Chapter 16 – Player 5: I Have to Sell Out This Teammate
"At first, listening to Player 7 on the podium, I thought he was a Good Player Card, but after hearing his speech under the sheriff, I'm not so sure."
Cute Girl racked her brain weighing how to handle her relationship with Player 7.
Tomorrow she would Self-Destruct anyway; she couldn't let the Seer leave any last words.
So right now she had to sound as wolfish as possible, ideally dragging Player 7 down with her.
Yet to make the outer positions feel she and Player 7 knew each other, she had to echo his points.
Didn't that mean she had to go after Player 5 alongside him?
Cute Girl wailed inside.
No choice—this seat forced her to do it for now.
All she could do was hope Honey Badger would speak well in a moment… "Still, although I don't get how Player 7 saved Player 9, we can listen closely to Player 5. If he speaks solidly, we can vote out either Player 9 or a later seat; the exact plan depends on Player 10. I'm just offering my tiny suggestion as a Good Guy."
"Besides, I lean toward Player 7 being a Good Player Card. I didn't quite follow his logic, but it looks like he's working for the Good team, so I won't go after you for now. Once I hear whether the Seer checks Player 9 and listen to your second-round talk, I can define your identity more accurately."
Cute Girl shifted her gaze to the Seer and the Golden Water.
"Also, on the podium I thought Player 11 smelled off, never expecting him to be Player 10 Seer's Golden Water. So—sorry, Player 11, I read you wrong; with the Golden Water you must be a Good Player Card."
"Then…"
Wang Changsheng had Cute Girl nearly tongue-tied.
Her mind raced.
Nothing more came out.
The sudden turn of events left her thoughts muddled.
She could only press her lips and say, "I've got nothing else—pass."
Player 6 had stalled as long as possible for her teammates.
But there was no way around it.
If she kept rambling without substance, the outer Good Guys would only grow more suspicious.
They'd think she was buying time for her Wolf Teammate to think.
So she had no choice but to end her turn.
[Player 5, please speak.]
When it was Player 5's turn, Wang Changsheng glanced over.
He had already shoved Player 5 under the spotlight.
Player 1 was framed as an eliminated Witch card.
Player 6 was heading for inspection.
Only Player 5 could still know Player 3.
From Player 10 Seer's seat, that Forceful Jump Lying Wolf wouldn't dare name every Wolf Teammate on the podium, but he'd likely point out one or two.
Since Player 1 wanted to wear his Player 7 Witch clothes—
let him.
If the Seer believed Player 1 was the Witch,
then Player 5 and Player 6 became huge questions.
That was ironclad logic.
It was also the line Wang Changsheng kept guiding the Seer toward.
"Since you dared to call out your Wolf Teammates, I'll gladly let the Seer vote out your deep-cover Wolf friend~"
Wang Changsheng's face stayed blank, but inside he was beaming.
The harder someone tried to hide, the less he let them.
"Player 10 has to be the Seer; as earlier speakers said, if Player 3 were the Seer this game would already be unwinnable, so just listen to his badge flow in a moment."
Player 5 opened by accepting Player 10 as the Seer.
Of course, he didn't dare do otherwise—
or he might be the first lynched.
All he could do now was act like a Good Guy in the Seer's eyes.
Let the Seer send one from the outer positions home,
otherwise the Wolf Team truly had no play and would have to surrender.
Honey Badger gathered his words and went on: "That's the state, but let me explain why I voted for Player 10."
"Player 3 giving Golden Water to Player 1 from his seat, to me, doesn't show the Seer equity Player 9 claims."
"He could simply knife Player 1 at night, then rise and give him Golden Water, so the Witch would think, 'He wouldn't awkwardly slash then praise him.' Yet that's exactly the awkward thing Player 3 did."
"And he did swindle Player 1 Witch's vote; pity he never guessed the one he knifed was the Witch, losing one of his few supporters."
At this point Honey Badger chuckled, sounding as if he genuinely found Player 3 ridiculous.
It felt as if he and Player 3 were strangers.
"Player 10 giving Golden Water to Player 11 carried real weight; Player 11's day-one speech was textbook, so combining the two I believe Player 10 is the Seer and voted for him under the sheriff."
"As for Player 7 saying that if I speak poorly the Seer should lynch me—I really don't get it."
"Are you the Seer?"
Player 5 looked perfectly calm, giving Wang Changsheng a mild glance.
"We still don't know if you're Wolf or Good; the Seer's Golden Water is Player 11, not you. Yet from your seat you dare assign tasks to the Seer? If everyone after starts rewriting the Seer's podium plan and a Wolf suddenly Self-Destructs, who does he check at night?"
"So I find Player 7 off. His podium speech felt like a pre-positioned card—no Seer had jumped yet, so how could he decide which of Player 10 or Player 11 was the real Seer? Reads are only guesses; we must hear the Seer's comparative talk."
"Therefore, when Player 7 instantly took a side on the podium I already found him shady; under the sheriff he still protected Player 9 who voted for Player 3, even making the Seer waste a check on him."
"So to me Player 7 lands in the wolf pit. Since he protected Player 9, his identity is even lower than Player 9's."
"Whether Player 9 is Wolf or Good, if no one later smells strongly of Wolf, we can eliminate Player 7 first this round."
"As for Player 6…"
Honey Badger paused, swept his gaze over Player 6, then locked onto Player 10.
He was going to sell out his teammate!