“This is how I’m thinking…” I gestured with both hands. “Let’s start from Baiyang’s game rules as an entry point. Don’t you think this game is strange?”

“Strange? Where’s it strange?” Jiang Ruoxue said. “It sounds like it could make a fortune. Whether it’s the Zodiacs or the Participants, everyone has a chance to profit. Isn’t that good?”

“Yes… as a ‘Money House’ it’s very good…” I said. “But as an ‘Earth-Sheep game,’ it’s too strange…”

“I don’t quite understand…” Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. “My head might still be dizzy…”

“No, no, no… this is indeed difficult to understand.” I carefully organized my thoughts and said, “Ruoxue, listen to me. We’ve seen so many Earth-level Zodiacs. We not only know the difficulty of Earth-level games but also know that each Zodiac has their own characteristics. As an ‘Earth-Sheep game,’ this game first cannot have ‘deaths,’ and second has no ‘lying.'”

“Eh…?” After hearing this, Jiang Ruoxue also pondered, then nodded. “It really seems that way…”

“Earth-level Zodiacs need to kill people to advance, so the games they design must focus on deaths. Baiyang understands these rules even better than I do. He couldn’t possibly make this kind of mistake,” I said. “So we need to think in reverse…”

“Think in reverse…?”

“Right. I used your approach, starting directly from the ‘result.’ In other words, this game can have ‘deaths,’ and Baiyang also ‘lied’ in the game. We just haven’t discovered it yet.”

“But the core of this game is ‘Dao,'” Jiang Ruoxue asked puzzledly. “How would he kill people? Moreover, the logic of these lights was established by me. They depend on nearby Zodiacs. How would Baiyang lie?”

Yes… this was the hidden truth of this game.

Baiyang was a monster.

“Do you remember what Baiyang said…” My voice trembled slightly. “The twelve statues are built upon the logic of the twelve nearby Zodiac games, and the display screen is built upon the logic of the statues…”

“Right…”

Three seconds after Jiang Ruoxue finished speaking, her eyes widened.

“Yes…” I still couldn’t control my voice from trembling. “I’m afraid this is the only way to explain it… If Participants choose to participate in nearby Zodiac games in order to control the ‘lights,’ all their casualties will count as Baiyang’s achievements… After all, this is part of the game to begin with… Although those people’s ’cause of death’ comes from the Zodiac of that particular game, they’re also in a larger game… Their actions all count as steps in this game, and this game is ‘Elysium Money House.'”

“My God!!” Jiang Ruoxue cried out. “This… Baiyang not only schemed against the Participants… but also schemed against the twelve nearby Zodiacs?”

“No…” I swallowed and said slowly. “He didn’t scheme against ‘twelve’ but ‘eleven.'”

“Eleven…?”

“Ruoxue… guess which one is the ‘sheep closest to here’?” I said.

“Ah…” After hearing this, Jiang Ruoxue broke out in cold sweat again, whether from weakness or shock. “You mean… that ‘Sheep’ statue originally represented Baiyang himself?”

“This is what I call the ‘logical short circuit,'” I said. “Ruoxue, your weakness partly comes from the ‘massive game venue,’ and another part comes from the ‘logical short circuit.'”

“What exactly is this logical short circuit?” Jiang Ruoxue asked.

“Ruoxue… according to your thinking, among Baiyang’s three types of gameplay—’Gambling,’ ‘Lottery,’ and ‘Money House’—which one is the most profitable?” I asked.

Jiang Ruoxue thought for a while and answered, “It should be the ‘Money House,’ right? As long as it forms a certain scale and has ‘large orders’ every day, earning dozens or even hundreds of ‘Dao’ per day wouldn’t be difficult at all.”

“Wrong,” I said. “Whether it’s ‘Gambling’ or ‘Money House,’ neither is Baiyang’s most profitable project. His sure-win gameplay is only the ‘Lottery.’ This idea is simply too absurd.”

“That’s not right, is it?” Jiang Ruoxue said. “According to what you’re saying… someone will eventually ‘win’ the lottery. Even if the probability is small, it’s still something that could happen. Baiyang can’t possibly have ‘guaranteed profit with no loss.'”

“Have you noticed a problem?” I asked. “When Baiyang explained the regular ‘Gambling’ rules, every winner needs to pay a ‘venue fee,’ but the ‘Lottery’ doesn’t have this. People who win the lottery will take away all the rewards in the prize pool, counting as Baiyang breaking even. Why would he do this?”

“You mean…”

“Baiyang’s probability of losing is unimaginably low,” I said. “Because your ‘Cause and Effect’ exists, he is the eighth light.”

“I still don’t quite understand…”

“Let me give you an example,” I gestured to Jiang Ruoxue with my hand. “Suppose my luck is extremely good and I guessed the colors of all the other Zodiacs correctly, leaving only the eighth light representing the sheep. How should I guess?”

Jiang Ruoxue didn’t speak. She just quietly looked at me.

“If the eighth light of the lottery chooses ‘Red,’ that means I believe the ‘Earth-Sheep wins.’ But if I guess correctly, the Earth-Sheep can’t win. When the Earth-Sheep thinks he’s going to lose, the display screen can only show a green light.”

“You, you wait a moment…” Jiang Ruoxue covered her forehead with her hand. “I’m getting confused…”

“It’s okay. Take your time. I’ll help you sort it out.”

“This… in that case, wouldn’t it be fine to just choose ‘Green’? Choosing ‘Green’ means we believe the ‘Earth-Sheep will lose,’ and the Earth-Sheep will indeed lose because we guessed correctly.”

“That’s where the problem lies!” I shouted. “Because your ‘Cause and Effect’ determines the light color based on the Zodiac’s victory or defeat, and the outcome of this game is completely up to him to decide! He can consider that he’s just keeping all the Participants’ ‘Dao’ here, not taking a single penny, and returning it all to the Participants. This can even be considered a type of ‘zero deposit and lump sum withdrawal’ in the ‘Money House.’ I suspect that even if he really loses all the ‘Dao,’ your display screen will only consider this Zodiac as neither winning nor losing and light up the white light!”

“Ah… you mean the lottery income doesn’t count in the books at all and is just placed outside…” Jiang Ruoxue was stunned. “In other words, ‘victory or defeat’ all depends on how the Zodiac judges this matter… Guess red and the green light turns on… guess green and the white light turns on… then in that case, if you guess white…”

“If you guess white, Baiyang can consider himself victorious, thus lighting the red light,” I said. “No matter how you guess this eighth light, Baiyang will circumvent your choice.”

“Doesn’t this make it unsolvable?” Jiang Ruoxue said.

“No… there’s one extremely absurd solution,” I said. “That is, if three people all guess the other eleven lights correctly, then respectively choose ‘Red,’ ‘White,’ and ‘Green’ for the eighth ‘Sheep’ light, blocking all of the Earth-Sheep’s paths. But you should also pray that this situation doesn’t happen, otherwise it will create a huge paradox, and you’ll probably faint directly.”

“This…” After hearing this, Jiang Ruoxue sighed helplessly. “But honestly… even if someone could expend this much effort to win the lottery, Baiyang still wouldn’t have any losses…”

“Yes. These people will die countless times trying to guess the other eleven lights correctly. This is the huge lie Baiyang inserted into the game.”