Someone Else

Jiang Mingran froze.

Why? Didn't every loop begin with the woman coming through the door?

Why was she already in the bathroom this time?

The woman seemed about to step forward, but the instant her embroidered shoe shifted, Shao Lan drove the blade a centimeter into the man's neck.

Blood immediately streamed down. The man cried out in pain, and the woman stopped.

Jiang Mingran went over to Shao Lan. He saw blood on Shao Lan's forehead and limbs, injuries clearly sustained during the struggle. Shao Lan was trembling slightly now, almost out of strength.

Jiang Mingran hurried to help restrain the man. He reached out to take the knife as well, but Shao Lan shook his head. "You've never killed anyone, have you?"

Jiang Mingran hesitated. Of course he hadn't.

"Then leave it to me." Shao Lan looked coldly at the woman.

His knife hand was utterly steady, murderous intent radiating from his entire body. Anyone who saw him would have no doubt that he really dared to kill.

The woman sensed his murderous intent and stood motionless.

"Pancake Uncle, call the police. Apartment 1301," Shao Lan said.

He had learned the apartment number just before dying in the previous loop.

Pancake Uncle hurried to the landline. He picked up the receiver and looked fearfully at the woman-in the second loop, he had watched her kill Shao Lan while Shao Lan was making the call.

But this time, the woman didn't move. She faced Shao Lan and Jiang Mingran, standing perfectly still.

Throughout Pancake Uncle's call to the police, she never came over to stop him.

Holding the man in a chokehold, Jiang Mingran stared at the woman standing in the bathroom, utterly bewildered.

"Shao Lan..." he said. "Why was the Fake Police Officer inside the apartment this time? And why was that monster in the bathroom?"

Gripping the knife's handle, Shao Lan said calmly, "Not just this time. Every time."

"What..." Jiang Mingran's eyes flickered.

"Do you remember the rules that appeared on the floor?"

Jiang Mingran nodded blankly.

Starting with the second loop, rules had appeared on the floor every time.

The first rule was, "Those who have not ventured deep into the fog cannot leave it either." It meant they couldn't simply leave the game area without solving the puzzle.

The second was, "Owls are birds skilled at disguise. Do not trust the owl."

The Owl Clock was the only thing in the room that displayed the time. They had considered whether something was wrong with the time, but hadn't found any leads.

Shao Lan said quietly, "The Owl Clock only has two functions: first, announcing the start of the game; second, telling the time."

"The time has no effect on this game, so it has no reason to lie about that. By elimination, the only thing we can't trust is..."

Jiang Mingran's eyes suddenly widened.

It was "the game has begun"!!

The moment the owl announced "the game has begun" wasn't when the game actually started!!

"The game didn't begin at four on the dot. It began at the initial time, three fifty-eight."

03:58 was the starting point of the loop, and the true beginning of the game.

Who could have imagined that the way to beat the game was hidden in those first two minutes?

"We all fell into the same trap before," Shao Lan said. "At four on the dot, the owl announces the start of the game, the security door makes a noise, and then the woman crosses the living room to the kitchen."

"All of that creates the illusion that four o'clock is when the killer enters the apartment."

"But actually..." Shao Lan looked at the Fake Police Officer. "The killer was inside all along. That sound wasn't her coming in. It was someone going out."

"During those two minutes between 03:58 and 04:00, there are five people in the apartment: the three of us, the killer, and the Fake Police Officer."

"The Fake Police Officer is beside the security door, getting ready to leave," Shao Lan said. "And the killer? At the beginning of every loop, we hear water dripping, as though a faucet has just been turned off."

"There are only two places with plumbing in this apartment. One is the kitchen, and the other is..."

The bathroom.

So during those first two minutes of every loop, the killer was in the bathroom.

The bathroom was the room closest to the security door, and the only room they had overlooked during their previous attempts at the game.

A chill crept into Jiang Mingran's heart.

Those two minutes before the Fake Police Officer left were when the players had the greatest opportunity to seize the initiative.

Unlike the monstrous killer, the Fake Police Officer had the physical capabilities of an ordinary man. And at that point, all the players were still alive. Three against one, they could easily take him hostage.

But if Shao Lan hadn't thought of it, they would have been doomed.

After all, during the first two minutes of every loop, they had either just been dropped into the apartment, completely bewildered, or had just experienced an utterly brutal, lifelike death. Two minutes wasn't even enough to calm their pounding hearts and pull themselves together. How could they think to act immediately?

Besides, they had previously known very little about the Fake Police Officer. How could Shao Lan be sure that taking him hostage would keep the woman under control?

Shao Lan saw the question in Jiang Mingran's eyes.

"Remember the newspaper we read? The police found dismembered bodies all over the city. That means the killer disposes of the bodies after killing people, and does so carefully and meticulously enough that the police haven't found any leads."

"The woman isn't capable of that, so someone else disposes of the bodies for her." Shao Lan pointed at the man. "Him."

That was why this man left in the early hours of the morning, and why so many black garbage bags were piled by the door: they provided cover for disposing of the bodies.

At 03:58, both the [Killer] and the [Fake Police Officer] were at home. The [Killer] was washing away the blood, while the [Fake Police Officer] was gathering the garbage bags by the door, preparing to go out and dispose of the bodies.

At 04:00, the [Fake Police Officer] finished gathering everything and shut the security door as he left, making the sound they heard in every loop. At the same time, the woman emerged from the bathroom, crossed the living room, and entered the kitchen to cook the bodies.

In the second and third loops, they had successfully called the police. When the patrol car arrived, the [Fake Police Officer] spotted it and hurried home ahead of the officers.

But...

Jiang Mingran looked at the [Fake Police Officer].

There was still one final question he didn't understand.

Why would a human help a monster?

Who exactly was he?

"He's the [Diary Writer]," Shao Lan said softly.

"We assumed the [Diary Writer] never got the chance to call the police because he was killed... but there's another possibility. In the end, he chose to become the monster's accomplice."

He was both the killer's accomplice and her weakness.