Chapter Content
Bai Xiuci reacted incredibly fast.
She bent down to grab the gun, but the moment she touched it, she was repelled backward. She crashed right into Chen Ran, who was standing behind her, and both of them tumbled to the ground in a chaotic heap.
The youth picked up the pistol and smiled at the two of them. "It seems Lady Luck is on our side."
"Why didn't you lie?" Bai Xiuci demanded, furious and exasperated over losing control of the pistol.
"He should know," the youth replied, ignoring her question and pointing at Chen Ran, who was unsteadily getting to his feet.
His intention was obvious. Chen Ran had not lied yet, so the youth wanted him to speak more. After all, people always tended to slip up and lie when they were caught off guard.
Chen Ran felt like his bones were about to fall apart from the collision just now. Too lazy to waste words, he simply pointed at the registration desk a short distance away.
Bai Xiuci was confused at first, but then her pupils abruptly shrank. She stared intently at the three words: Ghost Gate Pass.
In myths and legends, passing through the Ghost Gate Pass led to the Yellow Springs Road. In this Secret Room, the desk represented the Ghost Gate Pass, and beyond the desk was...
If the youth stood behind the desk and told the second person in line, "This is the Yellow Springs Road."
Then the youth would not be lying!
"Why didn't you say so earlier?" Bai Xiuci glared viciously at Chen Ran.
"You never asked. Moreover, I felt that there might be a flaw in your deduction. The youth was clearly a contingency plan for the Big Man Trio, specifically designated to save the situation."
Bai Xiuci's anger gradually subsided, and Chen Ran's words brought her to a stark realization.
If the judge lost his right to pass Judgment, the youth would be the turning point for the Big Man Trio. As long as the one holding the pistol failed to realize that crossing the desk meant stepping onto the Yellow Springs Road, any hasty attempt to judge the youth would end in certain failure.
As the saying went, one must calculate defeat before calculating victory. This allowed them to advance and attack, while ensuring that retreating would not result in total annihilation.
Bai Xiuci calmed down.
'Chen Ran has not lied from the very beginning. To him, it does not matter who holds the power of Judgment.'
'However, he had an even better option, which was to hand over the power of Judgment to someone who knew the rules.'
'When the person who knows the rules passes Judgment, they will definitely reveal more information about the pistol and the Secret Room.'
'That is why he did not warn me.'
'No, wait!'
Bai Xiuci suddenly realized something, trying desperately to suppress her inner terror. She knew that she was already out of this game of wits, but she wouldn't necessarily die...
Sure enough, after obtaining the pistol, the youth did not even spare her a glance; instead, he fixed his gaze on Chen Ran.
The youth held the pistol out to Chen Ran.
He asked earnestly, "Do you want it?"
Chen Ran replied with a question of his own, "Are you giving it?"
"If you really want it, it is not impossible for me to refrain from giving it."
"If you truly give it, it is not impossible for me to refrain from taking it."
"If you do not want it, I cannot force you to want it. Whether you want it is up to you, and whether I give it is up to me. If you do not say you want it, you will never know that if you do want it, I might not give it."
"If you do not give it, it isn't impossible for me to not want what you give. To give or not give is up to you, to want or not want is up to me. If you do not say you will give it, you will never know that I won't want it when you aren't incapable of not giving it."
The youth paused for a moment and said, "What if I give it?"
Chen Ran pondered for a second and replied, "What if I want it?"
Bai Xiuci pondered over their conversation. One was saying: if you want it, I won't give it; the other was answering: if you give it, I don't want it.
This showed that the youth knew Chen Ran was highly intelligent and would definitely understand what he was saying.
Therefore, the youth was playing with words to trick Chen Ran into telling a lie. After all, understanding something in your head was one thing, but being able to express it flawlessly was another.
Smart people were often arrogant. Since the youth used convoluted logic, Chen Ran would naturally follow suit and reply with equally tangled phrasing.
However, carefully analyzing what the two had just said...
One would realize.
The youth had dug a trap in his words. What he really meant was: if you want it, I won't give it; and if you don't want it, I still won't give it.
So, here came the problem.
Did Chen Ran truly not want the gun?
The answer was no.
He needed the gun, but not right now. If he simply answered that he wanted it, he would be lying. If he simply answered that he didn't want it, he would also be lying.
Therefore, Chen Ran's only possible answer was: if you give it, I don't want it; if you don't give it, I still don't want it.
Put simply, regardless of whether the youth offered him the gun or not, he would refuse. This deliberately avoided the question of whether Chen Ran would want the gun if the youth failed his Judgment.
Expressing this answer in a convoluted, tongue-twisting manner meant that a single slip-up would convey the wrong meaning, resulting in him being judged as a liar and executed by the youth.
Bai Xiuci felt that there was absolutely no need for Chen Ran to entertain the youth's questions. Yet, he still answered, proving that Chen Ran also wanted to trick the youth into lying.
......
Chen Ran lit a cigarette and said slowly, "This Secret Room is completely sealed. Although twelve people have already died, the oxygen still won't last much longer..."
"And you are still smoking?" Bai Xiuci asked, utterly speechless.
"Shut up!" The youth glared at her, then turned back to Chen Ran. "Keep talking."
"I was killed by a car. Logically speaking, I should be a soul right now. However, looking at the corpses on the ground and feeling the pain from when she crashed into me just now, I can tell that I am still a person of flesh and blood. By the way, making a flawed deduction should not count as lying, right?"
"In your case, no," the youth shook his head.
Chen Ran continued, "This indicates that we were transported to this Secret Room by some kind of unknown power. If we want to leave the Secret Room, we might also need to use that power, or perhaps fulfill a certain condition."
The youth cast a surprised glance at Chen Ran. In his speech, he had heavily utilized words like 'some kind', 'if', 'might', and 'perhaps'—terms perfectly chosen to avoid making absolute statements and lying.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"What I am trying to say is that since you set a trap to make us lie, the method to leave the Secret Room is very likely tied to Judgment. However, if I never tell a lie, none of us will be able to leave alive. Rather than dragging this out until we suffocate to death, we might as well just have a... Head-on Sniping Duel!"
"How exactly do you want to duel?" The youth could not have asked for a better opportunity; this was like a pie dropping from the sky.
"We will each ask questions. The person asked must answer, and they cannot say they don't know, nor can they answer with something irrelevant to the topic."
Chen Ran proposed the rules for the Head-on Sniping Duel, and all the youth had to do was find the traps Chen Ran had buried within those rules.
'He said we will each ask questions, but he did not specify asking only a single question. That means both of us can ask multiple questions.'
'He said the person asked must answer without saying they do not know or going off-topic, but if Chen Ran asks a personal question about himself, I will have no way to answer it.'
"Agreed, but I have a supplementary condition," the youth said. "The questioned person must finish answering a question before the next person can ask one, and the questions cannot involve one's own past personal matters."
"Deal. I will go first." Chen Ran stubbed out his cigarette, looking entirely confident.
The youth shrugged indifferently.
"My question is: Since the gun wielder has the authority to pass Judgment on others, then conversely, can others question the gun wielder's authority to judge?"
"Yes!" the youth blurted out. He hadn't expected Chen Ran's trump card to be such a moronic question.
It was the youth's turn.
The youth sneered, suddenly baring fangs like a docile kitten turning into a tiger. "I am currently lying. Is that the truth or a lie?"
Bai Xiuci's expression changed drastically. A few words automatically surfaced in her mind: Liar's Paradox!
Liar's Paradox...
No matter how it was answered, it would be wrong.