Chapter 1885

After Schiller returned to the camp, Seeing Natasha and Stark, who hadn't participated in the game, both expressed surprise at the burn on his hand.

Schiller didn't want to use the gray mist, but with limited medical resources, if he could have used his own ability to recover but didn't, it would undoubtedly be a waste of resources. So, after showing the scar to Seeing Natasha and Stark, he let the gray mist heal the wound.

"First, let's confirm the time flow. From the moment I left to go to the mission location until the end of the game, the time I silently calculated in my heart was about three hours."

Seeing Natasha looked up at her watch, nodded, and said, "That's about right. It seems that playing the game doesn't change the time flow."

"Tell us what exactly is going on." Stark sat up straight on the sofa, placing his hands on his knees.

Schiller began his detailed account. He first explained the rules of the entire game very clearly, and then began his own analysis.

Accompanied by Schiller's narration, this match-stick-throwing game slowly unfolded from Schiller's perspective.

Schiller was actually the second to arrive. The rules previously stated by the organizer were that after deciding to participate in the game, one had to go to the game location on their own. Schiller guessed that this might be to increase the possibility of the duelists meeting. If they happened to meet on the way and started fighting, it would easily affect the progress of participating in the game.

After the game started, the organizer didn't give any hints. Schiller simply walked along the direction of the room doors until the mark on the back of his hand began to feel a bit hot.

Schiller discovered that walking in the correct direction made the mark on his hand hotter and hotter, so it didn't take long for him to find the small wooden house located in the forest.

After entering, he found that Carol was already waiting there. Of course, Mystique's perfect physical mimicry advantage was indeed unique. She didn't speak, and Schiller couldn't tell she was a fake.

But as the saying goes, the biggest flaw of a fake is knowing that they are a fake. As long as they know they are fake, they will try their best to prove they are real. Mystique Raven seemed to be trying to find a good ally for herself in the upcoming game, so she took the initiative to step forward and chat with Schiller.

Schiller didn't actually know Captain Marvel, Carol, very well; he had only heard a few words from Nick. But he saw clearly that the other person's demeanor and movements were unusual.

If it were anyone else, they might just think the other person changed their behavioral pattern because they were nervous or irritable, but Schiller was different—he was a mental patient with a broad train of thought.

Schiller immediately began to think: could this Captain Marvel be an impostor?

He was just thinking this when the Joker walked in. At that time, Schiller was standing directly opposite the room door, so they immediately locked eyes.

The Joker was stunned, and Schiller was stunned too.

They never expected that in a game with 600 participants, they would run into a fellow patient in the very first round they each participated in.

They confirmed that the other was of the same kind in the first second they met, but neither pointed it out. Instead, the Joker, like a socially maladjusted homeless man, squatted to the side after entering and remained silent.

Kitty was the last to enter, and like Carol, she hurriedly started talking, laughing, and making movements to show off her persona as soon as she came in. Schiller naturally saw that something was wrong.

But the problem Schiller faced at this moment was that he knew more information than others—that is, information about the abilities of various characters in the Marvel and DC universes. But precisely because of this, there were simply too many characters with the ability to mimic others, and he couldn't filter them out for a while.

When the game rules were read, Schiller did listen carefully, but these game rules were too simple. Even the matches were only given 10, meaning the winner would be decided in at most four rounds. Even an ordinary person with a little intelligence could calculate it clearly.

In fact, the essence of this game was to put pressure on the last person, but also give them a means to perish together, while setting some implicit unfavorable conditions to make people suspicious of each other.

But Schiller instinctively noticed that something was wrong with this game. In essence, this game shouldn't be like this because it didn't fit either side.

Just as Stark said, intelligence is divided into many types. The brain's hard calculation ability is one of the most common, such as mental calculation of square roots or calculating complex formulas, which are all tests of the brain's hard-solving ability.

Since there is hard-solving, there is soft-solving. Guessing the other party's psychological behavioral patterns and knowledge of game theory actually tests a person's IQ rather than EQ.

To give a simple example, rock-paper-scissors where you can lie is actually the most classic game theory game. If I say I'm going to throw scissors, you have to guess whether I want you to throw rock and then I throw paper to bluff you, or if I'm using this thinking in reverse, knowing that you've seen through my first layer of schemes and know you'll throw scissors, so I throw rock.

To give another classic example, the Joker's "I predicted your prediction" is actually a typical psychological game.

This tests how many layers a person's brain can calculate, which is also a manifestation of IQ.

The reason why this match-stick-throwing game is said to be neither here nor there is that as a game testing hard-solving ability, its rules are too simple, and there isn't much room for play.

Let's put it this way: as long as a few changes were made, the difficulty of the entire game could be raised by a level. For example, make the total number of matches 100, increase the upper limit of throwing matches to 10, but if the number of matches thrown by the previous person is a prime number, then the number of matches thrown by the next person must be an adjacent composite number, and vice versa. However, require that the total number of matches in odd-numbered rounds be odd, and the total in even-numbered rounds be even; otherwise, the brazier explodes.

