Chapter 57: The Moment of Mental Breakdown for the Tricked, Self-爆ed Gun-Wielding Werewolf

Player 2's self-destruction relieved Player 10 of a huge psychological burden regarding whether he had poisoned Player 4 by mistake.

He let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.

Last night, he had been unwilling to gamble on whether Player 2 or Player 3 was the werewolf, choosing instead to poison Player 4.

Player 2 had been unwilling to gamble on which player the Witch would target between himself and Player 3, choosing instead to brazenly self-destruct.

These were the individual choices everyone made.

It was also a battle of wits between the werewolves and the good faction.

No one was willing to leave it to fate, and in the end, they would all pay the price, good or bad, for their own choices.

And in this contest of minds,

the Witch had clearly gained the upper hand.

[Player 2, please begin your statement.]

At this moment, Cheng Du's face was completely pale, dark and terrifyingly gloomy.

Yet the other good players looked at him, one by one, with smiles on their faces.

Only his teammate, Player 11, was drowning in a river of silent grief, yet still forced to sit at the table, matching the others with a forced, twitching smile.

Wang Changsheng was watching from the sidelines, amused to the point of near madness.

This Player 11 truly had top-tier professional ethics.

Losing two werewolf teammates in a single day,

yet he was still somehow able to smile.

It was a textbook demonstration of what putting on a brave face really meant.

Seconds ticked away.

Player 2 remained utterly silent.

Wang Changsheng and the other good players could certainly understand.

After all, imagine thinking the Witch was about to poison you, brazenly self-destructing to swallow the sheriff badge in style,

only to wake up and discover that the absolute clown had been yourself all along.

The target hadn't paid you any mind whatsoever, completely ignoring you while you had spent ages agonizing and analyzing every detail, culminating in a self-destruction firework display that blew up the entire room.

It was impossible to formulate an immediate response to that.

"You used your poison and not your antidote; you really are the Witch."

Player 2 took a deep breath.

Then, he slammed his hand violently onto the table.

Loudly, he glared at Player 10 and demanded, "Player 9, the Soul Merchant, explicitly gave you the choice to poison between Player 2 and Player 3. What right did you have to target an external player?"

"How dare you?! What kind of card did you think Player 4 was to just drop your poison on him? Given his opening statement, as the Witch, shouldn't you have considered that he was the Guard signaling you? Our werewolf team had already figured it out: kill you first, then slash him. And you're telling me you poisoned him instead?! Tricking me into self-destructing?! I swear, you little..."

Just in time, Cheng Du cut himself off.

Using foul language in the tournament would result in point deductions; putting on a show and maxing out the emotional delivery was enough.

Gritting his teeth and glaring venomously at Player 4, Player 2's voice dripped with rage.

"Guard, you really are something else, but so what if you protected him on the first day? The very next day, he turns right around and poisons you. Serves you right!"

With that, Player 2 chose to pass his turn.

Both Player 4 and Player 10 dissolved into shadowy figures, turning into mute bystanders with the same perspective as the external audience.

Half of Player 2's speech was genuine anger, while the other half was pure acting.

Assigning Player 4 the role of the Guard wasn't meant to genuinely out him as the Guard, but rather to create the illusion that he and Player 4 had never interacted or crossed paths.

Player 4 could have been the Guard, or he could have been a villager; Player 2 had simply pinned the Guard identity on him.

It was one possibility planted on the table, and how to argue the rest of it now depended entirely on the performance of Player 11, the lone surviving werewolf on the field.

In truth, if everyone had been allowed to deliver last words at this stage,

Player 4 stepping up to refute Player 2's claim about him being the Guard and instead claiming to be a simple villager would have been the most effective way to establish that they were unacquainted.

But regrettably,

those who died during the second night could no longer deliver any last words.

Out in the arena lobby,

thanks to the broadcast perspective being locked on Player 11,

the spectators were well aware that Player 4, whom Player 10 had poisoned, was indeed a werewolf.

The Witch's maneuver left them completely stunned.

The entire venue erupted!

Everyone was practically itching to leap to their feet and roar.

The commentator, Xiao Ming, used an intensely high-pitched tone, his voice turning raspy as he bellowed passionately, "Unbelievable! Absolutely terrifying! This contest of minds between the werewolves and the Witch is too brilliant, simply too brilliant!"

