Mo Bai said quietly, “I haven’t found the hidden monsters’ weakness yet because they’re mannequins. They have no blood, no heart, no brain, so even if we destroy those parts, they’ll still move.

The scariest part is… if we think we’ve killed them between 2 and 5 o’clock, go back to our rooms relaxed, and then they suddenly show up at dinner again at six, what then?”

“Then we destroy their stomachs!” Ding Xun proposed quickly. “If they can’t fake eating anymore, their identities will be obvious. Whoever wastes food will be exposed!”

Mo Bai pointed to the floor full of mannequins. “There are spare parts everywhere. And between 5 and 6 pm, players can’t leave their rooms. What if someone repairs them in that hour?”

“Then what do we do?” Ding Xun asked.

“Find it.”

“Find what?”

“The thing they don’t have,” Mo Bai said calmly. “There are a dozen rooms like this, each filled with dead and motionless mannequins. These are failed products. Somewhere, there’s something missing that gives life to the hidden ones. If we can find what all these mannequins lack, we’ll know the monsters’ weakness.”

“Uh, what?” Ding Xun looked around the cluttered room. “There are forty or fifty just here. Multiply that by a dozen rooms… that’s hundreds! Even if the three of us work nonstop, we’ll never finish today.”

Even Mo Bai looked troubled. It really was an enormous task.

She sighed softly. “Now I understand why this instance requires ten players. If everyone cooperated, we could easily complete these tasks and get a perfect clear.”

“Why would we want a perfect clear?” Ding Xun gave her a look like she’d lost her mind. “This is a lethal forced instance. We just need to remove the death triggers and survive seven days. Why punch above our weight and pick a fight with an A-rank monster?”

Mo Bai: “…”

That was exactly what she’d done in her last instance.

“Maybe I’m just a perfectionist,” she admitted with a sigh. “Forget it. Let’s just get started. We’ve already wasted too much time.”

“Um…” Ye Pingjun, who hadn’t been able to speak for a while, raised a hesitant hand. “Ladies, can I say something?”

Ding Xun snapped, “What’s there to say? We’re short on time!” She bent her knee and used it as a support to crack a mannequin clean in half.

Bones clattered across the floor like scattered spare parts.

Mo Bai and Ye Pingjun: “…”

Right. Ding Xun definitely didn’t need Corrosive Talons. Her raw strength was absurd.

Mo Bai silently thought back to her first instance. If Mom and Dad met Ding Xun, they’d have been turned into pulp before even saying a word.

Ye Pingjun massaged his temples. “The thing is… we don’t need to check them one by one. Just lend me your glasses for ten minutes, and I can solve it with this card.”

He raised his palm, and a flash of white light revealed a glowing card.

Ding Xun leaned over and read aloud: “B-rank Card: Pattern Deduction. It automatically analyzes and summarizes all clues, identifies loopholes and key elements in an instance, and uses powerful math and logic to assist the player in clearing it. Wait! You cleared that crazy math instance?!”

“Yes. This card was the reward,” Ye Pingjun said proudly.

“What instance?” Mo Bai asked, curious.

Ding Xun explained, “There’s a place in Peach Blossom Land called the Math Museum. Inside is an infamous math-themed instance, which is supposedly impossible to clear. Every level is a math problem. You can’t advance until you solve it, and every single question is like an Olympiad problem.

“It’s not lethal. You just lose 10,000 points if you fail, but the questions change every time, so no one can make a guide. After a few tries, everyone gave up. Only a total freak would clear something like that.”

Ye Pingjun protested, indignant. “Don't talk about math like that. Math is the mother of all sciences, the foundation of truth, the pillar of civilization! What’s wrong with loving math? Besides, with how complicated my ability is, if I were bad at numbers, I’d never figure it out!”

“Math has been my nightmare since childhood,” Ding Xun muttered, eyeing him like he was a monster himself.

Seeing that they were about to start bickering again, Mo Bai rolled between them. She gave each a sweet smile and spoke in an incredibly gentle voice, “Time’s short. You can argue back in Peach Blossom Land. I’ll even host a debate for you both if we make it back alive.”

Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun then stopped arguing.

Ding Xun handed over her glasses reluctantly. “If you run off with them, I will chase you to the ends of the earth. Remember, the daily use limit is one hour.”

“I only need ten minutes, PE student,” Ye Pingjun muttered.

“Nerd,” she shot back.

He smirked. “Mathematician.”

“Then what about her?” Ding Xun asked, pointing to Mo Bai. “She’s smarter than you, and she found most of the clues.”

"Her?" Ye Pingjun glanced at Mo Bai and uttered a single word, “Strategist.”

Ye Pingjun didn’t argue further. He put on his glasses and focused his attention on the room.

In less than a minute, he had examined all the mannequins in the entire room.

But it wasn’t enough.

Seeing no one outside through the glasses, Ye Pingjun boldly stepped out of the room and carefully examined each room in the corridor through the walls.

Worried he might flee, Ding Xun pushed Mo Bai along as they followed.

Exactly ten minutes later, he returned, handed back the glasses, and activated the card.

It shattered into golden fragments of light, and countless glowing equations swirled around him like a halo.

Ye Pingjun closed his eyes as the numbers sank into his brow. For a moment, he truly looked like a god of mathematics.

When the light faded, he gradually opened his eyes. They gleamed with logic and precision, so sharp that Ding Xun instinctively shrank back, like facing her old math teacher again.

“Found it,” Ye Pingjun said calmly.

