“Of course, of course~” Bai Youwei’s manner was cooperative, her attitude obliging.

Cooperative in spirit, but just as slow as ever in practice.

Along the way, she dawdled her pace while attempting to fish for information from the scarf woman, but the woman’s lips were sealed tight — she barely said a word.

Perhaps Dr. Ogata had quietly instructed her in advance…

Bai Youwei ran through various assumptions in her head, turning over possibilities, and before she knew it she had arrived at Ogata Haru’s room.

A cluster of Yellow Eye players had gathered together. As the scarf woman and Bai Youwei arrived, they glanced toward them — then quickly looked away.

Bai Youwei found this rather telling.

She was well accustomed to curious or probing stares — but these people gave her a single glance and averted their eyes with haste.

If no one had told them to, she didn’t believe they would have reacted this way.

Coming across a girl in a wheelchair in a game — wasn’t that unusual? A girl this pretty, sitting in a wheelchair — wasn’t that worth a second look?

Not even one extra glance.

Bai Youwei gave a quiet and private press of her lips, and mentally concluded there was something off here.

In all likelihood, Ogata Haru had briefed them beforehand — told them to avoid prolonged eye contact with her, especially avoid staring at her eyes, so as not to arouse her suspicion.

This Japanese Doctor was genuinely careful. But the effort had backfired — it was precisely this behavior that had set off Bai Youwei’s instincts.

She couldn’t help but think: was this really all he was capable of? He’d recruited that many Subjects — surely he had other means up his sleeve?

Everyone had arrived.

Ogata Haru spoke with composed refinement: “I trust everyone now understands the rules. At the moment, we lack any clues about the X Guest — so the only thing we can do is avoid being eliminated ourselves. However… the situation is very much against us.”

He swept his gaze around the group, then continued: “We Yellow Eye players number only 9 in total. It appears the three eye colors are not evenly distributed.”

Bai Youwei listened, turning this over thoughtfully.

Thirty players total. Nine Yellow Eyes. Strip out herself — the impostor — and there were only 8. From that it was easy to deduce: the combined Red and Blue count was 22.

If all 22 of those votes concentrated on Yellow Eye players, a single round of voting would eliminate them entirely.

Of course, the probability of that happening was low — most players’ numbers were still secret.

Unless the Red and Blue Eyes formed an alliance and shared their numbers freely — but doing that in the very first round, with nothing held back? The likelihood was slim.

The conclusion Ogata Haru had reasoned to was not far from Bai Youwei’s own.

“If those 22 votes want to eliminate 5 people, that’s an average of 4 votes per person. But we’re only in the first round — I believe more people are still watching and waiting. Red and Blue Eyes won’t form a coalition this quickly, so the odds of concentrated voting are low.

What we need to do is use this window, before the two sides reach any agreement, to eliminate at least three players in this round.”

He laid out his analysis methodically, measured and authoritative, inspiring confidence in those around him almost without their noticing.

“Only if we lose fewer players each round than the other sides can we gain an advantage. We currently have 9 votes in total — so let’s split into 3+3+3 and vote accordingly…”

“Dr. Ogata,” someone said with unease, “isn’t 3 votes a little thin? In my opinion, wouldn’t 5+4 be safer?”

The young man beside the Doctor said with displeasure, “Dr. Ogata arranged it this way for a reason! If you don’t understand, don’t just throw out suggestions!”

“It’s all right — I simply didn’t explain myself clearly enough.” Ogata Haru replied warmly. “We have a smaller number. Even if a 5+4 split is safer, it means we only eliminate two of their players — at which point our disadvantage in the next round only grows worse, making that option meaningless for us…”

Another player asked, “So… which numbers should we actually vote for?”