Map's Missing Pieces, the Exposed Deception

At first, Lin Yu did not actually doubt Sherlock's identity.

After all, Lin Yu easily chatted with the other party about information related to these "Death game" of the Profession.

Furthermore, this Detective got his analysis of his Profession completely wrong during their first meeting...

But he is indeed a genuine "Detective".

The "Death game" assigns Profession, and it's never done randomly.

Moreover, the very nature of the "Detective" Profession allows one to quickly obtain "clues".

But...

Sherlock's "explanation" is precisely the least credible one.

Because there wasn't enough time.

No matter how brilliant a Detective he is, to arrive at the conclusion that "there are exactly seven outposts next to each abandoned outpost," he would have to visit at least sixteen outposts.

But...

He's not that fast!

However, if that's all there is to it, Lin Yu might not be able to rule out the possibility that this "Sherlock" used some kind of Item for rapid movement or to increase his field of vision.

Therefore, Lin Yu chose to take out the Map for further probing.

After traveling all night, Lin Yu had confirmed one thing...

This Map has "missing parts".

There are 13 Player in this Game.

However, even including the center point, this Map only has 97 outposts—and 12 abandoned outposts.

However, Lin Yu did encounter the other twelve Player throughout the entire night.

Initially, after Lin Yu discovered that the distribution of all the strongholds on the Map could be drawn as a circle divided into twelve equal parts, he suspected that a Player might have spawned at the center point.

After actually walking through it last night, Lin Yu had confirmed it...

When this Map was drawn, the area of each sector was slightly expanded.

After dividing it into twelve equal parts...

It concealed an entire fan-shaped area.

The area that was covered up and hidden was precisely the area where Sherlock was located.

Lin Yu didn't realize it when he arrived there—because the area where Sherlock was located happened to be extremely similar in structure to the area he was going to visit next!

After Lin Yu pointed a gun at him, Sherlock panicked and raised his hands.

"I... I'm not some 'Chate,' I'm a 'Player'!"

Lin Yu could recognize the genuine terror in Sherlock's eyes.

The other party isn't acting.

However... this does not necessarily mean that the other party is selling "genuine" goods.

After all, the Rough Uncle I encountered earlier wasn't acting.

Whether it was that Rough Uncle or Sherlock at this moment, both of them firmly believed that they were themselves.

Otherwise, Lin Yu's previous Deception of that Rough Uncle would not have been believed and would not have Make It Real.

So...

Lin Yu looked at Sherlock and didn't hesitate to fire the bullet in his hand.

A very experienced Player on the forum posted a strategy guide that, according to statistics, the highest death rate when encountering monsters in Instance...

This usually happens the first time you encounter a monster.

Therefore, Lin Yu did not rely on the physical qualities he gained as a "soldier" or the fighting skills he gained as a "thug" to confront his opponent head-on.

He fired immediately.

"Bang!"

After the gunshot.

Sherlock collapsed to the ground in shock, his face still showing disbelief and terror before his "death."

Even Lin Yu, who was absolutely certain that the other party was Impostor, couldn't help but have some doubts at this moment.

Did I really kill the wrong person?

However, it doesn't matter if I kill the wrong person... I can't let myself die, can I?

However, two subsequent events proved that Lin Yu's judgment was Error.

First, there was Sherlock's "corpse" on the ground.

He quickly "melted".

The entire body first faded in color and turned pitch black, then its texture became soft, and finally its shape began to resemble a viscous, non-Newtonian fluid.

Soon, the black liquid began to seep into the ground.

The whole process took only a few seconds and happened very quickly.

However, Lin Yu had been staring intently at "Sherlock's corpse" for a long time, so he didn't miss a single detail.

The second piece of evidence is...

Lin Yu still possesses the abilities of a "Doctor".

"So, the first Sherlock we encountered was genuine, but this one is fake."

"While we can't be certain that this is 'Chate' in disguise... whatever it may be, its method of disguise is to create a clone capable of 'mimicking' behavior."

"Furthermore, judging from Sherlock's reaction just now, it seems that this copy is not the kind that can copy Memory... it can probably only imitate the parts that he has already expressed."

Lin Yu let out a breath, pulled out a chair, and sat down at the workbench.

"So, the actual number of strongholds isn't 97, but 105...?"

Lin Yu pondered for a moment, then spread the Map out on the workbench.

There was a pen holder next to the workbench, with a half-used pencil inside.

Lin Yu took out the pencil and drew two dotted lines on the workbench, marking the thirteenth area that had been "erased".

This area should be exactly at the due north position on the entire Map.

"If there's an undrawn area here, with the starting point at the 'center,' and the stronghold where Sherlock was last night is here, and I also passed by one..."

Lin Yu drew three dots.

Then, he froze.

Lin Yu suddenly realized that the standard for all the previous strongholds was a combination of five letters, A to E, and numbers, 1 to 12.

However—if we label the current center point of the area where Sherlock is located as A13...

Lin Yu connected A1 to A13 from the bottom, like a connect-the-dots book I bought in elementary school.

It turned into a perfect arc.

Next is connecting B1 to B12 -- although two points are missing at the beginning, if we add two points to the missing section 13, it will become...

A lowercase "h" written in cursive.

The part connecting to the C... is shaped like the letter "e".

The part D is shaped like the letter "a".

The part E is the shape of a connected "t".

Although these letters overlap, if we consider the initial arc as the letter 'c'...

Arranging these letters in order from A to E, you can form a word.

c, h, e, a, t, cheat -- in Chinese can be translated as...

Deception, scam.

Lin Yu let out a sigh of relief.

"So that's how it is. The reason this area was hidden was to prevent people from connecting these letters."

When this word appeared on the Map, everything seemed to connect.

The monster "Chate" that the uncle mentioned at the beginning might actually be called "Cheat."

"So, since the strongholds on this Map suggest that this is all a 'hoax'... the 'Liar' who tricked me in the Rank Advancement Mission is probably the one who set up this hoax."

Lin Yu murmured.