CHAPTER 1376: CHAPTER 1377: THE RESTAURANT THAT DISAPPEARED AT NIGHT

After the footsteps outside the door lingered a few times, they finally left. Xu Huo looked at the room and thanked the female player in the Duck Tongue Cap who pulled him in.

The female player waved it off nonchalantly, "Maris asked me to do it."

There were six people in the room, besides Maris, the female player with the Duck Tongue Cap, and their other companion with a scarf, there was also the woman they saved during the day, and two severely injured male players.

Maris greeted Xu Huo and invited him to join their discussion.

"We’re studying the restaurant’s layout," said the female player in the Duck Tongue Cap, "Which way did you come from?"

Xu Huo glanced at the paper spread out on the bed. It sketched part of the layout from the restaurant to the guest room area, detailing the corridor directions, room positions, and room numbers.

"Coming from the restaurant to our location, there are about six rooms on the right," Maris explained, "These two friends came from the other way and counted approximately six rooms as well."

He pointed to the left.

Xu Huo picked up a pen and filled in some details, "Room 55 follows to Room 172, and Room 172 faces the warehouse."

"Doesn’t that complete the loop?" questioned the female player in the Duck Tongue Cap, "This corridor’s a circle."

"It should be a hexagon," said the woman who had just begun her evolution, suppressing discomfort, "The corridor opposite the restaurant has two rooms; a left turn leads to Room 172 with just one room, another turn to Room 55, and the other three sides have two rooms each. The corridors with two rooms are about the same length as the single-room corridors. Apart from the corridor opposite the restaurant, there’s an open space outside every other room."

"Outside 172 is a warehouse, at least three times larger than any other room’s exterior," Xu Huo added.

"Inside it’s hexagonal, outside it’s arc-shaped, drawing it gives a floral design," the Duck Tongue Cap leaned in to see, "But this space couldn’t possibly hide dozens of people, could it? What’s opposite the warehouse?"

Xu Huo shook his head, "The restaurant split into two paths; maybe the other side is similar to ours."

After a pause, he continued, "Just now when I came by, I realized the path from the restaurant was gone."

Maris and the others were startled, "Can’t find the restaurant?"

"Are you sure you didn’t see it wrong?" the female player in the Duck Tongue Cap asked, "How could the restaurant disappear? Shouldn’t it be operating at night too?"

"The restaurant operates at night too?" Xu Huo asked, "Is that confirmed?"

"Li Huamiao arrived at the restaurant yesterday," Maris pointed to an injured player, "Li Huamiao is his player nickname."

The player nicknamed Li Huamiao was in poor mental state. He hesitated, "Last night, I couldn’t enter my room either, so I hid up on the beams all night, and saw a player returning from the restaurant."

Now, with Xu Huo claiming the path to the restaurant disappeared, the other players couldn’t help but doubt the truth. Player Li Huamiao propped himself up and detailed the process, "There were props active on the roof, plus restaurant staff moving below, so I changed spots every now and then. Near dawn, I saw a player come from the restaurant’s direction... though I didn’t see him emerge directly, he had the scent of food on him, the same smell as in the restaurant during the day."

"Since the restaurant hasn’t disclosed any voting details, I believe the instance’s difficulty lies in acquiring the voting rules," Maris said, "The night restaurant seems the most probable place. I thought as long as we avoided the restaurant staff, anyone could get there."

Throughout this process, the highest risk comes from those staff. Now with Xu Huo saying the path to the restaurant vanished, it undoubtedly adds another layer of risk—you have to find the path first to reach the restaurant.

"Originally, it seemed the restaurant staff’s active times were regular, but I didn’t expect..."

The female player in the Duck Tongue Cap explained to Xu Huo the rule Maris had summarized before, roughly two hours of relative safety time.

"But just now, he did encounter the staff, maybe they were intentionally making noise to mislead us," suggested the female player in the Duck Tongue Cap.

Xu Huo didn’t see it that way. The Lame Butcher was very quick, if associated with the "Knock Knock Kill," it’s reasonable for him to appear anywhere, anytime in the restaurant, without needing sound inducement. Additionally, the prop on the ceiling was also his. In contrast, the Raincoat Cleaner and the one rummaging through crates, possibly the third staff member, not appearing yet just proved their activities were patterned.

The key lies in triggering his condition.

But what concerned him more now was another issue, he asked the player known as Li Huamiao, "Did you see that player today?"

The player Li Huamiao shook his head, "There weren’t many more players at the restaurant at opening this morning than yesterday, but when I entered, there were already many, so I can’t be sure whether they were from yesterday or newly arrived."

"Do you remember how many ate Antler Soup and how many voted for it yesterday?" Xu Huo asked again.

"I already asked," Maris answered on his behalf, "But he doesn’t remember."

Indeed, it was purely a matter of forgetfulness since players came at different times. Because the first three days were free, beyond the three daily meals, they could order anytime if hungry. So forget about calculating players’ initial menu orders and those who supplemented them afterward, or the players who temporarily recruited allies or shifted seats along with changes of the restaurant. Some even changed their appearance after entering... it’s not a simple arithmetic question of a hundred players and hundreds of dishes.

Moreover, most wouldn’t loudly announce what they were ordering; food only becomes apparent upon seeing it, adding a layer of difficulty.

Even more challenging, players couldn’t rely on reducing numbers to ease voting difficulty, because people who died yesterday would be replaced today, as if there were always dozens to a hundred people, and unifying those numbers to vote would likely be harder than training a hundred ducks to salute.

"Actually, there’s a simpler way, which is to seal the ballot box and meddle in the voting process," Maris looked at Xu Huo, "But that requires enough player cooperation."

"I don’t have a problem with that," Xu Huo responded readily, "But there’s just one thing, how do you make everyone order the same dish?"

Based on his deduction, "Today’s Special" is very likely to appear among the meat dishes. And in the special setting of Bauhinia Restaurant, generally, players wouldn’t dare challenge the meat dishes. Even if they could use props to check, players arriving later would refuse cooperation due to unclear rules, avoiding getting caught unaware.

"Since we have to vote, there might be too many abstentions."

In other words, banning others from voting as a shortcut was equally unfeasible.