Ever since its first broadcast four seasons ago, the scripts for "Escape Room: Decode" have been constantly changing, but one thing has remained constant: the production team would never add a setting without reason, and they especially loved to play with major plot twists to completely annihilate the guests.

When that mental patient was relentlessly chasing them from behind while holding a bloody human head, Xi Nian already found it strange. Coupled with the broadcast's deeply meaningful phrase "the true survivor," he could already deduce certain things.

What did "the true survivor" mean?

Thinking about it from another angle, did it imply that there were fake ones?

A ghostly and gloomy classroom, a strange boy—given the production team's usual antics, how could they possibly let them complete the mission so smoothly? Xi Nian didn't know what he saw, but he shouted at Qiao Zhi to run, then was the first to dash out of the classroom, disappearing in a flash.

Hearing him, Qiao Zhi turned back in confusion, only to find that the mental patient was already looking at them. The facial features of the head he held in his arms were identical to the little boy in the classroom.

Qiao Zhi: "..."

The little boy watched Qiao Zhi quietly, then suddenly grinned at her. He reached up and untied his red scarf, revealing a hideous scar on his neck. He wore a very old, heart-shaped necklace, stained with dark blood.

It was obvious he had been dead for a long time.

The head the mental patient was holding belonged to the little boy.

In other words, the one in front of them was not a survivor, but a ghost.

If Xi Nian hadn't happened to remember the problem on the blackboard outside, they would have had to return to the first room. But the mental patient would have killed at least one of them, and with the ghost boy in the classroom, it would be difficult to avoid a total party wipe.

This damn show was out for blood, completely inhumane!

Xi Nian ran at full speed down the huge corridor. It wasn't long before he heard Qiao Zhi's bloodcurdling screams behind him. He paid them no mind, his pace not slowing in the slightest. However, as he ran, he suddenly found that the path ahead was gone—it was a dead end.

"..."

'Karma strikes when you least expect it.'

Just as Xi Nian was about to turn back and find another path, the mental patient had already caught up, holding Qiao Zhi hostage with a dagger and walking towards him step by step.

Qiao Zhi was crying so hard she could barely breathe, half from anger and half from fright. "Xi Nian, you dog, you ran away without me! I hate you! I hate you!"

Anyone who didn't know better would think she was acting in some melodramatic soap opera.

Xi Nian glanced at the railing of the corridor and saw that there was another floor below, with a few old wooden boxes piled up. He was about to flip over and jump down when the mental patient suddenly let out a sinister cackle, pressing the dagger against Qiao Zhi's neck. "If you dare run, I'll kill her!"

Xi Nian's movement paused.

Qiao Zhi immediately changed her tune, "Daddy, save me!!"

One second she was calling him a dog, the next she was calling him daddy. Could this be the legendary 'taking a thief for a father'?

Hearing this, Xi Nian stopped his motion of climbing over the railing. Seeing this, the mental patient pressed closer, threatening, "Stand right there and don't move. If you take one more step, I'll kill her."

Meeting Qiao Zhi's expectant gaze, Xi Nian fell silent for a moment, and then...

"Then kill her. Don't let it be too painful."

Those last few words were Xi Nian's final act of gentleness. After speaking, with the speed of lightning, he vaulted over the railing and dropped down into the second-floor corridor, making one want to exclaim, "What great skill, young hero."

Qiao Zhi: "!!!!"

The NPC was stunned, and the production team was stunned too. A staff member subconsciously looked at the director. "What do we do? Team One is right below."

It had been years since they had seen a guest who screwed over their teammate so badly... ah no, who didn't play by the rules.

The director's plan to annihilate them had met an obstacle, and his temples throbbed. He spoke to his assistant through the microphone, "Activate the backup undercover agent storyline."

Xi Nian exercised regularly, and the floors weren't high, so jumping down was a piece of cake for him, his movements clean and efficient. After shaking off the mental patient's pursuit, he couldn't help but start pondering the true meaning of the words "survivor."

A survivor is a person who was lucky enough to stay alive in a disaster.

Making a bold guess, this school was desolate and dead silent, not at all like a place with living people. Could it be that the word "survivor" didn't refer to the NPCs, but to them, who were currently being hunted by the mental patient?

Both ends of the second-floor corridor were dead ends, and the stairs were sealed off. There were also many closed-off rooms. Xi Nian lightened his steps as he approached the first classroom. Peeking through the window, he saw Kong Xi and Bai Yicheng inside and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?!"

