Interactive Fiction: The Right Choice After Unemployment

Chapter 14 No.13 people
Eleven people were eliminated.

In the middle of the night, Zheng Zhuo sat in front of the bed blankly.

The bell stopped.The night returned to silence.

……

…………

………………

in a few days.one afternoon.

The hotels in the small town looked like they should be in the off-season, and no one visited them all day.The female student in charge of reception was dozing off behind the counter, and the sound of the boss chopping vegetables could be heard from the kitchen.

A few heavy strokes and a few light strokes.

A faint light yellow came in from the window, leaving spots on the ground.The spots wobbled, blocked by black shadows.

Dang bang bang bang.

The bell on the door rang, and someone opened the door and entered.

The female student raised her hazy eyes for a look, then went back to sleep.

The visitor is a regular customer who has lived here for nearly a week.

Zheng Zhuo who lives in Room 204.

……

Today was also normal, nothing special happened.

Zheng Zhuo glanced at the sleeping female student and sat down at the long table in the back of the hotel.

Three days had passed since the phantom inhabitants of the town had reappeared.During this period, nothing strange happened.No shootouts, no suspicious-looking people, no one suddenly appearing and disappearing.

Even the text that accompanies the 12 o'clock chime every night is the same for two consecutive nights.

……

Tonight's winner:
【Explorer】

……

I'm the winner, there's no one out.

And my own progress bar dropped a little on the night when 8 people were eliminated, and it hasn't changed since then.

It has been 27.8%.

I have not advanced the progress.However, the winner for three consecutive days was himself.

Does this mean that among all the participants, only oneself is still here?

Ahhh...

Thinking of this, Zheng Zhuo felt a headache and pressed against his temple.

Will not be attacked by anyone.This was undoubtedly a good thing, but he remembered what the thief had said.

"...If none of the participants can discover the secret, everyone will never be able to get out of the world..."

Then, only my own words are left...

Doesn't it mean that you can only discover the secrets hidden in this world by yourself?
The thief also said something like "some secrets require the cooperation of multiple people", but Zheng Zhuo shook his head and dismissed the thought.

He didn't want to think about the worst possible outcome.He would rather believe that there is no such thing - if he accepts the conjecture that "leaving is impossible", he feels that he will go crazy soon.

"(If it doesn't reach 100%, is there really no way?)"

Zheng Zhuo looked at the 27.8% progress bar again, and took out a piece of paper for recording from his arms.

The movement pulled him to the wound on his shoulder, and his face contorted slightly in pain.

But the pain has weakened a lot compared to before.

Zheng Zhuo's shoulder injury is almost healed.

"(at least one good thing...)"

In the past few days, because he was worried about the deterioration of the wound, Zheng Zhuo did not take too many actions.

However, he didn't do nothing.

Zheng Zhuo spread out the paper.

……

【my itinerary】

Monday afternoon, arrive

Tuesday morning, tidy up the situation
At noon on Tuesday, head to Falls Springs and meet Adventure Guy and Trendy Girl

Tuesday night, meet a thief, go back to town

In the early hours of Wednesday, move to the cellar with the thief
Wednesday morning, the thief left and disappeared.townspeople disappear

At noon on Wednesday, the thief was chased by the fat man and the two disappeared together

Wednesday afternoon, townspeople show up
Thursday ~ Sunday, nothing happens
……

First of all, he recorded his own itinerary.He figured out the nearest week and recorded the events by week.

"(Don't know if it helps...but tidying up is the first step in recording.)"

Thinking this way, he turned the page.

Next, is the key to his thinking these days.

According to the innkeeper's description, five people checked into the hotel.

Five travelers stayed overnight on the same day.They are a fat man, a fashionable woman, a young brother (me), a middle-aged woman, and an old man.

Four people other than myself checked out the next night after checking in.

Five travelers stayed overnight on the same day.

Zheng Zhuo probably had a guess in his heart.

The thief also said he was present at the vacant house that day.Could it be that everyone arrived in this town at the same time?

If that's the case, the twelve participants spent at least one night in town.

Except for the thief that Zheng Zhuo knew - he quietly lived in an empty house.

There are six others.

These six people must have a place to stay.

During the three days when nothing happened, Zheng Zhuo kept asking other townspeople if they knew who had lived in the town recently.Today, he went out to ask about this matter.

