The police officer

"Quit trying to turn everyone against each other, you punk." Officer Li glared at Qiao Jiajin and said sternly, "You're a moneylender, and I'm a cop. Who do you think they'll believe?"

Qi Xia looked at the arguing group. He knew Officer Li probably wasn't lying. He really was a criminal investigator.

But he was going about this the wrong way.

Perhaps it was professional instinct, or perhaps his sense of justice. Either way, he kept trying to organize everyone into an orderly group.

More than half the break had passed, and the room gradually fell silent.

During that time, Qi Xia had repeated "My name is Li Ming" to himself countless times, until even he was getting irritated.

After all, a corpse with a shattered skull lay slumped beside him, making it impossible to settle his mind.

Blood dripped from the table onto the floor. They had shared a room with this corpse for almost an hour now, and a strange stench began to spread.

Qi Xia glanced indifferently at the corpse beside him. Its trousers were filthy.

Shortly after death, the organs lost the restraint provided by muscle control, causing incontinence.

Even before the smell of decay arrived, a foul stench had already hit them.

Qi Xia and another young woman sat on either side of the corpse. She seemed deeply displeased with the smell and kept her hand over her mouth and nose.

Another ten minutes passed before Goat Head finally spoke. "The twenty-minute break is over. The game will now resume."

The young man who had introduced himself earlier as Han Yimo steadied himself, took a deep breath, and said, "My name is Han Yimo. I'm a webnovel author."

"Before coming here, I was writing the ending of a novel in my rented apartment. The book had over a hundred characters, and almost all of them needed to appear in the finale, so I was completely focused on writing. I didn't hear anything outside."

"In fact... I don't even know when the earthquake happened or when I lost consciousness..."

Han Yimo's story differed from everyone else's. So far, his account seemed entirely "independent," and it came to an abrupt end after just a few sentences.

"That's it?" The muscular man paused in surprise. "You say 'I don't know,' and that's the end of it?"

"Since I can't lie, there's no reason for me to invent an answer just to satisfy everyone." Han Yimo's voice wasn't loud, yet there was something inexplicably convincing about it.

"All right... next, then." Officer Li still looked suspicious as he continued, "It's that lady's turn."

"Hey, cop." Qiao Jiajin was unhappy with Officer Li's attitude. "We're all 'participants.' Stop acting like you're our captain."

"Someone has to step up and organize everyone, don't they?" Officer Li argued. "I told you, only one of us is the enemy. The other eight have to stick together."

"That doesn't mean you get to give orders." Qiao Jiajin dismissed Officer Li's words completely. "Outside, I might be afraid of you. But in this situation, nobody knows whether you're the 'liar.'"

"Please stop arguing, both of you." The cool, aloof woman interrupted them.

From the start, this woman had accused Goat Head of imprisoning them for twenty-four hours. She seemed clearheaded and extremely calm.

Once the two men settled down, she continued, "In this so-called 'game,' regardless of who wins in the end, the survivors could be considered responsible for 'indirect homicide.' After all, we're collectively voting to have the goat-man kill someone. That's what you should be thinking about."

At those words, Qi Xia's expression shifted slightly.

If he really made it out of this room alive, then he would indeed have "killed" the other eight.

But what else could he do?

The card in front of him was a genuine "liar" card. Who would willingly give up their own life so everyone else could live?

"My name is Zhang Chenze. I'm a lawyer." The aloof woman folded her arms and spoke without expression. "It's unfortunate that we're meeting in such a bizarre place. Otherwise, I'd certainly give you my business card."

No one understood Zhang Chenze's humor, but she didn't seem to care.

"Before coming here, I was organizing documents for a court hearing. My client had been defrauded of two million yuan. It was a huge sum, and the offense was serious."

When she mentioned "two million," everyone else's expressions remained unchanged, but Qiao Jiajin was visibly startled. "Two million?"

"That's right, two million. People say lawyers are the fairest and most impartial people, but we have personal feelings too. That man had gone so far as to borrow from loan sharks to support his family, which was deeply concerning. But the illegal lending is a separate case. It has nothing to do with me."

"When the earthquake struck, I was driving to meet my client. I was on Qingyang Avenue, just past the Thatched Cottage of Du Fu, passing near the Wuhou Shrine. I remember... I wasn't driving very fast, around forty kilometers an hour, when I suddenly saw the ground split open a short distance ahead."

"I braked immediately and came to a safe stop in front of the crack. But the cars behind me couldn't avoid me in time, causing a chain of rear-end collisions."

"I heard several loud crashes, and my car was pushed into the crack. Then I lost consciousness and ended up here."

Another story had ended. Only three people had yet to speak.

"The Wuhou Shrine..." Doctor Zhao thought for a moment. "Do you mean the Wuhou Shrine in Chengdu?"

"Yes. I work in Chengdu."

It seemed this earthquake had struck the entire country.

Trying to work out who was lying from these unfamiliar stories alone was far too difficult.

"It's my turn now." Officer Li looked around at everyone. "I already told you my name. I'm Li Shangwu, a criminal investigator from Inner Mongolia."

"Before coming here, I was staking out a fraud suspect. Through reliable intelligence, we'd established the suspect's exact whereabouts."

"The suspect had defrauded someone of a huge sum, two million yuan. It was the first major fraud case reported in our city this year."

"My colleague and I had been keeping watch from our car, waiting for the fraudster to appear."

"But the suspect was cleverer than we'd expected. He seemed to sense danger and didn't show his face for three straight days."

"For those three days, we ate, drank, and relieved ourselves in the car. We were on the verge of a breakdown."

"But do you know what's harder for a grown man to bear than having nothing to eat or drink?"

"Running out of cigarettes."

"Neither of us had a single cigarette left. By the book, we absolutely couldn't leave our post, but going without cigarettes was unbearable."

"So I sent my colleague to run out and buy some while I kept a close eye on the entrance to the suspect's residence."

"What I didn't expect was that, shortly after my colleague left, the entire ground began shaking violently. I was about to get out and see what was happening when someone suddenly pulled a thin cord around my neck from behind."

"Although we're both skilled at close-quarters combat, a thin cord pulled around your neck from the back seat is extremely difficult to deal with. Not only could I not reach the person behind me, I couldn't get the cord off my neck either."

Everyone looked closely at Officer Li and noticed that there was indeed a red mark around his neck.

"So I immediately reclined my seat and managed to breathe again, but I couldn't turn around. I'm a big man, and my legs were trapped under the steering wheel."

"While I was lying back, the person behind me struck me hard on the head with something. Then I lost consciousness."

After hearing Officer Li's account, everyone began to grow suspicious.

He had described a completely different situation. Before him, every participant had been injured and knocked unconscious in an accident.

He alone had ended up here after being attacked.

If they had to choose the most suspicious person among them, wouldn't it be him?