Bai Xiuci hurriedly dodged the muzzle of the gun, forcefully suppressing the terror in her heart. "You can't kill me!"
Chen Ran pondered for a brief moment and lowered the weapon. Crouching down, he began to rifle through the pockets of the corpses one by one. "Give me a reason."
"Earlier, the elder mentioned that if he teamed up with us, he would tell us how to escape. Because of that, I think leaving the secret room might be tied to forming a team."
Unmoved, Chen Ran retrieved a pack of cigarettes and a Lighter from the youth's body, slipping them into his own pocket.
"Go on."
"The youth and the Big Man Trio were in cahoots, yet they still plotted to kill all of us. Combined with my previous reasoning, the condition to escape the secret room must be this: only one team can remain."
Chen Ran picked up a Spiked Mace. Upon gripping it, he noticed it was incredibly light, as if made of papier-mâché. Frowning slightly, he spoke without looking back, "That's not the answer I want. I'll give you a hint: start with the only clue in the secret room."
Hearing this, she watched as Chen Ran walked over to the desk and lifted it with effortless ease. It seemed that the desk the big man had used for registration was also made of papier-mâché.
It was all just smoke and mirrors.
However, aside from those props, Bai Xiuci simply could not fathom what other clues could possibly exist in the secret room.
'The desk, the Spiked Mace, the Ox-Head and Horse-Face Masks—they were all just deceptive props used by the big man's team.'
'In this secret room, apart from these items, there are only the surrounding walls. The walls have no writing and no patterns, so they can't be a clue. Then what is the only clue?'
'Wait! The people! It's the people!'
'There were a total of eighteen people in the secret room. This is the only clue provided here, but why exactly eighteen?'
'What is the significance behind this number?'
'The rule we deduced is: lying is forbidden in the secret room. Eighteen, lying is forbidden...'
Reaching this conclusion, Bai Xiuci felt a chilling dread wash over her. "Are you implying that this is the Hell of Tongue-Ripping?"
"Keep going." Chen Ran did not deny it.
"Rumor has it that the first layer of the Eighteen Levels of Hell is the Hell of Tongue-Ripping. Those who were habitual liars in life are sent to this level after death to suffer the agony of having their tongues torn out. From this, we can conclude that those who lie in the secret room meet the conditions to remain in the Hell of Tongue-Ripping and therefore cannot leave."
"By the same logic, those who do not lie fail to meet the conditions to stay, meaning they are allowed to leave..." At this point, Bai Xiuci paused. "The pistol acts as the Magistrate of this hell. Only those who have undergone Judgment can have their honesty verified."
"Those judged as liars will inevitably die, their corpses remaining here forever. However, those whose judgments fail, as well as those who have not been judged at all, are considered truthful. They do not meet the criteria to stay and can leave the secret room."
Having finished her deduction, Bai Xiuci looked at Chen Ran. If he spared her, the two of them could form a team. All she needed to do was showcase her intellect to the best of her ability.
Chen Ran, having finished looting the bodies, walked toward her. He slowly raised his arm, aiming the muzzle of the gun directly at her.
"You are not fit to be my teammate."
Seeing that he was about to pull the trigger, Bai Xiuci took a deep breath. "At least let me die understanding why."
"The only clue is related to numbers, which means the method to escape the secret room must also involve numbers. You've already deduced that this is the Hell of Tongue-Ripping, the first of the Eighteen Levels of Hell."
"The hidden numbers here are eighteen and one. Eighteen people entered, and either one person or one team gets to leave. Those are the two actual methods to escape the secret room."
"The youth didn't kill you because he knew that, due to my setup, the Big Man Trio had already lied. If his judgment had failed again, they would have been completely wiped out with zero chance of making a comeback. He had to leave behind a hidden card."
"You were his hidden card. Your survival was meant to mislead me into making an erroneous judgment about the escape plan. Following his logic, I was supposed to wonder why he spared you unless you served another purpose. This would have led me to the false conclusion that the room is cleared when exactly one person and one team remain."
One person or one team.
One person and one team.
With just a one-word difference, the resulting deductions created two entirely divergent escape plans.
