Chu Huai hesitated because in the first round, he had directly eliminated contestant number twenty-seven.
He had a special impression of contestant number twenty-seven in the first round as he touched their wrist.
There was a small bump on the wrist of contestant number twenty-seven, which seemed to be a mole, but Jin Tianyi’s hand was smooth and had no moles.
The touch time in the first round was only ten seconds, and he couldn’t even determine the gender of contestant number twenty-seven, but that mole was too obvious.
Now the overpowering smell of blood made him hesitate.
Jin Tianyi often wore a watch, perhaps all the objects on the contestants’ bodies in the cube were shielded? So the mole covered by the watch strap was exposed?
In fact, if he put himself in Jin Tianyi’s shoes, if he were the ghost in the cube and his goal was to be selected to eat the contestants, he would do everything possible to conceal his ghostly features. From a certain perspective, the smell of blood was indeed one of the criteria to judge between humans and ghosts.
If the ghosts in the cube had special abilities, they would definitely disguise themselves as humans, and even disguise themselves as Jin Tianyi to deceive others. Exposing the smell of blood was not a wise choice.
So…
Chu Huai opened his eyes, but his vision was blocked, and he couldn’t see anything. He felt like a blind person.
Jin Tianyi in the cube suddenly made eye contact with Chu Huai, seeing the confusion and hesitation in his eyes, and smiled faintly.
To be honest, there was nothing scary about him. If Chu Huai couldn’t make a choice, then no one could.
The scene was too eerie, with blood dripping down Jin Tianyi’s hand and falling to the ground, his face pale.
Due to the experience of the previous copy, Chu Huai had brought a weapon with him when entering the copy, and it did indeed come in handy during the teleportation process.
Jin Tianyi was not too worried about his body being unable to withstand it. The Horror Playground copy was special. Once the contestants completed all the tasks they possessed, they could go to the exit and leave first, and all the injuries sustained during the mission would heal immediately upon returning.
Now he can only do his best to give Chu Huai hints and wait quietly… He chooses to rely on himself.
He can’t stand in Chu Huai’s perspective to understand the situation in the other cubes, so he hasn’t analyzed any clues for now.
Jin Tianyi’s cube disappears quickly.
Chu Huai continues to sniff.
Slowly, he feels puzzled.
If touch and smell are difficult to distinguish a person, what about hearing and vision…?
It seems too simple to identify someone by their voice, even without considering intimate loved ones, as long as they are familiar, they can be recognized.
And do the ghosts in those cubes really have no special abilities?
Is the situation really that simple? What are the clues…?
Cube number 35 stops in front of Chu Huai, and his expression brightens.
This is the one he thought looked the most like Jin Tianyi in the first round.
He also touches the wrist of cube number 35, which is wearing a men’s watch with a leather strap, and Jin Tianyi also has a similar one.
Cube number 35 does not have a special smell. Chu Huai’s hopes rise slightly, but he also vaguely feels that things are not so simple.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ktf rfmbcv gbecv delmxis mbwfr ab jc fcv.
Jte Lejl bgujclhfr atf rfglji cewyfgr bc atf qjqfg jcv wjxfr jvvlalbcji wjgxlcur bc meyf cewyfgr 27 jcv 35.
Aera jr Jte Lejl lr jybea ab rbga bea tlr atbeutar, atf ibevrqfjxfg yijgfr: “Ktf olgra tjio bo atf rfifmalbc gbecv lr bnfg. Uifjrf filwlcjaf 22 rfglji cewyfgr. Ktf cfza akb gbecvr klii yf mbcvemafv jwbcu atf gfwjlclcu 22 meyfr. Uifjrf ulnf sbeg jcrkfg lc atgff wlceafr.”
Chu Huai’s expression froze for a second, his gaze slightly darkening.
Is this forcing himself to eliminate half of them?
Indeed, due to insufficient understanding of the senses, screening now would have a higher error rate.
