CH 36.2

The long-haired girl had her head titled slightly in the group photo, leaning against another girl smiling sweetly for the camera.

The girl she was leaning against was the woman in red. In the photo, the woman in red in the photo wasn’t wearing a dazzling red dress as she was now. Rather, she was wearing an ordinary school uniform like everyone else. The face of the woman in red was also very young. It looked like a photo from her school days many years ago. 

It could be seen that the long-haired girl had a good relationship with the woman in red. She leaned her head lightly on the women’s slender shoulder and held her arm in her hands.

Although the expression of the woman in red was a little stiff, she showed no resistance.

Lin Yi, who suffered from social phobia, was very familiar with this expression. When faced with close contact with someone who he had a good relationship with, because he wasn’t used to nor was he particularly fond of contact with others, he would go all stiff and uncomfortable but because that person was a good friend, he also wouldn’t resist.

From the perspective of the woman in red, her relationship with the long-haired girl was also very good. 

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have allowed the long-haired goddess to hold her arm nor would she have put this photo into a frame and keep it to this day.

They must all be friends of the woman in red and they had a good relationship. Ou Ying must have found that Lin Yi was paying particularly close attention to the long-haired girl because Ou Ying explained, “If the woman in red was close only to this girl, she could have just completely cut out the rest and only kept this portion of the photo with them in it.”

“This is what a solitary sort of person would have done.” Ou Ying said.

Ou Ying also gleaned a bit about the woman in red’s character through this photo. In this group photo, everyone was wearing school uniforms. Although the school uniforms were ordinary, they looked full of vigor because of the smiles on everyone’s faces; all except for the woman in red.

And although they all had different poses, they all faced the camera and only the woman in red looked away, as though she were afraid of the camera.

This was similar to Lin Yi, who was also afraid cameras.

Having his picture taken by a camera made Lin Yi uncomfortable.

“Lin Yi, look at the back of the photo.” Ou Ying reminded him. 

Lin Yi turned over the photo. There were many messages, all of which were words of blessing:

‘Happy birthday, darling! Love you! — Linlin’

‘Happy birthday, Ojousama‘

This may be the first birthday we’ve spent with you but this won’t be the last. We’ll be there for all your future birthdays!’ 

‘Although you seldom smile, you’re really pretty when you do so smile more, baby!’

‘Happy birthday, every year will have this day and all these days make up you.’

‘For me, the most special thing this year has been meeting you’

‘To be honest, I thought you were super cold before, but now I think you are super cute’ 

Olc Tl kjr ralii gfjvlcu jcv Ye Tlcu kjr yfrlvf tlw ibbxlcu ja atf qtbab jr kfii. Vtf rjlv, “Ktf wjlc mtjgjmafg wera yf atf kbwjc lc gfv.”

Olc Tl ifa bea jc ‘fc’.

Lf jcv Ye Tlcu rtjgfv atf rjwf atbeuta. Rba bcis yfmjerf atf kbwjc lc gfv kjr lc mfcafg qbrlalbc lc atf ugbeq qtbab yea jirb yfmjerf atf ylgatvjs klrtfr bc atf yjmx mbcolgwfv la.

Lin Yi continued reading. 

‘What do you mean super cute? You’re not cute, you’re obviously super cool, okay? Happy birthday, cool girl. ‘

‘After I met you, I don’t dare to sleep alone anymore. Huhuhu. I don’t care if you have to be responsible for me, the kind of responsible for me that last the rest of my life! ! ! ‘

‘It was like a dream. I never thought we would be friends, happy birthday, my new friend. ‘

Lin Yi quickly extracted the keywords. 

Seldom smile, first birthday, didn’t expect us to be friends… new friend.

En, it hadn’t been long since the woman in red became their friend.

Lin Yi lowered his eyes and thought for a while.

Taking himself as an example, if he had a particularly close friend, although a close friend getting close would feel unnatural, he wouldn’t resist. 

However, it takes time for a relationship to develop to this level of closeness. Even the friend-less Lin Yi knew that utmost devotion wasn’t going to result from just two or three days of acquaintanceship.

But the woman in red hadn’t known them for long. That she could allow the long-haired girl to touch her…

Ou Ying said, “Maybe it’s because she didn’t have any friends before?”

