Inside the bone-chilling prison, Lanchi and Adams fell into a brief silence between their two separated cells.
In the darkness, the only sounds were the sporadic crackle of water droplets freezing and the low moan of wind passing through the narrow corridor in the distance.
"What do I have to deceive you about?"
Lanchi's voice sounded deeply disappointed.
He had simply been frozen too badly; even his wrists had gone stiff, and his movements when exiting the Shadow World were remarkably slow.
"..."
Although Adams knew Lanchi was lying, for a moment he wondered if he had misunderstood him.
His acting was too convincing. He sounded genuinely disappointed at not being trusted.
But perhaps he was simply lamenting that his plan had failed, using those emotions to enhance his already formidable command of dialogue.
"Lanchi, I know that what you're best at is using strategy and psychological warfare. So there's no question of whether it's despicable or not. Today, I'm only competing with you over victory and defeat. If you keep trying to deceive me with this feigned surrender, you'll only look foolish and ridiculous."
After thinking it over for a while, Adams spoke coldly with absolute certainty.
He would no longer condemn Lanchi for anything. After all, both sides had already agreed on every rule of this wager. In war, deception was fair game, and victory was the only truth.
As long as he refused to enter Lanchi's logic no matter what Lanchi said next, everything would be fine.
That was also Lanchi's greatest weakness.
If his opponent refused to engage in effective communication with him, none of his schemes could work.
As long as he followed this principle to the end, he would definitely win this wager, and Lanchi would definitely lose!
Lanchi did not answer from the