Chu Huai looked at the paper in his hand, lost in thought. Why does the loudspeaker sound so… impatient?
According to his thought process, the first batch to be eliminated should be the least human-like, with a low probability of error. But…
Is it really like this…?
Chu Huai’s eyes blanked as he recalled the words on the clue cards one by one.
After excluding those they have already encountered, there are still a dozen or so left.
At first, he had no clue, but now… Chu Huai’s gaze fell on a word.
“Half true, half false.”
Chu Huai’s expression changed, in the natural world, during sexual selection, there seems to be… deceptive behavior.
Taking humans as an example, during the initial stages of romantic relationships, both men and women tend to showcase their better qualities to each other and hide their flaws, and that’s just the surface level.
In more extreme cases, in order to achieve a predetermined goal, such as getting someone into bed, some may even conceal their true financial status, marital status, or age.
Deception exists in the process of sexual selection. Does this imply that in the visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory senses, there are senses that are false, deceiving him and leading him to make the wrong choices?
After all, sexual selection is a process involving both parties. He can perceive through his senses, but the other party can also deceive through means. So whether what he perceives is true or not is the most crucial part.
Loudspeaker: “Time’s up. Chu Huai, the task participant, please write down the numbers of the remaining cubes within one minute. Maximum of 22, no limit below that.”
Chu Huai no longer had time to ponder. Without much hesitation, he filled in the remaining sixteen slots that he had saved through two rounds. He didn’t have time to start over, so he had to make these choices with a stiff upper lip.
The loudspeaker seemed too eager and immediately asked: “Have you finished filling in the slots?”
Chu Huai shook his head, thought for a moment, and smirked as he filled in six more numbers that he initially thought were the least human-like during the first round, before handing them over.
Chu Huai had his own considerations.
If half of the senses were fake, then it was unlikely that the first two rounds were all real and the third and fourth rounds were all fake. If that were the case, after filtering through the first two rounds, the remaining options would mostly be human, and even if the senses in the third and fourth rounds were fake, the probability of the tasker choosing correctly would still be high. So there must be fakes in the first two rounds.
But were they fake in terms of touch or smell…? Or were both of them fake?
The loudspeaker said: “The screening is complete, and the third round of auditory senses will begin in three minutes. The tasker’s other senses will now be blocked.”
As soon as the voice fell, Chu Huai couldn’t see anything again, so he could only stand quietly in the darkness.
What he didn’t know was that not far in front of him, there was a counter with numbers on it. The previous numbers were 3/16, and then it changed to 8/22.
Of the six that he filled in later, five of them were… human.
And of the sixteen he originally selected, only… three were human.
If it wasn’t for his last-minute actions, his probability of choosing correctly had silently dropped to less than one-fifth.
Chu Huai had caught on to something and remained vigilant.
Firstly, there must be fakes in the first two rounds, so there must be real ones in the third and fourth rounds.
If all of the first two rounds were fake, then the six he filled in last and the number 27 with the strong smell of blood would be his hope. If only some of the first two rounds were real, then he would have to carefully consider his next moves.
To be honest, it’s not difficult for him to choose the right person, but his goal is to find Jin Tianyi.
The third round begins.
Loudspeaker: “The third round begins. The remaining 22 participants each have a chance to say a sentence, as the cube does not transmit sound. Please enter the cube and identify for yourself.”
With the explanation from the loudspeaker, Chu Huai’s other senses were instantly blocked.
He stepped onto the first cube under traction.
“I am Chu Jiao.” Jin Tianyi’s voice.
Chu Huai’s figure froze for a moment, then smiled. It was too obvious, too fake.
If it was so easy to find Jin Tianyi, then the first two rounds were just jokes.
As expected, the second one: “Take me with you, Chu Jiao.”
Still Jin Tianyi’s voice.
So… the auditory sense is fake, he could confirm that either the sense of smell or touch from the first two rounds was real.
