Both of them looked toward the study door at the exact sa ti.
They moved to the left and right sides of the door, pressing their backs against the wall as Chen Ran reached out to turn the doorknob.
The door... opened.
He gently pushed the door open. After waiting a long while without hearing any movent, the two cautiously poked their heads out to peer outside...
Just a single glance.
They froze in place, as if turned to stone.
Outside the door was another secret room, and it was the study from the First Secret Room of the Instance, completely identical to the study they were currently standing in.
However...
This secret room was filled with the corpses of Chen Ran and Geng Hao. Aside from a narrow aisle and the desk, everything within sight was covered in dead bodies.
Every single Chen Ran and every single Geng Hao wore expressions of shock from their final monts. The pungent stench of blood assaulted Chen Ran and Geng Hao's senses.
While the two were still reeling in shock, another Chen Ran and Geng Hao suddenly sprang from either side of the wall behind the door. Without any warning, they aid their guns at the stunned pair and instantly pulled the triggers.
Bang!
Bang!
Chen Ran and Geng Hao collapsed to the ground at the sound of the gunshots.
Before he died, Chen Ran muttered, "No wonder there were no bodies in the First Study at the very beginning. You dragged them all into the Second Study..."
The Chen Ran and Geng Hao of the Second Study skillfully dragged the two corpses, along with the four other bodies hidden behind the bookshelves, into the Second Study and closed the door once again.
Chen Ran lit a cigarette. "When we were eavesdropping on their conversation behind the door just now, I realized that their dialogue and train of thought were exactly the sa as ours when we were in the First Study."
"But when they opened the study door, they ran right into us. Yet when we opened the study, there was no one alive inside, only corpses."
Geng Hao rubbed his temples, trying his best to keep his thoughts from spiraling into chaos. "Are you saying that when we opened the door, the Chen Ran and Geng Hao of the Second Study had just left and headed forward into the Third Study?"
With that said, he turned to look at the back door. This study had two doors, front and back. The front door led to the First Study, while the back door led to the Third Study.
"That is highly probable. The people from the Second Study went to the Third Study, so we found it empty and managed to survive."
"From this, we can deduce that this Escape Room Ga strings countless studies together. In the first study, a Chen Ran and a Geng Hao are spawned every five minutes."
"Chen Ran and Geng Hao will continuously explore forward, appearing in various secret rooms. In other words, within these infinitely connected studies..."
"Every study should be hiding a Chen Ran and a Geng Hao."
Geng Hao hastily called for a tiout. He could no longer keep up with Chen Ran's deductions. Various clues intertwined in his mind, becoming an intricate ss, tangled beyond untangling.
He suddenly felt a warm sensation in his nose. Reaching up to touch it, he realized he was getting a nosebleed.
Chen Ran glanced at his pathetic state and remarked flatly, "Look at you, getting worked up again."
Geng Hao fell speechless.
"The true Chen Ran and Geng Hao should be in the very first study of these infinitely connected rooms..."
"During the tutorial Instance, I encountered Veteran Players tricking Newbies. They had the first player in line lie to the second player. Through this word-of-mouth chain, almost all the players in line ended up telling a lie."
"If I were the true Chen Ran, I would also use this thod to force the first batch of fake Chen Rans and fake Geng Haos into lying."
"If those two lie, every subsequent fake Chen Ran and fake Geng Hao born after them will also lie. Therefore, the key to this Escape Room Ga does not lie with us. It lies in the ntal ga played between the four of them: the true Chen Ran and Geng Hao, and the first batch of fake Chen Ran and Geng Hao."
Geng Hao wiped away his nosebleed, highly suspecting that this guy was doing this on purpose. "Could you be a bit more straightforward?" he asked in exasperation.
"Simply put, the true Chen Ran and Geng Hao arrived at the First Study. They dawdled for five minutes and discovered..."
"...that another Chen Ran and Geng Hao had appeared out of thin air in the study. Since all four of them had never lied, none of them could execute Judgnt on the others. However, they realized that a third batch of Chen Rans and Geng Haos would likely be born. If the third batch also had never lied, then the six of them..."
"...wouldn't be able to kill anyone!"
"Following this logic, countless Chen Rans and Geng Haos would be spawned, and no one would be able to kill anyone else."
"This scenario is an unsolvable dead end..."
"To avoid this dead end, Chen Ran and Geng Hao would join forces with the first batch of replicated Chen Ran and Geng Hao. The four of them would work together."
"They would trick the second replicated batch into telling a lie."
"Judging from the results, since we can ignore Judgnt and fire our guns directly, it proves that the second batch of fakes lied. This caused every subsequent batch of fakes born after them to lie as well."
"Then, we can deduce that the replication principle uses the previous batch as a template to copy the next batch."
Geng Hao was silent for a long mont.
"Could you make it even simpler?" Geng Hao asked, still only half-understanding.
"Hmm... even simpler, then. It ans soone will co from the Third Study into our Second Study and shoot at us very soon. We won't be able to shoot back at them. In short, we are just waiting to die."
Geng Hao grew even more bewildered. "Why would the four who didn't lie turn back to kill us?"
Chen Ran spoke in a ghostly tone, "The reason we are inherently born as liars stems from the Common Sense of the Liar-Slayer in Hell: we can shoot each other at will. That proves we have told a lie before, and have even lost our qualification for Judgnt."
"If I were in the First Study and left behind a rule: 'Liar Hunter Skills can be used freely in the Escape Room Ga.'"
"And then, I killed the Chen Ran of every batch who excels at deduction, leaving only the Geng Hao who cannot figure out the chanics of the secret room. What do you think the Escape Room Ga would turn into in the end?"
Geng Hao's eyes widened.
'Ghost Whisperer!'
'Using a Ghost Whisperer to break the flaw that every spawned Chen Ran and Geng Hao inherently carries a lie, causing the four masterminds...'
'...to be unable to cast Judgnt upon them!'
'Unless those four masterminds can prove that guns cannot be fired freely in the Escape Room Ga.'
'If the current Chen Ran can think of this problem, then the true Chen Ran and the first fake Chen Ran would have definitely thought of it too.'
'To prevent this from happening, the four of them will make a surprise return attack and eliminate us in advance!'
As if to confirm this thought, the back door of the Second Study was violently kicked open.
Two Chen Rans and two Geng Haos slowly walked in. Seeing this, the Geng Hao of this secret room imdiately raised his gun, preparing to shoot at the four of them.
However, he couldn't pull the trigger!
This made Geng Hao instantly realize that these four were the true Chen Ran and Geng Hao, along with the first batch's Chen Ran and Geng Hao.
Only the four of them had never lied, retaining their qualification for Judgnt.
"You lied."
"You lied."
The true Chen Ran uttered the command. With two shots, he executed Judgnt on this Chen Ran and Geng Hao from who knows which batch, killing them instantly.
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