Being hunted by a Deceiver of the World?

Ming Po rubbed his chin. "I see..."

Barring any surprises, he had a good idea of what was going on.

It was all because of the Secret Treasure known as the Bacchus Shrine.

In a sense, this was a mess Ming Po had brought upon himself.

There was no reason to hide anything from Ai Shiping. Ming Po explained the entire situation to him from start to finish. It also served as a warning, just in case his friend accidentally let something slip while out and about.

"In other words," Ai Shiping said, sharply catching the main point as he subtly shifted from kneeling to sitting cross-legged, "all the newly joined Deceivers... have actually already been targeted by those veterans, right?"

"Exactly."

Ming Po nodded.

"The predecessor to a Deceiver is a Wronged Dead, and all Wronged Dead are ordinary people mistakenly killed by Deceivers. This 'mistaken kill' doesn't mean accidentally killing you due to a slip-up. It means killing you from an incorrect timeline when there is absolutely no causality between the two of you.

"For example, if I were to kill the girl living across the hall under any circumstances, she wouldn't become a Wronged Dead. That's because I know her, and she knows me; there is causality between us.

"However, I don't know the new tenants who just moved onto the first floor. If I were to Manifest and wipe out their family, they wouldn't become Wronged Dead either. But if I used the power of the Game of Deception to return to the past and ran them over on their way here, before they even moved in... then they would become Wronged Dead because of me.

"If they pass the Preliminary Match and become Deceivers, then because Deceivers exist independently of the timeline, any modifications to their time become retroactively invalid. The fact that I went back in time and ran them over would be erased.

"But since they did indeed die, they would also die from some accident in the 'present.' Time would be corrected by some kind of force. In other words, our 'true cause of death' and our 'apparent cause of death' are very likely completely different."

Ming Po analyzed in a deep voice, "This is the truth behind how Deceivers have 'deceived the world'. It is exactly why we are called Deceivers."

"Then can I understand it like this?" Ai Shiping summarized. "If someone becomes a Deceiver, people will think they died in the 'present'? But if they didn't become a Deceiver, they would have died at some point in the 'past'?"

"To be precise, it's not the 'present.' It's the actual time they entered the Game of Deception."

Ming Po nodded. "Furthermore, if they hadn't been affected by Time Chips, they should still be alive right now."

While this wasn't an absolute, verified fact, it was generally accurate.

Ming Po remembered that during their very first game, Chen Bingwen had mentioned that he was killed by a car.

He was certain Chen Bingwen hadn't been lying at the time.

Yet later, Ming Po saw on the news that Chen Bingwen's cause of death was being shot by 'unidentified individuals' abroad.

During the Deceptive School game, before meeting up with Gao Fan, Ming Po had indirectly probed Lawyer Chen. He discovered that in Lawyer Chen's own memories, he had never even been abroad in his entire life!

Lin Ya was an even more unique case.

In the first game, Lawyer Chen had stated that she committed suicide. At that time, she had already been dead for quite a while. But someone who commits suicide definitely cannot become a Deceiver, which meant she had to have been murdered.

Yet just this morning, while checking records, Ming Po discovered that Lin Ya had only committed suicide last month. This completely contradicted Lawyer Chen's belief that 'Lin Ya committed suicide half a year ago.'

As for Gao Fan, the news reported that he had gotten into a car crash with his girlfriend.

But Gao Fan didn't even have a girlfriend—Ming Po was absolutely sure of that.

Ming Po briefly relayed all these facts to Ai Shiping, then asked, "Do you still remember how you died?"

Ai Shiping recalled, "I remember... my boss sent me a message asking me to come to the company and hand over my work. After all, I was supposed to officially start working next month, so he told me to drop by the office.

"But while I was replying to his message on the street, I thought I saw you. I froze for a split second, and then I was run over by a speeding dump truck.

"I knew it! It was you, you despicable bastard, coming to steal my lifespan all along!"

Hearing these familiar words, Ming Po's eyes widened.

He asked urgently, "You didn't get a call from me before you left the house?"

"What call?"

Ai Shiping looked surprised. "You called me? In my memory, you had already been missing for a week..."

In that instant, Ming Po understood.

Starting from that very moment, Ai Shiping had already become a Wronged Dead.

He had just been in the waiting phase at the time, not yet participating in the Preliminary Match.

Later on, Ming Po used the power of Time Chips to go back and prevent Ai Shiping's death. According to the rules of the Game of Deception, this actually revoked Ai Shiping's status as a Deceiver. It was the equivalent of temporarily banning his account for logging in from a suspicious location—even though Ai Shiping had only just 'created his character' and hadn't even started the tutorial.

But after that, someone else corrected Ai Shiping's timeline once more.

They likely ran Ai Shiping over at an even earlier point in time, or arranged it so he never met Ming Po. In doing so, Ming Po's modification to Ai Shiping's cause of death was rendered invalid.

Although Ai Shiping died at an earlier point, because he had already become a Deceiver at another moment... his subsequent death was simply 'retrieving his banned account' rather than 'creating a new character'.

"Time-based abilities are such a massive pain."

Ming Po sighed. "I finally understand the selection mechanism of the Game of Deception."

"What exactly did you figure out?" Ai Shiping asked, bursting with curiosity. "Tell me!"

"Hmm."

Ming Po considered how to phrase it, but ultimately shook his head. "Never mind, it's too complicated. Anyway... the people hunting you are probably the exact same ones who drove that interdimensional dump truck and killed you.

"Because they investigated you before killing you, they already know your personal information. As long as any of their subordinates observe you participating in a game, they can instantly figure out where your Anchor Point might be."

"They wouldn't even need to observe me."

Ai Shiping nodded, then shook his head. "I only found this out after running into a Deceiver from the Domain of Slaughter!

"Right before he died, he told me he already knew who I was. Their organization wanted to target me—and someone had already been sent after me.

"My Title is Fox. Its passive effect allows me to sniff out hostility in the air. The reason I was so tense when I went out earlier is because I smelled hostility. I actually thought they had kicked down the door and kidnapped you... I realized long before this that my Anchor Point and yours are linked.

"But when I came out of my Mind Anchor, I realized the hostility was drifting in from outside the window. They are probably crouching out there right now!"

It sounded like the other party had turned on them.

"Don't be afraid," Ming Po said. "To some extent, this is a mess I dragged you into. I will help you sort it out."

"Hell yes, you're the best, boss!"

Ai Shiping immediately beamed with joy. "Boss, hurry up and take them out so I can make up for my losses! I don't even have enough chips to join the Promotion game right now!"