Lie or Die

The woman's scream ceased, and the thoughts of the crowd came to an abrupt halt.

The men who had just been shouting and cursing now fell silent.

Now it was no longer a matter of 'illegality'; the strange person in front of them was truly capable of murder.

There was a silence that lasted for more than a minute before the goat head slightly nodded: "Very good, nine of you, it seems you have all quieted down."

The crowd's expressions changed, but no one dared to speak, just as he said, there were now truly 'nine of them'.

Qi Xia extended a trembling hand and removed a pinkish-yellow object from his face.

The fragment of the crushed brain, still at body temperature, was still faintly pulsating, but after a few seconds, it lost its vitality, like a deflated balloon.

"Allow me to introduce myself now..." The goat head extended his blood-stained finger and pointed to his mask, saying, "I am the 'Goat Man,' and you are the 'Participants.'"

The crowd was taken aback and somewhat confused upon hearing this, 'Goat Man,' 'Participants'?

"The reason I have gathered you here is to participate in a game, to ultimately create a 'God,'" the goat head said in a flat tone.

These two consecutive sentences made many people frown.

After a few minutes of interaction, the crowd had largely understood that the man in front of them was a lunatic, but this lunatic claimed he was going to create a 'God'?

Create... what kind of God?" The Strong young man asked nervously.

"A god like 'Nüwa'!" The goat head said with gesticulations, exuding a fishy smell, his voice carrying a sense of distortion, "How wonderful! You will witness history with us. The former Nüwa created mankind but turned into a rainbow when mending the sky... We cannot lose Nüwa, so we must create a Nüwa! A great task awaits the 'God' to do!"

His voice gradually rose, and he seemed as if he had been injected with adrenaline.

"Nüwa..." The strong young man's eyebrows were tightly knit; he felt that this matter was too hard to accept. He paused and asked, "Are you some kind of religion?"

"Religion?" The goat head was slightly taken aback, turned to the young man, and said, "We are much more magnificent than 'religion.' We have a 'world'!"

After hearing this, the crowd fell silent again.

The strong man's question was very pointed; the goat-headed person's actions were no different from those of a cult, but most cults tend to fabricate a new god rather than using heroic figures like Nüwa.

"In that case..." The strong man continued to ask, "What do you want us to 'participate' in here?"

"I have said, just a game," the goat head answered without hesitation, "If you win, one of you will become a 'God.'"

"Nonsense..." The tattooed man seemed to have calmed down. He cursed and said, "The 'Ranking of the Gods,' right? What if we can't win?"

"Can't win..." The goat head looked at the bloodstains on his hand and said with some disappointment, "It would be such a pity if you can't win..."

Although he didn't say it directly, everyone understood his meaning.

If you can't win, you die.

There is no option for 'going out alive' in the choices he has given.

Either become the 'god' he calls for, or die here like that young man whose head was split open.

If everyone has understood... then this 'game' officially begins. The name of this game is 'The Liar.'" The goat head slowly took out a piece of paper from his pocket and then casually walked to each person, placing a sheet next to them.

Then he took out several pens and distributed them to everyone.

There was a lot of blood on the table, and when each person's white paper landed on the table, it was stained red. When they turned over the paper and wiped it with their hands, the blood red spread like paint, making the white paper even redder.

"Next, I want each of you to tell a story about the last thing that happened before you came here," the goat head continued, "But be aware, among all the storytellers, one person is lying. After all nine have finished their stories, you will begin to vote. If eight people all choose the 'liar,' the liar is out, and the rest survive. If one person votes wrong, the liar survives, and the rest are out."

"The liar...?"

The crowd was a bit confused. Would anyone really lie at this critical juncture of life and death?

"Wait a minute, can we discuss 'strategy'?" The strong man asked abruptly.

"Feel free," the goat head nodded, "You have one minute to discuss strategy before the game starts. Would you like to use it now... or wait?"

"I want to use it now," the strong man said without hesitation.

"Go ahead."

The goat head took a step back, away from the table.

The strong man pursed his lips, then glanced around at everyone, trying his best to avoid looking at the headless body lying on the table, and said:

I don't know who among you is going to lie later, but these 'rules' sound too arbitrary. If one person votes wrong, we will all die. And even if we choose correctly, the liar will die, so it seems that no matter what, there will be a dead person. Now, I have thought of a way for everyone to survive...

When the crowd heard this, they all looked at the strong man.

Can it be possible for everyone to survive?

Is it possible for everyone to survive?

That's for us all to tell the truth." The strong man did not wait for everyone to understand and immediately revealed the answer, "We nine people all tell the truth, and in the end, we write 'No One Is Lying' on this piece of paper. This way, it does not violate the rules, and we can survive smoothly."

The man in the white coat tapped his fingers on the table, and after a moment, he said, "Your plan is good, but there is a premise, that is, 'you yourself are the liar.' How can we trust you? If you are the liar, then we all write 'No One Is Lying,' and in the end, the only one who survives is you."

"What kind of talk is that?" The strong man's face showed a bit of anger, "If I were the liar, how could I propose such a suggestion? I would only need to protect myself."

The goat head slightly waved his hand and said, "One minute is up, please stop communicating."

The two men each snorted coldly and fell silent.

"Next, please draw cards." The goat head pulled out a small stack of cards from his pants pocket. The cards looked about the size of playing cards, with the words 'Nüwa Game' written on the back.

The strong man was taken aback and asked, "What is this?"

"These are 'identity cards.'" The goat head said with a big laugh, "If you draw the 'Liar,' you must lie."

The strong man gritted his teeth fiercely, "Are you playing with us?! Why didn't you mention this rule in advance?!"

"This is to teach you a lesson." The goat head sneered and said, "I haven't finished explaining the rules, and you asked me if we could discuss tactics. You wasted the precious one minute, not me for not mentioning it in advance."

The strong man's face was a bit ugly, but thinking of the goat head's method of killing, he swallowed his fear.

In the span of a minute, nine people each drew a card from the goat head's hand, but no one dared to flip it over to look.

If the card said 'Liar,' then it became a question of whether to live or let others live.

The hands of the four women were slightly trembling, and the men's faces were not looking good either.

What they were drawing was not just 'identity' but 'life and death.'

Qi Xia took a deep breath, casually clasped his card with his hand, and then moved it in front of his eyes.

He gently flipped it open.

There was the 'Liar'...