Chapter 320: An Ant Trying to Shake a Tree, What a Stunningly Brilliant Ant (Two-in-One)

Sixth floor.

Qiu Hua, Qiu Yinong, Ye Qian, Han Bing, and Gao Lan's teammate. Soon, Qiu Hua proposed that Gao Lan's teammate be responsible for guarding the sixth-floor stairwell while the rest continued searching upwards.

But this proposal was strongly opposed by Qiu Yinong: "The Three-Star player on the first floor has likely been played to death by the mice. Do you think it's appropriate to send another Three-Star player to guard the sixth floor?"

Hearing this, Ye Qian immediately cast a suspicious glance at Qiu Hua, secretly thinking that this guy had been issuing orders from start to finish, yet the result was always the mice finding flaws. It made one suspicious.

"Then who do you suggest should guard?"

"Me," Qiu Yinong didn't shy away.

"No!"

"No!"

How could Ye Qian and Qiu Hua dare to let Qiu Yinong act alone?

At the same time, every time they searched a floor, they jammed the elevator on that floor to prevent the mice from taking the elevator up.

…

Sixth floor, Han Bing stood at the stairwell, cautiously observing his surroundings.

Step, step, step.

From a certain room on the sixth floor, the sound of footsteps gradually rang out, drawing closer and closer.

For some reason, Han Bing's heart pounded relentlessly. Not long after, a person slowly walked out onto the right corridor of the sixth floor.

Upon seeing that person, Han Bing's pupils abruptly contracted, his face full of disbelief.

'There's a Mole!'

This was his first reaction. Although Lin Xuan had scrambled the scenes of the various rooms, it was nothing more than transferring items from one room to another. Therefore, they all had a rough memory of what items were in the rooms across the entire sixth floor.

But for this mouse to be hiding in a room on the sixth floor, there was only one possibility.

Someone among the cats had taken an item from a certain room, and this mouse had transformed into the item that was taken.

Therefore, there was a Mole among the cats.

And this Mole was...

However, just as he thought of this, Han Bing watched in horror as the mouse slowly raised their arm and aimed the Liar-Slayer in their hand at him:

"You told a lie."

Bang! The gunshot rang out, and Han Bing felt as if his chest had been struck hard. He slowly fell.

'I... told a lie?'

'When?'

'It seems it doesn't matter anymore. I'm about to die anyway. This Instance is...'

'So fucking frustrating!'

Yes, for the Hunter Team, it was extremely frustrating. First, the presence of the Five-Star Youth meant they didn't dare to use their Combo Skill right away, and Qiu Yinong was a time-type user, making the Slaves providing lies completely exposed before her.

Fortunately, Lin Xuan's spatial skill allowed them to escape that predicament.

But who could have imagined that an unreliable player like Lin Xuan actually hid a killing move?

Eliminating two Slaves.

Actually, up to this point, there was still a chance for the Hunter Team to turn the tables.

But this cat and mouse game directly shattered their team once again.

Pitiful. Two battle-hardened Hunter Teams, and member after member was dying in such a confused and bewildered manner.

'I'm truly unwilling!'

…

The mouse put away the gun, didn't spare Han Bing's corpse a single glance, and immediately bolted downstairs.

Third floor. Zhou Zhan and the Three-Star female player were frantically running upstairs. Zhou Zhan had good stamina and ran in the front. At the corner of the third-floor stairs, he crashed into a mouse wearing a mask.

"You are a cat!"

The mouse's voice was hoarse. After Confirmation, their body immediately entered a Ghost State, phasing into the ceiling and vanishing in the blink of an eye.

"No!"

Zhou Zhan roared, unwilling to accept this.

Because this Secret Room was not a parallel space, if he was sent out just like this, he would still carry a lie.

As long as the mice won, his only outcome would be: death!

He didn't want to clear the stage!

Otherwise, when he was on the first floor, he could have easily touched any mouse to clear the stage during the five minutes of the Future Lie.

But doing so was equivalent to pinning his hopes on others—namely, if the cats won, no one would know he carried a lie.

