Omnipotent

"I..." Man-Snake froze for a moment. He wanted to choose an answer, only to realize that any answer he gave would be futile.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Man-Snake suddenly burst into laughter, rocking back and forth. Before long, he stopped and said, "You really are interesting."

"Interesting?" Qi Xia gave Man-Snake a cold look. "What's interesting about it? Haven't I already won?"

Man-Snake slowly walked over to the wall and reached up to pull the lever.

Everyone felt their bodies drop, and then the entire ceiling began to descend slowly.

Utterly baffled, Qiao Jiajin turned to Qi Xia. "Con man, what does that mean? Why does that count as winning?"

Seeing that they really were descending, Qi Xia secretly breathed a sigh of relief. "Think about it. Once I asked that question, we were saved no matter what."

"'If my next question is "Will you pull the lever?" will your answer be the same as your answer to this question?'..." Qiao Jiajin quietly repeated the question, unable to make any sense of it.

"I see..." Doctor Zhao nodded thoughtfully. "If he answers 'yes,' he can only answer 'yes' to the next question too. That saves us, because the next question is 'Will you pull the lever?'"

"But what if he says 'no'?!" Qiao Jiajin felt he had spotted a loophole. "Can't he just say 'no'?"

"If he says 'no,' he can still only answer 'yes' to the next question," Han Yimo said weakly. "That's what makes the question so clever. If he answers 'no,' he admits that he'll give different answers to the two questions. Remember? That snake-headed man said he wouldn't lie."

Qiao Jiajin froze, then turned back to Qi Xia. "Did you come up with all that just now...? What kind of monster are you?"

"I wouldn't call myself a monster." Qi Xia shook his head. "I'm just a con man drifting through life."

As they spoke, they slowly reached the floor.

After hanging for so long, everyone's palms burned with pain, and the two injured men were in even worse shape.

"Everyone, congratulations on surviving the 'interview.' Push open this door, and a new world awaits you." The snake-headed man clasped his hands behind his back and stood beside the wooden door.

"You bastard..."

Qiao Jiajin strode forward viciously, seemingly intent on venting all his anger toward Human Sheep and Human Dog on the Man-Snake before him.

Man-Snake turned around with a cold look, remaining motionless as Qiao Jiajin stormed toward him.

"Are you all sick in the head?!" Qiao Jiajin roared, stepping forward and grabbing Man-Snake by the collar. "Wearing those weird masks, trying to kill us over and over-now I've finally got my hands on you!"

Man-Snake sneered and said quietly, "While you're still alive, I suggest you let go."

"What did you say?!"

Qiao Jiajin raised his fist, but just as he was about to swing at the snake-headed man's face, Officer Li caught his arm.

"Hey, did you forget the man whose skull got smashed?" Officer Li demanded in a low voice. "If they're all like that, how do you plan to beat them?"

"I..." Frustration crossed Qiao Jiajin's rugged face. He clenched his back teeth and slowly forced out a few words. "But these goddamn bastards..."

"Don't worry. We can get out now, can't we?" Officer Li interrupted him, keeping his voice low. "As long as we get out, I'll make sure they pay."

At that, everyone fell silent and slowly approached Man-Snake.

Only up close did they realize just how unnerving he was.

The air around the snake-headed man was colder than elsewhere, and his old suit and the mask on his head gave off a strange, rank stench.

His eyes stared out through the mask, making it clear that he was human. Yet he smelled like a snake that had been dead for a long time.

"Everyone, welcome to the new world."

The snake-headed man's muffled voice emerged from inside his mask. Then he turned and opened the door.

With a faint creak, light spilled in from beyond it.

Qi Xia frowned. Beyond the door wasn't outdoors at all, but a corridor.

"Where does this lead?" Qi Xia asked.

"I told you. The new world." The snake-headed man slowly raised both hands. "The future 'god' will rise from among you! Will rise in the new world! How thrilling!"

"God again..." Qiao Jiajin demanded viciously. "What the hell are you planning?"

The question visibly piqued the snake-headed man's interest. "An omnipotent god...! He can make any idea a reality!"

"Omnipotent?" Qiao Jiajin's brow knotted tightly.

Doctor Zhao discreetly waved a hand at Qiao Jiajin, then addressed the snake-headed man. "All right, we understand. Let us out already."

The snake-headed man paused, then nodded and stepped aside.

Qi Xia went first. The others seemed equally unwilling to linger and hurried after him.

The moment they stepped into the corridor, a peculiar smell flooded their nostrils.

How could that smell be described?

Heavy. An incredibly heavy smell.

It was as though all the billions of people in the world had died and been left to rot in the open air, their decay attracting countless insects that fought to feed on them.

The insects bred in vast numbers, died in vast numbers, and then rotted too.

If that all-encompassing stench of decay were left to settle until it no longer stung the nose, it would become this heavy smell.

It took Qi Xia a long time to recover. When he opened his eyes and looked around, he found another despair-inducing sight before him.

They stood in a corridor with no end in sight. Its low, oppressive ceiling stretched all the way ahead.

On both sides of the corridor, countless wooden doors were slowly opening.

Just like the wooden door behind them.

Before long, figures began to appear in the doorways.

Most were masked people covered in blood. Looking into the distance, they could see ordinary people emerging from only a handful of doors.

And even those so-called "ordinary people" looked exhausted and unsteady on their feet.

Like Qi Xia, they had survived.

"What's going on...?" Han Yimo asked weakly. "The nine of us weren't the only ones abducted?"

Qi Xia's expression grew exceptionally grave. The situation before him went far beyond anything he had imagined.

Had this organization abducted countless people and made them play killing games?

"But... so few people survived..." Zhang Chenze sighed softly.

Of the thousands of doors stretching out before them, only a scant few people emerged.

They saw not a single other room where everyone had survived, as they had in Qi Xia's room.

"Everyone, this way, please."

The snake-headed man gestured to one side, indicating which way they should go. Then he stood beside the door with his hands clasped behind his back, apparently with no intention of leaving.

"Let's go."

Knowing they shouldn't linger, they formed a long line and slowly moved away.

As they passed one shabby wooden door after another, they got a close look at the people wearing animal masks.

There were oxen, horses, and dogs.

There were also sheep and snakes, like the ones they had seen before.

Every one of them exuded an eerie presence and a smell of decay. Most of the rooms beyond the doors had bodies strewn across the floor. There was no telling what "games" those people had taken part in.

After another dozen or so steps, two animal masks ahead gave them a fright.

The person on the left wore an enormous rat mask and leaned against the wall, while the one on the right wore an enormous rooster mask and stood with his arms folded across his chest.

These two masks clearly weren't artificial. They had been made from actual animal heads.

But where in the world could rats and roosters grow that large?

Like the others wearing animal masks, these two merely gave Qi Xia and his companions an indifferent glance and did nothing else.

"What are all these animals...?" Frightened, Lin Qin instinctively moved farther away from the pair.

Qi Xia frowned slightly, as though something had occurred to him.

Sheep, dog, snake, rat, rooster...

"The Chinese Zodiac," he murmured, his lips barely moving.

Everyone froze, then looked around.

Sure enough, every animal mask worn by the people in shabby suits belonged to one of the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac.