Deceitful Game

Chapter 14 The Death of the Minority, complete!

How does it feel to be fooled by the facts?

The moment the word "wolf" was uttered, the raccoon felt his whole body tremble uncontrollably.

He said it! He knows everything!

"Don't believe him! He's a monster!"

The raccoon screamed at the other two, his voice filled with barely concealed fear: "He—"

The giant sword crashed down!

Blood splattered.

Just a minute ago, the raccoon had a clear, innocent face and eyes full of trust and reliance when it looked at the "wolf." But the next moment, it suddenly went mad—hysterically attacking the "wolf" as if possessed... Lin Ya and Chen Bingwen couldn't help but feel a chill.

That is the fear of seeing something incomprehensible and indescribable happening before your eyes.

"How fragile."

Mingbo sighed: "Even a clear sense of self cannot be maintained, and it is thus washed away."

"Even if I gained extra memories, what good would it do?"

"...Extraneous memories?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Bingwen paused for a moment, then widened his eyes: "Could it be—"

"Clearly, she suddenly gained an extra part of her memory—from another possibility."

Mingpo looked at him, her pupils calm and without the slightest ripple: "What happened in that time and space of 'escaping the sheepfold'."

Looking at the two who still couldn't understand, Mingpo smiled and said, "What, you still don't understand?"

"Alright, I'll tell you from the beginning—is that alright, host?"

"certainly."

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

It slowly walked over to Mingpo and jumped onto his lap.

The black cat said lazily, "Anyway, the 'final exams' are over now, so I'll give you some time. I'll announce the 'holiday homework' after you're done—hey, you're just killing time anyway, pet me."

Mingpo readily accepts good advice.

As he stroked the black cat in his arms, he said leisurely, "It all started with the person who suddenly attacked me."

"He met me shortly after he escaped."

"I was standing in front of the cemetery looking at the tombstones, not knowing why I was there. But when he saw me, he suddenly became extremely frightened."

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

Mingbo casually uttered words that sounded like those of a devil: "I'm very familiar with this smell... well, let's not talk about that."

"In short, I'm sure I don't know him. But he knows me."

"Seeing that I had no other reaction, his fear suddenly turned into a mixture of vengeful resentment. He tried to attack me, but I easily knocked him down, so vulnerable that it made me want to laugh."

"That guy's nonsense is not worth mentioning. But I did remember one thing in particular..."

"He said that killing him wouldn't make a difference, and he said stupid things like I couldn't get into the safe house, and that his future self would still have leverage to rewrite the ending."

At this point, Mingpo lowered her eyes slightly and revealed a serene smile: "Oh, chips? What chips?"

"His future self has leverage, so why is it useless for me to kill his present self? He fears death, yet he is inexplicably fearless... like a Souls-like game player, 'afraid of death yet not afraid of death.'"

"So I dragged him all the way here. When we got near this house, he had a strong reaction. So I had no choice but to take care of him here."

"He died instantly with just one kick."

Mingpo sighed with regret and emotion as she finished speaking.

"It wasn't internal organ rupture or cardiac arrest; it was like some kind of curse."

"And then I met you, Miss Rabbit."

After saying this, a smile returned to Mingpo's face.

Upon hearing this, Lin Ya and Chen Bingwen wished they could resurrect that idiot and kill him again.

You went out to die, fine, but why did you have to bring the BOSS to your doorstep?!

Mingpo looked at Lin Ya.

"I've heard in one version of a vampire story that you can't enter someone's house without being invited. Maybe I'm something like that right now. Thank you for the invitation, otherwise I'm afraid I'd still be turned away at the door."

At this point, Mingpo seemed to be deep in thought: "Those two unlucky guys outside the door, the little rascal and the raccoon, were probably spared by me. They were too ordinary; even their deaths were nothing special."

"After winning, they gained the right to use the chips—and immediately tried to change their past. They seemed to be planning to do something drastic to me."

"But unfortunately, they weren't smart enough. They overlooked the fact that their actions would change once they obtained additional information. The one who ran away was more foolish, while the raccoon was smarter... She delayed the time it took to obtain the information."

"It's just a pity—the 'Death of the Minority' game lasted less than twenty minutes at most. But she seemed to have spent at least an hour in another game. That part of the real memories flooded in, completely destroying her perception. She was completely confused about which part was real and which part was illusory; which part was the present and which part was the future that could never be returned to."

At this point, Mingpo gave the two of them a deep look: "Since I've been able to tell you this much, and haven't disappeared or died yet... I'm afraid there are limitations to the manipulation of the timeline. Otherwise, you would definitely have come back from the future to kill me."

"Hahaha, how could that be..."

Lin Ya gave an awkward, forced laugh.

“Of course,” Mingpo said lightly, “it’s also possible that you don’t have that kind of future.”

