Chapter 178: Chen Ran: I Never Broke the Law When I Was Alive

"Liar-Slayer: Emperor Emerges from the Three Rivers."

"Withdraw!"

"Ghost Whisperer: Silent Seal."

"Withdraw!"

"Liar-Slayer: Turned Upside Down."

"Withdraw!"

All three retracted their skills. Thus, out of the initial twenty players, only...

Five remained!

Long Hui, Diwu Zeyi, Dorje, Chen Ran, and Qiu Yinong.

They never expected that the two of them would end up as commanders without an army. Even Diwu Zeyi, despite being a temporary teammate with Chen Ran, had essentially become a general without troops as well.

A True Self Skill owner, and a Superego Skill owner. When these two were alive, they had likely already reached a level comparable to Three-Star Players.

Of course, the three of them had heard of many monstrous geniuses. For example, there were people who had achieved the feat of Severing the Corpses to cut out a complete corpse before even dying. However, such individuals were too dazzling and destined for short lives.

However, hearing about them was one thing; encountering them was entirely another. Only by facing them head-on could one truly understand the terror of such Newbies.

Suddenly, a bold thought lingered in the minds of the three Three-Star Players.

'Is there a possibility that when Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong were alive, they had also severed...'

'...a complete corpse?'

Chen Ran lit a Cigarette. Mount Tai Crushing Down from earlier had affected him significantly, leaving a lingering, stinging pain in his head.

He took a deep drag, looked at the trio, and organized his thoughts before speaking calmly.

"Dark Resilience."

These two words seemed to possess a certain magic, causing the pupils of the three Three-Star Players to constrict sharply.

"I read a few psychology books when I was alive. In psychology, there is a concept known as Dark Resilience."

"It refers to the stronger, adaptive power a person regrows after experiencing extreme sorrow, depression, grievance, and other rock-bottom emotional states. For example, some people's vitality actually becomes tougher through a continuous struggle against pain. If I'm not mistaken, this must be one of the key factors in the Three Corpses of the Spirit Terrace and Severing the Corpses, right?"

"Sigh, it really is troublesome. After coming to Hell, whether it is the mechanics and rules, or Heart Cultivation, everything has to be slowly deduced. I highly doubt if there is even a so-called Mental Cultivation Method within the alliance."

As he spoke, he looked over at Long Hui, hinting pointedly, "There should be. You were far too cold just now. You did not even bother saving Li Zhitong, considering he is your..."

Long Hui's gaze turned icy.

'What did he discover?'

Seeing that no one spoke, Chen Ran increased the pressure, sighing, "To be honest, I gained a lot from this Instance, especially from our previous battle of wits. Actually, during my earlier deductions, I thought... your Deceiver's Tongue was..."

"Three-Star Player!"

"I suspected you were a four-star player who had somehow bypassed the matchmaking mechanics of the Instance. Therefore, I was waiting for you to say: Li Zhitong is my teammate."

"After all, I had already used Eternal Kingdom on the subway. If your Deceiver's Tongue was indeed 'Three-Star Player,' and you used Silent Seal to make everyone forget you were a four-star player, then my Eternal Kingdom would have long since broken..."

"Your Deceiver's Tongue."

"But just now, I suddenly realized that this was very likely a trap."

"So, I believe there is a high probability that your Deceiver's Tongue is your own name."

"Is your name really Long Hui?"

"Logically speaking, a name acting as a Deceiver's Tongue shouldn't possibly become Common Sense in the 18th Level. But if you were on the Liar-Slayer Alliance's wanted list, then..."

"The players in the 18th Level would know you as Long Hui, thus forming the Deceiver's Tongue."

"Of course, the above deductions are merely my personal opinions, for reference only."

Diwu Zeyi and Dorje showed no change in expression upon hearing this. They had known this from the very beginning.

But the problem was, to crack Long Hui's Deceiver's Tongue, one would have to retrieve Long Hui's Form from the Deceiver Alliance.

