Ai Shiping's room had reverted to its original state at so point.
It was no longer the ho theater it had been, returning instead to how it looked when Ai Shiping first rented the place.
An ultrawide monitor, expensive speakers, a boom microphone, and RGB light strips lining the entire room—even the computer chair was decked out in RGB.
Inside the dark blue room with its curtains drawn, vibrant glows of red, yellow, green, blue, and purple flashed brilliantly.
It was the exact gaming room setup that Ming Po had dubbed "nightclub decor"!
It looked exactly as it had right before the last ga started.
Everything had changed back!
Ming Po's hands trembled slightly.
He walked over to the familiar Coca-Cola mini-fridge and pulled open the door.
Inside, it was fully stocked with canned cola.
Ming Po grabbed one and popped the tab. Standing in front of the fridge, he chugged half the can in one breath before finally managing to calm his nerves.
The freezing cold cola made him shiver. It felt like he had just bitten off half a popsicle, shocking his brain into a state of crystal-clear lucidity.
"So that's how it is," Ming Po murmured. "So this is the underlying principle."
He rembered sothing Ink had told them during his Preliminary Match: "Bet your very existence! If you die here, no one will ever rember you."
At the ti, Ming Po assud it ant that if they lost, they would be obliterated, unable to leave even a single record behind.
Yet, when he stood at his doorstep and checked Ti Key's chat history, he clearly saw ntions of "Lawyer Chen who was shot dead" and "Moli-chan who challenged a heavy truck."
Lawyer Chen was undeniably Chen Bingwen, and Moli-chan was likely "Raccoon."
However, "Raccoon" had not passed the beginner trial.
Back then, Ming Po did not fully grasp the chanics of the Ga of Deception and even wondered if Ink was simply trying to scare them.
But now...
Ming Po had finally figured out a rough outline of the Ga of Deception's rookie screening chanism!
Those ordinary people whose histories had been altered, and who had been annihilated in the past, could potentially beco the Wronged Dead.
Because their causality had been disturbed, they had beco isolated from the rest of the worldline.
Even for "Raccoon," who had beco a Deceiver in the previous playthrough, her death could still be anchored to the present. anwhile, people like "Dog" and "Fish" simply vanished.
Those who failed to beco Deceivers and died in the Preliminary Match—they would disappear from the real world forever.
Because they had already died in the past!
Naturally, that ant "no one will rember them"!
Judging by Naless's words, there also seed to be a causality relevance factor at play. It likely depended on whether the person would affect the killer; if killing them in the past did not affect the present, only then would they be considered the Wronged Dead.
In other words, all the Wronged Dead were killed by strangers!
And if they managed to beco Deceivers, their stolen ti would return to them.
Their ti of death would revert to the "present"!
"If this theory is correct..."
Ming Po muttered softly, taking out an Hour's Red Copper.
Verifying such a crucial chanism was well worth consuming an hour of his ti!
"Manifestation for one hour."
Ming Po spoke in a low voice, directly crushing the chip in his hand.
As crimson, fla-like energy leaked through his fingers, an invisible ripple rapidly spread outward.
The surroundings still remained a colorful world.
After all, he was already inside his own Anchor Point.
But if there were no unexpected surprises...
Ming Po unlocked his phone again and found that it had reconnected to the internet.
"Fish" was a crucial marker.
Ming Po knew his real na was Mo Qian, and Chen Bingwen had shared so of Fish's secrets with him.
And Fish happened to be soone who had not beco a Deceiver in any worldline.
"I can't find him."
As expected, Ming Po could find absolutely no trace of this person's existence.
There was no Mo Qian, nor was there Qiancheng Technology. The most popular input thod of this era had been replaced by a new one called "Sogou Pinyin."
It was as if Mo Qian had been completely erased from the world.
However, Ming Po had so underground channels.
He racked his brain, opened WeChat, and relied on his mory to track down a specific contact.
Ming Po let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, you're still here..."
The alias Ming Po had saved for this person was "Brother Dog."
His real na was actually Aiden—surna Ai, first na Den, making him part of the sa clan as Ai Shiping. He was a Malaysian Chinese.