"Don't worry too much. The chips don't work immediately on Deceivers without a physical body," the black cat suddenly said. "Deceitvers have already jumped out of the timeline, even if they are only Deceivers at the Bronze Age level. Unless you choose to be resurrected and give up your Deceiver identity... even if someone tries to kill you from the more ancient past using the Time Chips, they can't erase you from the game now."

"—Only when this period completely collapses and the timeline is reset can those modifications to the deceivers take effect simultaneously."

"So that's how the rules are..."

Mingpo said thoughtfully, "Then I'm relieved. I was worried that every time I won a round, someone would rewrite the game's outcome from the future."

"It's difficult," the black cat just smiled nonchalantly. "It's not like you're the only one making changes. And who knows if the game you won will even exist next time, or if you'll still be playing with these people. Passing on outdated, incorrect information is worse than not passing it on at all."

That's true.

Mingpo nodded in agreement: "At least neither the bear nor the butterfly has ever seen me, nor do they have those 'memories of past lives'."

Otherwise, they wouldn't have been so unguarded towards him, and wouldn't have told him those stories full of loopholes and with such a strong ulterior motive.

"Want to know what happened?"

Mingpo looked at the two of them and said lightly, "The behavior of dogs and fish is very predictable—Miss Rabbit, I'm sure you noticed that too?"

Lin Ya subconsciously held her breath. This person didn't even forget to observe her while scheming against others!

"Dogs typically exhibit manic symptoms caused by fear, right?"

Mingpo smiled and extended his hand, inviting the lady beside him to respond like a true gentleman.

"...Yes." Lin Ya slumped down, too weak to even notice the fox beside her.

"All I need to do is induce the dog's violent behavior, making him feared by people. The more afraid people are of being directly attacked, the more they hate this kind of uncontrollable violence."

"Fear leads to choice," Mingpo began his lecture like an irresponsible teacher, "A dog cannot live."

"As for the fish, he trusts numbers too much; those dazzling numbers actually reveal a certain... weakness in him."

"He openly rejects the narrator and tries to seize control of the narrative. If that works, the fish will then use its own power to reject others; if it fails, it can use the majority votes it gains to eliminate the minority who oppose it. But why should I do as it pleases?"

Mingbo smiled and said, "When I pointed out that the fish's behavior was equivalent to betrayal, it meant that I would not side with the fish."

"Old Bear is very clever. He noticed it, so he directly labeled us and used extreme circumstances to incite the idiots among us who might, well, perhaps inevitably exist."

"Of course, it's not that Bear is on my side; he's just using me to attack Fish and prevent Fish from gaining a voice. From the first round when I interpreted his story as murder, it meant I was trying to suppress him, so we are actually neutral to hostile. But my group—along with Rabbit—and his group are both hostile to Fish."

"However, as I put more pressure on the fish, he became unsure of how much the bear would help him, so he had no choice but to vote with me. And in order to increase his chances of survival, he would deliberately lower his credibility and act as if he were speechless, thereby increasing the probability of being opposed."

"It's like... a competitive athlete who knows he has a high probability of not winning, so he simply bets on the odds of losing from outside the arena and then plays even worse. So Fish definitely ran away at that time - he's too used to changing his bets, he's not the kind of person who sticks to his position until the end."

It looked like a gamble, but at the time, Mingpo was almost certain to succeed.

When he saw the fish start accusing him of being on the host's side, he already knew the fish's strategy.

But the bear and the butterfly didn't know.

They were in cahoots, and likely already knew each other perfectly well. This was evident in their consistent kidnapping sprees, with neither ever objecting. When the bear was attacked by the dog, the bear immediately fell silent, while the butterfly attacked the dog.

Butterfly looked at Xiong in surprise when he finally couldn't resist joining Mingpo's fishing tour.

It was as if she had never expected the bear to suddenly step forward and help the wolf!

At that moment, Xiong immediately realized he had done something wrong, so he stopped talking after that—after all, all he wanted was to suppress the fish, not to promote the red wolf.

"Judging from this personality, Liu Jianguo is definitely not his real name."

Mingpo said sarcastically, "It's probably the name of one of his enemies... He's planning to use someone else to do his dirty work."

He even saved himself the means to kill his enemy, which shows that he was an overly frugal person.

Therefore, his investment strategy is most likely conservative... in other words, he dislikes all-in betting.

"So I deliberately advocated gambling to make myself seem impulsive and lacking in common sense. However, at that time, because 'Fish' brought too much data when he first appeared, people hated him along with this rationality and labeled it as a conspiracy when they later disliked him. My all-in bet seemed even more mindless... So this aversion became my advantage."

Mingbo said with a smile, "It's the help of those who aren't smart enough."

“…Indeed,” Lin Ya nodded in agreement, “Most people are binary, either one or the other.”

"But Attorney Chen, you are a different case."

As she spoke, Mingpo looked at Chen Bingwen.

"When I first approached you, you grabbed my hand and questioned me about my identity. This shows that you are quite bold, observant, and confident. But after the game started, you hardly spoke, and the few words you did say were completely meaningless—this shows that you don't want to be in the spotlight or be the center of attention."

