Chapter 7
Chapter 7
No one stepped forward to touch the screen.
After a moment of silence, someone in the crowd began to cry. It was Tang Ying’s friend, Ruirui.
“I don’t want to play any game. I just want to go home… Please, let us leave…” Ruirui sobbed so hard she could barely speak.
“You don’t want to play?” Tina scratched her head with a helpless expression. “All right. I can’t force you. Just walk out through the front doors.”
Ruirui looked up at Tina in terror. “If I walk out of the hotel, will the same thing happen to me as the man whose head exploded?”
“Yes,” Tina replied, gazing at her sympathetically. “I’m sorry, but that isn’t up to me. Those are the organization’s rules.”
Ruirui let out a despairing whimper and clung to Tang Ying. Tang Ying looked terrified too. Her face was pale, and her body trembled slightly. But she fought to master her fear and remain calm, resting one hand on her friend’s shoulder as she comforted her.
“So there are snipers waiting outside? The second we step through those doors, they’ll shoot us?” the man with glasses asked.
“No, no, no. That’s not it.” Tina waved a hand. “What actually happened is this: while you were asleep after boarding the coach, the organization’s finest surgeons used minimally invasive procedures to implant a microbomb somewhere inside each of your bodies.
“There are sensors at the hotel entrance. The instant any of you steps outside, the bomb in your body will automatically detonate. A microbomb isn’t tremendously powerful, but it’s more than enough to kill a person.”
The revelation sent the crowd into even greater panic. Some began feeling their bodies or heads, trying to determine whether a microbomb had really been implanted inside them.
No one was more stunned than Chen Nuo. Cold sweat soaked his back.
He had nearly walked out of the hotel earlier.
If the family of three had not asked him to take their pictures, he would have been the first of those thirty people to die.
The enormity of the danger he had narrowly escaped made him shudder.
Seeing so many people searching their bodies, Tina said, “There’s no need to feel around. The microbombs are extremely small, and they’re inside your bodies. You can’t possibly detect them with your hands.”
The man with glasses looked from side to side. “That’s impossible.”
“Hmm?” Tina turned to him.
“I’m a surgeon. We boarded the coach at around six in the morning and arrived at the hotel at around seven. No matter how advanced minimally invasive surgery has become, no one could implant microbombs in twenty-two people in a single hour, especially not inside a moving coach. And when we woke up, none of us felt any pain or discomfort.”
“You don’t believe me?” Tina pouted. “Tina would never lie.”
“If she’s lying, how do you explain what happened to the man whose head exploded the moment he stepped outside?” Chen Nuo asked.
“Exactly. Even if there were snipers outside, they’d still need time to react and aim,” the man in the cap said. “I saw the whole thing. His head exploded the instant he crossed the threshold. Besides, a sniper rifle wouldn’t make someone’s head burst apart like that.”
The surgeon frowned, unable to answer.
“There’s no need to speculate. I never intended to hide this part from you,” Tina said.
Everyone looked at her. Smiling, she continued, “Here’s the truth: four years have passed since you arrived on this island.”
Every person in the lobby froze.
What had she just said?
Their plane had not landed on Xiangji Island until shortly after four that morning. Only a few hours should have passed.
Yet Tina claimed that four years had passed.
How was that possible?
When Tina saw their baffled expressions, she clapped her hands in delight and laughed. “I couldn’t wait to say that and see the shock on your faces. You look exactly the way I imagined!”
“Miss Tina, this has to be a joke. How could four years possibly have passed?”
Tang Ying held up her phone. “It says right here that today is August 17, 2019, the same day we arrived on Xiangji Island.”
“Yes, that’s right! But Miss Tang Ying, have you forgotten that your phones have had no network connection since you left the coach? They can’t correct the time automatically.”
Tang Ying stiffened.
Tina continued, “Let me explain. The K Organization possesses the world’s most advanced biotechnology. For the past four years, all of you have been kept in capsules similar to the ones used in spacecraft. Drugs placed you in induced hibernation, reducing your energy consumption and metabolism to the absolute minimum. That’s why, after waking four years later, none of your appearances have changed. You look exactly the way you did four years ago. Naturally, the minimally invasive surgery was performed during that time.”
“You mean it isn’t 2019 anymore? It’s 2023?” one of the twin sisters asked in astonishment.
“That’s right. Exactly four years have passed since you arrived on the island. Today is August 17, 2023,” Tina said.
“Did you go into hibernation too? Otherwise, why don’t you look any different?”
Tina leaped up in delight. “Really? I must have taken excellent care of myself! I thought I looked exactly the same too. I even put on the clothes I wore four years ago, and I managed to fool all of you. I’m so happy!”
“Four years later… 2023?” The oldest man still could not believe it. “What has happened in the world during those four years?”
“A great deal, actually. There was a global pandemic, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and plenty more,” Tina said.
“A pandemic? Are our families all right?” the old man asked, growing agitated. Worry spread across the faces of the others as well.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t answer that. Instead of worrying about your families, shouldn’t you be more concerned about your own situation?” Tina asked.
For the moment, Chen Nuo put aside the question of whether any of this was true.
“If you kidnapped us and brought us here to play some kind of game, why did you wait four years?”
“That’s an excellent question!” Tina said. “Under the laws of your country, a person who has been missing for four years can be declared dead and removed from the official household registry. In other words, legally speaking, all of you are already dead. Your families gave up looking for you long ago. Now you can forget all your worries and enjoy playing this game on the island to your hearts’ content!”
What? We’re all already dead?
The shock made Chen Nuo’s scalp prickle.
Just to strip away every concern and make us devote ourselves completely to this game, the organization went this far? What kind of game is this?
“I don’t want to play a game. I just want to go home. I want to see my mom and dad…” Ruirui began crying again.
Tina nodded sympathetically. “I completely understand why you want to go home. And going home isn’t impossible. You simply have to become a winner of the game. There doesn’t have to be only one winner! The winners will also receive a very generous cash prize!”
“Then tell us already! What kind of game are you making us play?” the round-faced college student demanded.