Chapter 28: Number 5
Su Xiao began to consolidate the known clues, considering which of the several suspicious individuals best matched the hint of "broken glasses."
"The gold-rimmed glasses guy's glasses were only broken once."
Su Xiao looked at the Third Brother of the National Football Team.
"Seems... that did happen."
The Third Brother had originally thought the glasses-wearing man was Alice in disguise, but after receiving the clue about broken glasses, he dismissed his suspicion of the gold-rimmed glasses man.
"Thinking about it that way, there aren't many suspects."
The Third Brother's eyes widened, disbelief in his gaze.
"That's right, it should be him."
"His acting is too good."
The Third Brother clicked his tongue in amazement, his expression darkening as he clasped his hands together in front of him, speaking in a low voice:
"The truth is only one, and that is, that is... uh~"
The Third Brother pondered for a long time but still couldn't confirm the final suspect.
"Brother Bai Ye, I always have a feeling that the combination O+* looks more like a broken egg, or a shattered egg?"
"Hmm?"
Su Xiao tilted his head. Regarding this clue, the Third Brother's hint was very important.
"Are you sure?"
"Sure, although O+* might be a broken eye, deep down, I feel it's a broken egg."
"A broken egg~"
Su Xiao put down the white paper in his hand. He switched his line of thinking: O+* could represent both a broken egg and a broken pair of glasses.
"Use the right to challenge."
Su Xiao spoke, and a prompt from Reincarnation Paradise appeared.
[Please select the target to challenge.]
"Challenge... Game Participant Number 5."
"Wait, Brother Bai Ye, Number 5 is the Catwoman. She already died last night, and neither the broken egg nor the broken glasses have anything to do with her!"
Just as the Third Brother of the National Football Team finished speaking, a prompt from Reincarnation Paradise appeared, and he froze in place.
[Announcement: Game Participant Number 2 has used the challenge authority on Game Participant Number 5. Challenge successful! Game Participant Number 5 is Alice in disguise.]
"Is the Catwoman really Alice in disguise? What the hell is going on? My brain is burning~"
The Third Brother of the National Football Team was dumbfounded, while Su Xiao let out a long sigh. The Catwoman was not Alice in disguise, and the Catwoman was already dead. As for who Alice was disguised as, that required further deduction based on multiple clues.
First, there were five suspicious individuals: the Glasses Man, the Catwoman, Skinny Fat, the First Brother of the National Football Team, and the Second Brother of the National Football Team. The Catwoman had died the previous night, and the remaining four were confined to their rooms during this daytime period.
The key to Su Xiao identifying Alice was the hint given by the lucky survivor, which was O+*.
O+* did not represent just one meaning, but two: a broken pair of glasses and a broken egg. Three people were related to these two points: the Gold-Rimmed Glasses Man, Skinny Fat, and the First Brother of the National Football Team.
On the first floor, when everyone tried to enter Sha's room, one lens of the Gold-Rimmed Glasses Man's glasses was broken, representing broken glasses. The First Brother of the National Football Team and Skinny Fat were kicked in the groin, implying a broken egg, though in reality, neither of them actually had their eggs broken.
It seemed there were three suspects, but in fact, only one of them was related to both the broken glasses and the broken egg: that person was the First Brother of the National Football Team.
It was the Three Fools of the National Football Team who first entered Sha's room. Because of this, the Glasses Man entered Sha's room afterward, resulting in his glasses being broken. The National Football Team was the cause of the Glasses Man's glasses breaking. Without the National Football Team, the Glasses Man likely wouldn't have entered Sha's room.
The First Brother of the National Football Team was kicked in the groin by Sha, so he was associated with both the broken glasses and the broken egg. He was Alice in disguise.
After racking his brains, the lucky survivor, the First Brother of the National Football Team, drew the picture of 'O+*'.
When entering Sha's room, all contractors were present and witnessed both the glasses breaking and the groin-kicking incidents. Therefore, the First Brother chose to draw O+*, which was information everyone could deduce.
