Zhong Zhen’s room.

At this moment, the room was completely different from before, covered with scattered bloodstains.

The chair in the room had already been smashed to pieces. Zhong Zhen held a broken chair leg in his hand, both his cheeks flushed red.

Not long ago, he had used this broken chair leg to pierce through both his ears.

There was no other method.

Even if he didn’t answer that woman’s phone call, it was useless—he would still be controlled by her “Echo.” This strange and powerful “Echo” could seemingly only be broken by completely losing one’s hearing.

He held up the phone and repeated the previous words over and over, enduring waves of dizziness until his mouth was parched and his tongue dry.

He really hoped the people behind him could hear. He calculated that the iron ball just now had fallen on “-1,” while the White-Clothed Woman’s coordinates were “-7.”

After two rounds now, it should be suspended right above her head.

Before the game ended, this was extremely likely the last chance.

After hanging up the phone, he lifted it up once more and held it in front of him.

Since he had completely lost his hearing, he absolutely could not let the phone remain in a hung-up state. Otherwise, if no one answered for a long time, the White-Clothed Woman would dial the next person. So the best method was to keep the line constantly busy.

Zhong Zhen breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the fresh blood on his cheeks with both hands, then used his blood-covered hands to smooth his scattered hair back to the top of his head.

This worked much better than hair gel.

“What a shame… my dear neighbor, I clearly found the method to break your ability, but have no way to personally strangle you to death.” Zhong Zhen said regretfully. “In the vast sea of humanity… if we pass by each other, where should I go to kill you next time?”

At this time, the White-Clothed Girl looked up at the ceiling, her expression also somewhat puzzled.

The iron ball was smashing randomly—what rule was causing this?

Moreover, from just now, the sounds from the ceiling had been very strange…

The thirty-third round—the iron ball fell on “-5.”

Both Xu Qian and the White-Clothed Girl heard the disturbance at “-5,” since they were both separated from “-5” by one room.

If they remembered correctly, that man was still alive, but now he was also dead.

It seemed only four people remained on the field.

“0,” Yun Yao.

“-3,” Xu Qian.

“-7,” the White-Clothed Girl.

“-8,” Zhong Zhen.

Currently, these four people were connected end to end, passing questions to each other, but Zhong Zhen could no longer hear any sound at all.

In addition… there should still be two invisible people on the field.

“-2,” Earth-Snake.

“Unknown,” Chen Junnan.

These two were clearly the parties gambling with their lives, but at this time both had hidden themselves away, completely not communicating with outsiders.

Yun Yao knew that Chen Junnan must have used some method, but his method was truly too brilliant—he could actually make the iron ball completely ignore its original path and accurately kill the living people on the field.

Even an “Echo” couldn’t possibly be this powerful.

The iron ball was now suspended at “-5” and could fall above Xu Qian’s or the White-Clothed Girl’s head at any moment.

“If that’s the case…” Yun Yao was frowning in thought when the phone suddenly rang.

She knew the only person who could call her was Zhong Zhen, so without thinking she picked up the phone, about to hang up.

She couldn’t trust Zhong Zhen.

But before the phone had moved away, a sleazy voice drifted out from it.

“Hello there, Big Star!”

Yun Yao’s entire body froze, then she slowly moved the phone back to her ear. “Chen, Chen Junnan?”

“Hey! Long time no see!” Chen Junnan said breathlessly. “Wait for me to sit down first. It hurts a bit too much.”

“Hurts…?” Yun Yao asked somewhat anxiously. “What exactly happened? What did you do?”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. First praise me a couple times.” Chen Junnan took a deep breath, then smiled. “Impressive, right? Did you see? I went on a killing spree.”

Yun Yao thought for a few seconds and asked, “What… ‘Echo’ are you?”

“‘Scapegoat.'” Chen Junnan said. “In this venue, as long as I want, then the unlucky person is me.”

“Un… unlucky?” Yun Yao instantly understood something. “This ‘Echo’ sounds like it can only make the iron ball fall on your head…”

“Yep.” Chen Junnan nodded. “To be honest with you, these past few times the iron ball has fallen on my head.”

“What…?”

“Big Star, let me quiz you on a few questions.” Chen Junnan inhaled a few breaths of cold air quietly, then said, “Tell me… would a big round ball falling down smash everything in the room to smithereens?”

“That should be natural, right?” Yun Yao said. “Just listening to the sound of the iron ball hitting the ground, one can deduce this.”

“But there’s a doubtful point.” Chen Junnan said. “Earth-Snake’s room suffered the baptism of the iron ball, so why can he both answer the phone… and answer questions?”

“This…”

After hearing this, Yun Yao was slightly stunned, then slowly widened her eyes.

Yes, this iron ball neither destroyed the phone nor the display screen—what was going on?

“I thought for a long time before I figured out this problem.” Chen Junnan said. “The phone is naturally easier to explain. It’s in the corner of the wall. Since our rooms are square and everyone guessed the iron ball is round, the corner positions are safe. Honestly, as long as you hide in a corner, there’s an extremely high probability of avoiding the iron ball…”

“Yes.” Yun Yao nodded. “I’ve also thought about this problem. As long as someone is thin, they should be able to hide in a corner.”

“But everyone still died.” Chen Junnan said. “Why is it that everyone knows hiding in corners would keep them alive, yet no one survived? Such a simple principle—surely I’m not the only one who could think of it?”

“I still don’t understand…” Yun Yao said. “According to what you’re saying, everyone should have survived.”

“That’s because we were misled.” Chen Junnan changed his tone and said with a smile, “The thing above our heads isn’t an iron ball at all.”

“Not, not an iron ball?”

“Since everyone who’s seen it has died, no one can spread this information.” Chen Junnan sighed.

“What is it…?”

“Big Star… this thing is covered with iron spikes. It’s an iron hedgehog. Unless you’re hanging high in the corner like the phone, you’ll die in any corner.”

“What?”

“You should also know, if it were just an ordinary iron ball, we wouldn’t smell blood at all.” Chen Junnan rubbed his nose and said, “The bloody smell we’ve been smelling is precisely because its iron spikes are covered with shredded flesh.”

“So that’s how it is…” Yun Yao was slightly stunned. “In other words, many people tried to run to the corners before dying… but they weren’t flattened—instead they were torn apart.”

“Right, that’s exactly what I mean.” Chen Junnan suppressed his voice and hummed quietly a few times, then said, “Aren’t I smart… to be able to guess so many things?”

Yun Yao felt Chen Junnan’s condition really wasn’t quite right. She asked somewhat worriedly, “Are you okay? Do you need to rest first?”

“I’m fine. Don’t interrupt me first…” Chen Junnan chuckled, then asked again, “Big Star, guess how I survived?”

“I can’t guess.” Yun Yao shook her head.

“This old snake is really both stingy and cunning.” Chen Junnan laughed happily. “He was afraid the massive iron ball would shatter the display screens in the rooms, so he made a miscalculated decision.”