Simulated Death

Tong Guan had no objection to Ji Li's words, though he harbored some prejudice and bias towards Ji Li.

He knew well that even if this man before him might very well be the leader of the black robes who had kidnapped his parents, the time was not yet right to turn against him and demand answers.

With no one speaking, Chang Nian, the only female staff member in the group, spoke softly:

"Ji Li and I are responsible for floors two through ten.

We found eighteen people and sent them to the first floor, and seventeen people were sent there.

One woman, by the time we reached that office, had already snapped her own neck."

The situation for each group in the first operation wasn't complicated. Yu Guo took the opportunity to say:

"Teacher Fang and I found sixteen people. I brought twelve to the first floor. The remaining four are repairmen who went with Teacher Fang to the basement to fix the power.

However, I learned from a phone call earlier that someone on his end also died.

And the method of killing was exactly the same as Miss Chang's situation."

Yu Guo paused here. He looked at Ji Li, who remained silent, and then said:

"The situations are very similar, but there's one thing I still need to tell you all."

Ji Li frowned. Seeing Yu Guo's somewhat strange expression, he knew that Yu Guo must have done something he shouldn't have.

Yu Guo saw Ji Li's gaze and awkwardly scratched his head, looking a bit shy.

"Hearing Teacher Fang describe the cause of death, I found it quite novel, so I tried it on myself..."

Tong Guan's eyes widened when he heard this. He truly hadn't expected this seemingly ordinary young man to be so bold.

He couldn't help but ask, "What did you try?"

Yu Guo raised both his hands, placing one on his chin and the other on his temple, and feigned a twist to the left.

Everyone watched him strangely, but as they watched, they noticed something was wrong!

A spark ignited in Ji Li's eyes. He realized that as Yu Guo bent his arms, mimicking the deceased's suicidal action, his limbs exhibited an equal degree of stiffness!

At the same time, Yu Guo's expression changed. His eyes went from normal to increasingly panicked, tinged with a certain urgency.

The arc of his head's rotation grew wider. What started as a simple imitation had now produced the "crackling" sound of bones!

Ji Li lunged forward, gripping Yu Guo's arms tightly. As he felt the resistance, he realized Yu Guo's arms were as rigid as iron bars.

The other staff members also sensed that something was amiss and rushed forward, trying to intervene.

But no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't pry apart those arms. Yu Guo's head was already turned at a ninety-degree angle.

Suddenly, Yu Guo toppled backward, like a statue, falling straight down.

Everyone present clearly heard a crisp snap, as if from bone, or perhaps not.

But after slamming onto the ground, Yu Guo seemed to have completely broken free from the restraint. His body returned to normal, and he regained his ability to move.

He weakly got up, glared at Ji Li, and said irritably:

"I thought you were quite clever. How could you not read my signals?"

Ji Li's expression darkened, and he said sternly, "Is this what you did back then?"

Yu Guo chuckled awkwardly. "Yes, when Teacher Fang described the deceased's condition, I imitated it out of curiosity.

But who knew that as soon as my arms held the same pose, they became uncontrollable.

It was as if some power enveloped my entire body, merging with it, controlling my limbs, and forcefully trying to break my neck!

That time, I also lost my balance and fell unintentionally, which broke the restraint.

This time, it was the same situation.

So, through these two experiments, a conclusion can be drawn..."

Yu Guo's demeanor returned to its usual calm as he stated, word by word:

"Although the mission states that once all employees are killed, there will be no way to kill us, in reality, we can still be attacked before that happens!"

Ji Li's gaze was unfocused. Without Yu Guo's "mad" experiment, perhaps they would still believe that the ghosts wouldn't attack preemptively.

Now it seemed that by hindering the ghosts' killing process, their probability of being attacked would greatly increase.

Chang Nian was completely bewildered by Yu Guo's actions. After staring dumbfoundedly for a long time, she finally managed to say, "Are all of you from Shop No. 7 monsters?"

Tong Guan interrupted her. "We are all employees of Shop No. 7 now."

He looked at Ji Li and said, "Let's get back to the main topic. How is your situation?"

Ji Li recounted everything that had happened previously in detail.

Then he said, "Currently, we have a few pieces of information:

One, the ghosts' method of killing is possession leading to suicide.

Two, the ghosts have the ability to duplicate themselves.

Three, before all employees are dead, we also have a chance of being attacked.

Four... based on the current deaths, the number of people around each victim when they appeared was no more than five!"

This fourth point is, by far, the most crucial piece of information, and it's what Ji Li deduced from the situations of the three groups.

Three groups, three deaths. The group with the most people was Fang Shenyan's. There were five of them at the time, yet a death still occurred.

On Li Xing's side, however, there had been no attacks. This leads to two possible conclusions.

Perhaps, with fewer than six people, the Isolation Theory comes into play, and the ghosts will attack first!

After Ji Li presented this conclusion, Tong Guan and Yu Guo both nodded. While the truth of this idea was still unknown, it was the only hypothesis so far that could explain the ghosts' killing patterns.

Ji Li turned his head to look at the employees, who were as silent as cicadas in winter, and then said:

"There are 30 people here, with the remaining three employees on the first basement level.

It's been over thirty minutes since the mission began and the power went out. There should still be three people inside the building.

I'm not sure if they're dead, but we need to go find them!"

Tong Guan affirmed upon hearing this, "If we have the capacity, we should save them. I'll go."

But Ji Li turned his head to look at him, pondered for a moment, and then shook his head, "No, I'll go."

"Why?" Tong Guan asked, his tone betraying his displeasure, though his expression remained unchanged.

It wasn't because Ji Li had contradicted his offer to go, but rather for a different reason.

Ji Li didn't shy away from it. "We don't have the energy to save people. I'm going because I can make the best decisions under absolute rationality.

The reason I'm going isn't to bring them back.

It's to verify whether the Isolation Theory holds true and if it aligns with the ghosts' killing patterns.

Therefore, you are not suitable."

Tong Guan's face showed an expression of "as expected." He had rushed to volunteer because he had a general idea of Ji Li's plan.

But if Ji Li went, it was likely that the remaining three employees, if they didn't die by the ghosts' hands, would die by his.

Tong Guan was about to speak again, but Chang Nian tugged at his sleeve, stopping him.

Ji Li didn't have time to deal with this. He turned to Yu Guo and said, "Fang Shenyan's group is now less than five people. Take five more people and go meet up with him."

He then scanned the crowd several times and pointed to the employees who had first arrived on the first floor.

"You five, come with me."

These employees had all witnessed this man shoot and kill their colleagues right before their eyes. They were already terrified, and hearing Ji Li point at them again sent them into a state of utter panic.

They begged for mercy incessantly, some even weeping uncontrollably.

But Ji Li didn't even glance at them. He turned around, walked past the frowning Tong Guan, and looked at Li Xing, who had been useless all this time.

His eyes narrowed slightly, and he said calmly, "You, come with me!"