Chapter 133
There was silence in Room 204.
Cheng Yang winked at Lin Yi, signaling to give a reaction. Analysis was not his strong suit and the confidence he had built was quickly disappearing.
Lin Yi wasn’t paying attention to Cheng Yang. He was thinking about the possibility of Cheng Yang’s idea.
He thought back a little.
He had observed the student NPCs in the classroom before. The faces of some of the student NPCs were blurred and the faces of some of the student NPCs were clear. The number of student NPCs with clear faces was five.
If there was something to Cheng Yang’s words, this could also explain this phenomenon.
These five people who took the lead in ostracizing Sun Jingwen made the deepest impression on her.
It seemed that Sun Jingwen’s revenge must have been successful. That she was able to stand on the podium and take attendance and get the other students to cooperate with her, was enough to prove that she had used the cat curse to reverse her standing in the class.
So that students had to cooperate with her out of fear.
Cheng Yang was very excited now. He didn’t even wait for Lin Yi to ask him questions and took the initiative to answer the questions that weren’t forthcoming. “Why does Sun Jingwen count the students? Of course it is to create a mystery and scare the others. Just like that diary entry –“There’s a ghost in the school, run’ like that.”
Cheng Yang was starting to think of himself as a bonafide genius. He urgently needed Lin Yi’s affirmation. “Lin Yi Xiong, do you think what this brother of yours said makes sense?”
Seeing that Lin Yi was still deep in thought, Cheng Yang said, “Isn’t this the 8-4 Rule? It’s an mid-level rule, the giant among the dwarves. It’s definitely not as complicated as you think, Lin Yi Xiong.”
Lin Yi stopped thinking. He looked up at Cheng Yang and then shook his head. “That’s not right.”
Cheng Yang: “Huh?”
Lin Yi said, “If Sun Jingwen were counting to frighten the other students, she wouldn’t have underreported but rather, she would have overreported the number instead. When there is one more person in a fixed number of people, the scare effect is greater than when saying there’s one person less.”
Cheng Yang hesitated. “That’s true.”
“But as for the other things you said, I think it’s possible,” Lin Yi said. He suddenly understood what Qin Zhou must have felt.
At that time, in the world of 7-7 Rule World, as the student union president, he watched as a newborn hatchling tried to analyze clues. Qin Zhou must have felt that part of what Lin Yi said made sense but couldn’t believe it completely. He must have felt conflicted but also somewhat gratified at the same time.
But Qin Zhou must have felt relieved that there was finally someone in this group of people in the 7-7 Rule World who could help.
And now, Lin Yi was happy that it was Cheng Yang.
Cheng Yang has started using his brain.
“Cheng Yang Xiong.” Lin Yi patted Cheng Yang on the shoulder. “The future is promising – hiss.”
He had forgotten about the wound on his hand.
Just as Cheng Yang was about to fuss over him, Lin Yi said, “But the protagonist of the 8-4 Rule World can’t be Sun Jingwen.”
Cheng Yang didn’t understand. “Why not? She has this entire story about her.”
“The 8-4 Rule mentions a package,” Lin Yi said. “Her curse is a cat curse and has nothing to do with the packages. The real protagonist of the 8-4 Rule World still has to be related to the curse letters.”
Because only the curse letters were delivered using packages.
Cheng Yang: “Ah, that’s right.”
He suddenly had a realization. “So I figured out all that for nothing? All those lucky guesses were useless?”
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.
“No,” Lin Yi said. “It’s not useless.”
Ciatbeut Jtfcu Tjcu’r atfbgs ralii cffvfv ab yf nfglolfv ys miefr, Jtfcu Tjcu tjv rjlv rbwfatlcu nfgs gfjrbcjyif. Ktf 8-4 Eeif kjr atf tlutfra Eeif jwbcu atf wlv-ifnfi Eeifr. Pa kjrc’a jr vloolmeia atjc atf batfg Eeifr atja cffvfv atf Vaevfca Fclbc ab mbbgvlcjaf rmtbbi tbilvjsr obg. Lf wluta pera lcvffv yf bnfg-mbwqilmjalcu atf qgbyifw.
Such as the Transmission.
He’d connected the curse letter with Transmission, which led to many problems that needed to be solved — such as who was the person who released the pigeon? Who was the pigeon that was connected to the pigeon by one foot?
Given the premise of Transmission, that thing the cats were leading simply didn’t belong.
He had to think about this problem in a different way.
Lin Yi tried to think of the problem more simply. The fragments of clues he had obtained appeared in his mind.
There was no doubt that Sun Jingwen was not the protagonist of the 8-4 Rule World.
