At this point, the tattooed guy raised his hand and looked at Basic Gemini. "Hey, judge, what about people with aliases? Does that count as lying?"
Basic Gemini didn't nod or shake his head. He just said calmly, "I won't be involved in any further discussions. You just need to write down your names as you see fit. Just remember, 'the rules are absolute.' In the end, I will personally carry out the 'punishment' on the loser."
The word "punishment" hit the air with a heavy weight, making everyone shiver a little.
"This—this proves I didn't lie!" Sasha Venus yelled anxiously. "If I were lying, I'd be dead by now, right? Even if it's an alias, my alias really is 'Sasha Venus!'"
No one answered her. This was the crucial point where it was literally a life-or-death situation. No one could afford to overlook any doubts.
"Alright, now it's my turn." The tattooed guy scoffed, looking unwilling. "If this lady's story isn't a lie, then mine definitely isn't."
"My name's Vincent Moretti, from Miami, no occupation. Before I got here, I was out collecting debts."
"People these days are real characters. When they borrow money, they agree to everything, but when it's time to pay up, they start crying like babies."
"Motherfucker, they call us debt collectors demons."
"But that little Sissy should think about it from another angle. When he was at his lowest, when he needed money the most, it was me who reached out. When no other institution would lend him a dime, I did. To him, I wasn't the devil, I was his savior."
"But how did he treat me, his savior?"
"He went around crying about how tough his life was, how he got scammed out of two million bucks. He bad-mouthed us debt collectors, saying we were cold-blooded, trying to use the sympathy of the neighbors to get him out of his mess. But when he borrowed the money, we signed a contract, and all the interest was crystal clear. Now he can't pay, and somehow that's our fault?"
"Last night, I was planning to teach him a lesson. Took him to the rooftop of a tall building, but out of nowhere, there was an earthquake. I didn't want to kill him, but this Sissy took out a knife in the chaos and tried to kill me!"
"In all the confusion, he pushed me off the roof, and I slammed into an ad billboard. After that... I can't remember what happened."
Everyone listened to his story, and they all frowned.
Sasha Venus, on the other hand, seemed to realize something and laughed angrily: "See?! I knew you were trying to put the blame on me! Turns out, you're the liar!"
"What? Who do you think you are, accusing me of lying?" Vincent Moretti shot back, furious.
"I'm in Reno, you're in Miami!" Sasha Venus pointed at him. "Your story is practically copied from mine! There was an earthquake where I was, and now there's one where you are. I got hit by an ad billboard, and now you did too! How is this not lying?"
"I don't care where you are. I had an earthquake, alright?" The tattooed guy glared at her. "If I kept quiet, that would be lying! And as for the billboard, there's more than one billboard in the world, right?"
"You're lying, I'm telling you!" Sasha Venus pointed her finger at Vincent Moretti. "Your job is exactly the kind of thing a Villain would do, so lying isn't a surprise!"
"Heh, and your job is any better?"
Elliot Hayes glanced at the two arguing and thought something was off.
It wasn't because one of them was lying; it was because he, too, had experienced the earthquake.
He wasn't in Reno or Miami, but in Orlando.
Was there really an earthquake that spanned such a huge area?
This earthquake stretched over 3,000 miles and hit three cities.
If they were both telling the truth, wouldn't that mean an unprecedented disaster had just occurred?
"Enough already, let's wrap this up." A muscular guy sitting across the table cut in, looking at the next girl. "It's your turn. If we really want to figure out who's lying, maybe we should wait until everyone's spoken."
Both of them snorted and stopped arguing.
The woman sitting next to Vincent Moretti nervously nodded and began: "Um... My name's Emily Parker, and I'm a preschool teacher."
This girl, Emily Parker, seemed very scared. Her voice was quiet, trembling slightly.
"Before I got here, I was waiting with a child for their parent. Normally, the child's mom would pick them up, but I heard she got seriously ill, something in her brain, and needed surgery... So, for the past few days, the dad's been coming, but he keeps forgetting to show up…"
"Yesterday, it was already past 6 PM, and I was well past my shift, but for some reason, the dad wasn't answering his phone…"
"I didn't know where the child lived, so I couldn't take them home. We just stood there at the intersection, waiting."
"Actually, I had other things to do that evening... I had an appointment with a therapist. I wasn't really happy with my job, and I hoped the therapist could help me figure things out."
"But I didn't expect to be waiting for hours, so my evening appointment was canceled."
"While I was spacing out, suddenly, the whole ground started shaking, and I got scared out of my mind… After a few seconds, I realized it was an earthquake…"
"The earthquake felt different from what I imagined... The ground didn't bounce, it swayed back and forth. It felt like I was standing on a table, and someone was shaking it."
"The first thing I did was grab the kid in my arms, but I didn't know what to do. I looked up and saw the Soldiers and Sailors Monument cracking... Thankfully, we were standing in an open area."
"Then, I saw a car coming straight toward us out of control... I could only stumble and drag the kid to the side, but every step I took, the ground made me fall."
"When I finally fell, I hit my head... and passed out. When I woke up, I was here."
It was a pretty uneventful story.
But what made Elliot Hayes uneasy was the mention of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument.
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis.
Elliot Hayes ran his fingers lightly over the card on the table. Although he was holding it down, he knew it read "Liar."
So, are there multiple liars?
If the "rules are absolute," then Basic Gemini's earlier statement, "There is exactly one liar," has to be true.
Since he got the "liar" card, it meant no one else could be lying—there could only be one liar.
That means everyone else must be telling the truth.
But the fact that these stories, spanning three cities, seemed to connect in some way... wasn't that strange?
Not just the earthquake, but the whole story seemed too aligned. Was that just a coincidence?
At that moment, everyone's eyes turned to the next person, the middle-aged doctor.