The entrance hall was completely silent for a second before all hell broke loose.

"What the hell does that mean?!" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Where are we?!"

"Pl–please! Please let me go back! I don’t want my wish anymore!"

The voices came all at once, crashing over Deon until he could barely separate them. A man near the red carpet dropped to his knees and started clawing at the polished marble floor like there might be a hidden trapdoor underneath it.

A woman in a torn tracksuit staggered backward before slipping and falling to her back, shaking her head so violently that her hair whipped across her face.

Others simply stood frozen, staring at Mimi like their brains had shut down entirely and only their eyes functioned.

One contestant lunged forward, face filled with anger. "You little—!"

Before he could even reach halfway up the stairs...

BANG!

A hole had suddenly appeared in his chest, right where his heart was supposed to be. His body stood silent for a second before crumpling and rolling down the steps, dyeing the red carpets even brighter.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Mimi wagged one of its fingers. "Please refrain from attacking official Miracle Royale staff. Mimi is delicate and very expensive to replace!"

"You all, on the other hand...are not!"

The man’s body finished rolling at the bottom of the stairs before coming to a stop awkwardly against the edge of the red carpet. His eyes were still open, twitching as if his body hadn’t really processed what had happened yet.

The entrance hall, which had been filled with screaming only a few seconds ago, had gone completely silent, watching in terror as the corpse bled out.

Others turned away, while some clamped a hand down on their mouth, scared that just a tiny peep could cause them to meet the same fate.

Mimi floated above the stairs, still holding its golden microphone before chirping. "Now then!"

"Since everyone has finished expressing their initial emotions and one very poor assassination attempt, Mimi will now begin the explanation for the Second Game!"

The blue screen behind the mascot shifted, revealing a new set of rules, large enough that every contestant in the hall could read it.

[Escape Room]

[Location: The Velvet Mansion]

[Time Limit: 48:00:00]

Deon read the timer, realizing that, just outside the windows, he could see the same numbers in the sky.

Only a day has passed? With all that’s happening, thought it’d be longer...

"Escape Room..." Hana muttered from behind him.

"Correct! The rules are simple, contestants!" Mimi bobbed in the air. "You are currently trapped inside the beautiful Velvet Mansion."

It swept one tiny hand dramatically toward the entrance hall.

"Within this mansion are many things: rooms, clues, puzzles, and most importantly...traps!"

A few contestants looked toward the side halls almost instinctively. Deon followed their gaze.

There were at least four exits from the entrance hall alone. One hallway stretched left beneath a row of oil paintings. Another curved right past a line of decorative suits of armor. Behind the twin staircases, two more corridors disappeared into deeper darkness.

Upstairs had even more doors, and Deon assumed that there were even more doors beyond that.

Mimi lifted the microphone higher. "To clear the Second Game, contestants must escape through the Main Entrance before the timer reaches zero!"

A man near the front stiffened before suddenly turning toward the huge double doors at the end of the hall.

Not that Deon needed help finding them. They were so unbelievably large that no one could have missed them.

The large wooden doors stretched from ground to ceiling, with no obvious locks around it. Simply massive doors with two gold handles.

"Move!" the man near the doors shouted.

Two other contestants stumbled out of the way as the man came sprinting through. He put his hand on the handle and pulled hard...yet nothing happened.

He pulled again, harder, face reddening from the effort. Another contestant grabbed the second handle and joined him.

"Open!"

"Come on, damn it!"

Yet the doors didn’t even creak.

Mimi giggled. "Wonderful! Contestants testing the obvious solution is always Mimi’s favorite part of the tutorial!"

The man at the door turned around, face pale with anger and fear. "It’s locked!"

"Correct!" Mimi clapped. "Because the Main Door cannot be opened normally."

Only then did Deon notice it. On the surface of the double doors were five hollow spaces.

They weren’t keyholes, not exactly. Each one had a different shape carved into the dark wood. Deon had no idea what the shapes were supposed to represent, but they were too deliberate to be decoration.

Not keys in the conventional sense. They’re sockets...but for what?

The man by the door stared at the five hollow spaces, then back at Mimi. "So...we just need to find them?"

"That’s right!"

A strange relief seemed to pass through some of the contestants. After everything they had survived in District 4, a mansion full of puzzles almost sounded merciful.

But Deon didn’t relax. Because after the stunt they had just pulled...all hope that he ever had in this being some kind of dream or reality TV show...went out the window.

Not that he’d had much left to begin with.

Mimi placed one hand on its porcelain cheek. "Please escape within the allotted time limit of 48 hours! If no one does, then everyone will be wiped out, and we’ll unfortunately have no winner for this Miracle Royale."

The rabbit-like creature frowned but no one took the bait. "Wow, tough crowd."

"Ahem, anyway!" it cleared its throat.

[Point Store Updated]

[Basic Survival Supplies Now Available]

"Since this is a special confinement stage...food, water, bedding, medical supplies, and other necessities have been added to the Point Store!"

A few contestants immediately opened their own panels. Deon saw their faces change one by one as they frowned.

A woman near the staircase gripped her own hair. "Wait...we have to buy food?"

"What about people with no Points?"

"Forty-eight hours...?"

A man in a torn hoodie took a step back, breathing harder. "No, no, that’s not enough time. We don’t even know how big this place is!"

"There’s barely any of us!" another contestant shouted. "How are we supposed to search an entire mansion in two days?!"

"We need to sleep too!"

"What if the rooms are trapped?!"

"What if the pieces are hidden behind puzzles we can’t solve?!"

The panic that had only just begun to settle started rising again. That was when Mimi’s painted face had turned back into a grin once again.

"Yes, yes! Very good concerns! Mimi loves when contestants engage with the game design!"

It lifted one tiny finger. "But please don’t worry too much. The Miracle Royale would never give contestants only one possible path forward."

"The intended method is cooperation! Work together, explore the mansion, share clues, solve puzzles, locate the five required inserts, and escape through the Main Door before the timer reaches zero!"

"However..."

Mimi placed both hands behind its back, floating lazily above the red carpet. "While teamwork is the recommended route, Mimi understands that not all contestants are good at puzzles."

"Some contestants are slow. Some are weak. Some are injured. Some have no useful Cards. Some have no Points. Some are unpopular. Some are simply the kind of person nobody wants to be trapped in a mansion with for forty-eight hours!"

Mimi giggled softly. "So, for the sake of fairness, flexibility, and exciting alternate strategies..."

[Special Rule Adjustment]

[Rule Two has been lifted.]

Hana’s voice came out small beside him.

"Rule Two...?"

Deon remembered the Game Master’s voice from the white room.

"Rule Two - Contestants who directly confront one another shall incur severe penalties in points."

Mimi clapped both tiny hands together. "That’s right! During the Second Game, contestant-on-contestant violence is fully permitted!"

"No point penalties will be applied for theft, assault, sabotage, hostage-taking, betrayal, murder, dramatic revenge, self-defense, excessive self-defense, suspiciously convenient self-defense, or morally complicated accidents!"

Deon saw the room change instantly. Hands slipped toward pockets as the people who were nearest started to eye one another.

"Of course, Mimi knows what some of you are thinking!"

Its porcelain face tilted, painted cheeks gleaming beneath the chandelier light. "Why would anyone kill each other when cooperation is clearly the better option?"

...

"Because murder..."

[Mansion Truth System Activated]

[Whenever a contestant dies inside the Velvet Mansion, the mansion will reveal one truth.]

[Truths may include puzzle clues, insert locations, hidden room conditions, mansion hazards, contestant information, or other useful secrets.]

Mimi spread both arms wide.

"...is also a shortcut."