The Eighteen Levels of Hell: Lying is Forbidden Here Chapter 15: Downward Compatibility

"You!"

At this mont, Baili Qiangsheng felt like a seasoned hunter who had just gotten his eyes pecked out by his prey.

"Do you know why I wanted to play the outsider?" Chen Ran sneered.

Before Baili Qiangsheng could respond, he answered his own question. "It is quite simple. I needed to sort out the known rules and the information we had gathered."

"First of all, our lovely Cheng Si pointed out that fighting might get you killed, but refusing to fight guarantees you will die eventually."

"So I started thinking. Since you lot can enter a Novice Instance to slaughter Newbies, then by that exact sa logic, players stronger than you can enter the higher-difficulty Instances you frequent to slaughter you."

"It is just like in certain strategy gas where Season Two players can register to return to Season One servers. It is an absolute, overwhelming massacre."

"By the sa token, Season Four players can drop down into Season Three, and Season Three players can drop down into Season Two."

"And so on."

"To be completely honest, when I finally deduced this Instance chanic, I broke out in a cold sweat. Because no matter how strong you get, you will always encounter soone stronger in a normal Instance who is there to crush you!"

At this point, Chen Ran took a deep drag from his cigarette, doing his utmost to suppress his inner fear.

This Instance chanism was exceptionally cruel.

It was like being at the Qi Condensation stage and running into an opponent at the Foundation Establishnt Stage, and then reaching the Foundation Establishnt Stage only to encounter an enemy at the Core Formation stage...

There was absolutely no way out unless you kept getting stronger, stronger, and stronger.

So strong that no one could possibly surpass you!

"Exactly. This is the most disgusting and vicious chanism in the Hell Dungeon: Downward Compatibility!"

"What else did you figure out?"

Baili Qiangsheng's face contorted into a ferocious scowl. If he had previously treated this as a playful ga, he now viewed Chen Ran as a genuine threat.

"Downward Compatibility?" Chen Ran murmured.

"Because the Downward Compatibility chanism exists, every player is forced to climb higher. Since executing a liar yields a Reward, that Reward must be the essential key to increasing a player's strength."

"Therefore, inside an Instance, players not only have to speak up, but they must also bait others into lying."

"How exactly do you trick soone into lying? The Novice Tutorial Room already gave us the answer to that."

"Emotional Lies, Common Sense Lies, and Sentintal Lies. Take the Common Sense Lie, for example. I made Liu Changsheng state the ti on the clock."

"The hour, minute, and second hands were all pointing squarely at the six. If it were truly six-thirty and thirty seconds, the hour hand should have been halfway between the six and the seven. But instead, it was pointing directly at the six..."

"This ant the hour hand was broken, rendering the clock utterly incapable of telling the correct ti. Yet, Liu Changsheng confidently stated a specific ti, thus committing a Common Sense Lie."

"In summary, there are only three ways to force a person to lie. First, you manipulate their emotions until they say sothing false. Second, you use a flaw in Common Sense to trick them into uttering a lie. Third, you play on their personal attachnts to coax a lie out of them."

"These three thods form the absolute core of the Infighting among players within an Instance."

Baili Qiangsheng, Zhang Yuan, and Cheng Si exchanged glances, their eyes filled with utter shock.

He was completely right!

Chen Ran's deductions aligned perfectly with the fundantal rules of Hell. This guy...

Was he really just a Newbie?

If they had to point out a single flaw, it would be that Chen Ran had not yet deduced the exact function of a Liar-Slayer Skill.

At that mont, Chen Ran suddenly spoke up, his voice turning ice-cold. "Put away your cheap tricks. Did you really think I didn't know that the Pockmarked Woman, the Seductive Woman, and Lin Feng are all already dead? Right now, they are nothing more than Phantom Images you fabricated using your Liar-Slayer Skill!"

Cheng Si noticed that Chen Ran had spoken with absolute certainty. This ant that if even one of his deductions was incorrect, it would count as a lie.

anwhile, the look in Baili Qiangsheng's eyes shifted from shock to pure horror. He gulped nervously and asked, "How did you know it was those three?"

