Song Qi lowered his head in Room Two, quietly waiting for a long time.

According to his calculations, it would only take five rounds for everyone to reach Room Sixteen, and by now they should have been able to get out.

But this was already the sixth round.

The Participants’ turn had passed so long ago… Were they still taking action?

“Something’s not right…” Song Qi turned around in the room, looking through the wall toward Room Sixteen. “But what exactly happened?”

Song Qi lowered his head again and ran his hand through his hair. He quickly came up with an idea.

They had reached the endpoint but the game hadn’t ended… This meant they hadn’t gotten out. Either some trap in one of the rooms along the way had hindered everyone’s progress, or the door at the exit couldn’t be opened.

“Looks like the ‘Door-Closing Disciple’ is really important after all…”

Song Qi used both hands to brush all his somewhat messy hair back, then tied it into a ponytail behind his head with the hair tie on his wrist, exposing his broad forehead. Then he rolled up the sleeves of his leather jacket and loosened the zipper on his chest—clearly a complete battle-ready posture.

Although he didn’t know exactly what had happened, he had a feeling that the time to fight Earth-Rabbit wasn’t far off.

“However long it takes, you all can explore for as long as you need… Leave the rest to me.”

“Participants’ action ends. Zodiac, please begin your action.”

Two seconds later, the door in front of Song Qi opened. Earth-Rabbit stood on the other side with a cold sneer on his face. The two stood facing each other.

“Still don’t understand?” Earth-Rabbit asked. “As long as you keep me locked in here, the game can never end.”

“Is that so?” Song Qi nodded and bent down to pick up a small stone from the ground. “I don’t know what’s happening with them at all. I only know to follow the team leader’s instructions. If he tells me to close the door, I close the door. If he tells me to open the door, I open the door. And if he tells me to fight you, then I’ll fight you.”

“Stubborn.” Earth-Rabbit laughed. “Now do you understand how ridiculous the ‘Door-Closing Disciple’ is? You actually tried to use such an inferior tactic in my ‘Penglai’ game to defeat me… Even if someone finally manages to escape, you’ll definitely suffer heavy casualties. This is the rabbit’s ‘escape game.'”

“We’ll suffer heavy casualties… What about you?”

“What?”

Song Qi’s lips curved up as he tossed the small stone in his hand upward through the door, throwing it lightly.

Seeing the man in front of him throw the stone with such confidence, Earth-Rabbit naturally knew things weren’t simple. He quickly retreated a large step and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

What would happen next?

Was it an attack-type Echo?

Fire? Storm? Or weightlessness?

He watched as that tiny stone slowly fell to the ground, bounced a few times, and then lay quietly there. Nothing happened.

“Sorry.” Song Qi shook his head. “I just wanted to flirt with you a bit. Your reaction was a little too much though.”

“You…” Earth-Rabbit slowly frowned. “You were bluffing?”

“Just giving you a warning.” Song Qi said with a cold laugh. “But I’m very curious… Why did you suddenly retreat a large step?”

“I…”

“Although you look very cautious, I feel like you’ve revealed a flaw.” Song Qi walked to the side and picked up another small stone. “What are you afraid of? Is it because I said earlier that I would ‘tear off one of your arms,’ so now you’re being so careful?”

Only now did Earth-Rabbit finally feel that the team before him wasn’t composed of ordinary people. He had thought the two people left behind to handle the doors would be the two burdens of the team, but unexpectedly, one person inside the door wasn’t afraid of death, and the other person inside the door was smart enough.

“But we discussed that secretly… How did you know?” Song Qi continued pressing aggressively. “You didn’t cheat somehow, did you?”

“At this point… there’s probably no need to keep pretending.” Earth-Rabbit’s ears twitched as he said to Song Qi, “Do you know how many times better a rabbit’s hearing is than a human’s? Not to mention across one room—even in Room Sixteen that you mentioned, as long as they open their mouths to speak, their actions are completely within my grasp.”

“Oh…?” Hearing this, Song Qi frowned slightly. He had thought Earth-Rabbit might eavesdrop, but he hadn’t expected Earth-Rabbit’s hearing range to be this extensive.

Moreover, this wasn’t even eavesdropping anymore—it was listening openly and boldly.

“You think you’re so clever setting up ridiculous tactics, thinking you can escape my slaughter… How laughable…” Seeing Song Qi’s battle-ready appearance, Earth-Rabbit also reached out to unfasten the cufflinks on his suit.

“Before long, you’ll voluntarily let me out, and this slaughter will begin.”

“Good.” Song Qi nodded. “When the time comes, I hope you won’t be stingy with your teachings. Let me see what degree of power such a strong Zodiac can achieve.”

Although he had spoken boldly, Song Qi still felt very uneasy inside.

Earth-Rabbit’s hearing was so terrifying that he would know all the content of everyone’s discussions. This meant that in this place, “strategy” had no way to be effective. The only path left for everyone was to face off against the Zodiac in a fair and square confrontation.

Earth-Rabbit’s turn ended, and Song Qi once again reached out to close the door and lock it.

The following rounds were no different from the previous ones. The time the Participants took for each round was especially long. Song Qi was somewhat worried about what tactics they were discussing.

However, Earth-Rabbit didn’t open the door again—he must have gone to Jiang Shi’s side.

About half an hour passed, and everyone in the building heard the distant sound of bells ringing. It seemed the other two teams were also conducting their games in full swing, and quite a few Echoers had begun awakening.

Four rounds later, the sound of a door opening came from Song Qi’s room. He had thought it was Earth-Rabbit opening the door, but unexpectedly it was the door on his left that someone had opened.

“Huh…?”

All his teammates were now standing in Room Six on Song Qi’s left. Chen Junnan had opened his door, and Cui Shisi had opened Jiang Shi’s door.

“Yo ho!!” When Chen Junnan saw Song Qi, he exaggeratedly raised his eyebrows. “Isn’t this Little Song? What a coincidence! Participating in a game here?”

“You…” Song Qi frowned and slowly raised one finger to his lips, then squeezed his eyes at everyone. “What are you doing here?”

“Why are you blinking?” Chen Junnan also blinked and said, “Little Song, come over here. We have a new tactic to tell you.”

After saying that, he turned his head toward Jiang Shi’s direction: “Kid, you also move closer to this side. I’m here to assign new tasks.”