“Everyone must have noticed by now~ This game has something to do with your eyes!”

The ball chattered away happily, then leaped up onto the top of the small house.

The house was cylindrical, its roof shaped like an inverted bowl — just wide enough to cradle the large stone sphere.

It spun once in place on the rooftop, producing a faint creaking sound, and continued speaking:

“On this island, there are 30 residents — that’s you: the Red Eyes, the Yellow Eyes, and the Blue Eyes. The game only ends when everyone’s eye color is the same.

In other words, the win condition for this game is: only one eye color remains!”

Red, yellow, blue — only one could survive!

In an instant, the atmosphere grew taut. People with different eye colors began to study one another with sharp, guarded looks, each group squaring off against the others.

The stone ball said unhurriedly, “Hey~ What kind of looks are those? Now now now — no violence! Absolutely no violence permitted. Any violation will result in immediate disqualification!”

In the crowd, a large Black man clicked his tongue with irritation.

His build was powerfully muscular — an obvious advantage — but unfortunately, the Inspector was giving him no opportunity to make use of it.

“See this little house?” The Inspector bounced twice on the rooftop. “Here’s what you’ll be doing: every 8 hours, you come inside and cast one vote. The 5 players with the highest vote counts will be eliminated.

After five rounds of voting, 5 players will remain. If those 5 players all have the same eye color, then congratulations~ the game is won, and you’ve earned your registration!

But if those 5 players don’t all share an eye color… then you lose — and only the X Guest wins!~ Ah, have I not yet introduced you to the X Guest?”

The ball struck the ground with a thud and rolled rapidly once around the house.

“The X Guest is not one of the island’s residents — so their eye color is fake! They are currently hidden among you right now!”

Everyone let out a startled reaction, studying one another with renewed urgency.

The ball laughed with delight. “You thought it would be that easy to spot them? The X Guest may be disguised as Red, disguised as Yellow, or disguised as Blue!~

If you can eliminate the X Guest, then all remaining players — regardless of their eye color — will win the game!”

Bai Youwei listened in silence.

The rules sounded complicated, but really came down to two key points.

First: when all players share the same eye color, the game is cleared.

Second: if the X Guest is eliminated, the game is cleared.

Two win conditions — either one would do.

A tall woman in the crowd asked, “How exactly does voting work? Who tallies the votes? And if there’s a tie in vote count, how is that resolved?”

“Wow, great question!” The ball gave a gleeful laugh and explained, “As for the voting method — as I just described, you vote inside this little house, one person at a time. Every person must vote. Abstaining is not permitted. When voting, use the number on each player’s body as their voting identifier!”

After those words, many faces in the crowd changed — only now realizing, after the fact, that a number had appeared somewhere on their person!

On a collar, on a leg, on the back of a heel, on the brim of a hat —

All in positions they themselves couldn’t easily spot!

Some frantically tried to cover theirs with their hands — but it was already too late. Others had been paying attention, and the sharper ones had already quietly committed the numbers to memory.

The ball’s tone dropped, and it emphasized once more:

“Absolutely no use of violence!~ And no skipping your vote! Don’t think that because it’s just a preliminary round, you can get away with slacking off — otherwise, you will regret it!”

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