Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Order of Death (2/9)

…Regarding the order of death, Jirui Xue furrowed her brow and closed her eyes, as if recalling the words Liu Ling had spoken to her. When she opened them again, Liu Mengchao noticed a change in her gaze.

Jirui Xue’s eyes were as cold and ruthless as when they had first met.

The doll spoke.

“Lou is Liu Ling.”

Mengchao nodded, signaling his sister with the split personality to continue.

“The useless little sister,” Liu Ling sighed, then the doll in her arms resumed speaking. “From the moment the otaku Zhao Weijie began introducing the plot, I had a rough impression.”

“What kind of impression?”

“Death is coming. He said that ‘Ano Then’ is basically the anime adaptation of ‘Final Destination.’ So, I followed that line of thought to observe and gather information.”

“And the result?”

“First, I compared ‘Final Destination’ with ‘Ano Then.’ The common point is that characters die for various unimaginable reasons. It can be said that their luck basically drops below zero at that moment.”

The doll in Liu Ling’s arms continued.

“The plot of ‘Final Destination’ involves a group of people who escape death, but Death does not let them go so easily. Instead, it kills them one by one in the order they escaped.”

“So, you’re searching for this order of death.”

“Yes. According to the otaku, there is one deceased person here. The Master’s goal is for us to find this dead person. Once the dead person dies, the curse will end. From the Master’s perspective, the most profitable move is to keep this dead person alive until all of us are dead.”

Liu Mengchao nodded and shared his own thoughts.

“Then, at the beginning, this dead person must, for some reason, skip their own death.”

“Exactly. As long as the order of death is discovered, the dead person’s death will be bypassed. And I have already found this order of death.” The doll raised its hands, as if parting the clouds. “The order of death appeared the moment we arrived in the world of ‘Ano Then.’”

Mengchao did not interrupt Liu Ling; he chose to listen further.

“First, in the reincarnation world, the first person we met was the anime’s male protagonist, Arsen Asahara, then the heroine, Misaki Mei.”

“Next was Yuya Mochizuki…”

Mengchao recalled the characters that appeared in the plot. “Later, we also encountered his three classmates.”

“Yes, they were Yumi Ogura, Matsuko Arita, and Manabu Maejima. Then we arrived at the school. When we entered the class, there were eight people. By the end of the day, I had their names: Aki Matsui, Kyoko Kaneki, Takako Sugiura, Makoto Ouji, Sachiko Nakajima, Aya Ayano, Watanabe Shan, and the vice class president, Tomohiko Kazami.”

“Next…”

Mengchao’s eyes suddenly lit up, his face showing a look of sudden realization. “I understand now.”

“Just as you thought, the next people to appear in order were Shoshi Kawahara, Daisuke Hisui, Junta Nakao, and Keiji Mizuno.”

“And the one who just died today…”

“Takabayashi Ikuo!” The doll in Liu Ling’s arms called out the name of the recently deceased. “As for the ones after, I suppose you already have an idea.”

Mengchao involuntarily looked out the window, where the heavy rain was still pouring down.

“The next few are Izumi Akazawa, Yukari Sakuragi, and Reiko Mikami.”

“That’s right. If you list all these characters in order of appearance, and then compare that with the list of deaths, the first to die was Reiko Mikami, followed by Yukari Sakuragi, and third…”

“Was Izumi Akazawa, whom I saved today. So…” Mengchao frowned, slowly expressing his thoughts, “the order of death is the reverse of the order in which characters appear in the plot. The last appearing character dies first.”

“Yes, because you interrupted the order of death, I paused my observation. When Jirui Xue asked you to save Izumi Akazawa, I initially disagreed. This would introduce variables and likely lead to worse outcomes.”

“The death of a reincarnator.”

“Exactly,” the doll nodded. “I noticed that after you disrupted the order of death, it immediately jumped to us. The one who died was Zhao Weijie. After his death, the order of death resumed and returned to its proper track. Or you could say, we reincarnators died in place of the plot characters once.”

“So that’s how it is. Have you found out who the dead person is? Just discovering the order of death doesn’t really help identify the dead one among us.”

“No!”

Mengchao immediately overturned his previous statement.

“You thought of it too,” the doll in Liu Ling’s arms said without smiling, but she herself chuckled.

“So, my initial analysis was not wrong—the dead person is among the reincarnators. According to this order of death, if we do nothing, all the plot characters will die. But if we can’t hold back and try to save them, death will shift to the reincarnators.”

“A clever trick by the Master,” Liu Ling slowly shook her head, voicing what Mengchao was thinking. “But he didn’t expect you would see right through his little scheme from the start.”

“So?”

“So I took your words as the conclusion from the beginning. This order of death validates that conclusion. If the dead person is not among the reincarnators, this death order would be useless.”

“Because the reincarnators could easily survive this terrifying world by doing nothing. After all, the Master didn’t set any time limits.”

The doll spoke, while a disdainful smile appeared on Liu Ling’s face. “This Master is truly amateurish.”

Mengchao chuckled in agreement. Indeed, the task set by this Master Proxy was full of flaws from the start, with nothing commendable beyond some petty cleverness.

Or perhaps, this terrifying world was well chosen.

“Well then, senior Mr. Liu Mengchao,” Liu Ling smiled at Mengchao and said, “could you apply your psychological knowledge to deduce the dead person’s identity? Not just among the reincarnators, but pinpointing a specific individual?”

“Wait.”

Mengchao finished speaking and closed his eyes, filtering a flood of information in his mind.

From the Master Proxy Qingyun’s psychological profile—it was telling that he did not choose to confront Mengchao personally.

On one hand, it showed he underestimated his own strength; on the other, it revealed a lack of confidence in his abilities.

Otherwise, this world would not be a skirmish between proxies but a decisive showdown in the next world.

Next, consider the choice of the reincarnation world, which further supports this analysis.

‘Ano Then.’

A world where strength is unnecessary, or rather, one where one can leverage forces akin to rules.

Wait!

Mengchao’s eyes suddenly lit up.

The key word is leverage!

Connecting it with another key word: cleverness.

*Tapping, tapping.*

Mengchao’s fingers lightly tapped the window’s edge, sorting through his thoughts.

A person lacking confidence in their own power instinctively resorts to the strength of someone stronger. But at the same time, this person has some cleverness, and tends to favor those with wit or wisdom.

Choosing such a person as an ally would boost their confidence or at least satisfy their faint pride. Incidentally, it also draws themselves into the equation, granting a measure of gratification.

Now, considering the conditions of the reincarnators.

Zhao Weijie, who has already died, is ruled out.

Then there’s the not-so-bright mercenary Long Xiang.

The war correspondent…

No, gender differences affect immersion.

Mengchao shook his head and excluded the female reporter. The remaining individuals were himself, Liu Ling, Tao Yunchuan, and the swindler Old Snake.

One more point: a clever person always brims with pride because they enjoy the thrill of deception. This joy is akin to when others believe their lies.

Among these people, who is the best at lying…

“Zhang Han,” Mengchao said aloud, though the latter part remained unspoken in his heart.

A con artist who lives by deceit.

Old Snake!

Almost dozed off… still a bit sleepy after all…