Chapter 319: The Curtain Rises on the Sixth Layer

Second floor.

The group found that the scene in every room had been altered.

They remained silent. Everyone knew this was Lin Xuan's doing, so they didn't really care.

After a long time, hearing no gunshot of Judgment ring out from the first floor, everyone's hearts settled slightly.

This indicated that things on the first floor should be proceeding according to the established plan: namely, Zhou Zhan touched a mouse and cleared the stage, while the Three-Star woman guarded the first floor.

Of course, this point alone wasn't enough. They had to discover the existence of a... second mouse upstairs to confirm their guess.

Soon, they arrived on the eighth floor.

Qiu Yinong, while searching the last room on the eighth floor, once again discovered a mouse.

Gao Lan stood quietly in the room, watching the cats gather here. His gaze fell upon his teammate, signaling his teammate to quickly come touch him and clear the Secret Room.

Gao Lan turned into a ghost, and the teammate cleared the stage.

Seeing Gao Lan enter the Ghost State, they finally confirmed that Zhou Zhan on the first floor had indeed cleared the stage.

Han Bing fell into deep thought.

'Zhou Zhan, the Fitness Blogger, Gao Lan's Three-Star teammate, and the Four-Star Frying Pan Face female player who was the first to clear the stage.'

'Four cats have cleared the stage.'

'There were eleven cats. Lin Xuan's Three-Star female teammate is on the first floor, leaving six cats upstairs.'

'Meanwhile, there are four mice downstairs. If we catch Lin Xuan again on the 18th floor, then five cats will remain upstairs.'

'In the next round, the mice upstairs will become three. After three cats clear the stage, there will be two cats left upstairs and one cat downstairs. In other words, only three cats won't have cleared the stage.'

'And in the next round with three mice upstairs, then three mice will remain downstairs.'

'Three cats, three mice. In other words, after finishing the next round of searching, we can just go straight down to the first floor and touch those three...'

'Controlled mice!'

'The mice lose!'

Thinking up to this point, Han Bing cast a deep look at Qiu Hua. He felt this guy was too terrifying.

Seizing a tactical loophole from the mice, he was directly pressing all the mice to death, leaving them without the slightest room to resist.

It was like cavalry countering infantry.

I see you are all infantry, so I immediately send out all cavalry, focusing solely on the counter.

This kind of counter wouldn't shift based on the strength of the commanding general. No matter how strong your general is, the counter between troop types is irreversible.

Just like the mice now; they were the most formidable players in this Instance, but one wrong step led to every step being wrong. There was simply no turning point; they could only wait for death.

However...

Han Bing looked at Qiu Yinong.

'She is a variable. Since it's already a guaranteed win, we have to send her out early.'

The rest of the people were thinking along similar lines as Han Bing, intentionally or unintentionally glancing at Qiu Yinong.

Qiu Yinong stood backlit, half-leaning against the wall, toying with her Liar-Slayer—a black Pistol. She sneered:

"Judging by your expressions, you want to send me out early?"

"Of course," Han Bing smiled. "Your skill can reset time, and your teammate probably hasn't cleared the stage yet. Although the vast majority of players in Hell will resort to any means to survive, there's no guarantee you won't do something for the sake of so-called teammate camaraderie."

By saying this, he obviously intended to abandon his own captain here as well.

A three-minute moment of silence for Short and Fat.

However, logically speaking, there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. After all, if all the mice were left here, the Five-Star Youth would also be left here. Among the players who cleared the stage, the strongest would only be Four-Star. Both Han Bing and Ye Qian were Four-Star, so their chances of survival were the highest.

Hell was just like this. How could a bunch of people who committed all sorts of evils before death put themselves in danger to save others?

They weren't saints, after all.

Qiu Yinong remained silent, then looked at the other players. "You guys think so too?"

The crowd didn't speak, but from their expressions, it was clear they had the same intention.

They chatted for a while.

The cats continued upstairs to search. Searching up to the 18th floor again, Qiu Yinong spotted Lin Xuan in the last room.

Soon, the rest arrived at the last room on the 18th floor. Lin Xuan's expression was extremely ugly, seemingly realizing he had screwed up and that all the cats would clear the stage in this cat and mouse game.

This time, without needing a reminder, Gao Lan's Three-Star teammate immediately stepped forward and touched Lin Xuan.

Lin Xuan entered his Ghost State, rapidly drilling downstairs in unwillingness.

Up to this point.

On the surface, five cats had already cleared the stage. One was Four-Star, and the other four were Three-Star players. The reason Three-Star players were allowed to clear the stage first was simply because Three-Stars didn't possess Distance-Free Technique.

How many Three-Star players were among the cats?

Lin Xuan's two teammates.

Gao Lan's three teammates.

The Fitness Blogger.

Qiu Yinong.

That made seven. Now that four had cleared the stage, there were still three Three-Star cats.

It wasn't over yet!

The Three-Star female player was on the first floor, meaning there were only two Three-Star players upstairs.

Then, the player going down to the first floor this time would be this Three-Star cat, which meant the only Three-Star player left upstairs would be Qiu Yinong.

In the next round, as long as they sent Qiu Yinong away, they could essentially rule out the possibility of the mice using Distance-Free Technique to turn the tables and clear the stage.

There was no need for discussion at all; the only one who could go down to the first floor this time was Gao Lan's Three-Star teammate.

If Qiu Yinong went down to the first floor, there was no telling if she would use her skill to save Chen Ran.

Arriving on the second floor again.

The cats were in good spirits, but still remained vigilant. There was a saying: the closer you are to success, the closer you are to death. They weren't going to make such a rookie mistake.

…

Gao Lan's Three-Star teammate was named Xu Jingzhou, and he was also Gao Lan's only Three-Star teammate who hadn't cleared this Secret Room yet.

