Everyone has awakened, but I am the only mortal!

Those unaware of the situation might assume that Luo Zheng was also affected by Xiao Li's death, but only Su Bai knew that what lurked in his eyes was an unquenchable scheme.

Old Zhou rubbed his red eyes hard, his eyelids feeling as heavy as lead. He struggled to keep them open, his tone tinged with a desperate mockery: "Tell me, if I pry my eyelids open and force myself to sleep, would that be breaking the rules?"

Su Bai glanced at him indifferently: "You'll have to ask the monster."

Old Zhou's face instantly fell, and he glared at him with a wronged expression: "You've gone astray!"

Su Bai: "..."

He regretted it; he shouldn't have answered the question.

Before the lights went out, everyone hurriedly ate a few bites of biscuits to fill their stomachs.

Food was running out, and everyone was eating sparingly, chewing very slowly, as if that would allow them to last a little longer.

Only Ma Jun and the blood-covered man remained huddled in the corner, knees bent, faces buried in their arms, motionless. They had no strength to lift their heads, let alone eat, and exuded an aura of despair.

After eating something, Lao Zhou regained some of his energy.

He wasn't one to sit still, and his eyes darted around the room, eventually meeting Kuroko's gaze.

Hei Zi glared at him fiercely, then immediately looked away, clearly still holding a grudge.

Before Old Zhou could glare back, he felt stifled, so he deliberately raised his voice and said to Su Bai, "It's really strange, some things look like humans but can roll their eyes."

Upon hearing this, the attention of the group of people who were eating was instantly drawn to him, and even Hei Zi turned his head sharply to look at him, his eyes filled with anger.

Having achieved his goal, Old Zhou raised an eyebrow at Hei Zi, his tone smug: "Oh, a dog really can glare at people! I've never seen anything like it before."

Kuroko: "..."

He was so angry that he was trembling all over, but he managed to hold back and not refute her.

Su Bai ignored Lao Zhou's childish behavior.

Seeing Hei Zi's wide eyes, Lao Zhou finally regained his composure and was in a great mood, even humming a little off-key tune.

The others had already gotten used to his behavior over the past few days.

Under this suffocating pressure, Lao Zhou's childish provocation became the only moment that allowed people to relax slightly, even if only for a moment, it was enough to alleviate some of the fear in their hearts.

But no one can truly relax.

It's been three days already. The rules have been given, and the clues have been found, but everyone is still like headless flies, trapped in this room, enduring the dual torment of hunger and drowsiness while waiting for death to come.

This feeling of knowing that death is imminent but being powerless to stop it is more devastating than the monster itself.

"Snap—"

The lights suddenly went out, and the room was once again swallowed by thick darkness.

Tonight is especially hard to get through.

After three days and three nights without sleep, everyone was at their physical limit. Sleepiness surged like a tidal wave, their eyelids were so heavy they couldn't lift them, and their heads felt like they were about to explode.

In the darkness, someone couldn't help but stand up and pace back and forth in place, their footsteps faint yet hurried, trying to dispel their drowsiness with exercise.

Some people took out food and chewed it for a very long time, even their swallowing became slow, as if this would keep them awake.

The sound of chewing for a long time is very uncomfortable for people's ears.

The long night has only just begun.

Su Bai leaned against the wall, his mind replaying everything that had happened in the past few days.

The newspaper that vanished into thin air, Chen Hua who impulsively rushed out, Xiao Li who died tragically, Luo Zheng's cold-blooded suggestion, and those twelve-character proverbs.

The sleeper is sacrificed, the speaker is buried with him, the true monster has no body, and feeds on breath... Every detail hides something eerie, yet they can never connect to form a complete clue.

Old Zhou next to me had started yawning incessantly, and his breathing was getting heavier and heavier.

Finally, he couldn't hold on any longer, so he simply stood up and started stumbling around in place.

Time passed slowly, and in the deathly darkness, there was not a sound except for faint footsteps and heavy breathing.

Sudden--

"Ah—! Monster!!"

A piercing scream, so intense it was almost distorted, suddenly shattered the silence, sharp enough to pierce the eardrums, carrying with it the utmost fear and despair.

Before anyone else could react, Su Bai felt a gust of wind beside him. Old Zhou, like a startled octopus, suddenly pounced on him, hugging his neck tightly with both arms, burying his head in his chest, trembling like a leaf, and not daring to open his eyes.

Su Bai: "..."

She was being strangled so tightly she could barely breathe, but she had no choice but to let him hold her.

The scream lasted only a second before abruptly stopping, as if something had forcibly covered its mouth, or perhaps... it was swallowed up in an instant.

The mournful echo reverberated in the darkness, sending chills down one's spine and making one's scalp tingle.

But the next second, the room returned to deathly silence, so quiet that you could hear your own heart pounding.

Everyone understands.

The phrase "the sleeper's sacrifice" in the twelve-word mantra is no joke.

The person who screamed must have fallen asleep because they couldn't stay awake any longer. They broke the rules and were silently taken away by the monster.

No one dared to speak, no one dared to move, and everyone deliberately kept their breathing quiet, for fear that they would be next.

But this deathly silence didn't last long.

Another voice rang out again.

The sound wasn't like a scream; it sounded more like someone had choked on water because something was blocking their throat.

It made a hoarse, painful "hoarse...hoarse..." sound, as if struggling on the verge of death. Each sound seemed to be squeezed out from the depths of its throat, sending chills down one's spine.

The sound lasted for several minutes before gradually fading and finally disappearing completely.

There was still no movement in the darkness.

But everyone knew that yet another person had died.

A strong, pungent smell of blood slowly filled the room, mixed with the lingering fishy odor from before. It was nauseating and irritating, piercing everyone's nostrils and making their stomachs churn. Yet, no one dared to gag, for fear of making a sound and triggering the rule of "those who speak will be buried with the dead."

In the huge room, even though there were still 9 people left, it was so quiet that you couldn't even hear them breathing.

Everyone stood frozen in place, their bodies chilled to the bone. The two piercing sounds echoed repeatedly in their minds, and fear, like vines, tightly coiled around their hearts, tightening ever more.

After an unknown amount of time, a faint noise came from the direction of the doorway in the darkness.

There were soft footsteps and the dull thud of someone falling to the ground, but no one dared to make a sound.

That night was already extremely difficult because they hadn't slept for three days, and now two more people had died in succession. Fear overwhelmed everyone like a tidal wave.

Every second felt like being slowly tortured to death.

finally--

"Snapped!"

The lights came on.

The blinding light instantly filled the room, dispelling the darkness and revealing the horrific scene inside to everyone.

Ma Jun and his group were all frozen in the corner, their eyes wide open, pupils dilated, their faces filled with extreme fear, their bodies stiff and pressed tightly against the cold wall.