"Isn't it obvious? Have you forgotten? The first ti you used your skill in this Secret Room was right when I initiated a Judgnt against one of the two female players."

"Therefore, I knew the Pockmarked Woman Player was a Phantom Image you had created. Cheng Si and Lin Feng were also well aware that I knew this. So, when I deliberately aid my gun at the Pockmarked Woman Player just now, it was specifically to bait them into uttering the execution command."

"Clearly, Lin Feng took the bait while Cheng Si did not. That is why Lin Feng died, and I was the one who actually shot the Seductive Woman Player."

Hearing these words sent a shiver down Cheng Si's spine.

'The Pockmarked Woman Player is a Phantom Image.'

'Lin Feng died because he lied and was executed in a Judgnt.'

'The Seductive Woman Player was executed by Chen Ran's Judgnt.'

'So, right now, all three of them are nothing but Phantom Images created by Baili Qiangsheng.'

'Looking at the layout of this entire situation...'

'Chen Ran first secured the position of an outsider. Using that as an excuse, he temporarily abstained from the deductions.'

'But in reality, he was quietly organizing the rules of the Instance and all the information he had gathered.'

'He deduced the Downward Compatibility chanism and figured out the three thods to force soone to lie.'

'He then imdiately applied it to actual combat by deliberately aiming his gun at the Pockmarked Woman. Lin Feng and I both knew that he was well aware of who the real player was. Seeing his actions, we mistakenly assud the Pockmarked Woman was the real player.'

'As a result, Lin Feng and I also aid our guns at the Pockmarked Woman.'

'However, Baili Qiangsheng was also fully aware that Chen Ran knew the identities of the real players. Baili Qiangsheng figured that Chen Ran would never initiate a Judgnt against the Pockmarked Woman, which ant the true target of Chen Ran's Judgnt had to be the Seductive Woman.'

'Thus, Baili Qiangsheng imdiately activated his Liar-Slayer Skill, plunging the Secret Room into pitch darkness. This way, other than him and Chen Ran, no one would ever know that the Seductive Woman Player had been killed in the dark.'

'The final outco was this: Chen Ran initiated a Judgnt on the Seductive Woman Player and succeeded. Lin Feng initiated a Judgnt on the Pockmarked Woman Player and failed, which resulted in Lin Feng being executed by soone else's Judgnt.'

'The final outco was this: Chen Ran initiated a Judgnt on the Seductive Woman Player and succeeded. Lin Feng initiated a Judgnt on the Pockmarked Woman Player and failed, which resulted in Lin Feng being executed by soone else's Judgnt.'

'It wasn't even over yet!'

'After eliminating the Seductive Woman Player and Lin Feng, Chen Ran imdiately inserted himself into the deductions. He forced Liu Changsheng to state the ti on the clock, tricking him into committing a Common Sense Lie before executing him with a Judgnt!'

'What terrifying sches and flawless calculations! His grasp over human nature and his mastery of psychological warfare have reached absolute perfection. He is completely on par with a Two-Star Player!'

'This guy is an absolute monster!'

'If I had known there was going to be a monster like this in the Novice Instance, I never would have participated!'

Baili Qiangsheng finally realized exactly how formidable his opponent was, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.

"You are very good," he squeezed the words out through gritted teeth. He pointed his Liar-Slayer at Lin Feng and the two won, retracting all three of their forms back into the barrel of his gun.

Chen Ran completely ignored him. He walked straight up to the podium and picked up the two clocks, placing one directly above the other so that they were perfectly aligned.

"What do you see?"

When no one answered, he continued, "The three hands on these two clocks. In one, they are all pointing upward. In the other, they are all pointing downward."

"This is a Mirror Image!"

"Which proves that whatever truly happened in this Classroom is the exact opposite of what the police wrote in their report!"

"Therefore, the true answer is this: the fifteen people kidnapped the Human Trafficker, and the fire inside the Classroom was started by those sa fifteen people!"

He then pointed at the pile of objects resting on the podium. "That pile of items right there represents the murder weapons those fifteen people used to kill the Human Trafficker. According to the Mirror Principle, it is highly likely that those exact sa weapons will be used to execute all of you!"