Chapter 295: Triple Homicide (2)

No one chose first. Everyone was waiting for the players who had experienced this decryption to make their choices.

The Youth smiled bitterly, shook his head, glanced at his Watch, and said, "There is about a minute left before the countdowns appear on the three screens. I know the answer, but you guys aren't thinking of betting on who runs the fastest against me, are you?"

The six Short and Fats seemed unbothered, but the rest frowned.

As time ticked by, the atmosphere inside the Secret Room grew increasingly tense. The players who hadn't experienced this Secret Room before swept their gazes back and forth across the three Iron Cages, seemingly hesitant about which to choose.

Ding!

A crisp electronic beep sounded out, and a countdown appeared simultaneously on the screens above the three Iron Cages.

59 seconds!

58 seconds!

57 seconds!

This behavior was very bizarre. One had to know that although the doors to the Iron Cages were open, they were relatively narrow. If someone occupied the doorway, they could use the protection mechanism of the Liar-Slayer to block the others from entering the correct Iron Cage. The strange part was that no one tried to seize this initiative.

Perhaps, just as the Youth had said, they were preparing to bet on who could run the fastest.

30 seconds!

25 seconds!

20 seconds!

Right at this moment, the six Youths abruptly turned their heads and stared at the other fourteen people. But those fourteen were already on guard; they kept their heads half-lowered, avoiding eye contact with the Youths, and immediately charged forward.

Seeing this, the Youths couldn't bother with trying to trap these players and also charged forward along with them.

Twenty people rushed toward three different Iron Cages.

The six Chen Rans chose the first Iron Cage.

The six Youths chose the second Iron Cage.

The remaining players chose the third Iron Cage.

However, none of them went inside.

Instead, they stood in front of the Iron Cages.

The next moment, on the three screens...

The countdowns hit zero!

The three giant stone spheres plummeted, crashing into the three Iron Cages. A massive boom resounded as the floorboards inside the three Iron Cages were completely smashed into concaves. It was easy to imagine what fate would have befallen any player standing inside.

But were the players outside the Iron Cages...

Truly safe?

At the exact moment the stone spheres smashed down, all the floorboards outside the Iron Cages vanished, revealing a bottomless sinkhole beneath. All twenty players stepped on empty air and, entirely...

Fell!

In free fall.

However, bam-bam-bam-bam-bam-bam! The sound of ropes snapping taut and carabiners clashing against the Iron Cages echoed out.

All twenty people were left hanging in mid-air. Every single one of them had a climbing rope attached to their waist, and the other end of the rope was hooked onto the bottom of the Iron Cages with a carabiner. This was what prevented them from falling into the sinkhole.

Not a single person died!

Although it was unexpected.

It was Within Reason.

Dangling in mid-air, Big Gold Tooth stabilized himself, fished out a Cigarette Case from his pocket, and lit one.

"See, I told you guys you wouldn't be able to kill Chen Ran. Just as I expected."

Evidently, this Big Gold Tooth must have also experienced this Secret Room.

Using his mouth, Chen Ran pulled a Cigarette from his Cigarette Case, lit it, and said faintly, "My apologies, I just happened to have some proper deduction skills. I might have disappointed some person or certain people."

"Let's hear it?" the Youth prompted.

"Actually, as long as you deduce who left the message on the phone that was likely true, you'll pretty much know the answer to this stage."

'Likely' and 'pretty much' were both uses of Avoidance of Lying. This made the others realize that Chen Ran also hadn't been able to figure out whether this was a Whisperer's Escape Room or an Instance Secret Room.

"First of all, we can rule out the so-called third person. He/she/it had no reason to leave a text message on the phone."

After all, that person came to kill; leaving a text message was pointless. Of course, it was impossible for Chen Ran to say this sentence out loud.

"Secondly, if the text message was left by the adult, we have to distinguish whether it was before or after the third person entered. If it was left after the third person entered, that means he had enough time to call the police."

"If it was left before the third person entered, it means he knew someone would break into the house. In that case, we can basically confirm that this setup was designed by the adult specifically to kill that third person."

"However, the problem lies right here. One must know that phone data can be recovered. Even if the text message was deleted, the police could still recover the phone data and realize that this was a premeditated murder. In other words, the adult would have left behind a fatal clue."