This actually doesn't count as very difficult—it's just addition and subtraction within 10—but it also incorporates certain game theory techniques.

For example, if one person throws 5, the next can only throw 4 or 6. Although throwing 6 is advantageous to oneself, it leaves the next person with only 5 or 7. If the third person still chooses 7, which is advantageous to them, and the fourth person chooses 8, which is advantageous to them, the result is 26, which is an even number. If this were the first round of the game, the brazier would explode.

But if after one round, the number pool isn't cleared but continues starting with 8, the first person can only choose 7 because 9 isn't a prime number and other numbers aren't adjacent. But if that were the case, it would fall into a 7-8 loop, and the four people would inevitably choose two 7s and two 8s, leading to a result that is always even, so they would definitely lose.

Such game rules would lead to a greatly increased amount of calculation. Everyone would have to calculate what they should choose several rounds ahead, and the error tolerance would be extremely low. If one person only cared about themselves, everyone would die together.

If one wanted to test hard-solving ability, this rule would be a relatively basic way to play. In addition, one could use relative conversion formulas or reverse division. Anyway, either one would be much more interesting than this addition and subtraction within 10.

If one leaned towards game theory, the simplest way would be to change from open cards to hidden cards, with each person having 10-20 matches, neither knowing how many matches the other has.

One could also set 20 matches but have them thrown secretly under the table, without limiting the number of matches thrown at once, but as long as the total exceeds 21, it explodes. After everyone throws, they say how many they threw, but they can lie. This would definitely be a chaotic brawl of mutual deception and acting.

If one looks at the rules of this game as stated by the organizer, the required mental calculation ability is not high, but the required psychological game skills are not strong enough either. So what exactly is this game played for?

There is only one possibility: this is another trap set by the organizer. Logic games very likely test more than just logic.

They just call this game "logic," but there are no rules guaranteeing that it only tests logic, or rather, they didn't say it only tests logic.

If that's the case, then perhaps some violent means are allowed, but the rules very clearly state that the range of activity is very small, so getting into a fight directly in the house won't work.

Pulling or pushing others isn't very feasible either. Everyone has matches in their hands, and matches themselves can ignite wood; there's no need to go through charcoal. Once someone else perceives an intention to attack, and the other party feels they cannot resist, it's very easy for them to give up and just ignite the matches to burn the house down.

Even if you push the other party out of bounds, the one with quick hands can find a way to ignite the matches. According to the warm reminder at the end of the rules, the flammability of the entire house is absolutely beyond imagination.

Since such an unconventional move won't work, one still has to rely on the rules, so naturally, one can only focus on the props used in the game.

Using matches to ignite others isn't very feasible because the risk is also very high. If the other party risks being eliminated by going out of bounds to ignite the house, that wouldn't be good.

Then one can only use the only remaining prop, which is the brazier.

Simply put, Schiller inferred from the kindergarten-level difficulty of the game that the focus of this game is definitely not logic, and further inferred that there must be a key prop for hurting people, so the scorching brazier is the best choice.

And the next step is to decide on the target for elimination.

This was decided unanimously by Schiller and the Joker, even before the game started.

As mentioned before, Schiller and the Joker arrived before Kitty. So why didn't the Joker go crazy before Kitty arrived? But after Kitty arrived, he grabbed Schiller by the throat and said something about human skin and taking off masks?

If he couldn't stand Schiller, he should have threatened him the first time he saw him. Why wait until another person came in?

The Joker's talk about "I take off the mask, you take off the human skin" was actually saying that the person who came later also wore a mask, and we should choose them as the target and take off their mask.

Schiller guessed that the Joker might have recognized Clayface. As for how he recognized him, it's better to explore less of the affairs between Arkham fan groups.

Just like that, Schiller and the Joker reached a deal in extremely cryptic words, and the two quickly determined their positions in this plan.

The Joker played the bad cop, constantly using verbal attacks on Carol, making a gesture that she must be eliminated, creating a safe environment for the remaining, relatively weaker Kitty.

Schiller played the good cop, on one hand adjusting the tense atmosphere between the Joker and Carol so that the play could continue, and on the other hand, constantly deepening the image of being trustworthy in Kitty's mind.

Then, step by step, he induced Kitty—that is, Clayface—to feel that he could join Schiller and the Joker's alliance to deal with Carol together, thereby making the judgment that the Joker would make a move in the next round, and actively letting the Joker skip raising the brazier.

Because this decision was made by himself, he wouldn't have any defenses when he made it, which effectively allowed Schiller to deal critical damage with a normal attack.

Just like that, Schiller and the Joker set a trap, eliminated the unlucky Clayface from a certain universe, and at the same time made others in the team realize that the type of game was very likely a smokescreen.

And Steve and Peter, who returned from another game, also confirmed this speculation.