Bai Yicheng was startled. Looking through the glass window, he saw it was Xi Nian and let out a sigh of relief. He walked over and pulled the door open. "What are you doing here? Where's Qiao Zhi?"

Xi Nian said, "I climbed down from above."

As for Qiao Zhi, "She was probably caught by the NPC."

In layman's terms, she was dead.

Hearing this, Bai Yicheng gave him a strange look and subtly moved a little further away. "So you're the only one left?"

Xi Nian keenly noticed his action and suddenly felt that something was not quite right. He frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"

Bai Yicheng said, "Haven't you looked at your communicator?"

Each guest was given a communicator upon entering the escape room, making it convenient for the production team to issue tasks at any time. It was worn on the wrist. When Xi Nian was climbing over the railing just now, he found it bothersome and took it off, putting it in his pocket. Hearing this, he took it out and saw that the production team had, at some point, issued a message.

[One person in the team has defected and become an undercover agent. They will report teammates' coordinates to the mental patient on the run. Those caught will be directly eliminated. You now have three minutes of safety. Please be careful. Good luck.]

Xi Nian suddenly felt this was bullshit.

Kong Xi had been squatting to the side solving a puzzle. The prop was a fragmented mirror cube, and only by piecing it together completely could they get a clue. It was unclear what she did, but she suddenly exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "I've solved it!"

This classroom had a sealed door that could only be opened by placing the correctly assembled cube into a recess in the mechanism. Bai Yicheng's face lit up with joy upon hearing this, but when he looked at Xi Nian, a sense of vigilance quietly arose. "You're not the undercover agent, are you?"

Kong Xi also looked over, discreetly hiding the cube behind her back.

Xi Nian said, "I'm not the undercover agent."

Bai Yicheng was still unconvinced. "Then how did Qiao Zhi die?"

Xi Nian put the communicator back on his wrist. "She couldn't run as fast as me, fell behind, and was caught and killed by the mental patient. Is that so strange?"

It seemed it really wasn't that strange.

Just as Bai Yicheng was about to speak, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a head popping up outside the window out of the corner of his eye. He shivered in fright. "Who?!"

"Me."

That person peeked in quietly. It was none other than Qiao Zhi, whom Xi Nian had described as having passed on to the next life. She pushed the door open like a thief, then leaned against it and let out a long sigh of relief, patting her chest repeatedly. "That scared me to death, scared me to death. I thought there was a ghost in the classroom, but it's you guys."

This time, not only Kong Xi, but even Xi Nian's expression turned strange. Bai Yicheng took three big steps back and asked in shock, "Aren't you dead?"

Qiao Zhi's face instantly became expressionless. "Who said I was dead?"

Bai Yicheng pointed at Xi Nian. "He said you were killed by the mental patient."

Hearing this, Qiao Zhi glared at Xi Nian angrily. "It's bad enough you didn't save me, but you also cursed me to die. Even if I die, I'll drag you down with me!"

Xi Nian seemed to be calculating something inwardly, but his face showed nothing, nor did he display any sign of a guilty conscience. "The production team said there's an undercover agent among us. Why don't you explain how you survived?"

Qiao Zhi stammered.

Kong Xi also said, "We have no choice right now. To avoid suspicion, it's better to be clear."

Qiao Zhi had no choice but to mumble, "After Xi Nian ran off, the mental patient probably didn't kill me because he thought I was too pretty. He covered my eyes and took me into a secret room. When I came out again, I was at the door."

The air momentarily fell into a standstill.

Bai Yicheng looked at Kong Xi. "Do you think that's believable?"

Kong Xi shook her head, indicating she didn't know, a hint of difficulty showing on her face.

Bai Yicheng looked at Xi Nian again. "What do you think?"

Xi Nian: "I think she really isn't treating us as people with this lie."

"..."

Qiao Zhi was furious. "I know this reason sounds ridiculous, but it's the truth! He really didn't kill me, I don't know why either!"

Her agitated state didn't seem like she was lying, but the possibility of her acting couldn't be ruled out.

Kong Xi said, "Now is not the time to suspect each other. Bai Yicheng and I have searched every classroom on this floor, but we haven't found any survivors. Have you?"

Xi Nian told her what had happened earlier and stated his own guess. "The four of us are all here now, only Teacher Min and the others are missing. The 'survivors' most likely refer to ourselves."

