“After all, you’re not a ‘Sheep.'” Qi Xia said to the Man-Goat. “The first time we encountered Man-Sheep, we really suffered. You thought adding a lying mechanism to your game would increase your winning rate, but you didn’t expect this choice would actually kill you.”

After hearing this, the Man-Goat fell silent for a while, then reached up to remove the mask from his head.

Beneath this filthy, foul-smelling mask was a man with proper features. He appeared to be in his early forties, with wisdom filling the space between his brows and eyes.

“What a shame, just a little short.” The Man-Goat said. “Just a little short of being able to walk out of here openly and honorably.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia’s eyes flickered slightly, then he asked, “Man-Goat, what exactly do you mean by walking out ‘openly and honorably’?”

The Man-Goat was stunned, then reassessed the young man before him, finding that he resembled his younger self.

“Qi Xia, have you ever made a mistake?”

“A mistake?” Qi Xia thought seriously. The two words “making a mistake” were actually difficult to understand. In some ways, his profession itself was a mistake, but in another sense, he had no choice but to be this way.

“Not related to ‘the law.'” The Man-Goat continued. “But rather the kind of mistake that could change the entire trajectory of your life, one that makes you endlessly regretful, one that makes you deeply remorseful, one that you spend the rest of your life repaying—that kind of ‘mistake.'”

After hearing this, Qi Xia’s brows furrowed deeply, and something in the depths of his brain was jumping wildly.

“What do you mean?” Qi Xia asked coldly.

“We are all sinners…” The Man-Goat said with a bitter smile. “As expected, sinners cannot obtain ‘Dao.’ In the end, I’ll still die here…”

Sinners cannot obtain “Dao”?

Qi Xia felt like he had heard this phrase before.

“Qi Xia, do you know? The marketplace is like a casino.” The Man-Goat slowly stood up and walked to a drawer to search for something. “I once took all of the company’s liquid capital to gamble on a ‘hope.’ Looking at it now, that was no different from ‘gambling with one’s life.'”

The Man-Goat searched for a long time before finding an old revolver from the drawer.

He blew the dust off the gun, opened the cylinder to look at the single bullet remaining, and continued, “At the time, my chances of success were less than fifty percent, and all the other shareholders on the board of directors were opposed. But I knew that I was only gambling with liquid capital, which wouldn’t lead to the company’s bankruptcy. Instead, it brought a glimmer of hope for future development. But no one expected… a global infectious disease suddenly broke out. The company’s revenue was severely damaged, and later, due to insufficient liquid capital, it was difficult to operate, leading to continuous losses.”

The Man-Goat raised his despairing eyes to look at Qi Xia. “I thought I was gambling for a ticket to heaven, but I didn’t expect I had come to hell.”

After saying this, he continued to carefully wipe the gun barrel.

Qi Xia felt that the Man-Goat’s words had slightly unraveled some of his doubts. “So you believe this place is hell?”

“Who knows?” The Man-Goat shook his head. “It was clearly a company I built with my own hands, yet in the end I was fired by the board of directors. As chairman, I lost my power. To pay my debts, I sold my shares at a low price. My wife had built the company with me from nothing, but in the end we couldn’t afford the money for her treatment. My daughter studying abroad had no money to continue her education and ended up becoming a famous prostitute at her school. Compared to the real world, this place is simply my heaven. Every day I don’t need to think about anything except how to make you people die.”

The Man-Goat’s tone gradually lost control. “I often wonder, what would have happened if I hadn’t gambled on those fifty-percent odds that time?”

After a long silence, Qi Xia finally uttered four words: “A bet is a bet.”

“Ha, haha…” The Man-Goat suddenly seemed to lose his mind, laughed bitterly a few times, and said, “Yes, a bet is a bet.”

“But there’s one more thing I don’t understand…” Qi Xia spoke again.

The Man-Goat raised his profound eyes to look at Qi Xia, then slowly said, “I’ve answered too many of your questions. This is very unfair to other participants.”

