Ch. 4 - Who Will You Trust (4)

With a plate full of the kid's brains in hand, Fu Yan exited the kitchen to find that the couple had dragged their fight from the bedroom into the living room.

He set the plate of brains on the coffee table, plopped down right next to the man, and beckoned. "Dig in. I made this just for you."

The woman stared at the gory, shapeless lump with a sinking feeling of dread.

"What... is that?"

Fu Yan offered her a pair of chopsticks with a bright grin.

"It's brain sashimi. Made from your boy."

When the man beside him caught a glimpse of what was tucked into Fu Yan's waistband, his pupils instantly contracted in sheer terror.

Across the table, the woman saw red at the news. Twin trails of blood wept from her scarlet eyes as she snapped the chopsticks in half, her voice rising into a piercing shriek.

"You're dead meat!"

"Since I haven't triggered the Player Death Prerequisite*, you have no power to kill me."

*TL/N: Player Death Prerequisites are conditions that must be triggered before the game allows NPCs to kill the player.

Mid-sentence, Fu Yan pulled the kitchen knife from his waistband and, with one fluid slash, slit the husband's throat.

Blood sprayed out in torrents as the man clutched at his neck, thrashing in agony on the sofa before breathing his last less than half a minute later.

Right before he died, he still generously contributed a burst of Fear Points to Fu Yan.

[Ding! Fear Points +95]

About to attack, the woman stopped dead in her tracks at his words. She stared at him in sheer disbelief.

"You know the Player Death Prerequisite?!"

Her question mirrored exactly what everyone in the livestream was desperately wondering.

[Wait, he seriously knows the prerequisite?! I've been watching this whole time, and I'm still completely clueless.]

[Me too. So what is the prerequisite?]

[Me three. Also, how could he just kill someone mid-conversation?! I hadn't braced myself at all.]

[@ the comment before me, it's not like he was chopping you up! What do you need to brace yourself for?!]

[So what on earth is the prerequisite? Any top players here to explain? Is the GOAT Chen Sheng still around?]

Chen Sheng was at a loss for words when he saw that comment.

How the hell was he supposed to know? He wasn't even watching closely. After his last comment, he had simply tossed his phone aside.

Had the guild not ordered its top members to crack the player death prerequisites of this Instance Dungeon, he wouldn't have bothered clicking on a rookie's stream at all.

Still, if some idiot newbie could figure it out, he reasoned that it couldn't be that difficult.

Chen Sheng thought about it for a second and blurted out a random guess.

[You won't die if you kill the liar and the non-human within the time limit.]

[Me four. @ the comments before me, don't break the chain. (Not you, my GOAT.)]

[How are we supposed to figure out the time limit? There literally hasn't been any clue regarding time.]

The stream chat was completely blowing up, with tons of people begging Chen Sheng to explain, but he ignored every single one of them.

Meanwhile, inside the Instance Dungeon, Fu Yan pulled a handkerchief from his suit pocket and slowly wiped the fresh blood off his hands while calmly stating,

"The prerequisite is lying. The moment a player tells a lie, they get killed."

The woman's eyes widened in pure disbelief.

"No way! How did you figure it out?!"

For as long as she had existed in this Instance Dungeon, no player had ever cracked the prerequisite. Everyone who entered simply ended up as food for her family of three.

As long as even one member of their family remained alive, the Instance Dungeon would reset infinitely.

The catch was the dungeon's rule. They couldn't lay a finger on a player unless that player triggered the Player Death Prerequisite.

Neatly folding his handkerchief away, Fu Yan crossed his legs on the sofa with a leisurely air.

"It's very easy to guess. The objective is 'Kill the Liar (Non-Human),' so we have two assumptions. One: kill the non-human who is lying. Two: kill both the liar and the non-human."

To be honest, Fu Yan couldn't be bothered to explain things to her; after all, she was about to die, making it a complete waste of time.

But he had to explain it to the livestream audience. Even though he couldn't see their comments, he could still monitor his follower count on the system panel.

With over ten thousand people already tuned into his stream, he wanted to leverage this broadcast to rake in more followers, making it easier to harvest Fear Points in the future.

Viewers might not contribute as many Fear Points as NPCs did, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Even tiny drops make an ocean.

Like a dedicated teacher, Fu Yan patiently explained,

"Your boy said your husband killed you, but you stated that you killed him. Since we know the rule is that 'the dead cannot kill the culprit,' one of you is undeniably lying."

"There are dark red bloodstains all over the strangulation marks on your neck. If your husband had choked you with his tie, there wouldn't be any blood there, which proves you were strangled by your son using his scarf."

He continued,

"He was using that scarf to cover the stitches on his neck, getting his own blood all over it. Because he used the same scarf to strangle you, the blood rubbed off onto your neck."

"Following the logic that the dead cannot kill their murderer, the sequence of events between the three of you must have been this: your husband butchered your son with a kitchen knife, you then slaughtered your husband with that same kitchen knife, and finally, your dead son strangled you with his scarf."

"Therefore, all three of you are non-humans, but your son doubles as the liar."

He continued his explanation.

"Had the first assumption been correct—'eliminate the lying non-human'—the game would have wrapped up the moment I slaughtered your boy. But it didn't."

"So it must be the second option."

"But then, if simply wiping out the three of you ended the game, the system would have just said 'Kill the Non-Humans.' Adding 'Kill the Liar' would be completely pointless."

"Unless 'Kill the Liar' isn't my objective at all—but yours."

"That makes perfect sense. The moment I tell a lie, I become the liar, thereby triggering the Player Death Prerequisite and granting you the right to kill me."

"Therefore, the actual way to clear this Instance Dungeon is to kill all three of you non-humans using the appropriate weapons while never telling a single lie."

Shaking her head in sheer disbelief, the woman asked,

"But how did you figure out my husband was killed by a kitchen knife when I specifically handed you a fruit knife...?"

"You mentioned that ghosts are terrified of the weapons that killed them, yet when I placed that fruit knife in your husband's hand, he didn't show an ounce of fear," Fu Yan interjected with a soft chuckle.

"You sure pulled out all the stops trying to make me trigger the prerequisite."

"A ghost's soul will only scatter if it is killed again with the very weapon that ended its life. This point was perfectly confirmed by your son."

"And the whole reason you gave me the fruit knife was to mislead me into using the wrong weapon to kill your husband."

"The moment I attacked him with it, I would have triggered the prerequisite."

"Since I promised to kill him in one strike, failing to do so would count as a lie, giving you the green light to kill me."

"Even if I killed you first, that would also trigger it, since I failed to fulfill my promise of letting you watch his soul be destroyed with your very own eyes."

For as long as the Instance Dungeon had existed, the woman had never met anyone who successfully cracked its rules.

"There's no way you knew lying was the death condition right from the start! You must be cheating! Tell me! What dirty trick did you pull?!"

Seething with furious indignation, the woman refused to accept that her soul would soon be destroyed.

Fu Yan lifted an eyebrow, looking thoroughly amused.

"It was just a theory at first. I wasn't completely sure. But not lying is hardly a difficult task for a person of my caliber."

Fu Yan sensed that all three of them were non-humans the moment he laid eyes on them. Combined with the phrase "Instance Dungeon Mission," it immediately clicked that lying was the trigger.

After all, he wasn't the only NPC in the Instance Dungeon. Whether that "Instance Dungeon Mission" was intended for him or for the other NPCs was entirely ambiguous.

As for his ability to sense whether someone was human or not, that could hardly be considered cheating.

At most, it was just a handy little game hack.

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