Chapter 314: Chen Junnan's Path
"You're betting your life against a 'Di-level' with only thirty percent odds?" Yun Yao felt Chen Junnan had completely lost his mind.
"'Thirty percent' is too low?" Chen Junnan said seriously. "To me, 'thirty percent' is already a very good result."
"What?"
"Big star... if I had a thirty percent chance of winning every time I bet my life against a Di-level, theoretically three 'participants' could kill one 'Di-level.'"
Yun Yao felt something was off after hearing this. "That's not how the math works..."
"Fine, let's say I'm bad at math and got it wrong. So how about four? How about five?" Chen Junnan's tone grew increasingly serious. "Ten participants in exchange for one Di-level's life—is that enough?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"There are only a little over twenty Di-levels total. But how many participants are there?" Chen Junnan hit the nail on the head. "If everyone could unite and fight together one after another, the 'Zodiacs' would have been wiped out by now. Even if losing means turning into an 'Original,' so what? As long as this damn place can be destroyed, we can all still escape, can't we?"
Yun Yao knew Chen Junnan was making a very valid point. If they truly wanted to gamble all the 'Zodiacs' to death, uniting everyone in the entire 'Land of the End' would naturally be the optimal solution.
But even that optimal solution couldn't escape human nature.
Everyone knew that charging forward would bring victory, but who was willing to be at the very front?
"You also know this is just a concept," Yun Yao sighed. "All the 'participants' aren't a disciplined army. They each have their own thoughts, and among them are no shortage of cowards and selfish people."
"So your little lord here will be the selfless one," Chen Junnan said with a smile. "Although I don't know if gambling all the 'Zodiacs' to death will actually work... I'll use Earth Snake as a test subject, at least."
On the other end of the phone, Yun Yao fell into deep thought. She felt that Chen Junnan seemed to know a lot about the 'Land of the End,' but he was also hiding quite a few things. She wasn't sure what his real goal was.
"You don't need to worry about the question earlier," Chen Junnan said. "The question setter is 'Xuanwu.' She most likely won't use Earth Snake's device. That question was just her randomly pressing buttons. I suspect every question from now on will be like this."
"Then... what are you planning to do?"
"What else can I do?" Chen Junnan laughed. "We don't have a 'question setter' anymore. This game has now turned into a pure 'left-right' game. All the questions are completely in the players' hands."
Chen Junnan gave a few more instructions and then hung up.
Now he had a more important task—
Pinpointing the location of that old lecher, Earth Snake.
Things had gotten a bit tricky.
The room to his left had originally been empty. In theory, a single phone call could determine whether Earth Snake had chosen that room.
But Earth Snake was well-versed in the game's rules.
He knew that after Xuanwu took over, the 'questions' were completely irrelevant. From now on, actively controlling 'Yes' and 'No' was the way to dominate the game.
So he might refuse to answer the phone in order to hide his location.
That way, there was no way to determine whether his coordinate was '-2' or '3.'
Chen Junnan pressed the dial button and waited for a moment. As he expected, no one answered in the room to his left. The ringtone sounded eleven times before Xu Qian picked up.
"Hello?"
"Qian Jie..." Chen Junnan called out. "I'll tell you the question. Let's see what everyone here thinks."
"Alright..."
Chen Junnan closed his eyes and thought for a moment. Assuming Earth Snake was indeed in the room to his left but didn't answer the phone, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
It meant Earth Snake couldn't interfere with the question. His idea would be accurately relayed to Xu Qian.
And since Earth Snake had joined the game, the others no longer needed to kill each other. As long as they could kill Earth Snake, they could evenly split all the 'Dao' on him. So their unity should be relatively higher.
Chen Junnan slowly opened his eyes and said, "Qian Jie, here's the question: 'Someone has bet their life against Earth Snake. Let's all kill Earth Snake together, shall we?'"
"That's a good one..." Xu Qian nodded. "As long as this question spreads throughout the venue, the 'participants' might take the initiative."
"Not necessarily," Chen Junnan denied. "After all, in other people's eyes, this is just an ordinary question. No one can prove it's true. But... go ahead and spread it like this for now."
"Alright."
After they hung up, Chen Junnan looked again at the distribution map he had drawn on the wall.
The room to his left and the third room to Yun Yao's right were both empty.
Earth Snake was hiding in one of those two rooms.
Right now, the iron ball was suspended directly above the third room to Yun Yao's right. If the answer to this question was 'Yes,' the iron ball would continue moving to the left.
Chen Junnan had already decided on his tactic.
This time 'Yes,' next time 'No,' to make the iron ball return to '3.'
Then on the third question, 'Should it drop?' choose 'Yes,' and smash it down hard.
No matter whether Earth Snake was in that room or not, he'd smash him hard a few times.
But all of this depended on the participants uniting. As long as no one modified the question, Chen Junnan's information would reach at least six people. Adding himself and Yun Yao, the number of people who knew Earth Snake was in the game would reach eight. That was the 'majority' either way. Earth Snake could only wait for death.
If luck was even slightly better, and Earth Snake wasn't in '3' at all but in '-2,' then he wouldn't have any chance to modify the question. Everyone on the field would know that Earth Snake had joined the competition.
Then the iron ball would drop ten more times. The best approach was obviously to have it land on Earth Snake's head every time. No matter how tough his body was, he would eventually die without a doubt.
After a long wait of several minutes, the screen in front of Chen Junnan flickered.
"The final answer to this question is—'Yes.'"
"Hmm..." Chen Junnan hesitated and nodded. Just one 'Yes' still couldn't reveal the full picture. Did the others know that Earth Snake had joined the competition?
He could only wait and see how things progressed.
"The next question is the eleventh one..." Chen Junnan looked at the distribution map on the wall and slowly furrowed his brow.
The eleventh person... was exactly '3'!
"Haha!" Chen Junnan couldn't help but laugh out loud. According to the rules, the first person to receive the question had to pass it to the next person via phone.
If he continued playing dead, he would definitely be violating the rules.
"You old bastard Earth Snake, there's no way you're slipping out of this now!"
Now it was just a matter of waiting. Waiting for this question to be transmitted. If Earth Snake wanted to live, he would have to transmit it and modify the question.
*Brrrring—!!*
The moment the phone rang, Chen Junnan had already put it to his ear.
"Go ahead."
"Chen Junnan!" Yun Yao's voice was a mix of excitement and tension. "Earth Snake has shown himself. His coordinate is '3'!"