Ashley Carter did not participate in any discussion and quietly closed his eyes.

Countless clues swirled in his mind.

Goat Head said, "Among the storytellers, there is one and only one liar."

Goat Head said, "The rules are absolute."

Goat Head said, "You have all been asleep for twelve hours."

Ashley Carter opened his eyes. Now, only the last piece of information was missing—once he had it, this "problem" could be solved.

But where was that information?

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck his mind.

The crisscrossing lines on the walls and floor instantly sobered him up. He glanced at the clock on the table—it was almost 1 o'clock.

"So that's it..." Ashley Carter's eyes widened. "That was close... I'm clearly a liar, yet I almost got fooled by you all."

The others seemed to notice Ashley Carter's odd behavior, but since this liar had barely spoken from the start, no one knew what he was thinking.

"Hey, can I have another piece of paper?" Ashley Carter asked Goat Head.

Hearing this, Goat Head was clearly taken aback, then tentatively asked, "You... want another piece of paper?"

"Yes." Ashley Carter nodded. "I need a sheet for calculations."

Goat Head was silent for a long while, then pulled another piece of paper from his suit pocket and handed it to Ashley Carter.

Ashley Carter took the paper without hesitation and began to calculate.

He counted the large squares on the wall—there were nine in total, while the squares on the floor and ceiling added up to sixteen.

"If I'm not mistaken..." Ashley Carter quickly scribbled something down. "Each square is one square meter, which means we're now in a room three meters high and four meters long and wide..."

"Four times four times three... forty-eight cubic meters."

Ashley Carter's hand trembled slightly. "Not enough... not nearly enough..."

Everyone stared at Ashley Carter in confusion. This was clearly a problem about deducing who was lying, so why was he doing math?

He wrote out several more calculations, finally arriving at the numbers "54.6" and "49.14".

When he saw these two numbers, Ashley Carter's face turned ashen, as if he were trying to accept something.

If his suspicions were entirely correct, then the current situation was truly terrifying.

His eyes flickered constantly, his thoughts already drifting far away.

The others' arguments gradually quieted down.

The man before them wasn't participating in any discussion, only calculating something over and over. Had he really found the "answer" to this problem?

After a long time, he finally looked up at everyone.

There was fear, hesitation, doubt, and confusion in his eyes.

"Everyone." Ashley Carter cleared his throat and spoke softly, "I didn't intend to save you, but if you choose wrong, I'll die too. I absolutely cannot die here—someone is waiting for me outside. So, no matter what, I have to find a way out. I can only reveal the answer here, and I hope you'll listen carefully."

"Hey, what do you mean by 'answer'?" Brian Johnson, who was closest to Ashley Carter, was a little surprised. "You know who's lying?"

Ashley Carter didn't answer. He simply reached for his "identity card" and slowly revealed it in front of everyone.

"This is the identity I drew."

Everyone looked closely. The words "Liar" were especially striking on the card.

Chapter 9: The Unbearable Truth

Everyone looked a bit stunned when they saw those three words.

"I drew the 'Liar' card," Ashley Carter said slowly, "but whether I reveal this card or not doesn't matter, because it's not important at all."

He picked up the card and casually tossed it onto the center of the table.

"If I'm not mistaken, every single one of you is holding a 'Liar' card."

No one moved after hearing this. After a while, Officer Thompson finally spoke: "So... are you saying that everyone just lied?"

"That's right." Ashley Carter nodded. "You're all smarter than I thought. Each of you added a small lie to your own story, making the story logically complete without affecting the plot."

Officer Thompson thought for a moment, as if he had realized something.

"If what you say is true..." Officer Thompson sighed meaningfully, "then the problem is even trickier."

Everyone looked at Officer Thompson, puzzled.

Officer Thompson continued, "According to the rules, only if all of us pick the liar can we all survive, but in that case, the liar loses. So we..."

Dr. Harris was the first to understand what Officer Thompson meant. "You mean... we can vote however we want, because everyone is lying. This becomes a 'sure-win game,' and only the person who gets voted for has to die?"

"Exactly." Officer Thompson nodded. "The optimal solution now is to concentrate all the votes on one person, minimizing the loss, since the rest can survive..."

His words made the atmosphere even more oppressive, while Goat Head remained motionless.

So... were they just voting to send one of them to die?