I could not sleep all night. After finally drifting off, the intercom broadcast rang out again at dawn.

“Ding-dong! It’s voting time. All patients, please gather at the church on the first floor within ten minutes!”

At the command, everyone once again filed into the church in perfect unison.

This time, an LED screen had been installed inside the church, displaying the photos and names of all forty patients.

Three of them were already eliminated. Their portraits were marked with an [OUT] label.

“Voting begins!”

Everyone was instructed to form a circle and point at the person they wanted to vote out.

Confusion was written all over their faces. Some looked around at each other without making a decision, while some hesitated and kept switching their choice.

This was until a little girl suddenly stepped forward and pointed at the young man. “He’s the one who killed the man. Vote him out!”

Clearly, her words did not convince everyone. No one followed her instructions right away.

The little girl noticed that and continued, “Didn’t that man say yesterday that he caught an impostor and told you all to vote with him?”

A lot of people nodded.

“But none of you actually knew who it was, because he never said it!”

Then, everyone nodded.

“It’s him!”

She pointed firmly at the young man.

“When that man was talking to me yesterday, he just happened to walk past us. He pointed him out to me.”

If what she said was true, then I really had been fooled. I had escaped the man’s suspicion completely. The person he wanted voted out was not me, but the young man.

He had used me as a pawn to kill the man.

“Damn it!”

Regret hit me hard. I cursed myself for being stupid and impulsive.

The little girl had successfully swayed the crowd. One by one, everyone began pointing at the young man.

The LED screen updated in real time. There were thirty eight votes next to his face, nearly eighty percent of the total.

Just when it seemed like the outcome was sealed, the young man suddenly pointed at me and shouted, “Wait! She was the one who killed him!”

I was screwed. He was about to sell me out!

“Last night at dinner, I saw her sneaking something into the man’s bowl.

“Check the cafeteria cameras if you don’t believe me.”

Damn it! There was no way I could clear my name now.

At everyone’s request, the administration switched the screen to last night’s cafeteria footage.

On the screen, I was seen sneaking toward the man’s table while he was in the restroom.

A smug smile appeared on the young man’s face.

Second by second, the footage played. I was already standing in front of the man’s food. My hand was slipping into my pocket for the poison.

Just as everyone thought the evidence was airtight, something unexpected happened. Someone suddenly stepped in front of me and blocked the camera’s view.

By the time that person moved away, the shot had cleared, and I had already finished the act. The camera had captured nothing useful.

“Why are you framing me?! I didn’t kill anyone! I didn’t kill anyone! I didn’t kill anyone!”

I lunged at the young man, grabbing his collar and screaming.

My performance was so convincing that everyone thought I had a breakdown. Several nurses rushed forward and pinned me to the ground.

Less than ten seconds remained before voting closed. The young man’s baseless accusation still was not enough to sway the crowd.

The final vote tally was I got eleven votes, and the young man got thirty-six.

Bang!

The moment the result was announced, the young man’s head exploded. Blood and brain matter splattered onto the people nearby.

“Congratulations! You have eliminated an impostor!”

I once again witnessed just how brutal this game was. The tension that had already been stretched tight inside me pulled even tighter.

“Today’s notice: The church is a sacred place. Anyone who lies here will have their tongue cut off.”

I clamped my mouth shut after hearing that, no longer daring to say the words “I didn’t kill anyone.”

“Are you an impostor?”

The hot-headed guy in chains grabbed someone at random and barked the question.

“I’m not.”

Nothing happened. The man was not lying.

The hothead shoved him aside and grabbed another by the collar, asking the same question.

“Are you an impostor?”

…

He went through ten people in a row and nothing happened.

This was until the eleventh.

“Are you an impostor?”

“I… I… I…”

“Talk! Or I’ll kill you!”

As he spoke, the hothead slammed the man to the ground, straddled him, and wrapped both hands tightly around his throat.

Within minutes, the man’s face turned ashen, barely clinging to life.

With the last of his strength, he forced out three words,

“I’m not.”

The hothead let him go after that.

The man finally got a chance to breathe, but what came next was far worse.

Foam poured from his mouth as his whole body convulsed on the ground, like he was having a seizure.

After a series of spasms, he suddenly went still. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, and a chunk of flesh about the size of an egg slipped out.

If I was not mistaken, that chunk of flesh was his own tongue, bitten clean off.

That was the price of lying in the church.

Seeing that it worked, the hothead grew even more energized and continued questioning.

This is bad! He was going to use this rule to check everyone.

I briefly thought about faking a faint to get out of this.

Still, after thinking it through, that would not work. It would only be a temporary escape.

Even if I avoided it today, the next round of voting would definitely target anyone who did not answer.

In the blink of an eye, he had already gone through more than half the group. If I did not figure something out, I would end up just like that guy.

“Are you an impostor?”

Perhaps my guilty expression gave me away. He skipped past several people and came straight for me, asking with absolute certainty.

I did not answer for a long time, which only deepened his suspicion.

He used the same move again. One hand clamping around my neck.

“Last chance. Are you going to answer or not?”