Nathan Ke and Owen Wei stopped in shock and stared at Adrian Mu in disbelief.
Adrian Mu also stopped, turned around and looked at the two of them deeply: "To put it more directly, the world in the painting does not allow a day without death, but because of the randomness of the development of things in this world, it often causes the phenomenon of zero death. In this case, the world in the painting requires that one person must die to fill the vacancy of zero death on the previous day. And the place of this death is left to the survivors to vote for."
Nathan Ke's mind was still in a state of complete blankness due to the extreme shock caused by this incident. He asked in a somewhat floating voice: "What happens after the selection?"
"This person will die within a minute, in a manner consistent with the style of the content of this painting." Adrian Mu's tone was calm, almost cruel.
Nathan Ke knew that this cruelty was just to remind him that this world was far more cruel than he had imagined.
What kind of fear does it feel like to be voted by everyone to die?
"So what do you think the old man wanted us to do at 8 o'clock this morning?" Adrian Mu glanced at him, and his tone softened slightly. "If no one died last night, then our first activity at his house just now would not be to have breakfast, but to vote for someone. Only after the election would we have food."
"...and...and still give me Fcuking food, how inhumane..." Owen Wei cursed with a sad face.
Nathan Ke exhaled and looked up at Adrian Mu: "It is quite cruel. So what you mean is that if we team up with everyone, it is very likely that we will be partners one day and kill each other the next day? When I think about it this way, there is really nothing more Fcuked up than this."
Adrian Mu suddenly smiled again, although there was no smile in his eyes: "You are still too naive. If everyone votes to elect one person to die, who can guarantee that they will not be chosen by the majority?"
"...So?" Nathan Ke's eyelids jumped.
"You have to know that human nature is the most difficult subject in the world to understand." Mu looked at Nathan Ke with a glare, "Some people are afraid of being chosen, so they take the initiative to kill in advance."
Nathan Ke took a deep breath and spoke slowly: "That is to say, whether it is voting or killing people one by one, as long as someone dies, it can be regarded as filling the gap of zero deaths on the previous day. If people are killed one by one before the election, then there will be no voting on the same day, right?"
"Yes." Mu answered happily.
"So, some people, fearing that they will be voted out by the majority in an election, will take the initiative to kill someone in order to avoid the risk of death." Nathan Ke finally understood Adrian Mu's intention.
No wonder there was a weird atmosphere among those people who didn't look like novices. In addition to indifference and numbness, there was also alienation and wariness of each other.
This also means that in this world of the painting, you cannot make close friends with other people. No one can guarantee that when faced with a life or death decision, who will stand beside the other person and your own humanity is an angel or a devil.
Adrian Mu looked at the person in front of him calmly.
After telling him the rules of the painting, he quietly observed the changes in the man's expression and mentality.
This person was not the first one to seek cooperation with him, and all those who had wanted to cooperate with him before, without exception, chose to be on guard, cautious, and immediately distance themselves after he described the rules in the painting.
If the person in front of him made the same choice, Adrian Mu would not be angry.
After all, that's human nature.
"I agree to your terms." Adrian Mu heard him say this, "Although I am not very smart, I am not stupid enough to think of exchanging sincerity with others in this environment."
Adrian Mu continued to look at him calmly, waiting for his next words.
"But I also have something to say in advance," Nathan Ke looked at Adrian Mu with clear eyes, "Whether you believe it or not, I can promise not to betray you. If it really comes to the time when I need to vote for someone to die, I will definitely not vote for you. But---if it comes to a life-and-death moment, and I need to choose between you and Dongzi to live and the other to die, I will choose Dongzi to live. I declare this in advance, and I hope you can understand. Of course, when it comes to a life-and-death moment, if you choose to save yourself and sacrifice both of us, I will definitely not blame you. What do you think? If you can't accept it, just pretend I didn't say it, and we'll go our separate ways."
Adrian Mu's eyes moved slightly, and he nodded slightly: "I accept."
"Deal." Nathan Ke stretched out his hand.
However, Adrian Mu did not do him the honor of shaking hands, and walked away with a noble and cold look.
Nathan Ke: ...
Owen Wei: "Ke'er, you are so good to me. I really want to hug your thighs and cry. You are worthy of being my childhood friend. From now on, my dad is your dad, my mom is your mom, my son is your son, and my wife is your sister-in-law."
Nathan Ke: "...get out of here. It's nice to let me help you support your father, mother and son. Why don't you let me help you support your wife?"
