Chapter 176: Kill with a Borrowed Knife (2)

Gambling with their lives?

Chen Ran scoffed at the idea. Who in their right mind would take a piece of fine porcelain and smash it against a broken clay pot just to see which one was tougher?

Across the three timelines, as long as Chen Ran activated Eternal Kingdom, a gunfight was inevitable.

Therefore, when the memories of the three Three-Star Players returned, they would immediately notice the trickery hidden within.

And indeed...

The moment the five minutes ended, Li Zhitong was instantly affected by Turned Upside Down, preventing him from receiving the memories of the previous two timelines.

This proved that even before his memories returned, Diwu Zeyi had already discovered the clues hidden within Future Lie Three.

Li Zhitong failed to receive his memories, but Dorje and Long Hui got theirs back.

The three of them looked toward Chen Ran simultaneously, then gave him a thumbs-up. They had to admit, this move was played beautifully. It was absolutely brilliant.

Before Chen Ran voiced the third Future Lie, even the leader of an alliance would not have been able to deduce the trap hidden within it.

Because.

In Future Lie Three: "Cannot Judge the lies Qiu Yinong told previously."

This sentence was not only meant to trick Li Zhitong into Judging Qiu Yinong, but also served to remind the three Three-Star Players to deduce the possible Future Lies that might have been spoken in the first two timelines.

Long Hui frowned.

'Logically speaking, Chen Ran should have also lost his memory in every timeline.'

'How did he manage to speak a different Future Lie in each timeline? And in such a sequential order, no less.'

'I see.'

'Earlier, Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong were communicating using Morse Code. They must have established secret signals. After all, within the Wheel of Time, Qiu Yinong does not lose her memories.'

'Therefore, in each timeline, Qiu Yinong gave Chen Ran a signal—like tapping the table, or clicking the Computer Mouse. Based on the different signals, Chen Ran proposed different Future Lies.'

'This way, the three Future Lies could be introduced one after another, interlocking perfectly across different timelines.'

'These two are absolute menaces!'

'Chen Ran maintains a high profile, while Qiu Yinong keeps a low profile. Before this, they barely interacted at all, and seemed completely indifferent to whether the other lived or died. Perhaps they knew...'

'A problem they could solve themselves was a problem their teammate could definitely solve too.'

'This resulted in Qiu Yinong having almost zero presence, but...'

'As long as the two colluded to lay a trap, Qiu Yinong would transform into an assassin, delivering a sudden, fatal strike that was impossible to guard against.'

'No wonder their team only has two people. Even a single extra teammate would ruin such perfect synergy.'

'The current situation is clear: we cannot let Chen Ran use Eternal Kingdom.'

'Otherwise, we Three-Star Players will be forced to compete against them in a test of marksmanship.'

'Trap Chen Ran to death?'

'Impossible!'

'Among the three Future Lies, there is no restriction on Qiu Yinong touching her Liar-Slayer. The moment she realizes we are targeting Chen Ran, she will use the Wheel of Time and initiate a Time Reset.'

'If that happens, and she warns Chen Ran in the new timeline, prompting him to use Eternal Kingdom, it will be all over...'

'Of course, there is a time gap here. In the other timelines, the moment we use our Skills is always after the effects of Eternal Kingdom end, and after Qiu Yinong provides a lie.'

'In other words, Chen Ran must use Eternal Kingdom within one minute after Qiu Yinong provides her lie.'

'If he exceeds this time limit, touching his Liar-Slayer will violate Future Lie Three.'

'The Wheel of Time resets time back to five minutes ago. According to the Future Lie, there is another one-minute window to use a Skill.'

'Simply put, as long as six minutes pass in this timeline, no matter how the Wheel of Time resets things, the "one-minute window to use a Skill in Future Lie Three" will have ended. If Chen Ran dares to so much as touch his Liar-Slayer...'

'He will violate Future Lie Three.'

Thinking up to this point, Long Hui could not help but glance at Qiu Yinong. As long as she did not use the Wheel of Time in the next six minutes...

This trap could be broken!

However, when he looked over, he saw that Qiu Yinong was behaving very strangely.

One hand had a Gun raised, pointing at the ceiling.

The other arm was raised and held horizontally across her chest.

Her eyes were locked onto the Watch strapped to the wrist resting across her chest, seemingly timing everything down to the exact second.

Clearly, Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong were also aware of the flaw in this setup.

