Survivorship Bias

Chapter 14: If I were a cultist, you would have died last night.

On the second day inside the bunker, Ueno was the first person to wake up. 

For some reason, he had slept very poorly and couldn’t even remember when he fell asleep. He attributed this to the side effects of the hypnotic gas. Lying in bed, Ueno tossed and turned after opening his eyes. Images of Shen Ti standing in front of him, taunting him and Liu Chengwei, kept appearing in his mind – Shen Ti’s expression, his tone. The nightmarish scenario was incessantly haunting him.

Could he have been discovered already? Otherwise, why would Shen Ti say those things? 

He had a total of eight health bars. If Shen Ti truly knew that he was the target of his curse, why hadn’t he initiated an attack? 

Would Yang Ming and the others help him…?

Unable to fall asleep again, the religious murals in this cramped room made him feel even heavier and more oppressed. Ueno quickly got up, tidied up a bit, opened the door, and left the rest area. 

Outside, he noticed that the doors to the other rooms were tightly closed. He intended to go to the living room but unexpectedly saw a newly appeared piece of paper on the wall beside the corridor. He carefully examined the contents and was so shocked that he took a step back, then hurriedly moved closer and took the paper down.

“What are you doing?”

Hearing the voice, Ueno spun around, startled, and saw Yang Ming standing at the entrance of Room 1. Yang Ming was leaning against the side of the door, his gaze suspicious.

“Mr. Yang…” Naturally, Ueno had to explain everything clearly. He didn’t want to be misunderstood by Yang Ming. In case he was pushed out to fight against An Wujiu like Lao Yu and Shen Ti, then there would be dire consequences.

Listening to his explanation, Yang Ming remained silent for a long time.

He didn’t say a word, and Ueno didn’t dare to say anything either. He recalled the morning when the game began. The moment he found out that his secret crush was Yang Ming, he immediately approached him to express his innocence and sincerity. However, Yang Ming was only concerned about his curse line.

[If you want to cooperate, tell me your curse line first.] Yang Ming had said.

Ueno had to open his hidden panel to show Yang Ming in order to gain his rare trust.

[I don’t want to die. I’m only 22 years old. I finally finished college in real life. My parents signed labor contracts until they’re 90 years old just to support my education. They even gave my sister away to someone else for money. The whole family has been emptied for me to study. Please, I’m willing to do whatever you ask, and my red line is connected to you. I will protect you no matter what.]

He pleaded with Yang Ming like a dog wagging its tail, but Yang Ming’s expression remained unchanged, just as it was at this moment.

Yang Ming is about to leave. He has secretly grasped all of Ueno’s red and black lines, but he doesn’t disclose his own red and black lines, which was completely unfair.

But fairness wasn’t a concept that applied much in this game to begin with.

Pulling his thoughts away, Ueno glanced at the tightly closed doors of the other rooms, then maneuvered Yang Ming into an empty corridor, stepped closer, and whispered softly in his ear, “I… I feel like Shen Ti already knows that I cursed him.”

Yang Ming frowned.

Useless idiot.

After he backed away a bit, Yang Ming’s dry, yellowish face relaxed into a smile, comforting Ueno’s fearful gaze, “It’s okay, don’t worry.”

“He’s not worth much even if he stays alive. We don’t need to bother with someone like him.” Yang Ming held the paper in his hand, his face bearing a triumphant expression, his voice very low, “As soon as I woke up in the morning, I had Holy Voice check Wu You’s red and black lines for me.”

“How is it? Who does he curse? Who does he secretly love?” Ueno asked anxiously.

“I actually thought this kid was cursing me. Daring to go against me.” A trace of disdain curved Yang Ming’s lips, “Turns out it’s Liu Chengwei.”

“Ah?” Ueno looked troubled, “What should we do then?”

“What do you mean, ‘what should we do’?” Yang Ming gave him a displeased glance.

Ueno realized he misspoke and quickly changed the subject, “Um, then who does he secretly love?”

Yang Ming raised an eyebrow, “Lao Yu. Anyway… his red and black lines don’t seem to have much to do with us. He came to me last night, saying he wanted to join our alliance. He offered to stay up at night to help us, but he’s afraid we won’t accept him.”

