“Baiyang…” the Sheep called out in a deep voice. “I heard you just became a ‘Zodiac’ only a day or two ago and were immediately recommended here by the teacher, right…?”

“Yes,” Baiyang nodded. “That’s not a secret.”

The Sheep’s tone was already much more respectful than before. “What exactly are you racing against time for…?”

“I’m racing against time with time itself,” Baiyang said. “This isn’t something we need to discuss right now. I suggest we talk about our future cooperation instead.”

When “cooperation” was mentioned, the Sheep’s eyes clearly showed emotion. He turned his head and looked at the Shar-Pei Dog without saying a word.

“Cooperation…” The Shar-Pei Dog still seemed somewhat dissatisfied. He turned to the Sheep and said, “Sheep, did you hear that? Just now this person said that even without the two of us in the room… he can still host three games. Do you really want to cooperate with someone like this?”

After hearing this, the Sheep lowered his head and pondered for a long while before saying, “Man-Dog, whether you admit it or not… Baiyang is a very strong ‘Zodiac.’ His promotion speed so far has been extremely fast. Not only did he become an interviewer right after becoming ‘Human-level,’ but now we’re just one step away from becoming ‘Earth-level’ thanks to him.”

“‘Thanks to him’…?” The Shar-Pei Dog let out a cold laugh. “What kind of statement is that?! There are three games here. Haven’t the two of us contributed anything?”

While the Sheep and Man-Dog were arguing endlessly, Zhang Qiang and I looked at each other. These “Zodiacs” seemed to treat us like air, blurting out everything they should and shouldn’t say.

The two of us knew the situation was dire. At a time like this, the most likely outcome was being silenced.

Then Zhang Qiang and I looked at each other and both nodded to one another.

A few seconds later, the distant bell rang. Zhang Qiang and I adjusted our mental state and took the initiative to seize control of our “Memories.”

Neither he nor I could move and were at their mercy, but since we had preserved our “Memories,” it wouldn’t matter even if we were about to be silenced next.

However, the imagined carnage didn’t appear. At this moment, I recalled Article 2.4 of the “Zodiac Ascension Gambling Contract,” which stated: Party B promises to establish a correct worldview for participants and guarantees the ability to correctly guide participants to actively, voluntarily, and calmly walk toward death. During this period, Party B must not indiscriminately kill the innocent or settle personal scores.

So since they said these things themselves, did Zhang Qiang and I count as innocent parties…?

What was strange was that from beginning to end, he never interfered with the conversation between the Sheep and Man-Dog. Instead, he kept glancing at the table clock from time to time.

It seemed that, as he said… he was racing against time. The time had already passed twelve-oh-five and was slowly moving toward twelve-thirty.

Now it looked like the Sheep had already sided with Baiyang, but the Shar-Pei Dog seemed unwilling to accept this and kept finding reasons to refute.

Baiyang listened to the two of them for a long while, then sighed helplessly and interrupted, “I didn’t expect that whether ‘Zodiacs’ or ‘Participants,’ there are idiots everywhere.”

“What…?” After hearing this, the Shar-Pei Dog became furious. He stopped arguing with the Sheep, turned toward Baiyang and said, “Don’t make sarcastic remarks. We all spent a very long time to get to the interview room. We’re worlds apart from someone like you who climbed to this step through connections… We cherish our lives more than you do. How could we possibly go crazy with you? Just because you don’t value your current situation doesn’t mean we don’t.”

“Cherish our lives…” Baiyang shook his head. “Man-Dog, mindlessly following the rules here isn’t called ‘cherishing life’—it’s called ‘barely surviving.'”

After saying this, Baiyang looked at his watch again. Too much time had been wasted—it was now close to twelve-thirty.

“This is really irritating…” After sighing, Baiyang lifted his head to look at the Shar-Pei Dog. “Let me make this brief. Man-Dog, your ultimate concern is whether ‘violators who die cannot be revived,’ isn’t it?”

“That’s right,” the Shar-Pei Dog nodded. “This reason prevents me from taking risks with you. Even if you talk until you’re blue in the face, it’s useless.”

After hearing this, Baiyang directly pulled out an old pistol from his chest pocket. This was the gun he had used to commit suicide after the game ended earlier.

Something I never expected happened. I saw Baiyang raise the gun and slowly aim it at his own temple.

“I’m really in a hurry,” Baiyang said seriously with the gun against his head. “Since there’s no way to convince you this time, I can only hope for next time.”

“What…” The eyes behind the Shar-Pei Dog’s mask gradually widened. “What are you going to do? Your game hasn’t even started…”

“I’ll demonstrate to you whether dying from a violation will result in revival or not. After this, you don’t need to worry about what I’m doing—just conduct your own games as usual.”

He cocked the gun. Both Zhang Qiang and I held our breath. Everything that happened in this cycle was almost completely beyond our expectations. Just what kind of figure was this Baiyang?

“Everyone, the ‘Liar’ game is over.”

With a declaration ending the game, the gunshot reverberated through the narrow room. The strongest “Zodiac” in my mind committed suicide in a bizarre manner.

According to the rules, he had no reason whatsoever to commit suicide, but he did indeed fall straight down. The bullet pierced through his temple, his brain matter scattered everywhere, blood and flesh flying. Before my eyes, he became a corpse without a single sound.

Although Zhang Qiang and I had regained our mobility, we still didn’t dare act rashly. We couldn’t resist any of the “Zodiacs” in the room—this was the difference between “Participants” and “Zodiacs.”

The two of us remained silent in the room for a long time. We truly didn’t understand the “Zodiacs” very well, nor did we know what they were thinking.

Finally, the Shar-Pei Dog was the first to speak. He explained the rules of “Bamboo Shoots After Rain” to us, and then Zhang Qiang, who had already achieved “Echo,” rapidly spun the table by himself.

As the number of people in the room decreased, I also needed to thank Zhang Qiang. Without his “Brute Strength,” in theory, I would have needed to control the “Zodiacs” in the venue to help me rotate the tabletop, which would have made my situation even more dangerous.

For those of us who retained our memories, these games could be cleared continuously as long as we could clear them once. So we arrived at this crimson land once again.

Zhang Qiang was about to turn around and leave to enter the street when I called out to stop him.

“Brother Qiang,” I called out. If I remembered correctly, this was the first time I had taken the initiative to talk to him. “Where… do you usually go?”

Zhang Qiang glanced at me and said in a low voice, “It’s quite a long time. I go find something to eat, then find something to drink.”

“Oh…” I nodded.

He seemed to sense the awkwardness of the atmosphere, so he asked, “What about you?”

“I also find something to eat, then find something to drink.”