However, everything was too late.

His body began to fade.

Vanishing from where he stood.

Witnessing this scene, the Three-Star female player knew that this gambit was no longer something she could participate in. She estimated the time.

And stood quietly in place.

Soon.

Four mice slowly walked upstairs.

Chen Ran checked his Watch. "You still have nearly three minutes of escape time. You don't plan to struggle a bit more?"

"Even an ant will cling to life, let alone a person like me?" The Three-Star woman's gaze was firm.

"I need you all to establish a Future Lie: to discard the lie I have in this Secret Room."

Hearing this, the four people didn't speak, but looked at her with interest.

Since she dared to ask for an exorbitant price, it meant she had sufficient Poker Chips. The Five-Star Youth, Shu Renjun, lit a Cigarette:

"You have two and a half minutes."

"Many thanks." The Three-Star female player remained neither humble nor arrogant, while mentally organizing her words.

"I know your plan!"

"First was the first floor. When discussing the most efficient plan on the first floor, the Fitness Blogger was obviously an abandoned piece in that plan."

Indeed, the Fitness Blogger was not within the considerations of the plan at all.

The Three-Star player to go down to the first floor would be either from Lin Xuan's team or Gao Lan's team. The Fitness Blogger, as the Five-Star player's temporary teammate, would naturally be focused down to die in this Secret Room.

After all, both Hunter Teams had been broken up, so they naturally had to unite against the Five-Star Youth, starting with the Fitness Blogger.

"The Fitness Blogger is a Ghost Whisperer, so he has the ability to use his skill directly."

"By forcing him to this extent, he was bound to find a way to break the deadlock, which meant touching a mouse to clear the stage," the Three-Star woman continued.

"And while upstairs, the ordinary Four-Star player kept a close eye on the Fitness Blogger. Even if he deduced that Lin Xuan was hiding on the eighth floor, he couldn't detach from the group to go up to the eighth floor."

"At this point, the Fitness Blogger had one and only one choice: use his skill."

"Thus, he used his skill."

"But Chen Ran's Eternal Kingdom broke his skill."

The four people nodded.

They arrived at this Secret Room early. After discussion, they had Lin Xuan transfer Chen Ran to another spatial layer, and Lin Xuan provided Chen Ran with a lie in that spatial layer. Chen Ran used his skill in the other spatial layer, broke Lin Xuan's spatial skill, penetrated into this Secret Room, and broke the Fitness Blogger's skill.

It wasn't over.

At the same time, it also broke the items manufactured by players that everyone carried.

Of course, this required precise timing. However, the Lin Xuan in the other spatial layer could communicate with the Lin Xuan in this spatial layer, and then relay it to Chen Ran who was transferred to the other spatial layer, allowing them to perfectly time it with the Fitness Blogger.

With the spatial skill broken, the real Lin Xuan returned to this spatial layer, and the lie on him vanished.

These were all basic operations.

The four weren't surprised that the Three-Star female player could deduce this.

"Up to this point, the variable of the Fitness Blogger was controlled. But there was no guarantee he didn't have other ideas. Therefore, to prevent him from disrupting your joint layout, you had to send him out early."

"Thus, when we searched up to the eighth floor, the ordinary Four-Star player deliberately stopped blocking the Fitness Blogger, giving him the chance to touch Lin Xuan and clear the Secret Room."

"Here is a question. Why couldn't you let the Fitness Blogger go up to the eighth floor early?"

"That has to start from the first floor. After Chen Ran used Eternal Kingdom, you utilized Distance-Free Technique to make Zhou Zhan lose consciousness."

"Gao Lan ran upstairs!"

After saying this, the Three-Star female player stared intently at the expressions of the four, as from here on out, it was all her own personal deduction.

"This point can be proven by the fact that I didn't see Gao Lan when I went down to the first floor."

Seeing the four nod, the Three-Star female player's suspended heart finally settled.

"Gao Lan took the elevator to the last room on the 18th floor."

