If there's a fastest way to understand something, personal experience is definitely the most direct.
For Kaguya, who had just experienced that nightmarish moment of total bodily disintegration, she now deeply understood the horrors hidden beneath the decaying facade of this apartment.
"You turned the clock back... and that actually reset everything?"
Kaguya quickly got up, opened the living room door, and looked at the wall clock in Room 204. The time had indeed gone back to the start.
Could something like that really be possible?
Could turning a room's clock back truly reverse time?
Kaguya felt all the common sense she'd ever known crumble in an instant.
"Seems that way. Anyway, we need to get out of here fast. If we're really back at the start, then soon, that woman next door will scream and summon that invisible thing again."
Takashina Kai grabbed the rules sheet, folded it into his pocket, and glanced at the strange black watch on his left wrist.
Back in that critical moment, his first attempt had been to move the hands on this bizarre watch.
He was afraid to touch either of the girls, especially when their bodies were falling apart. So he'd first tried to move the watch on his own wrist.
But it wouldn't budge.
Despite being just a broken-down watch with only a minute hand left, it was inexplicably sturdy—like it was welded to his skin.
With no other option, he had finally tried to move the clock in Kaguya's hands. That had worked.
Maybe the watch on his wrist wasn't governed by the apartment's rules?
But then why was it on his wrist to begin with? Why couldn't he take it off?
Takashina Kai pondered in silence as he moved ahead of Kaguya.
"Thanks... if you hadn't acted, I wouldn't have survived."
Kaguya, holding Room 204's wall clock, followed behind him and spoke solemnly.
"Don't thank me yet. We haven't confirmed the full range of the clock's effect. When I open the door, stay alert. We don't know if it only works for those holding the clock or if the three who turned into monsters are back to normal. If anything goes wrong, you must turn the clock again. If we don't regroup with Shijo, we only have one chance to try this."
Takashina Kai took a deep breath and continued forward with his weakened body.
"Only one chance?"
Kaguya caught the meaning behind his words.
"Turning that clock has a cost. First, the time can only be adjusted to periods we've actually stayed in the apartment. I tried turning it back even further, but it wouldn't move. It's like it jams up. Second, once someone has turned it once, they probably can't do it again. Maybe they can't even touch it anymore."
As he approached the front door, Takashina Kai glanced back at the clock in Kaguya's arms and offered a faint smile before turning to look outside the broken door of Room 204.
He didn't look at the head clock Kaguya was carrying.
A head clock identical to his own head, broken skull, with three needles stuck in it.
That head's gaze never left him. He could feel it.
And he had a hunch: even if he escaped this horrifying place, that gaze would never go away.
Every day from now on, every moment, that chilling presence would follow him until the day he died.
Maybe that's why the rules sheet never explained the clock as a method of survival—because using it brought a permanent burden.
Even so, couldn't it have been written more clearly? Did the person who made this version have a screw loose?
Takashina Kai grumbled in his mind but said nothing aloud. Complaints wouldn't change anything.
[Action] was what mattered now. So he kept his thoughts to himself, not daring to speak them—afraid some mind-reading entity might hear and respond again.
Creak—
As the door to Room 204 opened, he saw Shijo Maki walking out of Room 208, holding another wall clock, her eyes slightly red.
She was even faster than him and Kaguya—clearly forcing herself to calm down and act quickly.
Well, now he had two ghostly heads staring at him. Great. That meant as long as Maki and Kaguya carried those damn clocks, he'd always know where the two girls were. Silver lining?
"Don't panic. It'll be okay. Oh? Another group made it out? You three alright?"
Old Guo was chatting with the Black guy in the hallway, trying to calm him.
Sun Dajun leaned against the wall, visibly scared, looking disappointed when he saw the three of them come out.
Apparently, the ones who turned into monsters were normal again.
Takashina Kai noticed a glance from Old Guo—just a quick look, but telling. He was sure now: Old Guo had retained his memory. He remembered everything.
So, during a rewind, all survivors retained memory?
Sun Dajun was about to walk over, probably to repeat his "reality show" excuse again.
But before he could speak, the burly white man—who had previously ignored everyone—suddenly shoved him aside and walked straight to Takashina Kai.
"You're veterans, right?"
The man's voice trembled, but his gaze was full of hope.
"Just now... was that a Relic? Something that can turn back time? That's incredible! I'm Green. I can do all kinds of things. Please let me join you! I promise I won't cause any trouble."
Green.
A super generic name, but at least not as overused as Tom or Jack.
Still, he said "veterans"?
Takashina Kai wasn't surprised that this so-called Sacrifice Game had returning players. He'd already suspected Old Guo. Now Green's words confirmed he was one too—likely someone who got lucky and survived one mission.
"Veterans...?"
Sun Dajun's expression soured and he stopped approaching.
"Can you pick locks?"
Before Takashina Kai could respond, Kaguya stepped forward, staring up coldly at the nearly two-meter-tall Green.
The Ice Princess Kaguya's aura was forged in a true elite family—not something someone like Takashina Kai, a lowly web novelist, could match. Though just a teenage girl, she exuded a force that made Green, who already had a preconceived belief, instinctively submit.
Yes, this was what real veterans felt like.
Just like the ones from his last mission—who effortlessly found escape routes and completed it without losses.
That's how Green survived: by sticking to such people.
"I can! I can pick locks!"
An American ex-thief, Green eagerly took out a wire and started working on Room 205's lock.
"You wanna draw that thing down again with all this noise?"
Shijo Maki added, just as coldly.
"Y-yes, I understand."
Green wiped sweat from his forehead, completely treating the three as high-level players.
Takashina Kai, watching Kaguya's icy glare and Maki's sneer, could only sigh at how these two 17-year-old girls handled social interactions far better than he did. Then he shifted his focus to Room 205—the origin of their previous wipeout.
Click—
With a crisp sound, the old lock on Room 205 opened. In just ten seconds, Green had picked it, revealing the darkness inside to the hallway's pale light.