Chapter 309: The Trajectory of the Iron Ball
Yun Yao patiently explained the entire principle to Chen Junnan, and only then did he begin to understand roughly.
“So you used numbers to represent each person?” Chen Junnan nodded, looking at the words he had carved all over the wall. “That’s definitely more convenient than mine...”
“You’ve been a huge help, Chen Junnan.” Yun Yao closed her eyes and quickly recalled the previous few questions. Thinking carefully, they really had nothing to do with ‘right or wrong,’ only ‘left or right.’ Our final answer for each round determines the direction the iron ball moves.
Once that was clear, combined with the ability to modify the question at any time, there was a very high probability they could control the timing of a kill.
Chen Junnan’s freewheeling train of thought had indeed been a great help. The two of them might be the first to find the true ‘answer.’
After all, the person who had modified the question twice before had changed it to ‘Should I sit down?’ both times. That showed that while he could modify the question, his methods were rather crude and likely to arouse suspicion.
Chen Junnan let out a ‘heh heh’ laugh, then said, “Your little lord knows he’s quite handsome, but don’t go falling in love with me.”
“Don’t worry. I don’t like men,” Yun Yao said without hesitation.
“Ah?”
This answer clearly caught Chen Junnan off guard.
Yun Yao thought for a moment, then asked, “So you plan to keep choosing ‘No’ in order to move the ‘death’ as far to our right as possible, right?”
“That’s right, that’s my idea.” Chen Junnan nodded in agreement. “Let’s try to make the giant ball land over there first. We can look for other rules later.”
Yun Yao slowly nodded after hearing this. “It seems that coming to participate in this game with you was a good choice after all. As long as I don’t die, or if I manage to obtain ‘Echo,’ I can get a complete strategy guide for this ‘Earth’ level.”
Chen Junnan suddenly became interested.
“Big star, why does your organization collect strategy guides?”
“Because we want to bet all the ‘Zodiac’ to death,” Yun Yao replied firmly.
“Oh ho?” Chen Junnan hadn’t expected that answer. “Why are you playing so big?”
“That’s our driving force.” Yun Yao let out a long breath and said, “If I have to survive here long-term without a goal... I’ll go crazy.”
“But is betting the ‘Zodiac’ to death meaningful...?” Chen Junnan asked, puzzled.
“Don’t say anymore.” Yun Yao seemed to know something and quickly interrupted him. “No matter what the meaning is, this is the direction I’m heading.”
“Alright...” Chen Junnan nodded. “Then I understand.”
The two hung up, and Chen Junnan dialed the next room.
After eleven rings, the other party answered.
“Sister Qian, long time no see. How’ve you been?”
“Speak like a human.”
“Got it.” Chen Junnan gave a dry laugh. “The question this time is: ‘Does a year have five seasons, yes or no?’”
“What a stupid question...” Xu Qian sighed. “I got it. I’m hanging up.”
“Wait.” Chen Junnan stopped her.
“What?”
“Sister Qian, three rounds.” Chen Junnan smirked. “Within three rounds, I’ll make one of the participants die horribly, but I’ll make sure you survive.”
That brief sentence sent a chill down Xu Qian’s spine.
“You... why are you telling me this?”
“I want to prove that I’ve completely figured out the rules and can freely control the timing of a kill.” Chen Junnan gave a wicked grin. “Sister Qian, I’m threatening you. Get nervous!”
“Wh... what?” Xu Qian was indeed a bit flustered. “Are you saying you’ve already understood this game?”
“That’s right.” Chen Junnan nodded. “If things really happen exactly as I said within three rounds... I want you to call Di She over. Otherwise, your young master will kill you immediately.”
“You...” Xu Qian thought for a moment, then still put up some bravado. “We’ll talk after three rounds.”
The two hung up in a less-than-pleasant manner.
Chen Junnan didn’t care. He leaned back in his chair and waited patiently.
Right now, the giant ball should be hovering over the girl to Yun Yao’s right. If the answer this time was ‘Yes,’ the ball would return to above Yun Yao’s head. If ‘No’...
He reached out and tapped the position diagram he had drawn on the wall.
“The Quiet Man... your turn.”
Text gradually lit up on the screen.
“The final answer for this question is — ‘No.’”
As expected.
This was now the seventh question.
As the ‘first person’ who received the question moved farther and farther away from him, the impact of Chen Junnan’s modified question grew larger and larger.
After all, everyone behind him would receive his altered question and thus change their own answers.
Next, he had a very high probability of killing the participant to the right of the ‘Quiet Man.’ It was just a matter of ‘wanting’ or ‘not wanting.’
As the sound of the chain above rumbled, the iron ball should have already been suspended over the head of that ‘Quiet Man.’
But since there was still one more question before it would ‘drop,’ he wouldn’t die this time.
A few minutes later, Yun Yao called again. This time, the question was just as absurd.
“Does a year have twelve months?”
Chen Junnan grinned and dialed Xu Qian.
But he slightly modified the question.
“Does a year have thirteen months?”
At the end of the eighth round, the answer was still ‘No.’
Although he couldn’t see the giant ball, he could infer that it had now moved far away from Yun Yao, at least two rooms apart.
To Yun Yao’s right were the ‘Anxious Woman’ and the ‘Quiet Man.’ By now, the giant ball had passed over both their heads and was hovering over a stranger.
And the person who received the question first now—if his calculations were correct—should be roughly opposite him.
If it wasn’t the woman in the white dress, then it was the person to her left.
Chen Junnan roughly constructed a map in his mind.
According to Yun Yao, her coordinate was ‘0,’ since she was the starting point of everything.
The first question had appeared on her screen, and the first giant ball should have been above her head.
Now it was about to be the ninth question, so the next person to ask would be at coordinate ‘-8’—the eighth person to Yun Yao’s left. Meanwhile, the giant ball was above coordinate ‘3’—the third person to Yun Yao’s right.
“Huh...?”
Chen Junnan felt something was off.
Since the participants were in a circular venue with twelve rooms in total, the coordinates of these two rooms weren’t simply ‘-8’ and ‘3.’
Because ‘-8’ could also be written as ‘4’ in this circular coordinate system, and ‘3’ could also be written as ‘-9.’
“They’re neighbors...?”
Now the problem became more direct. Had the ‘questioner’ fully understood the rules?
Would he pass the question ‘Should it fall?’ unchanged to his neighbor?