“Enough.” Qi Xia interrupted Officer Li’s speech. “Officer Li, what gives you the right to save everyone? For the sake of strangers you’ve met by chance, you’d be willing to let yourself die again and again?”

Officer Li smiled slightly and took out another cigarette to light.

“That’s not the right way to look at it.” He shook his head and said, “I’m a criminal investigator. How can I only help people I know? All the victims in this world are people I’ve met by chance, but I will absolutely risk my life to protect them. That’s the principle.”

“In any case, I don’t agree.” Qi Xia said. “Your ‘Echo’ ability is just my speculation. Whether you can actually conjure items at will is completely unknown. What if you can only produce lighters and cigarettes?”

“Then we won’t have lost anything either.” Officer Li replied. “There’s no harm in trying. Perhaps your speculation is correct, and I really can lead everyone out effortlessly.”

“But if you trade your life for three thousand six hundred ‘Dao,’ and we get out, then what about you?” Qi Xia said with furrowed brows. “According to this logic, you would die the instant you gather three thousand six hundred ‘Dao’—you wouldn’t have the right to leave at all!”

“Wouldn’t that be perfect?” Officer Li laughed heartily. “Qi Xia, my best ending would be dying here to save everyone.”

“Don’t say such inauspicious things.” Qi Xia replied with some concern. “Before we figure out the situation, you can’t determine your own ending.”

He knew Officer Li was true to his word—dying here would be the best fate for him.

“But Zhang Huanan…” Officer Li muttered quietly. “With him around, I can’t go back.”

“Officer Li, you’re from 2010, right?” Qi Xia asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll give you a contact method. After you return to the real world, contact me from that time.” Qi Xia said. “I’ll help you deal with Zhang Huanan.”

“Contact you from that time…?” Officer Li blinked slightly. “Qi Xia, what year are you from? How old are you this year?”

“I’m from 2022. I’m twenty-six this year.”

Officer Li lowered his head in thought for a moment, then raised it and said, “You were only fourteen years old in 2010. Do you know what kind of person Zhang Huanan is?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Qi Xia shook his head. “He can’t match a fourteen-year-old me.”

“You…” Officer Li discovered he couldn’t see through the man before him at all. Could a fourteen-year-old boy truly defeat a vicious and ruthless conman?

But Officer Li suddenly remembered that Qi Xia was also a conman.

However, his eyes were different from all the criminals Officer Li had ever encountered. Those eyes held no ‘evil,’ only ‘despair.’

“Qi Xia, are you really a conman?” Officer Li asked faintly. “How many times have you lied? Who did you deceive?”

“That has nothing to do with us escaping from here.” Qi Xia turned his head and said. “In any case, I won’t harm innocent people.”

“Which means… you also lied in the first story.” Officer Li asked.

“That’s not important. Just remember that I’ll help you, and in exchange, you promise me not to easily throw away your life for the sake of others.”

Officer Li thought carefully about what Qi Xia said and couldn’t find any grounds to refute it.

“I promise you.” Officer Li nodded. “But if I ‘die by accident’ in some game, then no matter what, I must try this ability.”

“Fine.”

Though Officer Li still hadn’t given up, the proposal he offered this time was better than before.

“Qi Xia, what’s your ‘Echo’?” Officer Li suddenly asked.

Qi Xia scratched his head after hearing this and said, “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” Officer Li paused. “This situation makes things difficult… Does that mean you might not retain your memories next time?”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded. “But you’re different, Officer Li. Unless you get shot in the head with a bullet, you’ll definitely retain your memories. You could say all our hopes of escape rest on you.”

“But what can I accomplish alone?” Officer Li said with difficulty. “If you all forget everything, how could I possibly succeed?”

Qi Xia knew this matter was indeed thorny. If they truly wanted to escape this bizarre place, theoretically the more people who retained their memories, the better.

As the games continued to progress, the cycles would begin again and again, so the number of ‘Echo users’ should also rise with the tide.

In other words… the matter of ‘retaining memories’ couldn’t be concealed. If that was the case, was there something suspicious about that warning from the Man-Goat?

Who should be wary of?

The ‘Zodiacs’? The ‘Extreme Path’? Or other Participants?

Qi Xia thought with a serious expression for a while, then spoke to Officer Li: “Officer Li, if I forget everything next time, just tell me one phrase.”

“One phrase?”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded. “Just tell me ‘Yu Nian’an says: knock knock knock,’ and I’ll understand everything. This is a secret only she and I know.”

When spending time with Yu Nian’an, Qi Xia would often fall into a contemplative state. At those times, Yu Nian’an would say ‘knock knock knock.’

And hearing these three words, Qi Xia would snap back to attention and ask with a smile, “Who’s outside the door?”

“So Qi Xia is home after all.” Yu Nian’an would always answer playfully. “You ignored me for so long, I thought Qi Xia wasn’t home.”

The two had played this silly game no fewer than several dozen times, and it became Yu Nian’an’s unique signature in Qi Xia’s memories.

“That’s all it takes?” Officer Li nodded. “Will you trust me?”

“In a ghostly place like this, is there anything we can’t trust…?” Qi Xia said with a melancholy expression. “I must return from here, but before that, I need to demand back from the ‘Land of the End’ what belongs to me.”

“What belongs to you…?” Officer Li blinked, clearly not understanding.

Qi Xia didn’t dwell on this question, but instead recalled another matter.

He pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his chest—this was the ‘Zodiac Ascension Gambling Contract’ he had searched from the Man-Goat’s body.

With outsiders around before, Qi Xia hadn’t had the opportunity to read this bizarre contract.

If there were any unknown secrets in this place, they could certainly glimpse clues from this contract.

Seeing this, Officer Li also moved closer.

The two each held one side, and borrowing the dim lighting from the surrounding teaching building, they read through the entire contract.

After finishing, Officer Li showed an extremely complicated expression. He felt like he was going mad.

Could a normal person write something like this?