The Lilith Protocol Chapter 2

This was a large-scale escape room game for twelve participants, called The Desperate Confession of Believers.

The backstory: A little girl named Lilith was brought to the castle by a priest and then disappeared. Since then, every person who entered the castle vanished without a trace.

We players were all visitors who'd traveled from afar to stay at the castle as guests.

But when we arrived, we discovered the castle had long been abandoned. We even found Lilith's remains.

Within a limited timeframe, we had to uncover the truth—Lilith's identity and the reason for her disappearance.

Each player had a different profession and different tasks.

It sounded like standard difficulty. Because there were so many of us, we each had a number.

For some reason, there was no signal in the castle. We couldn't make calls or connect to the internet.

Number four examined the body for several moments before his hands shook so badly he dropped the lamp.

Walter immediately dove to pick it up, clutching it protectively.

"Are you insane?! What kind of sick game is this? Someone's dead!"

Seeing Walter's eyes focused only on the lamp, number four grabbed his collar and shouted furiously.

Because I was fairly far away, I could only barely make out that the deceased number eleven had what appeared to be a knife in his chest. The blood had already dried.

"Is this real? Isn't this just part of the game setup?"

One player asked in confusion.

After all, when we entered, the manager had repeated many times that everything in the castle—NPCs and props—was part of the experience.

Moreover, to increase immersion, several of the twelve of us were NPCs.

The ultimate winner would receive a free pass prize. We appeared to be teammates but were actually guarding against each other.

Several minutes had passed, and everyone was almost getting used to sharing a room with a corpse.

"No! We came in here with him as players, and now he's dead! Something's wrong with this place!"

Number seven's voice was anguished. Seeing Walter remain unmoved, he looked ready to spit blood in anger.

Looking at the others, they all maintained an attitude of indifference—as if it didn't concern them.

"If you're too scared to play, just quit early."

"Can't do that. Quitting early has consequences. My next task involves number seven..."

One player blurted this out, then realized they'd exposed themselves and quickly shut up.