Chapter 19: Omnipotent
"I..." The Snake-head Man paused for a moment, wanting to choose an answer but realizing that no matter how he replied, it would be futile.
"Ha ha ha ha ha!"
The Snake-head Man suddenly burst into loud laughter, bending over and shaking with mirth. Before long, he stopped laughing and said, "You really are interesting."
"Interesting?" Qi Xia glanced coldly at the Snake-head Man. "Where's the interest? Haven't I already won?"
The Snake-head Man slowly walked to the wall and reached out to pull the lever.
Everyone felt their bodies drop, then slowly begin to descend.
Qiao Jiajin looked utterly confused. He turned to Qi Xia and asked, "Con artist, what does this mean? Why does this count as winning?"
Qi Xia noticed that the rope was indeed descending and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He said, "Think about it. Once this question is asked, no matter what, we're already saved."
"'If my next question is 'Will you pull the lever?' will your answer be the same as this one...'" Qiao Jiajin silently repeated the question to himself, unable to figure it out.
"I see..." Dr. Zhao nodded thoughtfully. "If he answers 'yes,' then the next question can only be answered 'yes,' and that saves us. After all, the next question is 'Will you pull the lever?'"
"But what if he says 'no'?!" Qiao Jiajin felt he had spotted a loophole. "Can't he just say 'no'?"
"If he says 'no,' then the next question can only be answered 'yes,'" Han Yimo said weakly. "The beauty of this question is that if he answers 'no,' he admits that he would give different answers to the two questions. Remember? This Snake-head Man said he doesn't tell lies."
Qiao Jiajin froze for a moment, then turned back to look at Qi Xia and asked, "Did you come up with all of this just now? What kind of monster are you?"
"I wouldn't dare call myself a monster," Qi Xia shook his head. "I'm just a wandering con artist."
As they spoke, the group slowly landed on the ground.
Due to the prolonged hanging, everyone's palms were stinging with pain, and the condition of the two injured people was even worse.
"Ladies and gentlemen, congratulations on surviving the 'interview.' Push open this door, and a new world awaits you." The Snake-head Man put his hands behind his back and stood beside the wooden door.
"Bastard..."
Qiao Jiajin strode forward menacingly, as if wanting to vent all his anger toward the "Goat-head Man" and "Dog-head Man" on the Snake-head Man in front of him.
The Snake-head Man turned coldly and looked at the aggressive Qiao Jiajin without moving an inch.
"Is everyone of you a damn psycho?!" Qiao Jiajin shouted, grabbing the Snake-head Man's collar. "Wearing those weird masks, trying to kill us over and over again, and now I've finally got you!"
The Snake-head Man sneered and said in a low voice, "While you're still alive, I advise you to let go while you can."
"What did you say?!"
Qiao Jiajin raised his fist forcefully, ready to smash it into the Snake-head Man's face, but Officer Li grabbed his arm.
"Hey, have you forgotten about that man whose head got crushed?" Officer Li said in a low voice. "If they're all the same kind of people, how are you going to defeat them?"
"I..." A look of unwillingness crossed Qiao Jiajin's tough face. He gritted his molars and slowly forced out a few words, "But these damned bastards..."
"Don't worry, we can get out, can't we?" Officer Li interrupted him, speaking softly. "As long as we get out, I'll make sure they pay."
Hearing this, everyone fell silent and slowly approached the Snake-head Man.
Looking at him up close, they could see how eerie he truly was.
The temperature around this Snake-head Man was lower than elsewhere. His old suit and the mask on his head together emitted a strange, putrid stench.
His eyes shot out from within the mask, clearly belonging to a human. But the smell on him was like a snake that had been dead for a long time.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new world."
The Snake-head Man's muffled voice came from the mask, then he turned and opened the door.
With a soft creak, the light from outside streamed in.
Qi Xia frowned. He realized that outside the door wasn't the outdoors at all, but rather a corridor.
"Where is this?" Qi Xia asked.
"As I said, it's the new world." The Snake-head Man slowly raised his hands. "The future 'God' will be born among you! Born in the new world! How exciting!"
"God again..." Qiao Jiajin growled. "What are you people planning?"
Seeing someone ask a question, the Snake-head Man clearly became interested. "An omnipotent God...! One who can make all wishes come true!"
"Omnipotent?" Qiao Jiajin's brows twisted into a knot.
Dr. Zhao silently gestured for Qiao Jiajin to stop, then said to the Snake-head Man, "Alright, we understand. Just let us out now."
The Snake-head Man paused, then nodded and stepped aside.
Qi Xia was the first to walk out. The others behind him seemed unwilling to stay any longer and quickly followed, quickening their pace.
As soon as they stepped into the corridor, a peculiar smell filled their nostrils.
How to describe that smell?
Heavy—an immensely heavy smell.
It was as if billions of people from all over the world had died, left to rot in the open air, and that rotting stench had attracted countless insects to feast.
They bred in massive numbers, died in massive numbers, and then rotted themselves.
Let this overwhelming stench of decay settle for a while until it was no longer pungent, and it became this heavy smell.
It took Qi Xia a long time to recover his senses. When he opened his eyes, he saw another scene of despair.
They were standing in a seemingly endless corridor. The ceiling was low and oppressive, stretching forward endlessly.
On both sides of the corridor, countless wooden doors were slowly opening.
Just like the door behind them.
Soon, figures began to appear in the doorways.
Most of them were masked people covered in blood. Looking into the distance, only a very few doors had normal people walking out.
And those so-called "normal people" all looked exhausted and trembling.
Like Qi Xia, they had survived too.
"What's going on..." Han Yimo asked weakly. "Were there more than just the nine of us captured?"
Qi Xia's face was especially grim. The situation before him far exceeded his imagination.
This organization had captured countless people and made them play deadly games?
"But... the number of survivors is far too few..." Zhang Chenze sighed softly.
Looking across the thousands of doors, only a handful of people had emerged.
There wasn't even a single room like Qi Xia's, where "all members survived."
"Everyone, this way, please."
The Snake-head Man gestured toward one direction, indicating the way forward, then stood by the door with his hands behind his back, seemingly not intending to leave.
"Let's go."
Knowing they shouldn't linger here, the group formed a line and slowly moved away.
Passing by one dilapidated wooden door after another, they saw the people wearing animal masks up close.
Among them were oxen, horses, and dogs.
Also the sheep and snake they had seen before.
Every single one of them exuded an eerie aura and a smell of decay. The scenes inside the doors were mostly filled with corpses, leaving them to wonder what kind of "game" they had participated in.
After walking another dozen steps, the group was startled by two animal masks ahead.
On the left, a person wearing a huge rat mask leaned against the wall; on the right, a person wearing a huge rooster mask stood with arms crossed.
These two masks were clearly not man-made but were actual animal heads made into masks.
But where in the world were there rats and roosters this big?
Like the other masked figures, these two simply glanced briefly at Qi Xia and the others, making no other moves.
"What are all these animals...?" Lin Qin was a bit frightened and instinctively moved away from the two.
Qi Xia frowned slightly, as if thinking of something.
Sheep, dog, snake, rat, rooster...
"They're the zodiac animals," he murmured, letting the words slip.
Everyone froze, then looked around.
The animal masks worn by those in shabby suits were indeed all part of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs.