Game of Deception Chapter 14: Death of the Minority, Cleared!

—How does it feel to be fooled by the truth?

The mont "Wolf" uttered those words, Raccoon felt an uncontrollable shiver run through her body.

He said it! He knows everything!

"Don't listen to him! He's a monster!"

Raccoon scread at the other two until her voice went hoarse, the sound laden with unconcealed terror: "He—"

The massive sword crashed down!

Blood splattered.

Watching Raccoon—who just a minute ago had looked at the "Wolf" with clear, naive trust and reliance—suddenly snap and attack him with a hysterical, demonic frenzy... Lin Ya and Chen Bingwen couldn't stop the chills running down their spines.

It was the sheer terror of witnessing sothing incomprehensible and indescribable unfold right before their eyes.

"How fragile," Ming Po sighed. "To be unable to even maintain a lucid sense of self, completely washed away just like that.

"Even if you obtain extra mories, what good does it do?"

"...Extra mories?"

Hearing this, Chen Bingwen froze for a mont before his eyes widened. "Could it be—"

"Obviously, she suddenly gained a new set of mories—from another possibility."

Ming Po looked at him, his gaze perfectly calm without a single ripple. "Events from the tiline where she 'escaped the sheepfold'."

Looking at the two who still couldn't grasp the situation, Ming Po smiled. "What, still don't understand?

"Alright then, I'll explain it to you from the very beginning—may I, Host?"

"Of course."

The black cat, which had been sitting perfectly still on the table, finally moved.

It slowly paced over to Ming Po and hopped onto his lap.

The black cat drawled lazily, "Well, the 'final exam' is over now anyway, so I can give you a little ti. Once you're done explaining, I'll announce the 'holiday howork'—hey, since we're just sitting here, pet ."

Ming Po gladly obliged.

As he stroked the black cat in his arms, he spoke at a leisurely pace: "It all started with the man who suddenly attacked .

"Not long after he escaped, he ran into .

"I was standing in front of a cetery looking at the tombstones, unsure of why I was even there. But when he saw , he suddenly beca utterly terrified.

"I sensed his fear, so I looked over."

Ming Po delivered his next words casually, yet they carried a devilish weight: "I am exceedingly familiar with that scent... well, never mind that.

"Anyway, I was certain I didn't know him. But he knew .

"Seeing that I had no other reaction, his terror abruptly twisted into resentnt mixed with a thirst for vengeance. He tried to attack , but I subdued him with ease. He was so fragile it was almost funny.

"That guy's nonsensical babbling isn't worth ntioning. However, one particular sentence stuck with ...

"He said that killing him now was useless, spouting so nonsense about how I couldn't enter the safe house, and how his future self definitely still held chips and could still rewrite the ending."

At this point, Ming Po lowered his eyes slightly, revealing a serene smile. "Oh, chips? What chips?

"If his future self holds chips, why is it useless for to kill his present self? He feared death, yet he was inexplicably fearless... much like a player in a Souls-like ga, 'afraid of dying but not afraid of death'.

"So I dragged him all the way here. When we got close to this house, his reaction spiked drastically. So I had no choice but to finish him off right here.

"Just one kick, and he died instantly."

Ming Po sighed with a mix of pity and lantation.

"It wasn't ruptured organs, nor was it cardiac arrest. It was as if he was struck by so sort of curse."

"And right after that, I ran into you, Miss Rabbit."

After saying this, the smile returned to Ming Po's face.

—Hearing this, Lin Ya and Chen Bingwen wished they could resurrect that idiot just to kill him all over again.

It's one thing to go out and get yourself killed, but why did you have to kite the boss right to our front door!

Ming Po looked at Lin Ya.

"I've heard that in a certain version of vampire lore, they cannot enter soone else's ho unless invited by the owner. Right now, I might be sothing similar to that. Thank you for your invitation, otherwise I'm afraid I would still be stuck outside the door."

