Chapter 9: A Game Just for Him

Jon muttered in confusion, "How did this finger get inside the wood?"

When absurd things happen, there's no need to question their rationality, you just need to figure out how they came to be.

Jon examined the severed finger repeatedly.

The finger appeared to have been dried for a long time, curled like a hook, with an oxidized, blackened ring at its base.

From its appearance alone, it was impossible to determine the gender of the finger's owner.

The ring was a plain, unremarkable band.

There was very little information to glean from it.

The wood chips on the floor showed no signs of adhesive.

Jon believed there were two possible explanations for the current situation:

The first possibility was that his grandmother had specifically found a hollow branch to hide the finger and the note inside.

The second was that he was still under "its" influence, trapped in perceptual contamination, and everything he saw was a hallucination. After the recent events, the perceptual contamination could be even more intense.

Jon set the finger aside.

Deciphering the note's content should reveal the truth.

He picked up the piece of paper from the floor and began to read...

[12. Remember to eat well and rest properly. Stay healthy and keep track of the date to avoid getting lost.

13. The blizzard will weaken on the seventh day. That's your only chance to leave. Exit the house at 9 PM and head north.

14. When you return to your room at night, be sure to lock the door. Ensure you're alone in the room.

15. At night, draw the curtains. The shadows on the curtains should only be from trees.

16. If something enters your room and you can't get rid of it, open the curtains immediately.]

Jon frowned as he read the rules on the note.

"Seems normal enough..."

He took out the previous notes and found that, based on the torn edges, the three pieces of paper could form a complete sheet when put together.

This indicated that the note.

The severed finger hidden in the wood were not part of "its" perceptual contamination.

Jon looked at all the notes in his hand and murmured, "Three pieces in total... Could these be all the rules?"

The notes had already provided the method to escape—head north at 6 PM on the seventh day.

But Jon felt that some things were still unclear.

Including the severed finger, the entity constantly watching the player, and the secrets behind this cabin.

From these rules, Jon could only vaguely discern a rough outline.

The truth remained shrouded in mystery.

"Whimper, woof! Woof~"

The little dog began to bark, standing in front of its empty bowl, wagging its tail excitedly at Jon.

It seemed the dog had also been hungry for a few days.

Seeing Jon light the fire made it eager for food.

"Thunk!"s

Jon looked up as the clock hanging above the fireplace chimed. The time displayed was already 6:30 PM.

This type of clock had a timekeeping function. 

Chiming every half hour, and striking the number of hours at the top of each hour.

It was time to prepare dinner, and he needed to get started quickly.

Jon said to the little dog, "Alright, alright, I'll make you dinner in a bit..."

With that, he stood up, picked up the candleholder, and headed to the cellar to fetch the ingredients for his and the dog's meal for the night.

…

Not long ago, in Jon's classroom.

Under the class monitor Hanson's direction, the division of labor among the four groups in the class was now very clear.

Some were responsible for watching live streams and recording the actions of the players in each stream.

Another group was analyzing the rules that had already been collected, though progress had hit a bottleneck and they also needed to refer to the live stream content.

Whenever something important happened in any of the streams, everyone would watch it immediately.

At this moment, on the live feed displayed on the electronic whiteboard.

Jon was holding a candleholder, preparing to enter the pitch-black cellar.

All eyes were on him. They had read the rules and knew that something eerie could happen in the cellar...

But to the students' surprise—

Jon walked down a few steps very slowly, then suddenly stopped.

He seemed to be contemplating something, as if he had encountered a problem.

"Why did Jon stop?"

"It's not that dark with the candle, what's there to be afraid of..."

"Could he be encountering something we can't see, like Player 2 did?"

"But... why is Jon smiling?"

Hanson took a deep breath and began to analyze, "It must be perceptual contamination. It seems stronger in the dark cellar and has already affected Jon."

The classroom fell silent after Hanson's explanation.

Jon's life was closely tied to each of theirs.

If Jon used up his three lives, the entire class would be eliminated, facing a tragic fate of total annihilation.

At this point, they could do nothing to help from the sidelines.

Moreover, Jon was the first player to enter the cellar, so there were no strategies from other players to refer to.

He had to rely on himself to break through the situation.

But soon, Jon began to move again in the live stream.

"Come on, show me what exciting material you can bring me."

To everyone's surprise—

After saying this, Jon placed the candle on the steps, closed his eyes, and walked into the deep darkness below.

Within just three seconds, Jon picked up the candle again and successfully entered the cellar.

The students watching this scene were completely bewildered.

They knew that someday they might also enter this eerie game, so they needed to accumulate some strategies.

However, Jon's actions were incomprehensible to them, they had no way to learn from it!

It took Hanson a moment to suddenly come to a realization.

He couldn't help but exclaim, "I see now! Jon's intuition is incredibly sharp... He's both brave and meticulous!"

" Hanson, what's going on?"

"Yeah, don't keep us in suspense, explain it to us!"

Hanson explained, "It's actually rule 6, it explains it very clearly."

"The cellar is dark. Don't believe anything you see." He put down the paper in his hand. "So, in places where the candlelight can't reach, 'it' uses perceptual interference to create obstacles."

Hanson rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "We can't see exactly what those obstacles are, but Jon closed his eyes, giving up his visually contaminated sense, and successfully broke through."

Nora snorted, somewhat disdainfully, "Sounds pretty simple."

"No, it's not simple at all." Hanson shook his head. "When people are in dangerous and uncertain environments, they tend to keep their eyes wide open, afraid that a blink could lead to a monster attacking them."

Hanson continued, "Jon closing his eyes and walking directly into the darkness is completely counterintuitive."

"It's extreme confidence." he remarked sincerely.

Hanson genuinely admired Jon now.

If he had even half of Jon's confidence, he wouldn't be so timid.

But Hanson also knew that he was a person with a strong sense of responsibility and wouldn't dare risk his classmates' lives.

Maybe Jon never cared about those things!

He might even greatly enjoy this eerie game. It was a game just for him!

Perhaps that's why Jon could do even better.

Hanson watched the live feed. After solving this problem, Jon shook his head slightly and smirked, a playful and proud smile.

It was as if he thought the challenge was too easy.

Hanson now felt a bit grateful that he had withdrawn from the election and let Jon take the player slot. It was the right choice.

This usually unassuming guy might actually create miracles.

The students in the class witnessed Jon's calm reasoning and composed problem-solving.

"What's going on? I suddenly think Jon's kind of cool..."

"Actually, he's always been pretty good-looking, you know, just not very talkative."

"Didn't someone say Jon abused cats in the dorm?"

"Did you forget? The school investigated and released a statement. Jon was falsely accused. He was just trying to help a litter of sick kittens."

"I always thought he was a good person."