"If the Fitness Blogger was allowed to detach from the group while using his skill, he would inevitably have noticed the ascending elevator. Therefore, the Fitness Blogger could not be allowed to go upstairs early."

Simply put, everything they did was to time it perfectly—timing Gao Lan's ascent in the elevator. During this period, they couldn't let the cats discover the elevator was going up.

And if the Fitness Blogger wanted to detach from the group and go up to the eighth floor early, he would inevitably cross paths with the ascending elevator at some point, causing him to notice something was amiss.

"Continue," Chen Ran frowned.

"Next is upstairs. When the Fitness Blogger used his skill, the Secret Room went dark. If my guess is correct..."

"Lin Xuan transformed into Qiu Yinong and mixed in among us, while Qiu Yinong detached from the group and ran desperately towards the 18th floor."

"In other words, during our first sweep of this building, Lin Xuan wasn't on the eighth floor at all, but was always one floor above us, waiting for an opportunity to pull a bait-and-switch!"

"When Lin Xuan noticed the Secret Room go dark, he immediately went downstairs and transformed into Qiu Yinong's appearance, while Qiu Yinong immediately detached from the group and went upstairs. Therefore, when the light returned, the Qiu Yinong among the cats was actually Lin Xuan, and the real Qiu Yinong was frantically running towards the 18th floor."

"As for the reason?"

"It's very simple. The mice want Qiu Yinong to clear the stage, and Qiu Yinong knows this."

"Her clearing the stage is beneficial to the mice. Chen Ran is among the mice, so she will definitely try every means to clear the stage herself. In other words, at the first opportunity, she would detach from the group."

"And you guys predicted Qiu Yinong's psychology, which is why you had Lin Xuan always hiding one floor above us. We go to the second floor, Lin Xuan hides on the third floor. We go to the third floor, Lin Xuan hides on the fourth floor..."

"Just waiting for the Fitness Blogger, whom you forced into a dead end, to use his skill."

"In other words, the moment the Fitness Blogger used his skill, your respective joint layouts cleverly linked together."

"The resulting outcome was: the variable of the Fitness Blogger was controlled, Lin Xuan successfully executed a bait-and-switch, Qiu Yinong detached from the group, and Gao Lan successfully reached the 18th floor via the elevator."

"Therefore, the other reason for not letting the Fitness Blogger go upstairs early was that Lin Xuan was above us. If the Fitness Blogger went up to the eighth floor and didn't find Lin Xuan, he might just deduce your entire plan."

"However, what I can't quite figure out is this: Gao Lan taking the elevator was obviously a negative for your entire plan. After all, you guys were on the first floor and couldn't be certain of the positioning of the cats upstairs. If we were all standing in front of the elevator, Gao Lan taking the elevator would definitely be discovered by us."

"So, I don't understand, why did Gao Lan have to take the elevator?"

"It was precisely because of this flaw that I deduced your plan."

Indeed, she had previously deduced that the elevator jammed on the second floor could somehow reach the 18th floor, ultimately arriving at this series of conclusions.

The four people were speechless for a moment. If Gao Lan hadn't run so fast, any one of the four of them could have gone upstairs to perform, and they wouldn't have exposed such an ugly flaw.

However, this was the predetermined nature of joint layouts. From a God's-eye view, this flaw was patched by Qiu Hua.

He blocked the elevator display, ensuring the rest of the cats didn't realize someone had taken the elevator upstairs.

Simply put, it was like Li Yunlong attacking Ping'an County. Ding Wei and Kong Jie didn't know about this situation beforehand, but when they discovered the Japanese forces reinforcing Ping'an County, they immediately helped Li Yunlong by intercepting the Japanese reinforcements.

Similarly, Qiu Hua was excluded from the entire joint layout. But after arriving at this Secret Room, he deduced the mice's joint layout, thus continuously providing cover for the mice. Moreover, he had his own way to clear the stage. He could help the cats eliminate the mice, or help the mice eliminate the cats. Either way, it was players who were dying.

Here, one had to mention that senior of Gao Lan's insight into human nature.

