Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 10: Lava [Complete]

1270: After Scattering Apart

"No, no—this isn't right," Bohemia said and spun in place, looking at Puppeteer, then at Lin Sanjiu, as if seeking their opinions. "Are we letting him stay inside? It doesn't make sense, does it?"

Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and said, "Wait there, Yuan Xiangxi. No matter what, don't close the door and go inside. Give us a few minutes to think."

Yuan Xiangxi pursed his lips as he walked out the door a little uneasily and sat on the porch steps. There were only six or seven steps between him and the others.

"Is Magus considered a person in her current form?" Lin Sanjiu asked, turning to Puppeteer. "Was Magus influenced by the pocket dimension when inside?"

Magus would only constitute a fifth person if she was also assigned a role, right?

Puppeteer was silent for a while before answering slowly, "She doesn't know if she is considered a person. She said when she looks at all of you, it's like an elder looking at juniors, and it was the same when she was inside the pocket dimension."

"So, she wasn't influenced then," Lin Sanjiu said, relieved. However, before she could turn around to inform Yuan Xiangxi, she caught Bohemia's expression, and her heart skipped a beat. "What's wrong?"

"I... I don't think that proves that she wasn't influenced," Bohemia said, clenching her fists tightly, as if she hated what she was about to say.

"Why?"

"The host's mother lived outside. Although she wasn't physically present in the house, she had a strong presence there. The couple often talked about her and wrote her letters..." Her voice grew lower. "Don't you think it's similar to Magus's situation?"

Lin Sanjiu fell silent. She hadn't expected there to be a host's mother in the playhouse's storyline. 'When looking at them, isn't it just like a grandma looking at the younger generation?'

"Then I'll go in again and bring him out," she blurted. "If we rest for the second round and two people come out, that should be enough, right?"

She looked around and found that no one said a word. After a moment of contemplation, Lin Sanjiu finally realized it as well. She couldn't help but bury her face in her hands.

The people left behind in the last round were from the previous round. Even if only one person entered the second round, at most, only one person would come out—there was no way to bring out the person left behind from the previous round. It was a one-to-one problem. Otherwise, how many resentful spirits would have been left behind in the pocket dimension before? How could new entrants play their roles?

No one dared say with one hundred percent certainty whether Yuan Xiangxi had to stay in the house. However, if they let him out, Lin Sanjiu or someone close to her would face considerable risks.

"Didn't you come out with me last time?" Bohemia said to the ghost not far away. "Last time you were so stu—"

She got stuck on the 'S' sound when Yuan Xiangxi suddenly screamed. Seeing Bohemia fall silent, he whispered, "Have you already forgotten? The round has ended; be careful what you say!"

'Right.'

Lin Sanjiu slapped her forehead, replaying their conversation so far. They discussed matters objectively, and nothing was good or bad about it. Except for asking whether Magus counted as a person, everything else was quite neutral—and when Magus said she didn't even know if she counted as a person, there wasn't any sound of wood creaking in the house.

"Let's move farther away and discuss it," she said, gesturing for the others. Then she turned to Yuan Xiangxi and ordered, "You sit there and wait for us. We'll come back after we've finished discussing!"