Chapter 4634

In the originally pitch-black cylindrical hall, as the two figures who had just crawled out of the passage walked in, the torches lit up one by one, illuminating the place brightly. But at the same time, it also made it impossible for one to adapt to such bright light for a moment. Erik squinted slightly.

In the center of the hall sat a peculiar container, a cylindrical tank almost the same shape as the hall, sealed with metal at the top and bottom, and wrapped with a circle of metal wire in the middle. What was inside the tank wasn't liquid, but a mechanism that looked a bit like a scale from afar.

Erik stepped forward first. He saw that on the side of the cylindrical tank facing the passage, there was a square wooden opening. The opening wasn't large, just about enough for someone to reach their arm in. And on the wooden board below the opening, a hand pattern was drawn.

There was a tube at this opening, connecting to the top of the scale inside the tank. On the right side of the scale was a huge metal basin. The basin was opaque, and one couldn't see what was inside. But at this moment, the right side of the scale was pressed down slightly, and the left side was tilted up a bit.

There were also some mechanisms on the left side of the scale, but they were blocked by metal guards, so it was impossible to tell what they were for. It seemed that the higher the left side was tilted, the more the mechanism could function.

Charles stood in front of the tank and looked inside. There was a faint pink liquid at the bottom of the tank, most of which had drained away along the drainage pipes, leaving only some residue in the grooves at the bottom. That was clearly useless waste liquid.

"Blood." Charles stepped back and said, "That's diluted blood."

He looked up at the pipe. There were some water stains on the inside of the pipe; the color was already very, very faint, but one could still tell that the liquid this pipe had once transported was blood.

Erik immediately realized something. He lowered his head and fumbled below the square opening. There was a drawer there, and because the light was already very bright, it was easy to see. He opened the drawer; there were disposable needles inside, but only two.

"Need to draw blood." Erik said very calmly. He reached into the square opening again and sure enough, pulled out a tube that fit the disposable needles perfectly. This was clearly meant for drawing blood.

"The question is how much to draw." Charles frowned. "We can't possibly use our blood to press the scale down, right?"

"This machine has been used." Erik wanted to touch the metal cover with his hand. Charles quickly pulled him away. "The reason this thing is made of metal is probably to conduct electricity to prevent violent destruction."

Erik withdrew his hand. He also saw the faint pink liquid remaining at the bottom of the tank, which should have been left after flushing the blood-drawing tube with water.

And the right side of the scale, which had already sunk, also indicated that someone had probably already given quite a bit of blood. But who could it be? How much did they give, and how much was ultimately needed?

Charles began to think. "We can't be the fastest, unless we didn't get matched with a single Batman. But I don't think that's possible. We entered the instance in the middle of the night, which is the peak time for Batman's ranking; we should always be able to get matched with one."

"Whether it's a Batman team, or Batman and Superman, or someone else from the Justice League, as long as there's a Batman, he will definitely be faster than us, and it's even very likely he was the first."

"That bunch of people are all crazy, they'll definitely rush to donate blood. Batman wouldn't draw a small amount, and if there's a Superman, it might be even more." Charles looked up at the basin containing the blood. "This might just be the blood volume of two or three people; there might only be two groups ahead of us."

"I think you're too optimistic." Erik said. "Since it's possible to get matched with Batman, it's possible to get matched with the Joker. Do you think those super-criminals would donate blood?"

"But, this mechanism didn't appear out of thin air. Donating blood has a purpose; it's mostly likely to help clear the level. They also know that if they don't donate blood, the game might fail. Even just to clear the game, they would pay something, right?"

"And," Charles paused before saying, "I don't think there's any problem with our solution to the puzzle. We've used all the props we could, and we haven't gotten stuck. Even if we aren't first, we're at least in the front. Don't underestimate yourself too much."

"Only two needles were given, and they are both disposable, meaning each person can only be pricked once." Erik looked down at the needles in his hand and said, "I'm more inclined to have one person draw a little bit first to test it, to see what kind of change every hundred milliliters of blood can produce on the scale. Then the other person will draw as much blood as possible without endangering their health."

Charles didn't respond to that, but began to analyze it on his own. "This is a game theory puzzle. The first layer of the game is between different players. Since we don't know who is there, we don't know their willingness to donate blood."

"However, what we don't know is the upper limit, that is, how many people are willing to provide more blood at the cost of damaging their health. But we can ensure the lower limit, because as long as they join the game, they definitely want to win, and I'm afraid they won't provide zero blood."

"But the problem is, we also don't know how much blood this mechanism needs, and no group of players knows either. Assuming each group only needs to provide the minimum amount of blood to pass, then this puzzle would be meaningless, and it wouldn't fit the vicious style of the previous level designers."

"So I think the minimum blood volume is absolutely impossible to clear the level with; someone must give more. Even, judging by the style of the previous level designs, everyone giving more still isn't enough. It's very likely that someone must damage their health, that is, at least reach the point of excessive blood loss, to possibly activate the mechanism."

"And the game theory part is that we need to judge the order of our arrival, and based on this order, decide how much blood we give. The sequence is very important."