Gao Lan's decision to take the elevator looked extremely ugly to the other mice, but in the eyes of that senior, it was a steady move, simply because he knew a cat would help Gao Lan.

This was enough to show that the senior's tier was a cut above the mice.

The four naturally realized the logic here, feeling somewhat fortunate. Good thing Chen Ran reported Gao Lan's God-Tier Carrier to get him offline.

Otherwise, they would have suffered terribly.

Chen Ran looked at his Watch. "You have about one minute left."

Just this deduction alone wasn't enough to make them establish a Future Lie, unless the Three-Star female player's next words could seize their vitals.

The Three-Star female player organized her phrasing.

Continuing, "Next comes the highlight moment for Lin Xuan and Gao Lan."

"When Qiu Yinong ran upstairs, she found that someone had taken the elevator, so she chose to run to the last room on the 18th floor. There, she was set up by Gao Lan, who had taken the elevator up ahead of her, leading her to touch Gao Lan..."

"Qiu Yinong cleared the stage!"

"Gao Lan entered the Ghost State, and then rapidly descended to the eighth floor. Because the cats delayed quite some time on the third floor when the Fitness Blogger used his skill and when cleaning up the scattered items vanished by Eternal Kingdom, by the time we reached the eighth floor, ten minutes had already passed. Gao Lan exited his Ghost State and hid in the last room on the eighth floor."

"When we searched the eighth floor, Lin Xuan, disguised as Qiu Yinong, deliberately searched the last room on the eighth floor. Lin Xuan reverted to his original appearance, Gao Lan transformed into Qiu Yinong, and the two swapped identities."

"That is why, when the Fitness Blogger touched Lin Xuan, the mouse that entered the Ghost State was also in Lin Xuan's appearance."

"The ghost Lin Xuan didn't go up to the 18th floor but chose to go downstairs. This is also why we didn't find Gao Lan during the first sweep of the entire building, simply because he had already transformed into Qiu Yinong and mixed in among the cats."

"Although I didn't participate in the second round of searching, I can be certain..."

"The Qiu Yinong currently mixed among the cats is either Lin Xuan or Gao Lan. After all, they can repeat their previous operation and swap identities again—for example, in the second round, Lin Xuan transforms into Qiu Yinong, in the third round Gao Lan transforms into Qiu Yinong, and so on, keeping everyone in the dark."

"The gunshot just now must have been them using this method to coax a lie out of a cat, who was then Judged to death by the mouse not currently disguised as Qiu Yinong. And this mouse rapidly went downstairs just now to crash into Zhou Zhan, precisely to use the Ghost State to quickly return to the 18th floor. Otherwise, once the cats searched up to the eighth floor before his Ghost State ended, and the cats could then search up to the 18th floor, Gao Lan and Lin Xuan's trick would be discovered, and they wouldn't be able to keep playing."

From a God's-eye view, the lie Han Bing was coaxed into telling was...

He said to Qiu Yinong: 【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...】

At the time, Qiu Yinong was toying with a black Pistol, and doing so while standing in a backlit position (see previous chapter for details).

One must know, Qiu Yinong's Liar-Slayer was a multicolored black, while Lin Xuan had a dark ink-colored Liar-Slayer. In a backlit position, these two differently colored Liar-Slayers looked entirely black if not examined carefully or from a close distance. This caused the cats to make a misjudgment.

Lin Xuan transforming into Qiu Yinong and toying with his own dark ink-colored Liar-Slayer was his way of showing everyone that he was Lin Xuan, but he handled the details so well that the others didn't notice.

Therefore, when Han Bing said 【Your skill can reset time】.

He was telling a lie!

…

Speaking up to this point, the Three-Star female player looked at the four mice: "Five minutes haven't passed, and you are bound by the Future Lie not to Judge me. If I loudly announce Qiu Yinong's identity in the remaining time, all the plans you've laid out will go bankrupt!"

Her voice trembled slightly:

"Therefore, I need you all to establish a Future Lie to discard my previous lie. In exchange, I will also establish a Future Lie not to ruin your plan."