Chapter 226: Threat

What should we do next?

Everyone exchanged glances, while Lawyer Zhang and Tian Tian looked particularly terrified.

What on earth is going on? What are these people doing?

“Dang it…” Qiao Jijin was completely at a loss. “What now? Do we just sit here and wait to die?”

Lin Qin and Officer Li turned their gazes toward Qi Xia simultaneously.

Things had already reached such a dire point—they could only hope Qi Xia had a plan.

But Qi Xia, at that moment, was holding Yu Nian’an’s hand with a somewhat dazed expression, staring at her quietly.

“An… Your hands are so cold. Are you freezing?”

“No.”

“Yu Nian’an…” Lin Qin frowned, sensing that the root of everything likely lay with the woman before them.

“Give me the gun,” she said, turning to Officer Li. “There’s only one way left…”

Qiao Jijin, seeing the look in Lin Qin’s eyes, immediately felt uneasy.

“Psychiatrist… Are you playing with fire?” he muttered worriedly. “If you kill that pretty girl… Liar won’t let you off. I feel like what comes after will be even worse than this…”

“But he’s losing his mind!” Lin Qin snapped. “I don’t care if he hates me—right now, the priority is to snap him out of it! Otherwise, he’ll stay here forever with this ‘Yu Nian’an’ and turn into one of the natives!”

Officer Li and Han Yimo exchanged a glance, both realizing the gravity of the situation.

Han Yimo and Dr. Zhao tossed the gun and magazine back to Officer Li, who reassembled it swiftly, flicked off the safety, and threw it to Lin Qin.

Lin Qin took a deep breath, slowly raised the pistol, and aimed at Yu Nian’an in the distance.

Whatever Yu Nian’an was, she at least looked like a normal person.

And if a normal person was killed, they would naturally revive in the next cycle.

“I’m sorry, Yu Nian’an…”

Just as Lin Qin was about to pull the trigger, a voice spoke calmly beside Yu Nian’an.

“Lin Qin, put the gun down.”

Everyone froze—the speaker was none other than Qi Xia.

“What?”

Qi Xia turned his head, his icy eyes locking onto Lin Qin.

“I said, put the gun down.”

“You…”

The others also noticed that Qi Xia seemed off. Normally, everything he did followed a clear logic, but now he was acting purely on emotion.

“Qi Xia, if we don’t kill her, you’ll—”

“Killing my Yu Nian’an won’t help at all,” Qi Xia said coldly, glancing at the Sheep on the ground. “You’re pointing a gun at her just to force me to come up with a plan, aren’t you?”

Lin Qin knew he was right.

She was about to kill the person he treasured most, all just to borrow his intellect.

“You selfish bastards.” Qi Xia swept his displeased gaze over everyone in the room. “To get me to think of a solution, you’d actually threaten me by pointing a gun at Yu Nian’an, huh?”

Qiao Jijin felt uncomfortable hearing that. “Liar, how could you think of us like that?”

“You’re right, that’s exactly the situation,” Lin Qin said bluntly. “If pointing a gun at Yu Nian’an makes it easier to get an answer from you, then this is the fastest way to communicate.”

Qi Xia stared into Lin Qin’s eyes for a long moment before speaking slowly. “Stop pointing at Yu Nian’an. Put the gun down, and I’ll tell you the solution.”

Lin Qin hesitated, then slowly lowered the gun.

“Good.” Qi Xia nodded. “Like I said, killing my An won’t change anything. The priority is to kill the Sheep.”

“What?” Lin Qin was stunned.

“Throw the gun to the Sheep,” Qi Xia said. “Like he said himself earlier, the contract states that if he fails to kill himself, a higher-ranking figure will appear to execute him personally—and then we’ll be in danger.”

This gave everyone a new angle to consider.

Qi Xia continued, “Yu Nian’an appearing in this room might be seen as a ‘violation.’ If a higher-ranking figure kills us here, the consequences will be even worse.”

Hearing this, the group exchanged uncertain glances. They knew Qi Xia was cunning—while his words made sense, there was no way to tell if he was lying.

“I’m not trying to deceive anyone,” Qi Xia said. “Every time the Sheep dies, we regain our freedom. If you waste the last bullet on Yu Nian’an, we’ll still be trapped in these chairs, waiting for the harpoons to come.”

Though his eyes were still distant, his words were sharp and logical—impossible to dismiss.

“He’s right,” Officer Li agreed. “I’ve seen that contract too…”

Though the others had no idea what “contract” he was referring to, it seemed the Sheep was indeed following its rules.

After a moment’s hesitation, Lin Qin decided to follow Qi Xia’s plan. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, she tossed the gun to the Sheep.

Though the Sheep couldn’t see or hear, he clearly felt something heavy land in his lap.

He reached down—it was the pistol.

“T-Thank god!!” The Sheep lifted his head, his blood-streaked eyes wide with excitement. “I can die!! I can finally die!!”

The next second, he pressed the gun to his chest and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

A deafening gunshot echoed through the sealed room, fading alongside the Sheep’s dying scream.

At once, everyone could move again.

Lawyer Zhang scrambled to her feet, only to stumble and fall hard.

Tian Tian rushed to help her up.

“Are you okay?” Tian Tian asked.

“W-What the hell is this place?” Lawyer Zhang stammered, staring at the others in panic. “What are you all doing?! Do you know each other?! Aren’t you shocked that someone just killed themselves in front of you?!”

Officer Li walked over calmly. “Lawyer Zhang, calm down. I’ll explain everything to you soon.”

“How do you know my name…?”

Qiao Jijin approached Tian Tian, his voice gentle. “Pretty girl, stay behind me when things get dangerous. Once we’re out of here, I’ll tell you everything.”

Tian Tian eyed him warily. With his tattoos and his opening line being “pretty girl,” this guy looked like nothing but trouble.

Lin Qin knelt beside the Sheep’s corpse, rummaging through his pockets. Sure enough, she found a stack of A4 paper, a few pens, and, after a moment, the “identity cards.”

After a pause, she distributed the cards, paper, and pens to the group. “It’s the first time I’ve seen this, but just to be safe, let’s write down the Sheep’s name first.”

Each person received a “Liar” card and wrote “Sheep” on their slip of paper.

Han Yimo nervously watched the “tenth person” in the room, only relaxing when he saw him write “Sheep.”

The next moment, the room began to change.

Holes appeared in the walls and ceiling—the second round had begun.