Chapter 142: Human Nature (Part 2)

Hearing this, everyone came to the same conclusion.

"Three of the four men in suits are dead, so the remaining one must be the killer."

Moreover, they realized a serious problem. The lights hadn't been turned off just now, yet all their attention had been drawn away for a split second, and someone else had died.

What did this indicate? The remaining man in suit was definitely the killer, and not an ordinary person at all.

While they were deep in thought, the lights went out once again.

"Quick! Hold onto each other's hands!" the middle-aged man shouted immediately.

Having learned their lesson, this time they grabbed each other's hands and held on for dear life.

A moment later, the lights came back on.

The moment the light returned, everyone began checking their surroundings. Seeing that everyone was unharmed, they all let out a sigh of relief.

Just as they were relaxing, someone pointed in a certain direction and stammered, "That... that person..."

Following the direction of the finger, a man in a suit was seen hanging high up, his eyes wide open, staring blankly with grievance unavenged.

"It's the one from earlier..."

Someone recognized him. Wasn't this Kolo?

Wait, three of the four suited men were dead, so was this the fourth suited man?

At this thought, the middle-aged man shouted to the person who had gone to the restroom earlier, "Take a look at this suited man. Is he one of the three who died?"

That person was already trembling with fear. Hearing the middle-aged man, he could only shake his head incessantly, "I don't know, I don't know!"

"Take a good look and think carefully!" The middle-aged man was getting anxious, his tone carrying a trace of agitation.

The man interpreted this voice as a furious roar, which made him even more nervous instantly.

"It... it doesn't seem like it," he stammered.

"Not him?" The middle-aged man looked closely at the trembling man and continued speaking.

"If it's not him, it only means all four suited men are dead, and you are the only one who strayed from the group.

Did you kill them first, pretend to be scared when you came back, and then hang this suited man up here?"

These words hit the man deeply. His eyes widened in absolute shock, rendering him completely speechless.

"Th-this... how is that possible? In such a short time," someone questioned.

"Yeah, how could this be? Unless he's not an ordinary person." The middle-aged man nodded, then looked back at the man, "Besides, I don't believe that Westford would hire an ordinary person to be a killer!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's spirits lifted, and they all felt a sense of final confirmation.

"Right, it's him! He's the killer!"

"That's right, when someone died earlier, I saw him right nearby."

"Now that you mention it, I seem to remember that too. When the last person died, he was not far away."

"Was he just acting scared this whole time?"

They began to chatter noisily all at once.

People are like this, especially when placed in a group; once a theory aligns with what they want to hear, they will fiercely defend it, even if it is built on lies.

Now, everyone was convinced that this man was the killer.

However, they faced a new problem: once the killer was found, how were they supposed to let Westford know?

According to the rules of the game Westford had previously stated, as long as the killer was found, the game should end, right? So why hadn't the game ended now that they had found the killer?

What on earth could they do to let Westford know they had found the killer?

No one stopped to think whether this man was truly the killer; they just wanted to end this absurd game by the simplest and fastest means possible.

"Why don't we just kill him? Maybe the game will end once the killer is dead." Someone in the crowd casually dropped these words.

This sentence was like a sudden awakening from a dream. Everyone turned their gazes toward the man simultaneously.

Their eyes were filled with either a desperate glimmer of hope or total darkness.

Indeed, if the boss in a game is gone, wouldn't that mean the game is cleared?

"N-no..." How could the man not understand what they meant?

Realizing the danger, he lifted his legs to run, but his legs had already turned to jelly from fear, and he couldn't run fast at all. Before long, he was surrounded by the crowd.

As mentioned before, under certain special conditions, negative emotions among humans can convert into one another. Right now, the terror gripping the crowd transformed into fury.

And the poor man was left to bear the full brunt of this rage.

The crowd first surrounded him, followed by heart-wrenching screams. When the crowd finally dispersed, only a mutilated corpse remained, unrecognizable as human.

No one spared the body a second glance, whether out of a desire to flee their inner condemnation or simply out of disdain.

Yet right at that moment, the lights went out again. True to form, another unexpected tragedy was about to strike.

Sure enough, when the surroundings regained their light, the woman from earlier lay quietly on the ground, practically torn in two.

This time, no one spoke. They all stared silently at the woman's corpse, their faces filled with utter bewilderment.

It seemed the person they had beaten to death was not the killer after all.

"Who suggested killing that man just now?" After a long silence, someone finally asked.

"Who knows?" the crowd replied.

Another silence followed. After an indeterminate amount of time, someone spoke up again.

"Who told him not to explain himself earlier? If he had just explained, maybe we wouldn't have wronged him."

"And he didn't even run away, just stood there acting like a lamb to the slaughter. There was nothing we could do..." another added.

No one knew the point of saying these things, but it felt like an attempt to escape their own guilt.

As time passed, terror permeated every person's heart, and a terrifying thought took root in all of them.

If they couldn't find the killer, wouldn't it solve everything just to kill everyone else besides themselves?

Once this notion arose, it was hard to shake off. Thus, someone stepped forward and stared at the middle-aged man.

"Tell me, why have you been leading us in the wrong direction all this time?"

The middle-aged man had been lost in thought. Hearing this, he was startled for a moment before frowning.

"What? Now you're suspecting me? I've been with you the entire time and never left."

"Maybe that's your brilliance? Using this exact method to deflect suspicion?"

The person who stepped forward showed no intention of backing down and continued pressing.

The middle-aged man's lips curled into a smile. "If we follow your logic, then aren't you suspecting me as a way to deflect suspicion from yourself?"

"I... impossible! If I were the killer, I would stay silent and kill in the shadows. How could I possibly step forward to question you?" He began to grow nervous.

Seeing the man's reaction, the curve of the middle-aged man's mouth widened even further.

"Yet, before this, you *did* stay silent and kill in the shadows."

The middle-aged man's words made everyone's breathing heavy. Could this person who had stepped forward genuinely be the problem?

However, having wrongfully killed someone earlier, everyone was now on high alert and dared not jump to conclusions easily.

Yet, the middle-aged man's next words rekindled their murderous intent.

"I can't guarantee whether you're the killer or not, but if you die, at the very least our probability of finding the killer will increase by a fraction."

The middle-aged man stared fixedly at the person who had stepped forward, his tone chillingly cold, sounding entirely inhuman.

The person took an involuntary step back, only to bump into someone behind him. Others had already blocked his escape route to prevent him from fleeing.

"You can't do this... murder is illegal..."

He read the intentions in the others' eyes, and his heart hammered wildly.

But it was already too late. Humans were creatures capable of doing anything for their own interests.

Compared to someone else's life versus increasing their own survival probability, they chose the latter.

And so, another round of mutual slaughter began.

Somewhere deep within the ancient castle, a doll watched all of this unfold, wearing a wildly ferocious smile.

"Hmph, humans? Just as pathetic as ever."