Jiang Mingran froze.
Why? At the start of every loop, didn’t the woman always enter through the door?
Why was she directly inside the bathroom this time?
The woman seemed to want to walk forward. However, the moment her embroidered shoes shifted slightly, Shao Lan immediately pressed the blade one centimeter into the man’s neck.
Blood instantly welled up, and the man let out a cry of pain. The woman stopped in her tracks.
Jiang Mingran walked over to Shao Lan and saw blood on Shao Lan’s forehead and limbs—clearly injuries sustained from their recent struggle. At that moment, he was trembling slightly and was almost out of strength.
Jiang Mingran hurriedly helped him hold the man down and reached out to take the knife, but Shao Lan shook his head. “You’ve never killed anyone before, have you?”
Jiang Mingran was stunned. Of course he hadn’t.
“Then I’ll still do it.” Shao Lan looked coldly at the woman.
His hand holding the knife was exceptionally steady, radiating murderous intent. Anyone looking at him would have no doubt that he truly dared to kill.
The woman sensed his murderous intent and stood frozen in place.
“Uncle Bing, call the police, 1301,” Shao Lan said.
The room number was information he had learned right before dying in the previous round.
Uncle Bing hurried over to the landline, picked up the receiver, and looked fearfully at the woman—in the second loop, he had watched with his own eyes as Shao Lan was killed by the woman while making a phone call.
Yet this time, the woman didn’t move. Her body remained facing Shao Lan and Jiang Mingran, completely still.
Throughout the entire process of Uncle Bing dialing the emergency call, she never came over to stop him.
Holding the man in a chokehold and looking at the woman standing in the bathroom, Jiang Mingran felt completely dazed.
“Brother Lan…” he said, “why is the fake police officer in the house this time? And why is that monster in the bathroom?”
Shao Lan gripped the handle of the knife and calmly said, “Not just this time. Every time.”
“What…” Jiang Mingran’s eyes trembled.
“Do you remember the rules that appeared on the floor?”
Jiang Mingran blankly nodded.
Starting from the second loop, rules had appeared on the floor every single time.
The first rule was: “Those who do not walk into the depths of the fog cannot leave from the fog either,” meaning they could not directly leave the game arena without solving the puzzles.
The second was: “Owls are birds skilled at disguise; do not trust the owl.”
The owl grandfather clock was the only thing in the room displaying the time. They had wondered if there was something wrong with the time, but they hadn’t come up with any clues.
Shao Lan spoke softly, “The owl grandfather clock only has two functions: first, to announce the start of the game; second, to indicate the time.”
“Time has no impact on this game, and it has no reason to lie. Therefore, by process of elimination, the part of it that cannot be trusted can only be…”
Jiang Mingran’s eyes widened sharply.
It’s “the game begins”!!
The time at which the owl announces the “game begins” is not the true start time of the game!
“The game doesn’t start at 4:00 sharp; it starts at 3:58 right from the beginning.”
03:58 is the starting point of the loop and the true beginning of the game.
Who could have guessed that the method to crack the game was hidden within those first two minutes?
“We all fell into the same misconception before,” Shao Lan said. “At 4:00 sharp, the owl announces the game begins, the security door makes a sound, and then the woman crosses the living room to the kitchen.”
“All of this created an illusion that 4:00 sharp is the time the murderer enters the door.”
“Actually…” Shao Lan looked toward the fake police officer. “The murderer has been staying in the room all along. That sound at the door wasn’t her coming in; it was someone leaving.”
“During those two minutes from 03:58 to 04:00, there were a total of five people in the house: the three of us, the murderer, and the fake police officer.”
“The fake police officer was standing by the security door, getting ready to leave,” Shao Lan said. “And what about the murderer? At the start of every loop, we could always hear the sound of dripping water, like a faucet that had just been turned off.”
“There are only two water pipes in this house: one in the kitchen, and the other is…”
The bathroom.
Therefore, during the first two minutes at the very start of every loop, the murderer was always in the bathroom.
The bathroom was the room closest to the security door, and also the only room they had completely ignored during the previous gameplay.
A chill ran through Jiang Mingran’s heart.
Those two minutes before the fake police officer left were the two minutes where the players could seize the greatest initiative.
Unlike the monster-like murderer, the fake police officer’s physical fitness was just that of an ordinary man. Since all the players were still fully alive at this point, they could completely hold him hostage in a three-against-one situation.
Yet if Shao Lan hadn’t figured it out, they would have been dead for sure.
After all, during the first two minutes of every loop, either they were just dropped in, completely bewildered, or they had just experienced an intensely tragic and realistic death. Those two minutes weren’t even enough to calm their heartbeats and gather their wits, let alone think about taking immediate action.
Besides, there was very little information about the fake police officer beforehand. How could Shao Lan be certain that taking him hostage would definitely control the woman?
Shao Lan saw Jiang Mingran’s doubt.
“Remember the newspaper we saw? The police found mutilated corpses all over the city. That means after the murderer kills, she disposes of the bodies, and the body disposal is done so meticulously and carefully that the police haven’t been able to find any clues.”
“The woman doesn’t have that capability, so someone else must have disposed of the bodies for her.” Shao Lan pointed at the man. “Which is him.”
That’s why this man would go out in the middle of the night, and why so many black garbage bags—used to cover up the body disposal—had piled up at the doorway.
At 03:58, both the [murderer] and the [fake police officer] were at home. The [murderer] was washing away bloodstains, while the [fake police officer] was packing garbage bags by the door, getting ready to go out and dispose of the bodies.
At 04:00, the [fake police officer] finished packing, closed the security door as he left, and made that sound of the door closing that they heard every round. At the same time, the woman came out of the bathroom, crossed the living room, and entered the kitchen to cook the corpses.
In the second and third loops, they successfully called the police. When the police car arrived, the [fake police officer] saw it and rushed back home ahead of time.
However…
Jiang Mingran looked at the [fake police officer].
There was one last question he still didn’t understand.
Why would a human help a monster?
Who on earth was he?
“He is the [person who kept the diary],” Shao Lan said in a low voice.
“We previously guessed that the [person who kept the diary] was killed, which is why he never had the chance to call the police… But actually, there’s a second possibility: he ultimately chose to become the monster’s accomplice.”
He was both the murderer’s accomplice and the murderer’s fatal weakness.