Player 'Su Yang', welcome to the Death Game.
There are no rules here, no laws, everything belongs to the 'Players'.
The only thing you need to do is—clear the game.
Now… please draw your 'Talent'.
Su Yang slowly opened his eyes, his vision filled with confusion.
"Where am I? What is this place?"
The surroundings were pitch black, with a white spotlight shining down from above.
The only thing he could see was his own shadow.
Suddenly, a severe headache accompanied by tinnitus struck, and Su Yang, his face contorted, clutched his head, breathing heavily.
He remembered his identity and all his memories, but he couldn't recall why he had come to this strange place.
"I was clearly lying on my bed reading 'Ten Deadly Sins', and I think I fell asleep while reading."
"Then I opened my eyes and…"
Su Yang tried hard to recall, meticulously pondering every detail in his memory.
"Could this be an organized and premeditated operation?" The word 'kidnapping' unconsciously surfaced in Su Yang's mind.
He had every reason to suspect that he had been kidnapped here by some organization.
His parents were researchers who mysteriously disappeared years ago; the police investigation yielded no results, so they gave him a 'death certificate'.
He had been raised by his grandparents and lived a healthy life until he was twenty.
He attended a private university in Donghai City, and his wish was to live a laid-back life.
If possible, he wanted to uncover the truth behind his parents' disappearance, which led him to develop a fondness for reading mystery and detective novels.
He loved these types of works very much and had read famous works both domestic and international.
Therefore, he deduced that the reason for his presence here was very likely a conspiracy!
Please draw your 'Talent'.
That emotionless voice came again.
"Who's talking? Come out!" Su Yang propped himself up and shouted.
Only endless darkness and silence responded to him.
"No echo, which means it's very spacious, possibly a factory-like space." Su Yang frowned.
He patted his pockets and found nothing.
"That's not right, the culprits only took my phone but didn't tie me up."
From a criminal psychology perspective, this doesn't fit the logic of a perpetrator.
If he wanted to get something from me, he should have appeared when he heard my shout.
"Are they doing this on purpose?" Su Yang guessed.
Please draw your 'Talent'.
The third reminder.
Su Yang felt his headache had significantly lessened, and he stood up and walked forward.
However, no matter where he walked, the spotlight above always followed.
Player 'Su Yang' did not make a choice within the time limit; Talent will be automatically drawn.
Drawing…
Congratulations, you have obtained the Talent—'Recognize a Thief as Your Father'.
Recognize a Thief as Your Father: After activation, make other 'Players' call 'Su Yang' 'Dad', and you can control their actions for 60 minutes, with a cooldown of 1 minute.
"What?"
Su Yang paused, a look of doubt in his eyes.
This time, he finally pinpointed the source of the sound.
It wasn't a broadcast, nor was it a human voice.
Instead, it appeared out of nowhere in his mind.
"Could it be that I'm overthinking, this isn't a kidnapping?" Su Yang's skin crawled.
Aside from detective books, he had read other bizarre genres.
If this was a death game, it must be controlled by some 'supreme' being.
But…
Why me?
Su Yang was puzzled.
Talent drawing complete, returning to the cage soon.
Beep… Talent verification failed…
Beep… Talent verification failed…
Beep… Talent verification failed…
Talent error, regenerating.
Congratulations, you have obtained the unique Talent—Deception.
Deception: After activating the ability, you can perform 'Deception' actions on players. If half of the people believe it to be true, the lie will become reality.
"From 'Recognize a Thief as Your Father' to 'Deception'?"
Su Yang felt these two were completely unrelated, and what was with the 'Talent verification failed'?
Talent verification successful, you have been assigned to Prison No. 881, Cage No. 213.
Returning to cage initiated…
As soon as the words fell, Su Yang's vision shifted.
The boundless darkness gradually brightened, as if a tear had appeared in the darkness, revealing its true form.
A cacophony of sounds immediately assaulted his ears: screams, wails, maniacal laughter…
"Who dragged me to this cursed place? I don't want to play games, I want to go home!"
"Dad, Mom, where are you? Xiao Wen will be obedient, I'll listen to you both from now on, I know I was wrong…"
"Hahaha, a death game with no rules, you maggots, I'm going to kill you all, kill you all!"
"This is…" Su Yang's pupils suddenly contracted.
First to catch his eye were rows of neatly arranged, adjacent cells, with iron bars sealing off the exits.
Each cage held one 'Player', and they could see their neighbors through glass walls.
Su Yang was on the second floor; he counted and found that within this square-grid space, each floor had one hundred cages.
He then walked to the iron door and looked up.
Layer upon layer of cells were stacked like building blocks.
So high they were out of sight!
"Each floor has a hundred players, just how many people are imprisoned in this building?" Su Yang's heart trembled.
Remaining Players: 10023414759
Game starts in ten minutes.
"Over ten billion people participating? Does that mean everyone in the world is in here?" Su Yang was horrified.
He had initially thought he was chosen for some special reason, but it turned out to be an indiscriminate mass selection!
"Whose scheme is this, exactly?"
He had no time to analyze, because only ten minutes remained until the Death Game began!
Ignoring the surrounding noise, Su Yang immediately turned to examine the internal structure of the cell.
A 5 * 5 * 3 space, a bunk bed with an iron frame, a simple square table, and an iron stool.
The toilet was in the southwest corner, covered by a curtain, and inside was a squatting toilet.
In addition, there was a water dispenser, next to which was a storage cabinet containing three loaves of bread and two bottles of water.
Su Yang took out a bottle of water, twisted open the cap, and sniffed it, finding no unusual smell.
He took a small sip; the taste was no different from bottled mineral water sold outside.
Then he picked up the bread from the cabinet; a line of text was engraved on the packaging.
'Please consume within three days, otherwise it will become highly poisonous.'
"The shelf life is only three days…" Su Yang looked at the latter half of the sentence, his heart trembling slightly.
If it were in the past, he would have treated it as a joke.
But now, he believed it implicitly.
"I was indeed kidnapped, and imprisoned."
Su Yang sat on the stool, biting into the bread, a chill spreading through his buttocks.
"But it's not just me; everyone in the world has been kidnapped."
"Everyone can draw a Talent; this indeed seems like a process a game would have."
"In this grand game, it seems there's only one thing I need to do—"
"Survive!"
Entering game soon…
Game Name: Liar's Tavern
Clearance Condition: Be the last one alive.
Clearance Points: 100
Number of Participants in this Game: 5