# Chapter 1017: The First Mistake
"Maybe we should just try first...?" Qiao Jiajin said. "What happens if we fail? Will the 'character' be swallowed up?"
"I'm not sure," Qi Xia replied. "I only know this will be very risky."
Qiao Jiajin looked at the '?' on the screen, sighed, and said, "Liar... in this game, how often do 'rare characters' come up?"
"Probably quite often," Qi Xia said. "After all, the thickness of a dictionary far exceeds what normal people can imagine. No matter how strange the radical, it's possible to form an uncommon character."
"In that case..." Qiao Jiajin thought it over. "Rather than using another 'character' to test the wrong answer, we might as well use this one. Since there's no way to get it right anyway, it won't be a pity if we're wrong."
Qi Xia felt Qiao Jiajin had a point. Making a mistake on a rare character like this was far more acceptable than making a careless error on a simple character.
"Alright then." Qi Xia nodded. "Anyway, Chu Tianqiu will make mistakes too. In this round, it's all about who makes fewer mistakes."
Qi Xia carefully considered the current situation. Even if guessing wrong meant the 'character' would be swallowed, he could still accept it.
After all, he had already made full use of the '相' character to score points. If this 'character' completely disappeared from the game, Chu Tianqiu's loss would be even greater.
He would permanently lose the chance to use radicals like '木', '目', and '罒'. Even if in the end neither side could gather twenty-eight 'characters', Qi Xia's own count wouldn't necessarily be lower.
Qi Xia reached out and touched the rough screen.
Now he needed to write a homophone for '?'.
Unfortunately, there was no way to determine the pronunciation of this 'character' through guessing alone. He only knew that its pronunciation probably wasn't 'lin' as Qiao Jiajin had suggested.
There were over thirteen hundred possible pronunciations in Chinese. He could only thank Qiao Jiajin for eliminating one of them.
"Liar... which character are you planning to write?" Qiao Jiajin asked.
"You mentioned earlier... 'mold' as in 'a mold'," Qi Xia said.
Qiao Jiajin paused, then asked, "Are you really not considering 'lin'?"
"I'll consider it next time..." Qi Xia said.
In his mind, 'mold' was the best option at this moment. After all, '模' could be pronounced as 'mó' or 'mú'. As long as one of these two similar pronunciations was correct, he could score.
So he moved his fingertip and slowly wrote the character '模' on the screen. At this moment, his mood inevitably tensed up.
After all, the chances of this pronunciation being wrong were extremely high, and the consequences of a wrong guess could be severe.
Just as expected, a few seconds later, the entire display screen flashed red, and a line of red text appeared—
— "Creation Failed."
What Qi Xia hadn't anticipated was that the "Phoenix-Bearing-Letter Platform" didn't swallow the 'character'. It merely lost its magnetic force instantly. Several metal 'characters' fell to the ground with a clatter, like decals that had lost their adhesive.
The font on the screen flickered a few times before changing its appearance—
"Red side's first creation failure, final score reduced by one."
Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin both frowned when they saw this sentence. The score on the screen dropped from "ten points" back to "nine points." Among the ten successfully created 'characters' that had floated beside it, one dimmed.
The glow of '眯' appeared more gray than the other 'characters', as if it had become invalid.
"I... damn..." Qiao Jiajin was stunned. "Not only does this 'lin' character not count, but that '眯' from before doesn't count anymore either."
Qi Xia bent down to pick up the 'character', feeling a bit strange.
He wasn't surprised that his guess was wrong. He just felt the penalty was too light.
The 'character' didn't disappear. The 'person' didn't die. The 'game' didn't change. Not even the 'referee' showed up. Just a one-point deduction...?
If that was the case, when encountering a relatively certain 'rare character', couldn't they still try to guess?
Guess right, get one point. Guess wrong, lose one point. It sounded too much like an ordinary gamble.
But although this was the "Earth Dragon's" game, it ultimately originated from "Azure Dragon." Would he set up such an ordinary game?
"Wait..."
Qi Xia's gaze focused on that line of text on the screen. A phrase caught his attention—
— "First creation failure."
"First..." Qi Xia seemed to have thought of something key.
That is to say, the reason for losing one point this time was "first creation failure." By this logic, would "second creation failure" mean losing two points...?
Or would the penalties become increasingly severe, even including penalties like 'swallowing characters'?
Qi Xia reached out and touched the "Phoenix-Bearing-Letter Platform." Although all the 'characters' had initially been presented by flipping over this piece of black magnetic metal, now it was tightly stuck, completely immobile.
In other words, if it didn't just lose its magnetism but actually flipped over, turning all the 'characters' to the back side, there would be no way to retrieve those 'characters' anymore.
"'Swallowing characters' is possible... just not now," Qi Xia said.
"What are you talking about?" Qiao Jiajin asked.
"The cost of making mistakes will increase each time, but he has reserved a few opportunities for us to make mistakes," Qi Xia said. "But regardless... 'creation failure' will be a loss for us. The 'characters' we painstakingly created might become invalid because of this. From now on, try not to use 'rare characters' you're unsure about."
"Alright." Qiao Jiajin nodded. "This one's on me."
"No, we always have to 'test our mistakes'." Qi Xia said. "Chu Tianqiu will definitely 'test his mistakes' too. But this 'testing mistakes' is somewhat different from 'crossing the river.' Once the opponent's pieces that can't 'cross the river' commit a foul, we share intelligence and both know the outcome of the mistake. But 'character creation' isn't like that... Chu Tianqiu definitely won't tell us the result of his 'testing mistakes.' So sooner or later, we have to try it ourselves. Now is perfect... just pretend that strange 'character' doesn't exist."
"Fine." Qiao Jiajin nodded, then turned around. "In that case... Liar, I'll go to the writing area first and wait for their game to end."
"Fist, you..." Qi Xia hesitated. "You know the most suitable place to wait for them, right?"
"Of course."
Qiao Jiajin twisted his neck, swung his arms, then crouched down to stretch his legs. "If I want to completely block their way back, I should naturally hold the 'river channel,' right? Once I see that Big Guy there, that's when I make my move."
"Be careful yourself," Qi Xia said.
"I know."