"In other words, you would prefer to vote in a safer place rather than be voted on in public."

He said meaningfully, "It was the same when it was your turn to be the narrator... You practically handed over all the authority to set the topics to me. While part of it was a sign of loyalty, another part was that you weren't used to being the center of attention."

"So I figured you needed to find someone to rely on. When I realized this, I brought up the idea that 'Old Man Bear's story might be about murder.' Later, I firmly stood by Rabbit's side... all to make you feel that I was reliable enough."

"Therefore, under my control, the three influential groups at the time were the bear, the fish, and me—you could only choose me."

Seeing Chen Bingwen's horrified expression, Mingpo narrowed her eyes: "As for the raccoon, it's also very simple..."

"Your judgment is actually correct, Attorney Chen. You said this game doesn't only recruit smart people, and I agree—if there really were an innocent, naive female college student with clear, bright eyes, then she would indeed be a powerful weapon. But the problem is…"

"Such a person, yet her sins rank 11th, second only to dogs. You, Mr. Mo, who carries such dirty laundry, are only number six."

Mingpo said meaningfully, "Judging from your reactions, I've probably guessed that she's a broadcaster for some kind of dangerous sport. It's either motorcycles, extreme sports, or parkour. And since she clearly lacks muscle and isn't very good at chatting, she's most likely a motorcycle broadcaster."

"What serious crime could a motorcycle streamer commit? If she really committed some major crime, then you would all know her identity—she wouldn't be 'Jasmine of Notes' anymore, but 'Jasmine of C Station'."

"Given that she no longer has the charisma to lead a team, revealing her past would be a form of honesty, especially when we know that seating arrangements are a sin. But she hasn't spoken up yet, which means either it would embarrass her, or... she herself doesn't really know where her sins come from."

"So it seems," the mouth on the black cat's neck suddenly opened, emitting a deep, resonant voice like that of a card-playing club president, "that the only thing you didn't expect was the result of the third round, wasn't it?"

"Ah, yes."

Mingpo smiled and said, "You have to leave yourself some entertainment, right? If you know everything clearly, then it's not exciting at all, is it?"

"This is supposed to be a game of survival of the fittest... it feels a bit too simplistic. Aren't there any games that are more exciting, more dangerous?"

"Oh?"

The mouth hanging from the black cat necklace chuckled: "So impatient?"

"Alright... then let's take you back to rest first."

"The remaining three have already received the maximum reward. You have enough chips to participate in the promotion ceremony... My advice is not to spend them recklessly, but to prioritize promotion. After reaching the first level of 'Sun Pseudo-Gold,' the rewards for completing games, whether it's a PvP game, an exploration and puzzle game, or a cooperative game, will be in 'one day' units as the minimum."

"Host, you're so kind to us," Lin Ya hesitated, "do you want... no, I mean, do you need us to do anything?"

"I don't need you right now. Once you have the opportunity to upgrade to the 'Zhou Zhiqing Lead' level, I will naturally come uninvited."

The black cat concluded by saying, "Oh, right. Let's switch names—"

"You can call me 'Mo'. As for you, I suggest you also come up with a title, or bring your own masks. This is advice from someone who's been there. Later in the game, no one will be providing masks for you..."

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

Immediately afterwards, the masks of the three survivors melted back into chips and flew back into their respective bodies. Their bodies were also slowly dragged downwards by the black ink, sinking into the ground.

A strong sense of dizziness, accompanied by a feeling of tranquility, washed over her, and Mingpo slowly closed her eyes as she sank down.

In that half-asleep, half-awake state, he sensed a series of messages:

The Death of the Minority is now complete.

[Host: Mo (Heng-Baiyin)]

[Difficulty: 12 hour]

Number of people who passed the checkpoint: 3

[No extra rules, no hidden quests triggered, no special world-building puzzles]

[Acquired the identity of the Deceiver, current privileges are Timeless Bronze]

[Reward: Chips of Time - Pseudo-Gold of the Sun (1 pieces)]

[Champions of Time can be broken down, but cannot be combined up.]

[Under evaluation...]

[Based on the current highest level of privilege, the title is: Werewolf]

【Werewolf (Slaughter - Red Copper)】

【Effects of Wearing: Increases stamina regeneration and grants the permanent status: Wound Healing (Slow)】

[Effect: Temporarily loses sanity and gains a significant boost to stamina regeneration, burst damage, and reaction speed for ten seconds. The effect rapidly decays during the duration; the duration is refreshed if a kill is achieved within the effect.]

[Title Acquisition Condition: Directly or indirectly kill three people in the qualifiers or revival rounds]

[Title Branch Advancement Conditions: In a multiplayer game, directly or indirectly kill all Deceivers except yourself / In a multiplayer game, directly kill three Deceivers / In three consecutive games, directly or indirectly kill three people]

"Welcome back, Minpah."