The One Who "Should Die" Wasn't the Bad Guy

[Final act, question three.]

[From the fifteen characters, select the one who truly should die.]

[The selected character will truly die.]

The blood-red words hung high above the stage.

Of the nine human players remaining,

not one dared speak.

The rule announced at the very start of the final act still applied.

[Answer incorrectly, and the actor dies.]

Ma Hui and Guo Ming had already proven it with their lives.

What was more, once they answered this question correctly-

the selected character would truly die too!

The livestream chat was in chaos.

"Do we even need to think about it? It's the Chen Family master!"

"He killed his son to silence him, and he even wanted to send his daughter to be sacrificed to the ancestors. If someone like that doesn't deserve to die, who does?"

"Wait, we just got tricked earlier! We can't interpret the Dead Men's Theater's questions by normal moral standards!"

"The question is 'which character truly should die,' not 'who's the worst'!"

"But who else could it be besides the master?"

Onstage,

the middle-aged player portraying the Chen Family master had gone pale.

His name was Luo Sheng.

He had cleared four instances.

He was fairly experienced.

But right now, he desperately hoped no one would judge by "good and evil."

Because if the answer really was the master-

he might be the one to die!

"Everyone, don't rush to answer."

Luo Sheng's voice was strained, but he still tried to stay calm.

"I know my character is a piece of trash, but the Dead Men's Theater has always judged the plot, not morality. Let's go back over the first three acts."

Ye Qinglan nodded.

"In the first act, the youngest daughter was the sacrifice."

"In the second act, the youngest daughter was dead, but after her soul returned, she became a living person again."

"In the third act, the youngest daughter was the bride."

"And the second young master has been a corpse since the first act. Up to now, there hasn't been any plot about him coming back to life."

Cao Yong immediately looked at Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu's expression grew increasingly grim.

"Don't look at me like that."

(°ー°〃)

Ever since he entered the Dead Men's Theater's first chapter,

he had been playing a dead man.

Yet the actor himself had been alive and kicking the whole time.

That had already felt strange enough.

Now everyone was staring at him, trying to figure out whether he "should die."

It was even stranger.

But a player beside them named He Jun was clearly running out of patience.

[Countdown: 104 seconds]

"The master killed the second young master and even wanted the youngest daughter to die. That plot is already complete enough!"

He Jun stared at the steadily dwindling numbers, his breathing growing more frantic.

"If we keep dragging this out and nobody answers, we'll all die. The Dead Men's Theater asked who 'truly should die.' Isn't it asking us to give this play an ending?"

Ye Qinglan immediately frowned.

"Don't just decide that 'should die' means the wicked should get what's coming to them. There's no evidence for that right now."

"But the countdown won't give us time to look for evidence!"

He Jun jerked his head up.

"I'll answer!"

Luo Sheng's expression changed drastically.

"Wait!"

Too late.

He Jun was already looking at the thousand-odd spectators below the stage.

"The person who truly should die is-the Chen Family master!"

Dead silence.

[Judging...]

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

[Incorrect answer.]

The color instantly drained from He Jun's face.

"Impossible..."

Every faceless spectator below the stage

grinned at the same time.

"Hee hee hee..."

Laughter instantly filled the entire theater.

The next second,

the shadow beneath He Jun's feet suddenly rose.

It actually became another "He Jun," identical to him.

The shadow embraced him from behind.

Then-

it tore him apart!

Squelch!

Blood splashed across the stage.

He Jun was torn alive in half down the middle.

[Player He Jun has died.]

[Players currently alive: 8]

Thud.

The two halves of the corpse fell to the floor.

A few seconds later,

a paper effigy stand-in emerged from backstage.

It returned to He Jun's original position in the cast.

[Character replaced.]

The whole theater fell silent.

Luo Sheng looked as though he had just come back from the gates of hell.

The livestream chat caught on instantly.

"Sure enough, it wasn't the master!"

"This question isn't about picking the worst person at all!"

"Since when did the Dead Men's Theater care about morality? It only cares about the plot!"

"Then who else could it be?"

Shen Niannian had also remained silent the whole time.

She was reconsidering the connection between the three questions.

The first question:

[Who is dead?]

The answer-the second young master.

The second question:

[Who killed the dead person?]

The answer-the Chen Family master.

The third question:

[Which character truly should die?]

If they continued along the same lines as the first two questions...

Could it be-

that the answer had never changed from the start?

Just then,

Su Wangyin's soft laughter suddenly came from below the stage.

Shen Niannian immediately looked over.

"What are you laughing at?"

Su Wangyin held up her red umbrella.

"I'm laughing because you humans are so interesting. The stage asked about characters, yet you can never resist judging whether those characters are good or evil."

She said only that one sentence.

Then she fell silent.