Moreover, he was the channel through which Ming Po had originally joined Faceless God Studio.
Back then, Ming Po had wanted to find soone to investigate a few things and went through a lot of trouble to track him down.
Later on, it was Aiden who introduced Ming Po to Faceless God Studio.
Even later... when Ming Po played Watch Dogs and discovered the protagonist was nad Aiden Pearce, he burst out laughing.
Because Aiden Pearce was also a hacker and affectionately known as "Brother Dog" by local gars, Ming Po gave Aiden the nickna "Brother Dog." Aiden actually quite liked the moniker, even changing his profile picture to the yellow Doge and his display na to "doge."
Even though Faceless God Studio did not exist in this worldline, thankfully, this person was still around.
"Help look into soone, bro. Na is Mo Qian, studied abroad, majored in finance, might have once run a company called Qiancheng Technology or sothing similar. Family has so money, likes to browse Zhihu. Might also be dead. Expedited."
Ming Po sent the ssage, imdiately followed by a transfer of fifty thousand yuan.
Less than half a minute later, the other party replied.
Brother Dog: 1
There were no pleasantries or idle chatter. He simply replied with a single digit, indicating he had received the request.
While waiting, Ming Po searched for the others.
Chen Bingwen had been shot dead in France, but his killer was never found.
"Moli-chan" had supposedly rear-ended a heavy truck, but the vehicle involved in the accident was nowhere to be found.
Ming Po even found the news of Lin Ya's death—
However, the news reports definitively ruled it a suicide, stating that she had even left a suicide note.
He also looked up Gao Fan—only to realize that the kid was actually quite impressive.
He had completely failed to notice that Gao Fan was sowhat of a celebrity: the Vice Chairman of Gaotian Construction Group.
It was actually a Fortune Global 500 company!
The Chairman's surna was also Gao, and judging by his age, he was likely an uncle or so other older relative.
'A family business? Never heard of it before...'
It was an international infrastructure group that primarily built highways in Southeast and Central Asia, and they also handled dostic bids worth tens of billions.
Quite impressive.
Originally, Ming Po thought Gao Fan's villa was a bit too ostentatious, but now he realized it was actually quite low-key for him!
Ming Po also found the news about Gao Fan's car crash:
He went missing along with his secretary and girlfriend while preparing to return from a trip to Liangshan. Seven days later, their car was found at the bottom of a cliff. The accident was largely attributed to Gao Fan driving under the influence.
But it was obvious that Gao Fan did not drink. And even if he had, he could have just let his secretary drive.
No matter how you looked at it, sothing was wrong.
Just like the other Deceivers—the perpetrators could not be found.
It was as if the people who killed them all existed in the past.
Right then, Ming Po's phone buzzed.
The information he requested had been found.
A PDF file was sent over, and Ming Po tapped it open.
Inside was highly detailed personal information regarding Mo Qian.
It included his ID card, educational background, personal files—even his cremation certificate.
He had never returned to the country. He was shot dead while studying abroad, and his body was shipped back and cremated dostically.
And this happened twenty years ago.
While Ming Po scrolled through the docunt, Brother Dog continued sending ssages:
Brother Dog: Didn't have much money either, just a small company with less than two hundred people.
Brother Dog: But the decoy intel you gave threw off quite a bit. If you hadn't given fake info, I could have found it faster.
Brother Dog: Expediting doesn't cost this much, refunding you half.
With that, he transferred twenty-five thousand yuan back to Ming Po.
Ming Po didn't accept it, rely replying: "Keep it."
Money in the mortal world held little aning for him now. Maintaining connections was far more important than saving cash.
"As expected, those who failed to beco Deceivers died quietly in the past."
Ming Po furrowed his brows deeply. "But according to their mories, it seed like they all died recently. Or could it be... that their mories were also tampered with?"
At that mont, seeing that Ming Po did not accept the refund, Brother Dog imdiately beca much more enthusiastic.
Brother Dog: Boss is a good man, boss is generous, boss is aweso! May the boss have triplets on the first try!
Brother Dog: Oh, by the way, Boss—soone was looking into your intel these past few days. I didn't take their money for now and told them you were on the protected list. Did you offend soone?
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