Ming Po grew thoughtful. "The unlucky little guy outside the door and Raccoon here, they were both probably spared by . They were far too ordinary; even their deaths lacked any novelty.

"And after winning, they obtained the authority to use their chips—and the very first thing they did was try to rewrite their own past. They probably thought they were going to pull a fast one on .

"But unfortunately, they weren't smart enough. They failed to realize that after obtaining extra intelligence, their trajectory of actions would also change. The guy who ran away was a bit more foolish, while Raccoon was a little smarter... she delayed the ti she received the intelligence.

"It's just a pity—the 'Death of the Minority' ga, even fully played out, took less than twenty minutes. But she seed to have spent at least an hour or more in another ga. When those genuine mories flooded in, it completely shattered her cognition. She entirely confused which part was real and which part was illusion; which part was the present, and which part was the future she could never return to."

Saying this, Ming Po gave the two a deep look. "Since I can speak to you two up to this point without disappearing or dying... I'm afraid the modifications made by Ti Chips have their limits too. Otherwise, you definitely would have co back from the future to wipe out."

"Hahaha, how could we..."

Lin Ya let out an awkward, dry laugh.

"Of course," Ming Po said briskly, "it's also possible that you simply never had that kind of future."

"Don't worry too much, the chips cannot take imdiate effect against Deceivers of the World who lack physical bodies," the black cat suddenly interjected. "Deceivers of the World have already jumped out of the tiline, even if they are only at the Hour's Red Copper level. Unless you choose to resurrect and willingly give up your identity as a Deceiver... otherwise, even if soone attempts to use Ti Chips to kill you from a more ancient past, they cannot erase the present you from the ga.

"—Not until this block of ti completely collapses and the tiline is reset. Only then will those modifications against a Deceiver sync up and take effect."

"So those are the rules..."

Ming Po looked thoughtful. "Then I'm relieved. I was worried that for every round I won, soone would rewrite the ga's results from the future."

"That's very difficult to pull off," the black cat rely laughed dismissively. "It's not just one person making changes. The ga you won... it's completely uncertain if this ga will even exist in the next playthrough, or if you'll be playing with these sa people. Transmitting expired, incorrect information is worse than transmitting nothing at all."

"That's certainly true."

Ming Po nodded in agreent. "At the very least, Bear and Butterfly had never t , nor did they possess those 'mories of a past life'."

Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to be so utterly unguarded against him, to the point of telling such flaw-riddled, highly agenda-driven stories.

"Want to know what happened?"

Ming Po looked at the two of them and spoke lightly. "The actions of Dog and Fish were both very easy to predict—Miss Rabbit, surely you saw through it too?"

Lin Ya subconsciously held her breath. This man hadn't even forgotten to observe her while he was scheming against the others!

"Dog exhibited classic manic symptoms born of fear, correct?"

Ming Po smiled and extended his hand, inviting the lady beside him to answer like a true gentleman.

"...Correct." Lin Ya sat slumped powerlessly, lacking even the mood to pay attention to Fox nearby.

"I rely needed to provoke Dog's violent behavior so that people would fear him. The more a person fears being directly attacked, the more they despise that kind of uncontrollable violence."

"Fear brings choices," Ming Po began his unilateral lecture like an irresponsible teacher. "There was no way Dog was making it out alive."

"As for Fish, he believed too much in numbers. Those extravagant numbers he spouted only served to expose a certain kind of... weakness in him."

"He openly rejected the role of narrator, trying to use that to seize the right to speak. If it worked, Fish would then use his influence to actively push out the others; if it failed, he could use the majority vote he gathered to eliminate the minority opposing him. But why should I let things go his way?"

Ming Po smiled. "When I equated Fish's actions to betrayal and pointed it out, it ant 'I will not stand with Fish'.

"Old man Bear is very smart. He noticed this, so he imdiately slapped a label on it, using extre scenarios to incite the possible—well, the inevitable—fools among us.

