TDU Chapter 305
Chapter 305 Square?
Though the loud bang echoed clearly through the rooms, the participants’ limited vantage point left them in the dark about what had transpired outside.
All they knew was that someone had died, but who? And how?
"F*ck…" Chen Junnan muttered, slapping his own face hard. "Chen Junnan, get a grip... What does the person who died have to do with you?"
The sting from the slap jolted him back to reality. Lingering in despair would only make him the next victim.
He rose once more and began pacing restlessly. The door was locked tight; there was no way out.
The man on his left had probably already died, but how could he verify that?
As the fourth round commenced, Chen Junnan mentally retraced the sequence: Yun Yao had received the first question, then him, followed by the man on his left, meaning the next to answer should be the fourth person.
He would once again be the last to receive the question.
What form would it take when it finally reached him?
After an agonizing wait, Chen Junnan felt the moment approach. He placed his hand deliberately on the receiver, bracing himself.
{Brring—}
The moment the phone rang, Chen Junnan snatched it up without hesitation.
"Hello…" Yun Yao called out, "Great, you're still alive?"
"Heh, you do have a way with words," Chen Junnan replied with a weary chuckle. "Don’t worry, I’m always flirting with death."
"Cut the small talk," Yun Yao said sharply. "This time, the question is: {Is the murderer a square?}"
Chen Junnan was momentarily dumbfounded. "That old creep’s questions are getting trickier and trickier…"
"So, what are your thoughts?" Yun Yao asked. "That sound was very close to us. Do you know who died?"
"I have a rough idea." Chen Junnan replied with a nod. "But how am I supposed to know whether the murderer is a {square(方块)} or a {club}*?"
(TLN: ‘方块’ can mean any of these: cube; block; square/rectangle; diamond ♦ of the four playing card suits. In this case, our young master is referring to the Diamond and Club suits in playing cards.)
"Regardless, I chose {False}…" Yun Yao said. "All the previous answers were {True}. Though, could that be tied to why the person died?"
Yun Yao’s statement opened up a new avenue of thought for Chen Junnan.
"Superstar, you really are just a smidge smarter than me," Chen Junnan chuckled. "But our answers alone can't influence the whole situation. No one knows what the others have chosen."
"But you do have an edge," Yun Yao pointed out. "You can verify if the person next door is truly dead by making a call."
"Good point."
After hanging up, Chen Junnan immediately pressed the dial button.
{Beep—}
The dialing tone echoed, but no answer came.
{Beep—}
A second call sounded, yet the line remained hauntingly silent.
That was all the confirmation Chen Junnan needed; the man next door was almost certainly dead.
But the question lingered: how had he met his end?
Unwilling to concede, Chen Junnan held on patiently, letting the phone ring a dozen more times.
Just as Chen Junnan reached for the receiver to hang up, the dial tone abruptly cut off, replaced by a soft, hesitant voice on the other end.
"Hello…?"
He froze, hand suspended mid-motion, then slowly lifted the old-fashioned receiver back to his ear.
"Hello?"
"Wh–Who are you?" the woman asked, her voice trembling.
Chen Junnan frowned at the unfamiliar tone, and without a word, he abruptly ended the call.
By the rules Terrestrial Snake had laid out earlier, if the phone rang ten times without being answered, the call would automatically transfer to the next living person.
Given that the dial tone had already sounded at least thirteen times, it was clear this woman had deliberately avoided answering.
She must not have expected the phone to ring at all, which meant she was the {first recipient} this round.
"It really has come full circle..." Chen Junnan muttered under his breath, then turned back to his screen, beginning to contemplate the question for this round: "Is the killer a square?"
There were two key points he needed to clarify first.
The foremost question: was this truly the original question?
If it had been altered like the previous {Want it to fall down?}, then who was responsible for the change? And what had been the original question before it was tampered with?
Assuming no one had changed the question, the second issue demanded scrutiny:
What, precisely, did {square} signify?
Was it the {card suit} or the {shape}?
Given that {square (方块)} carries multiple meanings, one might expect these to be interchangeable without losing coherence. Yet, since the game had never referenced playing cards or related symbols, the sudden appearance of {square} clearly indicated it was unrelated to the {card suit}.
Undoubtedly, here {square} referred to the {shape}, its literal {geometric} meaning.
In other words... the true meaning behind the question was: {Was the person who died earlier killed by a square-shaped object?}
With that realization, everything clicked into place. It even allowed him to deduce what the earlier sound must have been, a colossal geometric shape had fallen from above, crushing the victim to death.
The previous question, {Want it to fall down?}, clearly controlled that massive geometric shape.
"Dammit, this young master’s burned through a lifetime of brainpower today..." Chen Junnan muttered, shaking his head before pressing {False}. He was convinced the object that fell wasn’t a {square}.
‘If I’m not mistaken... it must have been a {sphere},’ he thought, reaching out to touch the wall to his left. The deafening crash had left a heavy impact, but the feel was more like a large, unstable sphere. Had it been a {square}, friction would have stopped its movement immediately upon hitting the ground.
With his answer selected, the screen lit up as usual.
"The verdict for this round—{False}."
Chen Junnan nodded quietly. ‘Looks like I wasn’t the only one who came to that conclusion…’
A few seconds later, the booming clatter of chains echoed again.
The relentless {Clank—clank—} reverberated, lifting debris and rubble from the adjacent room into the air.
Chen Junnan listened intently, straining to visualize the scene beyond the wall.
If his guess was right, just beyond the partition, a heavy iron chain was hauling a massive iron ball. Moments ago, that very ball had crashed down with a thunderous roar, reducing the occupant of that room to a bloody pulp.
Now, the chain was tightening, drawing the iron ball back up toward the ceiling.
So the question arose...
Why was it that particular man who was struck?
Could it be that only he had answered {True} to the earlier question, {Want it to fall down?}
But that didn’t add up. The Snake-category game seldom strayed from its rules. Terrestrial Snake had explicitly said answers will reflect {popular consensus}.
That meant more than half the participants, at least seven people, must have chosen {True}.
"Seven people…why was he the one who got crushed...?" Chen Junnan murmured softly, the question pressing heavily on his mind. If he couldn’t decipher the method behind the iron ball’s target, he might face the same fate: a death without explanation.
The harsh clanging of the metal chain overhead grew louder, gnawing at his fraying nerves.
"My brain was already struggling enough as it is, and now this f*cking noise is just adding to the chaos..."
Chen Junnan wiped his palm and found it damp with sweat. The unnerving sensation of not knowing when it might be his turn to be turned into a bloody pulp had begun to feel increasingly ominous.
TL Note: Apologies for all the inserted T/N’s. I know they break immersion, but I think they’re kinda important if you wanna completely understand what’s happening.