"Therefore, both the murderer and the adult can be ruled out. Based on the current clues, the only one who could have left the text message is the child."

"Why would he/she do this?"

"I think it's highly likely they wanted to send the adult to prison."

"The adult likely loved to drink and possibly had manic depression. Thus, if the child didn't try to save themselves, it would have been very difficult to survive to adulthood healthily."

"So, the plot is highly likely to be like this: the adult devised a plan to have the third person kill them. The third person came to kill them and fell into the adult's meticulously prepared, supposedly perfect murder trap."

"If my guess is correct, the adult and the third person eventually fell from the window. However, the adult survived because they had a rope tied to themselves, just like the situation we're in right now."

As he spoke, Chen Ran pointed to the group of people dangling in mid-air. His meaning was obvious: the adult and the third person fell from the high building simultaneously. The adult had a rope attached and hung in mid-air, while the third person had no rope and fell to their death.

"At that time, when the third person fell to their death, passersby would inevitably call the police. It would be equivalent to him pulling off a 'perfect murder'."

"Cutting the rope would obviously leave many issues behind. Thus, he/she chose to sabotage one link in the 'perfect murder'. The simplest method was to use the phone to..."

"Leave a text message!"

"Like calling the police, or saying 'I'm hanging outside the window, come save me', or something similar."

"When the police saw these contents, they would mistakenly assume they were left by the adult, effectively confirming the adult's premeditated murder."

Chen Ran took a drag of his Cigarette. "In the plot I've deduced, the third person, the adult, and the child are all murderers. Therefore, in my opinion, entering any of the three Iron Cages would be fine."

"However, the information on the screens of the Iron Cages is ambiguous. It didn't ask a question; it only provided three possible answers."

The screen on the first Iron Cage: The third person is the murderer.

The screen on the second Iron Cage: The adult is the murderer.

The screen on the third Iron Cage: The child is the murderer.

"All three answers are correct. But does this stage require a right or wrong answer? Since no specific conditions were given, I thought this might be a trap, and that the stone spheres above all three Iron Cages would fall once the countdown ended."

"Then the question arises: the floor outside the Iron Cages will disappear, and the stone spheres inside will fall. What should we do to survive?"

"The answer goes without saying—naturally, it's the Iron Cages themselves. The stone spheres are perfectly round and wouldn't be able to fit flawlessly with the Iron Cages when they fall. For instance, a gap would be left at the very bottom of the Iron Cages. Hooking the carabiner into this spot would be the perfect choice."

The six Chen Rans spoke one after another, finishing each other's sentences.

They explained the entire deduction process.

In fact, this process was identical to the deductions the others had made in their own minds. Yet, they still asked Chen Ran for his process. They weren't trying to Lie-Judgment him, but were testing the depths of this Newbie.

One had to know that One-Star and Two-Star Instances only involved certain theories, such as time, space, or whether AI possessed consciousness.

However, Three-Star Instances were different; they involved Common Sense and Unknown Information Deception decryption.

Indeed, it was built into the Instance, rather than meticulously designed by the players.

Being strong in One and Two-Star Instances didn't mean one would be strong in a Three-Star Instance. Therefore, they needed to see if Chen Ran could keep up with the rhythm of the decryptions after changing his approach.

As for Chen Ran, he also needed to prove that he was still very strong to avoid becoming the primary target.

And so, they had now confirmed that Chen Ran could keep up with their deductions. Furthermore, aside from the Youth, his Mental State was the strongest among them. Therefore, if they wanted to break up a team, they would no longer prioritize targeting him.

Up until now, Chen Ran and Short and Fat had both exposed their strength or Mental State, and the Youth's Star Rating was evident to all. Only Big Gold Tooth...

Had never exposed his strength from beginning to end.

So, next, these eighteen people would collectively target the two Big Gold Tooths.

This was the law of survival in Three-Star Instances.

Everyone was at the First Realm of Lingtai. If you wanted to survive, coast to victory, or wait until the final showdown to steal the win, it was impossible. First, you had to possess the qualifications to survive before you could hold out until the very end.

Being stared at by eighteen pairs of eyes, Big Gold Tooth only felt a chill run down his spine. "Hey, hey, hey, I'm from The Underworld, and I even tracked you down here on my own. How weak do you think I can be?"