Chapter 4: Four Consecutive Kills

"I am lying. Is that the truth, or a lie?"

If Chen Ran answered that it was the truth, yet the youth had already stated he was lying, then...

Chen Ran would be lying.

If Chen Ran answered that it was a lie, it meant the youth had just spoken the truth. Since he spoke the truth, yet Chen Ran claimed he was lying, then...

Chen Ran would still be lying.

This was an unsolvable trap. Hearing this, the Judge's trio, who had intentionally lowered their presence earlier, could not help but burst into laughter.

"He finally fell for it!"

"I have to admit, he is smart, but he ultimately suffered from a lack of experience."

"He is dead for sure!"

Hearing their words, Chen Ran seemed to realize his mistake. His face instantly turned pale, and he closed his eyes in despair.

Seeing his reaction, the youth revealed a victor's smile, thinking to himself, 'I almost blew it just now.'

To avoid any further complications, he raised his arm, aimed the gun at Chen Ran's forehead, and enunciated every word clearly:

"You lied."

Amidst the smiles of the Judge's trio and the despairing gaze of Bai Xiuci, the youth slowly pulled the trigger.

Click!

The click of the jammed bullet was exceptionally piercing in the quiet Secret Room, and the heavy clatter of the pistol dropping to the ground rang out like a massive bell, jarring the minds of the five people present.

The smiles froze on the faces of the youth and the Judge's trio, their eyes locked blankly on Chen Ran as he bent down to pick up the gun.

"You lied."

Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Ran raised his hand and fired a shot. The bullet struck right in the center of the youth's forehead.

"Wh... why..."

The youth died with his eyes wide open. Even as he drew his last breath, his gaze remained fiercely fixed on Chen Ran.

He needed an answer.

Chen Ran wore a peculiar expression. "I haven't even answered your question yet, and you already claimed that I lied. So, are you lying, or are you lying?"

At this moment, Bai Xiuci recovered from her shock. She finally seemed to understand exactly what kind of pit Chen Ran had dug in his verbal agreement with the youth.

Bai Xiuci looked at Chen Ran and asked uncertainly, "Did you know about the Liar's Paradox right from the beginning?"

"Of course I did," Chen Ran said, lighting a cigarette.

[So that was it!]

[Chen Ran's Rule: Each side asks a question. The person asked must answer and cannot say they do not know, nor can they answer with an irrelevant topic.]

[The Youth's Supplemental Rule: The next person can only ask a question after the respondent has answered, and the questions cannot involve past personal matters.]

[In Chen Ran's rules, he deliberately did not specify how many questions each person could ask. If he asked eighty or a hundred questions in a row, how would the youth answer?]

[Thus, the youth added a supplemental rule: The next person can only ask a question after the respondent has finished answering the previous one.]

[This supplemental rule was the root cause of the youth's ultimate Judgment failure.]

[Looking at the rules stated by both of them, neither specified a time limit for answering the questions!]

[Chen Ran deliberately left it out, while the youth's judgment was clouded by the phrase "must answer" in Chen Ran's rule.]

[Must answer does not mean answer immediately.]

[In other words, when facing the youth's Liar's Paradox, as long as Chen Ran kept his mouth shut, he was technically just thinking about how to answer. Since there was no time limit in their rules, he could wait a hundred years to answer without breaking the rules, provided he did not speak during that time.]

[Chen Ran's silence misled the youth into thinking he could not answer and had violated the "must answer" rule. Therefore, he determined that Chen Ran lied when proposing the rules.]

[As a result, the youth initiated a Judgment against Chen Ran. The outcome was obvious; the Judgment was doomed to fail.]

[So, here is the question.]

[What if the youth's supplemental rule had placed a time limit on answering?]

[Chen Ran would have stated the Liar's Paradox first!!]

[What if the youth had not underestimated his opponent and insisted on fighting over who got to ask the first question?]

[Then they would have argued endlessly until there was no conclusion, and the proposal for the Head-on Sniping Duel would have been rejected.]

[This meant that the very moment the youth agreed to the Head-on Sniping Duel, Chen Ran was already in an invincible position.]

