Chapter 151: A God-Tier Setup Beaten into a Crippled Setup

After dealing with Long Hui's Skill.

Qiu Yinong's answer remained the same: "You have already asked that."

I realized that she seemed to be deducing who the liar was, just like me.

I just hoped...

She would not recklessly swear oaths using my lifespan.

...

To start my deductions over, I needed to find a new starting point. After turning it over in my mind, there was only one...

When Li Zhitong prepared to use Mount Tai Crushing Down for the second time, why did Lin Xiuyuan prepare to use his Substitute Doll?

If his identity relied on a Deceiver's Tongue, using a Substitute Doll would definitely expose him.

This could only prove one thing.

Lin Xiuyuan had been in his true body all along; he had never used the Substitute Doll.

Getting to this point in my deductions.

I encountered another logic problem. The Slave belonged to Lin Xiuyuan. Since the Slave provided a lie to Li Zhitong, it stood to reason that they should have provided one to Lin Xiuyuan as well, yet Lin Xiuyuan had not used the Substitute Doll before this...

This proved that the Slave had not provided Lin Xiuyuan with a lie. Why was that?

There were two possibilities:

One: Lin Xiuyuan was not the slave master, so the Slave did not provide him with a lie.

If Lin Xiuyuan was not, then who was?

Was Li Zhitong the slave master, having planted a spy in Lin Xiuyuan's team?

It was important to note that both Ghost Whisperer teams had arrived at the Instance at the same time. If the Slave had solely provided a lie to Li Zhitong, Lin Xiuyuan would have shot the Slave dead with a gun long ago.

As for the Slave secretly providing a lie to Li Zhitong without Lin Xiuyuan noticing?

That was even more impossible. At the time, they had to set up the supermarket environment. Both Lin and Li, to ensure they remained in an unknown state, would not have spoken to any Player from either team.

If anyone even approached, Lin and Li would hide far away, terrified that the other party would reveal the supermarket's puzzle solutions to them.

Would the Slave dare to approach Li Zhitong?

Before they could even get close, they would have been intercepted by Li Zhitong's teammates.

And if they had not been intercepted, Lin Xiuyuan, no matter how stupid, would have known the Slave was a spy.

The Slave would not have survived to the first Secret Room.

Therefore, the first possibility could be ruled out, leaving the conclusion that Lin Xiuyuan was the slave master.

Two: The Slave did provide Lin Xiuyuan with a lie, but he did not use his Skill.

When Li Zhitong used her Skill for the first time, all One-Star Players and Two-Star Players knew that if she used it again, someone would die.

Furthermore, Lin Xiuyuan still faced the risk of leaving the subway to go to the platform. It simply did not make sense for him to not use his Substitute Doll.

One had to realize that mental damage was no joke. If Li Zhitong had successfully used her Skill a second time, every One-Star Player except for Qiu Yinong and me would have died for sure.

Even if the Two-Star Players could have survived it, their minds would have been severely damaged, potentially crippling them. In this Instance, they would only be waiting to die.

It was impossible for Lin Xiuyuan not to use his Skill.

Therefore, the second possibility could also be ruled out. Lin Xiuyuan's Slave...

Had never provided him with a lie!

Of course, there was another scenario: the Slave had provided him with a lie, but for some reason, Lin Xiuyuan did not dare to use his Skill before Li Zhitong's second attempt.

This highly likely involved the issue of multiple personalities.

I set that aside for now; I needed to deduce the existence of multiple personalities first before considering it.

So, the two conclusions were as follows.

Conclusion one:

'Lin Xiuyuan is the slave master.'

Conclusion two:

'The Slave only provided a lie to Li Zhitong, not to Lin Xiuyuan.'

Sherlock Holmes once said: when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Shinjitsu wa...

Ahem, there is only one truth!

'Lin Xiuyuan is the slave master, but he does not know he is the slave master.'

Simply put...

The one occupying Lin Xiuyuan's body and entering the Instance was his secondary personality.

I had learned in the previous Instance that when multiple personalities enter an Instance, they are independent of each other.

For example, if Lin Xiuyuan's secondary personality occupied the body, then his primary personality would not appear for the entire Instance.

Only under these circumstances would a situation arise where Lin Xiuyuan was the slave master, yet remained unaware of it.

In that case...

The phrase 'My name is Lin Xiuyuan' was the Deceiver's Tongue he had created.

How was this Deceiver's Tongue broken?

Process of elimination!

There might have been two Deceiver's Tongues present at the time.

One: 'My name is Lin Xiuyuan.'

This was the Deceiver's Tongue for the Substitute Doll.

Two: 'My name is Lin Xiuyuan.'

This was the Deceiver's Tongue for the secondary personality.

When Long Hui's Skill branded the countdown timer onto Lin Xiuyuan's arm, the possibility of the Substitute Doll's Deceiver's Tongue was eliminated.

That left only the secondary personality's Deceiver's Tongue: 'I am Lin Xiuyuan.'

This Deceiver's Tongue had been broken long ago!

When he shouted the command:

'Ghost Whisperer: Substitute Doll'

His teammates discovered that this was not Lin Xiuyuan's Skill, and immediately understood that the Lin Xiuyuan standing before them was the secondary personality.

