“That’s right, ten people.”

Yun Yao and Chu Tianqiu both fell silent for a while.

Chu Tianqiu suddenly raised his head and asked, “Since the room you were in had ‘ten people,’ how did you deduce that our rooms had ‘nine people’?”

“Because when the nine of us walked out of the room, the ‘Man-Dragon’ actually said that everyone in our room had ‘survived intact.'” Qi Xia sneered coldly. “How strange—if it was truly ‘all survivors,’ shouldn’t ten people have walked out?”

Chu Tianqiu nodded silently. Qi Xia’s level of intelligence was not far from what he had imagined.

“But ‘nine people’ makes sense to a certain degree, after all, all the escape equipment in the room was ‘for nine people.'” Qi Xia continued. “There were nine table boards and nine ropes in our room. If there truly were ‘ten people’ in the room, the game resources would be fundamentally difficult to distribute.”

“In other words, our game was originally prepared for nine people. As long as nine people walked out of the room, it would be considered ‘all survivors.'” Qi Xia looked out the window with a serious expression and asked in a low voice, “If that’s the case, why were there ten people in the room?”

Seeing that the two didn’t answer, Qi Xia continued, “So I boldly deduce that our room had one extra person. This person either activated some kind of special ability, or simply and brutally bribed the ‘Man-Goat.’ In any case, the Man-Goat killed the true ‘Participant’ in our room in order to preserve her identity.”

Chu Tianqiu blinked and asked, “Just from these faint traces, you deduced such an accurate answer?”

“It can’t be considered ‘accurate,’ because before meeting you, I also wasn’t sure whether the other party was male or female.” Qi Xia said. “Now it’s my turn to ask you questions.”

“Alright.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “What do you want to know?”

“How did you know about our room’s personnel configuration?” Qi Xia asked. “How did you learn about something that even we, the parties involved, didn’t know?”

Chu Tianqiu slowly licked his somewhat dry lips and said, “I can’t answer this question. It’s almost a core secret of ‘Heaven’s Mouth.'”

Qi Xia turned his head to look at Chu Tianqiu, once again revealing a doubtful expression.

Wasn’t the core secret of “Heaven’s Mouth” that notebook?

In other words, this was content recorded in the notebook?

“Then let me change the question.” Qi Xia asked. “What’s the principle behind ‘preserving memory’? Why can only a minority of people retain their memories?”

“You should have guessed it, right?” Chu Tianqiu said. “Qi Xia, the answer is ‘Echo.’ As long as someone hears an ‘Echo’ within ten days, they can retain their memory in the next cycle.”

“You’re saying only ‘Echoers’ can retain their memories?” Qi Xia had also considered this direction before, but he still felt very puzzled. Han Yimo and Officer Li were indeed “Echoers,” so it was normal for them to retain their memories.

But why did he himself also remember everything?

Could he have “Echoed”?

After thinking for a long time, Qi Xia felt there was only one answer. If he truly was an “Echoer,” then the time he “Echoed” should have been a short period before his death. After all, that place was very far from the plaza, so theoretically he shouldn’t have been able to hear the bell.

But if he truly had “Echoed,” then what ability did he obtain?

Yun Yao smiled slightly and said, “Qi Xia… looking at your expression, it seems you don’t know that you’ve ‘Echoed’?”

This woman’s words pierced straight through Qi Xia’s predicament, causing him to view her in a new light.

It seemed that those who could join “Heaven’s Mouth” were indeed not ordinary people.

“I truly have no recollection.” Qi Xia answered honestly. “At the time I was very far from the giant bell, so it’s possible I missed this information.”

“‘Very far’?” Yun Yao pondered for a moment. “There are giant bells at the four corners of the city—north, south, east, and west. You shouldn’t be unable to hear them.”

Qi Xia furrowed his brow, thinking “I see.”

There wasn’t just one giant bell, but rather four.

But all four were within the city. Could it be that Qi Xia didn’t hear the bell because he had reached the edge of the city?

“Qi Xia, if what you say is true and you fundamentally don’t know when you ‘Echoed,’ things will become somewhat tricky.” Chu Tianqiu said seriously.

“Tricky?”

“That’s right.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “You don’t know ‘why you Echoed’ in your last experience, so you can’t replicate it in this experience. In other words, you can’t stably obtain an ‘Echo,’ and therefore can’t stably retain your memory.”

Qi Xia stroked his chin and pondered for a while, then said, “No wonder when I was about to smash your skull just now, you said ‘I can’t die yet.’ That’s because you haven’t had time to ‘Echo’ yet. If you died now, all your previous memories would cease to exist.”

“Yes.” Chu Tianqiu nodded. “This small matter naturally can’t be hidden from you. But I still must advise you to find the reason you ‘Echoed’ as soon as possible, otherwise you’ll become lost here.”

The two looked at each other, and Qi Xia spoke again, “Suppose last time… a certain person briefly obtained an ‘Echo’ on the verge of death. If they want to replicate it this time, does that also mean they need to enter a near-death state?”

“Theoretically, that’s correct.” Chu Tianqiu answered.

Officer Li’s face surfaced in Qi Xia’s mind.

There seemed to be a paradox here.

If Officer Li’s trigger for “Echoing” was “near death,” then theoretically he absolutely couldn’t lose his memory.

No matter if he died in a game, died in annihilation, or was killed by a “Zodiac” or “Administrator,” he would retain his memory. But looking at Officer Li’s appearance, he had only retained memory from one cycle.

This seemed to verify a problem from the side.

Qi Xia, Officer Li, and the others had very likely arrived at the Land of the End quite late.

They had only experienced two cycles.

“No, wait a moment…”

Qi Xia cautiously interrupted his own train of thought.

Suppose in the last cycle, Officer Li had already retained his memory, but he followed the Man-Goat’s instructions and concealed his own memory—was this possibility there?

Yes, and it wasn’t small either.

This also proved why Officer Li didn’t join Qi Xia’s team at the start, but rather chose to stay behind.

Because he knew that collecting three thousand six hundred “Dao” wasn’t something that needed to be rushed.

Yet in the end he died trying to save someone…

This was the paradox Qi Xia spoke of.

If Officer Li truly retained his memory, he should have known that even if Lawyer Zhang drowned to death it didn’t matter—he would revive in a few days. So why would he choose such a painful method to sacrifice his own life?

Then speaking of which…

How many times had Han Yimo retained his memory?

He also had a constitution that made “Echoing” extremely easy. Logically, as long as he came to the “Land of the End,” there was an extremely high probability he would retain his memory…

Qi Xia increasingly felt that the current situation was somewhat terrifying upon careful thought.

Just how long had he been here?