Horror Movie Set: This extra is too good at playing the tricks.

Chapter 98 People's hearts are hidden behind their bellies

The crystal chandelier cast a warm yellow glow, making the red carpet appear as if it were a pool of blood.

The light was blinding, but it couldn't dispel the lingering chill in everyone's bodies.

Lin Xiaoxiao did not take a seat. Her high heels sank into the carpet, her slender legs were tense, and her gaze swept across the empty banquet hall.

The reliefs on the walls, the candlesticks in the corners, and even the plaster statues of angels on the ceiling that seemed to be for decoration were all within her scope of scrutiny.

This is an isolated island, and the only landing point is the ridiculously large round table in the middle.

After confirming that there were no environmental traps for the time being, Lin Xiaoxiao focused her attention on Lu Dan, who was still panting.

"What... happened just now?"

With his red robes and long hair, and the aura he exuded that made it seem as if he could eat ghosts like snacks, this was definitely not something a human should possess.

Bao Ping, standing next to him, unconsciously shrank back, his eyes filled with fear. Even Chen Zhongyi, who was still gagging, looked up upon hearing this, his face full of suspicion.

Lu Dan sat in the chair, took out a cigarette from his pocket and wanted to light it, but after glancing at Ye Jianguo, who was unconscious not far away, he irritably put it back.

"Special circumstances, you should remember how we survived in your drastically altered script, right?"

Lin Xiaoxiao was startled, and memories flooded back like a tide.

"You mean those high heels..."

Lin Xiaoxiao's pupils contracted slightly, her shock tinged with a hint of realization: "She followed you out?"

Lu Dan nodded and reached out to rub his left ankle.

"I call her my roommate." He smirked, a self-deprecating smile playing on his lips. "Right now, it seems we have a rather unhealthy symbiotic relationship. She lives inside my body, and occasionally, when she's in a good mood or when I'm about to die, she comes out to take over the accounts."

"As for why she's suddenly being so generous," Lu Dan shrugged, "I don't know either. Maybe she's afraid that if I accidentally die, her whole empire will collapse."

"Anyway, there's no other way for now, this is the only option. Compared to being eaten by a vengeful ghost, having one living inside your body isn't too hard to accept, right?"

Indeed, as long as he could survive, Lu Dan would accept selling his soul to the devil, and would even bargain with the devil for a kickback.

"Alright, that's enough for now, time is of the essence."

Lu Dan straightened up, his gaze fixed on the clown doll in the center.

"I bet this main course won't be easy to digest. Seven chairs, seven people, one radish and one hole—no one can escape. Besides, this dish is called 'The Heart Is Unfathomable.'"

He sneered; it didn't sound like something meant to fill one's stomach.

"But Team Leader Ye..." Da Lu, covered in sweat, hugged Ye Jianguo.

The towering man's eyes were closed, his lower half, bare and taut, was bound by a tourniquet, and his face was ashen.

"He can't even sit still in his current state, how can he participate?" Chen Hua's voice suppressed anger and anxiety, and he unconsciously swung the stick in his hand.

Lu Dan remained silent for two seconds.

This is an extremely tricky problem. This game likely requires strategic thinking, and an unconscious teammate is often more deadly than a godlike opponent.

But the rules won't be changed out of sympathy, so there's no way around it; we have to grit our teeth and go for it.

Lu Dan's eyes turned cold and hard: "Sister Chen Hua, Da Lu, please sit on either side of Team Leader Ye."

He gestured to the arrangement of the chairs: "Place him in the middle. If he needs to operate or speak, you can do it for him. In any case, Team Leader Ye cannot be deemed to have abstained."

Chen Hua gritted his teeth and nodded: "Understood."

"Don't look at me like that." Lu Dan looked at the demoralized crowd and softened his tone slightly. "Team Leader Ye can't take this much longer. We'll end this farce as soon as possible. Everything will be alright."

The crowd fell silent and took their seats as Lu Dan had arranged.

Da Lu and Chen Hua flanked Ye Jianguo, struggling to settle him into the chair while constantly watching to prevent him from slipping off.

Lu Dan chose a spot directly facing the doll. Lin Xiaoxiao sat to his left, Chen Zhongyi to his right, and Bao Ping trembled as he sat next to Lin Xiaoxiao.

Once everyone was seated, they realized just how big the table was. There were more than four meters between each person.

This is a very disgusting distance; it exceeds the normal distance for human conversation.

Sitting here, when you look at your teammates, it feels like you're looking at strangers on the other side of the river. To communicate, you have to shout at the top of your lungs.

This means that there are no secrets on this table, and no one can conspire or whisper among themselves.

"Slap! Slap!"

A round of applause rang out, and the clown doll in the center of the table swayed its head from side to side, its neck making a cracking sound, and its baton drew an arc in the air.

