Game of Deception Chapter 175: Am I Really Such a Terribly Bad Person?

"—Hell Screen."

Ming Po repeated the sowhat eerie Title.

He had read this story before.

It was a short story by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Hell Screen.

The story was set in Heian-period Japan. The painter Yoshihide was commissioned by Lord Horikawa to paint a "Hell Screen" depicting the grueso scenes of the underworld. But he beca stuck on the final detail—the scene of a noblewoman burning to death inside an ornate carriage. Having never seen a burning carriage, he found himself unable to imagine it.

Yoshihide begged Lord Horikawa to burn an expensive carriage so he could sketch it from life. The Lord, harboring a grudge because Yoshihide had refused to yield his daughter to him, laughed and agreed. That night, when the luxurious carriage was set ablaze, the person chained inside was none other than Yoshihide's own daughter.

Yoshihide broke down instantly, but he knew he was powerless to challenge the Lord's authority. Yet, in that very mont, his inner grief and misery gave birth to an artistic frenzy, centing his resolve to finish his masterpiece.

And so, with a face showing a mix of agony and ecstasy, he stood completely still, watching his only, beloved daughter struggle and burn to death in the flas.

A month later, the Hell Screen was finally completed, shocking the world.

It truly was a tragic scene resembling a living purgatory. Just looking at the screen, one could almost hear agonizing wails from hell.

On the night the painting was finished, Yoshihide hanged himself in his studio.

"It's all a story about a father, a daughter, and art..."

Ming Po murmured.

Yoshihide could not shake the Lord's overwhelming power—so could Chizuko and her father possibly defy the endless, agonizing cycle of the Ga of Deception?

If they didn't escape the ga, they would forever drown in this boiling cauldron of hell. But even if they did escape, it would rely be deceiving themselves.

Despite rewriting the origin of their tragedy, this fragile space-ti ant that the slightest disturbance could plunge them right back into the Ga of Deception.

To protect their wealth, or perhaps—to protect the possibility of becoming a Deceiver again, the Paradox sinking alone into hell still had to fight with everything it had just to survive.

Ming Po wasn't sure if, once the Paradox was completely defeated and this Promotion ga fully collapsed, this resurrected Deceiver could beco a Deceiver again if he died once more.

Would he only lose all his wealth and Titles, or would even the potential to beco a Deceiver be stripped away?

Ming Po didn't know.

Chizuko certainly didn't know either.

Her Promotion ga had just happened to collide with the instance ford by her father's Paradox—this was a very easy truth to guess.

After all, without the Bacchus Shrine, there was only one way to inherit a Title: a Deceiver could inherit another's unique Title by defeating their Paradox in a Promotion ga.

Just as Ming Po had inherited Frankenstein and Ai Shiping had inherited The Chariot.

And Chizuko had inherited the unique, Zhou's Azure Lead Title from her father—Hell Screen.

"Your father—"

Ming Po stroked Chizuko's hair, looking down and asking softly, "What kind of expression did he have when he saw you?"

He had seen it clearly.

In that instant, Chizuko's face twisted in agony.

She lowered her head deeply, her fingers gripping the hem of her skirt so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

"He... cried."

After a long silence, Chizuko spoke in a slightly hoarse, low voice. "Papa acted like he had gone mad. He knelt on the ground crying, telling , 'Leave here, Chizuko.' But then he couldn't stop shaking his head, even slapping his own face, saying, 'Whatever you do, don't quit the ga.' And then he wouldn't say anything else—just crying endlessly..."

The girl looked up at Ming Po.

There were no tears in her eyes, only an almost despairing emptiness. "That was the first ti I ever saw Papa cry..."

"I didn't know why back then."

"Because he knew everything."

Ming Po's voice was deep.

His magnetic tone was like the whisper of a demon, or perhaps a devil's curse. "He knew—if you continued sinking into this ga, sooner or later you would be crushed to pieces and die without a burial place.

"But at the sa ti... he also knew exactly how it felt to be abandoned by 'oneself'."

Just like you are now.

Ming Po didn't speak the thought aloud, but it was already seared into Chizuko's heart.

"Yet he didn't dare tell you everything—because if he did, you might be too afraid to leave. Even if you left, your heart would be filled with unease and worry. One day, you would return here again."

And the price of all that was, the current "you" was left behind here.

While she left happily, completely carefree.

"He wanted his daughter to escape this ga safely—that was his wish. Because of this, he didn't stop his daughter from stepping into the carriage—allowing you to kill him and inherit his Title."

It wasn't that he didn't view you as his daughter.

—It was just that you were the one who had to be sacrificed.

