The other players burst into excitement, especially those who had bet on Player 14. Some jumped up and cheered loudly.
"Hahaha! I knew it! Player 14 really lasted the longest!"
"Same here! I voted for him too!"
"This round was basically a free pass to win a tool card!"
Player 14, the muscular man, glanced at the Pig-faced Masked Man, seemingly asking if the game was over.
But in the next instant, the unexpected happened.
Player 14's body suddenly froze, his muscles locked in place. His hair singed, and his entire body blackened as if struck by lightning. He toppled backward and plummeted straight into the dark abyss below.
The spectators were stunned into silence.
Only the Pig-faced Masked Man, standing atop the platform, displayed a sinister grin beneath his mask, as though savoring the success of his cruel scheme.
Just half a minute earlier.
Jiang Yu had released his grip on the horizontal bar, his body falling backward in a reclining position. With a faint smile, he descended rapidly into the abyss.
Three seconds later, his body landed heavily on an enormous safety net. It bounced a few times before settling, and he began to explore his surroundings in the darkness.
As expected, it was a massive net, riddled with small holes resembling a sieve. Each opening was just large enough for a small object like a fist-sized stone to pass through.
So that's the truth. All the puzzles in his mind had finally unraveled. The stones that the Pig-faced Masked Man had thrown earlier could easily pass through the gaps in the net, but a human body would be safely caught.
No wonder the players who had fallen into the abyss before hadn't made a sound upon hitting the ground.
Just as Jiang Yu reached this realization, two figures suddenly grabbed him and dragged him toward the wall. Instinctively, he struggled, but their grip was unyielding. They pinned his arms, guiding him through a maze of twisting tunnels until they arrived at a small, dimly lit room.
Inside, Jiang Yu immediately recognized several familiar faces: Player 5, the rotund Ye Tengwen; Player 28, Dr. Luo Jun; Player 26, the yellow-haired youth; and Player 36, the lawyer.
The other players who had previously fallen into the abyss were also present, each sitting quietly in chairs as if waiting for instructions.
The ones who had dragged Jiang Yu here were two Minotaur-masked men holding guns. They motioned for Jiang Yu to take a seat.
In that moment, Jiang Yu finally understood the full scope of the deception.
The game's true objective wasn't to endure on the horizontal bars above but rather to survive within the abyss below.
The Pig-faced Masked Man's words had been accurate in a way, but their meaning had been deliberately misleading.
If nothing else went wrong, then Player 14, the man who was so convinced of his victory, was now the one truly eliminated.
A few minutes later, Jiang Yu and the other players were blindfolded and led into an elevator. They felt the cabin ascend before being shuffled through several doors.
When the blindfolds were removed, the nine players found themselves standing in a second-floor corridor.
The Minotaur-masked men gestured for them to descend to the main hall below. Jiang Yu and the others made their way to the staircase and began to walk down in an orderly line.
As they emerged into view, the other players in the hall gasped in disbelief, their eyes widening as if they were witnessing ghosts.
"Weren't they supposed to have fallen into the abyss? How are they here?"
"Yeah, what about Player 14? What just happened?"
"Wait, they fell into such a deep pit... How are they still alive?"
When Jiang Yu and the others returned to the crowd, the Pig-faced Masked Man clapped his hands and addressed the group.
"Well done! These nine players have endured to the very end and emerged victorious. Unfortunately, Player 14 has been eliminated."
The hall erupted in chatter. Confusion filled the air as players speculated, unable to piece together the events that had unfolded. Some even grabbed Jiang Yu and the others, bombarding them with questions.
The Pig-faced Masked Man frowned and gestured for silence.
Beneath his mask, he smirked wickedly. "I never said the goal was to stay on the horizontal bars the longest. That was merely your own foolish assumption."
"By the way," he continued with a sadistic edge, "those bars were rigged with 100,000 volts of electricity. The last person remaining on them received a shocking farewell."
The crowd was stunned into silence.
"He's absolutely deranged. How are we supposed to keep playing like this?"
"This guy can't be trusted at all!"
"Ugh, these games are getting more and more twisted. My brain's not keeping up... I don't think I'll make it out of here alive."
Jiang Yu smirked to himself.
When he'd seen the layout of the horizontal bars, he'd recalled his high school physics lessons about circuits. The arrangement of the bars resembled a parallel circuit, capable of delivering a fatal shock to anyone clinging to them.
His decision to let go had been a gamble—and it had paid off.
No wonder the game had provided him with a buff to his intelligence rather than his physical stamina.
At that moment, the system's voice echoed in his mind.
[Congratulations, Host, on achieving victory in this death game.]
[Game buff is being converted...]
[Conversion complete. Host's IQ has permanently increased by 10%.]
Jiang Yu felt a surge of satisfaction. His intellect had once again reached new heights, giving him a significant advantage in the games to come.
"System, give me an example of my current IQ level," he asked mentally.
[Host's IQ now surpasses 81.6% of the global population.]
Not bad. His sharp mind would undoubtedly be his greatest weapon in future challenges.
The Pig-faced Masked Man addressed the crowd once more.
"The nine victorious players are as follows: Players 5, 6, 24, 26, 28, 31, 36, 42, and 47. Each of you will receive a tool card, selected randomly."
At his signal, a Minotaur-masked man carried a stack of tool cards into the hall. The nine winners took turns drawing a card from the deck, their choices blind as the cards were facedown.
Jiang Yu drew his card, confident that fate—or perhaps his skyrocketing luck—would favor him with at least an A-tier tool card.
After the tool cards were distributed, the Pig-faced Masked Man tallied the voting results. Nearly half the players had placed bets, with most favoring Players 14 and 47.
Those who had bet on Player 14 suffered devastating losses, begrudgingly handing over their tool cards as forfeit.
Once the results were finalized, the Pig-faced Masked Man surveyed the crowd with a devilish glint in his eyes.
"Today's game was exhilarating," he declared. "Now, only 43 players remain!"
"That means your odds of winning the grand prize have improved. Each of you now has a one-in-forty-three chance of taking home ten million dollars!"
His enthusiasm was contagious. Many players clenched their fists, faces flushed with renewed determination.
The Pig-faced Masked Man concluded, "You may return to your rooms to rest. I'll give you a small teaser—tomorrow night's game is called 'Russian Roulette.'"
"Additionally, as a reward for your efforts, I'll be hosting a sumptuous feast after tomorrow's game."
With a graceful bow, he ended his announcement.