you to join us."
Lin Jie grew interested. "Let me sum this up. This was supposed to be an ordinary round of Werewolf, but the rules changed because of this thing on my hand?"
Fox nodded. "Yes. And precisely because of that, this game's difficulty rose to a purple rating!"
A purple rating?
Lin Jie noticed that Fox had mentioned a lot of colors in his explanation. White, gold, purple.
But he didn't understand what they meant.
Fox continued, "Because of your Mutation, according to our assessment, the probability of everyone being wiped out in this game rose to nearly 90%."
"Especially you. Your chance of dying was infinitely close to 100%. But unexpectedly, not only did you survive, you even killed this game's God."
Lin Jie said, "Let me guess. The reason you assessed my chance of dying as so high was my blank role?"
Fox nodded. "Exactly! According to our assessment, an ordinary person would have been scared witless the moment they received a blank role."
"Even if they weren't, they wouldn't have known how to clear the game. They would soon have died a violent death without ever understanding what was going on."
"But you actually found one of the only two ways to clear it!"
"Opening your eyes during the Seer's night, transforming into the Seer, and leading the good players to vote God out."
"That was brilliant. We were watching your performance the entire time. It's been ages since we last encountered such an outstanding newcomer!"
Lin Jie ignored Fox's praise and picked out a key phrase. "The only two ways to clear it? You mean there was another solution to this game?"
Fox grew even happier. "Of course! You must have noticed that two roles were missing from this game."
Lin Jie answered, "The Seer and the werewolves were both absent from the game."
Fox shook his head from side to side. "So, besides opening your eyes during the Seer's night, you could also have opened them during the werewolves' night and become the only werewolf!"
"Then your victory objective would have become killing all eight good players single-handedly!"
Lin Jie pursed his lips.
That way of winning didn't suit Lin Jie.
Rather than being a murderous monster, he wanted to be a leader who led the good players.
"I don't want to be everyone's enemy. Everyone here is worth saving."
"All right, I have no more questions about this game."
With that, Lin Jie turned and walked away.
Now Fox panicked. "Don't go! Don't you want to ask more about joining us? Pay, benefits, Administrator privileges-you definitely won't lose out!"
No matter how Fox called after him, Lin Jie never looked back.
He walked up to the portal.
By then, most of the players had already gone through.
Chen Li, the driver who had stayed by the entrance, had been about to enter when he saw Lin Jie approach and spoke to him.
"Young man! Thank you for today! If it weren't for you, that God would have killed every one of us."
Lin Jie shook his head. "Don't thank me. This was the result of all of us good players working together."
"By the way, I have a few things to ask you too."
Chen Li nodded solemnly. "Go ahead. I'll tell you anything I know."
Lin Jie raised his hand and pointed at the ring on it. "Do you know what this ring is for?"
Chen Li's eyes widened. "Lin Jie, do you really not know anything? Didn't the person who brought you here explain it to you?"
Lin Jie shook his head. The person who had brought him here was none other than Fox.
At the time, Fox had even tried to trick him out of his ring, so naturally, he wouldn't have told Lin Jie what it was for.
Chen Li's tone grew serious. "The person who brought me in called themselves a Guide. They're the one who told me all this."
"You should have had a Guide bring you here too."
"This ring is the tool everyone uses to connect to this world."
"The world we're in is called the Realm of the Dead. Everyone in it has a ring. If someone else takes your ring, you die immediately."
Lin Jie continued asking, "Then do you know about Mutations?"
Chen Li was shocked again. "You don't even know about Mutations?"
But then he muttered to himself, "Though that doesn't really matter. Most people can never unlock a Mutation in their entire lives..."
Chen Li began explaining in earnest again. "Everyone's ring has a rating. The higher or lower the rating, the stronger or weaker the Mutation."
"And that rating is determined by color."
"Most people, including newcomers like us, have white rings. People with white rings can't trigger Mutations."
As he spoke, Chen Li showed his own ring. The diamond on it was white.
"One level above that are green rings."
"Only a small number of skilled players can raise their rings by one level, after participating in countless death games like these and accumulating a great deal of experience."
"At that point, the ring can trigger a Mutation, but its strength is very limited."
"Above that is blue. At this level, holders are already extremely rare. The strength of their Mutations also increases significantly."
"Next are rings with a purple rating."
"It's said that only a handful of players have rings like that. And the Mutations of purple rings are very powerful too."
"Above that are gold rings. Ordinary players can't possibly reach that level. Anyone who holds a gold ring has already entered the ranks of the Administrators."
Lin Jie interrupted him. "What's an Administrator?"
Chen Li was once again shocked by Lin Jie's question. "You really don't know anything!"
"To think someone who knew nothing about this world actually led us to victory."
He gave two light coughs. "That God who hosted the game, as well as that Fox, are both Administrators."
"They're responsible for running these death games. All players have to follow their arrangements."
"The Mutations of gold rings are also very powerful."
"You saw it yourself. That God could conjure objects out of thin air and make people vanish into thin air. He could also move objects with his mind."
"He could even transform into a giant werewolf."
"That was probably his Mutation. At that stage, a Mutation can already be called a superpower."
"There seem to be other colors above gold. But the person who brought me here didn't tell me about them."
"That's everything I know."
That was a lot of information, but Lin Jie was smart and quickly understood it.
He summed it up. "Rings can trigger Mutations. A Mutation is a kind of superpower."
"A Mutation's strength is related to the ring's color."
"White, green, blue, purple, gold, growing stronger in that order. Is that right?"
Chen Li nodded. "That's right. You really catch on fast."
Lin Jie frowned. "Something doesn't seem right. You said all newcomers have white rings?"
Chen Li didn't sense anything amiss. "Yes. What's wrong?"
Lin Jie raised his hand. "Then why is my ring's color-"
"Black?"