Chapter 96: Exam Question, Roasted

Chen Ran took a few deep drags.

'This Deceiver's Tongue...'

'It is absolutely flawless!'

'The primary personality is dead, and the Old Man is dead. It is fundamentally impossible to negate their Deceiver's Tongue.'

'But the flaw is also obvious. They have transformed into an Instance. When players deduce the mechanics of the Instance, lying does not exist, which means...'

'They cannot design deceptive scenarios to trick players into lying, like the ones in the beginner tutorial.'

'Fuck!!!'

'A Ghost Whisperer was already incredibly strong, but I never expected them to become even more flawless after turning into an Instance!'

'However, there is still room to maneuver.'

'Comes from the Old Man's design!'

'However, to Confirm my deductions are completely correct, I must prove that the primary personality is dead.'

'The only thing I can think of is his appearance!'

'In my previous deductions, if Lin Jiabao was the primary personality, how could he possibly maintain the appearance of someone in his twenties?'

'Born in 1980, he would be at least thirty years old by 2010. Yet he still has the fresh, youthful face of a young man. His appearance does not match his age.'

'This means his appearance does not age as he grows older.'

'He is not human!'

'Still, that feels a bit inaccurate...'

'A miscalculation!'

'Back in the dream, why didn't I manage to coax out the exact year Lin Jiabao died?'

'There is still plenty of time. If I randomly match into an Instance with Lin Jiabao later, I can confirm the exact year he died. After all, a thirty-year-old might have the face of a twenty-year-old, but a forty-year-old...'

'The difference between them and a twenty-year-old would be obvious at a glance!'

"Hey, you with the Cigarette, are you still going to play the Escape Room Game or what?" Lin Jiabei frowned at Chen Ran.

His deductions interrupted, Chen Ran brushed the ash off his clothes. Looking at the Cigarette butts littering the floor, he realized he had been analyzing things for quite a while.

'Hmm...'

'I have a question.'

'Can you get lung cancer in The Underworld?'

Thinking about this, Chen Ran ripped open a fresh pack of Cigarettes and pulled one out to calm his nerves.

However, he still was not in a rush to enter the Instance with Liu Xing. Instead, he looked at the Dice.

'Rolling a one means randomized factions.'

'Rolling a two means randomized factions, as well as randomized difficulty for the Escape Room Game.'

'Rolling a three means randomized factions, difficulty, and participants.'

'Currently, Qiu Yinong, Lin Jiabao—whom I planted a Thought Stamp on—and I are all on a united front when it comes to dealing with Lin Jiabei.'

'The best approach is to make sure Lin Jiabei stays at the table and loses all her Poker Chips.'

'That is to say, I need to manipulate Fishing in Murky Waters so that, no matter the chaos, it always ends up with Lin Jiabao and me entering the game.'

His mind made up.

Chen Ran tossed his Cigarette butt aside and raised an eyebrow at Liu Xing, who was sweating profusely.

Liu Xing swallowed hard. Even from several meters away, he could feel the murderous intent radiating from Chen Ran. This guy...

He really wanted to kill him!

'In The 18th Level, one cannot survive without Points. To earn Points, you have to use Lie-Judgment inside an Instance. And to use Lie-Judgment, you have to open your mouth and speak.'

'But right now, Points are completely irrelevant to me. Staying alive is the only thing that matters.'

'In this Escape Room Game, I lose if I speak even a single word!!!'

The two of them stepped into the Escape Room Game, arriving once again in front of two chairs.

Liu Xing immediately took a seat. Seeing his demeanor, Chen Ran knew that no matter what he said, Liu Xing would refuse to engage.

He followed suit and sat in his chair.

The next moment, a familiar wave of dizziness washed over them, causing both to pass out.

When they finally opened their eyes.

Their first instinct was to check their Watches before finally taking stock of their surroundings.

They were inside a Secret Room.

The first thing they noticed was the Secret Room's main entrance. It was a heavy iron door bound by Iron Chains, with a large Copper Lock connecting both ends of the chains.

It was incredibly strange.

Logically speaking, as long as it wasn't an Electronic Lock, a Copper Lock would normally be secured on the outside. That was the only way to ensure the door was locked without trapping oneself inside.

However, in this Secret Room, the Copper Lock was on the inside. That could only mean one thing...

The person who locked the door was also trapped inside.

Both men realized this almost simultaneously. They hurriedly scanned the area, searching for any NPC that might be locked in the Secret Room with them.

But there was no one else in sight!

They were in a Library.

Densely packed bookshelves lined the space, holding rows upon rows of countless books.

In the four corners of the Library stood:

East: White Tiger Bronze Statue.

West: Vermilion Bird Bronze Statue.

South: Azure Dragon Bronze Statue.

North: Black Tortoise Bronze Statue.

Each Bronze Statue stood roughly two meters tall, radiating an imposing and majestic aura.

At the same time, the two of them noticed that every single bookshelf in the Library was...

Made of iron!

Just as they were struggling to make sense of the situation, a piece of paper suddenly fluttered down from the Secret Room's iron door.

Liu Xing reacted with lightning speed. He sprinted to the entrance and snatched up the paper to inspect it.

To his astonishment, it was covered in characters that looked like incomprehensible, ghostly talismans.

It looked just like...

The cryptic tadpole script from ancient martial arts legends, but upon closer inspection, it didn't look like that at all.

Chen Ran leaned in for a closer look.

He frowned as well. He could swear on his life that he had never seen this kind of writing before.

Furthermore.

There was a high probability that it did not belong to any known human language from the living world.

Just as the two were racking their brains, desperately trying to deduce its meaning...

The four Divine Beast Bronze Statues suddenly lit up, rapidly turning as bright and hot as glowing branding irons.

A wave of blistering heat swept through the Secret Room. Feeling intensely stifled, the two men hurriedly stripped off their shirts.

Suddenly, Chen Ran took a hard look around the Secret Room.

The bookshelves, iron.

The door, iron.

He crouched down and rapped his knuckles against the floor. Good heavens, that was iron too.

Refusing to give up.

He looked up at the ceiling. Although he could not touch it to confirm, the color matched the floor perfectly. It was not hard to deduce...

The ceiling was also made of iron!

Chen Ran opened his mouth, but the words caught in his throat. He lit a Cigarette to calm his racing heart before finally speaking. "Tell me, do you think there's a possibility that if the bronze statues can heat up, this iron door, the iron bookshelves, and the iron floor will start heating up too?"

Liu Xing jolted in shock.

'If this piece of paper is an exam question, and we fail to answer it within the time limit...'

'Will all these iron objects turn into red-hot branding irons and roast us alive?'

He looked at Chen Ran and pointed at the strange text on the paper, silently asking if he could read it.

"I can't read a word of it."

However, Chen Ran had a slight inkling of what to do.

'An unfamiliar text.'

'A Library.'

'That means there must be books related to this language on the shelves, or perhaps...'

'A dictionary for this specific script.'

'But there are way too many books here. Finding the right one is not going to be an easy task.'

'We are in deep trouble now!'