Chapter 6: The Eight Who Vanished and the Eight Who Appeared Out of Nowhere

The Second Chamber.

Chen Ran slowly regained consciousness. Just as he had stepped out of the First Secret Room, a wave of dizziness had washed over him, and he had fainted immediately after.

He looked around.

This chamber was about the size of half a football field, and the floor was entirely covered in sand.

Aside from him, there were nine other people in the room, all looking as though they had just woken up. What surprised him was that all nine were male, and every single one of them was gripping the exact same type of pistol he held in his own hand.

In the center of the chamber sat a table about half a meter long. The ten men approached to inspect it. The items on the table were simple: half of a torn photograph and a Plastic Shovel.

The torn half of the photo depicted a father and his Daughter. The father appeared to be around thirty years old, while the Daughter looked to be about two. Both wore faces filled with joyful smiles.

That was all the information the table provided. The ten men then shifted their collective gaze toward the eastern wall, simply because...

There was a door!

The door was currently shut, but everyone noticed it was secured by an Electronic Lock. In other words, as long as they could figure out the password, they could escape the room.

Those were all the clues available in the chamber.

The ten men remained completely silent. They scattered, maintaining a wary distance from one another. Some absentmindedly played with the sand, some puffed on cigarettes, and others fell into deep thought.

With a cigarette dangling from his lips, Chen Ran pinched a small amount of sand from the floor and placed it in his mouth. He tasted it carefully, then quickly spat it out. It was far too salty.

Seeing that no one was going to speak, a potbellied Middle-aged Uncle standing near the center of the room stepped forward. "Gentlemen, I assume there are no novices among us here?"

"The rooms we just individually cleared were the Novice Tutorial Rooms. They were incredibly simple and held absolutely no real challenge. All you had to do was play a few tricks to deceive a Newbie into lying, and you could pass."

At this point, the Middle-aged Uncle changed his tone, his expression turning grave. "But the tutorial is over. This current room is a Novice Instance. It consists of two Side-quest Chambers and one Main Story Chamber, making its difficulty practically indistinguishable from a One-Star Instance."

"My proposal is that we don't need to fight to the death just yet. Let's work together to solve this chamber first. As for the Reward in the Main Story Chamber, we can rely on our own individual skills when the time comes. How does that sound?"

As soon as he finished speaking, three players stood up and walked over to the Middle-aged Uncle. It appeared they already knew each other; it was highly likely these four were part of the same team.

The remaining five men considered this for a moment before they too stood up and gathered around the table in the middle of the room.

All nine of them then turned their gazes toward the only person who hadn't moved: Chen Ran.

Under their varying expressions, Chen Ran took a deep drag from his cigarette. "I want to know, why would a bunch of Veteran Players like you join a Novice Instance?"

The moment those words left his mouth.

The nine men reacted as if they had just seen a ghost. They all stared at Chen Ran in absolute shock. The Middle-aged Uncle swallowed hard and asked, clearly uncertain, "You are a novice?"

Chen Ran nodded.

Seeing this, the Middle-aged Uncle lost his composure. "Well, you really do see everything if you live long enough. I can't believe someone actually threw their own life away just trying to grief newbies."

After his lament, he explained, "The gun in our hands is called the Liar-Slayer. You probably already deduced its function back in the Novice Tutorial Room."

"There's no need for me to elaborate on that. The reason us Veteran Players shamelessly participate in a Novice Instance is mostly because clearing it offers a small chance of obtaining a special Reward that grants a Skill to the Liar-Slayer."

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Chen Ran didn't hesitate any longer. He stood up and joined the others at the table in the center of the chamber.

He noticed something peculiar about how the nine men were standing. The Middle-aged Uncle and the three who had supported him earlier were huddled closely together, clearly marking them as a single team.

Among the remaining five, four of them stood relatively close to one another, yet meticulously maintained a half-meter distance between themselves. This indicated that while they were collaborating, they were also guarding against each other.