"No wonder... it's Hell Screen."

Ming Po sighed with emotion.

He had to admit, there was a certain logic to how the Ga of Deception distributed Titles.

There was a genuine reason why Chizuko's father received this Title.

His love for Chizuko was undoubtedly real, and the agony of watching her step into hell was real too—but at the sa ti, the cold ruthlessness it took to abandon her in order to save his daughter was just as real.

Hearing Ming Po's words, Chizuko grew increasingly tornted.

A green glow seeped from the depths of her pupils—the oppressive might of the Balance Domain.

Covering her ears, she let out a hysterical scream like a child—though perhaps she truly was just a child of that age to begin with.

Driven by her intense emotional fluctuations, the room began to change.

The music room twisted into sothing resembling a torture chamber.

Iron bars thrust up from the floor, locking them tightly inside.

Outside the cage appeared a dense, horrifying crowd of clothing mannequins with vicious expressions.

They held at cleavers, chainsaws, and sharp awls in their hands.

The entire manor seed to co alive, rising from the earth.

A stone giant ford, a face of pure agony surfacing on the wall, its expression imdiately morphing into unending rage.

The monsters looked more and more like monsters, the nightmare more and more like a nightmare—and hell more and more like hell.

The only thing in the room that remained unchanged was the dilapidated Steinway piano.

Ming Po casually struck the keys.

This ti, he didn't play any famous historical pieces. Those were the ones his mother and his piano teacher had forced him to learn.

What Ming Po played now was the very first piano piece he had learned of his own free will as a child.

—Tori no Uta.

An ethereal, tranquil, and elusive lody flowed out.

Yet it was almost instantly drowned out by the roaring of the castle giant, Chizuko's unending, prolonged screams, and the chaotic noise of another piano from the second floor.

Ming Po, however, didn't waver in the slightest.

A murky yellow hue drifted through his eyes, his lowered gaze as calm as still water, his face completely expressionless.

Ming Po spoke in a low voice.

[Quiet down, Chizuko.]

The next mont.

Chizuko cald down instantly.

Along with her, everything around them reverted to normal within seconds.

Those had been illusions.

But they could also be called reality—"true illusions" capable of killing others and crushing physical bodies.

The Hell Screen manifested from extre agony, sorrow, and terror.

And Chizuko—she went from a complete ntal breakdown to a doll-like tranquility in just a split second.

—Her eyes were hollow.

A ring of murky yellow radiated around the outer edges of her pupils.

That was the power of Silence of the Lambs.

Ming Po hadn't said all those words for nothing.

The mont he saw Chizuko, Ming Po realized how his Title was ant to be used.

It was just like Frankenstein.

The power of this unique Title was completely overpowered—

Under the Title's passive effect, Ming Po could see through the negative emotions in soone's heart at a single glance: hatred, fear, despair, jealousy, sorrow...

And when actively using this ability, Ming Po could manipulate the other party's actions and emotions to a limited extent.

The more the target trusted him, the less it cost him to control their actions;

The closer the target's emotions were to breaking, the fewer obstacles he faced when rewriting their feelings;

The deeper he understood the target's underlying psychology, the longer and more seamless Ming Po's control beca.

But if an ordinary person obtained this Title, they would probably only be able to use it as a one-ti, short-acting command. As soon as the target broke free once, they would imdiately beco vigilant—and the control would no longer work.

Ming Po's own natural abilities, however, perfectly allowed him to pluck these strings of emotion exactly as he wished.

The ability suited Ming Po so perfectly that it allowed him to completely dominate Chizuko. He clearly realized that he could now rewrite Chizuko's emotions on a whim.

If his ability were just a bit stronger, Ming Po felt he could even implant false mories!

—The compatibility of this Title was shockingly high for Ming Po.

Compared to Werewolf and Frankenstein, which relied entirely on his superhuman reaction speed, the silky smoothness of using this Title actually scared Ming Po a little.

This wasn't just Day's False Gold or even Zhou's Azure Lead levels of compatibility!

The boss of a Zhou's Azure Lead Promotion ga—in her own ho turf, even inside the "illusion" constructed by her own power—was being reverse-controlled by a candidate.

"So... is this the Title that actually suits best?"

Ming Po suddenly recalled his very first ga.

According to the emotionally broken Raccoon, he seed to possess the ability to manipulate illusions. That must have been the power his past-playthrough self had obtained from Wangliang.

The abilities that suited Ming Po best all seed to be of this "Manipulation" type.

"Why do I always get these abilities that only bad guys seem to have..."

Ming Po sighed. "It makes seem like I'm a terribly, terribly bad person."