Absurd Deduction Game

 The clock was still turning, and soon, with the gentle ticking of the hands, it was ten minutes past seven.

A vague smell of blood came from the passage, and then, the two people at the cashier heard footsteps at the same time.

The footsteps were chaotic and belonged to no one person.

 “Tick tock.”

 The sheep-faced foreman appeared in their sight again, but the difference was that there was another person following behind him.

The man was walking with his head lowered, wearing a red apron similar to Yu Xing's, silently following behind the sheep-faced foreman.

“Work hard, you’re so slack on your first day at work. If you don’t want to work, you can go home.” The foreman’s expression was very strange. It was hard to tell whether it was happiness or anger, but the condescending attitude in his tone was very clear.

Yu Xing leaned lazily on the cashier counter and heard the man respond in a low voice: "Okay."

 The voice sounded like that of a man, and he was very young.

 However, it’s this sentence again, why do you and the “aunt” next to you like to reply to these two words as much?

 Or is it that social workers are already used to replying “ok” to their leaders?

Yu Xing, who had little social experience, did not think deeply. His eyes fell on the floor behind the man.

 bloody footprints.

 Hyper footprints spread along the route of the man and the foreman, and the viscous liquid semi-solidified outlined vivid patterns on the ground. It was obvious that the man was injured.

 But he walked very steadily, so where was his injury?

Yu Xing stood up straight as the foreman approached, with a sense of restraint all over his body.

The head waiter looked up at the time again: "It's about time, the door is about to open. Remember to serve the guests well, greet the guests with a smile, and let them feel our enthusiasm. Do you understand?"

　　 Yu Xing: “I understand.”

 The man and the woman said in unison: "Okay."

 A trace of surprise flashed in Yu Xing's eyes.

After the foreman finished speaking, he walked towards the door of the barbecue restaurant, which was still locked. It was only then that the foreman unlocked the lock and the door slowly opened.

This barbecue restaurant seems to be open on the street, with a road outside. After opening the door, you can see that the sky outside is still dark.

Yu Xing finally realized that this 7 o'clock was not 7 o'clock in the morning, but 7 o'clock in the evening.

 This barbecue restaurant only starts business in the evening.

 “You, are you okay?”

Beside him, the cashier woman couldn't help but ask the man.

 It can’t be said to be concern, I just want to see what happened to the same kind of people, so as to warn myself.

 The man raised his head.

 He said: "I'm not very well."

 The woman's pupils were constricted, she almost screamed in fright, and she covered her mouth firmly with her hands.

Yu Xing took a step back and locked his vigilant and surprised eyes on the man's face.

 Half of the man's face was covered in blood and flesh, his eyeballs and lips were missing, his skin had disappeared, and only the vibrant flesh and blood and interlaced meridians could be seen inside.

There are many craters, and in some places, bones are exposed.

With a face that was half intact and half terrifying, he gave them an ugly smile and repeated: "I'm not okay, I feel like I'm not okay."

 The woman could not say a word. Although she still stood firmly in place, her whole body was shaking like a sieve.

 What she wanted to blurt out seemed to be the word monster.

Yu Xing saw that men were like this, but they didn’t cry out in pain, walked smoothly, and were in a weird mood, so he guessed that this should be the mechanism of the copy.

Like pain shielding?

 Or directly mental pollution.

Generally, if it becomes like this, it is basically impossible to save it. Most of them don’t even have a chance to survive to the end. Even if they survive, the degree of alienation will probably be...

The chewing sound I heard just now, was the foreman eating this man's face?

Yu Xing felt a strange feeling in his heart again, and he asked: "What do you do?"

"The kitchen, pass the dishes, but I have to come to the hall to gather first." The man replied stiffly, "I was 'born' in the kitchen. There were two chefs in the kitchen, and one of them pestered me, which delayed me a little. So it’s late.”

It turns out that he missed the first mission deadline not because he was afraid or careless.

 But something is harming him.

"That chef is a pig, and he has a pig's head on his neck!" When the man said this, he was no longer completely stiff, but his tone was excited, and he regained some of his proper emotions.

 He was very frightened, and his voice rose unconsciously.

The woman quickly raised her finger: "Shh, keep your voice down, don't let the foreman hear you."

