Bai Youwei looked at Robert with a teasing smile, pulling out the two sheets of paper she had copied down earlier.

“Before the middle-aged woman in Room 405 died, your cipher was:

Four·囨回·囨囬团·四囝囨因囬团园，囡·四囝囤囤·图回困围·固团围回·图囝圈团，

Simply substitute the words ‘fourzerofive’ into the cipher, and the passage becomes:

四·囨o·囨囬e·四i囨因囬e园，囡·四i囤囤·four·zero·five，

At first glance it still seems impossible to decipher, but the second segment’s ‘四i囤囤’ gave me inspiration. It’s a four-letter word, with the second letter being ‘i,’ and the last two letters repeating. Connecting this to what happened to the guest in Room 405, it wasn’t hard to guess that this word is ‘kill.’ So I knew that ‘四’ stands for ‘k,’ and ‘囤’ stands for ‘l.’ Substituting again, the cipher becomes:

k·囨o·囨囬e·ki囨因囬e园，囡·kill·four·zero·five，

As for ‘ki囨因囬e园’ — I suspected it was ‘kitchen,’ because you had once ordered the bald man to burn down the kitchen. I wasn’t completely certain, but fortunately a new cipher appeared afterward that finally confirmed my interpretation was correct.

The new cipher was: 园·四囝囤囤·囨囫回·固团围回·图回困围·口囨·囡囝园园团围.

After that, you attacked the guest in Room 204 during dinner. Substituting based on the words I’d already deduced, the new and old ciphers became respectively:

*N·kill·two·zero·four·口t·囡inner，*

*K·to·the·kitchen，*

*囡·kill·four·zero·five，*

From there it only gets clearer, doesn’t it? ‘口’ is ‘a,’ ‘囡’ is ‘d’ — those individual letters at the front are your teammates’ code names. You sent K to the kitchen to create an opportunity for D to act, then had the two of them work together to kill 204 at dinner.

It would have been airtight — except you never calculated that the guest in Room 204 was carrying special items. Your entire plan fell apart completely, and you even lost two people! What a pity…”

Bai Youwei smiled at him, savoring the shame and fury on his face after his defeat. “Mr. Robert, I truly sympathize with you — but how to put this… In the face of absolute capability, all scheming is nothing but childish playground tricks. Rather than devising such troublesome ciphers, you’d be better off collecting more useful items.”

Robert clenched his jaw, his face turning an iron gray.

He truly hadn’t anticipated it — he’d been racking his brain for ways to deal with Willard, only to be swept up in one net by this woman who’d come out of nowhere.

Not only had she deduced the entire cipher, she had used a false cipher to lure him into a trap. And she’d deliberately arranged the meeting room close to his own — truly cunning. Just a few meters apart. At such close range, one’s guard naturally drops, and anyone would have wanted to go take a look.

Robert hung his head, staring at the metal handcuffs on his wrists.

Infuriating.

So utterly infuriating.

After this loss, he’d only have enough puzzle pieces to enter Battle 1. If he lost once more, he’d have no path left at all.

This cursed Labyrinth Battle.

This cursed Doll Game.

Why did such things have to exist in the world?

Footsteps came from the direction of the staircase. Looking up, he saw the Inspector coming down with two of his teammates.

Robert closed his eyes in despair.

He had lost.

……

The Inspector arrested Robert and his teammates, and the progress bar on Zhu Shu’s wristwatch immediately filled to completion.

Then, outside, the rain stopped.

The dark clouds dispersed. The moon came out. Puddles on the road surface bathed in moonlight, gleaming silver-white — like shards of shattered mirrors.

And within those mirrors, the Inspector’s slender silhouette was reflected.

—