Seeing that face, He Gu froze completely.

It was the puppet in the orange work suit, with a work badge hanging on its chest, labeled S11.

The puppet didn’t move, as if it had been placed there from the start.

At this moment, the puppet stood less than a meter away from He Gu, frozen in a running pose, its right hand gripping a hammer high above, as if it could come crashing down at any moment.

Cold sweat seeped from He Gu’s forehead as he stared at the puppet’s raised hammer hand.

It had approached him silently, so close without a sound!

Had He Gu turned around just two seconds later, his head might have been smashed open!

Now He Gu finally understood what “it” referred to in the rules.

“Damn it!”

At such a close distance, if the puppet’s hammer fell now, He Gu’s head would likely be split open.

Cursing, He Gu immediately stepped back several paces until his back pressed against the elevator doors.

Facing the motionless puppet, He Gu forced himself to stay calm, keeping a close watch while slowly sidestepping to a position about five or six meters away.

It was then He Gu noticed the display above the elevator he had just taken read “Out of Service.”

Clearly, “escaping this place” in the rules didn’t mean taking the elevator.

Standing not far away, He Gu kept his eyes on the puppet while quickly scanning his surroundings for an exit.

Soon, He Gu’s attention was drawn to the ring of rooms around the hall, each door topped with a square light.

The lights flickered in different colors: green, blue, purple, and orange.

Moreover, He Gu noticed that the colors on each light weren’t fixed, changing every so often.

After a moment’s thought, He Gu whispered, “Do I need to leave through a door that turns purple?”

The shadow behind him didn’t make a sound, but He Gu felt the slick, cold presence on his back squirm twice, as if nodding.

He Gu was taken aback and asked again, “You can’t speak now?”

The shadow squirmed twice more.

He Gu frowned slightly, having a rough idea in mind.

During his observation, He Gu had kept the puppet in his line of sight, even when looking afar, ensuring it was always visible.

The puppet hadn’t moved during this time, leading to the conclusion that as long as it was visible, even if not directly in sight, it wouldn’t move.

He Gu also noticed that with each blink, the puppet moved closer by about 15-20 centimeters.

Such movement was hard to detect, and He Gu only realized it by using the floor tiles as a reference.

This meant that as long as he kept the puppet in his field of vision, He Gu should be safe.

Blinking a few times wasn’t a big issue.

Having figured this out, He Gu shifted his gaze to the distant doors, observing the pattern of the lights’ color changes.

After a few minutes, He Gu found no discernible pattern to the changes.

Sometimes the colors changed every few seconds, other times they remained the same for minutes.

And each change seemed random.

But one thing was certain: each light would display green, blue, purple, and orange.

In theory, He Gu just needed to stand by any door and wait for its light to turn purple before entering!

With his plan set, He Gu began to move.

Facing the puppet’s direction, he walked backward.

Though inconvenient and slower, this ensured the puppet remained in his line of sight!

Thus, He Gu kept his eyes glued to the puppet, retreating step by step.

The distance between He Gu and the puppet visibly widened.

As long as He Gu didn’t blink rapidly and recklessly, the puppet would never catch up.

Two minutes later, as he retreated, He Gu encountered a load-bearing column.

With his back against the column, he felt his way around it, continuing to move in the opposite direction while facing the puppet.

After a while, He Gu came upon a second column.

As he prepared to bypass this column, He Gu realized a problem.

The columns in the hall were irregularly placed, and if he wanted to move past this one, his direct line of sight would be blocked by others ahead.

In other words, if He Gu didn’t change direction, he would lose sight of the puppet!

He Gu sighed in resignation and chose a new direction to continue.

As long as he was moving away from the puppet, he would eventually reach the hall’s edge and find a door with a purple light to enter.

But soon, He Gu realized his mistake.

After changing direction, he encountered the same problem; passing several columns would inevitably block his view!

No matter which direction he went, He Gu couldn’t keep his eyes on the puppet and reach the hall’s edge!

Realizing this, He Gu’s brows furrowed deeply.

Now, the distance between He Gu and the puppet was nearly 30 meters.

At this distance, maybe losing sight for a few seconds wouldn’t give the puppet enough time to reach him?

He Gu pondered this, took a deep breath, and suddenly sprinted towards the hall’s edge at top speed.

After about 3 seconds of running, He Gu stopped abruptly and turned around.

As soon as he did, he saw the puppet next to a column less than 10 meters away.

In 3 seconds, it had moved about 20 meters!

A sinking feeling hit He Gu; he couldn’t possibly reach the hall’s edge before being caught!

With no other choice, He Gu repeated his previous tactic, facing the puppet and retreating slowly to widen the gap again.

After reopening a distance of about 30 meters, He Gu faced the same problem as before; any direction he took would eventually obstruct his view of the puppet.

Steeling his heart, He Gu took a deep breath, turned, and ran past the column.

2 seconds!

In just 2 seconds, He Gu could reach the nearest door!

With extreme tension, He Gu took two quick steps and stood in front of a room’s door.

At the same time, He Gu stopped abruptly and looked back.

As he turned, he saw a hammer hovering less than 10 centimeters above his head…