“WHY?!” The glasses-wearing man couldn’t accept it. He grabbed one of the yellow-eyes and demanded: “How did you vote? Why did you listen to her?! Did you all see through me as the X-Guest long ago?! No…… No! That’s impossible!!!”

The yellow-eye pulled her arm free from his grip and replied with irritation: “Didn’t see through you, no. But she promised us that if we voted her way, she would share gadgets with us regardless of whether we won or lost.”

The glasses-wearing man’s eyes went wide. “You…… you can do that?”

“Yes.” Another yellow-eye spoke. “If she really was the X-Guest, we were going to lose for certain anyway. And since number 11 was blocked by the rabbit so we couldn’t vote for it — we might as well listen to her. That way even if we lost, we’d still get gadgets.”

Even for those who ended up demoted to commoners, gadgets were extremely important possessions. Unless the Doll Game disappeared from the world entirely, gadgets would never lose their value.

The glasses-wearing man had never imagined that for all his calculating, he would ultimately be undone by such a small detail.

He erupted in a roar of helpless rage: “Weren’t you afraid she’d go back on her word?!”

“She won’t go back on it.” The short-haired woman stepped forward. “We had the inspector serve as witness. As long as we worked together in the final round to eliminate the true X-Guest, everyone would receive a share of the gadgets regardless of the outcome.”

In other words, aside from number 29, the eliminated players — numbers 6, 7, 14, and 24 — would lose only their puzzle pieces, not their gadgets. On top of that, they would share equally in the winner’s gadgets!

With such an attractive offer, no one would refuse.

The short-haired woman looked over at Yu Chaohui, pressed her lips together, and added: “We approached you and your companion too, but you refused to come out and shut us out completely.”

Yu Chaohui lowered his head deeply, face ashen, unable to say a single word.

The glasses-wearing man was still not willing to concede. He pointed at the body in the booth and argued: “Even so — this still shouldn’t be the result! He clearly voted just now! Why doesn’t that count?! Is the inspector deliberately protecting someone?!”

“Hey, what kind of accusation is that?” The sphere quickly spoke up. “He did cast a vote, but that vote was invalid. Didn’t you notice that numbers 6 and 7 ended up tied? As I stated, this round only eliminates four people — so he was supposed to choose one of numbers 6 or 7 to vote for. Instead, as it turns out, he pressed the invalid number 11. So now all five of them get eliminated~”

“A…… tie?…… Invalid?” The glasses-wearing man stumbled backward half a step, dazed. “How did this happen…… How……”

Bai Youwei looked at him with a blank expression, her voice perfectly even: “I calculated that you would vote for number 7. So I had everyone cast their votes strategically in advance to lock in four slots. Including your vote for number 7, that made five slots in total — and since the final round was only eliminating four people, that meant the two who hadn’t voted yet could only choose from among the players with 1 vote, no matter what.”

“What if they’d both voted for number 11?” The glasses-wearing man glared at her, refusing to give in. “If they’d both voted number 11, you’d have had 2 votes! Even if I lost, you’d have lost right along with me!”

“In theory, yes. But in practice, that was never going to happen.” Bai Youwei gave the rabbit in her arms a light stroke. “Do you really think that after the electric strike happened once, the remaining person would be foolish enough to go touch number 11 again?”

The glasses-wearing man went still.

The moment one person touched number 11, the lightning strike would be triggered! After watching a living person be reduced to a charred ruin — would anyone dare touch number 11 again? Would have to be out of their mind!

“Even…… even so…… then why did you all……” He wracked his brain for justifications, unable to accept that he had lost.

The sphere finally ran out of patience. “You talk too much! I’m starting the reward settlement now!”

The glasses-wearing man vanished from the air in an instant.