Chapter 26: Shepherd, Eliminated?

"Don't believe me?"

Seeing his expression, Chen Ran offered no explanation and simply said,

"Play a few rounds and you will understand."

In the second round, Chen Ran was the first to draw a card.

Chen Ran drew Li Annan's Wolf card.

Li Annan drew Ma Wenjie's Shepherd card.

At this moment, the cards in front of the three players on the table were as follows:

Chen Ran: Shepherd, Shepherd, Wolf.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Wolf, Sheep.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Wolf.

When it was Ma Wenjie's turn to draw, he hesitated slightly before choosing to draw Chen Ran's Shepherd card.

Chen Ran then drew Li Annan's Wolf card.

The second round ended. The cards on the table were:

Chen Ran: Shepherd, Wolf, Wolf.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Sheep.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Shepherd, Wolf.

One win for the Shepherd, one win for the Wolf.

The Scales of Judgment remained completely unchanged.

Ma Wenjie widened his eyes. Out of eight cards, four were Shepherd cards, yet it still resulted in a tie?

In the third round, Li Annan went first.

Li Annan drew Ma Wenjie's Shepherd card:

Chen Ran: Shepherd, Wolf, Wolf.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Shepherd, Sheep.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Wolf.

Ma Wenjie stared at the cards on the table, his frown deepening, and ultimately decided to draw a Shepherd card:

Chen Ran: Wolf, Wolf.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Shepherd, Sheep.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Shepherd, Wolf.

The corners of Chen Ran's mouth curled up. He unhesitatingly drew the Sheep card from Li Annan's table space.

Li Annan then drew Ma Wenjie's Shepherd card.

The third round ended.

The cards on the table were as follows:

Chen Ran: Wolf, Wolf, Sheep.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Wolf.

One win for the Shepherd, one win for the Wolf.

The Scales of Judgment remained unchanged.

Two consecutive ties instantly made Ma Wenjie realize that the police role was being targeted!

"You still do not understand the rules of the game," Chen Ran said unhurriedly. "I mentioned earlier that if the Wolf is arrested in this round, the Sheep must rely on the police to kill the Wolf. Once the Wolf is dead, because the Sheep lied previously, the police can directly Judge the Sheep to death."

"By the same logic, if the Wolf wins this round, the Wolf will shoot the Sheep. The police takes the bullet and dies, leaving only the Wolf and the Sheep. Since the Sheep lied, the Wolf can directly Judge the Sheep to death."

"In other words, during this round, the Sheep will not let the Shepherd win, nor will it let the Wolf win. With only one Sheep card on the table, it is even more impossible for the Sheep to win."

"Unless..."

Chen Ran stopped there, but Ma Wenjie naturally understood his meaning. Unless the Shepherd or the Wolf could ensure the Sheep had no worries about the aftermath!

'A Future Lie!!'

'The Sheep needs a Future Lie!'

'To ensure that when only two people remain at the end, both lose their right to Judge!'

'Whoever tells a Future Lie is the one the Sheep will help win this round!'

'When the loser dies, only the Sheep and the person who lied will survive. Both will lose their qualification to Judge, and it will devolve into a gunfight.'

'The Sheep is incredibly fast on the draw, as seen from Zhang Yuan's death just now. Anyone who gets into a gunfight with the Sheep is courting death. No wonder the Sheep has been avoiding a win, and no wonder the Sheep lied in advance. So this was the trap all along!'

Ma Wenjie organized his words for a moment. "Does the Sheep take us for fools?"

"How so?" Chen Ran asked.

"There are only three of us here. Suppose I am the Wolf, and I Judge one of you. If I fail, it proves the other person is the Sheep. This means if the Shepherd and the Wolf take turns Judging, the Sheep will die without a doubt!"

"That is a good proposal, but who is going to be the cannon fodder?" Chen Ran asked in return.

"..." Ma Wenjie fell silent.

'Right, who would willingly be the cannon fodder?'

'There is only a fifty percent chance of success. Failing means death!'

'If the Judgment is successful, the Sheep will be killed directly. Both Chen Ran and I would clear the stage, but who would get the Liar Hunter Skill in the prize pool?'

"Tell me, what do you want to do?"

Chen Ran chuckled lightly. "Let's bet on the outcome. All three of us will bet by declaring future winners and losers. The Sheep will place its own bet on who wins. At the same time, the three of us will toss our Liar-Slayers far away."

"Fine, you go first."

"The police wins this round." Chen Ran did not hesitate, immediately uttering a Future Lie.

