Chapter 103: The Deceased Was Double Gold Water

Li Peijun was sparing with his words. He slowly raised both hands, his left fist clenched with the thumb pointing down, while his right hand formed a "number eight" gesture.

The dung heap always favored Chen Fan like this, blessing him with dumb luck time and time again.

After finishing his gestures, Li Peijun shot a standard sloth-style smile at Cold Rabbit in seat 7, concluding his turn.

"Quack~ All the little darlings have finished speaking, right? Quack~ Then let's get ready to vote."

With seat 7's groundwork laid, Chen Fan naturally stood in the 12th player's camp, pitting himself against his own teammate.

Players 5 and 10 chose to abstain. Seat 7 cast a single vote against 12, while everyone else piled their votes onto 7.

Chen Fan had a rough idea now—the witch was probably dead, and his own identity could stay hidden for at least another two rounds. The situation could still be turned around.

Before leaving, Cold Rabbit in seat 7 delivered a confusing parting speech: "Hey, you lot—you actually believe a guy who only gestures is the real seer? Let me tell you, the wolf pool I've worked out is one among 12, 11, 6, 3, 4. There are four wolves still on the field right now. When morning comes, the good side can basically lay down their cards."

"Quack~ Night falls, please close your eyes."

The wolves were still one round behind. Even if they killed the seer at night, they'd still need to push a good player during the day to catch up. The guard should be guarding himself tonight, so Chen Fan decisively chose to kill seat 12, planning to wipe out the seer's information.

As for the remaining guard card, it could only be among seats 3, 4, 10, and 11. Seats 3 and 4 had been clinging tightly to seat 2's coattails—they didn't seem like god cards. Chen Fan deliberated for a moment, then extended one finger from each hand.

After receiving the duck judge's reply, Chen Fan sank back into thought.

"Quack~ Day has broken. Last night, seat 12 died. Quack~ Will player 12 pass on the sheriff badge?"

Li Peijun had wanted to hand the badge over personally, but his arms were too short—literally out of reach. He could only wobble out a "Yeah" gesture and have Chinchilla beside him relay it.

"Quack~ Player 2 is elected sheriff. Please choose the speaking order."

"Seat 3 goes first."

"Why give the sheriff badge to 2? Didn't the seer report his verification order yesterday? I'll still follow the sheriff this round."

Seat 4 raised a point: "If the sheriff flipped seat 10's card based on 2's investigation logic, then it's perfectly normal for him to fly the badge to 2 after finding 10 was a wolf. Seat 6 might be a fake witch, but 2 is definitely the real hunter."

Seat 5, Psyduck, opened his duck bill and said: "The wolf pool seat 7 worked out earlier was wrong. With four wolves still alive, they definitely wouldn't self-kill, so 7 left as a confirmed wolf. I still think there's a deep wolf among 3 and 4, but I'll follow the sheriff this round."

Chen Fan, however, looked perfectly composed. After all, no matter how this round went, the push couldn't land on him. Still, to cover for his teammate, he decided to take a light jab at the whole table.

"In my eyes, seat 10 is the most suspicious. Seats 3 and 4 locked their stances too hard from the start—that's a problem. From a villager's perspective, wouldn't you have doubts? One of them should be a backstabbing wolf. Seat 5 has never voted, and seat 11's speech was clean. I think we can leave both for another round."

Chen Fan turned his head toward seat 2 and addressed him: "Sheriff, make a good call. I think it's most likely three gods, three villagers, two wolves. The demon probably already knows everyone's identity. If seat 10 can't produce a role, take him out, and we'll see who falls at night."

"Seat 10, please begin your performance."

Seat 10, Pink Yearning Bear, shook his head and said: "Wasn't it normal for me to doubt the two seers last round? Seat 12 didn't give me the badge, so he definitely didn't investigate me. I'm just a villager card. Now that the seer is dead, there's no way to explain anything clearly. Seats 1 and 7 definitely left as wolves. Seat 11 pointed out 12 during the speech phase. Seat 6 claims witch—set that aside for now. Seat 2 is the hunter. So the remaining two wolves can only be among 3, 4, and 5."

