Chapter 136: Warm-up Finished

"For a normal person to finish a book and still recall exactly which chapter a specific poem appeared in is highly suspicious in the first place. Don't you think it's possible that this was some kind of code?"

That was right. The true trump card was...

Their teammates!

In fact, one could reverse-engineer the logic.

Lin Xiuyuan and Li Zhitong had both stated, "I deduced an unknown answer."

Since the answer was unknown, and neither of them had lied, it was impossible for them to have set the traps themselves.

They could not even know what puzzles their teammates had set up. They couldn't ask for a single detail.

But if that were the case, how could they figure out which puzzle belonged to their own teammates and which belonged to the other team of Ghost Whisperers, especially when they were seeing the Secret Room for the first time alongside the Liar-Slayers without having asked for any details?

It was simple: hints or secret codes. The two lines of poetry on the checkout counter were either a clue telling Lin Xiuyuan which puzzle to solve, or they were a hint for Li Zhitong.

Following this logic.

A three-layered Lie-Judgment trap had been woven into the game.

The first layer: When players stepped out of the supermarket and saw the scene outside, they would realize they had been played for fools by the Ghost Whisperers. In their fury, they would likely spout lies.

The second layer: "I deduced an unknown answer." If a player managed to avoid the first Lie-Judgment, they would realize that this statement would turn into a lie once the Deceiver's Tongue was broken.

If someone drew their gun to issue a Judgment then, they would inevitably fail.

The third layer: This was the most insidious Lie-Judgment trap. Once someone was baited into shouting a false Judgment Command by the second layer, the remaining people would realize that neither Lin nor Li knew the puzzle answers in advance. They would naturally assume that Lin solved the puzzle set by Li, and Li solved the puzzle set by Lin. But in reality...

Lin solved the puzzle left by his own teammates.

Li solved the puzzle left by his own teammates.

Therefore, as long as someone voiced this deduction out loud, they would be tricked into telling a lie.

Li Zixin was the one who fell for this third layer, falsely claiming: Lin solved Li's puzzle, and Li solved Lin's puzzle.

...

Dorje looked down at Li Zixin, who was slumped on the ground, and asked, "So, when you voiced your deduction, why didn't you employ Avoidance of Lying?"

"Furthermore."

Dorje pointed a finger at The Youth. "Do you remember what he said?"

She glanced over at the five-person team that had been playing it safe, her eyes landing on The Youth who had previously played dead outside the supermarket.

He seemed to have said...

'In my last Instance, I ran into several puzzles about Journey to the West. Seeing content from the original Journey to the West text again here made me wonder how there could possibly be such a coincidence in this world.'

Li Zixin's eyes widened.

'Did The Youth... warn us right from the beginning that those two lines of poetry were likely an artificial code?'

'That was a true show of skill, and one meant exclusively for Three-Star Players. One-Star Players and Two-Star Players would never even notice his subtext!'

Chen Ran's expression turned cold.

Diwu Zeyi extended his hand toward Dorje and slowly raised his middle finger.

Did people really think that a dignified Three-Star Player would waste their time on someone who was about to die?

He had only said all of that to shift everyone's attention onto Chen Ran's team.

From Chen Ran's perspective, out of the twenty people in the Secret Room, One-Star Players were the weakest and were bound to be crushed early on. Both he and Qiu Yinong were One-Star Players. If they didn't show off some capability, they would face endless trouble. He wasn't afraid of Two-Star Players; his only fear was that a Three-Star Player might strike prematurely. That was why he had deliberately said those words, confident that a Three-Star Player would grasp the hidden meaning, while a Two-Star Player might not.

Now that Dorje had exposed it, they had been backed into a corner, drawing everyone's gaze.

This was by no means a good thing!

Sure enough, both Lin Xiuyuan and Li Zhitong were now frowning as they scrutinized the five members of Chen Ran's team.

'Even though this team has been playing it extremely safe, neither that clean-looking Youth nor the handsome one who drew his gun so incredibly fast just now seem simple.'

At that moment, Dorje ignored Diwu Zeyi's middle finger and continued his verbal assault:

"Your name is Chen Ran, right?"

Qiu Yinong was the Deceiver Alliance's number one wanted target during this Hundred Ghost Feast. Hearing the name "Chen Ran", both teams of Ghost Whisperers—including the Three-Star Trickster-Speaker—turned their eyes to the cold woman standing not far from him.

'Is she Qiu Yinong?'

'Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong were originally a two-person team, but now they have five.'

'Which means...'

'Chen Ran's team is backed by a Three-Star Player! That good-looking youth is a Three-Star Liar-Slayer!'

A single careless move ruins the entire game.

The five members of Chen Ran's team had initially chosen to lay low, biding their time and watching the tigers fight from the safety of the mountain.

But just like that, their strategy had been completely dismantled!

"Liar-Slayer, descend..."

"You lied!"

"You lied!"

"You lied!"

Seeing that no one was paying attention to her, Li Zixin had tried to activate a Skill to see if she could cling to life.

However, the very instant she opened her mouth, the three Three-Star Players drew their guns to issue a Judgment.

Their shots, however, were not entirely simultaneous.

The Three-Star Trickster-Speaker was the fastest, followed by Diwu Zeyi, and finally Dorje.

Three Bullets struck Li Zixin square in the forehead, and she instantly collapsed to the ground.

The Three-Star Trickster-Speaker was the fastest simply because the other two couldn't yet be absolutely certain whether Li Zixin had lied. The Three-Star Trickster-Speaker's Judgment confirmed the absolute truth: Li solved the puzzle set by Li's teammates, and Lin solved the puzzle set by Lin's teammates.

This scene made Qiu Yinong's scalp tingle with dread. Previously, she had harbored a sliver of hope, thinking that even if a Three-Star Player learned her skill activation command, she would still be able to finish speaking it before they could execute their Judgment.

But reality proved that by the time she finished her command, a Three-Star Player could already riddle her with holes.

"Heh, don't be surprised," Dorje said with a radiant smile. "Once you learn a Mental Cultivation Method, you won't be influenced by emotions. Your mind will become as tranquil as still water, and your draw speed will be just as fast."

His words revealed a crucial piece of information...

The Three-Star Players present were all players possessing the True Self State of Mind, having Slayed One Complete Corpse.

They were all peak Three-Star Players!

The four members of Chen Ran's group and the five members of Lin Xiuyuan's group shifted from sheer shock to absolute terror.

'Didn't they say that Three-Star Players who had Slayed One Complete Corpse were peerless geniuses?'

'How did three of them suddenly pop up out of nowhere?'

'Are geniuses really this cheap?'

'No, they were all lured here by Qiu Yinong. Within the Deceiver Alliance, a peak Three-Star Trickster-Speaker was tracking Qiu Yinong.'

'Meanwhile, in the Liar-Slayer Alliance, someone knew Qiu Yinong would be hunted. Therefore, they also chose to track her, Waiting for the Rabbit to Hit the Tree.'

'The fact that they dared to do this meant they had absolute confidence in their own strength. Only a peak Three-Star Player would act so boldly.'

'As for the peak Three-Star Liar-Slayer in Chen Ran's team, their motives were harder to judge.'

They were all smart people. They quickly realized that everyone gathering here was the inevitable result of mutual, targeted tracking.

The most innocent party among them was undoubtedly Lin Xiuyuan's team. Right now, he hated Chen Ran to the core.

At this point.

Every player present now had a rough understanding of the strength of each team.

Seeing that they could no longer deceive anyone, one person from Lin Xiuyuan's team and one from Li Zhitong's team stepped forward. They retracted their Skills, and the Secret Room reverted to its original appearance...