Chapter 480: Is the Plan Meticulous?
"What the heck?!" Chen Junnan was taken aback. "You're saying your 'Echo' is 'Phase Through Walls'?"
"Uh..." Seeing Chen Junnan's strong reaction, Cui Shisi was also startled. "Team leader, do you know me?"
"Oh, no, no..." Chen Junnan shook his head. "It's just that I often fantasize that my 'Echo' is 'Phase Through Walls'..."
"Why?" Cui Shisi felt a bit curious and couldn't help asking back. "It's not a powerful ability. You might not know how many times I've almost suffocated to death inside walls..."
"Is that so?" Chen Junnan scratched his nose. "But I think 'Phase Through Walls' is really practical. At least much more than mine..."
At that point, Chen Junnan swallowed the words "Scapegoat" back into his stomach.
"Right, team leader..." Song Qi turned to Chen Junnan. "We've known each other for a while now, but we still don't know what your 'Echo' is."
Everyone looked at Chen Junnan with eager anticipation. Logically, someone that Qian Wu valued so highly must have no ordinary ability.
Seeing their expressions, Chen Junnan first curled the corner of his mouth, then reached out to put an arm around Song Qi's shoulder, giving a forced smile to the group. "Little Song, don't pry into adult matters. You guys shouldn't listen either. My ability would scare even myself if I said it out loud."
"Huh?"
"Anyway, don't ask. It'll stop working if I tell you." Chen Junnan said. "Just remember that my ability can save your life at a critical moment..."
"Uh..." Now everyone was truly curious. An ability that could save lives at a critical moment sounded extremely rare. But why wouldn't he tell them?
"Alright, alright." Chen Junnan waved his hand. "I roughly know all your abilities now. Let's start discussing tactics."
"This..." Song Qi gave a wry smile. "Team leader, we haven't even told you our 'Echo Triggers' yet..."
"No need, no need." Chen Junnan quickly waved again. "If you tell me, I'll get confused. Let's just let everything take its natural course. When the cart reaches the mountain, there will be a road; when the boat reaches the bridge, it will go straight."
Song Qi, who was usually cautious, now truly felt helpless. Qi Xia, Qiao Jiajin, and Qian Wu, the leaders of the other three groups, all seemed more reliable than this Chen Junnan. But how did he end up joining his team?
"In that case, let me share my thoughts first." Cui Shisi spoke up first. Chen Junnan recalled that when Ditu was explaining the rules earlier, Song Qi had also been the first to ask for her opinion. It seemed she would be the "strategist" in this game.
"Little Fourteen, go ahead."
"I think the most important thing in this game is 'field of vision'." Cui Shisi said, hitting the nail on the head.
"'Field of vision'?"
"Yes." Cui Shisi nodded. "We start from the same room as Ditu. He can see every direction each of us is heading. That's extremely fatal. We need to shake off Ditu's view as soon as possible, so he has no idea which way we're going."
"Hmm..." Chen Junnan nodded after listening. "Little girl, you're starting to remind me of Old Qi."
"I don't know who Old Qi is." Cui Shisi replied seriously. "But we need to 'close the doors' as much as possible. Don't let Ditu see which door we actually entered. Later on, his pursuit of us will be disrupted, and we'll have a higher chance of escaping from here."
Song Qi pursed his lips, then looked at the structure of the room before them. "But our starting room only has two doors..."
"Exactly, so we need to split up." Cui Shisi said. "The six of us should split into two teams from the very beginning to minimize losses."
"Is that safe?" Song Qi asked. "Even if we split into two teams and enter two doors separately, Ditu will still chase one of the teams. It's unlikely we'll shake him off."
"Splitting into two teams is just the first step." Cui Shisi continued. "We should change to three teams midway through the game, giving Ditu the false impression that we're still in two. Later, we split into six teams, each operating independently, lead Ditu in circles, and then scatter to escape."
"I see." Song Qi nodded. "Sounds like a relatively reliable plan. If anything happens, we'll just have to improvise..."
Chen Junnan had been standing nearby picking his nose, pondering the feasibility of the plan. After a moment, he reached out and patted Song Qi on the shoulder. "Little Song, hold on."
"Hey, don't pat me with the hand you used to pick your nose..."
"Don't get excited, hold on, hold on." Chen Junnan thought for a moment and said, "Isn't your focus a bit off?"
"Off?" Cui Shisi stared at him with her big, lively eyes. "Where?"
"In this game... can we actually 'lead Ditu in circles'?" Chen Junnan asked.
"What do you mean..."
Chen Junnan walked to the wall nearby, used his fingernail to scratch out a four-by-four chessboard pattern, then drew a circle in the top-left square and a triangle in the bottom-right square.
"Our goal is to escape from the circle... to the triangle through several rounds of movement." He said. "Did I understand that correctly?"
"That's right." Cui Shisi nodded.
"During this process, anyone who encounters Ditu gets killed." Chen Junnan added.
"Yes."
"Then isn't it possible..." Chen Junnan pointed at the triangle in the bottom-right of the board. "That Ditu doesn't need to chase us at all? He only needs to reach this triangle earlier than us, guard the exit, and none of us can leave?"
"This..." Chen Junnan's words struck like a bolt of enlightenment, making everyone present hesitate.
Indeed, the rules never said Ditu couldn't guard the exit. If he really got there first, everyone could only wait for death.
But Ditu only needed one action to "move." That meant he could travel faster than all of them. Why would he possibly arrive later?
"I've got a very reckless plan..." Chen Junnan suddenly revealed a sinister smile. "If I tell this plan, even Old Qi would praise my intelligence."
Looking at Chen Junnan's smile, everyone suddenly had an ominous premonition.
"Team leader... what exactly is your plan?"
"Oh... nothing much." Chen Junnan waved his hand. "I just want to take on two 'door-closing disciples.' Anyone want to learn 'door closing'?"
"Huh?"
Song Qi was visibly stunned after hearing Chen Junnan's words. "'Door-closing disciples'? What do you mean? What exactly are you going to do?"
"Think about it." Chen Junnan said. "Since Ditu uses up all his action points every round 'unlocking' and 'opening the door,' we need to proactively leave two people behind to keep closing the door on him. Trap that old man in the starting room so he can't get out."
As Chen Junnan's words fell, complex expressions appeared on everyone's faces.