Let's continue

Qi Xia remained seated, neither standing up nor searching for clues. He felt that something was still amiss. Similarly, the psychotherapist Lin Qin also stayed seated.

"What are you thinking about?" Lin Qin asked nonchalantly, covering her mouth and nose.

"Me?" Qi Xia was taken aback. "Why? Are you going to give me a psychological evaluation?"

"Not exactly. Although highly intelligent individuals like you often have some psychological issues, our current situation isn't suitable for therapy." Lin Qin smiled slightly. "I'm just curious about what's on your mind."

Qi Xia pondered for a moment and said, "I'm thinking about the cause."

"The cause?"

Instead of responding to Lin Qin, Qi Xia called over Dr. Zhao and asked, "Doctor, if a person is shot in the heart, how long can they survive?"

Dr. Zhao turned around, thought briefly, and replied, "If I remember correctly, a gunshot to the heart causes a person to lose consciousness within seconds. However, since medical 'death' refers to 'brain death,' even after losing consciousness, the brain can continue functioning for a few more minutes."

Qi Xia nodded: "Just now, that goat-headed man screamed for several minutes, indicating that his physical constitution is much more resilient than that of ordinary humans, right?"

"Yes. He remained conscious for several minutes after being shot in the heart."

Hearing Qi Xia and the doctor speaking, everyone quieted down. Earlier, it was due to this trickster's clear thinking that all nine people survived.

"So, why do you think that is?" Qi Xia extended his index finger and thumb, forming the shape of a gun, placing it against his temple. "Most people would choose to commit suicide this way."

He pondered for a moment, then placed his hand under his chin, pointing upward: "Or this way."

Qi Xia withdrew his hand and pointed to his heart:

"No matter what... a person committing suicide would always choose a way that minimizes their pain. So why did he aim at his heart?"

Qiao Jiajin toyed with the goat-head mask in his hand, then flipped the man's head over and said, "Maybe this idiot has a harder skull—one shot wouldn't have killed him anyway."

"If he coughed up blood, that proves his body structure is the same as ours," Officer Li said. "No matter how strong he was, a point-blank shot to the head would have definitely killed him."

Qi Xia nodded. "If that's the case, I can only think of one reason."

He pointed at the mask in Qiao Jiajin's hand and said, "The reason the goat-headed man shot himself in the heart was most likely to protect something. The 'game' may not be over yet."

Qiao Jiajin was stunned. "You mean... he was afraid of damaging his mask?"

"Exactly."

Under Qi Xia's direction, Qiao Jiajin flipped the goatskin mask over, revealing its rough inner lining to everyone.

A strong, rotten stench seeped out from within.

Just as Qi Xia had predicted, there were words written inside the mask in black ink.

Some parts were stained with blood, but Qiao Jiajin didn't mind. He grabbed his T-shirt and wiped it clean until the writing became legible.

"What the hell?" Qiao Jiajin was stunned for a moment before he started reading the words aloud in his imperfect Mandarin:

"I am the 'Human Dog.'"

"You are cursed."

"I hope you survive."

"The clock never stops, and danger lurks on all sides."

"If you want to live, turn toward your hometown a hundred times."

"By the way, they say 'spring bamboo shoots after the rain,' but why aren't spring bamboo shoots afraid of the rain?"

"Because they appear after the rain."

Qi Xia frowned slightly. As expected, this was a clue for the next game…

The shadow of death still loomed over them.

They had already died—were they going to die again?

"Hey, liar, what does this mean?" Qiao Jiajin asked.

"How would I know?" Qi Xia snorted. "There are nine of us here—does it have to be me who thinks this through?"

Lawyer Zhang Chenze slowly sat down on a chair and said, "As much as I hate to admit it, your way of thinking matches the 'host' disturbingly well. If you have any ideas, you should speak up."

"I…"

Before Qi Xia could say anything, the surrounding walls suddenly started to change.

Under everyone's shocked gaze, holes began appearing out of thin air.

The cement walls, which should have been solid, now rippled like a shifting, gelatinous mass.

Within moments, rows of holes neatly aligned across the walls, as if they had always been there.

At the same time, the sound of chains being pulled echoed from all directions.

"What the hell is happening?" Chaos erupted among the group in an instant.

"Look at the ceiling!" Someone screamed in surprise.

The group looked up and discovered that even the ceiling was covered with dense holes.

Qi Xia finally stood up, took the sheepskin mask from Qiao Jiajin's hand, and carefully examined the last sentence written on it.

"After the rain."

"Rain...?"

Qiao Jiajin sneaked to the wall, crouched down, and peered into one of the holes. He was instantly startled and took several steps back.

"Damn it!"

He shouted, trying to find a place to hide, but found that there was nowhere to go.

"What's wrong? What's inside?" Xiao Ran asked, a bit scared.

Everyone knew that Qiao Jiajin had a lot of courage, so if something had made him retreat in fear, it must be something serious.

"Damn your...!" Qiao Jiajin shouted, "It's harpoons! The holes are full of harpoons that are 'pulling back'!"

"'Pulling back'? What does that mean?" Dr. Zhao asked in confusion.

"It should be 'cocked,'" Qi Xia said. "Since earlier, we've been hearing the sound of chains from all directions. Now, these harpoons have been cocked, and they could be fired at any moment."

"Hey! Fraudster, think of something!" Qiao Jiajin rushed over to Qi Xia's side, urgently saying, "If all the harpoons fire at once, where are we going to hide?"

Qi Xia thought carefully for a moment. Surviving himself wasn't difficult, since there were already two corpses on the scene.

The harpoons' penetrating power was limited, and he could stack the two corpses in the corner of the wall, hiding behind them. Though there was a chance he could get injured, the survival rate would still be high.

"This time, making everyone survive will probably be very difficult. I need to protect myself, so I won't be saving you all anymore," Qi Xia said softly.

"You..." Qiao Jiajin wanted to say something but stopped. He could only turn to Officer Li and Dr. Zhao for help, but they seemed even more helpless.

Qi Xia glanced at the sheepskin mask and the few hints written on it.

Had he misunderstood?

The game will only truly end when there is just one person left.

If everyone keeps surviving, this killing game will keep resurfacing.

After all, this room is very strange, with the walls constantly changing.

It doesn't seem to follow any scientific principles and feels more like magic.

But if the organizer is someone capable of magic, why would they torment these nine dead people?

Is this some sort of twisted game conducted by an organization that manages ghosts?

While Qi Xia was lost in thought, Lin Qing spoke up, looking at the mask in his hand: "It says here... the way for us to survive is to 'turn 100 times towards the direction of home.'"

The group calmed down a little and began to think about this sentence.

"Does that mean we have to face the direction of home and spin around ourselves?" Tian Tian asked.

"That doesn't make sense," Joe Jiajin shook his head. "In this room, how can you tell which direction is home? And spinning around a hundred times by yourself won't do anything except make you dizzy."

"Forget it! I'll try it first!" Tian Tian casually picked a direction and began spinning around.

Qi Xia thought for a moment, knowing that things couldn't be that simple.