"You've improved at seeing through these ghosts' disguises." Jiang Cheng pretended to sincerely praise Fatty, watching his eyes, waiting for a possible slip-up.

Fatty's expression turned awkward upon hearing this. He looked around, and after noticing no one was paying attention, he lowered his voice. "Doctor, it's not what you think. The whole thing… it was just a coincidence."

Intrigued, Jiang Cheng gestured for him to continue.

After gathering his thoughts, Fatty sighed. His experience was similar to Jiang Cheng's: he also woke up in the underground jail of the Roman Hotel, surrounded by familiar teammates.

But unlike Jiang Cheng, Fatty hadn't noticed anything amiss. On the contrary, he mingled with them, his eyes welling up with tears of emotion, feeling confident about their chances.

After they got the key, they went to find their rooms, but as they passed a mirror at the corner of the stairs, Fatty, who was singing arm in arm with Jiang Cheng and Du Moyu, lost his footing. He slipped and fell headfirst toward the mirror.

Just as Fatty thought he was about to smash through the mirror and be cut to ribbons, a strange sensation came over him. The surface of the mirror rippled like water, and when he opened his eyes again, he had crossed through the mirror and entered another world.

This world was also the Roman Hotel, but it was the hotel after the fire, with the surrounding wooden structures charred beyond recognition.

Before he could even be afraid, the scene reflected in the mirror nearly broke him. In the mirror, Jiang Cheng, Du Moyu, and the rest of the team had completely changed, transformed into charred corpses.

To this day, Fatty still can't figure out when his teammates were replaced.

If anyone else had told Jiang Cheng this, he would never have believed it—it was too far-fetched. But it was Fatty, and Jiang Cheng recalled his heaven-defying luck, making it difficult to discern the truth.

"You were the first to wake up?" Jiang Cheng changed the subject.

Fatty shook his head, his voice low and laced with an odd tone. "No, I was second. The person sitting over there… was the first."

Following Fatty's gaze, Jiang Cheng looked toward the long wooden table. Around the table sat three people, their faces flickering in the light of the kerosene lamp.

A middle-aged man in a gray cloth robe and gold-rimmed glasses.

An old man in a white practice suit, his hair and beard both white.

And next to the old man, a young girl, about 14 or 15 years old, wearing a Lolita-style vintage court dress, white knee-high socks, and black Mary Jane shoes.

The first impression was that of a well-behaved loli, but that meant nothing to an old hand like Jiang Cheng. After all, you never know if something is rotten inside until you cut it open.

What was even stranger was that the girl's left eye was covered with a black patch, either from an injury or a birth defect, giving her a bit of a one-eyed pirate look.

His gaze lingered on the middle-aged man in the robe, the old man in the white practice suit, and the eye-patched loli girl. To be honest, Jiang Cheng couldn't see through any of them.

"Which of the three?" Jiang Cheng asked softly.

"The girl, the girl with the eye patch," Fatty replied.

Fatty got through the illusion based entirely on luck. What this girl relied on to be even faster than Fatty, Jiang Cheng couldn't guess. If it was the same luck, so be it, but if it was something else… a trace of vigilance flashed in Jiang Cheng's eyes. That was worth thinking about.

In the meantime, more and more people woke up. Because they were all experienced veterans, there was no panic. A silent atmosphere spread, and everyone was seizing the time to think.

Finally, someone sighed. "There's no need to wait any longer. It's just us." It was the man in the security guard uniform, dark-skinned with a stubble of a beard.

Hearing this, someone walked over to those still lying on the ground, squatted down, and tried them one by one. Finally, he slowly stood up. "They're not breathing. They're dead."

There were six bodies on the ground, meaning that the Roman Hotel illusion had eliminated six companions.

Now, there were only 12 people left.

The first level had eliminated a third of the people, so the difficulties ahead were easy to imagine.

A well-dressed man in a suit stood up, looked around, and said in a gentle tone, "No offense, everyone, but should we get to know each other?"

No one paid any attention to him, and the atmosphere became awkward for a moment. The man was not impatient or annoyed, and his attitude became even more humble. "Since no one objects, I'll start. My name is Zhang Shiwei, and I work for a pharmaceutical company."

"Li Bai, surgeon." The woman who gave Jiang Cheng water nodded, her white coat very conspicuous.

"Li Shanru." The short-haired woman said casually, without even looking at them.

The short-haired woman had a ghastly complexion, and it was impossible to tell her gender if she didn't speak. She was very blunt and had even rebuffed him, so Jiang Cheng had a deep impression of her.

Zhang Shiwei nodded and smiled to remind her, "Ms. Shanru, please tell us your profession. If it's convenient, it might be helpful in the upcoming mission."

Li Shanru raised an eyebrow and looked at Zhang Shiwei with interest. "I work in a funeral parlor. Have you heard of an embalmer? I'm responsible for stitching up corpses and helping restless corpses close their eyes."

Zhang Shiwei's expression turned awkward, and he said nothing more.

"He Ping." The man in the security guard uniform nodded, his tone very calm. "I'm an internal security guard at a private bank."

As soon as he finished speaking, a slightly shrill voice came from a distance. It sounded like a man, speaking in a forced falsetto. "You've killed people. You have a lot of lives on your hands."

The voice came from nearby, from the long wooden table. The middle-aged man in the gray robe was looking at them, his eyes as sharp as an eagle's, full of pressure.

Sensing the distant gazes of the others, He Ping's expression darkened. After a moment, he raised his head. "You're right. I used to be a private bodyguard overseas. In war-torn areas, some conflicts were unavoidable in order to protect my clients."

Hearing this, the middle-aged man in the gray robe gave a strange expression. Just as everyone thought there would be a conflict, the man withdrew his gaze and said calmly, "Luo Tianhe, I am a physiognomist."

As soon as this name was uttered, someone reacted violently. "You're Luo Tianhe?"

Luo Tianhe did not react.

Jiang Cheng secretly remembered the name. It seemed his feeling was right—the three people sitting around the long wooden table were indeed not simple. Now, what he wanted to hear most was the identity of that loli girl.

As for that girl, Jiang Cheng always had an indescribable feeling. Her presence made him very uneasy. Although the girl was turned to the side, her back to him, he felt like he was being watched.