"There is no doubt that, based on the design of the previous levels, those who can reach here faster must be stronger than us in terms of intelligence and self-sacrifice. They have enough strategic minds to reach the same conclusion as I did, and they won't be stingy about giving more blood."

"According to my guess, there are two groups ahead of us, and they must have given more. The question is whether we need to give more, and how much the groups behind us need to give to ensure that when the last group arrives here, it won't be a dead end."

"Regardless of the reason why the groups behind are so slow, the slower they come, the more it means their abilities are worse, and their condition might also be worse. Then the blood they can give will be less. We must leave enough space for them, otherwise, it might already become a task that's impossible to complete even if they drain all the blood from their bodies by the time it reaches the second-to-last or last group."

"Although I still don't know what this mechanism is for, judging by the level designer's level of insidiousness, if it's not completed, all of us might die a miserable death."

"According to this inference, the earlier people arrive, the more blood they should give. But the problem is whether everyone can think of this and is willing to give that much."

"Why wouldn't they be willing?" Erik asked. "According to what you said, everyone wants to win."

"Weren't you unwilling just now?" Charles asked. "Don't you want to win?"

Erik frowned and said, "I wasn't unwilling. I said the two of us could..."

"No," Charles interrupted him, "what I mean by 'give more' isn't under the premise of not damaging health, but that it's highly likely someone needs to suffer excessive blood loss. I've already said that the people behind are no longer able to give that much. Their condition is poor, and they may no longer have health to overdraw. If they are made to suffer excessive blood loss then, it might cost them their lives."

"We cannot assume that everyone ranked behind is kind. Like you said, what if there's a Joker who isn't willing to pay the price of his life and his game failure to fulfill the people in front, then everyone will die together. So it can only be that these healthy people in front sacrifice their own health to leave enough space for them."

Charles continued: "This is a very classic moral game. You need to bet on how many good people and bad people are among those before and after you, and try your best to turn the bad people into good people. And the way to transform them is to sacrifice yourself to think for them."

"Still, if a super-criminal arrives behind us and sees that this is an impossible task, he might not give a single drop of blood. Because he isn't the type of person who would sacrifice himself to fulfill others; at worst, everyone dies together."

"However, if he arrives and finds that although some blood loss is indeed required, there is still hope to complete the task and win, then even out of self-interest, he will be willing to sacrifice. This is what I mean by 'turning bad people into good people'."

Erik frowned deeply. "So, it's those of us who are in front who have to bear the moral cost, while those who come after only need to engage in self-interested behavior."

"I can only say that the ideal situation is like this, and we must find a way to shape an ideal situation. I have a premonition that if this time doesn't work, we might receive a very painful lesson."

Charles sighed and said: "Now there is only one problem left, and that is to judge exactly which group we are. Because the earlier the two of us are, the more people there might be behind us, and the greater the probability of super-criminals. If we don't let them see hope, it will be troublesome if they just walk away."

"According to what you say, we might not even be the third group, but the second." Erik looked up at the scale and said, "The people ahead of us will also infer what you inferred. And in order to keep the people behind them from walking away, they might donate blood to the best of their ability, and both of them might even reach the point of excessive blood loss. The blood in the scale now might come from the same group of people."

Charles looked over too. He frowned slightly. Although he couldn't see how much blood was in the basin, the scale had already sunk quite a bit. If that came from two people, those two definitely had already suffered excessive blood loss.

But if they were really ranked second, that was definitely bad news. Because according to the previous game theory, the groups that arrive first must make sacrifices, but the further back you go, the less you can sacrifice. If ranked third, maybe only one person needs to suffer excessive blood loss; but if ranked second, neither of them can escape it.

Although there is no conclusion as to what rank they are, naturally one can only believe it exists rather than believe it doesn't. Naturally, one can only prepare for the worst.

Just as Erik was about to say something, Charles walked in front of him. His deep blue eyes became even clearer against the backdrop of the firelight. He placed his hands on Erik's shoulders and looked at him, saying: "Do you know? Every time you mention your past, those days in the concentration camps, being hunted, struggling all over the world, or the skills you inadvertently reveal that you learned in suffering, all make me hate that I couldn't have met you sooner."

"... You can't save me, the era cannot be changed, Charles." Erik tilted his head back slightly, as if to avoid those eyes, "You can't do it."

"This isn't about saving. If I could have empathized with you sooner and experienced the same suffering, then perhaps I would have understood you sooner."

"That's completely unnecessary, Charles."

"Is it? I thought that if we had stood together sooner, that tragedy that led to my paralysis wouldn't have happened. So you never feel guilty about this?"

Erik's fist clenched tightly. Charles said: "Believe it or not, the part of this tragedy that I blame myself for has always been what I said: I shouldn't have just tried to understand you through mind-reading, but should have put myself in your shoes, understood your suffering, and stood with you."

"Why can't we bleed together?" Charles looked at the mechanism beside him, then turned back to look at Erik, "Answer me, Erik. What reason do you have to disagree?"

Erik couldn't answer; he was just stunned, by Charles's blue eyes, by his words. And this all reminded him of why he had built that helmet in the first place. Because apart from this kind of hard physical isolation, he had no way to refuse Charles. He always had a way to convince him. Just like now.

He really regretted not wearing his helmet when he came in.