Deceitful Game

Chapter 100 Not only did they not surrender, they dared to resist!

"Don't come any closer! I'm warning you, don't come any closer!"

Ai Shiping, holding the hammer, slowly backed away.

They moved forward and backward, maintaining a relatively still state between them.

Suddenly, Mingpo strode forward, and Ai Shiping swung his hammer!

But at the moment the hammer was swung—

Mingpo instantly released the hammer he was holding, and with a swift and decisive move, grabbed Ai Shiping's wrist in mid-air!

Ai Shiping's hammer stopped for a moment.

Mingpo easily pressed the acupoint in the middle of his wrist, and with a backhand upward twist, made Ai Shiping release the hammer in pain.

"How dare you, you unfilial son!"

Mingpo shouted and kicked Ai Shiping to the ground.

He roared in fury, "Not only do they not surrender, but they dare to resist!!"

"Spare me, spare me, Your Honor! I've been wronged, Your Honor!"

Ai Shiping immediately shouted, "Because I just saw a strange person impersonating you, I'm in a state of stress right now!"

"If you can say you're in a state of stress, then you're definitely not stressed!"

Mingpo shouted.

He reached out and pulled Ai Shiping up from the ground. His face, stained with blood, looked so horrible.

But Ai Shiping just smiled, pretending to be stupid.

Mingbo released Ai Shiping, glanced at the dried bloodstain on the ground, and said in a gradually calming tone, "You did a good job. I won't ask about the one inside, but how did you recognize the one outside?"

"----Well."

Ai Shiping hesitated for a moment.

He had a wild premonition—if he said he recognized the person by their dialect at this moment, he might get beaten up.

"Understanding, it's true understanding, sir—"

Ai Shiping grinned: "Besides, he's not strong enough! How can he be as sharp as you, able to catch my hammer so easily—"

"Indeed," Mingpo nodded, "The fact that you were able to kill him in one-on-one means that he at least didn't replicate my physical abilities. That's lucky."

Even if she were ambushed, Mingpo would not be able to be attacked by Ai Shiping.

Their reaction speed, strength, and physical fitness were vastly different—moreover, Mingpo was nearly 1.9 meters tall, while Ai Shiping was only a little over 1.8 meters, and their wingspans also differed significantly.

In close-quarters combat, reach and weight largely determine the "level" of the fight.

"They are very weak."

Ai Shiping spoke lightly, flicking the dust off his clothes—there really was a lot of dust on the ground. He had been kicked over, and it looked like he was covered in cat fur.

As he kept exploding large clouds of smoke, he casually remarked, "They insisted on separating us because they're not strong enough."

"Whether it's altering memories, creating illusions—or impersonating you—it's all to make us doubt ourselves and kill each other."

He then recounted everything that had happened to him to Mingpo.

Having already spoken with "Number One Mingpo," Ai Shiping spoke exceptionally fluently this time. He only highlighted the important points and quickly shared the information with Mingpo.

He even suspected that those "black snakes" might be hallucinations he was seeing.

Because he was driven here by the black snake.

But he hadn't been inside for even two minutes when the "second Mingpo" came out.

If there really were those black snakes like a tidal wave outside, how could he possibly stand calmly at the door and knock?

This is one of the reasons why Ai Shiping suspected him.

But then, when the real Mingpo swiped his card, he still didn't see the Black Serpent Sea outside.

He even fought with another Minpeer at the doorway of the room!

Ai Shiping lowered his voice and analyzed, "Their original plan was probably a scheme within a scheme. They used the illusion of the black snake to lure me into this designated room—and then there was a fake version of you that had been prepared in advance."

He deliberately created many flaws to make me suspicious. And if I suspect and attack him, then I will subconsciously take the you outside as the real you.

"Or, I might not be able to tell which one is the real you because they're fighting so much."

"And if I consider both of them to be fake, I will also doubt you—and might even continue to attack you. You might also attack me, and then we would end up killing each other—"

"I'll be killed by you as an anomaly."

This trick is indeed effective if used on two or three people you are not very familiar with.

but----

"—What is their purpose?"

Ai Shiping was completely baffled.

When his memories were altered, if the other party wanted to kill him, they could have done so then.

