十天结束

Chapter 10: Is it Over?

This time, there was a few minutes of complete silence as everyone grappled with the unbelievable revelation.

After a moment, Officer Li was the first to flip over his ID card, revealing the words "Liar" written on it.

One by one, everyone else followed suit, and each card displayed the same word: "Liar."

"You're quite clever..." Lawyer Zhang acknowledged Qi Xia with a nod, "But how did you realize that we were all already dead?"

Qi Xia pointed to his sketchpad. "It wasn't that difficult. I kept wondering why the room was sealed, why there were lines drawn on the walls and floor, why there was a clock placed on the table, and why the sheep-headed figure forced us into a 'halftime break.'"

"The average person consumes about 0.007 cubic meters of air per minute, which translates to 0.42 cubic meters per hour. With ten people in this room, that's a total air consumption of 4.2 cubic meters per hour."

"According to the sheep-headed figure, we not only slept in this room for 12 hours but also played a game for nearly an hour. If we multiply 4.2 cubic meters by 13, we get the number '54.6.'"

Qi Xia circled the number '54.6' on his sketchpad. "That's the amount of air we should have consumed."

He glanced around the room. "But how many cubic meters does this room have in total?"

The others followed his gaze.

"The organizers left us clues. They divided the walls and floor into numerous squares, each with a side length of about 1 meter." Qi Xia pointed to the marks on the walls. "There are 3x4 squares on the walls, and 4x4 on the floor and ceiling, making the dimensions of this room 4x4x3, which is a total of 48 cubic meters."

"And with a room of 48 cubic meters, how can it contain 54.6 cubic meters of air?" Qi Xia furrowed his brows, his expression grim. "After all this time, the air should have become thin, yet none of us felt any signs of oxygen deprivation..."

Dr. Zhao pondered for a moment, then picked up Qi Xia's sketchpad and pointed to the '49.14.' "And what does this number represent?"

Qi Xia looked at Dr. Zhao solemnly and replied, "That's the amount of air needed to be consumed, but calculated for 'nine people.'"

"Nine people?"

Dr. Zhao paused, realizing that there were indeed ten people consuming air in the room, yet Qi Xia calculated the amount for only nine.

"I made a bold assumption," Qi Xia said emotionlessly. "If the sheep-headed figure 'isn't human,' would our air consumption be sufficient? Clearly, it wouldn't."

"What kind of madness is this?" Dr. Zhao mused. "To make such a bizarre assumption?"

"Is it so hard to understand?" Qi Xia gestured to the decapitated corpse on his right. "Dr. Zhao, you should be very familiar with skulls. Can a human skull be shattered with a single hand?"

Dr. Zhao didn't answer because he knew it was utterly impossible.

Not to mention a human skull, even a rabbit's skull would not be easy to crush with one hand on a table.

Qi Xia withdrew his gaze and looked at the others. "Time is running out. I've written down my choice. Now it's up to you, but remember, as long as one person's answer differs from mine, all of us will be 'sanctioned.'"

The others looked hesitant.

A monster capable of arbitrary murder was now to be "voted out" by them.

Was it willing?

Qiao Jiajin glanced at the sheep-headed figure and found that he remained motionless, his profound gaze penetrating from behind the goat mask, pondering who knows what.

"Damn it, I'll go all out!" Qiao Jiajin waved his hand and also wrote down the words "Man-Sheep."

After some hesitation, everyone else also wrote down their answers.

Qi Xia glanced around and saw that without exception, all had written "Man-Sheep."

The clock pointed to 1 o'clock, the game was over.

The sheep-headed figure slowly approached and said, "Congratulations, you've survived the 'Liars' game. Now, I'll personally carry out the 'sanction' on the losers."

Before anyone could react, the sheep-headed figure pulled out a pistol from his pocket, turned the barrel to his heart, and pulled the trigger.

An unimaginable roar reverberated in the narrow room.

In such a confined space, the sound was hard to dissipate, and everyone felt a ringing in their ears.

Immediately, the sheep-headed figure clutched his chest and began to scream.

The deafening cries quickly overwhelmed the echoes of the gunshot, resonating incessantly in the room, chilling everyone to the bone.

The sheep-headed figure continued to scream in agony while coughing up blood, and after more than a minute, the sound gradually subsided into painful moans.

"What... what's happening..." Qiao Jiajin stared blankly at the sheep-headed figure. "Did he really do it?"

A few more minutes passed, and the groans ceased.

The quiet body of the sheep-headed figure offered no response to Dr. Zhao's frantic shouting.

The others also slowly stood up.

The room remained unchanged, except for the addition of a lifeless body.

"It's strange... are we really dead?" Sweetie seemed to still be grappling with this question as she reached out her delicate hand and slapped herself hard.

"Ouch!" Sweetie exclaimed, surprised. "It really hurts... why do I still feel pain after death?"

Qiao Jiajin shook his head helplessly. "What, have you died before?"

"I... I don't think so..." Sweetie hesitated for a moment. "It seems like I haven't died before..."

"So, who knows what happens after death? Judging by this situation, maybe this is hell." Qiao Jiajin looked at the two bodies in the room, feeling uneasy all over. "I can not only feel pain but also smell the stench."

"So what are we? Spirits?" Author Han Yimo asked.

Dr. Zhao, after checking his own body, found that his heartbeat, body temperature, and pulse were all normal, and he was breathing normally, yet strangely, they were not consuming oxygen.

It seemed that death was indeed a mysterious thing, beyond the explanation of any medical knowledge.

"Regardless of what we are, I don't want to be trapped in this small room for the rest of my days." Officer Li said. "Let's find a way out."

Officer Li walked to the sheep-headed figure and absentmindedly picked up the gun lying beside him.

This action startled everyone, and they instinctively moved away from him.

Officer Li skillfully opened the gun chamber and saw that the gun had only one bullet, which was now empty.

This was both good news and bad news.

The good news was that they didn't have to worry about someone using the gun to harm others again, but the bad news was that they would also be defenseless against other dangers they might encounter.

Qiao Jiajin, being bold, reached out and slowly removed the sheep-headed figure's mask, revealing a man with a completely decomposed face underneath.

"Such a terrifying face..." Qiao Jiajin remarked, recoiling.

Lawyer Zhang chimed in from the side, "Indeed, it's horrifying."