Deceitful Game

Chapter 164 Who Am I?

Recalling the magnificent golden palace in her dream, Mingpo frowned slightly.

A few doubts suddenly arose in his mind.

Because Mingpo realized something.

If we consider his personality... he shouldn't actually like such a luxurious interior.

Mingpo still clearly remembers the appearance of the palace in her dream.

Fountains, sunshine, rainbows, a beautiful azure sky, and a magnificent palace as white as jade.

Little girls chasing and playing, and an endless green meadow.

You can also hear the sounds of birds and puppies...

...and the enormous golden throne beneath him.

"That palace..."

Mingpo pondered for a moment, then tentatively asked, "Can the decorations inside be modified at will?"

"Basically...anything is fine, right?"

Gao Fan wasn't entirely sure either: "Palaces and anchor points are different. Even if the palace master enters the game, the palace won't reset..." "No, that's not what I meant."

Mingpo shook his head, interrupting Gao Fan.

He paused for a moment, then said directly, "For example... why is Gao Song's palace shaped like a company? Was that his own decision, his own renovation? Could he change the palace to something else? For example... turn his company into a royal palace?" "Definitely not."

This time, Gao Fan said without hesitation, "Just thinking about it, I know it definitely won't work, Captain. Otherwise, I'll just find a place to build a palace and name it 'Nuclear Bomb Manufacturing Base.' Wouldn't that mean I can mass-produce nuclear bombs?"

"Even if we just open a gun factory or something, we're sure to make a profit. Selling this stuff to other charlatans will definitely bring in more money than it costs to maintain."

"If we can earn chips through this 'farming' method, we won't need to participate in the game at all... Deceptive games aren't that kind."

"So, what are the specific rules related to?"

Mingpo pressed further, "A title? Your own anchor point? Or something else?"

"I'm not quite sure..."

Gao Fan also hesitated.

This part of the secret is clearly beyond Gao Fan's intelligence network.

Although he had indeed come into contact with some charlatans above the level of Zhou Zhiqing, he didn't have any close personal relationships with them, making it difficult to obtain accurate information. "All I know is... every palace looks very similar to the 'style' of its lord."

In order not to disappoint Mingpo, Gao Fan tried his best to recall and tell her everything he knew: "For example, the Red Queen's palace is a golden-red palace. There are many rose-gold decorations inside."

"I also know a guy named 'Wu Ma,' who's also at the Moon Silver level. He's a veteran policeman, and the entrance to his palace is a police station. But the scale inside is enormous; it looks a bit like a military camp, and a gym at the same time. There's a playground, a basketball court, a soccer field, and even a prison... There are many Deceivers there who work out shirtless every day, and they all have eight-pack abs, and you can smell their sweat. That's when I realized that working out is useful for Deceivers."

"And there's a girl named 'Chocolate Liquor,' whose palace entrance is an underground bar, the door of which is quite hard to find. Once inside, it doesn't look like a bar at all; it's more like a nightclub, a building—somewhat like Cloudtop from Cyberpunk 2077. The purple, red, and blue neon lights flashing really give it a cyberpunk vibe, and it hurt my eyes..."

At this point, Gao Fan hesitated for a moment: "The people inside... how should I put it? It's not exactly gaudy, but rather feels a bit unconventional, even a little scary. There are a lot of men and women, but their makeup makes me a little uncomfortable... Most of them have heavy makeup, a bit like cosplay makeup, but it doesn't look like anime, it's more like dark gothic. But there are also some Korean fashion or metal rock vibes. Some are very cool, but some look too gloomy."

"Abi?"

Mingpo smiled and said, "Then I think I know where it is."

Gao Fan looked up, somewhat bewildered, clearly unaware of what Ming Po knew.

Looking at Mingpo, who was dressed seriously, Gao Fan couldn't quite imagine what Mingpo would look like in those clothes.

He shook his head sharply, forcibly dispelling the strange images in his mind, and continued, "Most of those people are quite young. Most of them come to buy alcohol, and some come to play games. Oh, right, there are arcade games! There are fighting games, pinball games, and shooting games. People come to have fun... it's all there."

"However, besides that, there are also some guests who come to buy information or to conduct transactions here. They all do this to avoid 'Tianwen'. After all, Tianwen monitors the outside world, but by coming to the palace under the guise of having fun, Tianwen can't see them."

"I'm not saying that charlatans must have any moral bottom line... After all, charlatans are essentially the same as mercenaries, sometimes they don't know where their next meal will come from, and they'll do anything from fraud and robbery to murder, so there's no need for them to be morally upright."

At this point, Gao Fan said unhappily, "But when I was inside, I was talking to their boss about my commission, and she deliberately left me hanging in the lobby for half an hour. In that half hour, I was hit on seven or eight times! Both men and women... They're a bunch of perverts!" Hearing this, Ming Po glanced at Gao Fan's physique, slowly nodded, and agreed, "That's true."

"In general," Gao Fan concluded, "the palace shouldn't have much to do with titles or anchor points. But it certainly can't be made into whatever you want... I think it's probably related to the mind. After all, every palace is very similar to the feeling its master gives off." "The mind...?"

Mingpo murmured softly.

He recalled how he was smiling so gently and cheerfully in that dream, surrounded by so many friends... It didn't seem like him at all, but rather like Ai Shiping or Shen Yiqi.

At that moment, Mingbo leaned lazily on the throne, just like a true monarch.

An idea inevitably popped into his mind.

"Lost in the dust and desolation," is that really me?

Or rather, why does Mingpo firmly believe that "destitute and impoverished" is himself?

Was it because of the broken bottle of wine in his liquor cabinet? Or because of the title that came out of his mouth from "Ideal Country"?

Is it because of that memory that surfaced in his mind, a memory he described as "destitute and desolate"?

Or is it because of "Nameless's" dependence on him, just like the puppy-like girl in his dream?

But their abilities, personality, aesthetics... were completely different from his own.

He has a sunny and cheerful personality, and is surrounded by a large group of friends. He prefers a "sacred and luxurious" style to "understated elegance." There is no trace of Ai Shiping in his life, nor has he joined the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, where his father is located.

If it's just "losing memories," can a person really change that much?

Which side should Mingpo believe?