This time, the silence lasted several minutes as everyone grappled with this unbelievable revelation.
After a while, Officer Li was the first to flip over his identity card. Sure enough, it read "Liar."
The others followed suit, one by one revealing their cards. They all read "Liar."
"You're impressive…" Attorney Zhang gave Qi Xia a nod of approval. "But how did you figure out that we're all already dead?"
Qi Xia pointed to his notepad and explained, "It wasn't hard. I kept wondering why this room is sealed, why there are lines drawn on the walls and floor, why there's a clock in the center of the table, and why the Goatman forced us to take a 'mid-game break.'
"A normal human consumes 0.007 cubic meters of air per minute, or 0.42 cubic meters per hour. With ten people in this room, that's 4.2 cubic meters of air per hour.
"The Goatman said we were unconscious in this room for 12 hours and then played this game for nearly an hour. If you multiply 4.2 cubic meters by 13 hours, you get 54.6 cubic meters."
Qi Xia circled the number 54.6 on his notepad. "This is the amount of air we should have consumed."
He looked around the room and continued, "Now, how big is this room?"
The group followed his gaze.
"The organizers left us a clue. They drew lines on the walls and floors, dividing them into squares, each approximately 1 meter per side," Qi Xia said, pointing to the marks on the walls. "The wall squares are 3 by 4, and the floor and ceiling are 4 by 4. This means the room is 4 meters wide, 4 meters long, and 3 meters high, totaling 48 cubic meters."
"A room with 48 cubic meters of air… how could it sustain the 54.6 cubic meters we've consumed?" Qi Xia frowned, his expression grim. "So much time has passed, and yet the air isn't thinning. We feel no signs of oxygen deprivation…"
Dr. Zhao pondered for a moment, picked up Qi Xia's notepad, and pointed to another number, 49.14. "What does this figure mean, then?"
Qi Xia looked at Dr. Zhao with a grave expression and replied, "That's another air consumption calculation—but this one is based on nine people."
"Nine people?"
Dr. Zhao was taken aback. Clearly, there were ten people in the room, so why calculate for nine?
"I made a bold assumption," Qi Xia said flatly. "If the Goatman isn't human, would there be enough air? The answer is clearly still no."
"What kind of lunatic are you?" Dr. Zhao muttered. "How could you make such a bizarre assumption?"
"Is it really that strange?" Qi Xia gestured toward the headless corpse beside him. "Dr. Zhao, you're a medical professional. You know the human skull well. Could a single hand crush a skull like that?"
Dr. Zhao didn't answer because he knew the truth: it was absolutely impossible.
Even a rabbit's skull would be hard to crush with one hand, let alone a human's.
Qi Xia withdrew his gaze and looked at the group. "We're running out of time. I've written down my choice. Now it's up to all of you. But remember: if even one person's answer differs from mine, we'll all face 'punishment.'"
The group hesitated.
They were about to vote to eliminate a monster capable of killing at will.
Would it accept its fate?
Qiao Jiajin stole a glance at the Goatman. It remained motionless, its deep gaze piercing through the goat mask, lost in thought.
"Hell with it! Let's do this!" Qiao Jiajin shouted, waving his hand as he wrote "Goatman" on his card.
The others hesitated for a moment before following suit, each writing down the same answer.
Qi Xia glanced over the responses. Without exception, they all read "Goatman."
The clock struck 1:00. The game was over.
The Goatman slowly stepped forward and said, "Congratulations, everyone. You have survived the 'Liar' game. Now, I will personally carry out the punishment for the loser."
Before anyone could react, the Goatman pulled out a gun, turned it on itself, and pressed it to its chest. Then, it pulled the trigger.
A deafening gunshot echoed through the small, enclosed room.
The sound reverberated in the confined space, making everyone's ears ring.
The Goatman let out an agonized scream, clutching its chest as blood poured out.
The horrifying wails quickly drowned out the gunshot's echo, filling the room with an unbearable tension.
The screams went on for over a minute before fading into pained groans.
"What… the hell…" Qiao Jiajin muttered, staring at the Goatman in shock. "Is this real?"
Several minutes later, even the groans ceased.
The nine remaining people suddenly realized they could move their legs again.
Dr. Zhao was the first to stand. He walked to the Goatman, checked its neck for a pulse, and confirmed it was gone.
"Hey!" Dr. Zhao shouted at the Goatman. "The game's over. How do we get out of here?"
But the lifeless corpse offered no response.
The others also stood up cautiously.
The room remained unchanged, except for the addition of a lifeless body.
"This is so strange… Are we really dead?" Tian Tian murmured, still caught up in the question. She extended a delicate hand and slapped herself hard across the face.
"Ow!" Tian Tian yelped in pain. "That hurt! Why does it hurt if I'm dead?"
Qiao Jiajin shook his head in exasperation. "What, have you died before?"
"I…" Tian Tian froze, her expression blank. "I guess not…"
"Exactly. So who knows what happens after death? For all we know, this could be hell." Qiao Jiajin glanced at the two corpses in the room and shuddered. "I not only feel pain—I can smell the stench."
"So what are we? Souls?" asked Han Yimo, the writer.
Dr. Zhao examined his own body. His heartbeat, body temperature, and pulse were all normal. He was breathing, but somehow, they weren't consuming oxygen.
Death, it seemed, was a mystery that defied all medical logic.
"Whatever we are, I'm not spending eternity trapped in this tiny room," Officer Li said. "Let's find a way out."
Officer Li approached the Goatman and picked up the gun lying beside it.
The sudden action startled the group, who instinctively stepped back.
Officer Li calmly opened the chamber, then removed the magazine. The gun had only one bullet, now spent.
It was both good and bad news: no one could use the gun to harm anyone else, but it also meant they had no means of protection if they faced danger.
Meanwhile, Qiao Jiajin, showing his usual boldness, slowly removed the Goatman's mask. Beneath it was the grotesquely decayed face of a man.
His lifeless eyes rolled back, and there were no signs of life.
"What a horrifying face…"
Attorney Zhang commented from the side.