Chapter 4—You're the Wolf King? I'll poison you straight away!
[Wolf Shadows Emerge, the Wise Claim the Crown]
This round's setup: Wolf King & Guardian.
The rules are as follows:
The game uses the 'Slaughter-Side' victory condition.
If the Werewolves eliminate every Villager or every God, Werewolves win.
If the Good Guys vote out every Werewolf, Good Guys win.
The roles for this round are—
Four Werewolves, four Gods, four Ordinary Villagers.
Werewolves: Three common Werewolves and One Wolf King.
The Wolf King belongs to the Wolf Team, may Self-Destruct, and may choose to die at night.
When the Wolf King is knifed at night or exiled by day, he may use his power to take one player with him.
If Poisoned or Self-Destructing, the Wolf King cannot use his power.
Gods: Seer, Witch, Hunter, Guardian.
Each night the Seer may check one player to learn if they are a Good Guy or a Wolf.
The Witch owns one Poison and one Antidote; she may use only one potion per night and can never save herself.
When the Hunter is killed by Wolves or exiled, he may reveal his card and shoot one player; if Poisoned, he cannot act.
Each night the Guardian may shield one player from Wolf knives, but cannot shield the same person two nights in a row. If the shielded player is knifed and then saved by the Witch's antidote (Shield + Antidote), that player dies of over-healing.
Speech time: 180 seconds; last words: 120 seconds.
'To guard is my duty.'
[Identity cards are now being dealt]
As the magnetic voice faded,
A face-down card appeared before Wang Changsheng.
He silently repeated "don't see me" twice, then flipped it, glanced, and slapped it back down.
"It's actually the Witch card."
Wang Changsheng almost laughed out loud.
With the system-given skill,
He could open the game with a day-one sky-poison!
Just imagine—
In a Wolf King & Guardian setup,
If he poisoned the Wolf King out on day one,
How many extra points would that score?
Of course, if he wasn't knifed and still used poison, it wouldn't look rational,
And to outsiders it would lack spectacle.
Most crucially, the Judges
Might not give him high marks;
They might even think he was trolling, hurting his later scores.
So after brief thought he decided against a blind day-one poison on the Wolf King.
Let the Wolf Team breathe a little.
Thanks to the system skill's cover,
No one noticed except the Pointy-faced Man who had been staring at him.
As Wang Changsheng looked around, most people, like him, merely peeked and then kept their cards face-down.
"I can't see their roles now; I'll have to wait for night actions."
After a one-minute viewing phase—
Time for the live audience to gossip about everyone's tells—
The magnetic voice rang through the hall again.
"Night falls; close your eyes."
As the words landed,
Every contestant, Wang Changsheng included, had a ghostly mask snap over his face.
No need to lift a hand; the visor clamped itself tight.
The moment the visor sealed,
Wang Changsheng's vision changed.
"Vocal! There really are holes in this helmet!" (TL/N: Vocal = Crazy/Awesome)
As the Judge issued each command,
Wang Changsheng clearly saw who removed their masks at every step.
The busty beauty, Player 8, on his left turned out to be the Guardian.
"Huh? This guy got Wolf?"
After the Guardian phase ended, the Werewolves opened their eyes,
And the mask on the Pointy-faced Man vanished.
Four Werewolf Cards hovered before him,
And the Pointy-faced Man seemed to be the Wolf King!
"Heh-heh-heh, worthy of the system—destiny is mine! Then there's no need to hold this poison past day one…"
Wang Changsheng chuckled darkly in his mind.
As long as he took out the Pointy-faced Man,
He'd crush the other in both team and personal points.
Then his own squad would step over Gun Shoots Like a Dragon's head into the top-24 of the world finals!
"Open-book exam, heh-heh-heh-heh!"
Watching the four Werewolves gesticulate wildly, Wang Changsheng laughed inwardly.
"Player 1 Square-face, Player 3 Pointy-face, Player 5 Honey Badger, Player 6 Cute Girl—four Wolves delivered to my doorstep!"
He stared as the four Wolves combined lip-reading with frantic hand signs.
Cute Girl (Player 6): "Anyone want to Forceful Jump? I'm not good at faking Seer."
Pointy-faced Man (Player 3): "If you can't jump, let me. I must win this match!"
Honey Badger (Player 5): "But you're Wolf King; jumping's risky. Why not let me…"
Pointy-faced Man (Player 3): "No need! Quick and clean—chop Player 7 tonight! Then I'll jump, you watch and hook."
Square-face (Player 1): "If you jump as Wolf King, I'll self-knife. I'll stay under the sheriff and vote as needed, trick the Witch out of a potion and mess up her reads."
Player 1 rejected the idea of knifing Wang Changsheng and chose to knife himself instead.
After careful thought, the Player 3 nodded: "All right, self-knife it is."
After discussion, all Wolves pointed their knives at Player 1.
The Judge ruled, and the nightly knife landed on Player 1.
Wang Changsheng, watching from the sidelines, almost burst out laughing.
He'd been startled when the Player 3 first proposed knifing him,
Only for his Wolf Teammate to twist the blade back onto himself.
"Hilarious—still want to trick my antidote?"
Though Wang Changsheng had transmigrated and been a bench player,
He inherited the memories; the original owner had been a grind, often staying up all night studying other teams' strats.
So he had a database on Player 1:
The guy virtually never self-knifed when he got Wolf.
Now, suddenly deciding to stab himself, any Witch who knew him even slightly might really hand over an antidote.
"But you've fallen into my hands… heh-heh-heh-heh!"
Meanwhile,
Outside the chamber, in the spectator stands,
Though the screens listed all twelve players' names and numbers, their hidden roles remained unseen.
That's Werewolf for you:
Only while everything is unknown is it thrilling, intense, irresistible.
Victory or defeat, friend or foe—
Until the cards are revealed, no one can predict the ending!
Except, of course, Wang Changsheng…
"All identities confirmed; this broadcast uses Player 7, Witch's perspective."
Unlike the in-game timeline,
The Commentators rely on Xiaoming's rapid patter, backed by the magnetic voice of the rules, to hype the crowd.
Very soon,
The virtual system selected the spectator camera for this match—
By chance, precisely Wang Changsheng's Witch viewpoint.