[What an absolute monster!]

The Judge's trio stood frozen in place, their bodies trembling uncontrollably. The three exchanged glances, and Horse-Face immediately shouted at Chen Ran, "You lied!"

Earlier, Chen Ran had asked the youth if others could question the Judgment qualifications of the person holding the gun.

The youth had answered: Yes.

Horse-Face was in the same group as the youth, so he naturally knew that the youth's answer was the truth: If the gun holder lied, others could question them, and the holder would lose their Judgment qualifications, causing the pistol to drop.

Just now, when Chen Ran executed a Judgment on the youth, he had to speak the Judgment Command: You lied.

However, at that time, Chen Ran was still facing the Liar's Paradox proposed by the youth.

His speaking was both initiating the Judgment and answering the youth's question at the same time.

According to the Liar's Paradox, the moment Chen Ran opened his mouth, he was already lying.

Therefore.

Horse-Face questioned his qualification to continue the Judgment.

However, the expected scene of the pistol dropping did not occur. It remained firmly grasped in Chen Ran's hand.

"Why didn't you lose your qualification?" Horse-Face asked in disbelief, his eyes wide.

Chen Ran lit another cigarette. "The answer is very simple. Take a guess. Why did I call my showdown with the youth a Head-on Sniping Duel?"

Chen Ran lit another cigarette. "The answer is very simple. Take a guess. Why did I call my showdown with the youth a Head-on Sniping Duel?"

"A Head-on Sniping Duel is a gaming term. In shooting games, two players shoot at each other through the middle doors until one snipes the other dead. The youth died, so the game is over!"

"You lied."

Chen Ran raised his hand and fired another shot. Horse-Face froze in place before slowly collapsing to the ground.

Chen Ran glanced at the hole in the shattered Horse-Face Mask torn open by the bullet, revealing the face of a middle-aged man underneath.

He sneered, "Just as I thought, you were only playing pretend!"

He shifted the gun, pointing it at the Judge who had been in charge of questioning and registration earlier. The Judge was so terrified that his legs went soft and numb. He hurriedly cried out to stop him, "I haven't told a single lie! If you execute a Judgment on me, you will lose your Judgment qualification!!!"

Chen Ran did not speak. He merely pointed at the youth's corpse. Seeing this, the Judge slumped to the ground like a puddle of mud.

"When executing a Judgment, the gun holder needs to speak the 'You lied' command. But if the Judgment fails, then the command the gun holder just spoke becomes a lie."

"You lied."

Chen Ran fired once more, and the Judge dropped dead instantly.

At this point, only three people remained in the Secret Room.

Chen Ran, Bai Xiuci, and Ox-Head.

Ox-Head threw away his Spiked Mace and pulled off his mask, revealing the panicked and terrified face of the Elder. "I have never lied, but I know I am not your match. Let's team up, and I will tell you how to escape this Secret Room!"

"You haven't lied?" Chen Ran asked in return.

Seeing the Elder's dumbfounded expression, Chen Ran felt it was necessary to help him jog his memory. "Earlier, when the Judge was questioning me, what did I say to all of you?"

The Elder's pupils contracted sharply.

When Chen Ran was being questioned by the Judge, he had yelled at them, "I don't want to go to Hell, I really haven't killed anyone."

The response of Ox-Head, who was actually the Elder, was...

"You killed someone."

Chen Ran hadn't killed anyone, and he had stated that he hadn't killed anyone. Yet Ox-Head, who was the Elder, claimed that he did. Wasn't this a Bold-Faced Lie?

"You lied."

Bang! Chen Ran fired his fourth shot, and the Elder fell dead.

Bai Xiuci's heart pounded wildly. Her previous Judgment had failed, which meant her command was no longer just a command, but a lie.

Seeing Chen Ran kill four people in a row, she was so terrified that she hurriedly changed the subject. "How should we leave this Secret Room?"

"Since the youth knew that a failed Judgment by the gun holder meant they were lying, why didn't he kill you?" Under Bai Xiuci's horrified gaze, Chen Ran slowly raised the gun.

And aimed it right at her!!