DA chapter 10

 

Lin Jia never wastes words. He expressed himself with absolute clarity and directness. The moment he finished speaking, the room fell silent.

He swept his gaze across the six people, taking in each of their expressions one by one.

Lin Jia rubbed his fingertips together and calmly asked, “Who is it?”

At the question, the six people tensed up. They pulled away from each other instinctively, glancing at their neighbors, afraid that the eyeball belonging to Shi Luo in someone’s eye socket would drag them into the camera. Panicking, they hurriedly lowered their heads, burying their faces.

Only Buzzcut lifted his head to look at Lin Jia. He agreed with Lin Jia—he did not doubt that Lin Jia was not the dead one; he did not dare to.

If Lin Jia were the corpse, he would have realized it the moment he saw it. No matter how many of them there were, they could not outplay a resentful ghost created by vicious comments. Therefore, Lin Jia could not possibly be the dead one.

Lin Jia did not know what Buzzcut was thinking. In his eyes, they were all the same—each with different thoughts and one harboring malicious intent.

“The dead don’t breathe.”

“Touch your nose, and you’ll know the answer.”

He reminded them.

Only the dead would realize they were dead. Only the dead would expose themselves, making it easier for him to find the corpse.

No one moved to check their own breath; they were all too afraid of the answer.

Lin Jia lifted his eyes and called out. “Toast.”

The cat, who had been crouched by the window and pressing down the curtain, froze when suddenly called.

The cat had no tacit understanding with Lin Jia. Its body stiffened, unsure of what Lin Jia wanted it to do. Uncertain, it let out: “Mrr?”

Lin Jia gave it a confirming look. The cat instantly felt confident and let out a deep, fierce roar toward the hesitant group.

The atmosphere was eerie. Danger lurked in the night, and fear clung to them like a shadow.

The cat’s roar tore apart their last psychological defense.

The group broke down and scrambled to check their own breath.

The answer to which one of them was the corpse was already clear, but the dead one had no intention of revealing itself. One of its eye sockets, which held someone else’s eye, was recording this confrontation.

On the Biewen TV platform, a livestream room quietly opened up, its title changed to something tempting:
“Grand Prize Guess: Who Will Be the First to Realize ‘I’ Am the Dead One?”

The words “Grand Prize” alone were enough to secure a base audience.

Viewers flooded in.

The silent livestream gradually became lively, with comments scrolling across the screen.

[Eh, it’s this group again]

[Lin Jia is here too.]

[Who is Lin Jia?]

[The one in black. I was lurking in his stream earlier, but he suddenly went crazy.]

[I was in that stream, too. Aside from being good-looking, there wasn’t any substance. I couldn’t hear what he was saying through the glass.]

[How did he go crazy?]

[He swung a chair and smashed the camera. It scared me half to death.]

[Scared me too. Lunatics belong in mental hospitals. They should be beaten to death if they’re outside.]

More and more users joined the discussion.

[Lin Jia should be the first to discover it. He’s impressive.]

[Hard to say. He’s too calculating. People like him tend to overcomplicate things.]

[What’s the grand prize?]

[Yeah, what’s the reward?

The official live stream replied: [The fate of the first person who discovers it.]

—

Everyone held their breath. Lin Jia observed them. Each person tested their breathing, terrified, then relaxed in relief.

Not a single exception.

Lin Jia understood.

The dead one was clearly fully committed to hiding among them.

That made sense—being discovered later meant viewers would have more time to watch the video. The video needed time to accumulate views, likes, and comments.

He could not delay any further.

Lin Jia asked: “After Shi Luo died, who stayed alone in a room?”

Earlier, they didn’t dare check their breath for fear of becoming the corpse themselves. Now that they understood that Lin Jia was narrowing down the range, Buzzcut spoke up first. “I was alone in Room 201 next door.”

The others also wanted to quickly find the corpse spying on them and hurried to respond.

Glasses raised his hand. “Me too. This is my room.”

The high school boy raised his hand and said, trembling: “I was in Room 301.”

He wasn’t originally alone, but since Lin Jia went to Room 303, he ended up staying in Room 301 alone. He was supposed to help Lin Jia pick the lock, but Lin Jia ended up not needing him.

Liu Ying, who had originally been with him, ended up alone as well. He said, “I was alone in Room 102.”

Lin Jia looked toward the two women present. Xiao Mei immediately said, “I was with Sister Fang. I’m breathing!”

Sister Fang nodded. “Mm. I’ve been with Xiao Mei the whole time, last night and tonight.”

One eye can only kill one person. If one of the two people in the room is chosen, the other will be aware of it.

Of the remaining six people, only Xiao Mei and Sister Fang were together in Room 101.

With two ruled out, four suspects remained.

Xiao Mei let out a breath of relief. Knowing that Sister Fang was safe, the two leaned closer to each other, using their shared warmth to overcome their fear.

However, the corpse still hadn’t been found. Searching for one person among four was not easy, and Room 202 remained shrouded in an eerie atmosphere.

Lin Jia asked the four suspects: “What were you doing in your rooms?”