“I was still hesitating last night, so the first thing I did after waking up today was to check his red and black lines. Now I understand why he’s afraid we won’t accept him. It turns out his curse target is one of us.”

“Then why not make use of him for now? After all, his red and black lines don’t involve important individuals, and he’s not much of a threat.” Ueno immediately smiled obsequiously, “Looking at this new clue, it seems like we could use someone who can stay awake at night without being forced to sleep.”

Yang Ming chuckled and handed the paper in his hand to Ueno, “Take it to the lounge corridor; act like nothing happened. Pretend that we just discovered it too.”

“Speak louder, they should wake up too.”

When everyone really woke up and learned about the new notice on the paper, the situation became even more mysterious.

Originally thought to be just a simple survival game, as long as one tried to survive, with a stroke of luck, becoming a winner seemed obvious: one’s “secret crush” surviving and the “cursed” one dying.

But the appearance of the cultist shattered the already fragile public trust in the game.

Not only can no one know whether the person in front of them is truly cursing them, they don’t even know if the other person intends to kill them.

At 9 o’clock in the morning, the small wooden door on the clock in the reception room swung open, pushing out an angel statue. The entire bunker once again emitted a sacred melody. This meant that it was already 9 o’clock in the morning.

After the music finished playing, Ueno spoke softly, “It’s also possible that this note isn’t real.”

“I mean, what if… After all, none of us seems to have become the target of the cultist. If there really is really a cultist among us, shouldn’t they have acted earlier?” 

As soon as this was said, Shen Ti burst into laughter, causing Ueno’s confidence to instantly vanish.

He couldn’t understand why Shen Ti was laughing; he just felt a sense of fear.

“Yeah, you’re really smart,” Shen Ti adjusted the edge of his gloves, pulling them tighter as if he were a doctor about to perform surgery, “Among us, there’s a guy who’s been killed twice, and he doesn’t seem quite human.”

“I didn’t say that!” Hearing his implication, Ueno immediately anxiously explained to An Wujiu, “I really didn’t mean that…”

Liu Chengwei sneered directly, “Who knows, it might actually be true. Among this group of people, An Wujiu seems most likely to be a murderous and poisonous cultist.”

Being suspected, An Wujiu remained nonchalant, his gaze not even falling on Liu Chengwei, just doing some warm-up exercises on his own, stretching his arms and turning his neck.

“Oh well, I actually feel the same way. Only this kind of identity suits me. It’s a shame, though. I only got the role of an intern.”

“However…” He flexed his hand and walked up to Liu Chengwei.

They were of similar height, and An Wujiu calmly met his gaze, “If I were really a cultist, would I let you directly kill me in a duel?”

He curved his lips, “Who do you think I am? Do you think I’d be so timid?”

“If I were a cultist, you would’ve died last night.”

Although An Wujiu currently couldn’t provide concrete evidence, his demeanor made it impossible to refute his words.

“Moreover,” An Wujiu smiled at Ueno, “why can’t this paper be fake? In my opinion, the person who discovered this thing first is the most suspicious. Aren’t there many cases where the murderer pretends to be the first one to discover the body in murder cases?”

Hearing this provocative statement, Ueno quickly shook his head, “No, really, it wasn’t me, I didn’t do…”

In the midst of this standoff, Lao Yu spoke up, providing a judgment first, “I still believe that the cultist must exist. The games we’ve participated in before weren’t simple either. Maybe the system saw that our competition wasn’t intense enough and decided to escalate things.”

He continued, “And besides, they just said that An Wujiu is a cultist. At this point, I’m not entirely convinced either. So far, only An Wujiu has lost health bars, and he only has one left. If he really were a cultist, he wouldn’t be unaware of his own identity. The task is to kill seven people, which would be difficult. So, why didn’t he act on the first day?”

“You don’t understand him.” Yang Ming’s face turned cold, “An Wujiu is capable of anything.”

An Wujiu touched the wound on his wrist and didn’t even lift an eyelid, “Wow, you understand me so well. I’m amazing, right? Could it be that you have a crush on me?”

