Chapter 211

Suicide is equivalent to erasure; whether it's to prove innocence or to avoid voting, anyone who actively ends their own life will have the system immediately execute the erasure procedure—please take responsibility for your own life.

The murderer side's advance entry time into the game will be appropriately extended according to the instance's difficulty and killing method.

Instances and Points Items may not be used to peek at identity aspects during the voting phase; otherwise it will be considered a violation.

Detectives can voluntarily apply to become murderers, with win/loss points and settlement the same as above.

Actually, Su Mian didn't make major changes, but just a few lines of text have already made the game, which originally seemed targeted at murderers, become balanced.

The murderer is a single player, naturally bearing greater pressure than the detective side.

Besides generous rewards, the corresponding punishment will also be reduced; otherwise situations of scapegoating and ganging up will arise.

What the detective side needs to eliminate is exactly 'mixers'—players who just coast; in the instance, the more they slack off, the fewer points they earn.

Even when points are cleared to zero, one still dies; thus some brave and wise players will choose the more lucrative murderer route, so the murderer identity won't be labeled as inevitably fatal.

Balancing the numbers of detectives and murderers can create a closed loop, greatly reducing the situation where human players die one after another.

After finishing, Su Mian stepped down from the altar and let Zishi review it.

Zishi merely gave it a rough glance and it passed.

"There's no problem, except that those few who like to snack might object."

He glanced, intentionally or not, toward Wei Shi and Mao Shi.

One is a pure foodie player, the other likes to peel players' faces.

At the moment Zishi glanced over, Shishi also looked over; Wei Shi, who was about to lose their temper, saw that 'terrifying' gaze and didn't dare say a word.

Zishi: "Then let it be so; I'm just curious how you discovered the truth."

Shishi gave a light chuckle, didn't answer immediately, he looked at Su Mian, eyes shifting, and said: "If it weren't for Mian Mian, I might still not have found that nightmare's location."

Su Mian shrugged: "I didn't do anything."

Even in the end, they were still made faint by a needle prick.

Shishi shook his head: "Without you persuading Ma Youhui to change the rules, we might never even know the truth; only you could do this, because your genes and your identity show she would be interested in you and let her guard down."

"Your partner helping to reveal the truth to the world is also a crucial part; I donated on your behalf, merely to tell humanity that all this is your achievement."

Shishi smiled, Su Mian gazing at him, unable to utter a word.

She didn't know when he noticed she was upset from doing nothing, so he was admitting it on her behalf.

Acknowledging her bravery, acknowledging her sacrifice, affirming everything she did.

This is one's lover, forever thinking of one's own.

Su Mian didn't speak, just embraced him, silently hiding tears in her cheeks, while Shishi gently patted the girl's back.

At some point, the world became different.

Those people thought they would carry terrifying memories into the grave, but those memories were spread out in the sunlight, seen by everyone, discussed by everyone, judged by everyone, and remembered by everyone.

The system announced that players who alone faced death in the dark, players persecuted by the rules, players tormented by humanity, from today onward, become history.

What remains to be opened is no longer the era of survivors, but the era of symbiosis.

"The law of survival of the fittest" has been infinitely magnified.

Sayings about the Inner World vary wildly: some say a wormhole from outer space hinders Earth's development; others say the Regressors' genes themselves make them unsuited for future survival.

Some even predict that in the remaining hundred or so years, space will develop fissures, growing ever larger, eventually leading to the merger of the Inner World and the real world.

Only those who earn more points are qualified to survive.

However, none of these are sufficient to cause people's panic anymore.

After the rule change, more and more clubs and institutions have arisen, even bounty companies; that script murder game software once suspected of being a dark web has received official certification, currently storing all players' information data.

What shocked Su Mian most was that the founder of this software is the twin sisters who played Sun Er and Sun Jiu; the elder sister is Li Shuangshuang, the younger is Li Danshan, and they have been investigating the Biological Research Institute.

After some investigation, Si Shi found that the two families were somewhat like a "mafia clan", constantly traveling domestically and abroad, with countless subordinates; the two sisters' hacking skills were also astonishing—just a moment ago Si Shi had infiltrated the software's internals, and the next second the computer crashed due to a virus.

Then, one day when the two were out on a date, they were "ambushed"—though it couldn't really be called a kidnapping; a group of black-clad people politely ushered Su Mian and Si Shi into a black Chevrolet, they exchanged glances, and finally, without any suspicion, got into the car.

Well, it wasn't that they had no guard at all—Su Mian recognized them, and she believed the two sisters recognized her as well.

The black Chevrolet drove into the CBD core area and stopped in front of a skyscraper with a glass curtain wall.

The black-clad person opened the car door, bowed slightly, and said, "Ladies, please."

The elevator went straight to the top floor; when the doors opened, the corridor was carpeted in dark tones, the walls hung with cool-toned oil paintings, and the air carried a faint scent of cedar.

The people in the lobby seemed unusually curious about them, most dressed neatly in suits and formal dresses, looking like businesspeople or an upper-class gathering.

The two were accustomed to such scenes and didn't feel stage fright; someone recognized the bodyguards behind them as belonging to the club's owner, who gave them a slight nod.

The elevator went straight to the sixty-seventh floor; at the end of the sofa sat two familiar figures side by side, wearing identical-colored doll dresses and mushroom hats, with a group of bodyguards positioned nearby, creating an inexplicable sense of unease.

Long time.

Not seen.

Si Shi took Su Mian's hand and sat opposite the two sisters, with Li Shuangshuang being the first to look at Si Shi.

Your hacking skills are impressive.

Si Shi nodded, gave a polite smile, and said, "You flatter me."

Immediately after, the sister waved her hand, having a bodyguard bring over an item; on the tray lay a brand-new, unsealed laptop, apparently a recent model.

"Sorry, I didn't know it was you back then; my approach was a bit extreme—this is my apology."

Su Mian waved her hand, saying, "It's fine; we were just curious about what divine entity lay behind the software, never expecting it to be you."

She felt a bit guilty; having mentioned it casually at the time, Si Shi actually acted on it.

Her computer was hardly used except for making PPTs and writing papers; Si Shi's graduate school computer wasn't brought back either, so Su Mian watched as someone clacked away at a long string of code, the old laptop heating up unbearably.