Chapter 4 A Calamity

• At that moment, the tattooed man raised his hand, looking toward Goat Head as he asked, “Hey, ref, is using an alias considered lying?”
• Goat Head neither nodded nor shook his head; he simply said indifferently, “I will not be involved in the process anymore. You just need to write down the names as per your own thoughts. All you need to remember is that the rules are absolute. In the end, I will personally sanction the loser.”
• The word “sanction” echoed powerfully, sending a shiver down everyone's spine.
• “This... this proves I'm not lying!” exclaimed Candy in a frantic tone. “If I were lying, I'd be dead by now, right? Even if it's a pseudonym, my alias is indeed 'Candy'!”
• No one responded to her. They were now at a critical stage where it was a matter of life and death, and no doubt could be overlooked.
• “Guess it's my turn now,” the tattooed man muttered, his face showing clear reluctance. “If this lady's story isn't considered a lie, then mine surely won't be either. My name is Jeremiah Klein. I live in Grivoria and don't have a particular profession. Before I came here, I was in the business of debt collection.”
• Jeremiah's Corvainan was rather poor, leaving everyone straining to understand him.
• “It's quite amusing, the way people are these days. When they're borrowing money, they agree to everything, but when it's time to repay, they start weeping pathetically. Those f*ckers are always calling us debt collectors cold-blooded demons, but that dumb*ss should have considered things from another perspective. When he was most helpless and in dire need of money, I was the one who reached out to help. When all other institutions refused to lend him money, I did. To him, I wasn't the devil, but a savior. But how did he treat me, his savior? He went around lamenting, expressing how difficult his life was, having been swindled out of two million. He then harshly criticized us, the debt collectors, for being cold-blooded, even trying to use the sympathy of his neighbors to solve his own predicament. But when he borrowed the money, we signed a contract, and I clearly explained all the interest to him. Now that he can't pay it back, is it our fault? Last night, I had planned to teach him a lesson. I led him to the rooftop of a high-rise building, but out of nowhere, an earthquake struck. I never intended to take his life, but this coward took advantage of the chaos and pulled out a knife, ready to kill me! Amid the chaos, he pushed me off the rooftop, causing me to crash into a billboard. As for what happened next... I can't seem to remember.”
• After hearing this man's story, everyone present furrowed their brows.
• Candy seemed to realize something, laughing in anger she exclaimed, “See! I wondered why you were trying to tarnish my reputation! Turns out, you're the liar!”
• “What? On what grounds are you accusing me of lying?” Jeremiah said fiercely.
• “I was in Sablehaven, and you were in Grivoria!” Candy pointed at him and exclaimed, “Your story is blatantly copied from mine! There was an earthquake in my place, and astonishingly, you had one too. I got hit by a billboard, and you somehow managed to crash into one as well! If this isn't lying, then what is it?”
• “Who cares where you were? I did encounter an earthquake!” The tattooed man glared as he spoke. “If I had kept it a secret, then that would really be lying! As for the billboard, surely there isn't just one billboard in the whole world, right?”
• “In short, you're lying!” Candy pointed at Jeremiah. “Your profession is one that only bad people would do, so you lying isn't surprising!”
• “Heh, is your job really that much better than mine?”
• Skyler glanced at the two fiercely debating individuals, feeling that something about this situation was rather odd indeed.
• It wasn't because either of these two people were lying, but because he, too, had experienced an earthquake.
• He was neither in Sablehaven nor Grivoria but in Sonora.
• Does such a wide-ranging earthquake exist in this world?
• This earthquake spanned across half the country, impacting three states.
• If what they said is indeed true, wouldn't this be an unprecedented calamity?
• “Enough already, let's wrap this up,” the muscular man sitting opposite Skyler interjected, halting the two. He then shifted his gaze to the next woman. “It's your turn. If we're really going to judge who's lying, let's wait until everyone has finished their story.”
• Upon hearing these words, both of them scoffed coldly but fell silent.
• The woman beside Jeremiah nodded timidly, then spoke up. “Um... I'm Renee Sutton, a kindergarten teacher.”
• Renee appeared quite frightened. Her voice was barely audible and quavering.
• “Before coming here, I was waiting with a child for his parents. His mother used to pick him up, but I heard she fell seriously ill. There was a growth in her brain that required surgery, so these past few days, it's been his father picking him up. However, it seems like his father often forgets to come... Yesterday, it was already past six in the evening. Technically, I was well beyond my working hours. Yet, for some reason, the child's father just wouldn't answer the phone. I didn't know the kid's address, so I couldn't take him home. All I could do was stand with him at the crossroads, waiting. In truth, I had something going on that night. I had an appointment with a psychologist as I've been feeling somewhat discontent with my current job and was hoping the psychologist could provide me with some guidance. But I hadn't anticipated that I would end up waiting for several hours, and the evening appointment I had planned fell through. While I was lost in thought, the ground suddenly began to shake. I was terrified... It took me several seconds to realize it was an earthquake. The sensation of an earthquake wasn't as I had heard. The earth didn't jump up and down, but rather, it swayed from side to side. It felt as though I was standing on a table, with someone ceaselessly rocking it. Right away, I pulled the child next to me into my arms, but I was at a loss for what to do. In the distance, I could see that the Reverence Cathedral's three towers had all cracked. Thank goodness we were standing in an open space. Immediately after, I saw an out-of-control sedan hurtling toward us. All I could do was stagger to the side, clutching the child in my arms. But the trembling ground made me stumble with each step I took. In the end, I fell and hit my head. After that, I passed out. By the time I woke up, I was already here.”
• This was a narrative that didn't have any particular highlights.
• The only thing that struck Skyler as odd was the mention of the Reverence Cathedral's three towers.
• These three towers were located in the city of Drocver at Yublary.
• Skyler gently caressed the card on the table. Even though his hand covered the words, he knew what was written there—”the liar.”
• So, could there be multiple liars?
• If the rules were absolute, then Goat Head's statement that there was only one liar was also absolute.
• Having drawn the card himself, it was clear that no one else could possibly be the liar. There was only one liar, after all.
• Which meant everything they said was true.
• However, these stories that spanned across three different states subtly intertwined.
• It wasn't just the earthquake, but even the content of their stories that connected them together. Wasn't that rather peculiar?
• At that moment, everyone's gaze shifted to the next individual, the middle-aged man in the white coat.