Chapter 4: Entering Twice

When You Huo came out of the confinement room, the corridor was completely silent.

The room opposite his containing the bald man had no noise. There was only blood flowing out from the room.

He frowned slightly in disgust and walked around the blood stains.

After for a short time, he suddenly stopped his steps.

There was a strange feeling of being watched from the shadows. Like something was looking down at him. Like a pair of lifeless eyes staring at him quietly.

You Huo looked up.

Above him was a white ceiling. Apart from a dim light, there wasn’t anything else.

·

“Oh fuck! I almost slept past the punishment time. That damned deadpanned face didn’t———” Someone rushed down from upstairs and when he turned the corner, he quickly stepped onto his brakes.

“You! Cough, you’re out?”

You Huo retracted his gaze from the ceiling.

The person who came was invigilator 922.

He looked at You Huo and immediately changed back into his official tone. He said a quick, “Excuse me” and stroke quickly down the corridor before opening the bloodstained door.

After a moment, the bald man was taken out.

922 carried the limp middle-aged man and walked with difficulty.

“Why are you still here?” He asked.

You Huo stuffed his hand in his pocket and said lazily: “Waiting for you. I have no interest in turning into smithereens.”

922: “Where’s 154?”

You Huo: “Don’t know.”

“Where did that damned bastard slack off to?”

922 muttered lowly.

He readjusted the bald man and didn’t have the energy to complain. He tilted his head in the direction of the door and said: “Let’s go, I’ll take you back to the examination centre.”

·

Small western building, second floor.

Qin Jiu crossed his arms and leaned lazily against the window. His eyes looked down.

The light from the room projected out into the woods as he watched 992 take the two examinees into the snowstorm.

Qin Jiu narrowed his eyes and seemed to be in thought as he looked in the distance.

The back bird suddenly let out a hoarse cry.

After a moment, Qin Jiu finally grunted and stood up.

He walked over to the desk and played with the black bird’s beak. While feeding it some grains, he said: “Don’t you think something is missing?”

The black bird hoarsely cried out: “Ah.”

Qin Ji: “An invigilator?”

Black bird: “Ah.”

Qin Jiu knocked on the bird’s beak and then moved to go downstairs.

Before he took more than two steps, the black bird flapped its wings and followed.

He looked around the hall and turned down into the corridor. He could faintly hear the sound of a chair moving in one of the confinement rooms. It was the room You Huo was confined in earlier.

Qin Jiu raised his eyebrow. He knocked on the door three times: “Anyone here?”

The chair inside clattered a few times.

Qin Jiu: “Can I go in?”

The chair inside slammed on the floor.

Qin Jiu unlocked the door.

The moment the door opened, he saw the missing Invigilator No. 154. He was tied to the chair with his hands behind him and there was a large ball of paper in his mouth.

On the paper, someone had calmly used a marker to write a few words: Who’s a fucking woman.

Qin Jiu suddenly laughed.

154 wanted to slam the chair again to remind Qin Jiu to free him first

but, when he saw Qin Jiu laugh, he felt a little scared and gently placed the chair down again.

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Since it was a curse, Qin Jiu didn’t appreciate it for too long.

After a moment, 154 was finally freed from the ropes.

He massaged his red wrists and complained: “I’ve been an invigilator for three years and I haven’t seen an examinee like him! The others would cry and beg and yet he just sleeps? Others wouldn’t dare provoke invigilators and he just tied me up without any fear!”

Qin Jiu sat at the desk listening. He then said lazily, “Your complaints almost rhyme. Continue.”

154: “…………….”

If possible, he wanted to shove the paper ball with the curse at his boss.

“As an invigilator, you were locked in the confinement room by an examinee. Don’t you find it shameful?” Qin Jiu narrowed his eyes and asked.

152 maintained a stiff deadpanned expression: “Dammit. Fortunately, I didn’t let 922 see. Otherwise he would laugh at me for two years straight.”

Those who are familiar with the mechanics of this system knew that invigilators were selected from previous examinees. Only the top elites would be able to change their identity.

These people were also ranked according to their level and strength and it was the also the invigilators number.

If the number is a single digit, they are the top of the top. No one would dare provoke them.

For example, 001.

“You said earlier that……….” Qin Jiu hesitated for a moment. He seemed to be trying to think of an adjective. He eventually raised an eyebrow and said: “That examinee was sleeping in the confinement room?”

“Yes. When I went in, everything was the same as usual. After staying in the confinement room, anything can happen but to him it was like there were no changes. He didn’t have anything that he feared.”

154 thought for a moment. He then wondered: “But is this possible? How can there be such a person? I have only seen one person like that in my entire lifetime.”

Qin Jiu narrowed his eyes. He used his finger to stroke the beak of the black bird sitting on his shoulder.

“Maybe his life has been too smooth sailing and he hasn’t encountered anything that he is scared of?” 154 guessed. “But no matter how smooth sailing it is, it will only last until today. This group of examinees must have been out of luck for them to encounter this type of toothpaste-like problem as their first question.”

Qin Jiu quietly glanced at him.

“The problem is like squeezing out toothpaste. You squeeze one out, you get another. I don’t know if this is some kind of bug.”

Qin Jiu: “Who came up with that ridiculous name?”

“922 that fool did. It has nothing to do with me.” 154 spoke stiffly. He continued, “But it’s just an analogy. Back when I did the exams, I feared these questions the most! It wasn’t that difficult but the amount of information you get at the beginning was a complete zero. You couldn’t figure out how to earn points, so I automatically affected defeat for the first round of answer submission. It was fated for one of our companions to become sacrifice”

154 thought back for a moment and then fearfully muttered: “Thankfully, I only encountered it once and wasn’t selected……..I wonder who will be the sacrifice in this group of examinees?”