Chen Ran looked at The Youth who was keeping his distance from both factions. The Youth was about the same age as Chen Ran, and though his gaze seemed firm and unwavering, Chen Ran suspected the guy was probably so awkward on the inside that he was practically cringing out of his own skin.

It was obvious that The Youth was also a novice. He couldn't integrate into the Middle-aged Uncle's team, and out of fear of being betrayed, he didn't dare join the four-man alliance either. Yet, he still wanted to pretend to be a Veteran Player, which resulted in him standing awkwardly right between the two groups.

Chen Ran walked over, gave The Youth a subtle smile, and then brazenly took a spot right next to him.

The Middle-aged Uncle didn't seem to notice The Youth's true status as a novice. Seeing that all nine had gathered at the table, he said, "Alright everyone, let's talk. How should we go about solving this chamber?"

From within the four-man cooperative team, a Yellow Hair Youth stared at the torn photograph on the table. "This half of the photo shows a father and his Daughter. The Daughter is sitting on her father's lap, and both are smiling brightly. This implies the complete picture was a family portrait. Therefore, we can deduce that the mother is on the torn half."

The moment he finished speaking, Chen Ran suddenly interjected. "I have a question. Does a Novice Instance have a fixed number of participants?"

"Yes, eighteen people. And not just for a Novice Instance—the starting number for all instances is eighteen..."

He paused mid-sentence.

As if suddenly realizing something, the Middle-aged Uncle scanned the people in the room, his face turning an ugly shade. "There are only ten of us in this chamber. We are missing eight people!"

"So, our immediate priority is figuring out exactly where those eight people are," Chen Ran suggested.

The words had barely left his lips.

The lights in the chamber abruptly vanished, plunging everything into pitch blackness. In the dark, the group heard the mandatory phrase.

"You lied."

"You lied."

"You lied."

Three people had spoken the Judgment Command, yet strangely, there were four gunshots.

This was immediately followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor. After that, the chamber descended into a terrifying silence.

About ten seconds passed.

The lights in the chamber flickered back on. Everyone was prone on the ground, cautiously lifting their heads. The sight that greeted them was bone-chilling. The Yellow-Haired Youth was dead, his corpse bearing three bullet holes.

In the southeastern corner of the room, eight people had appeared out of nowhere. They were all female, varying in age from young to old.

These eight women stood at a fair distance from the nine surviving men, surveying the chamber with expressions of utter bewilderment.

One of them, a Curly-Haired Woman, looked toward Chen Ran, who was relatively close to her, and asked, "How strange. We were just in another room. How did we end up here in the blink of an eye?"

Chen Ran did not answer. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the Middle-aged Uncle, whose eyes were wide with pure terror.

Something was very wrong!

Seeing that he wasn't going to reply, the Curly-Haired Woman walked over to the group alongside the other women and looked at the torn photo on the table. "The complete picture must be a family portrait. The torn portion shows the Daughter's mother—the father's Wife."

Hearing this, Chen Ran tightened his grip on his Liar-Slayer. Like a predator lying in wait in the jungle, he was ready to strike at a moment's notice.

When the lights had gone out, the Yellow-Haired Youth had taken three Judgment bullets from the Liar-Slayers. That alone was enough to explain the entire situation.

The Yellow-Haired Youth's deduction...

...was a Common Sense Lie!

Finally, someone couldn't hold back any longer. A man stood up from the floor, aimed his gun squarely at the Curly-Haired Woman, and declared, "You lied."

Beneath the Curly-Haired Woman's eerie, twisting smile, the man who had stood up pulled the trigger.

Click. The bullet jammed.

He snapped his head around in sheer panic, only to find three pitch-black muzzles pointed directly at him. The people holding those guns were...

The Middle-aged Uncle, Chen Ran, and a bald man from the temporary four-man alliance.

"You lied."

"You lied."

"You lied."