Owen Wei: "You are a man and you like men, I will give you my wife, do you want her?"
Nathan Ke: "First of all, you have to have a wife. You are still single, so don't think too much."
Owen Wei sighed: "You can't think too much. If you encounter such a bad thing, you don't know if you can get out alive. What's the point of having a bicycle?"
"Don't be too pessimistic," Nathan Ke put his arm around his shoulders tightly, "Once you give up hope, hope will also give up on you. Do you believe in my intuition? I have a feeling that we can definitely get out."
Owen Wei forced a tearful smile on his face. Even though the two of them had just tacitly tried to cheer each other up by making jokes, they still couldn't resist the pressure of death and the signs of despair: "How can you be so straight, Abe, a gay man... But sometimes you are too straight. You shouldn't have said those words just now. Even if you really think my life is more important than his, you can't tell him. Who would be happy to hear that?"
"Don't worry, he won't mind." Nathan Ke smiled.
"How do you know?" Owen Wei didn't believe it.
"If a person is willing to give up even his best brother in order to cling to someone powerful for survival, is such a person trustworthy?" Nathan Ke said as he strode forward.
Walking side by side with Adrian Mu, Nathan Ke tilted his head and looked at him: "Can we now be officially considered a team? Is it time to tell us about the clues you got?"
Adrian Mu said calmly: "It's not a clue, it's just my personal idea, which needs to be verified. However, the only way to verify it is to continue waiting for death, which is too costly."
"Don't feel pressured, just talk about it first, maybe we can help." Nathan Ke soothed in a gentle voice.
Mu looked at him with a smile, then looked away: "The first thing that puzzled me was why the five people who died last night died in different ways."
Nathan Ke thought for a moment: "Because they were killed by different 'things'?"
Adrian Mu sneered: "Whatever it is, isn't it an unnatural 'thing'? Why were the three people guarding the body scared to death and then had their eyes gouged out, while the two people digging the grave were..."
Owen Wei covered his ears quickly: "Don't say it, don't say it!"
Nathan Ke thought for a moment: "Because we encounter different kinds of 'things'?"
Adrian Mu said: "This can certainly be used as an explanation, but I am more concerned about the way these two groups of people died, whether it was having their eyes gouged out or being..."
Owen Wei covered his ears: "Artificial mosaic, artificial mosaic, artificial mosaic..."
Adrian Mu: "...after death, the body still retains its original outline. Both forms of death are very formal, or in other words, they have a certain ritual and symbolic nature."
Nathan Ke: "Having said that, I still don't see how this can inspire us."
Adrian Mu looked at him calmly: "You said you were a student of physical education, and it seems you didn't lie."
Nathan Ke: "...Although you mocked me, I am not angry."
Adrian Mu closed his eyes and continued in a cold voice: "If there is a sports stadium with hurdles on the track, shot put on the grass, mats for high jump, and sand pits for long jump, and a group of students come in at this time."
Nathan Ke responded very cleverly: "Then the teacher will assign events to these students. Some will run hurdles, some will practice shot put, some will high jump, and some will long jump."
Adrian Mu continued: "So on this field, students doing each project will show different sports states."
Nathan Ke suddenly realized: "This is just like our current situation. Last night, some people were responsible for keeping vigil, some were in the woodshed, some were in the granary, and some were digging the grave."
Adrian Mu's eyes were cold and gloomy. "The people who were keeping vigil had their eyes gouged out, and the people digging the graves..." He glanced at Owen Wei, "They were all dead, like hurdlers running, high jumpers jumping, and shot putters throwing."
Nathan KeOwen Wei: ...
Adrian Mu: "The key is that the athlete, the track, the leap, the hurdles, as well as the athlete, the turf, the throw, and the shot put are the four elements of the hurdles and shot put, namely: the person, the place, the state of movement, and the symbol that defines the athlete's movement.
"To transform into the current situation, the same four elements are required:
"Characters---Five people died last night;
"Location---Mourning hall, wasteland;
"Death (Motion) State---Frightened to death, eyes gouged out and..."
Nathan KeOwen Wei: "Death into a mosaic."
Adrian Mu: "...Then the question is, what are the symbols that define the death of the person (athlete) and the form of death (sports)?"
Nathan Ke suddenly turned his head and looked at Adrian Mu.
Adrian Mu also looked at him, speaking in a calm and steady voice: "If we find the 'shot put' and 'hurdles' from the two death games last night, perhaps we are not far from the moment when we open this painting."
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