His interjection made Yang Ming’s expression turn unpleasant.

“Right,” in the midst of this standoff, Wu You lifted the brim of his hat, his large round eyes revealing a hint of hesitation and fear, but he still spoke up, “There are two things that I find strange…”

Contrary to his usual attitude, Yang Ming didn’t give him any orders but rather nodded somewhat friendly, “Go ahead.”

“Last night, I heard some sounds, right when I was about to fall asleep. I felt like something was moving in this corridor… but I didn’t dare open the door. It was supposed to be sleep time, and I was afraid of breaking the rules.”

“Ah, I think I heard something too.” Zhong Yirou initially thought she was hearing things, but it turned out someone else heard it too, “And the sound was quite loud, like something being dragged. It was really loud and eerie.”

Wu You nodded, glanced at Liu Chengwei, hesitated for a moment, and continued, “The second thing is, before I entered here last night, I saw Liu Chengwei acting suspiciously at the doorway of Zhong Yirou and Yang Ming’s room. I’m not sure what he was doing, but he left later.” Afterward, as if afraid people wouldn’t believe him, he added, “At that time, I was walking with Lao Yu, and he saw it too.”

Hearing this, Lao Yu could only admit, “That’s true, but I don’t know what he was doing. Anyway, later, we were chatting in the reading room, then it was mandatory sleep time. I don’t remember anything after that.”

Zhong Yirou was the first to react, pointing at herself, “My room?” Her beautiful eyes were adorned with a touch of mint green eyeshadow and pale yellow mascara, combined with her mint-colored cheongsam, giving off a refreshing and dazzling look.

After saying that, she glanced at Liu Chengwei, “What are you up to? Your room is just one room away from mine, and you couldn’t enter mine last night, right?”

Her words were like a match, igniting the darkness that everyone was still fumbling in. All eyes turned to Yang Ming.

According to the rules, his room and Liu Chengwei’s were adjacent; one was Room 8, and the other was Room 1.

“What does that have to do with me?” Liu Chengwei furrowed his brows, “What the hell? Is there something wrong with you guys? Is it a problem to stand by a door?”

He immediately went up to Yang Ming, expressing his loyalty, “Ming-ge, you’re not suspecting me too, right? They’re just making up things to drive a wedge between us!”

Yang Ming’s expression was heavy, his brow seemingly clouded. After a while, he finally spoke, first offering a bit of reassurance, “Of course, I won’t easily believe others. This matter isn’t concluded yet, and we can’t determine who the cultist is based solely on one action.”

Liu Chengwei’s tense heart finally relaxed a bit, and he shot a fierce glare at Wu You, who had been trying to provoke him.

Regarding Liu Chengwei’s suspicious behavior at his room’s doorway, Zhong Yirou still had a lingering fear. She came up with an idea, “I understand. Since everyone acknowledges the presence of a cultist and their goal is clear, which was to take seven lives, it’s unlikely they didn’t act at all last night.”

Lao Yu nodded, “Exactly. Let’s look at everyone’s health bars. We might find something new.”

Except for the mandatory energy bar display, health bars and survival values could be hidden. All eight participants had chosen to hide theirs.

Although Yang Ming had just expressed a stance of believing Liu Chengwei, suspicion was like a thin thorn, pricking into their flesh. If not removed, that subtle and unbearable pain would never disappear.

“Then let’s check all of them,” Yang Ming ultimately decided.

Liu Chengwei’s face turned unsightly, and he felt disgruntled, but he couldn’t obstruct anything anymore. Although he had things he didn’t want to say, he begrudgingly displayed a resentful expression like the others and accessed his character panel, revealing his health bars.

In an instant, the corresponding health bars appeared above each person’s head, and they confirmed with each other.

After Ueno counted his own and then looked at Yang Ming standing by the side, seemingly unconcerned about his own health bars, he trembled as he kindly counted for him.

Yang Ming was a capitalist; his initial character had high survival value and low combat strength, with only two health bars–a pretty good setup.

“M-Ming, Ming-ge…” Ueno’s outstretched finger was trembling slightly, “Your health bars, they’re, they’re one short…”