“Ah?” Ethan Green was slightly stunned. “I mentioned that kindergarten teacher just to help you better understand my work…”

“Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mean anything else.” Chris Brooks smiled. “What I’m saying is, if that kindergarten teacher’s story was made up by you, it would naturally differ from Jason Clark’s story, which would prove you’re lying.”

“You…!” Ethan Green hadn’t expected the woman before her to be so aggressive, and could only defend herself, “Just now, both Dr. Harris and Officer Thompson said we’re from different provinces, it’s all just a coincidence!”

“A coincidence, is it?” Chris Brooks crossed her arms and continued, “Think about it carefully—why were the nine of us specifically chosen to gather here? Don’t forget, we’re all strangers. If we’re supposed to spot flaws in each other’s stories, we need some clues. And that ‘clue’ is that all our stories are connected. After hearing everyone’s stories, I feel like we were deliberately selected. Only this way can we find the flaws and identify the liar among us. Otherwise, this game would be too ridiculous, because the ‘liar’ would have way too much of an advantage.”

Chapter 8: The Reveal

These words almost woke everyone up, and they also woke up Ashley Carter.

That’s right, the ‘liar’ really does have too much of an advantage.

Ashley Carter frowned. Why did he have such a big chance of winning?

Lying to a group of strangers—they didn’t know him, nor did they understand him. No matter what lie he made up, it would be hard for anyone to see through it.

Could using a fake name really cost eight people their lives?

Or…

Was the person who drew the ‘liar’ card just the chosen one, and this was an unfair game from the start?

“No…” Ashley Carter thought to himself, “If survival was guaranteed just by drawing the card, then why not just write ‘life’ and ‘death’ on the cards? That would make it easier to achieve the goal. Otherwise, what’s the point of this nearly hour-long game?”

A deep sense of unease spread in his heart.

Ashley Carter kept recalling every word the goat-headed figure had said.

Could it be…

“Hey, it’s your turn.” Brian Johnson reached out and patted Ashley Carter.

Only then did he snap back to reality, realizing everyone was looking at him strangely.

At this point, there was no time to overthink, or he’d look even more suspicious.

He steadied himself and reorganized his thoughts.

In his mind, he kept repeating, “My name is Li Ming, I’m from Shandong…”

But at this moment, he absolutely couldn’t use that answer. If he wanted to find the ‘solution’ to this game, he could only take a gamble.

Ashley Carter opened his eyes and said to everyone, “Everyone, my name is Ashley Carter, I’m from Shandong, and I’m a professional con artist.”

“A con artist?”

Everyone present gasped as soon as they heard Ashley Carter’s first sentence. After all, the role of ‘con artist’ had appeared in many people’s stories.

This con artist had also vaguely connected everyone’s stories together.

The more ironic thing was, they had to judge whether a ‘con artist’ was telling the truth.

“Before coming here, I was trying to find a way to clean up the two million I had in my hands.”

“In short, it took a lot of effort, and I ended up with 1.4 million. That was the most cost-effective way I could think of.”

“But on my way back with the money, I suddenly encountered an earthquake. When I got to the door, I saw my house shaking violently.”

“Logically, you should never go inside at a time like that, since the house could collapse at any moment. But I was worried about the people inside, so I rushed in anyway.”

“Sure enough, as soon as I entered the room, the porch collapsed. I was trapped and lost consciousness.”

Ashley Carter finished telling the story in a calm, few words, and everyone watched him warily.

He knew he was taking a big risk, but only this way could he test if his theory was correct.

As long as the goat-headed figure spoke up now, it would mean his guess was almost certainly right.

Just as Ashley Carter expected, the goat-headed figure slowly stepped forward and said to everyone, “Very good, everyone has finished telling their stories. Now begins twenty minutes of free discussion. After twenty minutes, each of you must write a name on the sheet of paper in front of you.”

“Just as I thought!” Ashley Carter raised his eyebrows. “There really are twenty minutes!”

Now everything made sense!

Everyone started to panic a little, since only twenty minutes remained to decide their fate.

Brian Johnson and Mark Thompson both wanted to vote for each other, perhaps because of their professions, and were full of hostility.

Meanwhile, Dr. Harris began to question the writer Ethan Cooper, since Ethan Cooper’s story had nothing to do with anyone else’s.

Attorney Brooks and Jason Clark seemed suspicious of Ashley Carter, while Ethan Green, Ethan Cooper, and Emily were still hesitating.

According to the surface rules, the ‘liar’ was about to win this round.

Because the votes were not unanimous.

The rules were clear: only if everyone picked the liar could all eight survive.