Chapter 1: The Empty House

A worn tungsten light bulb hung from the center of the room by a black wire, flickering with dim light. The tranquil atmosphere spread through the room like ink dropped into clear water, slowly expanding.

In the very center of the room stood a large round table, looking weathered and worn. At the center of the table was a small mantel clock, its intricate patterns ornate and detailed. It ticked steadily, its sound breaking the silence.

Around the table sat ten people, each dressed differently. Their clothes appeared somewhat tattered, and their faces were covered in dust. Some were slumped over the table, while others sat back in their chairs, deeply asleep.

Beside these ten individuals stood a man wearing a goat-headed mask and a black suit. His gaze, visible through the hollowed eye holes of the mask, intently watched the ten people with great interest.

The clock on the table ticked again, and both the minute and hour hands pointed to "twelve."

From a far distance outside the room, a deep bell toll could be heard.

At that same moment, the ten men and women around the table began to slowly wake. As they regained consciousness, they looked around in confusion, then exchanged bewildered glances at each other. It seemed none of them remembered how they had ended up in this place.

"Good morning, nine of you," the goat-headed figure spoke first. "I'm glad to meet you all here. You've been asleep before me for twelve hours."

The man's appearance was undeniably eerie, and in the dim light, it startled everyone. The mask he wore seemed made from an actual goat's head, its fur yellowing and matted in places. Two hollowed-out eye sockets in the mask revealed his sly, mischievous eyes.

His every movement carried the distinct pungent odor of a goat, mixed with a faint scent of decay.

A man with tattoos on his arms stared blankly for a few seconds before he finally realized something was wrong. With hesitation, he spoke to the goat-headed figure, "Who... are you?"

"I'm sure you all have this question, so let me introduce myself to you nine," the goat-headed man said with a pleased smile, as if he had been waiting for this moment and had long prepared an answer.

A young man named Qi Xia, sitting at the farthest distance from the goat-headed figure, quickly scanned the room. After a moment, his expression became serious.

Something was wrong with this room.

There were no doors—just walls on all sides.

In other words, the entire room, including the ceiling and the floor, was sealed off, yet there was a table placed in the center.

How did they even get here?

Could it be that they brought people in first and then constructed the walls afterward?

Qi Xia looked around again. The floor, walls, and ceiling all had intersecting lines, dividing the surfaces into large grid-like sections.

What really caught his attention was the goat-headed figure's mention of the "nine."

No matter how he counted, there were ten people sitting around the table. With the goat-headed figure included, there were eleven people in total.

What did "nine" mean?

He reached into his pocket, and unsurprisingly, his phone had already been taken away.

"No need to introduce yourselves," a cold woman spoke, addressing the goat-headed figure. "I suggest you stop what you're doing. I suspect you've been holding us for more than twenty-four hours, which constitutes 'illegal detention.' Every word you say will be recorded and used as testimony against you."

As she spoke, she absentmindedly brushed the dust off her arm, as if she found being imprisoned less bothersome than getting dirty. Her words stirred a sense of clarity in everyone. Whoever this person was, to have dared kidnap ten people, it was clear they had already crossed a legal line.

"Wait..." A middle-aged man in a white lab coat interrupted the conversation. He slowly turned toward the cold woman and asked, "We've only just woken up, how do you know we've been detained 'for twenty-four hours'?"

His tone was calm but incisive.

The cold woman responded without panic, pointing at the clock on the table. "The clock here shows twelve o'clock. I have a habit of staying up late, and the last time I checked the time at home, it was already twelve. That means we've been held for at least twelve hours."

She then pointed at the walls surrounding them and continued, "You must have noticed by now, there are no doors in this room. This means the person who brought us in must have put a lot of effort into sealing us in here. He said we've been asleep for twelve hours, and now the clock shows twelve again, meaning at least two full cycles have passed. So, I suspect we've been held for 'more than twenty-four hours.' Is that a problem?"

The man in the white lab coat glanced coldly at her after hearing her explanation, still skeptical.

After all, in such an environment, this woman remained too calm.

Would a normal person be this calm after being kidnapped?

At this moment, a muscular young man in a black T-shirt spoke up, "Goat-head, why are there ten people here, yet you keep saying there are nine?"

The goat-headed figure fell silent, not immediately responding.

"F**k!" The tattooed man swore, slamming his hand on the table as he tried to stand up, but found his legs were too weak to support him. He collapsed back into his seat and pointed angrily at the goat-headed figure. "You better watch yourself, you don't know what kind of consequences you're facing for messing with me. I'll kill you."

The atmosphere in the room grew tense as the men exchanged glances. This was the moment when they needed someone to take charge. If they could overpower the goat-headed figure together, they might still have a chance to control the situation.

However, as they tried to move, they realized that their legs felt numb, as if some drug or substance had been injected into them. They couldn't move, leaving the tattooed man to continue his threats and insults.

Qi Xia, sitting quietly, didn't speak. He absentmindedly stroked his chin, his gaze fixed on the clock on the table, deep in thought.

Things weren't as simple as he had first imagined.

He recalled the goat-headed figure's mention of "nine participants." If there were ten people here, it could only mean that one of them wasn't a participant.

Who could it be?

Looking around the room, there were six men and four women. Could one of them be the "kidnapper"?

The goat-headed figure remained silent and slowly approached Qi Xia, stopping behind a young man.

Everyone followed the goat-headed man's gaze and noticed that this young man was different from the rest. His face was dirty, but he wore a strange, blissful smile.

The goat-headed figure raised his hand slowly and placed it on the back of the young man's head. The young man's smile grew even more unsettling. His eyes sparkled with excitement, as if he already knew something.

Then, with a sickening sound, the goat-headed figure slammed the young man's head violently into the table.

A spray of pinkish-white matter burst out, scattering across the table. The blood splattered onto the faces of everyone in the room.

The young man's skull had been shattered upon impact.

Outside the room, the distant sound of a bell tolled once more.

Qi Xia, seated closest to the deceased, felt something warm and sticky splatter onto his face. It was an unidentifiable substance, and despite his usually strong psychological resilience, he couldn't help but shudder.

The girl sitting to the right of the dead man froze for three seconds before her face twisted in horror, and she let out a blood-curdling scream.

The scream shattered what little composure the group had left.

Could a human—especially one so frail—really have the strength to crush a human skull against a table like that?

The goat-headed figure spoke softly, almost casually. "The reason I prepared ten people was so that I could use one of you to quiet the rest."