Unfortunately, it was a step too late.
Jedi's right hand landed on the door handle, and with a slight twist, he opened the door.
In that very instant, everyone saw an extremely terrifying scene.
The door handle instantly turned into a hideous mouth, erupting with a terrifying suction that swallowed Jedi whole.
The process was startlingly fast. Qi Zhimu's reaction was quick enough; he grabbed the ankle and tried to pull it back.
The result... only a severed thigh remained.
The bloodstains weren't as frightening as Xi Manning's death scene, but seeing that bloody thigh flying toward them, several more people fled in terror.
There was some progress, at least; those in police uniforms didn't run.
Heita knew that the thigh had been thrown over by Qi Zhimu.
Seeing his slightly darkened expression, she knew that after witnessing the problem, he had also realized something was wrong.
"...W-what on earth is going on?" Green's voice trembled.
Heita said nothing, re-confirming the time.
—Jedi died exactly one second before the death interval ended.
"..."
Thinking that Death had given hints long ago, she sighed and dragged the surveillance footage to a specific timeframe to explain to those who were confused.
"Do you remember something Jedi said?"
"'Woken up by a strong urge to urinate, I dizzily climbed out of bed, pushed open the bedroom door, and went to the bathroom across the living room to use the toilet.'"
Those present, suppressing their fear, nodded one after another; they clearly still remembered.
Heita continued:
"The only truly useful information about this death is this sentence; the rest are mostly smokescreens."
"He said he was a very cautious person, repeatedly checking if the doors were locked before sleeping, and even deadbolting the bedroom door."
"That's where the problem lies. Since the bedroom door was deadbolted, why was he able to push it open directly when he woke up in the middle of the night?"
Brooks's eye twitched violently. "A word game? But 'pushing open the door' is normal; isn't that how most people habitually say it?"
Besides, Jedi's bedroom door was indeed a two-way design that could be pushed or pulled.
"Just hearing the words might not mean much, but we have surveillance."
Heita replayed the footage, slowing it down to half speed at the critical moment.
"Look, the surveillance clearly captured the process of him turning the handle downward and pushing the door open."
"Setting aside the hindsight truth that the door handle would turn into a man-eating maw... you can't see the problem from this footage alone, right?" Green asked.
Heita shook her head, feeling disillusioned by the professionalism of the Fog City Police Superintendent.
Such an obvious problem, and yet as a professional, he couldn't see it.
"Officer, did you forget that Jedi would deadbolt his bedroom door before sleeping?"
Heita dragged the footage back several hours, stopped at the action of Jedi deadbolting the door, and zoomed in.
This time, everyone present clearly saw Jedi's thumb and index finger turning the deadbolt knob below the door handle.
Then, Heita pulled the footage back to the point when Jedi opened the door in the middle of the night, also zooming in.
The deadbolt knob was in an unlocked state, which was also clearly visible...
"Sss—"
A series of sharp intakes of breath could be heard.
Heita: "...There was absolutely no action of turning the deadbolt knob, and he doesn't have a sleepwalking habit, which means the door was unlocked from within."
"I suspect the culprit behind Jedi's weakness and fatigue was touching the door handle... no, rather, the entire lock mechanism."
Qi Zhimu said to her in his mind, "No need to suspect; that's the fact. After the lock swallowed him, it disappeared."
Having received Qi Zhimu's confirmation, Heita stood up and walked toward Jedi's bedroom.
The others hesitated for a moment before summoning their courage to follow.
On the bedroom door, the entire lock assembly was gone.
Immediately, several gazes fell upon Heita.
She had actually guessed correctly!
"Jedi grew increasingly tired because he had to touch the lock multiple times a day. This was the hint Death left on him."
"The other hints were Jedi's inexplicable verbal account of being cautious, and our inquiry into the cause of his fatigue."
"The cameras in the house served as corroboration, the third clue helping us find the problem."
Realizing the reason behind it was actually so simple, Heita felt somewhat helpless.
If the footage hadn't been zoomed in, it would have been very difficult to notice the change in the deadbolt knob from that angle.
Death used the redundancy of over ten days of surveillance to confuse everyone, keeping them in a constant state of urgency so they couldn't perform a frame-by-frame inspection.
Qi Zhimu and Heita had felt something was off earlier, all because of the subtle change in the deadbolt knob.
Verification wasn't hard; one just needed to witness the moment the deadbolt knob changed.
Within a few minutes, Heita found it.
Watching the process of the lock knob automatically returning to its original position in the zoomed-in footage, everyone except the two of them felt a chill in their hearts.
The answer was obvious.
The way to change Jedi's fate was indeed simple, even simpler than Xi Manning's.
—And that was to not let him touch the bedroom door lock.
To be more direct, knocking him out and leaving him in the living room, or tying him up to prevent movement, would have sufficed to wait out the time.
But the problem was: who dared to gamble?
"Fuck! How the hell is a normal person supposed to notice such a tiny change? There wasn't even the sound there should have been!"
"I suspect now that the mission is simply impossible; these eight people are bound to die!"
"Death definitely wants to watch our struggle, that's why..."
"So, does anyone want to quit now and enjoy the final moments of their life?" Heita's voice rose.
The scene immediately fell silent.
Those about to continue complaining shut their mouths; nobody wanted to die.
"For the next person, I plan to try radical action. After all, Death won't move against us ahead of time, will he?" Brooks said, gritting his teeth.
"You want to strip them of their freedom of movement?" Green looked hesitant.
"Exactly!"
"Then why not try to... the person ahead of time?" Realizing that saying this was inappropriate, she shut her mouth just in time.
However, everyone present understood what she had left unsaid.
Seeing the flicker of interest on their faces, Heita gave them a cool glance.
"I won't stop you from trying, but is it possible for Death to leave such an obvious loophole for us to exploit?"
"...Regardless, we have to try."
Those were Brooks's words.
It seemed that in order to survive, he had also cast aside the duties of his uniform.
Qi Zhimu let out a nasal hum, making no effort to hide the mockery within it; anyway, he shared the same view as Heita.
Twenty minutes later, the death notice for the next unlucky soul appeared.
The timing was tight.
Accounting for travel time, by the time they reached the coordinates, they would have almost entered the death interval.
Upon learning this, those who had just agreed to take radical action all looked incredibly grim.
...As expected, Death would never give them a chance to exploit a loophole.
As long as there was such an intent, no preparation time would be given.
As expected, the fate of the third victim remained unchanged.
A haze hung over everyone's heads.
While Heita was lost in thought, she felt a familiar touch on her head.
"If it really doesn't work out, don't think about it. Whether it's Death or the King of Hell, none of them have the right to steal food from my mouth."