Lin Yi pursed his lips thinking about Ou Ying’s words. 

Ou Ying said, “Because she never had friends before, when she did get friends she cherished them a lot.”

Lin Yi thought for a while and nodded. “That’s probably it.”

Cheng Yang on the bed let out an ‘oh’ and then said, “No way, was the woman in red unable to accept the death of her friends so she’s taking revenge on us?”

“At the end of yesterday’s Anke game, the woman in red said, ‘The dead will kill for revenge’. It wasn’t just He Yi and the others who appeared last night. They also appeared.” Lin Yi pointed to the group photo, “She was concealing a point about the ghosts who came back for revenge. The complete sentence must be ‘all those who died in this villa’.” 

“This villa belongs to the woman in red. Someone in the birthday greetings called her an ‘Ojousama’.” Lin Yi said, “All her friends died in her villa but she has survived until now. The probability of an accident is very low. I’m more inclined to believe she had a hand in killing them.”

Cheng Yang trembled a bit. “The woman in red killed her frie-friends? They got along so well, why did the woman in red kill…them…my god…”

Ou Ying thought for a while and said, “Everyone has different ways of expressing how they ‘cherish’ someone. Some do it by carefully taking care of others while those with an extreme way of thinking would use extreme methods.”

She provided Cheng Yang with an idea, and Cheng Yang said, “Is Ou Ying Xue Jie talking about a ‘yandere’?” 

Cheng Yang tried to think with his brain for the first time. “A group of normal people became friends with a yandere but the yandere killed them. Oh shit, why are they so creepy?”

Cheng Yang buried his face in the pillow and then looked up at Lin Yi after a while, “Lin Yi Xiong, am I right?”

After all, this was his first attempt at deduction. No matter how unwell Cheng Yang felt, he still wanted Lin Yi’s approval.

Lin Yi didn’t notice Cheng Yang’s attempt at fishing for compliments. He shook his head and said, “It’s not a yandere.” 

Cheng Yang: “Oh.”

Ou Ying asked: “Lin Yi, what’s your basis?”

Lin Yi explained, “The Rule of Death is believing that there are ghosts in the world. Every Rule of Death is customized to each Rule World; just like the how the Rules of Death in the 7-7 Rule World were related to the main line of the 7-7 Rule World. If the woman in red is a yandere, her reason for killing them would have nothing to do with last night’s rule of death.”

Cheng Yang made a second attempt at deduction. “Is it because her friends believe in ghosts, but she doesn’t that she grew to hate them and so she killed them?” 

Lin Yi said, “No.”

Cheng Yang was stunned.

Lin Yi said, “Whether the Rules of Death were satisfied or not is the prerequisite for NPCs to act. They are indeed ghosts, but they are also NPCs. Nothing says that NPCs can only be humans. The vase girl in the 7-7 Rule World was also an NPC.” Lin Yi raised the photo, “They are the ones who killed us. It could be said that they killed us because we believed in ghosts. As long as we don’t believe, the people in the photos won’t do anything. In other words, the people in the photo are the ones who don’t believe in ghosts and the one who really believes in ghosts is the woman in red. ”

Cheng Yang started his third attempt. “Because none of her friends believed in ghosts but she believed, so she killed her friends…” 

Unable to wait for Lin Yi to give a possibility score, Cheng Yang waved his hand himself. “Forget it. I can’t even bear to listen to myself, it’s too far-fetched. There’s no leveling up for me. I just have to accept that my IQ will stay forever at bronze level.”

Only then did Lin Yi realize the reason for Cheng Yang’s self-deprecatory remarks. He scratched his head and said, “Cheng Yang Xiong, you actually have leveled up.”

Cheng Yang’s eyes lit up and his breathing grew much easier. “I’m right?”

Lin Yi expressed his thoughts: “The woman in red must be an extreme supernatural enthusiast.” 

There were many points to support this conjecture — like the mirror at the end of the bed, the food made out of those strange molds and the mechanisms set up in the villa – the lifting table, the blackout curtains were all there to create a spooky and terrifying atmosphere.

The most important were the ‘cool girl’ and ‘After I met you, I don’t dare to sleep alone anymore’ written among the birthday wishes.

During one’s school days, a special hobby was really cool and this supernatural hobby really could scare people into developing insomnia.

