Everyone's expression turned a bit stunned upon seeing these three words.
"I drew the 'Liar' card," Qi Xia said slowly, "but it doesn't really matter whether I flip it or not, because it's not important at all."
He tossed the card casually 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, and after a while, Officer Li finally spoke up, "So... are you saying that everyone just lied?"
"Exactly," Qi Xia nodded. "You all are smarter than I imagined. Each of you added a little lie to your stories, allowing the narrative to hold together without affecting the plot logic."
Officer Li pondered for a moment, as if he had realized something.
"If what you're saying is true... then the problem becomes even trickier."
Everyone looked at Officer Li, puzzled.
He continued, "According to the rules, we can only survive if all of us choose the Liar. But if that's the case, then the Liar loses. So we..."
Doctor Zhao was the first to understand what Officer Li meant: "You mean... we can vote randomly, because everyone is lying, making it a 'guaranteed win game' where only the person voted for will die?"
"Exactly," Officer Li nodded. "The optimal strategy now is to concentrate all votes on one person, minimizing the loss, since the remaining people will survive..."
His words plunged the atmosphere into an extreme gloom, while the Goat Head remained completely motionless.
So, they were just voting for one person to die?
Qi Xia sighed helplessly, looking at Officer Li and said, "Officer, is interrupting others your hobby? Does it give you a sense of accomplishment?"
"What are you talking about?" Officer Li frowned and replied, "I'm trying to help you strategize!"
"I don't need your help," Qi Xia said without hesitation. "Your idea would get everyone killed."
"What?" Officer Li was taken aback. "How could I be a danger to everyone? Isn't what I said correct? If everyone is lying, then any vote could stand!"
"Officer Li, the Goat Head said, 'The rules are absolute,' and 'there is only one Liar.' Do you remember that?"
"This..." Officer Li pondered for a moment and recalled that the Goat Head had indeed said those two things.
"Let me organize everyone's thoughts," Qi Xia said coldly. "In this game, it seems that the Liar has a great chance of winning, because everyone feels like they are winning. But if we vote randomly, the one who dies will be all of us."
Sitting next to Qi Xia, Qiao Jiaqing touched his tattooed arm and muttered to himself, "Because we broke the 'rules'..."
"Yes," Qi Xia nodded. "But the interesting part of this game is that we cannot deduce whether others are lying. Just as Lawyer Zhang said, we can only rely on whether their experiences contradict each other to infer, but we are not from the same region. Even if events seem contradictory, we have no absolute certainty to prove that someone is lying."
Qi Xia glanced at the crowd, who were lost in thought, and then continued, "The 'Organizer' specifically chose the nine of us to sit here, which must have a purpose: to let us mistakenly find flaws in each other's seemingly interconnected stories."
"But is that really correct? How can we be sure that the other person is definitely lying?" Qi Xia sneered, "In this game, the only 'Liar' we can confirm with absolute certainty from the known clues is this one person. What he said is completely different from our current situation."
Qi Xia grabbed a pen and quickly wrote the words "Human Goat" on a piece of paper.
"I was curious why the Goat Head introduced such a strange name, 'Human Goat,' at the beginning. It seemed unnecessary. Now it seems this is part of the game."
Everyone slowly turned to look at the "Human Goat," who still had not moved.
Officer Li was taken aback for a moment, then shook his head: "Liar, I have a question. The Goat Head said the rule was 'there is only one Liar among all the storytellers,' but he didn't tell a story, did he?"
"Did he not?" Qi Xia shrugged, "I clearly remember the Goat Head saying that he gathered us here to create a 'God.' Isn't that a bizarre story?"
Officer Li silently lowered his head, feeling that what Qi Xia said made a lot of sense, but he still felt something was off.
"But..." Doctor Zhao spoke up, "All your assumptions are based on the premise that 'everyone is a liar,' but why do you conclude that we are all liars? What if we flip the cards and you are the only 'Liar'?"
"You all cannot be telling the truth," Qi Xia sighed with a hint of despair in his expression. "I have also spent some time verifying this issue. I not only know that you are all lying, but I also know where you lied."
He pushed his draft paper forward and looked at Tiantian beside him: "Tiantian, when you were 'working' in the car, did the falling billboard really hit the car, causing you to lose consciousness?"
Tiantian bit her lip, not daring to speak.
"Qiao Jiaqing, when you fell from such a high place onto the billboard, did you really just 'lose consciousness'?"
Qiao Jiaqing remained silent.
"Teacher Xiao, when you were with that child, did you really dodge the speeding car?"
Xiao Ran's eyes flickered.
"Doctor Zhao, the operating room is built sturdier than regular rooms for stability, but you said the ceiling collapsed. Were you really just knocked out?"
Doctor Zhao turned his head away.
"Han Yimo, you said you had no idea what happened, but when you're focused on writing, you hate being disturbed. You don't know how you ended up here?"
Han Yimo sighed softly.
"Lawyer Zhang, how deep was the crack that your car fell into?"
Lawyer Zhang crossed his arms, his expression blank.
"Officer Li, what brand of car were you driving? Was it able to instantly recline the seat and free you from the restraint of the person behind you?"
Officer Li touched the red marks on his neck, hesitating to speak.
"Lin Qing, your ceiling also collapsed, but you said your studio is on a high floor. Once a high floor starts to collapse, the entire building won't exist, right?"
Lin Qing deeply lowered her head.
Seeing the expressions of everyone, Qi Xia knocked on the table and said,
"Everyone, admit it, including me, we have all already died."