Ma Wenjie pondered over this statement.

'I am the police.'

'Chen Ran says the police will win. If the Wolf ultimately wins this round, then he is lying.'

'But is Chen Ran the Wolf or the Sheep?'

'If he is the Wolf, the previous deduction naturally holds true. If the Wolf wins, he lies.'

'If he is the Sheep, the Sheep has already lied before, so this Future Lie has little effect on him.'

Thinking up to this point, Ma Wenjie looked at Li Annan, who had not yet spoken.

"It is your turn!"

Li Annan thought for a moment and also declared, "The police wins this round."

'Both the Wolf and the Sheep say the police will win.'

'I can only say the Wolf will win.'

'It just depends on who the Sheep helps.'

'If the Sheep helps the police and the police wins, then by saying the Wolf wins, I would be lying.'

'If the Sheep helps the Wolf and the Wolf wins, but the Wolf said the police would win this round, then the Wolf is lying.'

'In other words, no matter who the Sheep helps, the victorious side will be telling a lie.'

'That way, in the final showdown, both the Sheep and the winner of this round will have lied, allowing them to question each other's qualification to Judge.'

'But there is a problem here. If the police wins, they can only handcuff the Wolf. We still need the Wolf to state a supplementary agreement for this to work.'

At this thought, Ma Wenjie said, "Both of you must add a supplementary agreement stating that if the Wolf is bound by the handcuffs, they will not Judge anyone else."

Chen Ran nodded. "If the Wolf is handcuffed, they will not Judge the person who lied previously."

Li Annan echoed, "If the Wolf is handcuffed, they will not Judge the person who lied previously."

Seeing this, Ma Wenjie finally said,

"The Wolf wins this round."

At this point, All three had told a Future Lie. Among them, the Sheep was just tagging along; whether it spoke or not made no difference.

The crux lay with the other two. Both Chen Ran and Cheng Si had told Future Lies, so it all came down to who the Sheep decided to help.

Subsequently, all three drew their Liar-Slayers and tossed them to the furthest point away from the gambling table.

Next, it was a matter of who could secure the pistol on the Scales of Judgment. Although the police could not directly obtain the pistol, acquiring the handcuffs was essentially the same.

The one handcuffed first would inevitably be the Wolf. Then, during the showdown with the Sheep, they would let the Sheep win. The Sheep would obtain the pistol from the Scales of Judgment, and the Wolf would be shot dead.

After the Wolf died, the final showdown would be between the police and the Sheep. Whoever won would leave alive.

The three of them thought it over for a moment, confirming there were no loopholes in the agreement, before commencing the fourth round.

The cards for the three on the table were:

Chen Ran: Wolf, Wolf, Sheep.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Wolf.

Ma Wenjie drew Chen Ran's Sheep card.

Chen Ran drew Li Annan's Shepherd card.

Li Annan drew Ma Wenjie's Shepherd card.

Ma Wenjie drew Chen Ran's Shepherd card.

Chen Ran: Wolf, Wolf.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Shepherd, Shepherd.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Wolf, Sheep.

One win for the Shepherd, one win for the Wolf, one win for the Sheep.

One win for Good, two wins for Evil.

The Scales of Judgment returned to their initial balanced position.

Fifth round:

Chen Ran: Shepherd, Wolf, Wolf.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Wolf.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Shepherd, Sheep.

A tie!

Sixth round:

Chen Ran: Shepherd, Wolf, Sheep.

Li Annan: Shepherd, Wolf, Wolf.

Ma Wenjie: Shepherd, Shepherd.

One win for the Shepherd, one win for the Wolf, one win for the Sheep.

The Scales of Judgment tilted one notch to the left.

'Wrong!'

'Wrong!'

'Wrong!'

Inside Ma Wenjie's body, Cheng Si panicked. She realized that no matter how she drew the cards, it always resulted in one round of a tie, followed by one round of an Evil victory.

'These two...'

'It seems they have colluded. Every card draw specifically targets the police. Why on earth is this?'

He looked at the two of them, only to see Chen Ran and Li Annan simultaneously pulling a cigarette from a cigarette case. They lit up in perfect unison and took a deep drag at the exact same time.

'It's the cigarettes!!!'

'So that's it. It's truly impossible to guard against. It seems I have no other choice.'

Ma Wenjie stood up.

Seeing him do so, Chen Ran and Li Annan also rose to their feet. All three began walking toward the spot where they had tossed their Liar-Slayers moments ago.

"Good luck."

"Good luck."

Chen Ran and Li Annan said to each other.