Under Ashley Carter's command, Brian Johnson turned the sheepskin mask over, exposing the rough inner lining to everyone.

A wave of rotten, sour stench wafted out from it.

Just as Ashley Carter had expected, there was writing inside the sheepskin mask, written in black ink.

Some parts were stained with blood, but Brian Johnson didn’t care. He grabbed his own T-shirt and wiped it, finally making the writing legible.

“What the heck?” Brian Johnson was stunned for a moment, then began to read the words aloud in his imperfect Mandarin:

“I am a ‘dog-man.’”

“You are cursed.”

“I hope you survive.”

“The clock never stops; danger lurks on all sides.”

“If you want to survive, turn a hundred times toward your hometown.”

“By the way, they say bamboo shoots sprout after the rain—why aren’t they afraid of the rain?”

“See you after the rain.”

Ashley Carter frowned slightly. As expected, it was a clue for the next game...

The shadow of death looming over everyone refused to dissipate.

They were already dead—did they have to die again?

“Hey, conman, what does this mean?” Brian Johnson asked.

“How should I know?” Ashley Carter snorted coldly. “There are nine people here. Why do I have to be the one to think?”

Lawyer Chris Brooks slowly sat down on a chair and said, “Though I hate to admit it, your thinking matches the ‘organizer’ very well. If you have any ideas, you should share them.”

“I…”

Before Ashley Carter could speak, the walls around them suddenly changed.

To everyone’s shock, holes began to appear out of nowhere.

The cement walls now seemed to morph like a constantly shifting soft body.

Moments later, rows of holes lined up neatly on the walls, as if they had always been there.

At the same time, the sound of chains being pulled echoed from all four sides.

“What’s going on?” Everyone panicked instantly.

“Look at the ceiling!” someone cried out in alarm.

Everyone looked up and saw that the ceiling was also densely covered with holes.

Ashley Carter finally stood up, took the sheepskin mask from Brian Johnson, and carefully examined the last line.

“See you after the rain.”

“Rain…?”

Brian Johnson tiptoed to the wall, peered into one of the holes, and was so startled that he jumped back several steps.

“Holy crap!”

He shouted, looking for a place to hide, but found there was nowhere to go.

“What is it? What’s inside?” Jason asked fearfully.

Everyone knew Brian Johnson was already quite brave, so for him to be so frightened, it had to be something serious.

“Holy sh—!” Brian Johnson yelled, “It’s harpoons! All the holes are filled with harpoons that are ‘cocked and ready’!”

“‘Cocked and ready’? What does that mean?” Dr. Harris asked, confused.

“They must be ‘primed’,” Ashley Carter said. “Since just now, we’ve been hearing the sound of chains. Now all these harpoons are loaded and could fire at any moment.”

“Hey! Conman, think of something!” Brian Johnson rushed to Ashley Carter, anxiously saying, “If they all fire at once from every direction, where can we hide?”

Ashley Carter thought carefully. Surviving himself wouldn’t be too hard, since there were already two corpses in the room.

The harpoons’ penetrating power was limited. If he piled the two corpses in a corner and hid behind them, he might get hurt, but his chances of survival would be high.

“This time, it’ll be hard for everyone to survive. I need to protect myself, so I won’t save you all again,” Ashley Carter said softly.

“You…” Brian Johnson wanted to say more, but could only turn to Officer Thompson and Dr. Harris for help. However, those two looked even more helpless.

Ashley Carter looked again at the clues on the sheepskin mask.

Had he misunderstood?

Only when there was one person left would this “game” truly end.

If everyone kept surviving, this killing game would just keep repeating.

After all, this room was extremely bizarre, with walls that could change at any time.

It didn’t make any scientific sense—more like magic.

But if the organizer could really use magic, why bother tormenting these nine dead people?

Was this some kind of twisted game run by an agency that managed ghosts?

While Ashley Carter was lost in thought, Ethan Green looked at the mask in his hand and spoke: “It says here… there’s a way for us to survive. It says to ‘turn a hundred times toward your hometown.’”

Everyone calmed down a bit and began to ponder the sentence.

“Does it mean face your hometown and spin around?” Emily asked.

“That can’t be right,” Brian Johnson shook his head. “How are you supposed to know which way your hometown is in this room? And spinning a hundred times would just make you dizzy, nothing else.”

“Whatever! I’ll try it first!” Emily picked a random direction and started spinning.

Ashley Carter thought for a moment, knowing it couldn’t be that simple.

Chapter 12: Your Hometown