Miss Planeswalker, are you free for romance?

"There is only one key that can open it. It is in the belly of the corpse in front of you."

"Life or death, it's up to you."

He was sitting on an ordinary iron chair. In this 'secret room' there was nothing else that could be used except the TV and everything mentioned by the puppets on the TV.

"Who hired——"

After the words were spoken, the screen went out.

The only sound in the factory was the clicking of the hands of the watch. Cobb stood up with the help of the headband and stumbled to the upside-down "corpse" - this was not a corpse.

No.

No one is dead yet.

He could hear the 'corpse' breathing faintly.

After brushing aside his sweat-soaked hair, he was surprised to find that he knew this person - or rather, he was the guy who was responsible for an important part of the previous mission.

The dream builder they hired temporarily.

There was a hole in the unconscious man's belt, and a sharp scalpel was inserted diagonally.

Open abdomen...

Get the key.

Or, your jaw may be torn apart by this mechanism.

James…Philippa…

myles.

Cobb puffed up his cheeks, hesitating.

The timer ticked over his heart.

…………

……

The people inside have no idea what the weather is like outside.

Time is passing by every second.

At some point, there was a noise of metal falling to the ground in the factory, followed by a loud closing sound.

Clang——

Click!

Like the sound of the teeth of a trap closing.

Then, a padlock jumped up.

The exit was opened.

Dom Cobb stumbled along the wall, holding the 'things' he found in certain parts. In the dream builder's body, in addition to a key that could save him, there was also a small cassette - the silver-gray plastic shell was wrapped in a bulging bag and was easy to touch out.

The muscles on his face twitched and his stomach churned. Waves of nausea pushed him to his knees and beg for mercy - he had vomited out everything he could, and only dry heaving was left.

Cobb now finally understood what the murderer on TV meant by "playing a game"...

He not only caught himself, but also caught those who had been his partners.

Just like a cat playing with a mouse.

Somewhere, the other party must be very excited to watch him kill his companions step by step in the most cruel way...

Chapter 186 Thirty Little Rabbits and the Phone Call

Cobb dragged his blood-spattered body into the second room.

He saw Arthur.

Your own outpost.

The premonition came true.

"no no…"

"get out!!"

"I am going to kill you!!"

"who is it!!"

The hysterical roar echoed in the empty room, hitting the wall and bouncing back to the roaring man. There was no response.

Very quickly, the roar turned into wailing.

Then, it was begging.

“…let him go…”

"Please…"

Arthur.

The steady, even old-fashioned young man was lying in a glass coffin. His mouth was sealed tightly, but his hands and feet were free. There was a note on the glass: Do not destroy. In the other corner of the glass coffin, there was a palm-sized recorder.

The kind that plays videotapes.

Cobb approached, and the young and handsome man was speechless, just shook his head slightly at him.

"Don't break the glass." He raised his hand and pointed to the other corner outside the coffin.

recorder.

There were so many things Cobb wanted to ask Arthur, but he couldn't know more than he did. He was the one who could move freely.

He suppressed his fear and anger and stuffed the videotape he had just found into the pocket.

The murderer's voice sounded after the rustling sound ended.

"I'm glad to see you chose your own life, Cobb," he said. "Otherwise it would have been a meaningless death - your temporary helper betrayed you. I found traces of him betraying you and Mr. Arthur in his bedroom, some recordings, some paper records, a box of money, and a plane ticket to a place you can never find again."

"I asked you to kill your enemy, Cobb."

There was a hint of joking in the old and vicissitudes of life voice: "If you haven't heard this tape, it proves that you have forgiven someone who betrayed you without hesitation. And at the cost of your own life and Mr. Arthur's life..."

"Now, you feel a lot less guilty, don't you?"

"But how are you going to solve the problem at hand? This Mr. Arthur has been with you through thick and thin. Can you kill him with your own hands in order to save your own life?"

"Listen carefully, Cobb."

On another floor of the factory, in a messy monitoring room, an old man wrapped in a blanket was leaning peacefully in a rocking chair. He had sparse white hair, a thin face and body, high cheekbones, and droopy eyelids.

The old man half-closed his eyes in amusement, and lazily watched the TVs placed on the long table in front of him - there were several groups of people facing "trial" like Dom Cobb.

"Life or death, it's your choice."

He murmured.

On the other side, the sound from the cassette continued.

"…Listen carefully, Cobb. In the box on your right is an infusion pump filled with a lethal drug. There are two infusion tubes, one of which is on your friend's side, and the other one needs to be controlled by you."

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a long hose hanging outside the iron box. The inconspicuous transparent tube meandered along the crack in the ground to the bottom of the coffin.

Arthur felt around inside and found the needle that connected to the hose.

The devilish voice on the tape continued.

"When the potion is finished, the safe passage will be opened, and you and your friends will be free - I hope you didn't use violence, otherwise, once the glass is broken, the sensor that is being activated will detect the vibration..."

Cobb walked over and opened the lid of the iron box. Sure enough, there was a bag of transparent liquid and an extra needle inside.

"I have to remind you."

"This bag of medicine is enough to kill an adult. Even after halving it, there will still be significant sequelae: a high probability of organ failure, paralysis, deep coma, and other unpleasant situations."

The tape came to the last part: "But this way, you two can still survive."

"The knob for controlling the input ratio is right next to you. Turn it to adjust. Make yourself zero and your friend one hundred, and he will have to bear the fate of death; or make yourself one hundred and your friend zero?"

"Or, fifty-fifty, both men can live, and both men suffer the same consequences?"

It said: "You enjoy lying on the sofa and mastering other people's secret power, stealing everywhere like a thief. Now, you can lie on the hospital bed for the rest of your life and create a healthy dream for yourself with healthy limbs and no diseases."

"In ten minutes, the escape door will be locked. Highly toxic gas will be released from the pipes in the wall. Only ten minutes."

"Cobb, life or death, it's your choice."

The conversation stops here, and all that remains is the rustling noise of the circuit.

Click.

The huge room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

His friend was lying in a glass coffin and he was outside; he had almost killed someone himself... and now he had to continue to decide whether he and Arthur would live or die.

Cobb was no longer willing to call the unknown hijacker the murderer.

This is a demon whose mind has become corrupted.

thump…

Arthur tapped the glass coffin very lightly with his finger, and after attracting his friend's attention, he raised the needle.

"No... Don't even think about it..." Cobb stepped back and shook his head: "I won't agree, Arthur..."

One dead?

still…

Two people living a life worse than death, rotting in hospital beds for the rest of their lives?

This question is not that difficult for people in their line of work.

In fact, it's not that difficult a choice for anyone in the current situation.

unless…

One of them wanted to go out in a 'healthy' way.

The flat young man in the glass coffin looked at Cobb, raised his wrist a little bit, and aimed the needle at...

"No...Arthur...we must have another way..."

The other party just gestured for him to look behind him.

——The electronic watch on the door leading in.

Time is slowly passing...

00 : 06 : 31…

00 : 06 : 30…

00 : 06 : 29…

28 ...

27 ...

They only had six minutes left.

Despair washed away the man's sanity like a tide. After he spent two minutes trying to find a way out, an even more terrifying thought came to his mind: How long would it take to finish transfusing this bag of medicine?

The man in the glass coffin just looked at him quietly.

Cobb's choice is his choice.

"Do not…"

why?

Why did you choose them?!

Who is the person who controls the puppets and kidnapped them here?