An old tungsten filament light bulb hung from the center of the room, flickering dimly.The quiet atmosphere spread across the room like ink droplets in water.In the center of the room was a large round table, worn and weathered, with a small ornate clock standing in the middle, ticking rhythmically.Around the table sat ten people dressed in various clothes, some worn and dusty.They were either slumped on the table or reclining in their chairs, all deeply asleep.Next to these ten, a man dressed in a black suit and wearing a goat-head mask stood quietly.His gaze peeked through the holes of the mask, looking with interest at the ten individuals.The clock on the table rang, its hands pointing to "twelve."From somewhere far outside the room, a low chime could be heard.At the same moment, the ten men and women seated around the table began to wake up slowly.As they gradually regained their senses, they looked around in confusion, first at the surroundings, then at each other.It seemed no one remembered how they ended up here."Good morning, nine of you." The man with the goat head spoke first. "I am happy to meet you here. You''ve been asleep in front of me for twelve hours."The man''s appearance was eerie, startling everyone under the dim light.His mask seemed to be made from an actual goat''s head, with hair that had turned yellow and black, tangled together.The eyes of the goat mask had hollowed-out spaces, revealing his sly eyes.With every movement, he emitted not only the peculiar smell of a goat but also an underlying scent of decay.A tattooed man with floral sleeves froze for a moment, finally noticing something strange, and hesitantly asked the goat-head man: "Who... are you?""I believe you all have this question, so let me introduce myself," the goat-head man said, raising his hands with enthusiasm, as if he had already prepared the answer.A young man named Qi Xia, seated farthest from the goat-head man, quickly surveyed the room. After a moment, his expression turned serious.Strange, this room is really odd.There are no doors, and the western wall is solid.In other words, the walls, roof, and floor of this room are all enclosed, yet there''s a table in the center.So, how did they end up here?Could it be that they were brought here first, and then the walls were built afterward?Qi Xia looked again at the western wall, noticing that there were intersecting lines on the floor, walls, and ceiling, dividing them into large grids.Another detail that concerned Qi Xia was the "nine people" the goat-head man mentioned.No matter how you counted, there were ten people seated at the round table, and with the goat-head man himself, there were eleven people in total.What does "nine people" mean?He reached into his pocket and, as expected, found his phone was already taken."No need to introduce yourself," a cold woman spoke to the goat-head man. "I suggest you stop your actions soon. I suspect you have already detained us for more than twenty hours, which constitutes ''illegal detention.'' Everything you say now will be recorded and form testimony against you."She said this while irritably rubbing the dust on her arm, as if she hated being dirtied even more than being kidnapped.Her words certainly helped the group regain some clarity. No matter who the goat-head man was, he had dared to kidnap ten people, which was already a violation of the law."Wait a moment..." A middle-aged man in a white lab coat interrupted everyone. He slowly turned to the cold woman and asked, "We just woke up, how do you know we’ve been detained for ''twenty hours''?"His tone was steady and forceful, but it cut to the heart of the matter.The cold woman calmly pointed to the clock on the table and answered, "The clock here shows twelve o''clock, but I have a habit of staying up late. The last time I checked the time at home, it was already twelve. This means we''ve been detained for at least twelve hours."She then pointed to the western wall and continued, "You must have noticed, this room has no doors. This person must have gone to a lot of trouble to get us into this room. He says we''ve been asleep for twelve hours, and now the clock shows twelve again, meaning at least two full cycles have passed. So I suspect ''more than twenty hours,'' is that a problem?"The man in the white coat gave her a cold glance after hearing her explanation, still doubtful.After all, in such an environment, the woman seemed unusually calm.Would a normal person remain so composed and say something like that in the face of kidnapping?At this moment, a young, well-built man in a black t-shirt asked, "Goat-head, why are there ten people here, but you say there are nine?"The goat-head man remained silent and did not immediately respond."F***, I don''t care how many people are here..." The tattooed man cursed and tried to push himself up from the table, but found his legs too weak to move, so he had to continue shouting threats at the goat-head man. "If you know what''s good for you, you''d better back off. You don''t even realize the consequences of provoking me. I will kill you."As soon as he spoke, the expressions of the men at the table grew serious. At this point, they needed a leader. If they could all subdue the goat-head man together, the situation could still be under control.But they soon realized that their legs, as if injected with something, were completely powerless.So the tattooed man could only use words to threaten the goat-head man, shouting angrily.Qi Xia remained silent, gently stroking his chin as he observed the clock on the table, deep in thought.Things didn’t seem as simple as they appeared.He knew that the goat-head man had said "nine participants." If there were ten people here, it only meant that one of them wasn''t a participant.Who could it be?There were six men and four women in the room. Could one of them be the "kidnapper"?The goat-head man said nothing, slowly walking over to Qi Xia and standing behind a young man.Everyone followed his gaze and noticed that the young man in front of them was different from the others. Although his face was dirty, he wore a strange, blissful smile.The goat-head man raised his hand slowly and placed it on the back of the young man’s head.The young man’s smile grew even more eerie, his face filled with excitement as he looked at the others, as if he already knew something.Then there was a dull thud. The goat-head man slammed the young man’s head hard against the table.A pinkish-white substance spilled across the table, spreading out horizontally in an instant, with droplets of blood splattering onto everyone’s faces.The young man’s skull had been shattered against the table.Outside the room, the distant chime of the clock rang again.Qi Xia was close to the deceased and felt something sticky and warm touch his face.He asked himself if his mental resilience was strong enough, but at that moment, he still began to tremble.The girl sitting to the right of the dead man froze for three seconds before her face twisted in horror and she screamed.The scream shattered the mental defenses of everyone in the room.Could the goat-head man really be "human" if he could crush a human skull with his hands like that?How could such a frail body possess such powerful strength?The goat-head man slowly spoke, "The reason I prepared ten people was to use one of you to silence the rest."


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