The Inspector stood frozen in place.

It didn’t understand…

What did Bai Youwei mean by that? Had she already found the way to clear the game? How else would she be mentioning a reward—yet they were clearly battered and exhausted. How could they possibly…

Perhaps she was only testing it.

Just as before—deliberately baiting it for information.

But if she truly could clear the game, it was perfectly willing to accept that. Because her death would certainly produce invaluable data—but such a rare specimen, dying just like that, would be a waste.

After all, it still had so many games… so very many games, all eagerly anticipating a chance to meet her.

The Inspector smiled faintly and left the dining room.

…

Bai Youwei, Zhu Shu, and Yu Yaqing came to the torture chamber.

The temperature inside was high, with braziers arranged all around, iron brands heating within them. One of the braziers had gone cold, positioned exactly so as to block the exit from the underground dungeon passage.

Hua Jiang, dressed in his white shirt, lay quietly on the floor.

Everything inside had been restored to its original state at the start.

Except for the woman on the torture device…

They didn’t see Su Man, and they didn’t dare to imagine where she was now.

Bai Youwei surveyed the room, then pointed to the double-handled saw and told Zhu Shu and Yu Yaqing to detach it.

“Where do we saw?” Yu Yaqing asked. “The neck?”

“No—that’s too quick.” Bai Youwei’s voice was clear and cold and completely level. “I want to watch him suffer.”

Zhu Shu glanced between her and Yu Yaqing and asked hesitantly, “This time… will it work?”

“It will.” Bai Youwei gave a single, expressionless nod. “Cheng Qian was only grazed once—and she bled without stopping. The white cloth used to bandage her was dyed completely red, and the room was drenched in blood… That means her wound never closed.”

She paused for two seconds, then looked to her two companions. “What happens when a torture device that prevents wounds from healing meets a body that constantly regenerates itself?”

Zhu Shu gripped one end of the saw, staring fixedly at the man on the floor. “…Was it designed this way on purpose? Using our own revulsion and terror of these devices against us—our fear, our horror, the thought never even crossing our minds that we could use them against him… If only we’d known sooner…”

She thought of Su Man, and involuntarily closed her eyes. Tears traced down her face again.

Yu Yaqing took hold of the other end of the steel saw, walked to Hua Jiang’s side, and said slowly:

“Torture devices represent violent suppression. Violence can be used to suppress women—and it can suppress men too. Perhaps this is exactly what the game wanted to teach us: only by facing the fear within, defying it and defeating it, can we truly claim to have escaped. I refuse to believe that we have to be the very last person left alive to clear the game. Even if that’s truly the way to clear it—I won’t accept it. I won’t yield.”

Bai Youwei glanced at Yu Yaqing, then at Zhu Shu.

Both women gave her a single nod. In their eyes: unwavering resolve.

Bai Youwei lowered her gaze, looked one final time at the man on the floor, and murmured, “Then… an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Let’s begin.”

Women are never soft by nature. When the fear in the heart is conquered, anything is possible.

The steel saw descended—

Hua Jiang woke with a start.

Just as before, he screamed in pain and writhed in frantic struggle! In mere moments he transformed into a massive beast—

Yet blood poured freely from his abdomen and would not stop.

“AAAARRGH!!!”

He howled wildly and lunged straight for Bai Youwei!

*BOOM!*

That familiar blue-violet radiance flashed once more! His limbs convulsed, every drop of blood in his body scorching as though boiling! He crashed to his knees with a *thud!*

And the steel saw descended again, unstoppable!

Unable to accept this, he looked up at Bai Youwei in agony. “Why… you…”

Bai Youwei’s cold, impassive face finally cracked into a thin, icy smile. “Because I had a full night to recharge, of course~”

Fresh blood bloomed before her eyes, brilliant as a flower.

—