"I..."
The Snake-Head Man was slightly taken aback. He wanted to choose an answer, but found that any reply would be futile.
"Hahahahaha!"
The Snake-Head Man suddenly burst out laughing, roaring so hard he bent forwards and backwards. It wasn't long before he reined in his laughter and said, "You really are interesting."
"Interesting?"
Qi Xia looked coldly at the Snake-Head Man.
"What's so interesting about it? Haven't I already won?"
The Snake-Head Man walked slowly to the wall and reached out to pull down the lever. Everyone felt their bodies drop, and then the entire ceiling began to slowly descend. Qiao Jiajin had a face full of confusion.
He turned his head and asked Qi Xia, "Con man, what does that mean? Why does that count as a win?" Qi Xia saw that they were indeed descending and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
He said, "Think about it. As long as that question was asked, we were saved no matter what."
"If my next question is 'Will you or will you not pull the lever,' will your answer be the same as for this question..."
Qiao Jiajin silently repeated the question, unable to figure it out at all.
"I see..."
Doctor Zhao nodded with a thoughtful expression.
"If he answers 'Yes,' then he can only answer 'Yes' to the next question as well, and we would be saved. After all, the next question is 'Will you or will you not pull the lever'."
"But what if he says 'No'?!"
Qiao Jiajin felt like he had discovered some kind of loophole.
"Couldn't he just have said 'No'?"
"If he had said 'No,' he could only have said 'Yes' to the next question," Han Yimo said weakly.
"The brilliance of this question is that if he answered 'No,' he would be admitting that he would give different answers to the two questions. Remember? This Snake-Head Man said he would not lie."
Qiao Jiajin was stunned. He turned his head again to look at Qi Xia and asked, "Did you just think of all this... What kind of monster are you?"
"I wouldn't dare call myself a monster."
Qi Xia shook his head.
"I'm just a wandering con man."
As they spoke, the group had already been slowly lowered to the ground. From hanging for so long, everyone's palms were burning with pain, and the condition of the two injured people was even less optimistic.
"Everyone, congratulations on surviving the 'interview'. Push open this door, and a new world will be waiting for you."
The Snake-Head Man clasped his hands behind his back and stood beside the wooden door.
"You bastard..."
Qiao Jiajin walked up fiercely, seeming to want to vent all his frustration with the Goat-Head Man and Human Dog on the Snake-Head Man before him. The Snake-Head Man turned around with a cold look, watching the menacing Qiao Jiajin without moving a muscle.
"Are you all a bunch of sickos?!"
Qiao Jiajin shouted, stepping forward and grabbing the Snake-Head Man by the collar.
"Wearing these strange masks, trying to kill us again and again, and now I've finally gotten my hands on you!"
The Snake-Head Man sneered and said in a low voice, "While you're still alive, I'd advise you to let go."
"What did you say?!"
Qiao Jiajin forcefully raised his fist. Just as it was about to fly into the Snake-Head Man's face, his arm was grabbed by Officer Li.
"Hey, have you forgotten the man whose skull was smashed?"
Officer Li hissed in a low voice.
"If they are all the same, how do you plan on defeating them?"
"I..."
A trace of unwillingness appeared on Qiao Jiajin's rugged face. He gritted his back teeth and slowly spat out a few words, "But these goddamn bastards..."
"Don't worry, aren't we able to get out now?"
Officer Li interrupted him, saying in a low voice, "As long as we can get out, I'll definitely make them pay." After hearing this, the others said no more, only slowly walking up to the Snake-Head Man. Looking at this person up close, they realized just how bizarre he was.
The temperature around this Snake-Head Man was lower than elsewhere. His old suit and the mask on his head together gave off a strange, foul stench. His eyes shot out gazes from within the mask; he was clearly a human.
But the smell on him was like a snake that had been dead for a long time.
"Everyone, welcome to the New World."
