Chapter 10: Is it Over?
1168 Words
The silence lasted for several minutes as everyone tried to accept this unbelievable truth.After a moment, Officer Li was the first to flip over his identity card, and sure enough, it read "Liar."The others slowly turned over their cards as well—every single one of them said "Liar.""You’re quite clever…" Lawyer Zhang gave Qi Xia an approving look. "But how did you figure out that we were all already dead?"Qi Xia pointed to his draft paper and said, "It’s not hard. I’ve been wondering, why is the room sealed? Why are there lines on the walls and floor? Why is there a clock in the center of the table? And why did the goat-head man force us to have a 'half-time break'?""Normally, the air consumption of an average person is 0.007 cubic meters per minute. That means 0.42 cubic meters per hour, and with ten people in the room, the total air consumption would be 4.2 cubic meters per hour.""According to the goat-head man, we’ve been asleep in this room for 12 hours, and we’ve also played nearly an hour of a game. If you multiply 4.2 cubic meters by 13, you get the number '54.6'."Qi Xia circled "54.6" on his paper and said, "This is the amount of air we should have consumed."He then looked around the room and asked, "But how many cubic meters does this room actually have?"The others followed his gaze."The organizer left us clues. They drew lines on the walls and floor, dividing them into many squares, each about one meter in length," Qi Xia pointed to the marks on the wall. "The number of squares on the walls is 3 by 4, and the floor and ceiling are 4 by 4. This room has a length, width, and height of 4 by 4 by 3, which gives us a total of 48 cubic meters.""Now, how can a 48-cubic-meter room hold 54.6 cubic meters of air?" Qi Xia frowned and said, his expression grim, "By now, the air should have been thinning out, but we don’t feel any signs of oxygen deprivation..."Doctor Zhao thought for a moment, took Qi Xia’s draft paper, and pointed to "49.14," asking, "What does this number mean?"Qi Xia looked at Doctor Zhao with a serious expression and replied, "This is the amount of air for 'nine people'.""Nine people?"Doctor Zhao was stunned. After all, there were clearly ten people in the room consuming air, so why calculate for "nine"?"I made a bold assumption," Qi Xia said without expression. "What if the goat-head man 'isn’t human'? Would we have enough air? Clearly, we wouldn’t.""What kind of madman are you?" Doctor Zhao murmured, "Making such a bizarre assumption?""Is it hard to understand?" Qi Xia pointed to the headless body beside him, "Doctor Zhao, you should be very familiar with skulls. Generally, can a person crush a skull with one hand?"Doctor Zhao didn’t answer because he knew this was impossible.Not to mention a human skull—even a rabbit’s skull would be difficult to crush with one hand on a table.Qi Xia withdrew his gaze and looked around the room. "Time is running out. I’ve already written down my pick. Now, it’s up to you, but remember, if even one person’s answer is different from mine, everyone in the room will be 'punished'."The others hesitated.A monster that can kill at will was now going to be "voted out" by them.Would it really go down like that?Qiao Jiajin glanced at the goat-head man out of the corner of his eye, but the goat-head man remained motionless, his deep gaze peering out from behind the goat mask, seemingly deep in thought."D*mn it, let's go for it!" Qiao Jiajin waved his hand decisively and wrote "Human Goat" on his paper.The others hesitated but eventually wrote their answers as well.Qi Xia looked around, and without exception, everyone had written "Human Goat."The clock struck 1:00, and the game was over.The goat-head man slowly walked up and said, "Congratulations, you’ve all survived the 'Liar' game. Now, I will personally 'punish' the loser."Before anyone could react, the goat-head man pulled a g*n from his pocket, turned the barrel to his own chest, and pulled the trigger.A deafening explosion echoed through the narrow room.In such a confined space, the sound didn’t dissipate, and everyone felt a ringing in their ears.Immediately, the goat-head man clutched his chest and began to scream.The scream quickly drowned out the gunshot, reverberating through the room, sending chills through everyone.The goat-head man screamed and spat blood, his cries lasting for over a minute before subsiding into painful groans."What… what’s going on…" Qiao Jiajin stared at the goat-head man. "Is he for real?"A few minutes later, the groans faded away.The nine people suddenly realized they could move their legs again.Doctor Zhao was the first to stand up, walk over to the goat-head man, and feel for a pulse in his neck, discovering it had stopped."Hey!" Doctor Zhao shouted at the goat-head man. "The game’s over, how do we get out?"But a quiet corpse couldn’t give Doctor Zhao any answers.The others slowly stood up as well.Nothing had changed in the room, except for the addition of one more corpse."This is strange… are we really dead?" Tian Tian seemed to be still struggling with the idea. She stretched out her delicate hand and slapped herself hard."Ouch!" Tian Tian exclaimed, "It still hurts... Why does it still hurt if we’re dead?"Qiao Jiajin shook his head helplessly. "What, have you died before?""I..." Tian Tian paused for a moment. "I guess I’ve never died before...""So, who knows what happens after death? Looking at this situation, maybe this is hell," Qiao Jiajin glanced at the two bodies in the room, feeling uneasy. "I can feel pain and smell the stench.""So, what are we? Souls?" writer Han Yimo asked.Doctor Zhao also checked his body, finding that his heartbeat, temperature, and pulse were all normal, and he was breathing normally, but he wasn’t consuming any oxygen.It seemed that death truly was a mysterious thing, beyond the explanation of any medical knowledge."Whatever we are, I don’t want to be stuck in this small room for the rest of my days," Officer Li said. "Let’s see if we can figure out how to get out."Officer Li walked over to the goat-head man, casually picking up the g*n that had fallen beside him.This move startled everyone, and they instinctively backed away from him.Officer Li skillfully opened the chamber, then ejected the magazine, discovering that the g*n had only one bullet, and it was now empty.This was both good and bad news.The good news was they didn’t have to worry about anyone using the g*n to harm others. The bad news was that if other dangers appeared, they couldn’t protect themselves.Qiao Jiajin, however, was bolder. He slowly removed the goat-head man’s mask and found that beneath it was the face of a man whose features were completely decayed.His eyes were rolled back, and there were no signs of life."What a terrifying face…"Lawyer Zhang agreed quietly from the side.
- Writer