"Welcome everyone to your seats!" its voice was sharp and high-pitched. "Now that everyone is ready, let's not chat on an empty stomach, let's serve the food!"

With a tap of the baton, dishes appeared on the silver plates in front of everyone.

The plates were covered tightly, but they still emitted a strong odor.

Lu Dan smelled the rusty smell of iron.

The smell coming from Chen Zhongyi's direction seemed to be caramel, while the smell in front of Lin Xiaoxiao was that of a stinking ditch.

Seven people, seven dishes. The doll grinned and announced the rules.

"You are all good diners, and you should know that there are no two leaves in the world that are exactly the same, just as there are no two dishes that are exactly the same."

"Of the seven dishes in front of you, one is an incredibly delicious dish, one is a deadly poisonous dish, and the remaining five are just ordinary dishes to fill your stomachs."

"This sounds like Russian roulette," Lin Xiaoxiao said coldly.

"No, no, no, it's much more interesting than that."

The clown puppet waved its baton excitedly: "Roulette is a game for brutes; this is a gentleman's dinner. The rules are simple."

"First, anyone who eats spoiled food will be severely punished. Believe me, you wouldn't want to try it."

"Second, the person who gets to eat the good dish will receive a special privilege: they can designate any bad or ordinary dish on the table and have it purified into an ordinary dish."

"Of course, if you're unlucky and point to the wrong dish, the originally ordinary dish will immediately turn into a bad dish, and the person who pointed it out will also be punished."

"Third, before we start eating, each of you will have one chance per round to exchange the dishes in front of you."

It paused for a moment, its drawn eyes narrowing into slits, radiating malice.

"Of course, the exchange must be voluntary on both sides; you can't forcibly take it or force it on someone."

"The most exciting part is coming—"

The doll lowered its voice, as if it were about to share a shocking secret.

"To make the game more exciting, I'll secretly tell two people a piece of news."

"I will tell the owner of the first bad dish, and the owner of the other ordinary dish, the same thing—the dish in front of you is bad."

Lu Dan's mind was in a whirlwind of rage; this rule had transformed the entire game from a game of chance into a hell of suspicion.

Two people will receive a warning: one is a genuine unlucky soul carrying a bomb, and the other is a fooled ordinary person carrying a dud. But neither of them knows if it's real or not.

"Shh-"

The doll puts a finger to its lips: "The person who receives this message must not use any language or gesture to say or imply that they have received the message, otherwise they will be eliminated immediately."

"You can only do two things. First, use your skills to trick someone into exchanging this potentially bad dish for something else."

Second, pray that the person who gets the good food guesses correctly on their first try and cleanses the plate in front of you. Or perhaps—”

The doll let out a piercing, maniacal laugh: "Take a gamble, bet you're the lucky one I tricked, and eat it!"

"Hahaha! Isn't that funny? Don't you want to thank me?"

"You can't read people's minds. Whether this dish is edible or not depends entirely on how thick your stomachs are."

Before the laughter had even faded, a crisp notification sound exploded in everyone's minds:

[The main course is beginning. The first exchange will last 5 minutes. Please lift the lid.]

Lu Dan took a deep breath and placed his palm on the silver handle in front of him.

"Splash!"

The seven people lifted the lid almost simultaneously.

In an instant, all sorts of strange smells filled the entire banquet hall.

Lu Dan looked at the contents of his plate, his brows furrowing deeply.

This was a clump of slightly pulsating, grayish-white brain tissue, with several rusty iron nails stuck in it.

Next to the pig brain, there was a small card with the dish name written in neat handwriting: "Painful Memories".

This doesn't look like a good product at all.

He subconsciously looked at Lin Xiaoxiao.

On Lin Xiaoxiao's plate was an exquisite crystal apple, crystal clear.

On Chen Zhongyi's side was a burning charcoal cake, still emitting smoke.

He couldn't see the other people on the other side, so he simply asked them.

In front of the package was a bowl of wriggling repair tools.

In front of Da Lu and Chen Hua were all strange and unusual things, but in front of Ye Jianguo was a glass of clear water, extremely clear and without any impurities.

Everyone was observing their own dishes.

Without any warning, Lu Dan felt as if his brain had been pricked by a needle.

Then, a line of bright red characters appeared aggressively on the tablecloth in front of him: "Warning, what you see in front of you is spoiled food."

Lu Dan's fingers stiffened almost imperceptibly.

He won the lottery; he was one of two lucky winners. But was it a real bomb or a smokescreen?

He couldn't show it, so he quickly adjusted his breathing, forcibly suppressed his heartbeat, and made himself appear to be thinking calmly.

Lu Dan's gaze swept over the other people at the round table without making a sound. According to the rules, there was one more person who had also received this message.

who is it?

Was it Bao Ping, whose complexion had never looked too good, or the composed Lin Xiaoxiao? Or perhaps Chen Zhongyi?

The 4-meter distance became the biggest obstacle. Lu Dan couldn't see their subconscious expressions or whether cold sweat was seeping from their foreheads.

"Is this edible?" Chen Zhongyi broke the silence, pointing to the burning cake in front of him. "Wouldn't you get burned if you ate this?"

"Mine is alive." Bao Ping said with a mournful face, looking at a bowl of repair tools trying to climb out of the plate.

"Everyone," Lin Xiaoxiao spoke, her hands clasped on the table, her tone serious, "Don't panic. Observe who received the notification?"

The room fell silent as soon as those words were spoken.

No one spoke; they looked at each other, their eyes filled with suspicion.

Lu Dan suddenly spoke, his voice languid: "According to the rules, the person who receives the notification cannot speak. Xiaoxiao, you've wasted your time asking this question."

Lin Xiaoxiao glanced at him: "I wanted to see his reaction."

"From this distance, how can you even tell who's blushing?" Lu Dan scoffed.

"And do you think the person who received the tip would admit it?"

"If I were the one who received the notification, I would only have two choices: either pass the mess on to someone else or take a gamble."

As Lu Dan spoke, he poked at the pig brains on his plate with his fork: "This is getting interesting."

"If someone suddenly becomes very enthusiastic and wants to exchange dishes with you, be careful; it might be a ticking time bomb."

Chen Zhongyi was about to ask if he could change, but he immediately shut his mouth.

"What should we do? Just watch?" Da Lu asked anxiously, glancing at Ye Jianguo beside him. "Each round only lasts five minutes."

"What's in front of Team Leader Ye is water," Chen Hua suddenly said. "It's the most normal-looking thing here."

"And that's the most suspicious," Lu Dan immediately retorted. "In a script filled with malice, do you think someone would kindly offer a patient a glass of water?"

"One minute has passed." The doll gloated from among the flowers, "Has no one wanted to trade yet? What a strong friendship, it's truly touching."

Lu Dan stared at the water, then looked at the brains in front of him. The red warning words on the tablecloth were glaring. He had to make a decision.

If this is truly bad food, he will suffer severe harm, or even die, if he eats it.

If this is fake, and he gives it to his teammate, he will not only lose his own safe spot (a seemingly insignificant character), but he may also harm his teammate.

At a table where a chain of suspicion has already formed, any proactive act of giving could be interpreted as murder.

"Wait, may I ask what the order of the meal is? Is it random? Or is there a fixed order? This is very important," Lu Dan said.

The doll seemed surprised by the question: "Oh, I forgot. The order of eating is fixed, of course. You're first, and then it starts passing from your right."

Lu Dan's eyes lit up, and his gaze turned to Chen Zhongyi on his right.

My silly childhood friend was still a bit bewildered by the burning coal.

"Old Chen," Lu Dan suddenly called out.

Chen Zhongyi jumped in surprise: "Huh? What?"

"That plate of coal looks scalding hot. How about we switch? I won't take advantage of you. This pig brain might be good for your brain, it'll suit you."

Chen Zhongyi was a little stunned. He looked at the plate that Lu Dan pushed over, and then at Lu Dan's smiling face.

The atmosphere in the room froze instantly.

Lin Xiaoxiao's gaze shot towards Lu Dan like a knife.

What is he doing?

Offering to exchange at this critical juncture is practically like having "I have a problem" written all over their face.

Was he prompted to set a trap for Chen Zhongyi? Or is it some kind of deeper game being played?

"Brother Lu..." Chen Zhongyi stammered, "Are you serious?"

"Of course," Lu Dan shrugged. "We've been friends since we were kids, would I ever hurt you?"

Chen Zhongyi looked at the slightly twitching brain and felt his heart pounding.

"But this..."

"If you don't want to, then forget it." Lu Dan immediately took the plate back. "It seems that decades of friendship can't compare to a dish of food."

"No, change it, I'll change it, okay?" Chen Zhongyi couldn't stand this, especially from Lu Dan.

He gritted his teeth and pushed the smoldering coal cake over, saying, "Here you go, if you die from eating this, don't come looking for me as a ghost!"

"Deal!" Lu Dan quickly pulled the coal cake in front of him and pushed the pig brain over at the same time.

The exchange was successful, and the doll squealed excitedly, "Wow, the first pair of warriors have been born! What a touching brotherhood, or—a disgusting betrayal!"

The plate fell to the ground.

Lu Dan stared at the burning coal cake in front of him, the red writing disappearing.

interesting.

He picked up a fork and stuck it into the burning cake.

"Anyone else want to change?" Lu Dan picked up the cake, still sparking from its fork, and looked around intently.

Lin Xiaoxiao looked at Lu Dan's unusual behavior with a complicated expression, as if she understood something.

"I want to change too," Lin Xiaoxiao suddenly said, pushing the crystal apple in front of her away.