Compared to the first question, this one didn’t provide such clear answers. Because Lin Jia’s tone was calm, Buzzcut panicked and said, “You already said it—dead people don’t breathe. If someone’s dead, checking their nose will tell us.”

Lin Jia: “A good method.”

“You go?”

Buzzcut immediately reached out, ready to check Glasses’s pulse.

At that moment, Lin Jia said quietly, “Be careful, or an eye will suddenly crash into your eye socket.”

Buzzcut froze instantly, his hand still in the air. A chill ran down his spine.

Glasses jumped back in fright, too.

Lin Jia’s words didn’t indicate who he was warning. To Buzzcut and Glasses, it sounded like he was warning them.

[Damn, Lin Jia found out. How did he notice?!]

[The grand prize is gone.]

[So annoying! The plot I wanted to see is ruined!]

[So what now? Change the prize?]

[There are still four people left. He might not find the “dead one.” Hold on, I’m going to bring more people to the stream!]

Lin Jia pulled out a chair. Its legs scraped against the floor, making a sharp screech.

He sat down heavily. The screech stopped.

Lifting his gaze, he saw Buzzcut and Glasses exchanging looks. Xiao Mei and Sister Fang tried to distance themselves from the four suspects, moving closer to Lin Jia.

Lin Jia casually lifted his sleeve, revealing the watch on his left wrist.

From a business perspective, when launching a product on a platform, it’s essential to have protective measures in place so the platform can respond promptly to unforeseen circumstances.

If a platform were to reach the point of irreversible collapse, capitalists would squeeze out one last bit of profit before leaving.

The Eye worked the same way.

Viewers depended on the Eye to watch them, and the Eye depended on time to accumulate views, likes, and comments.

If the corpse carrying the Eye was discovered upon checking for breath, it meant the platform was on the verge of collapse.

Once the corpse was found, the eye would naturally be destroyed, mirroring a platform on the verge of falling apart.

However, the eye was not willing to be destroyed that easily. It would create one final explosive highlight.

The eye would slam into the discoverer’s eye socket, mirroring capitalists taking their final profits.

Under the light, the watch on Lin Jia’s wrist—named “The Grandmaster Chime”—reflected a clear, cold gleam.

His voice was as cool as that light. “Each of you will get three minutes.”

Timing began.

Liu Ying, who normally didn’t talk much, spoke first. “After we heard the cat meow twice, we released blogger Xiao Wu. Then I went back to my room.”

“Because I didn’t know what was going on with you, I felt very uneasy.”

Liu Ying took out his phone. “I was watching Xiao Wu’s videos, trying to find something. It should show my playback history. Do you want to look?”

Lin Jia didn’t look. He only lowered his head to check his watch.

Liu Ying put the phone away, unsure of what Lin Jia thought of his statement. He emphasized, “I’m breathing.”

Lin Jia: “Next.”

The high school boy rushed to speak first, cutting off Buzzcut and Glasses.

Liu Ying had to stop talking.

The boy spoke too quickly and almost bit his tongue. He hurriedly said, “I’m breathing! I’m not the dead one. I stayed in Room 301 the whole time. I didn’t go anywhere. I was waiting for you to call me and tell me to pick the lock. I didn’t dare sleep; I kept waiting. Later, I heard a sound from the window, and I wanted to come out and look, but I didn’t dare. … Later, Brother Yao came to find me.”

Brother Yao was referring to Buzzcut.

But Lin Jia looked at Glasses, the one who had actually been told to call people.

Glasses pushed up his glasses and awkwardly explained, “I was too scared. I went to find A-Yao first and had him go with me to call everyone.”

Lin Jia: “Mm.”

Glasses immediately said, “After I returned to my room, I ate something. I had wanted to eat earlier, but I didn’t get the chance.”

They were currently in Room 202, Glasses’s room. Glasses picked up the food wrappers from the trash can and held them out to Lin Jia. But the cat behind Lin Jia bared its teeth at him. Only then did Glasses stop moving forward.

“Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to prove that I didn’t see the eye. I’m breathing. I’m alive.”

Lin Jia didn’t comment, but asked: “After eating?”

“After eating, I went to bed and slept,” Glasses said. “i was waiting for you to announce the findings from Room 303 tomorrow morning.”

Lin Jia asked. “Did you fall asleep?”

Glasses: “At first, I didn’t. Later, yes, I fell asleep.”

Since he was asleep, there was nothing more to ask.

It was Buzzcut’s turn.

Since nothing could be judged from the previous three testimonies, everyone stared at him. Buzzcut said: “I went back and slept.”

He also felt that this answer sounded suspicious. He continued: “The cat meowed twice. It meant we should go back. If I didn’t go back to sleep, what else could I do? No one knows what will happen tomorrow. If I don’t rest well, how will I deal with it?”

Buzzcut added, “I’m not dead. I’m alive.”

Once all four had finished, Lin Jia once again became the focus of everyone’s attention.

Xiao Mei couldn’t help but ask, “Brother Jia, do you have the answer?”

Lin Jia: “Yes.”

Hearts tightened instantly.

Xiao Mei and Sister Fang asked in unison, “Who… who is it?!”

 

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