"Of course, this didn't an Bear was on my side either. He was rely using to strike at Fish, just to prevent Fish from gaining control of the narrative. From the first round when I interpreted his story as murder, it indicated my attempt to suppress him, making our relationship neutral leaning toward hostile. But my faction—along with Rabbit—and his faction, were united in our hostility toward Fish.

"However, as I piled more pressure onto Fish, he grew uncertain of how far Bear would go to help him, leaving him no choice but to vote with . Furthermore, to increase his odds of survival, he deliberately lowered his own credibility, adopting a 'speechless' posture to raise the likelihood of people voting against him.

"It's just like... an esports competitor who knows they likely can't win, so they bet against themselves outside the arena and purposefully play worse. So back then, Fish was definitely going to run—he was too accustod to flip-flopping his votes; he's not the type to stand his ground until death."

It looked like a gamble with his life, but at the ti, Ming Po had a ninety percent certainty of success.

The mont he saw Fish starting to accuse him of siding with the Host, he already knew Fish's strategy.

But Bear and Butterfly, on the other hand, did not know.

The two of them were a team, and they had a tacit understanding from the start—perhaps even earlier. This was evident from how they voted together every round and never opposed each other. When Bear was attacked by Dog, Bear imdiately stayed silent while Butterfly began attacking Dog.

It wasn't until Bear couldn't help but follow Ming Po in targeting Fish that Butterfly looked at Bear in sheer astonishnt.

It was as if she completely hadn't expected Bear to suddenly step forward and help Wolf!

And at that mont, Bear also imdiately realized he had made a mistake, so he stopped talking entirely afterward—after all, all he wanted was to suppress Fish, not to elevate Wolf to prominence.

"Judging from this personality trait, Liu Jianguo is definitely not his real na either," Ming Po said mockingly. "It's highly likely to be the na of one of his enemies... he was planning to use another's hand to kill."

He even skimped out on the chips needed to kill his enemy, proving he was an excessively frugal person.

Therefore, his investnt strategy was highly likely conservative... aning, he hated going all-in.

"So I intentionally advocated for a gamble, making myself look impulsive and brainless. But at that mont, because 'Fish' had brought in too much data during his initial debut, when people started to despise him, they despised that kind of rationality along with it, writing it off as scheming. anwhile, my all-in gamble looked far more brainless... and so, that aversion beca my fuel."

Ming Po said with a beaming smile, "The fuel provided by those who aren't quite smart enough."

"...Indeed," Lin Ya nodded in agreent. "Most people think in extres; it's either black or white."

"But Lawyer Chen, you're a different case entirely."

Saying this, Ming Po looked toward Chen Bingwen.

"When I first approached you, you grabbed my hand and interrogated about my identity. This showed you have guts, keen observation skills, and great confidence. But once the ga began, you barely spoke, and the few things you did say lacked any substance—this ant you didn't want the spotlight; you didn't want to be the center of attention.

"In other words, you much preferred to vote from a relatively safe place, rather than stand out in the open and be voted upon."

He pointedly remarked, "It was the sa when it was your turn to be the narrator... you practically handed all your authority to set the question over to . While part of it was a show of loyalty, the other part was simply that you aren't used to being the center of the conversation.

"Therefore, I deduced that you needed to find a target to latch onto. When I realized this, I tossed out the theory that 'Old man Bear's story might be murder'. Later, I stood firmly by Rabbit's side... all of this was to make you feel that I was reliable enough.

"Thus, under my manipulation, there were three small factions with rallying power at the ti: Bear, Fish, and —and your only choice was ."

Seeing Chen Bingwen's terrified expression, Ming Po narrowed his eyes. "As for Raccoon, that was also very simple...

"Your judgnt was actually correct, Lawyer Chen. You said this ga doesn't exclusively recruit smart people, and I agree—if there truly was a pure, naive female university student with innocent eyes, she would indeed be a sharp weapon. But the problem is...

"For such a person, her sin was ranked eleventh, second only to Dog. Boss Mo, who was carrying blackmail material in his pocket, was only sitting in the number six seat."

