Surprise! The Supposed Talent Show Was Actually–?!

Chapter Ch67.2 - Altar

translator: xiin

editors: apricot & juurensha

Wu Jin quickly rubbed his face as he criticized himself internally, then led Zoe over to the materials box.

When Zoe took out a wands card, Wu Jin couldn’t keep the corners of his mouth from curving.

“I snatched it up in the instance.” Zoe said feelingly, “For better or worse, your Brother Zoe is still a c-position.”

They inserted the card, and their second clue was ejected in return.

Wu Jin, who’d originally thought that he could obtain a second map, was stunned.

This was a perspective view of the building.

The statue of Hermes was suspended in the air, below which were the splendidly arrayed survival instances. A card hung suspended above every instance––it was no doubt the core card that controlled each of the instance scenes, one of the 22 major arcanas.

This perspective seemed to imply that the instances were manipulated by the card and was associated with the tarot deck.

Wu Jin’s eyebrows twisted slightly. He was in the midst of suspecting that the drawing was a repeat of the known clues when he suddenly noticed one detail.

There was no fire pit in the perspective view, but the height that the card was suspended at coincided precisely with the location of the fire pit.

He lifted his head and looked up to confirm the position of the fire pit once again.

At the end of an instance, the card would land on the elevated platform and could be replaced by the players. So, this picture described the scene when the instances were opened––the card would bypass the instance rooms and hover at the foot of the statue.

There was also a line of words at the bottom of the drawing.

“Hermes was the first god to teach people to light a fire on an altar and burn sacrificial offerings.”

There was silence in the corridor.

Zoe was even more baffled, “Sacrifice? What is a sacrifice?”

Wu Jin quickly explained the previous clue, but he finally had to shake his head slightly, “There aren’t enough clues. We still need to grab more wands cards.”

The statue of the god, the fire pit, the placement of the fire pit, and the card spread. There were countless complicated and overlapping lines, and there seemed to be no intersections in the darkness, yet they were still connected by a line.

Hermes was the god from which tarot divination originated. The arena was a gothic altar dedicated to his sacrifice. Sacrifices were meant to be burned, but the fire pit was always out. At his feet was a deck of cards, but the purpose and result of the divination was unknown––

There were tens of thousands of spreads, and the semantics were quite complex.

For example, the three-card time flow spread that they’d learned in the course represented the past, present and future from left to right, but from the current map, there were at least seven cards in this spread. It was obviously at a level above that of the past, present, future spread.

It took time to learn a tarot card spread, but the chance of acquiring a wands card was only 14/78. Even a human-shaped weapon like Wei Yan would only be able to obtain a few cards.

In other words, it was very likely that the clue for the spread had been communicated to everyone right at the start!

Wu Jin closed his eyes slightly, his memories flowing through his mind like water. He went back over the third instance, the second instance, the start of the game, then to the time when the players drew cards...

His heart clenched slightly, and he cut out a segment from the image in his heart and began to calculate quickly, going back to the prompt the program group had given them two weeks ago––

Wu Jin finally opened his eyes.

His cheeks were red from his panting, but his eyes were bright.

In the communication channel, Wen Lin was the third to come out of the instance and was currently in discussion with Zoe, “Little Witch is talking about a card spread? There are only seven cards on the map, so how many are there exactly...”

Wu Jin finally spoke up, his voice a little hoarse from the intense thinking. It cleared up after a while, “10 cards, 10 instances. There are 10 cards in the spread.”

Zoe was shocked.

Wu Jin explained, “The initial number of people in the Judgement instance was 27, Brother Zoe’s instance had 30, and Brother Wen Lin had 34. There’s a total of 300 players, so the number of instances should be between 9 and 11. That also means––there can’t be only the seven instances on the map.”

“There’s also the starting draw. I was thinking, after shuffling the cards, why would he let Instructor Blood Pigeon and Instructor Ying Xiangxiang draw first?”

Wen Lin: “Program effect?”

Wu Jin’s eyes were brighter than before, and his speaking speed accelerated unconsciously, “There were four tarot card decks. One deck has 78 cards, and there’s a total of 312 cards. 300 contestants each drew one, leaving 12. The two instructors drew cards, leaving the 10 major arcana that could be put into the instance to ensure the integrity of the deck.”

Zoe finally understood, “What Little Witch is saying is reasonable, but could it just be a coincidence?”

Wu Jin shook his head, “It’s the way he shuffled the cards. He could clearly just have the contestants come up to the stage to draw then toss away the last 10 cards directly. When the divination master shuffled the cards, he first set aside the top 10 cards before letting the contestants draw.”

“There is only one advantage to the second shuffle––he can ensure that the remaining 10 cards are the major arcana that are needed for the instances. Shuffling in front of the 300 contestants is a hint in itself.”

On the other side of the communication channel, Wen Lin seemed to be convinced, “If the hint is the number of cards in the spread, then the meaning of this spread...”

Wu Jin took a deep breath and finally smiled, “10 cards, corresponding to 10 phrases that every contestant memorized before the start of the game.”

In the communication channel, the two White Moonlight players realized at almost the same time, “Is Little Witch talking about the game prompt? The one about finding you, sheltering you, crowning you, your distant past...”

