Chapter 48: Everyone Falls for It!

The Middle-aged Woman ignored Li Chenglong's furious glare and walked over to a corner.

Just like Chen Ran, she assumed the role of a bystander, quietly observing how the others behaved.

...

The atmosphere inside the Secret Room was incredibly oppressive. The three captains first seemed to be recalling something.

Soon after, the three of them nodded at one another.

They took out Marker Pens from their bags and wrote ten digits on their palms.

The three of them compared their notes.

They discovered that, aside from numbers three and ten, they did not share any other identical numbers on their palms.

They turned their heads in unison, staring at Chen Ran, who was calmly smoking a Cigarette.

Chen Ran remained silent, but Qiu Yinong sneered, "We don't have a very precise understanding of One-Star Players, so we need you all to show us what you can do..."

...

Five minutes earlier.

Gold-Rimmed Glasses looked around at the crowd and realized that everyone was sporting Liang Jing's face.

It was not just her face; their height, physique, and even their clothing were exactly the same.

'This is a Liar Hunter Skill!'

'Who is using it?'

'No, I should be considering the strategic significance of using a Liar Hunter Skill at a time like this.'

Gold-Rimmed Glasses could not deduce a clear answer, so he shifted his line of thought.

'All I see is Liang Jing.'

'Why is that?'

'I treated her as Cannon Fodder, preparing to send her to her death, so I feel guilty toward her in my heart.'

'Wait.'

'These versions of Liang Jing all seem to be exact replicas of the real Liang Jing herself...'

'What if I feel guilty toward Chen Ran?'

Just as he had this thought, Gold-Rimmed Glasses suddenly realized that everyone's faces had morphed into Chen Ran's face, with even their height and build matching perfectly.

Overjoyed, Gold-Rimmed Glasses hastily looked at the palms of these 'Chen Rans' and found that ten numbers were recorded on all of them.

'Just as I thought!'

'The owner of this Liar Hunter Skill is trying to use this method to obtain the ten digits recorded on Chen Ran's palm!'

Gold-Rimmed Glasses immediately pulled out a Marker Pen from his bag and jotted down the ten numbers on the palms of the surrounding 'Chen Rans'.

Copying them went very smoothly. After all, among real players, not many recorded the numbers, so they did not deliberately protect their palms from view.

Very quickly, he obtained the ten digits.

'Chen Ran's teammate should have also recorded the numbers corresponding to each bout of amnesia.'

'Just to be safe.'

'I feel guilty toward Chen Ran's teammate!'

The next moment, everyone transformed into the appearance of Qiu Yinong. Sure enough, Gold-Rimmed Glasses saw ten digits on their palms.

He quickly recorded them down as well.

But gradually, he realized something was wrong.

'Chen Ran and his teammate have different numbers recorded on their palms. Out of the ten numbers, six are entirely different.'

Just as he wanted to continue...

The Middle-aged Woman deactivated her skill.

...

Returning to the present.

When the three of them compared their findings and saw six entirely different sets of numbers, their feelings on the matter could well be imagined.

'These two are smarter than us.'

'During the entire process just now, because the Middle-aged Woman acted first, the ten numbers she obtained were genuine.'

'Immediately after, it was Chen Ran and his partner. The two of them quickly realized that this Liar Hunter Skill had the function of copying all the characteristics of an original subject and pasting them onto others.'

'Of course, it was all an illusion.'

'But, one could still obtain information about the original subject by prying into these pasted copies.'

'Therefore, the two of them instantly altered the numbers written on their palms.'

'By the time they had done that, we three captains were still trying to figure things out.'

'The result was predictable.'

'They anticipated our predictions. If we had not been cautious and carefully cross-checked everything, we very likely would have been completely screwed over by those two.'

'These two are...'

'Absolute traps!'

'Not only are they Newbies, but they also possess intellects far surpassing those of One-Star Players. Yet, they lack a clear understanding of the overall strength of players in Hell.'

'This caused the two of them to remain in a state of high tension and constant vigilance at all times.'

'They needed a point of reference to determine whether they themselves were truly strong or weak.'

'And so, they set their sights on us. The moment they realized we were utilizing the Middle-aged Woman's Liar Hunter Skill to peek at the digits on Chen Ran's palm, they instantly falsified their own numbers.'

'Their whole focus was on making things difficult for us!'

Inside the Study Room, the atmosphere grew unusually quiet as the three captains sank into deep contemplation.

This was simply how the Hell Dungeon operated. If an Instance lacked a time limit, many players would take their time to carefully ponder the stakes involved, parsing out who their primary and secondary opponents or enemies were.

They would also assess each other's personalities or try to bait out Liar Hunter Skills. After all, this was a life-or-death struggle.

Chen Ran was in no rush either. He scanned his surroundings, checking to see if he could find any traces left behind by the second person who had just used a Liar Hunter Skill.

First were the physical entity-type skills.

He found that the surrounding environment had not changed in the slightest. Not a single object had appeared out of thin air, nor was anything missing.

Next were the people.

He meticulously counted the number of people present, and then deduced how many people should be inside the Secret Room based on the quantity of Glass Beads in the upper section of the Hourglass.

He cross-referenced the two facts.

He could not find any discrepancies. Since it was neither an external physical change nor an illusion...

Then the Liar Hunter Skill must act internally, perhaps altering my mental state...

'My memories.'

'My Common Sense.'

'My cognition.'

'Which one has been tampered with?'

Chen Ran turned his head to look at Qiu Yinong. He saw that the current Qiu Yinong was draped in a gray coat, sporting silvery-white hair and a face full of wrinkles. When she smiled, she revealed two rows of missing teeth, looking like a toothless crevice—exactly identical to the Qiu Yinong in his memory.

He watched as 'Qiu Yinong' looked toward the three captains with a grin. "If you lot want to clear this stage smoothly, you'll have to show us what you can do."

The three captains stared at the senile-looking Qiu Yinong, who was nonetheless capable of speaking in such a bossy, arrogant tone. They thought to themselves, 'Chen Ran's elderly teammate is truly aggressive.'

'Zhang Jinhua', meanwhile, was playing dead.

She knew she could not speak right now; otherwise, she would be dragged into the vortex of their conflict.

She cast an envious glance at 'Qiu Yinong's' silvery-white hair, sighing internally, 'It really is better to be from the older generation. Look how perfectly white her hair is.'

'Unlike me, stuck being young, left with a head full of pitch-black hair and a complete set of teeth.'

"And you," 'Qiu Yinong' suddenly snapped her head around, pointing right at 'Zhang Jinhua'. "Stop hiding. Show us what you've got in a bit too."

Chen Ran frowned.

'Qiu Yinong seems to be talking a bit too much today, and her tone feels somewhat off.'

'Oh, I remember now.'

'Just earlier, Qiu Yinong used her Liar Hunter Skill. I saw it with my own eyes.'

'Which means...'

'Her Liar Hunter Skill is capable of altering her personality? That's quite a bizarre skill.'

'Since it's a consequence of her Liar Hunter Skill, I don't need to pay any mind to her personality change.'

Thinking this over,

Chen Ran felt relieved. He stopped harboring doubts about Qiu Yinong. Of course, just to be on the safe side, he remained tight-lipped—after all, he still had not found the source of the second Liar Hunter Skill!