But even if Sun Jingwen isn’t the protagonist of the 8-4 Rule World, her story line must be related to the main plot.
Although Sun Jingwen’s story line that Cheng Yang had inferred was still uncertain, one thing was certain.
Sun Jingwen knew about the cat curse and used the cat curse to take revenge on others. This had been clearly written in Sun Jingwen’s diary.
So those who were related to Sun Jingwen were the five people who appeared in her diary and the cats.
Thinking of this, Lin Yi raised his head and looked thoughtfully at the window.
To prevent the black cat summoned by the cat curse from seeing Lin Yi, Cheng Yang had pulled the curtains closed. Fearing that some mishap might happen, he had even moved the room’s desk and chair to push against the curtains.
There was a slight fluctuation of emotions in Lin Yi’s heart.
Why did this school that had a teaching building and a dorm building keep giving Lin Yi the feeling that something was missing?
Because there were indeed many things missing.
Such as a sport field.
No matter how small a school, there would still be some sort of sports field or playground.
Such as a canteen.
Since Baoxiang Secondary School has a dorm building, how could it not be equipped with a canteen?
And why, while waiting for everyone to gather before the 8-4 Rule started, had Lin Yi seen the brick falling from the wall of Baoxiang Secondary School? Why had he seen the graffiti made by the students on the wall; the weeds at the foot of the wall and the glass shards atop to prevent people from climbing over?
In contrast, why had the teaching building looked blurry, as though liquified?
And why did Baoxiang Secondary School have students but no teachers?
Because this was Baoxiang Secondary School in the eyes of a cat.
Cats like to walk atop fences, so naturally, they were more familiar with fences than with teaching buildings.
This was the 8-4 Rule World created by a cat. The 8-4 Monster was a cat.
But even a cat turned Mosnter wouldn’t know that a school would have a sports field for school activities nor would it know that a school with a dorm would have a canteen, otherwise where would the resident students eat?
Baoxiang Secondary School only has the teaching building, dormitory building and the road connecting the two because these were the cat’s only haunts. The cat only remembered these so the 8-4 Rule World only has one teaching building, one dormitory building and one road.
Thinking of this, Lin Yi immediately overturned the reason why the face of the student NPCs were blurry.
Now, it seemed that it was not Sun Jingwen who caused the student NPCs’ faces to be blurred, but the cat.
The brain size of a cat is only 25 ml and its memory simply couldn’t compare with that of a human. Therefore, it could only remember important people in its limited memory storage space.
In the 8-4 Rule World, only the people marked by the cat will have a clear face.
For example, Sun Jingwen.
Sun Jingwen found five cats and used them in the cat curse.
The cat noted that she had stolen its kittens.
For example, those five people.
Sun Jingwen cursed these five people with a cat curse and the cat must have noticed the smell of its kittens on them.
So the faces of these five people were clear.
The person who wrote the first curse letter must be among the people with clear faces.
Having reach this point in his analysis, Lin Yi presented Cheng Yang with his results.
Before they clear through this mystery, Lin Yi couldn’t let his usual thinking patterns make it more difficult for him.
And when it came to thinking simply, Cheng Yang was better.
So at this time, Lin Yi decided to discuss the answers with Cheng Yang.
Just like with uncertain math questions, a calculated answer reached by the largest number of people was likely to be the correct answer.
Lin Yi then asked, “Cheng Yang Xiong, why did Sun Jingwen count one less person?”
With what Lin Yi had just told Cheng Yang, Cheng Yang said without thinking, “Because she was afraid of being retaliated against.”
Lin Yi understood.
He and Cheng Yang had the same answer.
Why did Sun Jingwen count the students and report that there was one person less?
The way curse letters are spread is by mail and judging by the Rules of Death gained from their suspenseful experiences of the previous two nights, the participants are fully capable of spreading the curse letters.
Since there was no restrictions to spreading the curse letters, Sun Jingwen, who deeply believed in these things, was more afraid than anyone else that she would receive this curse letter.
So, from the very beginning, she already said that there was a missing person.
The purpose was to created a deep seated impression among the participants that there was someone missing in the class, so that the curse letter would not be sent to her. After all, she wasn’t available in the first place.
After getting the same answer to the first question, Lin Yi asked the second question.
“Why did Sun Jingwen then expose herself?”
Cheng Yang still blurted out without giving it much thought. “If we’re all dead, no one can send her a curse letter.”
The answer to the second question was the same again.
Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief.
Regarding Sun Jingwen exposing herself, Lin Yi’s conclusion wasn’t the slightest bit different from Cheng Yang’s; they matched completely.