He picked up the half-dissected mannequin Mo Bai had worked on earlier and pointed at a faint, threadlike mark across its chest muscle. “Here.”

“What is it?” Ding Xun asked.

“A network,” Ye Pingjun explained. “Every mannequin has these vein-like marks all over their bodies. From the first room to this one, the lines get finer and finer. The first ones were rough, with nearly a centimeter wide. By this room, only a millimeter. The last room, about 0.7 mm.”

“If a transparent filament runs through those lines, they could be used like strings to control the mannequins,” Mo Bai said. Then her eyes widened. “At lunch, Players 1 and 2 moved exactly the same. They raised their hands together, ate together, set down their utensils together, and even had identical expressions. They were synchronized puppets.”

Ye Pingjun’s gaze softened with admiration. “So you’ve already noticed.”

This fragile, disabled girl hid an extraordinary mind. Her calmness, emotional control, and sharp intuition were her true strengths.

Ding Xun frowned. “Someone’s making mannequins in this castle. Their craftsmanship improved from rough to exquisite, eventually creating puppets that rivaled real people. So who’s the maker?”

“Who else but the Count?” Mo Bai gave a cold laugh. “Players 1 and 2 sat closest to him. Who’s easier to control than the ones by his side?”

Thinking of the Count’s terrifying aura at the dining table, both Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun felt chills down their spine.

The Count created the rule against wasting food, then controlled No. 1 and No. 2 to waste food, giving him an excuse to punish and kill players.

He toyed with players the same way he toyed with his puppets.

“If we kill Players 1 and 2,” Ding Xun asked, “won’t the Count retaliate?”

“Of course he will,” Ye Pingjun said grimly. “But if we don’t, someone will die at every meal, and in three days, we’ll all be gone. If we do, we’ll enrage an A-rank boss who might turn us into mannequins too. No wonder I won so much at the casino; this difficulty is insane.”

“And we’re forced to wear these doll-like clothes that we can’t even tear. We’re also younger and 10 cm shorter. Horrifying.” Ding Xun tugged uncomfortably at her clothes.

Both Mo Bai and Ye Pingjun turned to look at her.

“What?” Ding Xun shivered under their gaze.

“You’re still 170 cm now,” Ye Pingjun said slowly. “You mean… your real height is 180 cm?”

“Yeah,” she said matter-of-factly. “Is that a problem?”

“…No,” Ye Pingjun, with an average male height, answered through gritted teeth.

Mo Bai thought of her friend who’d lost five centimeters too, and echoed softly, “No problem.”

“Since there’s no problem,” Ding Xun said briskly, “let’s discuss what to do. Do we kill the hidden monsters or not?”

Ye Pingjun didn’t answer. He looked at Mo Bai, obviously waiting for her decision.

“Kill,” Mo Bai said firmly.

Ye Pingjun hesitated and gently persuaded, “We might not need to. Now that we know why food is wasted, we can just grab the hidden monsters’ food during meals and eat it ourselves. The PE student here looks like she can eat three servings easily. Do we really have to antagonize an A-rank monster?"

He looked like he regretted his earlier stance, either wanting Mo Bai to reconsider or to give him a reason worth risking his life for.

Mo Bai shook her head. “Whether we offend him or not, the Count won’t let us live. These mannequins are made from real humans. His so-called ‘search for talented youths’ is just a pretext. He gathers poor dreamers, not to help them, but to harvest materials. Unless we kill him, no one leaves alive.”

Ye Pingjun’s voice dropped. “But we’re not ordinary people. We’re players. We can hide, avoid detection, and survive seven days. We don’t have to challenge an A-rank boss. This isn’t a game; we only live once. If we die here, we’re gone forever.”

Mo Bai said quietly, “And on the seventh day, he’ll slaughter players until at least half are dead. Even if you hide, others will start killing each other to reduce their own death rate. Will you actively hunt players?”

Her words hit him hard.

He had always survived by lying low. Hiding until others did the dirty work. But now, staring at Mo Bai’s unwavering eyes, he suddenly felt painfully aware of his own cowardice.

Still, he murmured, “I just… don’t want to die. You saw what happened to Player 12. Do you even know how to fight the Count? His ability? His weakness?”

“I don’t,” Mo Bai admitted. “But we will find out. There must be clues in this castle. And even if there's none, I already know how to clear the instance so I can guarantee your safety.”

Ding Xun blinked. “Wait, what? When did you figure that out? We’ve been together the whole time!”

“Just now,” Mo Bai said. “The Count’s been making mannequins for one purpose: to create the perfect puppet. The instance' hint stated it clearly: ‘Who will become the Count’s chosen one?’ Those who are not chosen will be expelled. The rules are telling us to offer the Count one perfect player he’s satisfied with, and everyone else can leave.”

Both Ding Xun and Ye Pingjun fell silent.

They had thought of this possibility as well, but they couldn't believe the instance would require them to do something so cruel, nor were they willing to be the villains.

Mo Bai’s voice remained steady. “If we can’t find his weakness, then I'll take the responsibility of being the chosen one. As an Observation player, I’ll attract his attention and fulfill his twisted desires.”

Ye Pingjun sighed softly. “Why would you go that far?”

“Because I want to win,” Mo Bai said. “I don’t want to lie still and do nothing. I want to control my own fate. Being trapped and helpless is worse than death.”

She already bore the hatred of the Phantom Butterfly, so one A-rank monster more made no difference.

Her unwavering resolve lit something in Ye Pingjun and Ding Xu.

The two nodded fiercely, "We'll do it with you!"