As of today, he felt that he had asked all the townspeople he could find.

Then, he got some catch.

……

【What the townspeople know】

Grocery store owner: There have been rats in the store for a long time.On Monday night, when the boss heard the sound of rats and went downstairs, he saw a thin old man with long, dirty hair and beard stealing.He picked up the iron rod and went downstairs, but the man had disappeared.

Hardware store owner: In the early hours of Monday morning, he heard the dog barking downstairs.The owner of the shop looked out of the window and saw a thin young man wearing glasses and fled over the wall.

Farmer: Lives on his own farm on the edge of town.Two men and two women knocked on the door on Monday night, saying that the car had broken down and wanted to stay for a while.The four are all in their 30s and [-]s. They are nothing special about their attire. They are ordinary young men and women who seem to have a good relationship.The tallest man was the driver. He said he was going to repair the car in the early hours of Monday morning and never came back.The other three chatted all night before leaving on Tuesday night.

Farmer: I saw a tent set up near the waterfall spring.Saw men in jackets going in and out Monday night.

……

Zheng Zhuo was almost numb.He's glad he's done all the interviewing, but he's still frowning at what to do next.

"Okay, let's sort it out... Hey... Do you want to arrange them in chronological order? Please spare me..."

Zheng Zhuo squeezed the paper.The paper used for recording has been increased several times, and it has become thicker and thicker.Zheng Zhuo clamped them together with clips.

"……Um?"

Zheng Zhuo suddenly noticed something unusual.He stared at the recorded content, and then, began to count.

"7, 8, 9...wait, wait. Not right."

Zheng Zhuo muttered to himself.

"9, 10, 11..."

He repeated the count several times, but his brows became more and more wrinkled.

The number of people is wrong.

Monday night.

5 people stayed at the hotel.

1 person stayed in the vacant house.

1 person shows up at the grocery store.

1 person shows up at the hardware store.

4 people stayed at the farm.

1 person appears next to the waterfall spring.

"..."

"Together...the total is..."

"Eight people."

Zheng Zhuo once thought that he would ask about the whereabouts of less than twelve people.Because, some participants may have been extra careful not to leave a witness report, or he left out some townspeople and didn't ask.

But he never thought that the number of suspicious people who were asked out was more than the 12 people scheduled... more.

"what?"

Could it be that the one who steals in the grocery store is the thief man?His hideout has food and water, most likely stolen by him.

Zheng Zhuo had doubts for a moment, but he quickly denied his guess: the thief man has no beard, and he definitely doesn't look like an old man.

Of all the people, only the old man lived in the hotel.But Zheng Zhuo asked the store manager again, the old man who lives in the hotel has no beard, and his attire is neater and cleaner than what the grocery store manager described.

"...But if it's a cross-dressing...he should be the best one...just mess yourself up...the others are young people, it's hard to pretend to be an old man..."

He also suspected that several of them might be the same person.But after thinking about it, I can't match the time or appearance.

"Using superpowers to transform into others, or causing hallucinations?"

Zheng Zhuo thought so.But he felt that if it was him, he would definitely not use [Ability] in such an insignificant place - after all, the thief said that [Ability] has certain limitations.

Zheng Zhuo could only think that there was one person who was not an ordinary participant.

But he couldn't find out who it was.

Ahh...what to do...

Zheng Zhuo thought hard.

After a while, the [Subconscious Voting] page lit up.

"……Yup."

Zheng Zhuo opened his eyes wide.

"And you! Now is the best time to use you...!"

……

【problem】

[On Monday night, thirteen suspicious people appeared in the town.What's happening here? 】

【Option [-]】

[The number of participants in this round has increased, a total of 13 people participated. 】

【Option [-]】

[Someone pretended to be someone else.Intelligence seems to have 13 people, but in fact there are only 12 people. 】

【Option [-]】

【The male driver who appeared on the farm is not a participant】

【Option [-]】

【The dirty old man who appeared in the grocery store is not a participant】

　After [Option 1], [Option 1], [Option [-]] and [Option [-]], you can leave a message in the form of [this chapter says]. A message under [-] id counts as [-] vote.

　　票数统计截至至2022/11/9日晚20：00.
　　Finally, please recommend tickets~
　　


(End of this chapter)