Alice had disguised herself as the First Brother of the National Football Team. Under normal circumstances, Su Xiao should have challenged Number 6, because the First Brother represented Game Participant Number 6.
However, the death of the Catwoman, Game Participant Number 5, the previous night caused Su Xiao to change his target. The reason was simple.
Initially, the room number plate drawn by the First Brother of the National Football Team was Number 5, and the Catwoman's was Number 6. That is, the First Brother was actually Game Participant Number 5, and the Catwoman was Game Participant Number 6. After everyone entered their rooms, the First Brother contacted the Second Brother, and they started blasting loud music to harass others. The Catwoman, annoyed beyond measure and unwilling to fight the Three Brothers of the National Football Team at that time, chose to swap room number plates with the First Brother.
Was swapping rooms the First Brother's decision? Of course not. After drawing the number plate, the First Brother entered Room Number 6, but was immediately teleported away and replaced by Alice's clone. It was Alice's clone who proposed swapping room number plates, not the First Brother.
After the room number plates were swapped, the game participant numbers of the two also swapped. The Catwoman became Number 5, and the First Brother became Number 6.
Normally, if the First Brother was Alice, Su Xiao should have challenged Number 6. But the Catwoman's death the previous night, combined with the fact that swapping room number plates also swapped the game participant numbers, led Su Xiao to choose to challenge Number 5.
The Catwoman had died the previous night, and the First Brother of the National Football Team—no, Alice's clone—had obtained two room number plates: Number 5 and Number 6.
Su Xiao considered this: if the game rules included a clause that after a game participant died, Alice's clone could swap her own number plate with the deceased's.
But after thinking it over, Su Xiao felt this was probably impossible, or at least required certain preconditions to execute. If swapping were arbitrary, the game would be too boring. Alice would only need to kill a game participant who had proven their identity on the first night, swap number plates, attract suspicion during the day, and have them verify her. However, the verification would actually target the deceased, not Alice. Then Alice could swap numbers again and commit suicide. If someone verified Alice's number plate again, they would still be verifying the deceased. The game rules didn't state that a number plate could only be verified once. This way, Alice would completely clear her suspicion and be in an invincible position, but that wouldn't align with Alice's enjoyment of the game.
However, reclaiming a number plate that originally belonged to her was very achievable. There should be some restriction, such as that a challenged game participant couldn't swap, and she could only reclaim her original number plate, not forcibly swap with an "unrelated" deceased.
This was exactly the situation with the Catwoman and the "First Brother of the National Football Team." Alice's clone hadn't swapped number plates; she had merely reclaimed the number plate that originally belonged to her, because she was originally Game Participant Number 5.
When the "First Brother of the National Football Team" and the Catwoman initially swapped number plates, everyone else was suspicious. Unfortunately, Alice's luck was too good. The Second and Third Brothers were Numbers 7 and 8 respectively, and the First Brother wanting to obtain Number 6 made sense from all angles.
Although it made sense, everyone didn't dismiss their doubts. With no clues at all, everyone proposed verifying the National Football Team first. They said they were verifying the Third Brother, but in reality, they wanted to see the reactions of the First and Second Brothers. The first day wasn't really about verifying the Third Brother; the talk about going in order was just to lower the National Football Team's guard.
Unfortunately, the Third Brother was a huge pit. His expression at that time was terrifying, looking exactly like Alice being exposed. At that moment, Su Xiao, the Detective Loli, Skinny Fat, and the Catwoman were all very surprised, because in everyone's view, the First and Second Brothers were more suspicious than the Third, since the two had previously teamed up to cause the Catwoman to swap room number plates.
The result of the first day was that the Third Brother was not Alice.
On the first night, almost everyone believed the Catwoman would be in trouble. If the Catwoman was in trouble, the primary suspects afterward would be the First and Second Brothers of the National Football Team.