Ou Ying approved of this conjecture as well. She also had some thoughts, “For someone who’s an avid supernatural enthusiast, having this kind of hobby might be the reason she has no friends around her, making her withdrawn. When she managed to make friends, she really cherished them. She might have shared her hobbies with her friends.” 

“But not everyone is interested in the supernatural. Once or twice would be okay…” Ou Ying said, “But if you keep sharing it, it will be counterproductive. Maybe her friends finally couldn’t stand her one day which made her hold a grudge. So she invite them to her house to kill them.”

Cheng Yang felt sharply the IQ gap between a bronze level and a top student.

Lin Yi added, “She specially invited her friends to play at her house. Barring something unforeseen, they must have played a horror-oriented game. She was both a player and a performer to make friends believe in the existence of ghosts. ”

Cheng Yang asked with a trembling voice, “When the ghosts appeared to them, they must have believed. Her original intention was to make her friends believe that there are ghosts in the world. Now that her goal had been achieved, why kill them?” 

Lin Yi said, “The woman in red has two identities. One is the players playing along with them. This can be proved by the number of people pulled into this world. 13 people were pulled into this world and there are also 13 people in the photo. Her other identity is a ghost, one dressed in red. This is the identity she used to scare her friends back then.”

Ou Ying nodded. “There’s a horror legend that people who die wearing red will turn into a vengeful spirit. Beilef in this saying is deeply rooted, just like how a mirror can’t face the bed.”

Lin Yi: “But now, she only exists in the 2-6 Rule World with this identity and didn’t join us, the players. I think she must have a particularly deep resentment towards red clothes.”

Cheng Yang: “Wha…what does this…mean?” 

Lin Yi: “It means that her pretentious tricks had been discovered.”

It was as if a stone had been smashed against Cheng Yang’s heart, causing a chill down his back.

Ou Ying said, “So when she failed in her objective, she turned murderous and killed her friends.”

Lin Yi nodded. “That should be how it went.” 

Ou Ying found that every time Lin Yi gave his deductions, he would use such modest words like ‘should’, ‘maybe’, ‘probably’ and ‘I am inclined to think’. But actually every reasoning Lin Yi made was based on evidence.

So for Lin Yi to be sure who the 2-6 Monster was must be because the 2-6 Monster had given itself away and was caught by Lin Yi.

She suddenly approved 100% of whoever it was that Lin Yi thought to be the 2-6 Monster.

Although she didn’t know who this was. 

“This is the main line of the 2-6 Rule World.” Ou Ying thought for a while, “There doesn’t seem to be any other details that need to be added.”

After saying this, Ou Ying looked at Lin Yi.

She thought Lin Yi was going to propose a way to do the Replay but Ou Ying waited for a long time but got nothing.

Ou Ying was silent for a while and then said, “You were able to make a conjecture about the overall situation of the 2-6 Rule World from a single photo. Lin Yi, you must have already known about the main line of the 2-6 Rule World before only that you had no evidence. ” 

Afraid that Ou Ying might misunderstand it as him deliberately hiding things from her, Lin Yi hurriedly explained, “Senior said before that in the Rule World, one had to be certain and it’s necessary to find the key clues. Otherwise, this is all empty talk. Xue Jie, I really didn’t mean to hide my guess.”

Ou Ying shook her head. “I know that. I’ve been thinking about it. There’s me and Zhou Ge. Chen Jinnan and the others aren’t as good but they won’t be useless. If you find the 2-6 Monster for a Replay, it wouldn’t be difficult. But you said to be certain. I’m thinking, since you can already deduce the Rule World’s main line by the third day here, what’s difficult for you isn’t the main line of the 2-6 Rule World but the 2- 6 Monster.”

“Because what you want is not just a Replay, you want to completely eliminate the 2-6 Monster.” Ou Ying stared at Lin Yi and said, “Before this photo, you didn’t reveal your guess about the main line and you’ve kept secret about who you think is the 2-6 Monster. And you’ve done that because you still don’t know how to eliminate the 2-6 Monster. Among us, the only one who could make you uncertain of how deal with them is Zhou Ge, right?”

“Lin Yi.” Ou Ying said, “Zhou Ge is the 2-6 Monster, isn’t he?”