The Snake-Head Man's muffled voice came from within the mask, and then he turned and opened the door to the room. With a soft creak, light from outside streamed in. Qi Xia frowned.
He discovered that outside the door wasn't the outdoors at all, but rather a corridor.
"Where is it outside?"
Qi Xia asked.
"I've said it before, it's the New World."
The Snake-Head Man slowly raised his hands.
"The future 'God' will be born from among you! He will be born in the New World! How exciting!"
"God again..."
Qiao Jiajin asked fiercely, "What the hell are you people planning?" Seeing someone ask a question, the Snake-Head Man's interest was clearly piqued.
"An omnipotent God...! He can realize any and all ideas!"
"Omnipotent?"
Qiao Jiajin's brows furrowed tightly. Doctor Zhao discreetly waved his hand at Qiao Jiajin from the side, then said to the Snake-Head Man, "Alright, we understand. Let us out now."
The Snake-Head Man paused, then nodded and stepped aside. Qi Xia was the first to walk forward. The people behind him also looked like they didn't want to linger here, and one by one, they quickened their pace to follow.
As they stepped into the corridor, a peculiar smell filled their nostrils. How could one describe that smell?
Heavy.
A very heavy smell. This smell was as if all the billions of people in the world had died and were left to rot in the open air. This stench of decay attracted countless insects that swarmed to feast.
They reproduced in massive numbers, then died in massive numbers, and then they too rotted. Let this overwhelming stench of decay settle for a period of time, until it was no longer pungent, and it became the heavy smell of the present moment. It took a long time for Qi Xia to come back to his senses.
When he opened his eyes to look, he discovered another desperate scene before him. They were in a corridor with no end in sight. The ceiling here was low and oppressive, stretching forward endlessly along the corridor.
And on both sides of the corridor, countless wooden doors were slowly opening. Just like the wooden door behind them. Before long, figures began to gradually appear in the doorways.
Most of them were masked people covered in blood. Looking from afar, only an extremely small number of doors had normal people walking out of them. And those so-called "normal people" all looked exhausted and were trembling.
Like Qi Xia, they had also survived.
"What's going on..."
Han Yimo asked weakly.
"It wasn't just the nine of us who were captured?"
Qi Xia's expression was exceptionally grave. The situation before him far exceeded his imagination. This organization had captured countless people and was forcing them to play killing games?
"But... far too few people have survived..."
Zhang Chenze sighed to herself. Looking out, among the thousands of doors, only a handful of people had emerged. They didn't see even one other case like Qi Xia's room, where everyone survived.
"Everyone, please."
The Snake-Head Man waved his hand to the side, indicating the direction for them to proceed. He then stood by the door with his hands clasped behind his back, looking as if he wasn't planning to leave.
"Let's go."
Everyone knew this was not a place to linger, so they formed a single line and slowly departed. As they passed by one dilapidated wooden door after another, the group got a close look at the people wearing animal masks. Among them were cows, horses, and dogs.
There were also the goats and snakes they had seen before. Without exception, they all exuded a bizarre aura and were shrouded in a rotten smell. The scenes inside the rooms were mostly floors covered with corpses; who knew what kind of "game" they had participated in.
After walking another dozen or so steps, the group was startled by two animal masks before them. The person on the left wore a huge rat mask and was leaning against the wall; the person on the right wore a huge rooster mask, with his arms crossed over his chest.
These two masks were clearly not man-made products, but were made from real animal skulls. But where in the world could one find such enormous rats and roosters? Like the other animal-masked people, these two merely gave Qi Xia and his group a faint glance without any other movements.
"What are all these animals..."
Lin Qin was a little frightened and subconsciously moved away from the two. Qi Xia's brows furrowed slightly, as if he had thought of something. Goat, Dog, Snake, Rat, Rooster...
"It's the Zodiac."
His lips moved slightly as he uttered the words. Everyone was stunned and looked around. The animal masks worn by those people in shabby suits were indeed all from the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac.