He looked down, dazed and staring.

The feeling… was hardly painful at all.

His blood turned to jelly. His organs turned to cotton. His flesh and bones transformed into the rubber filling of a puppet doll before his very eyes.

His vision blurred…

His consciousness scattered…

He vaguely saw Yan Qingwen and Shen Mo running toward him, shouting, calling out — but he couldn’t hear them… he could only see his companions’ mouths moving, opening and closing.

The conical spike in his chest suddenly withdrew.

Then drove back in with savage force! Once! Twice! Three times!!!

Lu Ang’s body was nearly split in two. His fingers finally loosened — Mary’s head dropped to the ground, rolled twice, came to rest face-up, and smiled up at him with a grotesque, chilling grin.

As if mocking his reckless overconfidence.

“Lu Ang!!!” Yan Qingwen screamed, his composure shattered!

The once powerful, indomitable frame collapsed before his eyes — helpless and fragile, as if even a gust of wind could blow it away… everywhere, sticky red jelly, blood-stained cotton.

And behind him, that metal skeleton had slowly risen to its feet.

It had no head. It stumbled about like a blind person, its movements sluggish and clumsy. It picked up its own head from the ground and tried to put it back onto its neck.

Shen Mo grabbed Yan Qingwen. “Run!”

Yan Qingwen stared blankly at the puppet remains on the ground, motionless.

Shen Mo yanked him twice more with force and physically dragged Yan Qingwen away!

Not far off, Tan Xiao and Yu Yaqing also snapped back to their senses and turned to flee. But the image of Lu Ang’s horrific death had already seared itself deep into every one of their minds…

…

Bai Youwei had witnessed the entire sequence of events from the top of the tower.

Her chest was constricted, as if an invisible hand had covered her mouth and nose. The sensation was so oppressive she could barely breathe.

Her body slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor. She closed her eyes.

Lu Ang was dead.

So… they had been wrong again.

Even cutting off Mary’s head wasn’t enough to kill her.

Where exactly had they gone wrong?

How — how were they supposed to clear this game?

Her thoughts were in utter chaos, her mind a tangled mass of confusion! No matter how she tried, she couldn’t organize her thoughts!

How were they supposed to clear it?! How?!!

Footsteps reached her abruptly. She opened her eyes and looked toward the staircase.

Shen Fei came slowly walking up.

“Why are you here?” Bai Youwei frowned. Wasn’t Shen Fei supposed to be staying at the bottom?

“I heard Senior Yan’s voice…” Shen Fei looked at her and asked with hesitation: “Lu Ang — is he…”

Bai Youwei lowered her eyes and said quietly: “See for yourself.”

Shen Fei lingered in place for a moment, then walked to the railing and looked out in the direction of the carousel.

Mary had already put her head back on.

She made no move to hunt down the players for revenge. Instead, she first found her cat, then brought it back to the carousel, took out needle and thread, and continued carefully sewing the cat back together, stitch by stitch.

She had no real urgency about it.

After all, these players were powerless against her — other than waiting for death, there was nothing they could do.

Ten minutes later, Mary and her cat fell back asleep.

At this point, fewer than two hours remained until nightfall.

If they hurried, two hours wasn’t actually short — two hours was enough to accomplish many things. The precondition was that hope still existed, and courage still existed.

But for all of them now, Lu Ang’s fate had struck them like a heavy fist, leaving everyone stunned.

The only one who remained unaffected was Shen Mo.

He methodically located a hiding place, guided everyone inside, had Yu Yaqing and Tan Xiao look after Yan Qingwen, then went to the clock tower to bring Shen Fei and Bai Youwei down.

“Are we all hiding together? Is that okay?” Shen Fei asked uneasily.

“It’ll be fine.” Bai Youwei leaned against the wall, her voice flat. “Mary’s busy sewing dolls — tonight, she probably won’t have time to come looking for us.”

Everyone fell silent.

Being able to catch their breath didn’t bring any improvement to their spirits.

Yu Yaqing asked in a low voice: “What should we do next?”

—