Beside her, Cao Yong couldn't help asking, "Tower Master Su, what exactly is the answer, then?"

Su Wangyin didn't even glance at him.

It was as though she hadn't heard him at all.

Cao Yong: "..."

Great.

The difference in treatment was still that obvious.

Shen Niannian, however, finally understood.

Characters!

The theater wasn't asking-

[Who most deserves retribution?]

It was asking-

[Which character, according to the play itself, should be dead?]

There was only one answer!

The second young master!

Shen Niannian turned sharply to Zhang Yu.

"Your character has been a corpse since the first act. Was there any plot afterward that brought you back to life?"

"No."

Zhang Yu immediately shook his head.

"When the youngest daughter's soul returned in the second act, I made a point of checking my theater ticket. It still just said 'second young master.' There was never anything about my soul returning or me being brought back to life."

Shen Niannian continued, "What about the Ghost Marriage in the third act?"

"My only task was to attend the ceremony as her deceased elder brother."

Deceased elder brother!

As soon as he said it,

everyone's eyes lit up.

His status as a dead man

had never changed!

Ye Qinglan understood completely now too.

"By 'truly should die,' it wasn't asking who deserved to be punished. It was asking which character, according to the entire plot that has already happened, should have remained dead all along."

"The second young master died in the first act, his soul didn't return in the second, and he was still called the deceased elder brother in the third."

"So the character who truly should die-"

"is the second young master."

[Countdown: 41 seconds]

The logic was complete.

But Shen Niannian still didn't rush to answer.

She activated [Identity Archive] at once.

[Target: Zhang Yu]

[Race: Human]

[Actor status: Alive]

[Role in the play: Second Young Master]

[Role status: Dead]

Immediately afterward,

additional information appeared.

[Environment-related information: Confirming a role's death does not mean confirming the actor's death.]

Shen Niannian froze for a moment.

Then her eyes lit up.

(✧ω✧)

So that was it!

The rule said:

[The chosen role will truly die.]

Not-

the actor!

In other words,

Zhang Yu didn't necessarily have to die!

"The answer is the Second Young Master."

Shen Niannian raised her head.

"The role that should truly die is the Second Young Master, who was already dead at the start of the first act and never returned to life."

The entire theater fell deathly silent.

[Judging...]

Zhang Yu himself was so nervous that his face had gone pale.

"Um... if you got it right, I won't really die, will I?"

Shen Niannian was completely honest.

"All I can be sure of is that it said the role would die."

Zhang Yu: "..."

(╥﹏╥)

That doesn't seem very comforting!

The next second,

Clap!

Su Wangyin was the first to clap.

Immediately afterward,

the entire audience erupted.

Clap, clap, clap!

[Correct answer!]

[The role that should truly die-the Second Young Master!]

The black theater ticket in Zhang Yu's hand

suddenly burst into flames!

"Fuck!"

Startled, he flung it away.

But the flames didn't burn his skin.

Instead, they quickly spread over his entire body.

Zhang Yu's body went rigid.

Then-

Thud.

He fell stiffly onto the stage.

Ye Qinglan's expression changed slightly.

"Zhang Yu?"

There was no response.

Shen Niannian immediately used Inspection.

[Target: Zhang Yu]

[Actor status: Alive]

[Current role status: Dead]

[Current role behavior: Playing a corpse]

Shen Niannian: "..."

(￣ー￣)

That damn theater had nearly scared her to death.

"He's not dead."

"It's just that the Second Young Master's role has now been definitively judged dead, so he has to keep playing a corpse."

Zhang Yu's eyelids visibly twitched as he lay on the floor.

But he still didn't dare speak.

The livestream chat instantly cracked up.

"Hahahahaha!"

"Zhang Yu: I'm alive, but my job requires me to be dead for a bit."

"This is what it means to completely separate the actor from the role!"

"The first three questions all tie together!"

"The core of the Dead Men's Theater never changed from beginning to end!"

Just then,

above the stage,

the lights representing the fifteen roles

went out one after another.

In the end, only eight white lights belonging to the human players remained,

along with seven red lights belonging to the paper effigies and dead roles.

[The final three questions have ended.]

[Plot verification complete.]

[All role statuses confirmed.]

All the surviving players perked up at once.

Was it over?

But the next second,

the thousands of faceless spectators below the stage suddenly rose to their feet.

The applause stopped.

A massive black curtain

slowly descended from above the stage.

The final rule appeared with it.

[The final curtain call begins.]

[Living actors, please leave the stage.]

[Dead roles, please remain behind the curtain.]

[Please note-]

[During the curtain call, do not take a role that does not belong to you.]

Shen Niannian looked at the final sentence.

Her heart, which had just settled,

slowly rose again.

(｡ŏ_ŏ)

This damn theater...

Sure enough, it still wasn't planning to let them leave so easily.