Su Man’s form was sparse.

The complete opposite of Bai Youwei’s form. Under each question, she had written only a handful of words.

For instance, on the question about the game setting, Bai Youwei gave a detailed description of the manor’s interior and exterior layout. Zhu Shu and Yu Yaqing had also mentioned to varying degrees the reversible stone wall on the third floor and the hidden passageway in the basement.

But Su Man had written only four characters: “manor, very big.”

Su Man had a straightforward personality and wouldn’t deliberately withhold information.

Bai Youwei thought about it briefly and understood the reason.

—Su Man’s right hand, it seemed, had great difficulty writing.

Her right hand had been bitten through by a guest inside the dollhouse. Though she’d used the mud immediately at the time, after the wound healed, her fine motor control had weakened considerably. Not just writing—in daily life, tasks requiring precise finger movement, like gripping chopsticks or threading a cord through a hole, were also very difficult.

Still, compared to losing her life in the game, missing the full use of one hand was nothing.

And there was still the left hand.

Bai Youwei casually asked, “Is the injury on your left hand all right?”

In “The Final Bride,” every time the Duke dragged a woman into the torture chamber, he’d either grab her by the hair or yank her by the wrist. Both Zhu Shu and Su Man had injured wrists; Su Man’s seemed more severe.

Su Man was struggling to grip her pen, the characters coming out crooked and uneven—her expression pained as a result. Hearing Bai Youwei’s question, she went still for a moment, then smiled. “It’s fine.”

She gently raised her left forearm, which was wrapped in gauze, and said, “Should be healed in a few days. I’ve been through two labyrinths, after all.”

Bai Youwei gave a slight nod, then looked the other way and asked Yu Yaqing and Zhu Shu: “What about your injuries—are you both healed?”

Yu Yaqing: “Better now. They haven’t fully closed yet, but they don’t hinder my movement.”

Zhu Shu: “Mm, don’t worry. We’ve all been through labyrinths—our bodies heal faster than ordinary people.”

Su Man listened to them talk, set down her arm, and gently gripped her left forearm with her right hand—quietly, saying nothing.

……

After filling out the forms, Professor Song asked about some details from inside the game.

This was the first game with a gender restriction, and he was paying close attention to it. He believed that future games would likely move progressively in this direction.

This time it was a women-only session—next time it might be a men-only session? A children-only session? Or perhaps even games based on profession: a group of chefs competing in a cooking contest?

Like a large-scale competition: at first, the selection rounds are rough and broad. The further in you go, the more refined the design of the competition segments.

The question remained: what kind of person was this selection ultimately trying to find?

What was the game ultimately trying to achieve?

Still unknown.

Bai Youwei thought back over the games she had experienced: Tortoise and Hare, the Frog’s Golden Ball, and Lucky Q&A—the elimination rate in all of them was extremely high. Almost the players who entered died in batches.

She mused aloud: “In the earlier games… the number of people triggered was all thirty or twenty-plus. Later the games triggered fewer—ten, seven…”

Professor Song’s expressionless face showed no change throughout. Evenly he said: “Yes. As the population base declines, the conditions for triggering games have changed accordingly. In future games, the number triggered will grow smaller and smaller. Based on our projections, there may even be games triggerable by a single person.”

He paused and raised his eyes to look at the four young women before him, then continued:

“This time you managed to emerge from the specialist game—that counts as accumulated experience. In future games, the rules and format may not be very complicated, but the difficulty will certainly be greater, and the competition fiercer as well.”

Yu Yaqing suddenly rose to her feet, her expression grave, and addressed the professor: “Professor Song, I believe that games are a challenge everyone must face. All members of the security group should participate in games on a regular basis to train their abilities and accumulate experience. I hope you will approve my request!”