Sun Jingwen had worried that the curse letter would reach her. In addition to instilling the idea that “she was missing” among the participants, there was another way to effectively prevent herself from receiving the curse letter.
That was to kill those who could spread curse letters.
Lin Yi’s previous idea of there being a competition wasn’t correct. He had over-complicated things. Sun Jingwen wasn’t using cat curses to compete with the curse letters to see who could kill more. Rather, she was using it simply to ensure her safety.
And when someone notices that Sun Jingwen is the missing classmate, they step into Sun Jingwen’s trap.
Just like Lin Yi, when he noticed she was missing, he inevitably went to ascertain she was missing and then he was cursed by Sun Jingwen with the cat curse.
After checking the answer to the second question, it was time for the third question.
This was also a more important question than the first two and accounted for much more points than the first two questions.
Before opening his mouth to check the answer to the third question, Lin Yi said, “In addition to Sun Jingwen and these five people, there is one other person whose face is clear.”
Cheng Yang was so frightened by the realization that he felt a chill all over his body. This made it difficult for him to spit out the answer. He gave a shiver before saying, “The…the mailroom auntie.”
“That’s right.” Lin Yi nodded. With Cheng Yang as the rookie, Lin Yi was made very calm. He asked, “Cheng Yang Xiong, between these five people cursed by the cat curse and the mailroom auntie, who do you think was most likely to have been the first person to write the curse letter?”
These five did have a motive for writing the curse letters.
They were retaliated against by Sun Jingwen using the cat curse, so in an attempt to give her a taste of her own medicine, they could have written the curse letter.
Compared to these five, the mailroom auntie seemed to have no motive.
The mailroom auntie’s activities were limited to the dormitory building, unlike Sun Jingwen, whose activities were in the teaching building. Moreover, it was unlikely for the mailroom auntie, given her age, to have friction with a group of high schoolers.
But the strange thing was, the face of the the mailroom auntie was clear.
She must occupy an extremely important place in the cat’s memory.
After asking this question, Lin Yi stared at Cheng Yang, waiting for Cheng Yang to answer his question.
The third question made Cheng Yang stop and think for a moment. “I think it must have been the mailroom auntie.”
After Cheng Yang finished speaking, he asked Lin Yi, “Lin Yi Xiong, did we not think the same thing?”
Instead of answering, Lin Yi asked, “Cheng Yang Xiong, how did you get to that answer?”
Cheng Yang said, “Those five were cursed by the cat curse, so it must have traumatized them. Just like when I see Xia Hui now, I just can’t stop trembling. Xia Hui’s scent keeps saving my shitty life but everytime I see him, I get so fucking scared. I’m afraid of dying. If I were one of those five and someone cursed me with a cat curse, I would do whatever she said. If she told me to eat shit, I’d eat shit. How could I have the guts to write a curse letter right under her nose? Am I tired of living?”
“There are only two choices for the answer — either these five or the mailroom auntie. So that leaves only the mailroom auntie,” Cheng Yang said. He then suddenly had a thought. “Otherwise, when we sent those packages, wouldn’t she have asked questions instead of just accepting our packages for delivery?”
Lin Yi nodded, agreeing with the second half of Cheng Yang’s words.
Cheng Yang didn’t dare to show off at this time. “Look, I just said those things casually, Lin Yi Xiong. Think whatever you want, don’t let my rubbish thoughts lead you astray.”
Lin Yi said, “I won’t be led astray.”
Cheng Yang didn’t expect that he’d able able to answer so many questions correctly. “Did we come up with the same answer again?”
“Not exactly,” Lin Yi said. “Who was the first person to write a curse letter? I have no idea right now.”
Lin Yi liked to use evidence to diverge his thinking. Whether the curse letter was written by those five or the mailroom auntie, so far, he had no evidence that could point him to the answer.
Lin Yi said, “Cheng Yang Xiong, I do have another idea though.”
Cheng Yang’s right eyelid started to twitch again. “Wha-…what?”
Lin Yi said, “Let’s go to the mailroom and have a look.”
Fascinating!! It’s a kitty’s world and we’re just living in it.
The monster is a cat!? … I really won’t survive in this novel huh…
This world is catshit crazy.. meow ~
I deeply understand how Cheng Yang feels🥲, I still don’t understand that list Lin Yi made for the transmission curse. I never would’ve have been able to guess that the monster is a cat🐈⬛ I guess I should just wait to die or look for a big thigh to hug 🦵🏽🤷🏽♀️
Love that one thing you can trust is the twitching of Cheng Yang’s right eye. That ALWAYS predicts correctly