The third one was also Jin Tianyi’s voice, along with the hint of tapping the cube wall, but Chu Huai was unmoved.
The fourth one, that thing almost had to hit its head on the ground to hint at itself.
The fifth one: “I am Chu Jiao! I love you!”
Chu Huai laughed silently in his mind. Suddenly, he came up with an unreliable way to find Jin Tianyi.
Chu Huai happened to step into cube number 35 and started testing his method. One minute later, he came out disappointed.
No, the most hopeful number 35 was not Jin Tianyi. So the sense of touch is likely fake.
When he reached cube number 27, Chu Huai was already numb from “confessions” from “Jin Tianyi”.
His method was tested, but there were no results for the time being.
Stepping into cube twenty-seven, Jin Tianyi looked at Chu Huai, whose eyes were unfocused as if blind, knowing that he had no sense of touch, and he smiled as he secretly touched his face.
He was prohibited by the copy from making any sound.
The cube was pitch black inside, but there was a device at the top that was blinking with light, visible to Jin Tianyi but not to Chu Huai.
It was a horn-like device.
The thing blinked twice, and his own voice came from inside: “Chu Jiao, I love you.”
Jin Tianyi’s face stiffened, “…”
Before Chu Huai came in, the cube was completely isolated, and Jin Tianyi had no idea what was happening outside. Now suddenly hearing “himself” say such words, and Chu Huai being right in front of him, he actually felt embarrassed about confessing his feelings.
Chu Huai continued to experiment, pretending to be annoyed by the confession: “I know you love me, alright!”
After all, the requirements didn’t say that the tasker couldn’t speak.
Jin Tianyi’s face turned red suddenly.
“Can we change it up a bit, bro? I’m getting tired of hearing the same thing over and over again. How about something like…” he paused,
“Chu Jiao, I know where you have a mole on your body.”
“Or, for example…” Chu Huai fearlessly continued: “Jin Tianyi, I want to f*ck you.” Chu Huai laughed unabashedly.
After all, the previous love interest setting couldn’t be sustained anymore.
Jin Tianyi was stunned for a moment, trying to digest it. His heartbeat was a little fast, and he looked at Chu Huai with a greenish gaze.
After finishing his statement, Chu Huai took a few random steps inside the cube. Before Jin Tianyi could react, Chu Huai’s body was already pressed against his.
Chu Huai had a smile on his face earlier, but after three seconds of silence, he suddenly jumped away from Jin Tianyi, his face turning red, as if trying to conceal his embarrassment. He walked out of the cube with a feigned calmness.
Jin Tianyi was taken aback. Wasn’t Chu Huai supposed to have no sense of touch…?
Chu Huai shouted loudly: “I want to terminate the third phase and make the final choice.”
The loudspeaker didn’t respond immediately, and it took a while before it spoke up:
“Tasker Chu Huai, confirm to make an early choice? Reminder, choosing the ghost on the twenty-seventh will become its fo…”
“Don’t waste time,” Chu Huai interrupted, without much hesitation: “I choose twenty-seventh.”
The loudspeaker fell silent for a moment.
Chu Huai blushed in the unseen area.
His unreliable method had worked.
Because his other senses were blocked, his hearing was unusually sharp.
After he said those words and approached Jin Tianyi, he heard Jin Tianyi’s fast and erratic heartbeat.
Number thirty-five remained indifferent to his previous confession.
The words of confession were fake, a deception of the hearing, but the heartbeat was real.
Your heart can’t lie!!!
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
Seems unreliable. What if it was a ghost excited about its food being close? Or a man excited about a pretty girl being pressed so close to his body? Multiple possibilities
Well he did say it’s a “un reliable” method, lmao
When i read the sentence “listening to the heartbeat” or “the heartbeat is real” i suddenly remember drunk Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian 😎😎
Same! 🤝
OMG he’s so smart!