Listening to Chen Junnan’s lazy tone, the girl couldn’t help but feel annoyed.
“Hey… can you at least act a little tense? We could die at any moment now…”
“Would being tense stop us from dying?” Chen Junnan scratched his ear. “Miss, what’s your name?”
“I…” The girl sighed. “Xu Qian.”
“Hey, I’ve got an old classmate named Xu Qian too. What a coincidence, huh?”
Xu Qian fell silent for a moment before replying helplessly, “It’s a really common name. If you’ve got nothing to say, just stop forcing the conversation. What do you actually want?”
“I just think this game is making me a bit sleepy,” Chen Junnan sighed. “Why don’t we spice things up a bit?”
“Spice things up?” Xu Qian looked puzzled. “At a time like this, when we could die any second, you’re worried about things being ‘spicy’?”
“Of course,” Chen Junnan chuckled. “You’re a girl, so you can call the Earth Snake over, right?”
“Wait, no…” Xu Qian froze. “The Earth Snake said before that we can only call him if we feel like we’re about to—”
“—die,” Chen Junnan cut in. “Yeah, so go ahead and call for help.”
“Help my ass!” Xu Qian was tempted to hang up—again. “Why the hell would I call him for help?”
“To help me lure him over!”
“Why don’t you call him yourself?!”
“Because I’m a guy!”
Though they’d only spoken a few times, the two were already on the verge of an argument.
“What does being a guy have to do with anything?!” Xu Qian was visibly furious. “Does calling the referee depend on gender now?”
“That old pervert wouldn’t listen to me! Come on, Sis Qian, just do me this favor.”
“You just called him an old pervert!” Xu Qian snapped. “And didn’t the Earth Snake say he’d ‘help women if they behaved’? That doesn’t sound right at all! Why would I call him?!”
“Hey, relax!” Chen Junnan grinned. “Once you get him here, I’ll handle the talking. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You don’t exactly inspire confidence…” Xu Qian sighed. “You can’t even leave your room. How are you going to guarantee my safety?”
“Well, what do you want me to do?” Chen Junnan was at a loss. “You’re the only one I can contact right now.”
“Fine… give it a few more rounds,” Xu Qian relented. “If you can keep me safe, I’ll call the Earth Snake for you.”
“Alright, deal.” Chen Junnan nodded regretfully. “Gotta go now. Keep in touch!”
Xu Qian hung up without another word, and Chen Junnan reluctantly put down the phone.
He sat down in his chair, resting his hands naturally on either side of the screen.
The moment his fingers touched the two buttons, a strange sensation began to creep over him.
“Wait… what?”
He placed his thumbs on the buttons—they fit perfectly.
“This… is this…?”
Just as he hesitated, the phone suddenly rang again.
**Ring-ring—!!!**
“Damn it!” Chen Junnan jumped. “I swear, I’m gonna yank that phone line out one of these days…”
He picked up the receiver. “Hello? This is the Handsome Man’s Earth Snake Hotline. What’s up?”
“Chen Junnan, what’s going on over there?” Yun Yao sounded confused. “Your line’s been busy for ages.”
“Busy? Nah, just spam calls,” Chen Junnan dismissed. “Did we get a new question?”
“Yep,” Yun Yao confirmed. “This time, it’s ‘Are there four seasons in a year?’”
“Seriously? Is he messing with us?” Chen Junnan scoffed. “I really need to have a chat with that old creep. Does he even know basic facts?”
“Also… I checked with the person ahead of me. That impatient girl said the guy in front of her has a deep voice, but she doesn’t know who it is.”
“Is it that Zhong Zhen guy you mentioned?” Chen Junnan asked.
“Probably not,” Yun Yao denied. “You’ve heard his voice before—he’s in his thirties, but he sounds younger.”
Chen Junnan absentmindedly carved a new label—**”Deep-Voiced Guy”**—into the screen.
“We’re close. We’ve got info on eight people now,” he said after finishing. “Yun Yao, let’s pick ‘No’ for this one.”
“No…?” Yun Yao hesitated. “Chen Junnan, the question is ‘Are there four seasons in a year?’ You’re sure we should answer ‘No’?”
“Absolutely,” Chen Junnan confirmed.
“But that’s wrong,” Yun Yao pointed out. “Won’t answering incorrectly cause problems?”
“To be honest, I got the first question wrong too,” Chen Junnan admitted. “And I didn’t even understand the second one, so I probably messed that up as well.”
“Huh?”
“For the first question, I picked ‘Yes’—admitted I was a girl—but nothing happened.” He chuckled. “There were five girls in total, but the final answer was ‘Yes.’ What does that tell you?”
Yun Yao followed his train of thought. “Two possibilities: either at least two men lied, or someone changed the question afterward.”
“Exactly,” Chen Junnan continued. “Just like I suspected, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ don’t matter in this game. For the second question, I straight-up altered it and made most people follow my lead. If that answer was wrong, you’d all be screwed by now.”
Yun Yao still didn’t get it. “But why pick ‘No’ this time?”
Chen Junnan tilted his head, pinning the phone between his cheek and shoulder as he stretched the cord and walked back to the screen, resting his hands on the buttons again.
“Yun Yao, did you ever play on a ‘Little Overlord’ when you were a kid?”
“Little Overlord…?” Yun Yao blinked. “Sorry, never heard of it.”
“Great, another generation gap,” Chen Junnan mused. “You’re a post-00s kid, right?”
“Post-00s? Do I look that old?” Yun Yao sighed. “I was born in 2011.”
“Oh, 2011?” Chen Junnan nodded. “Yeah, your chances of seeing a ‘Little Overlord’ were pretty slim by then. You guys were probably on PlayStation 4 already.”
“Chen Junnan… could you get to the point?”
“Right!” Chen Junnan laughed. “Yun Yao, I just had a thought.”
He pressed the ‘Yes’ button on the left and the ‘No’ button on the right. “What if these two buttons aren’t ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ at all? What if one’s ‘left’ and the other’s ‘right’? Every time we pick ‘Yes’ or ‘No,’ we’re actually steering this giant geometric shape?”
“What…?” Yun Yao frowned, rapidly processing the idea—then her eyes widened.
He was absolutely right.
That made perfect sense.
She quickly did the math in her head. “Assuming I’m at ‘0,’ choosing ‘Yes’ subtracts 1, and ‘No’ adds 1. That means the dead should be at ‘-2,’ and the giant sphere is now at ‘1.’”
After a long silence, Chen Junnan finally spoke. “Yun Yao, slow down. I’m losing you here.”
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