Deceitful Game

Chapter 137 The Self-Proving Trap

Chapter 137 The Self-Proving Trap

After that slap, there was a miraculous silence for a few seconds at the table.

Mingpo, who had been waiting for Gao Fan's answer, suddenly became serious.

He knew that Gao Fan was neither so weak as to give up on himself if he couldn't guess the answer, nor so mentally fragile as to go crazy under pressure.

In the deceptive games Xiao Fan had experienced in the past, he had brushed with death countless times. Although he chose to run away each time—for Xiao Fan, who lacked combat skills, wasn't that perhaps a correct and rational choice?

He wouldn't be stunned into standing still; instead, he would actively search for the only possible path to survival amidst despair.

How could someone with such experience go crazy before they've even truly faced a desperate situation?

unless----

Mingpo's gaze sharpened.

That wasn't a case of going crazy and attacking oneself, but rather an attempt to come to one's senses!

"Xiao Fan".

Mingpo spoke in a low voice, "Do you feel like something's not right?"

"----really!"

Hearing Mingpo's words, Gao Fan felt as if he had been saved.

His eyes lit up instantly, and his somewhat hunched back straightened up immediately.

He trusted Mingpo completely—both in terms of character and ability. If even Mingpo felt something was amiss, then it probably meant it wasn't just his imagination!

"I feel like I've overlooked something important."

Gao Fan described his feelings earnestly: "It's like having brain fog—I feel like my brain is filled with a hazy fog, which suddenly fills it at certain times. In the first few rounds, I could still think, but the closer I got to the answer, the more I felt like I forgot—"

"That feeling is like during an exam, I know exactly how to do the question—I even saw the exact same question before the exam and know the answer, but I just can't think of it!"

"—An obstacle to thinking, is that it?—"

Mingpo murmured softly.

His fingers tapped unconsciously on the table.

He had actually experienced something similar just now.

Just as Gao Song, who had been on the defensive, suddenly fell silent for no apparent reason—in that instant, Ming Po felt as if he had overlooked something important.

Mingpo did realize that Gao Song had activated his title ability, but he had no idea what the specific ability of this title was!

But after Gao Fan said that, Ming Po realized something important:

The instant after realizing that "the other party must have activated their ability," but not knowing exactly what that ability was—

But he didn't continue to think about it?

Instead, they just put it down!

He skipped over thinking about it.

It's like finding a problem too difficult and skipping it to do the later ones. This isn't really a problem in itself; for most people, it's the most efficient way of thinking, effectively preventing them from getting stuck on a single, intractable problem.

But this is too illogical for Mingpa.

At this moment, Gao Fan was still trying his best to describe all his feelings: "The answer I know is probably one of those three. Because Gao Song has a rather indifferent personality, he rarely cares about anything in particular, let alone 'toys' —"

Upon hearing this, Mingpo suddenly spoke up.

But this time, it's not a guess—does it hold significant meaning for the person who set the answer?

As Mingpo finished speaking, all three cards lit up simultaneously, turning white.

This means that everyone's answer is important to them.

This directly eliminates the possibility that the person "randomly chose something that wasn't important to them."

Logically, Mingpo should have used guessing as much as possible, and then used questions to reset the number of guesses.

However, just as Gao Fan said those words, Ming Po felt, for some reason, a strong, chilling sense of tension and crisis.

—That was the warning the title of "madman" was giving him.

The power of the Slaughter Domain enhanced Mingbo's instincts and intuition.

Mingpo realized with absolute clarity that if he continued to guess, the next round would be a dead end for him!

Almost instantly, Mingpo understood the source of this sense of crisis—

Gao Song has most likely already found the most important question, and only one last question is needed to lock in the real answer.

He timed it precisely at this point in time to put maximum pressure on them!

Players who participated in this game before probably already thought of similar strategies—this "answer two, ask one" rhythm isn't hard to find. As long as you carefully read the game rules, it's easy to discover this technique for delaying rounds.

If that's the case—

Gao Song actually left this "flaw" on purpose!

After Mingpo and Gaosong have both given two answers, he will use some method to exert maximum pressure—either by asking a very precise question or by stating that he already knows the other person's answer.

If they have guessed twice in a row, they must face the train problem of either "three strikes out if they answer wrong" or "all of them skip a round".

If you choose the former, you will die if you guess wrong;

Choosing the latter means that one of your teammates will be sentenced to death.

This is the complete opposite of the previous strategy of "choosing to betray your teammates to survive".

If revealing a teammate's "betrayal" is a counter-espionage tactic that can only be employed when the relationship between teammates is extremely strained—

So this strategy is only effective when "teammates have a very good relationship"!

Was it a desperate gamble, risking death?

Or should we just let our teammates die?

The tougher a guy is, the more likely he is to impulsively choose the former.

"Bet on both sides—"

Mingpo spoke slowly, a hint of genuine killing intent flashing in his eyes: "Truly a businessman. What you originally planned to do wasn't—to reveal the secrets of both yourself and me at the same time, was it?"

"I'll take that as a compliment."

Gao Song smiled calmly, even praising Ming Po's wisdom in return: "Haven't you already fully realized it? I shouldn't have revealed my tactical intentions yet, right? My wisdom is probably far inferior to yours."

"That was a trap you deliberately set in the rules."

Mingpo slowly said, "Only after Xiaofan and I have guessed twice in a row will you unleash your true killing move."

"By then, the challenger will know that their teammates have run out of questions. And you—"

At this point, Mingpo paused, then said with absolute certainty, "You will directly guess the answer to one of the people's riddles and reveal your own 'answer'."

"—You mean," Gao Fan said, somewhat confused, "that he already knows the answer to our mystery?"

"No, how could that be?"

Mingpo narrowed his eyes and revealed Gao Song's true trump card: "In that case, he'll just guess for himself. He's unsure—or rather, he can't guarantee that his luck is always in effect. After all, he's ultimately just a charlatan of Zhou Zhiqing's caliber."

;

However, he didn't need to guess the correct answer at all.

"Because if the bond between the challengers is genuine enough—then any rejection, denial, lashing out, or analysis from the person whose identity was guessed—will become an excuse to prevent their teammate from risking their life to guess whether Gao Song was telling the truth!"

This is a self-proving trap.

If Gao Song reveals his own answer and then reveals the answer to one of the challengers' answers—

So both of these answers could be true or false.

Even though his teammates would claim it's fake and tell them not to believe it in order to protect their brothers—would his teammates dare to take the gamble?

Or should he simply let Gao Song calmly kill one of his teammates in the next round, while he can only watch silently from the sidelines? And then try to use this answer to "safely" kill Gao Song in the next round?

If they all choose to do this—can they still have absolute trust in each other?

By then—

Will anyone turn back and choose to "betray"?

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