The man stopped hurriedly and glanced at the back of the foreman standing at the door.

The street was empty, and no customers had come in yet. The foreman seemed to have taken on the role of soliciting customers and was standing at the door, as if he was not interested in what they were talking about.

Yu Xing stared at him and asked eagerly: "You said you were stopped by a pig-headed chef. What about the other chef? Is it a human or..."

Leng Touqing completely ignored the mood of his companions and only wanted to find out more information.

The man paused, as if he was thinking about it, and then he said: "The other one is a human, a woman, she, she is very cold, just looking at me like that... When the foreman came in to arrest me, she also stared at me with a half-smile. . I hate that look.”

"That might be our companion!" Yu Xing's eyes lit up on the surface, but actually he had a guess about who the cook was.

The indifferent woman who seems to be smiling but not smiling, isn't that Qu Nianqing?

 The reason why she seems to be smiling but not smiling is because she originally has smiling lips.

However, this is a bit unexpected. Four people are all employees. Doesn’t that mean that only four people will become customers? Is it half and half?

 Something doesn’t seem right.

Although Yu Xing didn't think too much, his instincts and premonitions were screaming.

 The woman asked again: "Are you a candidate or a deducer?"

 Thinking about it, she thought that her companions would ask this question when they met through Yu Xing's method.

“Me, me?” The man was stunned and paused for a long time. “I am a candidate. I was shopping with my girlfriend in the mall today, and suddenly I came in.”

 The woman asked some more questions.

Their voices were kept very low, and the foreman at the door never looked back.

Yu Xing listened casually, but was actually thinking about other things.

There are two candidates in front of him. Qu Nianqing is probably in the kitchen, and there is only one candidate left, as well as Gao Lou, Xiao Tianshi and Assassin No. 17 who have never been seen on major lists.

As for this barbecue restaurant, it is known that there are two chefs, one serving food, one cashier, one foreman, and him as the front office waiter.

 Are these the only ones in total? Isn't it too little to have only one waiter?

 Are there any cleaners? If so, where would it be? Is there a manager? Or is the barbecue restaurant owner here?

Yu Xing didn't have time to think about anything when there was finally movement at the door.

Like opening a floodgate to release water, the streets that were empty a moment ago suddenly became crowded with people.

 The dim street lights brought almost diminished light. Many people passed by the entrance of the barbecue restaurant, and the sound of conversations occasionally came in through the open door.

Some people came to the door of the barbecue restaurant, turned around, and walked in. The sheep-faced foreman immediately said enthusiastically: "Welcome! Please sit inside!"

The woman also smiled quickly and suppressed her fear: "Welcome! There is a QR code on the table. Guests can scan the code to order!"

 In order to be gregarious, Yu Xing also said a welcome.

The man with only half his face smiled and walked silently towards the guests who were seated, as if he planned to wait for their orders to be completed, and then take the orders to the kitchen and hand them to the chef.

 At first it was just a few guests who came together.

Soon, more and more "people" entered the barbecue restaurant, and the entire barbecue restaurant was mostly filled.

 All the guests don’t have human heads around their necks.

At a glance, you can see the faces of sheep, pigs, cows, and even dogs. The faces of these species are inlaid on human bodies. They speak human words and every move is the same as that of humans. They are extremely spiritually polluting.

  In comparison, Yu Xing and the other three beings with human faces seemed like aliens.

The store is already busy, and Yu Xing should actually turn on the switch on the table for the guests at this time, bring the grill and charcoal fire, and spread the absorbent paper.

 But he didn't move.

First of all, he didn't know where these things were placed. Secondly, from the moment he appeared in the locker room, he had a concept in his mind - he didn't need to do this, he just needed to help the guests grill the raw meat after it was served. It's his job.

Yu Xing is still waiting.

Sure enough, just a minute later, several waiters wearing aprons filed out of the back passage.

These waiters are also sheep-faced, cow-faced, and pig-faced. They don’t wear name tags on their chests, maybe because they are not of sufficient rank.

 The new waiter skillfully helped the guests solve many problems. The charcoal pot burned, bringing a lot of heat to the barbecue restaurant.

