“Sheep and Dog…” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes, carefully contemplating everything.

At the beginning, the person who called himself “Man-Sheep” wanted them to kill each other, but now this “Man-Sheep” said he was very worried about these several people and said he couldn’t watch them die with his own eyes.

“Isn’t this lying…”

Suddenly, a flash of light sparked in Qi Xia’s mind.

That’s it!

This is it!

Lying!

Everything matched the direction Qi Xia had predicted. “Sheep” and “Dog” weren’t names at all, but rather “game types”!

Could “Sheep” possibly represent the story of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”? The shepherd boy who lied multiple times received no rescue, so in the “Sheep” game there existed “lies”—it was a game of “lying.”

“Dog” could represent loyalty. Just like in the harpoon game earlier, if they hadn’t cooperated together, none of them should have survived. So could it possibly be “cooperation”?

Qi Xia picked up the harpoon again to look at it. He knew that when “Sheep” was explaining the rules, there was the possibility of lying.

But in these few short sentences, which one was the lie?

“I cannot watch you die with my own eyes”—if this sentence was a lie…

“Wait…” Qi Xia’s eyes slowly widened. “This passage isn’t the ‘answer,’ but a trap to kill everyone.”

“What are you talking about?” Qiao Jiajin asked, puzzled.

“This entire passage is all lies!” Qi Xia said decisively. “Standing by the wall means ‘death,’ standing under the holes is ‘life’!”

Doctor Zhao and Officer Li looked at each other, not knowing what exactly Qi Xia was trying to express.

“Everyone, remember? ‘Sheep’ will lie!” Qi Xia stood in the center of the room, trying to get everyone to come closer to him. “If we follow the rules he stated, we’ll end up killing ourselves. This is the difference between ‘Sheep’ and ‘Dog’!”

“But is this really logical?” Xiao Ran asked somewhat timidly. “In the entire room, only above your head are there holes. No matter how you think about it, that should be the most dangerous place…”

Qi Xia hadn’t quite figured this point out either.

What exactly would fall from the holes above to kill the people by the wall?

“Mm…” Qi Xia thought for another moment and changed his wording. “No matter. After this round ends, we have a high probability of getting out, so you can choose according to your own judgment.”

“How do you know we can get out?” Officer Li asked warily.

“Because in this hint, there’s no ‘preview’ of the next game.” Qi Xia answered. “Thinking this way, there are two possibilities—either this represents the final game, or the organizer has great confidence they can eliminate us all in this game.”

After hearing this, everyone’s expressions grew heavy, but no one could refute it.

“In any case, I’ll stand here.” Qi Xia pointed at his feet again. “As for how you choose, that’s up to you.”

After listening to Qi Xia’s words, Qiao Jiajin slowly came to his side and said, “I already told you, I believe you.”

“But I’m a liar.” Qi Xia replied coldly.

“Doesn’t matter.”

Lin Qin thought carefully for a moment, then also covered her nose and mouth as she walked toward the center of the room.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Xiao Ran shouted, pressed against the wall. “Do you really believe him?”

Lin Qin nodded slightly and said, “Yes. Think carefully—who got us this far alive?”

Xiao Ran was stunned after hearing this and suddenly felt Lin Qin’s words made quite a bit of sense. After an internal struggle, she also followed.

Han Yimo covered the wound on his shoulder with his hand and also walked over.

“Your name is… Qi Xia, right? I also believe you.”

Tiantian and Zhang Chenze followed over as well.

At this moment, only Doctor Zhao and Officer Li remained pressed tightly against the wall.

“Hey, aren’t you coming over?” Tiantian called out.

“I…” Doctor Zhao looked somewhat hesitant, as if he hadn’t decided which choice to make.

“There’s no need to force others.” Qi Xia waved his hand. “This round doesn’t involve cooperation. You only need to survive yourself.”

The clock on the ground gradually reached 1:28.

Officer Li squinted his eyes and stared at Qi Xia.

He didn’t think this liar would choose to seek death right now, but why would he lead everyone to stand under the holes?

At this moment, Lin Qin saw through their thoughts and said to them, “Qi Xia doesn’t seem to be lying. Will you come over?”

“You can tell?” Officer Li asked in a low voice.

“That’s right.” Lin Qin nodded. “Because of my work, I can usually discern whether the other party is lying or not.”

“If that’s the case…” Officer Li and Doctor Zhao looked at each other and silently walked forward, saying to Lin Qin, “Since a professional has spoken, we’ll trust you.”

Though they said this, the two still gripped the broken tabletops in their hands.

The two walked under the holes and raised the tabletops to shield their heads, so that no matter what fell from the holes, they could defend against it immediately.

“You two are quite calculating.” Qiao Jiajin cursed and was also about to pick up a piece of tabletop from the ground.

Qi Xia glanced at the time and held Qiao Jiajin back.

“Don’t bother, there’s no time.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the clock reached 1:30. A huge sound of chains rang out from the ceiling, as if some invisible thing was being wound up.

“Is there really no problem, Liar?” Qiao Jiajin looked up somewhat timidly, feeling that the current scene was a bit like gambling—only this time the stakes of the gamble were a bit high: nine lives.

Qi Xia shook his head. “I’m also guessing. We’ll see if I can guess right.”

Suddenly, the entire room trembled slightly, making the nine people’s hearts tighten.

Tiantian instinctively moved a bit closer toward Officer Li and Doctor Zhao’s direction.

Qi Xia raised his head and stared intently at the nine holes clustered together, his eyes seeming to want to pierce through the darkness and find the mystery hidden within.

The next second, some dark-colored things suddenly shot out from the nine holes. Everyone was so frightened they quickly closed their eyes.

Only Qi Xia saw clearly the true appearance of those dark-colored things.

They were actually nine old, filthy hemp ropes.

He reached out to catch one, gripping a hemp rope in his hand.

These hemp ropes were about two fingers thick—just thick enough to grip firmly.

“This is bad…” Qi Xia’s expression changed. “It’s worse than I imagined.”

Everyone slowly opened their eyes and discovered that before them were ropes emanating the smell of rot.

“What’s the situation?”

Before anyone could ask clearly about their current predicament, Qi Xia immediately shouted, “Grab the ropes!!”

The three or four people with faster reactions immediately reached out to grip the ropes. The remaining few followed suit and reached out to grab on.

Qi Xia turned his head to look—Han Yimo, due to his injured right shoulder, could now only use his left hand to weakly grip the rope.

“No good, you…”

Just as Qi Xia was about to say something, the floor beneath everyone’s feet shattered into powder with a thunderous crash.

“Ah!”

“Holy crap!”

Cries of alarm erupted at the same moment.

Everyone’s bodies all plunged downward. Fortunately, with the ropes in their hands, they didn’t fall directly down right now.

Han Yimo gritted his teeth and gripped the rope tightly with his left hand, but he had already begun losing blood. The strength in his body was draining away. At this moment, Qi Xia watched helplessly as his left hand loosened bit by bit.