If the phrase "rules are absolute" still applies to this second "game," then what is written on the mask is the key to breaking it.
But how can it be cracked?
When will the harpoon be launched?
The clock will not stop ticking"...
Could it be at 1:15?
Qi Xia turned to look at the clock on the table; it was already 1:05. If "1:15" is when the harpoon is launched, then there are less than ten minutes left.
"Turn towards your hometown a hundred times"…
The hometowns of the nine people present are all different, and "a hundred times" is no small number.
If they think in the wrong direction, they could easily waste these ten minutes.
But in this room, what else is there besides themselves that can be "turned"?
Qi Xia's gaze landed on the clock in the center of the table.
He leaned forward and gently touched the clock, only to find that it was firmly fixed to the table and could not be moved at all.
"The clock can't move; could it be the chair?"
Qi Xia looked down at the chair he was sitting on. It was an old, ordinary chair that emitted a musty smell, just casually placed on the floor without any mechanisms.
If that's the case, then there's only one thing left…
Qi Xia turned his gaze to the round table in the center of the room and noticed something strange.
This table couldn't truly be called a "round table," as it seemed to be a polygon with many sides, giving the first impression of being "round."
He reached out and turned the tabletop, and indeed, he could faintly hear the sound of chains coming from within the table.
However, the table was heavy, and despite using considerable effort, Qi Xia could only rotate it a few centimeters.
"A hundred times..."
This number definitely cannot be completed by just two or three people; the nine people present need to work together to rotate the tabletop in order to have a chance of survival.
Lin Qing keenly noticed Qi Xia's actions and called for everyone to stop.
Everyone gathered around the table to take a look and found that it could indeed be rotated.
"You're really something, you trickster," Qiao Jiajin nodded and said. "If we rotate this table a hundred times, we should be able to open that invisible door."
Qi Xia glanced at the clock again. Although time was pressing, the problem now became more straightforward.
Turning the round table towards the direction of "hometown" essentially boiled down to two options:
left or right.
However, since everyone's hometowns were located in different directions—southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest—how could they determine whether to turn left or right?
"Qi Xia, do you already know when the harpoon will be launched?" Lin Qing asked, covering her mouth and nose.
"The hint said 'the clock will not stop,' so it's likely to be at 1:15," Qi Xia replied softly.
Upon hearing this, Qiao Jiajin's expression changed: "Does that mean we have less than ten minutes left? We need to start turning quickly."
Dr. Zhao moved the body that was lying on the table aside and slowly sat down. He reached out to test the weight of the table and said, "But we only have one chance. If we turn this heavy table a hundred times and get the direction wrong, what will we do?"
"Well, there's still a fifty percent chance of survival!" Qiao Jiajin said anxiously. "If we don't move, we're definitely dead. If we start turning, there's at least a fifty percent chance we can live. Let's hurry up!"
With that, he exerted all his strength to start turning the tabletop to the left.
Although Qiao Jiajin looked frail, he was surprisingly strong and managed to rotate the table half a turn by himself.
"What are you waiting for?! Come on, help me!" Qiao Jiajin shouted at the others.
The remaining people understood that Qiao Jiajin was right and could only temporarily help him turn the table.
There was no correct answer at this point; they could only take a gamble.
However, Qi Xia remained still, not moving at all.
He didn't know where to direct his thoughts.
Left or right?
Why was the keyword "hometown"...
Everyone was Chinese, so was it "east"?
Up is north, down is south, left is west, right is east—does that mean the answer is "right"?
What about the people who live in the west?
Or perhaps everyone's hometown is related to the "Zuo Zhuan" from the Spring and Autumn period, which would make the answer "left"?
Qi Xia closed his eyes, initially intending to use the two corpses to shield himself. But if everyone else died, what would happen when the next game began…
"It's not time to give up on them yet."
Qi Xia secretly thought for a moment, then reached out and grabbed a piece of white paper from the rotating tabletop. He picked up a pen, stood up, and walked to a corner. Finding an empty space, he sat down and began to write something furiously.
Although everyone was a bit confused, they didn't stop their movements, and by now, they had already turned the table over a dozen times.
"If he hadn't introduced himself as a 'trickster,' I would have thought that guy was a mathematician," Qiao Jiajin said to Tiantian beside him.
Tiantian, feeling a bit dizzy from the spinning, could only nod perfunctorily.
This time, Qi Xia didn't write in a vertical format; he roughly sketched a map of the country on the paper.
"Hometown…?"
His mind was racing, and suddenly he thought of something.
"Wait, wait..." Qi Xia's eyes widened. "If the 'host' has such great powers to find people with similar experiences from so many provinces, then is 'province' also a key point?"
He turned around and looked at the people rotating the table, seriously asking, "Did any of you lie about your 'hometown' earlier?"
Everyone shook their heads.
After all, "hometown" involves accents and expressions, making it easy to expose inconsistencies if someone lied.
"Very good." Qi Xia nodded slightly. "Now please take turns telling me your hometowns again."
Officer Li spoke first, "I'm from Inner Mongolia."
Qi Xia marked a black dot on the map at the location of Inner Mongolia.
"I'm from Sichuan," the lawyer Zhang Chenze said coldly.
"I'm from Shaanxi..." Tiantian said.
"Dali, Yunnan," the preschool teacher Xiao Ran said.
"Guangdong," Qiao Jiajin said.
"I'm from Ningxia," the psychologist Lin Qing said.
"I'm working in Jiangsu," Dr. Zhao said.
Qi Xia marked each person's hometown on the map and wrote down his own, "Shandong."
At this moment, everyone's gaze turned to the writer Han Yimo, as he had not mentioned his hometown from the very beginning.
"Han Yimo, are you from Guangxi or Taiwan?"
Han Yimo was taken aback and asked, "How did you know?"
"Time is tight; just answer me first."
"I'm from Guangxi…"
Qi Xia nodded. At this point, only two provinces were left for Han Yimo.
Guangxi Autonomous Region and Taiwan Province.
If his answer wasn't one of these two, then he would have told a huge lie.
Fortunately, he spoke the truth.
Qi Xia marked the last province on the map, and now there were nine black dots on the sketch.
"Just as I thought."
Qi Xia said softly, "Quick, stop and turn right."
"Right?"
Qi Xia quickly ran to the side of the table, threw the white paper onto it, and began to turn the tabletop in the opposite direction.
Although everyone was a bit confused, they followed his lead and started to turn.
Dr. Zhao glanced at the map on the table and the nine black dots.
"Why the 'right'?"