Kong Xi had originally thought that Team Two would be the first to be eliminated, but she didn't expect Xi Nian to be able to spot the loophole. He really didn't seem like a rookie player. She nodded in agreement. "Your guess is very likely true. The most urgent task now is to find Teacher Min and the others. But both paths are blocked, so we can only get out through this door, but..."

As she spoke, she hesitated and looked at Qiao Zhi.

Everyone understood what she meant. Having an undercover agent mixed in during an escape was truly terrifying. One wrong move and the whole group could be wiped out.

Qiao Zhi began to spare no effort in dragging her teammate down, swearing solemnly and speaking with conviction, just short of swearing to the heavens. "Xi Nian must be the undercover agent. He never tried to save me from beginning to end!"

Xi Nian had long known Qiao Zhi's treacherous nature. "If I were the undercover agent, you wouldn't be alive right now."

After he finished, he directly addressed the root of the problem, taking off the communicator on his wrist and patting his pants to show that besides the earpiece and microphone, there was nothing else he could use to tip anyone off. "How about this, let's not waste time. We'll supervise each other. I'll watch Bai Yicheng, and Teacher Kong, you watch Qiao Zhi."

Qiao Zhi asked him, "Aren't we on the same team?"

Xi Nian was used to bickering with her in his past life. "I know, but I don't want to watch you."

Qiao Zhi silently swallowed a mouthful of old blood. "..."

'She really wanted to take Xi Nian down with her.'

While everyone was discussing their strategy, an alarm suddenly blared in their earpieces: [Three-minute safety period countdown, 3, 2, 1]

As soon as the voice fell, a series of 'thump, thump, thump' sounds came from outside the door, accompanied by a familiar, perverted low laugh. Qiao Zhi cried out in alarm, "Quick, quick, that psycho is here, let's get into the passage!"

Kong Xi had already placed the cube into the mechanism when the alarm sounded. With a click, the lock on the door sprang open. As she pushed the door open to go in, she said anxiously, "The classroom door won't hold for long, let's go!"

This door was only half a person's height, so they had to stoop and crawl inside. Kong Xi led the way, with Bai Yicheng following closely behind. Xi Nian was about to enter when Qiao Zhi scrambled in ahead of him, leaving him to bring up the rear.

Just then, with a "bang," the classroom door was broken open. Everyone couldn't help but crawl faster. However, when the mental patient burst in with a knife and tried to open the mechanism door, he pulled hard but found it wouldn't open.

The assistant became anxious. "Director, the NPC can't open the mechanism door."

The director was furious. "What's going on? You're messing up at a critical moment like this?!"

The staff quickly checked the surveillance footage and found that when Kong Xi opened the mechanism door, a small iron bolt had fallen to the ground. When Xi Nian was hiding in the passage, he quietly picked up the bolt while no one was paying attention and locked the door from the inside.

The iron door had an antique design with latches on both the inside and outside. Xi Nian had managed to exploit this loophole. In short, it was the props department's fault.

'The director felt like he needed a heart attack pill.'

The passage was narrow and cramped, and it was impossible to see anything. There was also a steeply sloping section. Kong Xi was scouting ahead when she suddenly let out a muffled grunt, as if she had bumped into something.

Bai Yicheng asked, "Teacher Kong, what's wrong?"

Kong Xi shook her head. "It's nothing, I just twisted my ankle. There's a collapsed section here, be careful."

The passage was winding, long, and dark. The group didn't know how long they had been crawling before they finally reached the exit. In front of them was another door, but thankfully, there was no mechanism. It opened with a simple push.

Kong Xi crawled out, her steps a bit unsteady. They found themselves in a dilapidated sports equipment room. Bai Yicheng dusted himself off and urged, "Let's hurry out and find Teacher Min and the others."

Hearing this, Xi Nian fumbled along the wall and found a door. He tentatively pushed it open and looked out, only to find another corridor identical to the one upstairs, with several closed classrooms on the right.

Xi Nian said, "Teacher Min and the others are likely inside."

Qiao Zhi's face turned pale. "I never want to see a ghostly place like a school for the rest of my life."

The group walked into the corridor and found that the classrooms below were different from the ones on the upper two floors. The doors were bare, without even handles, and the windows on the walls were locked from the inside, making it impossible to see the situation inside.

Qiao Zhi noticed a piece of paper taped to each door and said, "Come look, there's a hint on it."

There was only a short sentence on the paper:

Good and evil coexist, black and white are opposites.