"Really, you've got to believe me. There's definitely a problem among those three. Even as a villager, I wouldn't lock my stance that hard. Single-sided logic means backstabbing. Seat 4 followed the trend the hardest—he's the most suspicious. You... you guys believe me, okay?" Yearning Bear scanned the whole table, her eyes brimming with pitiful pleading.

Unfortunately, Chen Fan was the only male alive left on the field, and it was uncertain whether a girl's cutesy act would work on her own kind.

Seat 11, Chinchilla, patted seat 10's head and said: "Be good, listen now. There's no slot left—only two wolves remain, and there's still some margin for error. Blindly pushing anyone carries risk, but someone has to take the fall. Sheriff, if you can trust that I'm good, pick one from 3, 4, 5, and 10."

Suddenly, Chinchilla realized something was off and changed his tune: "No, no—no need to hide anymore. If the demon is still alive, he's already verified three people by now. He should know all the gods by this point. I'm the guard card. Sheriff, just pick directly from those four."

Chen Fan grinned. So the guard ultimately decided not to hide. That was fine—with the last two gods now exposed, as long as they successfully pushed a good player today, then killed the guard and the hunter over the next two nights, the goddess of victory was still on his side.

All the pressure converged on the sheriff. With several layers of logic laid out on the table, choosing whom to trust became a thorny problem.

If he trusted that the seer investigated 10, he could simply vote 10 out. If he reasoned that 3 and 4 were backstabbing wolves, then today was a lucky two-out-of-one. Seat 5 could also be a deep wolf, though with lower priority.

"Let's go with 10 then. There's always a thorn in my heart. I think the seer, by not announcing his verification order, must have investigated according to my suggestion. If we lose, I'll take the blame. Vote 10." Seat 2 hesitated, then shouldered the big burden.

This time, seat 5 abandoned his stance of permanent neutrality and raised his vote for 10 along with the majority.

Seat 10 whined: "Wuuu~ I really am a villager card. I don't know who seat 12 actually investigated either. I can only be dirty-pushed out by you all. Hey... good players, do your best. I think the win rate is still pretty high."

Chen Fan's faction successfully pushed a villager, and the tide quietly turned.

"First night self-guard, second night guard the seer, third night self-guard, fourth night... heh heh heh."

Chen Fan ran through the guard's guarding sequence in his head. Whether or not the first night was an empty guard, tonight the guard definitely couldn't protect himself anymore.

"Quack~ Kids, let's call it here for today. Quack~ We'll continue tomorrow morning."

Duck Teacher's words broke Chen Fan's train of thought. He looked up and found the sky outside the window already shrouded in dusk.

"Is this halftime?"

Chen Fan felt a hint of contempt deep down—a perfectly good, complete game had been forcibly chopped in two, artificially extending the playtime.

Walking into the sunset, Chen Fan and the other animals each took different paths home, but only Chen Fan headed toward the outskirts.

"So I'm the country bumpkin again, huh." Chen Fan grumbled inwardly. Everyone else was a city dweller, and he was the only one from the countryside.

Surprisingly, Wu Qiqi hadn't disconnected yet. She was already waiting on the school bus, and not a single returning chick was missing.

Chen Fan boarded the bus and asked curiously: "Why didn't you leave the game? Where's Li Peijun?"

"Oh, when do I ever get a chance like this? Of course I had to properly experience the vibe of Zootopia. I died early, so I went out and wandered around. This place has gotten bigger—before it only had two streets, and now it's been widened to five. Even the city hall is open for entry now, and back then the doors were tightly locked. Too bad I didn't get to see Mayor Lion or Secretary Sheep."

Wu Qiqi eagerly shared the interesting things she'd seen along the way, then asked: "How's the battle going? I didn't play well as a wolf—I didn't drag you all down, did I?"

Chen Fan was a little tired, his whole body lounging lazily against the seat back: "Not bad. We should win. Did Li Peijun leave the game?"

Wu Qiqi nodded, pointing at the sloth in the corner behind them: "Seems like he left the game after getting on the bus. An NPC's controlling him now, and he keeps telling bad jokes."

"Oh? Bad jokes?" Chen Fan was a bit curious. He struggled to sit up and asked: "Hey sloth, tell me a bad joke."

The sloth heard Chen Fan's call, stiffly turned his head, and grinned at Chen Fan: "Why... do... camels... have... three... humps? Ha... ha... ha..."

Chen Fan: "..."