The Deceiver's Tongue was broken.

Simply put...

Breaking the secondary personality's Deceiver's Tongue, 'I am Lin Xiuyuan', involved two steps.

One: He shouted the command.

Two: He was not the Substitute Doll.

These two steps were triggered in sequence, leading to the breaking of the secondary personality's Deceiver's Tongue.

According to the mechanics of entering an Instance with multiple personalities.

The personalities were independent of one another.

For instance, when Lin Jiabao controlled the body to enter the Instance, his name was Lin Jiabao.

If Lin Jiabei was controlling the body in the Instance, her name was Lin Jiabei.

'My name is Lin Xiuyuan.'

With this Deceiver's Tongue broken, the secondary personality was essentially lying simply because he was not Lin Xiuyuan.

Reaching this point in my deductions.

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. Right now, there were still a few unresolved questions.

Since 'My name is Lin Xiuyuan' was a Deceiver's Tongue.

Then Lin Xiuyuan's secondary personality definitely possessed an opportunity to forgo judging himself. Moreover, I had just deduced that while in the state of the secondary personality, the Slave might have provided him with a lie.

Why did he use none of it?

The answer was very simple.

As long as no one was lying, he did not dare to use his Skill. Once used, it would mean that he had broken his own Deceiver's Tongue.

Based on the multiple-personality mechanics, different personalities using the same Liar-Slayer would manifest completely different Skills.

After all, the moment his teammates saw him use the Substitute Doll—which was not a Skill belonging to Lin Xiuyuan's primary personality—they would know he was the secondary personality. And since there was only one Lin Xiuyuan on the scene, it would prove he had not used the Substitute Doll previously.

The Deceiver's Tongue would be broken.

If the Deceiver's Tongue was broken, his teammates likely would not cast Judgment on him. However, if someone was in a certain-death situation and went mad, unleashing a random Judgment, then Lin Xiuyuan faced the real risk of dying.

Under those circumstances, any Player heading to the platform had the potential to snap. Randomly passing Judgment on others was highly likely to occur.

Faced with such a situation, he did not dare to use his Skill and break his own Deceiver's Tongue.

This spawned a second question:

When Li Zhitong prepared to use her Skill for the second time, why did he suddenly dare to do so?

The reason was equally simple.

He was afraid he would not be able to withstand it. A psychic bludgeoning was no laughing matter. If Li Zhitong managed a second cast, every One-Star Player—save for Qiu Yinong and myself—would absolutely die.

The Two-Star Players might endure it, but their minds would be so heavily damaged they could no longer think. They would only be left waiting for death in this Instance.

He faced two choices:

Do not use his Skill: suffer severe mental trauma and await death.

Use his Skill: have his Deceiver's Tongue broken, become a liar, and risk Judgment from a deranged Player.

Choose the lesser of two evils.

He had no choice but to use his Skill. Unfortunately for him, I struck first with Eternal Kingdom, causing his Skill to fail.

Tsk, tsk, tsk!

He must hate me to the core for that, right?

Next was the third question. With the Deceiver's Tongue broken, anyone who claimed that Lin Xiuyuan's secondary personality was 'Lin Xiuyuan' would be lying.

Why did the three Three-Star Players not exploit this to trigger a Lie-Judgment?

Because they could not!

Qiu Yinong had used the Wheel of Time to kill off all the rookies. The ones remaining were the elite of the elite. Trying to trick a lie out of us through mere conversation was practically impossible; instead, it would only tip us off to their scheme.

I carefully recalled the events. Ever since Long Hui used his Skill, no one had spoken the three words 'Lin Xiuyuan'.

Simply because...

We clearly knew that Qiu Yinong used the Wheel of Time to sniff out the Slave.

Ultimately, the Slave's identity belonged to Lin Xiuyuan's teammate. We would be on guard against anything concerning Lin Xiuyuan. In any conversation involving him, we would employ Avoidance of Lying. How could the Three-Star Players possibly trick a lie out of us?

We knew this, and the Three-Star Players knew this too. Therefore, they did not attempt to steer us into saying the name 'Lin Xiuyuan'.

Finally, the deduction was complete!

Looking back on it now, Lin Xiuyuan's secondary personality was incredibly unlucky.

His Deceiver's Tongue was highly concealed and extraordinarily dangerous. As long as he broke it himself at the right moment, anyone who subsequently said 'Lin Xiuyuan' would be judged as lying.

It was simply a god-tier setup. He could have played us to death and rubbed our faces in the dirt.

However!

He was tracked by me first, drawing the three Three-Star Players right to him.

Then Qiu Yinong sniffed out the Slave, making everyone else deeply wary of him.

And the three Three-Star Players deduced his Deceiver's Tongue in an instant.

Deducing it was one thing, but those three Three-Star Players, wanting to kill me, mercilessly blurted out that someone among the ten of us was lying. They sought to steer my deductions toward their desired conclusion.

This resulted in me deducing that Lin Xiuyuan was the liar as well. Even if the others had not pieced it together yet, they would still suspect him.

A god-tier setup, utterly ravaged by successive waves, was brutally tortured into a crippled setup.

To make matters worse...

He lied!

If I were Lin Xiuyuan, I reckon I would stab Chen Ran a hundred times until he was full of holes.