Everyone looked a bit stunned after seeing those three words.
"I drew 'The Liar'," Qi Xia said slowly.
"But it doesn't matter whether I flip this card or not, because it's not important at all."
He picked up the card and casually tossed it into the center of the table.
"If I'm not mistaken, every single one of you is holding 'The Liar' card."
No one moved after hearing this. After a moment, Officer Li spoke up, "So... are you saying that everyone was lying just now?"
"That's right."
Qi Xia nodded.
"Everyone is smarter than I imagined. You all added a clever lie to your stories, allowing them to be completely plausible without affecting the plot's logic."
Officer Li pondered for a moment, as if he had also realized something.
"If what you're saying is right..."
Officer Li let out a meaningful sigh, "then the problem has become even trickier." Everyone looked at Officer Li, not understanding. Officer Li continued, "According to the rules, only if all of us choose The Liar can we all survive.
But in that case, The Liar loses.
So we..."
Doctor Zhao was the first to understand Officer Li's meaning.
"Are you saying... we can vote for anyone, because everyone is lying? This has become a 'game we must win', and only the person voted for will die?"
"That's right."
Officer Li nodded.
"The optimal solution now is to concentrate all the votes on one person. This way, we can minimize the losses. After all, the rest of us can survive..."
His words suppressed the atmosphere to an extreme low. In contrast, the goat-head man made no movement. In that case... were they just voting for one person to die?
Qi Xia sighed helplessly and looked at Officer Li.
"Officer, is interrupting people a hobby of yours? Does it give you a sense of accomplishment?"
"What kind of talk is that?"
Officer Li replied with a frown.
"Am I not helping you strategize?"
"I don't need your help," Qi Xia said without hesitation.
"Your idea will get everyone killed."
"What?"
Officer Li was taken aback.
"Why would I get everyone killed? Am I wrong? If everyone is lying, wouldn't any vote be valid?"
"Officer Li, the goat-head man said, 'The rules are absolute,' and 'There is one and only one liar.' Do you remember?"
"This..."
Officer Li pondered for a moment, recalling that the goat-head man had indeed said those two things.
"Let me organize everyone's thoughts," Qi Xia said coldly.
"In this game, it seems like 'The Liar' has a high chance of winning, because everyone feels like they've won. But if we vote randomly, we will all end up dead."
Sitting next to Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin touched his tattooed arm and muttered to himself, "Because we would have broken the 'rules'..."
"Yes."
Qi Xia nodded.
"But the interesting thing about this game is that we have no way of deducing whether others are lying. Just as Lawyer Zhang said, we can only rely on contradictions in each other's experiences. But we're not from the same region at all. Even if our stories contradict each other, there's no way to be one hundred percent certain that someone is lying."
Qi Xia looked at the group, who were lost in thought, and then continued, "The 'organizer' specifically chose the nine of us to sit here. He must have a purpose, and that is to have us smugly find flaws in stories that seem interconnected."
"But is that really the right way? What certainty do we have that someone else is definitely lying?"
Qi Xia sneered.
"In this game, the only 'Liar' we can identify with one hundred percent certainty from the known clues is this one person. What he said is completely different from our current situation."
Qi Xia took the pen and wrote the two words "Goat-Head Man" on the paper with a "shua shua" sound.
"I was curious before why the goat-head man would introduce himself with such a strange name as 'Goat-Head Man' at the very beginning. It seemed completely unnecessary. Now that I think about it, this is also part of the game."
Everyone slowly turned their heads to glance at the "Goat-Head Man." He still hadn't moved at all. Officer Li was stunned for a moment, then shook his head.
"Con man, I have a question. The rule the goat-head man stated was 'Among all the storytellers, there is one and only one liar.' But he didn't tell a story."
"Didn't he?"
Qi Xia shrugged noncommittally.
"I clearly remember the goat-head man saying that he gathered us here to create a 'God.' Isn't that an unbelievable story?"
Officer Li silently lowered his head. He felt that what Qi Xia said was very reasonable, but something still felt off.
"But..."
Doctor Zhao began, "all of your hypotheses are built on the premise that 'everyone is a liar.' How can you be so sure that we are all liars? What if we flip our cards and only you are 'The Liar'?"
"It's impossible for any of you to have told the truth."
Qi Xia gave a bitter smile, his expression tinged with despair.
"I also spent some time verifying this. I not only know that you are all lying, but I also know where you lied."
He pushed his scratch paper forward, then looked at Tian Tian beside him.
"Tian Tian. You were 'working' in the car, with your head sticking out. Did the falling billboard really hit the car and make you lose consciousness?"
Tian Tian pursed her lips, not daring to speak.
"Qiao Jiajin, you fell from such a great height onto a billboard. Did you really just 'lose consciousness' and that's it?"
Qiao Jiajin was silent.
"Teacher Xiao Ran, when you were with that child, did you really manage to dodge that speeding car?"
Xiao Ran's eyes flickered away.
"Doctor Zhao, operating rooms are built to be much sturdier than ordinary rooms for stability. But you said the ceiling of your operating room collapsed. Were you really just knocked unconscious?"
Doctor Zhao turned his head to the side.
"Han Yimo, you said you had no idea what happened. But when one is focused on writing, interruptions are the most feared thing. Do you really not know how you got here?"
Han Yimo sighed softly.
"Lawyer Zhang, your car was struck and a crack formed. How deep was that crack?"
Lawyer Zhang crossed his arms, his face devoid of expression.
"Officer Li, what brand of car were you driving? Was it able to instantly recline the seat and let you break free from the person restraining you from behind?"
Officer Li touched the red marks on his neck, looking as if he wanted to speak but stopped himself.
"Lin Qin, your ceiling collapsed too. But you said your studio was on a high floor. Once a high floor starts to collapse, the entire building wouldn't exist anymore, would it?"
Lin Qin lowered her head deeply. Seeing everyone's expressions, Qi Xia gritted his teeth and said, "Everyone, admit it. Including myself, all of us are already dead."