Ming Po said aningfully, "Looking at your reactions, I can guess she was probably a strear for so dangerous sport. Either motorcycles, extre sports, or parkour. And since she clearly lacked muscle and wasn't great at chatting, it's highly likely she was a motorcycle strear.

"What massive cri could a motorcycle strear commit? If she really committed a major case, you guys definitely would have recognized her identity—then she wouldn't be 'Music Note's Molijiang', she would be 'C Station's Molijiang'.

"Given her position where she clearly lacked the charisma to lead a team, making her past public would have been a sign of honesty, especially since we knew the seating order represented our sins. But she delayed telling us, which ant either it would embarrass her, or... she herself didn't actually know where her sin originated from."

"Looking at it that way," the mouth on the black cat's neck suddenly spoke, emitting a deep, resonant voice like a skilled card-playing corporate president, "the only thing you didn't anticipate was the outco of the third round, isn't it?"

"Ah, yes."

Ming Po smiled. "Got to leave a little entertainnt for myself, right? If everything is perfectly clear, then wouldn't it lack all excitent?

"For a dark ga where our very existence is on the line... this felt a bit like child's play. Are there any more thrilling, more dangerous gas?"

"Oh?"

The mouth hanging on the black cat's necklace chuckled. "So impatient?

"Very well... then I will send you all back to rest first.

"Having three survivors is already the maximum reward cap. You have enough chips to participate in a Promotion ritual... My advice is not to squander them, prioritize your Promotion. Once you reach the first stage of 'Day's False Gold', whether it's a Confrontation ga against others, an exploration puzzle, or a cooperative clearance ga, the base clearance reward will be asured with a minimum unit of 'one day'."

"Host, you're treating us so well," Lin Ya hesitated slightly. "Is there sothing... no, I an, is there sothing you need us to do?"

"I have no use for you right now. Once you have the chance to upgrade to the 'Pure Lead of Week' level, I will naturally co to you uninvited."

The black cat said finally, "Oh, right. Let's exchange nas—

"You may call 'Ink'. As for yourselves, I suggest you co up with Titles, or bring your own masks. This is advice from soone who has been there. In future gas, no one will be preparing masks for you..."

As the black cat spoke, its body dissolved into a pool of ink and sank into the round table.

Imdiately after, the masks of the three survivors lted back into chips and flew back into their respective bodies. Their bodies were also slowly dragged downward by the pitch-black ink, sinking into the floor.

An intense wave of dizziness coupled with a sense of tranquility washed over him as the slowly sinking Ming Po closed his eyes.

Hovering between sleep and wakefulness, he perceived a string of information:

[Death of the Minority, Cleared]

[Host: Ink (Balance - Silver)]

[Difficulty: 12 Hours]

[Clearance Count: 3 People]

[No extra rules or Hidden Missions triggered, no special worldview puzzles]

[Obtained the identity of a Deceiver of the World. Current authority level is Hour's Red Copper]

[Reward Obtained: Ti Chips · Day's False Gold (1 piece)]

[Ti Chips can be broken down but cannot be synthesized upwards]

[Evaluating...]

[Based on the current highest authority level, obtained Title: Werewolf]

[Werewolf (Slaughter - Red Copper)]

[Equip Effect: Increased stamina regeneration, gain passive status: Wound Healing (Slow)]

[Active Effect: Temporarily lose rationality and gain massively increased stamina regeneration, explosive power, and reaction speed for ten seconds. The effect decays rapidly over the duration. Completing a kill within the duration refreshes the tir]

[Title Acquisition Condition: Directly or indirectly kill three people during a qualifying or resurrection match]

[Title Branch Advancent Condition: In a multiplayer ga, directly or indirectly kill all other Deceivers of the World besides yourself / In a multiplayer ga, directly kill three Deceivers of the World / In three consecutive gas, directly or indirectly kill three people]

["—Welco back, Ming Po."]