Neither Zhang Qiang nor I dared to speak. We simply stared quietly at Baiyang before us.

“First, I must commend you both,” Baiyang said. “My assignment to this room was random. Although I can choose my ‘Zodiac’ teammates, I have no way to select the ‘Participants.’ For me, the question of ‘whether there are intelligent people in the room’ is crucial. Fortunately, you haven’t disappointed me.”

“We… are intelligent people?” Zhang Qiang asked tentatively. “But we clearly didn’t do anything.”

“A person’s worth lies in self-awareness—doing only what one is capable of,” Baiyang said. “This ‘Liar’ game reveals many truths. The first thing a person must learn after growing up is to learn when to keep their mouth shut.”

Hearing his words, I confirmed my earlier suspicion—Baiyang was formidable.

His strength didn’t lie in his physical qualities or stamina, but in his thoughts and consciousness.

“There are always people in this world who love to express their own ideas and do everything possible to make others act according to their thinking,” Baiyang continued. “The seven people who disappeared before you were all like this. Even if you two had figured out who the ‘Liar’ was, it wouldn’t have mattered. They didn’t understand you, so they weren’t planning to trust you either. They would convince those around them to believe them in a very short time. Unfortunately, everyone thought the same way, so no one could succeed.”

At this point, I spoke up. I really wanted to find an opportunity to converse with Baiyang.

“But according to what you’re saying… truly capable people should be able to persuade the others to vote for you together…”

“That’s not something one can accomplish alone,” Baiyang said. “It also depends on the other people in the room. After you discovered these people were difficult to communicate with, you gradually gave up on communication. If I were in your position, I would make the same choice.”

“I see…”

“Now there’s an opportunity before us, but it requires cooperation from both of you,” Baiyang interrupted our train of thought. “I need to make this room completely empty.”

Zhang Qiang and I paused slightly, sensing something ominous.

“Completely empty…” I raised my head to stare into his eyes. “Does that mean… you want us to disappear too?”

“No.” Baiyang shook his head. “I know you won’t disappear on your own, so I’ve also prepared a ‘Path of Advancement’ for you.”

“Path of Advancement…?” I asked, puzzled. “What does that mean?”

“That’s right.” Baiyang nodded. “Every time you two drew ‘Identity Cards,’ I left words behind. Through many experiments, I’ve enabled you to stably obtain ‘Echo.’ This is the first advancement. Next comes the second advancement.”

Zhang Qiang cleared his throat and said, “So you deliberately conveyed this information to us?”

“Yes, to you two and only you two.” Baiyang looked at Zhang Qiang with approval, then said, “I only needed to observe one round to determine the candidates. For the remaining time, I continuously guided you through notes until you obtained ‘Echo.’ Combined with the ‘threat of death’ from these two cycles, you can now freely manipulate ‘Echo.’ You’re among the top few strongest individuals in the ‘Land of the End.'”

Zhang Qiang and I were both slightly stunned, because we knew our own capabilities. How could becoming among the top few be so easy?

“What does the second ‘advancement’ mean…?” Zhang Qiang asked again.

“I’ve prepared two paths for you,” Baiyang said. “One is the ‘Absolutely Safe Path of Participants,’ and the other is the ‘Absolutely Safe Path of Zodiacs.’ If you accept this proposal, I’ll begin preparing the related matters.”

“Absolutely safe…?”

This statement was both strange and absurd. Zhang Qiang and I both hesitated.

Because I knew there was no such thing as absolute certainty in this world, yet why was Baiyang so confident…

“The ‘Path of Zodiacs’…?” I paused. “What kind of path would ‘Zodiacs’ have?”

“Oh, that’s my fault,” Baiyang nodded. “Based on my assessment of you two, even if you got out, you wouldn’t participate in the games, right? So you would find it difficult to understand why ‘Zodiacs’ exist. Understandable. Next, I’ll briefly explain the situation here to you.”

What Baiyang said next indeed far exceeded our expectations.

He said that all the ‘Zodiacs’ here were once ‘Participants.’ In theory, as long as you obtained someone’s mask, you could become any ‘Zodiac.’

This was also why, besides obtaining ‘Dao,’ some ‘Participants’ were willing to gamble their lives with ‘Zodiacs.’

One of the two paths Baiyang offered us was to become a ‘Zodiac.’ He would directly provide the mask, saving us a lot of unnecessary trouble.

“Even assuming what you say is true…” Zhang Qiang raised his head and asked, “The path of ‘Zodiacs’ still can’t be absolutely safe. Whether we’re ‘Human-level’ or ‘Earth-level,’ we could still be challenged to life-or-death gambles and die in the games.”

“This relates to the promotion rules for ‘Zodiacs,'” Baiyang said. “Theoretically, when becoming ‘Human-level,’ you earn 3,600 ‘Dao’ for your teacher, and the teacher will apply for a ‘Zodiac Ascension Gambling Contract’ to come to the interview room. After that, you need to figure out a way to make everyone in the room disappear. After three cycles, you become ‘Earth-level.’ Legend has it that after an ‘Earth-level’ kills 3,600 people, they become ‘Heaven.'”

“Heaven…?”

Zhang Qiang and I thought ‘Heavenly-level Zodiac’ was just a concept, but we didn’t expect such beings actually existed here.

“But there’s always someone stronger…” Zhang Qiang said. “Even the most powerful ‘Heavenly-level’ would still encounter situations where they’re ‘challenged,’ right?”

“Yes, ‘Zodiacs’ spend most of their lives walking on thin ice. Although they appear stronger than all ‘Participants,’ they’re ultimately in a passive role,” Baiyang continued patiently explaining to us. “They can only remain fixed in place forever. What happens each day is unknown to them.”

“That’s about what I thought,” I nodded and asked. “In that case… an ‘absolutely safe Zodiac’ doesn’t exist at all, does it?”

“No, there’s one exceptional situation,” Baiyang turned to look at me. “I said ‘Zodiacs’ walk on thin ice most of the time. There’s only one situation where they don’t, and that’s now.”

“Now…?”

“That’s right.” Baiyang glanced at the sheep beside him, then turned back to me. “Only when in the ‘interview room’ are ‘Zodiacs’ absolutely safe.”

“But that’s not right…” Zhang Qiang thought for a moment and asked, “Even in an ‘interview room,’ everyone in this ‘Zodiac’ room could still disappear, causing the ‘Zodiac’ to advance to ‘Earth-level’… In that case, they’d still encounter danger.”

“No, rest assured,” Baiyang said to Zhang Qiang. “The ‘interview room’ I’m arranging for you will never be able to advance.”