“What?” Qi Xia was somewhat puzzled. “Can’t this information be told to us?”

After hearing this, the Man-Goat opened the revolver’s cylinder, spun it rapidly, then with a flick of his wrist, snapped it back into the chamber.

He then slowly raised the gun and pressed it against his own temple.

“I’ll leave everything to ‘luck.'” The Man-Goat said. “For every question you ask me, I’ll pull the trigger once. As long as the gun doesn’t fire, I’ll answer you.”

After watching this, Qi Xia sighed helplessly and said, “You were once the chairman of a company. Don’t you want to leave with some dignity?”

“Dignity…” The Man-Goat smiled helplessly. “I’ve been wearing this foul-smelling, filthy-haired pig head for a long time now. What dignity is there left to speak of?”

“In that case…” Qi Xia nodded. “Then pardon my offense, Uncle. Why did you voluntarily become a ‘Man-Goat’?”

Click!!

The Man-Goat pulled the trigger without hesitation, not even blinking.

The gun didn’t fire.

“Because I wanted to ‘atone for my sins,'” the Man-Goat answered. “Someone told me that as long as I wore a mask and sent participants to their deaths through games, one day I could atone for my sins.”

“What does ‘atonement’ mean?”

Click!

The gun didn’t fire.

The Man-Goat sighed. “So-called atonement means being able to modify your past and make up for mistakes previously committed. After all, all the ‘Zodiacs’ are ‘sinners.'”

Qi Xia connected the fragmented clues in his mind and felt somewhat incredulous. He organized his words and asked again, “So you once had a chance to leave, but you didn’t. Instead, you chose to stay here to ‘atone’?”

Click!

The Man-Goat frowned. As he had said, Qi Xia had extremely strong “luck”—three consecutive shots hadn’t fired.

“I’m not certain whether I could leave, but I stayed.” The Man-Goat continued. “I hope you all haven’t made any mistakes. Otherwise, you’ll ultimately be like me and choose to voluntarily stay here. After all, staying here offers a glimmer of invisible hope.”

Qi Xia slowly leaned forward and asked very seriously, “So, what is the fastest method to leave this place?”

Click!!

The Man-Goat closed his eyes and trembled all over, but the gun still didn’t fire.

“I’m not certain.” The Man-Goat said. “Three thousand six hundred ‘Dao’ is obviously the slowest method. Even though I wore a mask, there are still many things I don’t know, since I’m still ‘human.’ If you want to explore the truth of this place, then you must find a way to defeat ‘Heaven’ and ‘Earth.'”

After saying this, he paused and added, “No… don’t presume to defeat ‘Heaven.’ Just defeat ‘Earth.’ The ‘Heaven, Earth, and Human Three Elements Zodiacs’ are arranged from top to bottom, all led by the ‘Dragon.’ If you want to survive in this place, first, don’t provoke ‘Heaven,’ and second, don’t face the ‘Dragon.'”

The Man-Goat’s four answers indeed clarified Qi Xia’s thinking considerably. It seemed that escaping this place wasn’t as difficult as imagined.

He had no more questions for the Man-Goat, but the other party still held up the gun with a complex expression in his eyes.

Qi Xia knew that the fifth shot had a fifty percent chance of death, and the sixth shot was one hundred percent certain.

The scene before him seemed familiar, as if they had returned to the moment of gambling with lives at fifty percent odds.

Qi Xia stood up and walked toward the exit. Lin Qin and Old Lu didn’t understand his intention but slowly followed.

Just as they were about to leave, Qi Xia turned his head and asked the fifth question: “Uncle, do you have any regrets?”

After asking this, Qi Xia didn’t wait for the Man-Goat to answer and left with Lin Qin and Old Lu.

The vast chess club now seemed empty and desolate, with only the Man-Goat sitting alone in the center.

He pondered for a long time and slowly uttered three words:

“Thank you.”

A tremendous gunshot echoed, and the Man-Goat fell.