“Welcome to Liar's Tavern!”
Su Yang opened his eyes and found himself out of the cage and in an unfamiliar area.
He surveyed his surroundings and discovered it was an old-fashioned tavern, bearing the marks of time everywhere.
A clock hung on the wall, its hour and minute hands pointing precisely at twelve o'clock.
An old bar counter, lingering smoke, a pungent smell of alcohol, and strangely shaped creatures…
In the center of the tavern was a large round table, covered in cracks and stains, with five revolvers placed on it.
Other tables were occupied by Minotaurs, who were savoring their drinks. They merely cast a scrutinizing glance at the five suddenly appearing people before looking away.
They then continued their conversation, speaking a language Su Yang couldn't understand.
“Jili Guala?”
“Guala Jili!”
To Su Yang’s left, where he stood, was a large window, moonlight streaming in and intermingling with the dim yellow lamplight.
Five stools were placed in front of him, with two people standing on either side.
Two men and two women.
Including himself, this was precisely the number of participants for this game.
Su Yang took a deep breath, suppressed the astonishment in his heart, and sized up the ‘players’ present.
The man and woman standing on the left were of similar age, estimated to be around 30.
The man had a refined demeanor, wearing a pair of ordinary black-rimmed glasses. His hairline was a bit high, his face was oily and sallow, and his dark circles were very prominent.
The woman wore a cartoon pajama set, her face still showing fear and helplessness towards the unknown. Her hands gripped the back of the stool tightly, veins protruding.
The man and woman on the right were calmer, but the slight twitching of their eyelids still betrayed their inner thoughts.
“Only one person can survive?” Su Yang frowned.
In other words, among the four people present, someone's head would be blown off by one of the revolvers on the table.
All five people were sizing each other up, and no one spoke during this time.
Although Su Yang couldn't be omniscient, he could guess everyone's psychological state from their appearance and reactions.
At this moment, a Minotaur came to the table with a deck of playing cards and slowly placed the cards in the center of the round table.
He then stood to the side, arms crossed, looking straight ahead.
It seemed he would only start the game once all five people were seated.
Su Yang’s Talent was Deception, and he needed to rely on this Talent to win the game.
“The other four also have Talents, but I don’t know their specific details, so it’s better to be careful.” Su Yang remained silent.
Two minutes later, the woman in the cartoon pajamas was the first to break the silence,
“Do you know what’s going on? Why do we have to play such a meaningless game? Wouldn’t we all survive if we just didn’t play?”
The man on the left adjusted his black-rimmed glasses. “Based on the current situation, everyone on Earth has been teleported into a game. This should be some kind of curse, or perhaps some kind of ‘reshuffle’.”
“Reshuffle?” The woman on the right asked curiously.
“Exactly. This situation cannot be reasoned with normal logic. All of us were locked in a prison, which is already an incredible thing.” The glasses-wearing man nodded.
“Which prison were you in? I was in Cell 881.” The burly man on the right asked.
“I was also in Cell 881, I was in Cell 1284.” The woman in the cartoon pajamas quickly replied.
“Same, I was in Cell 5666.” The beautiful woman on the right nodded.
“Me too, but I was on the first floor, 108.” The glasses-wearing man said.
Su Yang listened silently, collecting information.
From what was currently stated, this prison had at least fifty floors.
One hundred players per floor, meaning at least five thousand people were imprisoned.
If each floor was three meters high, then this prison building was at least one hundred and fifty meters tall.
Twenty-five cells in each direction, each five meters long and five meters wide, meaning a total length and width of one hundred and twenty-five meters.
Such a large building would not be built overnight, and it was clearly impractical to use it specifically for imprisoning criminals to play games.
Then, the four people simultaneously looked at Su Yang, their eyes filled with confusion.
“213.” Su Yang uttered.
“It seems this game gathers players based on the prison unit.” The glasses-wearing man nodded slightly, his gaze lingering on the beautiful woman for a moment before moving away. He then said:
“You should all have heard of or seen TV shows or movies about battle royales or death games, right?”
“No…” The pajama girl shook her head.
“I’ve played battle royale games, but I haven’t heard of the death games you mentioned.” A faint murderous glint appeared in the burly man’s eyes.
He seemed to recall some things from before he came here.
“Unless there’s some kind of divine being manipulating things behind the scenes, it’s impossible for us to be collectively teleported to a large structure like a prison.” The glasses-wearing man rubbed the oil on his nose, then wiped his hand on his pant leg.
“Whether it’s a divine being or not, we have to play this game, right?” The beautiful woman, seeing his action, a hint of disdain and disgust flashed in her eyes, and she said softly:
“Is it real or fake? We’ll know once we play it, won’t we?”
The pajama girl timidly looked at the other woman present and whispered, “I don’t want to play the game, I just want to go home.”
Upon hearing this, the burly man suddenly stepped forward, plopped down on a stool, and slammed the table. “Go home my ass. I’m fed up with that damn world. Anyway, I owe 800,000 from stock trading, so it’s a dead end. Might as well play the game.”
As soon as he said this, the scene immediately fell silent.
The burly man’s fierce demeanor was completely out of place with everyone else present. No one knew what kind of business he did outside.
Nor did they know if his claim of owing money from stock trading was true or false.
The glasses-wearing man clenched his fist, then also pulled out a stool and sat down, saying nothing.
Seeing this, the burly man snorted and turned his gaze to Su Yang.
“What about you?”
Su Yang’s eyes met his. After a brief stare, he chose to sit in the closest available seat.
“What about you two? Are you playing or not? Stop being so whiny.” The burly man said with a hint of impatience.
The beautiful woman gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and sat to the burly man’s right.
The remaining pajama girl was somewhat afraid. Being yelled at by the burly man like that, tears welled up in her eyes.
“I… I’m not playing!”
With that, the pajama girl immediately ran towards the door. She wanted to escape this dreadful place.
However, as soon as she stepped onto the threshold, a force suddenly bounced her back, sending her crashing heavily against the wall.
“Those who escape the Death Game space shall die!”
This was the first and only warning.
If she offended again, the consequence would be obliteration.
“Can’t I just not play? I just want to go home…” The pajama girl said with a sob.
“Go home to your mother.”
The burly man couldn’t stand it anymore. He stood up, went to her side, grabbed her clothes, and dragged her all the way to the last seat.
“Let me go, you pervert! Don’t touch me with your dirty hands!” The pajama girl struggled constantly, her nails scratching his arm, leaving streaks of blood.
“Slap!”
The burly man directly slapped her, and said viciously, “If you want to die, go die, but don’t drag me down.”
The pajama girl was completely stunned by the slap, sitting blankly in her seat, despair covering her face.
Once the burly man returned to his seat, all five were seated.
“Game Rules: Players take turns playing cards and declaring the card’s value. This value must match the requirement set before the game begins (e.g., ‘King’ or ‘Queen’).
Each round consists of 25 cards: 7 Queens (Q), 7 Kings (K), 7 Aces (A), and 4 Jokers, totaling 26 cards.
Each player is dealt 5 cards per round, with Jokers able to be used as any card.
Players must play a minimum of one card and a maximum of three cards per round.
When players play cards, they may lie about the card’s value. If you suspect they are lying, you can ‘call their bluff’.
If someone is exposed and indeed lied, they must play a round of Russian Roulette.
After completing the Russian Roulette, the card game will reset, and the game will continue.
Time limit for each player’s turn in each round—five minutes.”