Watching the twelve people in the room reveal shocked expressions, the “Clown” laughed triumphantly and continued.
“I know all of you here are top-tier experts at this game, so the rules will follow the version you’re most familiar with.”
“Four Werewolves, four Civilians, four Divine Roles. The Werewolves win by slaughtering the borders; the Good People win by voting out all four Werewolves.”
“How’s that? Simple enough, right?”
In the hall, the young man who had just been shocked earlier listened to the familiar role cards, a bad feeling growing in his chest.
This madman went through all this trouble to tie them up and bring them here; there had to be more to this than just watching them play offline Werewolf.
Sure enough, after explaining the game, that mechanical synthesized voice sounded again.
“On the table in the center lies a Bank Card. The PIN is 006557, and it holds 1.2 million.”
“If the Werewolf team wins, the Werewolves can take this Bank Card and split the money inside among themselves. The Good People win under the opposite condition.”
Hearing the “Clown”’s explanation, the other eleven people on stage cast their gazes toward the Bank Card, desire flickering in their eyes.
But the young man’s body stiffened as if struck by electricity, and he quickly raised his hand.
“Mr. God, I have a question for you.”
“Go ahead, ask.”
The “Clown” felt immensely pleased by the respectful title and immediately agreed to the young man’s request.
“If after the game ends, my teammates have been voted out or killed by Werewolves, can they still split the money with me? It’s a lot of money—I want to keep it all for myself.”
“Once dead, there’s no resurrection. Of course, you can keep it all to yourself!”
The Clown laughed uproariously, the cold mechanical voice echoing through the hall, sending chills down the young man’s spine.
The madman’s meaning was clear.
In this game, death is final—no second chances.
No wonder he said this was a real-life version of Who is the Werewolf.
From the start, this guy had planned it that way.
Just thinking about the possible scenes to come made the young man’s stomach turn sour and his throat feel like something was stuck in it.
Still, to gather more information, he forced himself calm and asked again.
“But we don’t have any lethal weapons. How are we supposed to kill anyone else?”
The Clown clapped his hands, kindly answering the question.
“Don’t worry! As God, I’ve already thought of that!”
“Anytime someone dies, the collar around their neck will explode with a bang! It’ll blow their head apart!”
Hearing this blatant expression of malice, the twelve sitting around the hall instinctively touched the collars around their necks, trying desperately to remove these deadly time bombs.
But no matter how hard they struggled, the collars were fixed tightly, not moving an inch even with great effort.
Watching their futile struggles, the Clown’s lips curled slightly in a smirk, giving them no time to prepare before eagerly announcing the start of the game.
“Everyone, get ready. Pick up the cards on the table and confirm your identity.”
“Five, four, three… Time’s up.”
“Night falls, please close your eyes.”
……
“Haah, no progress at all.”
Lu Ren, transformed into the Magic Girl Blazing Flame, squatted in an abandoned construction site.
By her feet was a bottle of iced red tea filled with an unknown liquid.
“Don’t give up so soon; we’re only at the ninth person. Maybe at the next disappearance site, we’ll find some clues?”
Pandora scratched the ground with her claws over discarded tiles and gravel, comforting the discouraged Blazing Flame.
“Stop lying to me. You said the exact same thing about the person before last.” Blazing Flame rolled her eyes and retorted.
“What if? What if we really do find something?” Pandora hopped onto Blazing Flame’s shoulder and patted her arm with her claws.
“Don’t use my clothes as a towel. I might have to smack you, Pandora.” Blazing Flame dusted herself off, a bit annoyed.
“What towel? I’m encouraging you! Don’t give up, Blazing Flame! As long as we keep trying, the path will keep extending… Hm?”
Pandora looked back in puzzlement, as if she had just noticed something important.
Curious, Blazing Flame followed her gaze to the sky behind them—but there was nothing.
“What is it? Did you find a new clue?”
“Well… we should hide. Someone’s coming for you.” Pandora explained.
“Who would come looking for me? Not many people even know I can transform.” Blazing Flame was confused.
“But whoever it is has met you before and even fought monsters alongside you.” Pandora jumped to the ground and started sprinting off into the distance. “See you later, Blazing Flame. Once I’ve dealt with things, I’ll come find you!”
“Hey! Where are you going? Pandora? Pandora!”
Watching Pandora run off without a second glance, Blazing Flame sighed and stayed put, waiting for the person Pandora mentioned to show up.
After a few minutes of idleness, a harsh explosion sounded behind her.
Blazing Flame turned to see none other than the renowned Sapphire approaching.
The moment she landed, Sapphire hurriedly asked.
“Blazing Flame! Have you found anything? Could it be that the Shadow Beast has appeared again?!”
“No. I was just looking into the recent wave of disappearances in A City. Since I had some free time, I thought I’d come here to find clues.” Blazing Flame paused briefly, then shook her head.
“You mean the missing person cases?” Sapphire raised an eyebrow. “Are you investigating the disappearances too, just like me?”
“Uh, yes. I’m also looking into this case.” Blazing Flame thought it through and quickly realized their goals aligned, so she nodded.
“This case is complicated.” Sapphire shrugged. “There are twelve people in total, all disappearing from different locations. Even their ages, genders, and hobbies have no similarities. The Official Department concluded it’s most likely a Passion Crime.”
“Passion Crime, huh…”
Having spent years surfing the internet, Blazing Flame understood the implications behind that term.
Without a reasonable motive, logically pinpointing the culprit’s whereabouts would be extremely difficult.
But for magical girls like them, who don’t rely on common sense, that difficulty was nothing.