The man with only half his face had already taken the orders for several tables and headed to the kitchen. Yu Xing walked to the latest table of guests and waited for their meat to be served.

He heard the guests chatting about today's work like humans. One of the women in an exquisite skirt - no, a female sheep, was complaining to her male companion: "I can't finish this job for one day. Next time, I can't finish it." I will resign in a month!”

The male pig sitting opposite her laughed: "You say this every month, just roll hard."

 What a normal topic.

Yu Xing lowered his eyes and pretended to be good.

Soon, another pig-headed waiter passed the dishes.

Sure enough, there are more than just half-faced men serving food. They only appeared after the barbecue restaurant started "working".

Yu Xing took the initiative to take the tongs and said softly: "I will help the guests grill the meat."

 There is no difference between female sheep and male pigs.

Yu Xing put the meat on the oil-absorbing paper and squeezed some oil on it. Hearing the sizzling sound of the meat, his eyes deepened.

This plate of meat is hard to tell what kind of meat it is. Anyway, it doesn't look like the common beef, mutton, and pork.

 In the deduction, all unrecognizable meat is assumed to be human flesh by default.

 Don’t even think about it.

At this angle, his back was to the cashier, and the woman at the checkout couldn't see him, so he looked very calm and did his job seriously without any panic, with a warm smile on his face.

 After filling the grill pan with meat at this table, Yu Xing went to another table and started serving.

The guests at this table have more requirements, they are a family of three.

While the male sheep was teasing the little goatman in his arms, he kept telling him: "Bake this plate first, put more oil and sprinkle with cumin."

Yu Xing subconsciously said warmly: "Okay."

The female sheep mother also said: "Can this plate of meat be roasted a little longer?"

Yu Xing smiled even deeper: "Okay."

At this moment, he sensed a familiar scent and glanced towards the door of the barbecue restaurant.

 Some extrapolators are coming in.

The strange thing is that a certain smell is really very familiar, so familiar that he was stunned for a moment.

This was the only real doubt he had since entering this game.

 Coming in.

Several people with out-of-place faces walked in at the greeting of the sheep-faced foreman, and were led to an empty table by a greeter who appeared at an unknown time.

 That group of people was quite large, eight people in total.

The welcome led them to the largest table, and most of them followed cautiously. Even when they sat down, the atmosphere was very heavy and not as lively as other tables at all.

 They don’t even look familiar.

However, the staff of the barbecue restaurant did not need to care about the relationship between these customers. An employee came forward to serve. One of the young men scanned the QR code on the table with a white face, and ordered the dishes rather innocently and timidly.

Yu Xing has good hearing and can distinguish what the people at that table are saying in a noisy environment.

 “Seniors, what do we want to eat?”

Obviously he is a tall man, but the young man makes such an expression without any violation, which makes people feel that he is a rookie who needs protection.

Beside him, the woman with an indifferent expression was silent and seemed not to care about what she was eating, so the young man's eyes fell on a few other people.

 A woman in her 40s, an ordinary-looking young man, and an overly young girl all lowered their heads and had no intention of making any decisions.

The boy who looked like a teenager clicked his tongue, took the young man's mobile phone, and said calmly: "I'll have some."

“Okay, okay, little Tianshi must know what to eat.” The middle-aged man in a suit and leather suit had a relaxed expression and responded with a smile.

While they were talking, the young man who handed over the phone seemed to sense Yu Xing's gaze, tilted his head slightly, and looked in Yu Xing's direction with a hint of confusion.

When those pair of blue eyes tended to move this way, Yu Xing had already turned his head naturally, leaving his back to the other person.

His expression at this time was calm, but in his chest, his heart was beating very fast, making him suddenly feel suffocated.

 Cannot be seen.

 This sentence naturally came to his mind.

There are eight people at the table, five deducers and three candidates.

 Including himself.

　　He cannot be seen by "himself".

It would be a mistake to have two selves at the same time. He will never be recognized, at least not his face.

 A strong sense of crisis enveloped Yu Xing, who almost felt ridiculous.

“Waiter, please help our table grill some meat!” A person at a table two meters away waved to him.

He calmed his heartbeat, still being careful never to face the largest table, then walked towards the guest with a normal expression, put on a flawless smile, and replied: "Okay."

 (End of this chapter)