The door of life can be opened, the door of hell cannot be closed.

Before you push open a door, you will never know if a demon or a human hides inside.

If it's human, you escape to the heavens; if it's a demon, you fall into hell.

Kong Xi pondered this for a moment, then thought of the ghost boy Xi Nian and the others had encountered earlier. She couldn't help but guess, "Does this mean Teacher Min and the others are trapped in one of the classrooms, while the other classrooms hide demons? If we open the right door, we can rescue them, but if we open the wrong one, we'll be devoured by the demons?"

Qiao Zhi's legs had already started to tremble. "Are we going to try them one by one?"

Kong Xi shook her head. "Look at these doors, they have no locks or handles. It's very likely that once they're pushed open, they can't be closed again, and the demons will come out. This is a dead end, we have nowhere to run. It's too risky."

Xi Nian looked around and found that there were exactly four classrooms, no more, no less. After a moment of thought, he said to everyone, "Let's each pick a door and open them together."

Kong Xi's eyes lit up. "That's a good idea. I guess the classroom with the survivors must have a safe zone for us to hide in. Otherwise, no matter which door we opened, we'd be devoured by the demons, and the game would be pointless. Let's count to three and push the doors at the same time. The person who finds the survivor classroom can shout to alert us, and then we'll quickly run to that classroom to hide."

Bai Yicheng nodded. "Then I'll open the first one."

Kong Xi said, "I'll take the second."

Qiao Zhi and Xi Nian chose the third and fourth, respectively.

The distance between the four of them suddenly widened. Kong Xi stood in the middle, took a deep breath, and began to give the order.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!"

As her voice fell, everyone pushed the doors open simultaneously. Xi Nian looked closely and saw a female ghost in a red dress sitting inside the fourth classroom. She had already stood up and was lunging towards him. He immediately retreated at high speed. At the same time, Qiao Zhi cried out in alarm, "Teacher Min is in classroom number three! Get in here, quick!"

Xi Nian immediately dodged inside, followed closely by Kong Xi and Bai Yicheng. With a bang, the classroom door was shut, and everyone let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.

A notification sounded in their earpieces: [Congratulations on finding the safe zone and successfully locating the survivors. The mental patient has begun to search the corridor. Please open the door of life and escape from this place before he finds you.]

Qiao Zhi no longer had the strength to curse.

Kong Xi said, "Xi Nian's guess was right after all. The 'survivors' refer to ourselves."

Xi Nian saw that Teacher Min and Wang Yao were tied to chairs, unable to move. He walked over to untie the ropes on them, only to find a password device on them. Wang Yao had a suffering expression as he said, "You can only enter it three times. If it's still wrong after three tries, it explodes. I never thought that after all my years in the field, I'd stumble like this."

Age was a factor. Teacher Min and Wang Yao were the brains of the operation, not the brawn. They hadn't run far before they were caught by the mental patient.

Kong Xi's leg seemed to be injured. She limped over and asked, "What's the password? Is there a hint?"

Teacher Min shook his head. "The hint mentioned something about a blackboard problem. I guess it might be the problem written on the blackboard in the secret room we first entered, but I remembered one number wrong. I tried it once and it was incorrect, so I didn't dare to try again."

Hearing this, Kong Xi looked troubled. It was full of demons outside now, and they had no way to get out. Xi Nian glanced at the password device, saw that it required three digits, and directly pressed three sixes. Wang Yao was about to stop him when, with a click, the lock opened.

Bai Yicheng: "Holy crap! Bro, you're amazing! You could even guess that correctly?!"

Xi Nian did indeed have an element of guessing. The answer to that problem was 6, so he just pressed 6 for all of them, not expecting it to actually work.

After being untied, Teacher Min took a necklace out of his pocket. "This is the prop key we got from solving the puzzle in the classroom. It can open the final door, but it's missing the other half."

Qiao Zhi stared at the necklace for a long time, then, as if she had suddenly discovered something, said to Xi Nian, "Do you remember that little brat? He seemed to be wearing a necklace like this on his neck too."

Xi Nian nodded. "But that kid is still on the third floor. We have to go back the way we came to get the necklace."

Everyone fell into deep thought upon hearing this. It was full of demons outside now, so getting out wouldn't be easy. Teacher Min and Wang Yao were both over forty; they couldn't be expected to run up and down. To make matters worse, Kong Xi had sprained her ankle, leaving only three rookie guests.