Commentator Xiao Han also gripped his microphone tightly, his voice resounding deafeningly across the hall, "The werewolf team managed to lock down the Witch, but the Witch locked down the werewolf team right back! Except, because the Witch poisoned Player 4, this single move leaves the werewolves at a catastrophic disadvantage and hands the Witch a sweeping victory!"

"If the deceased hadn't been Player 10, I might have thought this Witch was none other than that Player 7! To think that in the wake of the Mudslide Witch, a Deception-Style Witch has emerged!"

"As the ace of the werewolf pack, Player 2 was tricked to such a miserable degree! Truly, watching this brings tears to one's eyes!"

With the two commentators trading remarks and landing continuous metaphorical blows,

every single person in the Werewolf Pack team lounge wore a pitch-black expression.

"What the hell do these idiots know?! It was Geer who called for the knife! It was also him who made Brother Cheng self-destruct! What the hell are these two commentators rambling on about? Why aren't they talking about that bastard Geer at all?!" One team member snapped, cursing furiously.

Another nodded in agreement, chiming in, "Geer hasn't shown his face in a year, and I thought he'd gotten much stronger, only for him to screw us over the moment he returns. Who knows what use this guy even has? He might as well just retire for good instead of coming out here to make a fool of himself!"

"And that Guard and Witch! Do they even know how to play the game?! The only reason they pulled that off is sheer dumb luck!"

"Don't let me find out who that Guard is, or I swear I'll destroy him!"

The group of team members was filled with righteous indignation.

Their coach narrowed his eyes.

Remaining entirely silent,

he listened as his players vented their resentment toward the Guard and the others.

Until their voices gradually subsided,

the werewolf coach finally spoke slowly, "Once the match is over, confirm the Guard's identity. In all upcoming matches, no matter the cost, I want his team dead."

Hearing this, several team members froze in surprise.

Cheng Xiao also frowned, unable to help himself from advising, "Coach, but if we're in the same faction..."

The werewolf coach cast a cold, sweeping glance at him.

Every word clipped and deliberate, he said,

"I said, no matter the cost."

Cheng Xiao's heart shook violently.

He lowered his head, not daring to say another word.

In truth, he could understand the coach's decision.

After all, as a Wolf Gunner, being tricked by a good player into self-destructing

was nothing short of ultimate humiliation.

Furthermore, because of this blunder, their team's rating would undoubtedly plummet drastically.

Chasing after the championship title this year was now practically impossible for them.

So rather than falling from grace alone, they might as well drag someone else down to hell with them.

"Understood, Boss."

In the spectator stands,

the crowd was a boiling sea of voices.

"Good lord, the werewolves got beaten down so miserably this match, and that Witch was insanely flashy!"

"Seriously, who would've thought a werewolf could still get tricked into self-destructing these days, and with a gun in hand, no less?! I'd like to crown this Deception-Style Witch as the direct successor to that legendary Player 7, the founder of the Mudslide Witch style!"

"What mudslide? That was clearly the Apocalypse style, okay? But while you're all talking about the Witch, don't you think the Guard was the real MVP here?"

"True, I'm genuinely curious about who that Guard is. To be able to shield the Witch right on day one—did he really have the guts to make that move? Weren't they afraid of over-shielding and causing their own team's rating to plummet?"

"Do you guys think the Guard could be Player 7?"

"Holy crap? No way... Is that guy really that insane? Their team's rating isn't even that high right now, would he dare take a risk like that?"

"The lower the rating, the more you have to make daring plays! If the Guard hadn't shielded the Witch this round, how could the game have turned out like this? And haven't you noticed? Whenever this Player 7 is in the good faction, the werewolves always get beaten this badly. It makes me suspect that Player 7 has some kind of third-faction role, and after figuring out Player 10 was the Witch, he practically hand-held him through this play!"

"Tch, how is that even possible? Besides, Player 7 isn't necessarily the Guard; I think he's just as likely to be a plain old villager."

"Heh, you don't believe me? Care to make a wager?"

"A bet's a bet! What are we wagering?"

"I bet your wife's..."

"Go screw yourself!"