Lin Muyun, without Jiang Cheng needing to remind him, mustered his last bit of strength to smash the chair against Yuan Xiaotian. Immediately after, he rushed to Lin Muwan's side, and without a word, picked her up and ran.

The instant they burst through the security door, Lin Muwan anxiously twisted her head back. Behind her and her brother, the mist that filled the stairwell slowly converged, as if a barrier, cutting off her view.

Similarly, it severed someone's hope of survival.

Lin Muwan's expression suddenly turned fearful, her mouth opening slightly, but no sound came out. In the final moment before the mist closed, a figure rushed out.

Her pale face relaxed, and Lin Muwan breathed a sigh of relief.

Jiang Cheng's speed far surpassed Lin Muyun, who was carrying his sister. As he passed, he gave him a pull.

Behind them, they heard stumbling noises. Yuan Xiaotian's limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, and he crawled on the ground like a large spider, chasing after them.

The split halves of his head looked like a monster's mandibles, dripping with disgusting slime.

Yuan Xiaotian was originally faster than them, but with such a short distance, he clearly had no chance. The next second, Jiang Cheng and the others burst through the door.

The rain that filled the sky abruptly stopped, as if someone had pressed the pause button. Raindrops hung suspended in mid-air, like severed threads.

The world fell silent.

"Jingle bells, jingle bells—"

The familiar ringtone of an alarm clock sounded. The three followed the sound, and not far from them, on the steps of the green belt, sat an old, copper-colored alarm clock.

Exactly like the one in their room.

Their gazes gradually shifted away. In the green belt, a blue backpack hung crookedly from the branch of a small tree, like a student's book bag.

Clearly, the alarm clock was there to prompt them to find this backpack.

Jiang Cheng walked over and reached out to take the bag. Before he could open it to examine its contents, he felt a dizzying sensation, and then, he lost consciousness.

......

When he woke again, he was greeted by a pale white ceiling.

He shook his head slightly and sat up in bed. His head felt heavy and groggy, as if he were recovering from a drunken stupor.

Looking around, he was back in the apartment.

But this time, there was a new addition to his room: a blue backpack hung quietly on the hook behind his door.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up. Outside the door, there was a commotion. Upon hearing Fatty's robust voice, Jiang Cheng breathed a sigh of relief.

He grabbed the backpack, held it in his hand, and opened the door to go outside.

They were in the same old place, crowded together, looking quite lively, but the atmosphere was not what Jiang Cheng expected. Everyone seemed to be in low spirits.

In Jiang Cheng's understanding, this mission was over, and they just had to wait to leave.

Huai Yi was the first to notice Jiang Cheng's arrival and said with delight, "Brother Jiang, you're awake?"

"Yeah." Jiang Cheng nodded, his gaze fixed on the man named Feng Jie. Feng Jie wore a gloomy expression, clearly having worked himself into a rage.

In Jiang Cheng's mind, he was just a man of few words, but he was reliable and knew what was important. Xia Qiang valued him highly.

"Doctor," Fatty said when he saw Jiang Cheng. The anger on his face visibly dissipated, and even his voice became cheerful. "You're finally awake! We were so worried about you!"

Finally awake...

Upon hearing this, Jiang Cheng frowned slightly. What did he mean by "finally awake?" Weren't they supposed to have woken up together?

And why hadn't he seen Lin Muyun and Lin Muwan?

As if in response to his doubts, two more doors opened, and Lin Muyun and Lin Muwan came out one after the other.

Jiang Cheng glanced at them, and the worry in his heart subsided. He then raised his chin at the others. "What exactly happened? Tell me everything."

"Let me explain," Zhou Tong said as she stepped forward. She first sorted out her thoughts and then began to recount what had happened.

It turned out that not long after Jiang Cheng and the others disappeared yesterday, Captain Wu and the others had called, again saying they had discovered Wang Jie's body. They had rushed to Yourun Mansion.

But this time, they found Xia Qiang's body.

The body was lying in the middle of the 11th-floor hallway, cut in half at the waist, with blood everywhere.

More importantly, there was only his body.

Feng Jie suppressed his grief and noticed that Captain Wu, who was leading the team, and Team Leader Zhang had strange expressions. When he asked them, he learned that when they had received the report and arrived, it was not yet fully light. Near the green belt outside the main entrance of Yourun Mansion, they had found four unconscious people.

"Four people?" Jiang Cheng's heart skipped a beat.

Zhou Tong's face turned unnatural, but she still said, "Yes, it was... it was four people. You, Lin Muyun, Lin Muwan, and... Xiaotian."

"Xiaotian was there too. He came back to life." Zhou Tong looked up, her tone becoming hurried, as if eager to tell everything she knew. "Mr. Jiang, this is also part of the rules of the game. Dead players only die in the script, but they can still be revived, as long as certain conditions are met, they can..."

"Where is he?" Jiang Cheng immediately asked.

Zhou Tong paused, then glanced toward the corner of the corridor, where they could faintly hear someone sobbing.

"Xiaotian was closest to Brother Qiang and Li Mengyao in the team. Now that they're gone, he's just..." Zhou Tong couldn't continue speaking, her eyes turning red and her voice starting to choke.

Jiang Cheng nodded, indicating that he understood, and then tentatively asked, "The way to save someone is to take their corpse's name tag and bring it out of Yourun Mansion, right?"

Zhou Tong nodded, choking out, "That's right."

Seeing Zhou Tong's appearance, Feng Jie sighed and took over the conversation, his voice low. "I used my Night Watchman identity to bring you out, but you remained unconscious, and we couldn't wake you up no matter what we did. Zhou Tong and this brother stayed behind to watch over you, while Huai Yi and I went to the Mystery Hall again and entered Room 19."

"This time, we obtained the Player's Handbook, which details the rules of the Rainy Night Murderer script," Feng Jie said methodically. "As long as you take the dead player's identity tag and bring it out, the dead player can be revived in the script game."

"Name tag..." Feng Jie paused. "That is, our identity card, each one is unique."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Cheng understood why Yuan Xiaotian had been able to come back to life. It was entirely because he had taken his identity card.

"The corpses whose identity tags have been taken will stand up and, in the rainy night, become puppets of the murderer," Jiang Cheng recalled. "Helping the murderer hunt down the survivors."

"That's right," Feng Jie said in a low, firm voice. "So, saving people is a very dangerous thing, and it may be counterproductive, causing more unnecessary casualties."