Game of Deception Chapter 13: Hallucination? Or Perhaps

—Blue, or red?

Lin Ya's heart instantly tightened.

Taken literally, this question was incredibly simple. After all, Lin Ya had no reason to save Raccoon.

Her only desire was to be resurrected. Even taking a step back, if Lin Ya's death really was related to the Ti Chips, making a simple resurrection impossible, or aning she would just be murdered again after succeeding...

then, when she needed help, Wolf would definitely be a far more reliable teammate and advisor than Raccoon. Therefore, if the command Wolf gave was the truth, Lin Ya would choose red without hesitation.

...But was the problem really that simple?

Although Lin Ya could not read Wolf, she could read Raccoon.

Earlier, when writing the 'blood letter', she had deliberately stayed perfectly still to let Raccoon remove her mask. By doing so, she could observe Raccoon's expression and deduce her thoughts.

If the command on the mask Wolf gave Raccoon told her to choose blue, and he had told her that he would choose red, Raccoon would imdiately realize she was being abandoned. She should be terrified, resistant, or even having an emotional breakdown right now.

By the sa logic, if Wolf only told her to choose blue without revealing his own choice, Raccoon should be hesitating, wavering, and thinking deeply. After all, this was a critical choice concerning her own life.

But...

Why was she showing such a strange expression?

It was as if she wasn't just looking at a short line of text, but rather seeing past mories through it. The expression on Raccoon's face shifted continuously, becoming so complex that Lin Ya could barely understand it.

Thus, amidst intense unease, Rabbit thought of another terrifying possibility:

Could it be that she was the one being abandoned?

After all, Fox and Raccoon were useful teammates to Wolf. Only she was useless.

And that gesture Wolf made... he had done it at the very beginning. He had pretended to tap his right hand, but secretly switched his vote to his left. Would he use the sa trick this ti, pretending to vote red but actually switching to blue?

But... she had accepted a chip from Wolf! She was an ally he had bought!

Chaotic thoughts swelled in Lin Ya's mind.

Various possibilities tore at each other like wild beasts, making it impossible to tell right from wrong.

Thinking of this, Lin Ya suddenly froze, recalling the ga Escape the Sheepfold that the Host had ntioned.

Wait, could it be...

She looked at Wolf in astonishnt.

—Could this be Wolf's revenge!?

Because of her invitation, Wolf, whose abilities originally surpassed theirs, had been dragged into this fair ga decided by luck.

In this ga, whether it was the physically powerful Dog or the highly intelligent Fish, they were eliminated without being able to utilize their strengths at all.

The minority of strong players were ironically eliminated by the majority of weak players.

From this perspective, Rabbit had made a massive contribution!

She had dragged a boss they originally could not fight into a luck-based format where they actually stood a chance to win.

And Wolf was also happy to accept this life-and-death gamble—he seed to enjoy this thrill of being infinitely close to death.

When he survived, he showed no lingering fear of barely making it out alive; instead, there was a sense of release, as if bathing in a torrential downpour. Even his voice and attitude had beco genuinely gentle.

It was almost like sage mode...

But Wolf had not forgotten how he ended up in this situation.

The root cause of all this was that Rabbit had dragged him in. And the direct reason he had to gamble his life against Fish was because Lin Ya had proposed that sure-win thod which was dood to fail.

He had stepped in and saved Lin Ya once.

Now, he demanded that Lin Ya, whom he had saved, could not just stay safely in the backlines.

Instead, she had to gamble her life just like him!

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Only this was fair.

To punish Lin Ya, Wolf did not even hesitate to place himself back on the roulette wheel of death—there was a tiny chance he could be accidentally voted out if Lin Ya and Raccoon overthought things!

Thinking of this, Lin Ya gritted her teeth and decided to trust Wolf anyway.

After all, she already knew Wolf was definitely much smarter than her. Her current line of thinking was highly likely within his predictions.

Wolf had asked her, "Can you trust under any circumstances?"

Then I will... trust you this once!

Don't try to be clever! I don't want to try and be clever anymore!!

Harboring turbulent emotions, Lin Ya forcefully slamd the button.

—Submitted!

Lin Ya took a deep breath, feeling a shudder surge into her heart as her legs trembled uncontrollably.

It felt as if soone was pointing a revolver at her head, slowly pulling the trigger.

While making her feel an almost suffocating terror...

...was there actually a trace of twisted satisfaction in tornting herself?

She subconsciously glanced at Raccoon, wanting to see her answer. Just like looking for other top students to compare answers after an exam.

