# Chapter 438: Hidden Rules
"So that's how it is?" Zhou Liu frowned, about to say something, but then noticed the pomegranate in Qi Xia's hand. "Tsk, then why did you bring the fruit out of the 'Rat Room'?"
"I..." Qi Xia furrowed his brow as he looked toward the 'Cat Room' direction, feeling that some things weren't suitable to discuss right now. "Zhou Liu, you enter Room Number Two. Luo Shiyi, you enter Room Number Four."
"Huh? Then what about our fruits?" Luo Shiyi asked.
No sooner had he spoken than Wang Ba's door also opened, and he walked over holding a tangerine.
"You guys..." Wang Ba looked at the three people with some confusion. "What are you doing here?"
"We..." Zhou Liu and Luo Shiyi both gave bitter smiles. "We really don't know what we're doing. We're just following Qi Xia and doing whatever he says..."
"Hmph..." Wang Ba snorted coldly. "Fine, fine, everyone listen to him. From now on, he'll be Qi Ba."
Qi Xia almost laughed at Wang Ba's comment, but could only sigh. "I have no interest in your Number Eight position. And I've already said, I provoked you on purpose earlier. You can't keep holding a grudge like this."
"I know. I just can't get over it." Wang Ba pouted. "Here's your tangerine. I'm going back to rest."
"Don't give it to me." Qi Xia shook his head. "Take your own tangerine, plus their dragon fruit and pomegranate—three fruits in total—and bring them back to the 'Rat Room'."
"That's allowed?" Wang Ba was taken aback. He thought carefully about the rules, and it did seem to be the case—as long as one person triggered 'Transport', they could directly move all the 'fruits' that everyone had found.
Luo Shiyi and Zhou Liu handed their fruits to Wang Ba, then looked toward the direction of the 'Rat Room', where Qiu Shiliu was peering out in confusion.
"I... I don't need to do anything this round?" Qiu Shiliu asked.
"Not necessary." Qi Xia shook his head. "This round doesn't need a 'Commander'. We only need three 'Searching' rats."
Zhou Liu thought for a moment and asked, "Tsk, now that all three of us are in our rooms... according to your speculation, what are the chances we'll be caught next round?"
Qi Xia rubbed his chin and replied, "Approximately zero."
"Zero?" Luo Shiyi was stunned. "Whose probability of being caught is zero?"
"If I'm not mistaken, the probability of any of the three of us being caught is zero," Qi Xia answered.
Seeing that everyone still didn't understand, Qi Xia simply shook his head and told them to proceed according to their respective plans.
As soon as he stepped into the third room, a faint smile curled at the corner of Qi Xia's mouth.
"Just as I thought—'Papaya'."
In the center of the table sat four bright yellow papayas. This room was like a paradise, untouched by anyone since the beginning.
"Everything matches my speculation." Qi Xia walked to the wall and pressed the 'Search' button.
No red light came on in the room.
"'Cat' didn't set a mousetrap..." Qi Xia thought to himself. "Then you can only 'Patrol'. Right now, besides Rooms One and Five, all rooms have 'Rats'..."
With that thought, Qi Xia reached out and took all the papayas from the plate, then placed a pomegranate on it.
When the pomegranate was set on the plate, Qi Xia distinctly felt the plate sink, as if the weight of the pomegranate had just activated some mechanism.
The plate sank to its lowest point, flipped over instantly, and when it turned back, the fruit on top had already disappeared.
"So it really is 'Mutual Restraint'," Qi Xia said. "But what exactly does 'Mutual Restraint' do?"
Room One: Deep green door, representing Wood. Since Wood generates Fire, 'Dragon Fruit' appeared in the room.
Room Two: Deep yellow door, representing Metal. Since Metal generates Water, 'Peach' appeared in the room.
Room Three: Deep blue door, representing Water. Since Water generates Wood, 'Papaya' appeared in the room.
Room Four: Deep red door, representing Fire. Since Fire generates Earth, 'Pomegranate' appeared in the room.
Room Five: Deep brown door, representing Earth. Since Earth generates Metal, 'Kumquat' appeared in the room.
"What a clever person, Earth Rat." Qi Xia nodded with satisfaction. "If you treat this game as an ordinary game of 'cat and mouse', then as the game progresses, many 'Rats' will gradually discover that food is insufficient. They'll choose to give up saving others and just try to survive on their own. That way, you can take the lives of several participants without lifting a finger. Although you lose five 'Dao' and fresh fruit every round, you can steadily kill participants, and even..."
Qi Xia knew that if the 'Rats' were unlucky, there was a very high chance they would all be wiped out.
After all, when only two or three 'Rats' remained, the 'Cat' could 'Patrol' every round, searching two rooms at once, drastically increasing the probability of catching 'Rats'.
"And you also hid one of the most important things..." Qi Xia frowned and said. "'Cat' can do more than one thing per round... as long as you have 'Satiety Value', you can keep acting."
The biggest clue was the single remaining pomegranate in the 'Cat Room'.
If the 'Cat' acted the same as the 'Rats', then he should have brought back three pomegranates. Where were the other two?
The answer was that he had set one 'Mousetrap' and conducted one 'Search' in the same round. These two actions consumed two points of his Satiety Value. So, to be safe, he had to eat two fruits to ensure he could act in the next round. After all, when explaining the rules, the 'Cat' said, "I will choose my actions each round," but never mentioned that he could only take one action.
"That means your 'Satiety Value' upper limit is at least three points, so you can confidently take two actions..." After pondering, Qi Xia nodded again. "Such an excellent game, yet you claim you won't kill the 'Rats' immediately... It seems I might have misjudged you, Earth Rat. Are you going easy? If I were you... no one participating in this game would walk out alive."
*Clunk!*
A dull sound came from the room. The offering table by the wall trembled and then began to move.
A few seconds later, a pitch-black secret passage behind the offering table came into Qi Xia's view.
"I see..." Qi Xia nodded. "When a fruit and a room are in Mutual Restraint, the room loses its ability to 'lock', and the 'Rat' inside can't be trapped. In other words... if a 'Rat' is smart enough, they can dig a hole and escape."
But where did this secret passage lead?
Qi Xia picked up all the papayas from the table, then bent down and entered the secret passage.
At this point, he no longer needed to consider the "can only transport three" limitation, because the action he had chosen this round was not 'Transport'.