Chapter 11: Let's Continue
Qi Xia had been sitting in his seat the whole time, neither standing up nor looking for clues.
He still felt something was a bit off.
Also still sitting was the psychological counselor, Lin Qin.
"What are you thinking about?" Lin Qin asked casually, covering her mouth and nose.
"Me?" Qi Xia was startled. "What? Are you going to give me a psychological diagnosis?"
"That's not it. Although smart people like you tend to have some psychological issues to varying degrees, this situation really isn't suitable for psychotherapy." Lin Qin smiled slightly. "I just wanted to ask what you were thinking."
Qi Xia pondered for a moment, then said, "I'm thinking about the reason."
"The reason?"
Qi Xia didn't respond to Lin Qin. Instead, he called out to Dr. Zhao and asked, "Doctor, how long can an average person survive after being shot in the heart?"
Dr. Zhao turned around, thought for a moment, and said, "If I remember correctly, when a bullet hits the heart, a person falls unconscious within seconds. But since medical 'death' refers to 'brain death,' even if unconscious, the brain can still function for a few more minutes."
Qi Xia nodded. "That goat-head guy screamed for a few minutes just now, which means his physical structure is much tougher than an average human's, right?"
"Yes. He took a bullet to the heart and it took a full few minutes before he completely lost consciousness."
Hearing Qi Xia and the doctor talking, the others quieted down.
It was because of this swindler's clear thinking that all nine of them had managed to survive.
"So why do you think that is?" Qi Xia extended his index finger and thumb, forming the shape of a gun, and placed it against his temple. "Most people would choose to shoot themselves here."
He thought for a moment, then aimed from below upward toward his chin. "Or like this."
Qi Xia withdrew his hand and pointed at his own heart:
"Either way... a suicide would choose a way to die that minimizes their pain. But why did he aim for his own heart?"
Qiao Jiajin was toying with the goat-head mask in his hand. He flipped the man's head over and said, "Maybe this jerk's skull was even harder, couldn't kill him with one shot."
"If he could spit blood, that proves his body structure is the same as ours," Officer Li said. "No matter how strong he was, a single shot to the head at this distance would definitely kill 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-head chose to shoot his own heart is probably to protect something. The 'game' might not be over yet."
Qiao Jiajin was taken aback. "You mean... he was afraid of damaging his mask?"
"Exactly."
Under Qi Xia's direction, Qiao Jiajin turned the goat-skin mask over, revealing the rough inner lining to everyone.
A sour, rotten stench wafted out.
As Qi Xia had expected, words were written on the inside of the goat-skin mask with a black pen.
Some parts were stained with blood. Qiao Jiajin didn't mind; he wiped it with his T-shirt, and the words became legible.
"What the hell?" Qiao Jiajin paused and began reading the words in his non-standard Mandarin:
"I am 'Human Dog.'"
"You are cursed."
"I hope you survive."
"Time never stops; danger lurks on all sides."
"If you want to live, turn one hundred times toward the direction of home."
"Oh, and they say bamboo shoots grow quickly after rain. Why aren't the shoots afraid of the rain?"
"See you after the rain."
Qi Xia frowned slightly. So this was a hint for the next game...
The shadow of death hanging over them refused to dissipate.
They were already dead, yet they had to die again?
"Hey, swindler, what does this mean?" Qiao Jiajin asked.
"How should I know?" Qi Xia snorted. "There are nine people here. Do I have to do all the thinking?"
Lawyer Zhang Chenze slowly sat down on a chair and said, "Though I hate to admit it, your way of thinking aligns very closely with the 'host's.' If you have any ideas, you should speak up."
"I—"
Before Qi Xia could finish, the walls around them suddenly changed.
To everyone's shock, holes began to appear out of thin air.
The originally concrete walls now seemed like a constantly shifting soft mass.
In a moment, rows of holes lined up neatly on the walls, as if they had always been there.
At the same time, the sound of chains being pulled came from all four sides.
"What's happening?" The crowd panicked instantly.
"Look at the ceiling!" someone shouted.
Everyone looked up and saw that even the ceiling was covered in densely packed holes.
Qi Xia finally stood up, took the goat-skin mask from Qiao Jiajin's hand, and carefully read the last sentence on it.
"See you after the rain."
"Rain...?"
Qiao Jiajin crept to the wall, peered into a hole, and immediately jumped back several steps, startled.
"Bloody hell!"
He shouted, looking for a place to hide, but found none.
"What is it? What's inside?" Xiao Ran asked fearfully.
Everyone knew Qiao Jiajin was quite brave. If something scared him enough to retreat, it had to be something terrible.
"Bloody hell!" Qiao Jiajin yelled. "It's harpoons! All the holes are full of harpoons that are 'pulling back'!"
"What does 'pulling back' mean?" Dr. Zhao asked, confused.
"They must be 'cocking,'" Qi Xia said. "From the start, we've heard chain sounds from all sides. Now these harpoons are cocked and ready to fire at any moment."
"Hey, swindler! Think of something!" Qiao Jiajin came up to Qi Xia anxiously. "If they all fire at once from every direction, where can we hide?"
Qi Xia thought carefully. Surviving himself wouldn't be too hard—there were already two corpses on the scene.
Harpoons have limited penetrating power. He could just pile the two corpses in a corner and hide behind them. He might get injured, but his survival rate would be high.
"This time, keeping everyone alive will probably be very difficult. I need to protect myself, so I won't save you anymore," Qi Xia said softly.
"You..." Qiao Jiajin started to speak but stopped, then turned to Officer Li and Dr. Zhao for help, but they looked even more helpless.
Qi Xia looked at the hints on the goat-skin mask again.
Had he misunderstood?
Only when one person remained would this "game" truly end.
If he kept letting everyone survive, these killing games would keep appearing.
After all, this room was very strange—the walls could change at any time.
This didn't seem to follow any scientific principles; it felt more like magic.
But if the host was a powerful being capable of magic, why would they torment nine dead people?
Could this be some twisted game run by an organization that manages ghosts?
While Qi Xia was lost in thought, Lin Qin looked at the mask in his hand and spoke up: "On it... it says a way for us to survive. It says 'turn one hundred times toward the direction of home.'"
The crowd calmed down a bit and began to ponder the sentence.
"Does it mean we should face toward home and spin ourselves around?" Tiantian asked.
"That can't be right," Qiao Jiajin shook his head. "In this room, how do you even determine the direction of home? And spinning a hundred times would just make you dizzy, not do anything useful."
"Forget it! I'll try first!" Tiantian picked a random direction and started spinning.
Qi Xia thought for a moment, knowing things couldn't be that simple.