Empty Room

An old incandescent bulb, suspended by a black wire, hung in the center of the room, flickering with a dim light. 

The tranquil atmosphere was like ink dripping into clear water, spreading and permeating throughout the room.

In the center of the room was a large round table, which looked quite worn and battered. In the center of the table stood a small clock with very intricate patterns, ticking away.

Around the table sat ten people dressed in a variety of clothing, all of which seemed somewhat tattered and their faces were covered in quite a bit of dust.

Some were lying on the table, while others were leaning back in their chairs, all fall asleep.

Beside these ten people, quietly stood a man wearing a goat head mask and a black suit.

His gaze penetrated through the worn-out goat head mask, with great interest, observing the ten individuals.

The clock on the table rang out, with the minute hand and the hour hand both pointing to 'twelve'.

From a distant place outside the room, a deep bell tolled.

At the same moment, the ten men and women sitting around the round table slowly awoke.

After gradually regaining their senses, they first looked around in confusion, then looked at each other in doubt.

It seemed that none of them remembered why they were here.

"Good morning, nine of you," the goat head man spoke first, "I am very pleased to meet you here. You have been asleep in front of me for twelve hours."

The attire of the man in front of them was truly bizarre, startling everyone under the dim light.

His mask seemed to be made from a real goat's head, with much of the fur turned yellow and black, tangled and matted together.

Two hollows were carved out for the eyes of the goat mask, revealing his cunning eyes.

In his gesture, not only was there the unique smell of a goat, but also a faint odor of decay.

A man with a tattooed arm was stunned for a few seconds before he finally realized the unreasonableness of the situation and asked the goat head hesitantly, "Who... are you?

I believe you all have this question, so let me introduce myself to the nine of you." The goat head man waved his hands with joy, as if he had been prepared with the answer for a long time.

A young man named Qi Xia sat the furthest away from the goat head, quickly surveying the situation inside the room. After a moment, his expression became solemn.

Strange, this room is really strange.

There are no doors here, just walls.

In other words, the walls, ceiling, and floor of this room are all sealed, and yet there is a table in the center of the room.

So how did they get here?

Could it be that the people were brought in first, and then the walls were built?

Qi Xia looked around again, and whether it was the floor, walls, or ceiling, there were crisscrossing lines everywhere. These lines divided the walls and floor into many large squares.

Another point that caught Qi Xia's attention was the "nine people" mentioned by the goat head.

No matter how you count them, there are ten people sitting around the round table, plus the goat head himself, making a total of eleven people in the room.

What does "nine people" mean?

He reached into his pocket and, as expected, his phone had already been taken away.

"There's no need for you to introduce yourself to us," a cold woman said to the goat head, "I suggest you stop your actions now. I suspect you have detained us for more than twenty-four hours, constituting the crime of 'illegal detention.' Every word you say now will be recorded and will form testimony against you."

As she spoke, she rubbed the dust on her arm with disdain, as if being detained was less bothersome to her than being soiled.

The cold woman's words indeed made many people more sober, no matter who the other party was, daring to kidnap ten people alone, no matter what, has already broken the legal bottom line.

"Wait a minute..." a middle-aged man in a white coat interrupted everyone's thoughts, slowly looking at the cold woman and asking, "We have just woken up, how do you know we have been imprisoned for 'twenty-four hours'?"

His tone was steady and forceful, yet to the point.

The cold woman calmly pointed to the clock on the table and replied, "The clock here points to twelve o'clock, but I have a habit of going to bed late. The last time I looked at the clock at home was already twelve o'clock, which means we have been imprisoned for at least twelve hours."

After she finished speaking, she pointed to the walls around and continued, "You should have also noticed that there is no door in this room, indicating that this person has gone to great lengths to get us into this room. He said we have been asleep for twelve hours, and now the clock points to twelve o'clock again, which means it has turned at least two circles. So I suspect it has been 'more than twenty-four hours,' is there a problem?"

After listening to this answer, the man in the white coat looked at the woman coldly, and his gaze still carried doubt.

After all, in this kind of environment, the woman is too calm.

Would a normal person facing this kind of kidnapping act speak as calmly as she did?

At this moment, a strong young man in a black T-shirt asked, "Goat head, why are there ten people here, but you say there are nine?"

The goat head remained silent and did not answer immediately.

"Hey, I don't care how many people are here..." The tattooed man cursed, trying to stand up by propping himself on the table, but found his legs weak and unable to exert force, so he could only continue to point at the goat head, "You little worm, I advise you to be careful. You might not realize the severity of provoking me; I can really take your life."

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of the men present gradually became serious. At this moment, there indeed needed to be a leader, and if they could subdue the goat head together, the situation was still manageable.

But everyone discovered that their legs seemed to have been injected with something, rendering them completely powerless at this moment.

Thus, the tattooed man could only threaten the goat head with words, loudly cursing and shouting.

Qi Xia did not speak but reached out to gently stroke his chin, looking at the clock on the table thoughtfully.

It seemed that things were not as simple as he had imagined.

He knew that what the goat head referred to were "nine participants." If there were ten people here, it could only prove that one of them was not a participant.

Then who was he?

There were six men and four women sitting in the room; could one of them be the "kidnapper"?

The goat head said no more but slowly approached Qi Xia, standing behind a young man.

Everyone followed his gaze and noticed that the young man in front of them was different from everyone else. Although his face was also dirty, it was filled with a blissful smile.

The goat head slowly raised his palm and placed it on the back of the young man's head.

The young man's smile became even more peculiar; he looked at everyone excitedly, as if he had known something for a long time.

A dull sound was heard as the goat-headed man slammed the young man's head violently onto the table.

Pinkish-white substances, like spilled paint, spread horizontally across the table in an instant, and blood spatters splashed onto the faces of everyone nearby.

The young man's head was actually crushed to pieces on the table.

Once again, a distant bell tolled outside the room.

Qi Xia was very close to the deceased and felt an unknown object stick to his face, warm and sticky.

He thought his psychological quality was strong enough, but he did not expect to start trembling at this moment.

The girl sitting to the right of the deceased was stunned for three seconds before her face distorted, and she let out a blood-curdling scream.

This scream tore through the psychological defenses of the onlookers.

Could the goat head, who could smash a human's hardest skull with a single blow on the table, still be considered a 'person'?

How could his thin and frail body unleash such tremendous force?

The goat head slowly began to speak: "The reason I prepared ten people was to use one of you to calm you all down."