"You’re not going?"
As she walked out the door, Nora hesitated and asked Jerry Yates a question.
Though she didn’t get along with Jerry, they were, after all, recording a show. Actually, she didn’t care about the show’s effect or the audience’s controversies; her main concern was that this episode’s Escape Room was designed by Evelyn Winter, and Nora wanted the audience’s attention to focus on the program’s setting rather than her grudge with Jerry.
She was almost done with having her digs at Jerry.
"I’m going."
Jerry hesitated for a mont and responded.
He was considering the show’s effect. After all, getting paid to work, it wouldn’t do to publicly fall out with Nora during recording.
Nora raised an eyebrow and didn’t close the door.
When Jerry ca out, he saw Nora at the door of room 305 across the hall, pressing the doorbell.
He glanced and then observed the room’s layout.
There was a corridor running through the middle; they were staying in 306. Across was 307, the origin of a fire a year ago, which the receptionist said was unoccupied. The door was indeed sealed, nailed shut with boards over the door and fra, completely inaccessible. Rooms 305 and 309, adjacent to 307, housed a pair of brothers—Claudio and Hugo.
The door of 305 opened.
Hugo, who opened the door, was slightly surprised to see Nora.
"Have you had dinner? There’s a buffet service on the first floor. Want to join?" Nora asked bluntly.
According to the script, the people in each room were supposed to be strangers. However, in this Escape Room, there were no restrictions until midnight, and since the two groups had just t in the elevator, Nora’s sudden invitation to dinner seed abrupt but not illogical.
"Sure."
Hugo smiled politely.
At this mont—
The door of room 309, separated by room 307, suddenly opened.
Diana Johnson, having heard the commotion, opened the door, peeked her head out, and upon seeing the people in the corridor, bead at them, waving, "Hello, are you all here for a vacation?"
"Hello." Anastasia appeared shortly after, "As fate has brought us together, shall we go downstairs to eat?"
Since everyone was already out and shared a common pretext, they easily reached an agreent and gathered to head to the first floor for the buffet.
On the way, Nora organized her thoughts.
She and Jerry were playing a couple, staying across room 307.
Diana and Anastasia were posing as a father-daughter duo, while Claudio and Hugo were brothers, each living on either side of 307. It’s said that the rooms on the 306 line were all double beds, and those on the 307 line were twin beds.
The three groups’ rooms happened to encircle 307.
Tonight’s ga would undoubtedly revolve around room 307. Based on the scripted hints, Nora maintained an anticipatory attitude toward the upcoming ga.
*
The first floor was crowded.
The six stood at the entrance to the buffet area, simultaneously pausing as they took in the relatively packed crowd, all appearing sowhat stunned.
Diana blinked, the first to voice her puzzlent, "Is it just , or did we see no guests when we first arrived?"
"Not your imagination," Anastasia glanced at her, then at the bustling crowd, chuckling, "It’s quite amusing, isn’t it?"
Hugo understood and chuckled as well, aningfully, "If we hadn’t co down, would we have missed such a scene?"
Claudio and Jerry remained silent.
At least they all were sharp-minded, not idiots.
The production team hadn’t warned them to leave their rooms before midnight, to wander around.
In fact, they were silently allowed to stay in the rooms.
But if they genuinely stayed put, they’d definitely miss such a big reveal, possibly overlooking so critical clues.
—The production team was becoming more devious, not afraid of making the ga’s difficulty too high to continue playing.
"Nora, did you guess this?" Diana turned to ask Nora.
"No," Nora shrugged, appearing straightforward, "I was just hungry and wanted to co out for food."
Everyone else: "..." Unsure whether to believe her or not.
In fact, no matter how smart Nora was, she couldn’t predict the show’s specific plans. It just subconsciously seed odd for the production team to allocate so much free ti. Besides, she didn’t want to be alone with Jerry.
"What should we do now?"
Diana tugged at her small braid, tilting her head to ask.
In the script, Diana played a high school student, about seventeen or eighteen, identical to her actual role. She was dressed youthfully, in a white off-shoulder blouse with a short skirt, paired with small leather shoes, her long hair down with two braided pigtails, playful and cute.
Nora said matter-of-factly, "Let’s eat first."
Diana mumbled, "What if we get poisoned after eating..."
The rest, hearing this, all turned to look at her, their expressions a little odd.
—Certainly not lacking the possibility.
"We have five lives, don’t we, so why worry?"
Casually dropping this, Nora strode toward the serving area, with no trepidation.
The others: "..."
Right, they have five lives.
*
The production crew watched the monitors, snacking on seeds, leisurely observing.
"Why does it feel like Nora has the script? She’s always the one finding key clues."
"During last episode’s recording, her intuition was uncanny. We even remarked privately that she had preemptive danger alerts, even if nothing was discovered, her instinct let her avoid danger. She and Clent Winter didn’t ’die’ even once in the last Zombie Academy recording."
"I heard from the scriptwriter that you increased the difficulty this ti, and deliberately hid many clues just to challenge Nora?"
"Sothing like that."
...
They laughed and chattered.
In the conversation, when looking back at the monitors, their gaze unintentionally settled on Nora.
Nora was indeed an enigma.
—There was an unusual charisma about her, making them naturally anticipate her next move.
Likewise, the audience surely felt the sa.
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