He arrived on the first floor.

However, the scene on the first floor made his eyelids twitch wildly. The Three-Star female player was still there.

But...

There were only two mice left!

'How could this be?'

'Shouldn't there be four? When the Three-Star female player touches one this time and clears the stage, there would be three left. And after the sweep upstairs finishes this round, three cats will clear the stage, and two cats will come down, so the three of us will then touch three mice.'

'Why is it different from the envisioned plan?'

'Just where did things go wrong?'

'I didn't hear a gunshot just now, which means Lin Xuan's two Three-Star teammates weren't coaxed into a lie.'

'And with the Future Lie in place, the Three-Star female player couldn't have touched a mouse prematurely.'

'This is a bit chaotic; Suppress Mental State!'

'At the very beginning, because the mice arrived at the Secret Room before us, Zhou Zhan, the Three-Star player left on the first floor, could clear the stage without violating the Future Lie we established.'

'But, the Three-Star female player who came down in the previous round must abide by the Future Lie: she cannot touch a mouse before 24 minutes are up.'

'And since no gunshot was heard just now, it means the Three-Star female player wasn't coaxed into a lie.'

'In other words, the Three-Star female player is definitely still on the first floor and hasn't cleared the stage prematurely.'

'Of course, there is also a possibility that the Three-Star female player was coaxed into a lie, but the mice didn't Judge her and instead let her clear the stage. Because this isn't a parallel space, even if she clears the stage, the lie remains on her. When the mice clear the stage, they can still Judge her.'

'But if that's the case, it makes no logical sense. The mice couldn't possibly send the Three-Star female player out of the Secret Room; after all, the current situation is too disadvantageous for the mice.'

'Therefore...'

'The Three-Star female player is real, but why is one mouse missing?'

'No, wait!'

Xu Jingzhou looked around and realized that besides the six rooms, there were two other places where someone could hide. The first was under the first-floor stairs.

The second was... the elevator shaft!

The elevator shaft could be ruled out, as mice didn't have immortal bodies. Even though there would be a section of space at the bottom of the shaft, Xu Jingzhou felt the mice wouldn't dare take that risk.

So, he lowered his head. The first-floor stairs slanted upwards relative to the ground. Therefore, the most likely hiding spot, aside from the six rooms on the first floor, was only...

The empty space formed by the slanted surface of the first-floor stairs and the ground. He adjusted his Sunglasses, stood at the first-floor stairwell, and shifted two steps sideways.

He quickly turned his head and looked under the stairs.

Sure enough.

He found Chen Ran squatting there.

Chen Ran looked slightly awkward.

Xu Jingzhou ignored his awkwardness and instead looked angrily at the Three-Star female player.

He coldly demanded, "Why didn't you warn me just now?"

"What do you think?" the Three-Star female player retorted. Actually, the answer was already very obvious. She hadn't cleared the stage and was cooperating with the mice's act.

There was one and only one possibility: the Three-Star female player had already been coaxed into a lie by the mice.

"How did they coax your lie out of you?" Xu Jingzhou continued to ask.

However, as soon as these words came out, the mice on the first floor all laughed. The fifth layer was over.

The next moment...

Zhou Zhan and the Three-Star female player walked out successively from a room on the first floor. The two looked at Xu Jingzhou speechlessly: "Seriously bro, do you not even look at the color of the Liar-Slayer?"

Xu Jingzhou abruptly turned his head and looked at the Three-Star female player who had been standing at the stairwell all along. The Liar-Slayer at her waist was...

A pure white Pistol!

She was Chen Ran!!!

Then Xu Jingzhou looked at the Three-Star female player who just walked out of the room. The color of the Liar-Slayer at her waist was a light earth tone.

What was even more terrifying was the question he had just asked: 【How did they coax your lie out of you?】 Asking this sentence meant he was certain the Three-Star female player had already been coaxed into a lie.

But the Three-Star female player was Chen Ran, and Chen Ran had tucked the Liar-Slayer into his waistband in a visible spot from the very beginning. In other words, Xu Jingzhou should have confirmed she was transformed from Chen Ran the very first moment he saw her.

Yet he had overlooked this detail and asked that question. And Chen Ran had not been coaxed into a lie by the mice, therefore...

He had told a lie!

Looking as if he'd lost his parents, Xu Jingzhou slumped to the ground, his face full of despair. But soon, as if thinking of something, he looked at the two: "Don't tell me you two were coaxed into lies as well?"

Zhou Zhan's face was pale. After being hit by Distance-Free Technique so many times, trying not to be coaxed into a lie? It was basically impossible.

Meanwhile, the Three-Star female player gritted her teeth and glared at Zhou Zhan. In her deduction, Zhou Zhan had already cleared the stage, and she had even searched the six rooms on the first floor, confirming that Zhou Zhan had cleared the Secret Room. But who could have imagined...

Zhou Zhan, having been coaxed into a lie, was controlled by the mice and hiding under the first-floor stairs.

She had also been coaxed into a lie.

She looked at the mice. "You guys established a Future Lie just now. As long as we cooperated with your act and coaxed a lie out of the next player who came downstairs, you wouldn't Judge us for the next five minutes."

The mice made a gesture inviting them to leave.

Seeing this, Zhou Zhan and the Three-Star female player felt as if granted a grand pardon and frantically ran upstairs.

Role Reversal!

It had turned into cats hiding from mice!

Xu Jingzhou also wanted to run upstairs, but the Five-Star Youth pointed his gun at him.

"You told a lie."

Bang! Xu Jingzhou fell in a pool of blood.

The cats currently searching the sixth floor heard the gunshot and immediately realized a mishap had occurred on the first floor. The mice were coming up!

The curtain rose on the Sixth Layer!