He looked at the time: “Only a few seconds left.”

·

Before the cabin on the snow mountain.

The exhausted 922 no longer cared about his face. While gasping for air he stopped You Huo who walked ahead of him.

“Need something?” You Huo looked annoyed.

It was about time for the first answer submission. Through the roaring snowstorm, he could sense the panic inside the cabin.

Even a second couldn’t be delayed.

922 said: “There’s still another rule. As a person who had been confined, the two of you cannot answer when the answer is being collected for this round.”

You Huo’s expression turned even colder.

922 waved his hand: “Don’t glare at me. Anyway, the first round for these types of questions are usually death questions. If you don’t score any points——-”

He wasn’t done speaking but You Huo had already turned around and opened the door.

The moment hot air poured out, the rooster started to let out a cry.

It was time for their responses to be collected.

The bald man fell onto his knees in fear. He quickly crawled over to the corner and trembled with unfocused eyes.

His actions took the lead, and several people in the room also followed suit.

Yu Wen half knelt on the floor with his knees suppressing the tattooed man below him. He was holding something in his hand that appeared to have just been taken away.

With the rooster’s cry, he looked over in confusion. He raised his hand and muttered: “Brother, I found the knife, but time is……up?”

And then?

Everyone sat on the ground stunned. They were so scared they almost forgot to breathe.

The rooster cries made them panic.

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“Really…….Will be evicted from the exam centre?” Someone murmured quietly.

Then they will be blasted into smithereens outside in the snowstorm? Just like that tin can that was thrown out earlier?

Bang!!

The locked door suddenly blew open and it forcefully slammed into the wall.

Everyone flinched.

Outside, 922 who had not yet left stood still.

A sudden gust of wind blew in. Like a plane that was flying at a high altitude suddenly opening its door, a strong suction force pulled the people inside the room towards the door.

“Ahhh———-”

Old Yu cried out in shock. He suddenly fell to the ground and started to slip over towards the door.

It was as if there was an invisible hand pulling him by his ankle and dragging him out.

·

“The answer submission will only be over after the rooster cries 9 times.”

“Also, there’s a little trick for this dumb first round question. Hah…..It’s quite shameless.”

These two phrases suddenly appeared in You Huo’s mind.

You Huo didn’t have the time to think too deeply about it. He grabbed the knife in Yu Wen’s hand and jumped over the long table that was in the way. He stood in front of the answer wall.

As the rooster let out its last cry, he scribbled a word:

Answer.

922 outside the door: “………………”

Is this trick also okay???

It really was okay.

The rooster cries and the snowstorm abruptly stopped.

Old Yu whose head was at the edge of the door had lost most of the hair at the top of his head. Yu Wen who was hugging his dad’s leg rolled pathetically on the ground.

Their hearts thumped furiously, and their pale faces had a look of confusion. They then turned to look at the answer wall.

After what felt like almost a century, a red mark appeared next to the rough scribble “Answer”:

2

Everyone was shocked.

922 was dumbfounded.

He stood in the cold for a few seconds and then rushed back to report.

·

It took a moment for the others in the room to digest what had happened.

They slowly climbed up from the ground and stood on their jelly-like legs.

“Man, what is this. Scared me to death………..” Old Yu fixed up his hair that had become bald in the centre. There was a light wound on his scalp too where blood flowed down from but fortunately, he was still alive.

Yu Wen released his hold of his father’s leg. He laid sprawled on the ground in daze.

After a few seconds, he suddenly sat up and smacked his mouth: “Look at this pig head of mine! How could I have forgotten something like this?! My teacher would always remind us before an exam that even if we cannot answer the question, we should still write the word ‘answer’. Just that word alone is worth 2 points!!! Brother, how can you be so clever?!”

“………..”

You Huo wordlessly stored away the knife. He didn’t see that as a praise.

In order to prevent the idiot from continuing to talk about the word ‘answer’, he finally spoke up and asked: “Who took the knife?”

When he mentioned the knife, Yu Wen’s expression immediately turned sour: “Who else?!”

He pointed at the tattooed man and said: “Him! We found it on him! I knew there was something wrong with him. While the others were trying to find clues, he was hoarding all kinds of weapons like a bear preparing for hibernation. If not for Ms. Yu Yao bumping into him and knocking the knife out during the commotion, who knows when we would find it?!”

As he recalled what happened moments earlier, he couldn’t help but shudder.

If that commotion didn’t happen, if they were just a little bit more unlucky and the found the knife a second too late, if You Huo didn’t come back before their responses are collected…..

Then his father Old Yu……

The tattooed man was tied up to the chair as everyone interrogated him.

At this moment, the answer wall suddenly changed.

Topic: A group of travellers came to a snow mountain and stayed overnight at a small hunter’s cabin.

Question: I have 13 tableware, but food is limited and only 12 can be accommodated. The tableware hide a secret and one of you is destined to die. Will you be spared? This is actually not very difficult, after all optics is the most magical thing in the world.

Requirements: Find the that cursed tableware. (But cannot damage them)

Knowledge being tested: Optics

Everyone: “…………..”

Just as everyone was looking at the problem, a line of words appeared below.

Violation warning: A punished examinee broke the rules and answered the question. The invigilator has been notified.

Invigilator: 001, 154, 922

Everyone: “……………….”

·

Ten minutes later.

On the second floor of the small western building, inside the invigilator’s office.

An invigilator and a rule violating examinee who had returned a second time looked at each other silently.

You Huo: “………………”

Qin Jiu: “…………….”

After a long time, the invigilator playing with the pen snorted. He looked up lazily and asked: “Do you plan on living here?”