Wu Jin nodded.

He pulled out the first map again and handed it to Zoe, pointing to the number 1 and 2 that were stacked together. Card number 2 was on the top, blocking card number 1 beneath it.

“Finding you,” Wu Jin pointed at card number 1, then moved to card number 2, “... Look, sheltering you. This is what the cards mean.”

Zoe suddenly showed Wu Jin an incredulous expression as the seemingly unrelated clues were connected together like magic.

Wu Jin was still explaining. He pointed to card number 3, “3, crowning you. 4 is the distant past, 5 is the recent past, 6 is your future. 7 is your sincerity, 8 your bonds, 9 your fears, and 10 is your destiny.”

“As for the corridors––the corridors aren’t connected to cards of similar numbers. They connect cards with similar relationships.”

“Zoe couldn’t go from the 5th instance to the 6th at the start of the match because contestants can’t go straight from the ‘past’ to the ‘future’. They have to go through the 3rd ‘crowning’ card, or other cards that represent a change in fate. The corridors are the veins of fate, connected together by time.”

“Brother Wen Lin has just come out of the number 1 instance, and if nothing unexpected occurs, he should be able to meet up with us. Caesar couldn’t find the 6th instance and should still be wandering around the ‘past’, which are the 4th and 5th instances.”

Wen Lin quickly caught on to the key point, “You’ve found Caesar?!”

Wu Jin made a sound of acknowledgement and looked up at the statue at the top of the corridor.

At this time, many players had already come out of their instances, and sounds of gunfire rang out from the other end of the corridor.

Zoe seemed to be in a trance as his brain still hadn’t caught up, but his expression was already overjoyed, “Others have a team of four contestants, but our White Moonlight has four contestants and a brain! Let’s go and pick up that fool... Oh, that kindergarten graduate! Little Witch, what are you looking at?”

Wu Jin moved his gaze away from the statue. “I’m thinking about whose fate the card spread is for.”

Zoe: “Whose?”

Wu Jin’s voice was low, “Hermes’ sacrifice... but, I’m still not sure.”

The youth looked back. His face was soft in the dim light of the corridor with slender muscles on his shoulders and arms from eating and moving more than before. His small round face had gradually shed some of its tenderness, the changes from the mere two and a half months accumulating day by day.

Zoe patted him on the shoulder and sighed emotionally, “Our Little Witch has grown up and is really amazing!”

The sound of gunfire started heading their way. Zoe used his gun to open up the path ahead of them, and Wu Jin was still huffing and puffing as he carried a whole pile of guns, reluctant to part with even a single one.

In the team communication channel, Caesar’s howl finally rang out, “F*ck me, I just snatched three cards, and they were all major arcana. I can’t trade for materials, and the two guns and bullets I picked up are all used up! Three big masters, give me a break, okay? Can someone come and pick me up, I’ve really exhausted all my supplies––”

“I can’t find instance number six! This damned corridor is full of twists and turns!! Where are you guys? I don’t f*cking know where I am!”

Zoe: “... Where did this damned baby come from? Let’s just strangle it and be done with it.”

Wu Jin coughed lightly and quickly interjected, “Brother Caesar, what instance number were you in just now?”

Caesar; “5! 5! It was 5!”

Zoe looked swiftly at Wu Jin, his gaze admiring––that big fool Caesar had indeed been wandering between 4 and 5.

Wu Jin blushed slightly, “5 is the past, and 6 is the future. The corridors don’t connect. Let’s change the meeting point and have Brother Caesar find the entrance to the 3rd instance.”

Caesar quickly agreed.

After Caesar joined in, the team communication channel finally filled up with a lot of noise.

A few minutes later, Wen Lin met up with Wu Jin and Zoe, and the White Moonlight team had become quite formidable.

A quarter of an hour later.

Caesar suddenly said, “Whoa, I found the door just now––I just wanted to touch it and not go in, but who could’ve known that the door would open! How did I end up in the instance?!”

Zoe: “Got it. Shut up.”

Caesar hastened to beg for help, “They’ve already started fighting in this instance! I have five major arcana and two broken guns in my hand. When will you guys get here?”

A stray bullet swept past Caesar’s ear.

He glared and lifted his head to fight back. This .38 pistol was old and broken, and the muzzle seemed to have exploded already from an earlier fight. After being repaired, its trajectory was still crooked.

Caesar’s momentum was fierce as he pushed people back and howled again, “My brothers! If you don’t come, someone will die. I have no guns, and giving me a hoe is better than this thing. Are you guys––”

The entrance to the instance opened suddenly.

The door parted, and Caesar was instantly delighted when Zoe and Wen Lin appeared.

Zoe raised his hand and cleared out a safe path for Caesar, and Wen Lin’s machine gun fire immediately added support.

Caesar: “Where’s my Little Witch!”

Zoe: “He’s running slow because he’s carrying guns.”

Behind him, Wu Jin clattered over and appeared with seven guns on his back. He hurled them onto the ground boldly, “Brother Caesar, pick whatever you want!”

Juurensha: Little Witch: Look at my haul! (That big brother gave me!)

xiin: (My big brother gave me carrots but I won’t tell you~)