On the other side of the corridor, in the “Sender’s” room.

Old Lu had already been beaten black and blue. Both his nostrils were bleeding, and one of his fingers had been snapped.

“Don’t… don’t hit me anymore…” Old Lu begged for mercy. “If you beat me to death, there’ll be no one to deliver the letter for you… spare me…”

“Old dog!!” A’Mu grabbed Old Lu’s sparse hair in one fist and said viciously, “Haven’t I been good to you?! Huh? I gave you the ‘Dao,’ I gave you my ‘trust’! And you fucking dared to crush my key?!”

“I’m truly sorry…” Old Lu forced out a bitter smile with great effort. “I had already finished delivering the box when I realized I still hadn’t sent the key… I originally wanted to deliver it immediately, but the three-minute countdown only had three seconds left. If I didn’t throw the key into the shredder, I would have died…”

“You think I’ll believe you?!” A’Mu grabbed Old Lu by the hair and slammed him hard against the wall.

This blow hit his eye socket, and Old Lu’s eyebrow area began bleeding profusely.

“Ow… stop hitting me…” Old Lu clutched his forehead and wailed on the ground. “If you keep hitting me, you’ll really kill me…”

A’Mu stabilized his breathing slightly and slowly released his grip.

“Old dog… fortunately I didn’t completely trust you.” He slowly stood up and pulled out a letter from his chest.

“What…” Old Lu saw the letter and was instantly frozen in place. “You didn’t put the letter inside?!”

“Your little tricks are like child’s play in front of me.” A’Mu crouched down beside Old Lu with an angry smile on his face and said, “Old dog, I’ll give you one more chance. If the letter doesn’t reach the other side this time, I don’t care about any ‘sanctions’ or not—I’ll immediately rush into the corridor and gouge out your eyes and bite through your throat. Do you understand?”

Old Lu nodded with his entire body trembling.

This A’Mu would definitely do it.

He was a true desperado. Even if he lost the game, he absolutely wouldn’t let Old Lu go.

“Little Qi… this old bag of bones has helped you as much as he can.” Old Lu muttered to himself.

On the other side, Jiang Ruoxue was holding the box, stalling for time.

She had no other options left.

She hadn’t expected that young man to be unexpectedly clever.

It was only a matter of time before the box with two locks in her hands would be cracked. The only thing she could do now was delay as much time as possible, hoping her team could achieve victory first with this bit of time.

Time passed second by second. When only ten seconds remained on the countdown, Jiang Ruoxue knocked on Lin Qin’s door.

Lin Qin seemed not to have expected she would receive a “reply letter,” her face full of confusion.

She had just sent out the locked box, hoping Qi Xia would have a handy tool at hand to open the box, but now the box was not only intact but had even been sent back with two locks.

“Take it quickly! I don’t have time!” Jiang Ruoxue said.

Fearing that the “traitor” would die and leave no one to deliver the letter, Lin Qin hurriedly took the box.

She looked at the two locks on the box and slowly widened her eyes.

“So that’s it… so he has a second lock? I understand now!”

Lin Qin hurriedly pulled out her golden key and unlocked the golden lock.

Now only a silver lock remained on the box.

“Quick!” Lin Qin handed the box back to Jiang Ruoxue. “Quickly deliver it back to the ‘Recipient’!”

Jiang Ruoxue bit her teeth as she looked at the box in her hands, knowing things had taken a bad turn.

The woman before her had seen through this tactic in just a few seconds, clearly not an ordinary person either.

“Hey… let me join you…” Jiang Ruoxue said with an awkward expression. “Let’s cooperate. Only through cooperation can you achieve victory.”

Lin Qin stared carefully into Jiang Ruoxue’s eyes and soon revealed a trace of a smile, saying, “How strange. If you truly wanted to cooperate with us, Qi Xia shouldn’t have come up with this strategy.”

“Qi Xia…?”

“Things have already developed to this point. Even if you don’t cooperate with us, we won’t lose the game.” Lin Qin smiled apologetically. “Sorry, it won’t work this time.”

Jiang Ruoxue stared at Lin Qin, not knowing what she was thinking.

“Ruoxue, the only thing you can do now is delay time.” Lin Qin slowly closed the door. “I’m sorry.”

Jiang Ruoxue, now in the corridor, no longer had her previous expression. She slowly walked to the center of the corridor, muttering slightly.

“So he’s Qi Xia? This came without any effort at all.”

After a few seconds, as if conversing with someone, she nodded repeatedly.

“Yes, I can die. But what about what comes next?”

“Alright.” Jiang Ruoxue nodded. “Do you need me to leave him a little surprise?”

“Understood.”

She walked forward with the metal box in her arms, heading straight to Qi Xia’s door.

Jiang Ruoxue closed her eyes slightly and reached out to knock on the door.

When Qi Xia opened the door, he immediately looked at the box in her hands and smiled with satisfaction.

Only a silver lock remained on the box.

Everyone in this team was made of “superior parts.” No matter what, they couldn’t produce an “inferior fighter jet.”

“What, are you giving me the box now? Or do you want to delay a bit more time?” Qi Xia asked.

Jiang Ruoxue slowly opened her eyes, but a tremendous bell sound suddenly rang out in the distance.

“CLANG”!!!

Qi Xia was startled. An ominous premonition arose in his heart. He hurriedly looked around but didn’t discover anything unusual.

“I’ll give it to you now.” Jiang Ruoxue said. “You should know that even if you get this thing, you can’t immediately open the door, right?”

“Of course.” Qi Xia cautiously extended his hand to take the box, still carefully watching the other party. “Old Lu on the other side should have delivered the letter long ago, but we haven’t lost yet. This means that even if the ‘Recipient’ saw the letter’s contents, they can’t immediately open the door.”

“Let me see your methods.” Jiang Ruoxue said.

Qi Xia looked at her somewhat suspiciously: “If you witness my methods, you might lose your life.”

“It’s fine.” She smiled. “Who will lose is still uncertain.”

“That’s true.”

Qi Xia took out his silver key and successfully opened the last remaining lock on the box.

He pulled out the envelope, opened it, and looked at it. The expression on his face didn’t change much. Then he walked to the large microwave oven and carefully observed the prompt on the display screen.

This was a very advanced touchscreen that supported handwriting input.

The space left for Qi Xia to write the password was four blank squares. The only uncertainty now was whether four numbers, letters, or Chinese characters needed to be entered.

Qi Xia turned back to retrieve this encrypted letter.

What he needed to do next was crack the password.

He unfolded the letter, revealing a solitary line of letters on it.

“MLGDRZDQVXL”

Besides this line of letters, there were no other hints on the letter.

After seeing this line of letters, Jiang Ruoxue also seemed somewhat puzzled, as if she didn’t quite understand the principle behind this password.

“Every game has a ‘way to survive.'” Qi Xia muttered to himself. “Setting an overly complex password would cause participants to lose this ‘way to survive,’ so the method to crack this password won’t be too difficult.”

“And among the simple password-cracking methods I know, there’s only one that doesn’t involve numbers.”

“The Caesar Cipher.”