Pig Squeals

Though on the surface, the white-collar man was threatening Yu Xiaoxiao.

But where no one could see, Yu Xiaoxiao had slipped two fingers vertically into the seam of her trousers, pinching a thin blade between them. If this man continued gripping her shoulder, something extremely bloody would happen the next second.

"What are you doing?!"

Just as Yu Xiaoxiao's fingers were about to move, the filthy hand on her shoulder was removed. It was not because the white-collar man had let go himself, but because Yu Jing, who had walked straight over, stopped him.

Yu Jing was not particularly strong, and holding off this grown man was already proving difficult for him.

"Playing the hero and saving the beauty? You came to a place driven by selfish desires, yet you're still thinking of others. The system never issued any warnings from the start, and it never forbade us from attacking each other. I could cripple every last one of you, and the final prize would definitely be mine."

At that moment, the tough-bodied sixty-year-old man beside them kicked This Person straight in the stomach, sending the white-collar man arching backward one hundred and eighty degrees before he landed on his back like a turtle.

"Scum."

The old man had been famous in his village for meddling in other people's affairs. Because of that, he had offended quite a few people and had no choice but to leave home for hard labor. Yet his nature had never changed, nor had he ever regretted it.

"Thanks, sir."

Yu Jing expressed his gratitude. Without the old man, he would not have been able to handle that white-collar man. Besides, if the man's incitement had not been stopped in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

"Where's the little girl?"

At the old man's question, Yu Xiaoxiao had already entered her own testing room without anyone noticing.

"Has she already gone in?" Yu Jing stared at the dark passage Yu Xiaoxiao had entered, feeling slightly concerned.

"She really is a strange little girl. She probably isn't good at communicating with others. My little daughter is the same. Young man, you did very well just now. There isn't much time left. Everyone who came here must have run into serious trouble that only a large sum of money can solve. As for who gets the final prize, let each rely on their own abilities."

The old man patted Yu Jing's shoulder and entered the Testing Area through the door marked with black hair.

Yu Jing glanced at the white-collar man, who had sat up from the floor clutching his stomach with a savage expression. Without lingering, he headed toward his own Testing Area, gripping the bloodstained hand axe tightly in his right hand. Next, he would surely encounter the "Dangerous Object" mentioned in the notice.

Beyond every door lay a dark passage, preventing anyone from seeing clues about the interior from the decaying wooden cabin.

"A transition passage? It's so dark I can't see my own hand. Combined with the special items everyone chose earlier, quite a few people are probably frightened. What exactly is the purpose of this test? Yu Xiaoxiao really does seem like someone who knows some inside information. That 'Cracked Mirror' among the special items really had a problem."

Yu Jing used the time he spent walking through the passage to calm himself and think. As for fear, Yu Jing had experienced plenty of it since childhood. Back in his hometown, he had personally watched a childhood playmate get run over and killed by a passing car. While playing hide-and-seek in the fields, he had also seen a man from a neighboring village have his head smashed open with an iron bar.

"Beyond this door is the real Testing Area."

Feeling his way through the darkness, Yu Jing touched a cold iron door ahead. Though thick and heavy, it was not locked.

"I'm already inside the Testing Area. Normal People would definitely not choose to linger in a dark passage like this. Staying in such an environment for too long can cause a fear of the dark, but this is the perfect place for me to sort through my thoughts. At the very least, the so-called 'Dangerous Object' definitely won't come into the transition area."

Unafraid of darkness, Yu Jing sat before the cold iron door and organized his thoughts.

"From the very beginning Until Now, none of the institute's personnel have appeared. Perhaps they believed meeting the staff would influence us test subjects, but perhaps there is another reason...

"Second is the matter of the testing location. We ate at six this evening, and the broadcast said the test would begin at eight. Yet before eight, the hypnotic substances in our bodies took effect, and everyone fell unconscious. During that time, the institute transported us to a secret research base in the suburbs beyond A City, or perhaps some even more distant small county, to conduct these tests."

"Third, the escape-room warm-up, the damp and dark underground environment, and the selection of seven eerie items.

"The theme of the entire test leaned toward darkness and horror. Our identification documents and communication devices were taken away. Their organization could easily access our files. I have reason to suspect they could even retrieve and alter information about our deaths."

"Based on all that, the 'Dangerous Object' mentioned in the broadcast is some kind of terrifying thing. It can not only harm us, but may even pose a lethal threat... But what is the fundamental purpose behind a test so thoroughly arranged and designed on such a grand scale? What data do these researchers want to obtain from the seven of us? I can't figure that out."

Yu Jing scratched his head. "Perhaps they don't necessarily want data. From the very beginning, they screened our personal information... Could it be that they want to use this test to select the one person among us who can survive layer upon layer of danger, remain calm quickly, and pass the test? No point thinking too much about it for now. My goal is simply to get the 3.5 million prize."

He spent roughly fifteen minutes thinking. Compared with the total four hours, that was a significant amount of time, but preparing and analyzing everything beforehand had always been Yu Jing's way.

Unlike Yu Jing, the other five had already passed through the corridors and reached the Testing Area.

"Let's see what this so-called Testing Area is like."

Yu Jing shifted the hand axe to his left hand, pressed his right palm against the cold, heavy iron door, and used all his strength to slowly push it open.

"So heavy!" Pushing open the iron door nearly drained all of Yu Jing's strength, and veins even bulged on his forehead.

When the door opened wide enough for one person to pass through, a pungent stench of blood seeped through the gap. He could even faintly hear pigs squealing from somewhere deep inside.

Having grown up in the countryside, Yu Jing knew very well that such miserable squeals only came when a blade cut into a pig's body.

Yu Jing swallowed hard, then moved sideways into the Testing Area. The walls were made of equally cold iron sheets, while white lamps illuminated the interior. Because the ceiling fan overhead spun constantly, the room's light and shadows flickered without pause.

In Front of him was a sealed little iron room. A streak of blood from a dragged corpse stained the floor, and the surrounding windows were covered with wire mesh.

On the Right Side of the room was an ordinary small door. Whether it was locked remained unclear. The trail of blood on the floor showed that some creature had dragged a bleeding living thing or a corpse out through that small door...