A worn tungsten light bulb hung from a black wire in the center of the room, flickering under the dim light.
The silent atmosphere spread throughout the room like ink droplets falling into clear water.
In the center of the room stood a large round table, looking quite dilapidated. At the center of the table sat a gorgeous little clock, its intricate patterns very complex, ticking softly.
Surrounding the table were ten people, dressed in various styles, their clothes appearing somewhat tattered, and their faces covered in dust.
Some were slumped over the table, while others leaned against their chairs, deep in sleep.
Beside these ten people stood a man wearing a goat mask and dressed in a black suit.
His gaze peered out curiously from behind the tattered goat mask, observing the ten individuals.
The clock on the table chimed, with both the minute hand and hour hand pointing to "twelve."
A deep bell toll echoed from afar.
At that moment, the ten men and women sitting around the round table slowly began to awaken.
As they gradually regained their senses, they first looked around in confusion, then exchanged bewildered glances.
It seemed they couldn't remember why they were there.
"Good morning, you nine," the man with the goat mask spoke first. "I'm glad to meet you here; you've been sleeping in front of me for twelve hours."
The man's appearance was quite peculiar, startling everyone in the dim light.
His mask appeared to be made from a real goat's head, with many hairs having turned yellow and black, mingling together.
The eyes of the goat mask were hollowed out, revealing his cunning gaze.
Every movement he made not only emitted the unique smell of goat meat but also a faint odor of decay.
A man with a tattoo on one arm stared for a few seconds before finally realizing the absurdity of the situation and hesitantly asked the goat-headed man, "Who... are you?"
"I believe you all have this question, so let me introduce myself to you nine," the goat-headed man cheerfully said, waving his hands as if he had been prepared for this answer all along.
A young man named Qi Xia, sitting farthest from the goat figure, quickly scanned the room, and after a moment, his expression turned serious.
Strangely, this room was too peculiar.
There were no doors; the walls were all around.
In other words, the room was completely enclosed on all sides, including the ceiling and floor, with a table placed right in the center.
If that were the case, how did they get here?
Were they brought in first and then walls built around them?
Qi Xia looked around again; the floor, walls, and ceiling were marked with crisscross lines, dividing the surfaces into many large squares.
Another point that caught Qi Xia's attention was the "nine" mentioned by the goat-headed man.
No matter how one counted, there were ten people sitting around the round table, plus the goat-headed man himself, making a total of eleven people in the room.
What did "nine" mean?
He reached into his pocket and found that his phone had long been taken away.
"You don't need to introduce yourself to us," a cold woman said to the goat-headed man. "I advise you to stop your actions quickly. I suspect you have unlawfully detained us for over 24 hours, and everything you say will be recorded and could become testimony against you."
As she spoke, she disdainfully brushed off the dust from her arm, as if she disliked being dirty more than being imprisoned.
The cold woman's words indeed brought some clarity to everyone. No matter who the other party was, daring to confront ten people had already crossed the legal boundary.
"Wait a minute…" a middle-aged man in a white lab coat interrupted everyone's thoughts. He slowly turned to the cold woman and asked, "We just woke up; how do you know we've been detained for 'twenty-four hours'?"
His tone was calm and powerful, but it struck at the core of the issue.
The cold woman leisurely pointed to the clock on the table and replied, "The clock here shows twelve o'clock, but I have a habit of staying up late. The last time I checked the clock at home, it was already twelve o'clock. This indicates we have been detained for at least 12 hours."
After finishing, she pointed to the walls surrounding them and continued, "You should notice that there are no doors in this room, indicating that this person has gone to great lengths to bring us inside. He says we've been asleep for 12 hours, and now the clock points to 12 o'clock again, which means it has at least gone around twice. So I suspect the claim of 'over 24 hours'—what's wrong with that?"
The man in the lab coat shot a cold glance at the woman, his gaze still filled with suspicion.
After all, in such an environment, the woman was too calm.
Would a normal person be able to calmly state such things when facing a kidnapping?
At that moment, a burly man in a black T-shirt spoke up, "Goat man, why are there ten people here, yet you say there are nine?"
The goat-headed figure fell silent, not responding immediately.
"D*mn it, I don't care how many people are here…" the tattooed man cursed, pushing against the table in an attempt to stand up, only to find his legs too weak to support him. He could only continue pointing at the goat-headed figure and said, "I advise you to be smart; you may not realize the serious consequences of angering me. I really might take your life."
As soon as he said that, the expressions of the men present grew serious. At this moment, a leader was truly needed. If they could work together to subdue the goat-headed man, the situation would still be under control.
However, everyone quickly realized that their legs felt as if they had been injected with something, rendering them completely powerless.
So the tattooed man could only threaten the goat-headed man with words, shouting loudly.
Qi Xia remained silent, gently stroking his chin, staring at the clock on the table, lost in thought.
Things didn't seem to be as simple as he had imagined.
He knew that the goat-headed figure had mentioned "nine participants." If there were ten people here, it could only mean that one of them was not a participant.
So who was he?
In this room, there were six men and four women. Could one of them be the "kidnapper"?
The goat-headed figure slowly walked over to Qi Xia, who stood behind a young man.
Everyone followed his gaze, only to realize that the young man in front of them was different from the others present. Although his face was also dirty, he wore a happy smile.
The goat-headed figure slowly raised his hand and placed it on the back of the young man's head.
The young man's smile grew increasingly eerie as he looked at everyone with excitement, as if he already knew something.
With a dull thud, the goat-headed man forcefully slammed the young man's head onto the table.
A light pink substance splattered like spilled paint, quickly spreading across the table, splattering blood droplets on everyone's faces.
The young man's skull had been crushed against the table.
Outside, the distant bell tolled again.
Qi Xia, close to the deceased, felt something unknown sticking to his face—warm and sticky.
He had always believed his mental resilience was strong enough, but at that moment, he found himself trembling.
The girl sitting to the right of the deceased was stunned for three seconds, and then her face twisted in fear as she let out a piercing scream.
This scream shattered everyone's psychological defenses.
How could someone smash a human skull with their hand? Was the goat-headed figure still "human"?
How could his frail body exert such immense power?
The goat-headed man slowly spoke, "The reason I prepared for ten people is to use one of you to quiet the rest."