He was completely powerless to resist at the time.

If he were not allowed to enter when the black snakes surged in—or if he were pushed out after entering—he would probably be killed by the illusion.

"I understand now."

Mingpo seemed thoughtful, her voice low: "It should be—fear. Or some other negative emotion."

"fear?"

"Have you read 'Ai Zi's Miscellaneous Sayings'? There's a story about ghosts being afraid of evil people." — Of course, I'm not saying I'm an evil person. It's just that I think the design here is too deliberate.

"You mean—"

Ai Shiping recalled how they had initially separated.

He didn't close the door when he went into that restroom. The moment he was out of sight, he entered another world.

"—Could it be because I'm scared?"

"Possibly."

Mingpo nodded: "The master's sudden disappearance may also be due to this reason."

"Think again, none of the people who had accidents at this resort were forcibly killed while in good health."

"A man who failed in his investments in 08 should be in despair."

"The fire in 13 and the suffocation of the girl in 16 were both acts of fear."

"A suicide in a bathtub 15 years ago could have been due to despair or depression."

"Regardless of which one, they all have one thing in common—their mental state is not good."

He thought of someone.

Zhang Leyao from "The Mysterious School".

In the later stages of the haunted school incident, Zhang Leyao experienced very severe hallucinations.

She saw the curse circle as a purification circle, the remaining curse power as a sphere of light purifying the curse, and the security guards as ghosts—she even saw the "ritual of sacrificing oneself to summon the demons and carry out revenge" as a ritual to save everyone.

In her subjective mind, she had never killed a single person.

Because she thought she was saving these classmates who were cursed and bewitched, the security guard she pushed down was also a bloody monster in her eyes.

This is because—she "wants" these students to be manipulated, not to be like that by nature.

This situation—where part of one's memory is forgotten, leading to distorted cognition and intense hallucinations—is quite similar to Ai Shiping's previous experience.

I don't know if it's the same ghost causing trouble, or if this is just a characteristic of this world.

By tracing back the events that Ai Shiping encountered, we can find that—

The more afraid Ai Shiping became, the more terrifying what he saw became.

From hair and black snakes in the toilet to women's shoes and coughing dolls in the women's restroom—plus the suddenly bizarre bullet comments.

Up to this point, Ai Shiping was even being controlled by hallucinations.

He saw the hanged "Little Li" again, and snakes were emerging from Little Li's body—these things seemed illogical, but from Ai Shiping's perspective, they were actually logical!

Perhaps it started with seeing a closed toilet in the restroom, which then triggered a terrifying association.

He imagined there might be a female ghost somewhere, and so black hair appeared; then he saw the hair as a snake, and since he was really afraid of snakes, a black snake actually appeared.

Later, when he turned on the tap in the bathroom, he thought to himself, "There might be blood," so he became wary of the "blood coming from the tap" and was no longer afraid. At that moment, what he feared most was snakes—so what came out of the tap was a snake.

When he saw the child, he thought the doll might be a ghost in disguise. So the doll actually started coughing.

He was afraid that all the viewers of his live stream were ghosts, so the comments section really did become full of ghost comments;

After he started hallucinating, he was still afraid of "Little Li" and the black snake, so he saw Little Li and then saw the black snake in Little Li—because at that time he was still afraid of the black snake.

While some of these strange phenomena did actually occur, most of them were probably exaggerated manifestations of Ai Shiping's fears!

But amber is different.

He wasn't afraid at all.

So the ghosts here have no way to deal with him.

Whether it was the ferocious monkey or the man who suddenly appeared from behind, Mingpo instantly killed them both. As for things like a moving window, an open door, or footsteps, they didn't frighten him at all.

Because he wasn't afraid, the ghosts here couldn't do anything to him.

So it set a trap, trying to make Mingpo and Ai Shiping kill each other—hoping to cause psychological fluctuations in Mingpo through this method.

Is that why it's called — Ghostly Phantom?

Given that, he probably knows how to crack this copy.

Mingpo stroked his chin, his tone certain: "I have an idea."

"What? What?"

Ai Shiping leaned closer: "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Mingbo nodded meaningfully: "Yes."

at this point.

Let's use our good buddy to build a nest first.