'Judging by Qiu Yinong's posture, she will absolutely use her Skill before the six minutes are up.'

'This is troublesome!'

'These two terrors have set up a watertight trap. Simply put, as long as we dare to target Chen Ran, they dare to use their Skills to turn everyone into liars.'

'When that time comes, a gunfight will be our only option.'

'This is an outcome that neither I, Diwu Zeyi, nor Dorje want to see. And Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong do not want to see it either.'

'After all, when it comes to gunfights, no one can guarantee they will be the last one standing.'

'Therefore, our only choice is to negotiate terms, and the contents of those terms can roughly be deduced.'

'It will be nothing more than the three of us helping him kill Li Zhitong. And only after Li Zhitong is dead, and we have all retracted our Skills, will he refrain from using Eternal Kingdom to break the Wheel of Time.'

'What a brilliant move to Kill with a Borrowed Knife!'

'With this, even if I wanted to lend Li Zhitong a hand and save him, I can no longer do so.'

'Furthermore, another possible scenario could emerge. The number of people is odd, and Qiu Yinong is still a liar.'

'We can discard her lie on the subway, sacrificing a Guaranteed Judgment opportunity.'

'Since the number of people is odd, there is still one more lie that can be discarded but cannot be Judged.'

'Once Silent Seal is used, it is inevitable that one person will be left without a pair. Their only option will be to voice their deductions about the Instance to evade the Skill's punishment.'

'However, there is an issue here, and it involves the NPC we have been ignoring all along.'

'According to my experience in Instances, the NPC is constantly observing the first two Secret Rooms.'

'If, in the third Secret Room, the NPC directly states all the deductions about the Instance...'

'And if someone were to Judge him, generating a Confirmation that everything he said was true...'

'Then, the loophole of using Instance deductions to bypass my Silent Seal would become invalid.'

'After all, once the Instance has been fully deduced and confirmed to be true, trying to use those deductions to bypass my Skill would turn them into mere statements of fact, not deductions. It would be impossible to evade my Skill.'

'Consequently, the odd one out would inevitably trigger my Skill's punishment infinitely.'

'That person will not be me. After all, if I do not have a partner, I will just retract my Skill.'

'This involves a lot of variables, and it is exceedingly complex. There is a high probability...'

'Dorje will die.'

'Therefore, during the upcoming negotiations with Chen Ran, Dorje will definitely lay out terms; otherwise, he will choose mutual destruction, taking us down with him.'

'In that case, the only option is to use a Future Lie to sever the karmic ties of the first two Secret Rooms, allowing us to start fresh in the third Secret Room.'

'As for the NPC Judging Qiu Yinong?'

'There is no need to worry about that. Every BOSS in an Instance always says the line, "My dear enemies, welcome to my home turf." '

'This statement involves spatial properties. Simply put, just like how the Instance and the 18th Level are mutually independent, a lie told within the Instance will not carry over to the 18th Level.'

'By the same logic, before the BOSS says this line, it exists in a special spatial dimension. To put it bluntly, it is right beside us now, but we can neither see nor touch it. It cannot affect us, and we cannot affect it during the first two phases of the Instance.'

'Mutually independent!'

'It is unable to Judge the lies Qiu Yinong told in the first two phases of the Instance.'

'This is exactly why Lin Xuan's spatial abilities are rated with a higher danger coefficient in the Deceiver Alliance than Qiu Yinong's time-based skills.'

'And this is also why Qiu Yinong can act as an Amateur Lie-Slayer, while Lin Xuan is forced to be a Professional Lie-Slayer.'

'It is just like how many people believe that the Eight-Star Ghost Whisperer, Xia Ning, is absurdly powerful. But few know that the truly powerful one is the person helping Whisperer Xia Ning use her Skills...'

'A spatial-type Ghost Whisperer!'

All the above deductions were made by Long Hui before he suppressed his emotions.

In the next moment.

He pressed his palms together, suppressing his emotions, and instantly entered a sage-like state of mind. Free from any emotional interference, he began his deductions anew...

At the exact same time.

With the simple closing and opening of their eyes, Diwu Zeyi and Dorje instantly discarded their emotions as well. The three of them now resembled banished immortals, completely untainted by the mortal realm.

At this moment, the trio transcended the constraints of being "participants." Assuming the perspective of "bystanders," they stood at an absolute vantage point, devoid of any emotion, and began to coldly analyze Chen Ran's entire scheme.