Although a Form could obscure a Skill, it absolutely could not be falsified; this was Common Sense.

Therefore, Long Hui must have written his true name on his Form within the Deceiver Alliance. If one continued to deduce further...

Long Hui had to have a profound background within the Deceiver Alliance. Otherwise, his Deceiver's Tongue would have been broken long ago.

Put simply, someone in the upper echelons of the Deceiver Alliance was covering for him.

Clap, clap, clap!

Long Hui clapped his hands, looking at Chen Ran with a beaming smile. "Actually, in the past, there were many genius Newbies who also thought my Deceiver's Tongue might be 'I am a Three-Star Player'. They exhausted every method available, thinking they had cracked my Deceiver's Tongue, and proceeded to initiate a Judgment on me."

"But all of their Judgments failed. I was curious before—with your level of intelligence, you should have thought of this long ago, yet you held back from baiting me into saying 'Li Zhitong is my teammate'..."

If 'Three-Star Player' was Long Hui's Deceiver's Tongue, but he was actually a four-star.

Then, according to the matchmaking mechanics, a four-star player could not possibly appear in a One-Star Instance.

Moreover, a four-star player would automatically detach from any teammates who were One-Star Players.

Therefore, if the Deceiver's Tongue was 'Three-Star Player', it would have been shattered the very first time Chen Ran used Eternal Kingdom.

As long as Long Hui could be goaded into saying that the four temporary team members were his teammates, he would inevitably be telling a lie.

"So, you didn't fall for it. That doesn't quite fit your usual style."

"Among the four branches of military strategy, the School of Military Momentum emphasizes overwhelming force in the heat of battle. It seems that after the intellectual clashes in this Instance, your underlying behavioral logic has begun to waver. This is not a good sign. After all, the greatest taboo in war is changing generals right before a battle. By the same logic, the greatest taboo in a battle of wits is altering your own fundamental behavioral logic."

The other three simply listened in silence.

They knew that Chen Ran and Long Hui were engaged in an ideological clash. What the two were trying to do was instill their own mindsets into the other through their words.

Commonly known as: hypnosis.

However, considering Long Hui had already severed a complete corpse, attempting to hypnotize him...

...was going to be quite difficult.

"Do you also understand military strategy?" Chen Ran asked.

"A little," Long Hui answered.

"Then what do you think is the most important factor in a war?" Chen Ran pressed.

"Speaking from general rationality, wars are fought on logistics. Logistics should be the most important."

Chen Ran shook his head. "I have a different perspective. A war between nations is fought on the foundation of their civilizations. A civil war, on the other hand, is fought on the military spirit of the two armies."

"Take the war of resistance, for example. While logistics were certainly important, when we had no guns or cannons, we took them from the enemy. The spirit of unyielding self-improvement, gifted to us by five thousand years of history, was the true key to winning that war."

"A war between nations is a collision between two civilizations."

"Perhaps this is also why corporate leaders in the living world always emphasized corporate culture."

Qiu Yinong shot Chen Ran a look of surprise, secretly thinking that for this guy to not go into business while he was alive was simply a waste of his talents.

Hearing this, Long Hui also frowned. He immediately suppressed his emotions, purging all the ideas Chen Ran was attempting to instill in him.

His eyes returned to their clear and bright state.

"Are you trying to tell me that your spiritual core is stronger than mine? Are you trying to drill the idea of your invincibility into my head?"

"You were a novelist when you were alive, right? I actually think your talents were wasted. You'd be perfectly suited for public speaking. You could probably even start a pyramid scheme and scam quite a few people."

'That's exactly the sentence I've been waiting for!'

Chen Ran sneered. "A great man once said that we are The Sun at eight or nine in the morning. The Future belongs to us, and the hope rests on our shoulders. I never did anything that violated the Criminal Law when I was alive."

As soon as these words were spoken, the eyes of the other four players widened simultaneously.