Qiao Zhi's face turned green. "We're doomed. Are we going to be the only team in the show's history to be completely wiped out?"

No matter how difficult the scripts were in the past, under the protection of the veteran members, the guest teams could at least have one survivor. But now, they had become orphans with no one to guide them.

For some reason, Xi Nian glanced at Bai Yicheng. "The two of us will go back and get the key."

Bai Yicheng paused upon hearing this. "Alright."

Teacher Min seemed a bit worried. "Why don't Wang Yao and I go instead?"

But he spoke too late. Xi Nian and Bai Yicheng had already pushed the door open and left. They painstakingly avoided the few demons outside, then ran into the previous sports equipment room. They returned through the narrow passage the way they came, arriving at the classroom on the second-floor corridor.

Xi Nian had jumped down from the third floor before. Bai Yicheng looked around but couldn't find a way up. He was a bit bewildered. "How do we get to the third floor?"

Xi Nian said, "You wait here for me. I'll climb up and get it. I'm more familiar with the third floor."

Bai Yicheng had no choice but to nod. "Then be careful."

Xi Nian stepped on the wooden boxes stacked in the corner and vaulted over the railing to the third floor. He walked all the way back to the previous classroom and, as expected, found that the little NPC boy was still there. He walked over, took the necklace from his neck, and said, "Let uncle borrow this for a moment."

The little boy could only continue to recite his lines, "Big brother, this problem is too hard. Can you help me solve it?"

Xi Nian put the necklace in his pocket and gave him a faint smile. "No wonder your teacher hits you. I already told you it's 6, why can't you remember? Study hard and make progress every day. There's no future in pretending to be a ghost to scare people."

After speaking, he turned and left the classroom. Just as he was about to return the way he came, he found that a figure had appeared outside the classroom door at some point. It was the mental patient, holding a dagger, his eyes twisted with a sinister smile. "I found you..."

Xi Nian seemed to have expected this and was not surprised. The moment the other party rushed over with the knife, he nimbly dodged to the side, then did a side flip over the railing, landing directly on the second floor. Bai Yicheng was waiting anxiously in the classroom. Seeing him return, he hurried forward and asked, "Did you get the necklace?"

Xi Nian nodded. "Got it, let's go quickly."

He led the way into the passage, but then, as if remembering something, he patted his pocket, and his expression changed slightly. He said to Bai Yicheng, "The necklace fell behind you!"

Hearing this, Bai Yicheng subconsciously turned to look for it. To his surprise, Xi Nian slammed the door shut with a bang and locked it from the inside.

That's right, it was that same bolt.

Bai Yicheng rushed forward. "What are you doing! Open it! The mental patient is about to catch up!"

Xi Nian looked at him quietly. "You're the undercover agent."

Bai Yicheng's movements froze, and then he reacted. "What nonsense are you talking about?! Qiao Zhi is more suspicious, she's the undercover agent!"

Xi Nian had considered this problem as well, but the production team's counterintelligence ploy was too obvious. They let Qiao Zhi return so easily, clearly wanting everyone to suspect her.

Secondly, Kong Xi was a veteran member, and many of the difficult puzzles required her to solve them. If she were also the undercover agent, the other three rookie guests would surely die, which the production team would obviously not do.

That left only Bai Yicheng.

Xi Nian asked him through the door, "Do you know why I wanted to look for clues with you?"

First, leaving Bai Yicheng behind would undoubtedly expose the whereabouts of the others. Second, Xi Nian also wanted to confirm his own guess. When he had climbed up to the third floor just now, the mental patient had immediately chased after him. Someone must have tipped him off, and there was no one else to suspect but Bai Yicheng.

To take a step back, even if Qiao Zhi were the undercover agent, with Kong Xi staying behind to supervise her, she would have had no opportunity to pass on information.

Bai Yicheng's expression turned constipated. "No wonder you wanted to supervise me instead of Qiao Zhi. So you suspected me from that moment on."

Damn it, Xi Nian was too sharp.

Not only did Xi Nian get the necklace, but he also successfully locked the undercover agent inside. He returned through the passage, once again relying on his agile skills to avoid the demons at the entrance, and then slipped into the survivor classroom.

Watching his performance on the monitor, the director couldn't help but praise aloud, "Originally, we just couldn't get Yan Du, so we wanted to grab Xi Nian to fill the spot. I never expected, never expected..."

The author has something to say:

Bai Yicheng (pounding on the door, crying): Who will come and save me!