But Lin Ya suddenly froze.

She had absolutely no idea what Raccoon was seeing right now—

Raccoon suddenly clutched her head with both hands, crimson flas dancing in her pupils. She let out a heart-wrenching scream of agony.

"What... is this?"

Astonishnt, terror, sudden realization.

An almost trembling voice squeezed through Raccoon's clenched teeth: "What is this—?!"

She originally hadn't thought that much about it—she was just about to slam the red button without hesitation.

But right before her hand fell.

Raccoon trembled all over, as if struck by lightning. In that instant, her expression changed rapidly and grew unusually complex.

Even Lin Ya could not decipher what she was thinking.

That sensation of watching soone seemingly beco possessed sent a chill down her spine.

Suddenly, Lin Ya thought of soone.

She abruptly looked at Fox, finding that Fox was looking over at the exact sa ti.

They were thinking of the exact sa person!

That short man who had suddenly gone mad and ran out!

"...Wolf, do you still rember ?"

Raccoon stopped her movents and stared blankly at Ming Po, asking the question out of nowhere.

Under her gaze, Ming Po looked back with keen interest: "Oh? Should I?"

Under the dim round table, faint strands of light, weak as candlelight, seed to vaguely flow from his eyes. Just by gazing at that dim yellow light, Raccoon's already pale face beca completely bloodless.

She trembled violently, as if she had seen a devil straight out of a nightmare, and let out a shriek of absolute terror!

Her facial features contorted into a hideous grimace. She gasped and whimpered violently, her hands subconsciously scratching at her fragile neck until it was dripping with blood.

It was as if an invisible hand was clamping down on her throat!

A gentle and kind 'Wolf'? A 'gambler' who loved to risk his life?

—No, neither! It was all a disguise!

He was completely a devil, a demon!

Blurred fragnts of mory floated into her mind.

Perhaps it was a hallucination, perhaps it was precious intelligence delivered from the future... or perhaps she had finally broken free from this demon's illusion.

"I don't believe it, this place must still be an illusion you fabricated!"

She scread, her originally innocent and naive pupils now filled with terror and hatred: "You still want to trick , I won't be used by you again!"

Raccoon—or rather, Liao Tinglan—stared fixedly at Ming Po.

Ming Po's neat attire appeared drenched in blood in her current vision. Even those clean, pale hands seed to be covered in gore and viscera.

—For a split second, Liao Tinglan thought she was still in that ga of wolves and sheep, helping a villain commit cris.

He was standing there at the entrance of the blazing manor, turning his head back.

Revealing a happy and serene smile identical to the one right now, a bright, dazzling, dim yellow light burning in his pupils.

And the mont she was locked onto by that dim yellow firelight, she plunged into a new layer of illusion.

anwhile, that emaciated patient, his legs severed, was crying and howling as he crawled toward the open manor gates.

"Everyone dies, or two live."

As if he didn't care about those people's deaths at all, or exactly how they died, the man looked at her with imnse interest: "Is such a choice very difficult to make?"

—And for another split second, Liao Tinglan felt as though the ga she had been participating in from the very beginning was actually Death of the Minority, not Escape the Sheepfold.

And Wolf really had been a gentle, refined older brother from next door since the start, a reliable teammate she could trust... Though he seed a bit reckless, he was generally a good person.

Such a ga that decided life and death by gambling on luck was so rciful, so fair.

The figure in her hallucination overlapped with reality.

"I absolutely—"

She stared at Wolf, her eyes brimming with hatred: "I absolutely will not, will never believe your nonsense again!"

The next mont, Raccoon forcefully slamd down her bloodstained left hand!

—Blue!

"How rude," the man in her hallucination sighed. "I haven't told you a single lie up until now. Didn't I give you a way to survive? I even let the extra people live, so why are you hissing at ?"

And in reality, Ming Po was also looking at her.

"How rude..."

Ming Po sighed: "I haven't told you a single lie up until now. I clearly gave you a way to survive; you're the one who didn't choose it."

Two different yet nearly identical voices overlapped, causing Raccoon's pupils to tremble violently.

Ming Po looked at Raccoon with calm pity: "How does it feel to be made a fool of by the truth?

"You made the wrong choice."

He said calmly: "However, I respect your choice."

"Round four ends."

The Host's voice echoed precisely when Raccoon lost control of her emotions.

"Minority, Raccoon."

The Host announced almost simultaneously:

"—Execution will comnce imdiately."