TDU Chapter 306
Chapter 306 The Massive Presence Above
This time, the wait for the phone call stretched noticeably longer, as if everyone was meticulously weighing their answers. After all, this game bore the grim weight of death: anyone could be the next victim, and the line between {life and death} hinged entirely on a single choice between {True or False}.
Finally, the phone rang.
{Brring—!!}
Having waited in tense anticipation, Chen Junnan quickly seized the phone.
"Say your piece."
"So..." Yun Yao hesitated before asking, "Did the person in the room next to you die?"
Chen Junnan nodded. "Most likely crushed to death. You could say he’s now a literal 'boy crush.'"
"I just can’t make sense of it..." Yun Yao’s voice wavered with confusion. "Why him? Why was it him who died?"
"I haven’t cracked that part yet either," Chen Junnan admitted candidly. "I suppose it’ll take a few more rounds to discern the pattern."
A brief pause fell over the line before Yun Yao continued, "Chen Junnan, this round’s question is {Shall we kill another?}."
"Dammit…" Chen Junnan couldn’t shake the gnawing unease. "So that old creep’s finally dropping the act, huh?"
Yun Yao’s voice held a trace of resignation. "I have a feeling most will pick {True}… After all, fewer survivors means more {Dào} for the rest to divide."
A heavy silence hung between them over the phone.
Then Chen Junnan broke it, voice low and cautious: "Superstar… do you think {death} is random?"
Yun Yao hesitated before replying, "You mean the previous question, {Want it to fall down?}, might randomly pick one of the twelve to be crushed? That each of us had a one in twelve chance of dying?"
"Yeah." Chen Junnan nodded. "That fits the logic of {gambling}, right? From now on, the chance of dying would be one in eleven. As fewer people remain, the odds of death in each round go up, like {Russian roulette}."
At first, Yun Yao found his reasoning convincing, but after a moment’s reflection, she spotted a flaw. "But that would turn this into a game of {luck} and {probability}, which isn’t {Terrestrial Snake}’s style. That sounds more like something {Terrestrial Pig} would host."
"That’s true," Chen Junnan admitted.
With that, they ended the call.
This new question was pivotal. If more people chose {True}, it would reveal a willingness to kill. Whether it was about {probabilistic killing} or {strategic elimination}, everyone was gearing up to survive by any means necessary.
Chen Junnan slowly moved to the center of the room and pressed {False}, hoping this time everyone would answer honestly, making it easier to judge the game’s situation.
After a moment’s thought, he picked up the phone and dialed. It rang ten times unanswered, but on the eleventh ring, a female voice finally answered.
"Hello?" she said.
"May I have your name?" Chen Junnan asked.
There was a brief pause before she replied, "No need to exchange names. What’s the question?"
Seeing the other party’s evasiveness, Chen Junnan shrugged and said, "The question is {Shall we kill another?} or something like that."
"Huh..." The woman sounded clearly taken aback. "You haven’t changed the question, have you?"
"Don’t be absurd," Chen Junnan shook his head. "We’re already at the end of this round. Changing the question now wouldn’t make sense. Our answers alone won’t alter the overall outcome."
"That’s true..." she replied hesitantly. "So, what did you choose?"
"I picked {False}," Chen Junnan answered honestly.
"Alright... noted." With that, the woman hung up.
This brief conversation helped clear up some of Chen Junnan’s thoughts.
What sort of questions has Terrestrial Snake been asking each round?
So far, he’d only seen one question firsthand, and that one was so obscure he could barely recall it the second time.
‘Einstein published something something… Reverend Insanity?’
Beyond that, every question he’d heard had come through Yun Yao.
Could it be that Yun Yao had been deceiving him all along?
This one-way phone connection was a clever trap, without knowing who was in the next room, distrust could easily take root.
But Chen Junnan knew Yun Yao too well. To him, she was the {belle} of {End Point}, a straightforward young woman who, without her {Reverberation}, was utterly unremarkable.
So there was only one possibility: the question Yun Yao received had already been altered.
Before Chen Junnan could draw any conclusions, the screen flickered to life again.
"The verdict for this round—{False}."
The clinking of the massive chain echoed through the room once more, like a flock of birds soaring overhead, their final destination unknown.
Chen Junnan ran through the numbers in his mind: five questions asked so far, three answered {True}, two {False}.
Deaths among participants: One.
…
Yun Yao slowly lifted her head, her eyes fixed on the ceiling above. A chilling sensation crept over her, as if something was looming directly overhead.
Perhaps it was a woman’s intuition, but she could unmistakably feel the weight of something cold and massive hanging above her.
"Has it come... the {square} kills?"
…
Chen Junnan sat in his room, his legs shaking restlessly.
How could he calm himself amidst such uncertainty?
The clues were too scarce. What exactly had that old creep, Terrestrial Snake, been asking?
If the first recipient rotated among them, it would be seven rounds before he faced another {question posed directly}.
Could he hold out that long?
Before he could dwell further, the phone rang.
{Brring—!!}
Chen Junnan picked up the phone and immediately caught the shift in Yun Yao’s tone.
"Chen Junnan... I think I’m going to die," she confessed, her voice low and taut with fear.
"What nonsense..." Chen Junnan frowned, trying to reassure her. "You don’t even know what’s happening, how can you say that?"
"I can feel it..." Yun Yao’s eyes drifted upward toward the ceiling again. "It’s right above me. I can even smell the blood seeping down through the cracks..."
"Above you...?" Alarm rippled through Chen Junnan. The massive iron ball had just crushed the neighbor on his left. Now, it seemed to have shifted toward his right.
Was it purposely circling around him?
"And this time, the question..." Yun Yao swallowed hard and spoke slowly, "This time, it’s {Wanna sit down?} again."
Chen Junnan’s eyes narrowed coldly. "So every two questions, it prepares to {fall down}?"
"I feel my death is imminent," Yun Yao said, closing her eyes as the buzzing in her ears intensified. She had gained nothing, yet now it seemed she was about to die for no reason.
"I think that’s unlikely."
Chen Junnan’s calm words immediately quieted the strange noise in her ears.
"What?"
"Well," Chen Junnan chuckled, "after all these years with Ole Qi, I’ve learned a thing or two about human nature. That last time, picking {True} triggered the loud crash and gave everyone a good scare. So, by some fancy schmancy effect, folks will be more tempted to pick {False} this round, just to see if flipping the choice changes the outcome."
TL Note: Not gonna lie, trying to mimic Chen Junnan’s way of speaking in English has seriously doubled my workload, each chapter takes twice as long to finish now (つ╥﹏╥)つ
Also, the Reverend Insanity reference was an intentional easter egg I added. The original raws used “峡谷对对碰,” which is actually the name of a game. However, it doesn’t really work in English, since it neither sounds like the theory nor refers to a game well-known outside of China.