So that was it. Bai Xiuci gave a self-deprecating smile. When she had realized that her failed judgment essentially meant she had lied, she foolishly believed she might still survive as long as no one noticed.
Little did she know, the youth intentionally refrained from judging her solely to manipulate Chen Ran's judgment. If Chen Ran had concluded that one person and one team was the way out...
...then Chen Ran would have joined the youth's team. They would have been in the same boat, ensuring Chen Ran wouldn't pass judgment on the youth's group of four. The youth could then reveal the true answer to Chen Ran.
At that point, Chen Ran would have judged and killed Bai Xiuci, allowing their five-person team to escape the secret room.
"I trust my deduction. The first layer signifies that either one person or one team can clear it. If it required one person and one team to clear it, there would be two ones, contradicting the fact that there is only a single number one associated with the first layer."
This was also exactly why Chen Ran, the moment he acquired the gun, executed the youth without a second thought.
"I just have one last question. When you faced the judge's inquiry, how did you manage to clearly tell a lie, yet not be deemed a liar?" This was the one puzzle she still couldn't crack.
"I argued with my girlfriend. I buried my girlfriend. Those are two independent events with no causal relationship."
"No wonder. I was previously puzzled as to how someone as rational as you could bury their girlfriend over a simple argument. It turns out they were entirely separate incidents. You two argued first, and then she passed away for some unknown reason. You simply helped her parents bury her, meaning you never actually killed anyone."
"Sigh, I was quite happy when I realized I wasn't dead yet. In the end, it was all just a fleeting illusion..."
Having said her piece, Bai Xiuci closed her eyes.
"You lied."
As Chen Ran uttered the Judgment Command, he immediately pulled the trigger, and a Bullet burst from the chamber.
In the next moment, Bai Xiuci collapsed into a pool of blood.
Just as she breathed her last, several lines of bloody text suddenly surfaced on the opposite wall:
Emotional Lie: When manipulated by emotions to utter a falsehood in a state of anger, the speaker is deemed a liar.
Common Sense Lie: By ignoring basic Common Sense and making statements that contradict it, the speaker is deemed a liar.
Sentimental Lie: Whether speaking out of familial affection, romantic love, or friendship, uttering a falsehood for any underlying motive deems the speaker a liar.
Chen Ran stared at the bloody lines of text.
He understood that this was a detailed categorization of the criteria used to judge lies. After all, many statements were inherently difficult to classify as true or false.
For example:
Emotional Lie: If provoked into a rage, you might hurl a curse at your provocateur, such as "fuck your ancestors." Since their ancestors are already dead, you theoretically cannot perform such an act. In this scenario, you have lied.
Common Sense Lie: In the realm of basic Common Sense, everyone knows there is The Sun in the sky. If you alone happen to be ignorant of this fact, and someone asks if there is a sun above, replying with either "I don't know" or "No" will result in you being judged as a liar.
Sentimental Lie: If your friend is physically unattractive, but you comfort her by saying she is beautiful, you will be judged as a liar.
Gazing at the strict boundaries defining emotional, common sense, and sentimental lies on the wall, Chen Ran fell deep into thought.
He recalled the three states of the human psyche in psychology: the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.
The Id controlled emotions.
The Ego governed common sense.
The Superego dictated sentiments.
Could these three boundaries of lying somehow be connected to the three psychological states?
...
Aside from the three aforementioned categories, Chen Ran drew upon his past experiences navigating society's harsh realities to summarize the three most common ways people lied: lying about the past, lying about the present, and lying about the future.
Lying about the past: Boasting.
Lying about the present: Fabricating on the spot.
Lying about the future: Making empty promises.
All of these would be deemed as lying. However, making an erroneous deduction while attempting to solve the secret room's puzzles did not constitute a lie.
He felt that the very existence of this secret room was strictly to familiarize novices with the mechanics of lying and how to judge whether an opponent was doing so. Did this mean the true secret room hadn't even appeared yet?
As he pondered this, the bloody text on the wall dissolved. Then, the entire wall began to slowly ascend until it completely vanished into the ceiling. Behind the newly opened pathway, Chen Ran saw...
An even larger secret room.