Chapter 4657: Desperate Escape (36)

The situation inside the lantern was one of collective sweating. Greed was still reading the script, Stark was already wiping away sweat, Mephisto was studying the patterns on the control panel, Scarecrow was bowing his head to tinker with the mechanisms, and Joker was whistling while looking up at the ceiling.

Only the Agent was completely relaxed. His only hope was for someone to come up and kill all these people immediately.

There was no doubt that the groups below had almost deduced the entire script. When Bruce deduced the cultist sacrifice, Greed still had the look of "Don't rush, I still have a twist"; but when Charles deduced the conflict between the company and the wealthy, Greed also had an expression of having no moves left.

That's right, their deductions were basically all correct. Although this was an escape room instance that didn't focus much on plot, it still had a backstory and a double twist. Anyway, it was roughly about mixing some religious and capitalist corporate plots behind the battle royale game, first making people think the villain was the wealthy, then making them think it was the cultists, but in the end, it was the company reaping the benefits.

The specific entanglements were no longer important, because a twist is no longer a twist once it's guessed in advance. Now, no matter how the rest of the script played out, there wouldn't be any surprises. How the cultists were going to sacrifice, and how the company would fish in troubled waters to eliminate competitors, could actually be guessed.

If this were just a tabletop RPG session, the plot could be changed. But unfortunately, the mechanisms were already set up, and it had to run according to the plot flow, otherwise, they couldn't enter the next level. There was no other way; even if exposed, they had to keep acting.

But in fact, performing in front of fools makes one look like a great artist no matter how one acts; but performing in front of these human-refined experts makes one look like a clown. Especially since they knew the players had guessed most of the plot, it was inevitable to feel a bit guilty.

"Alright, let me announce the rules." Greed had already given up struggling. Although he still spoke with that excited, theatrical tone as much as possible, in reality, there was a faint sense of death to it.

Fortunately, there were only one... two... three... four... five people here who were good at mind-reading, accounting for less than half of the participants. The rest of the people still kept their attention on the rules.

"A hunter with a gun can hunt a tiger. A tiger can eat a wolf. A wolf can eat a weasel. A weasel can eat a chicken. A chicken can eat a scorpion, and a scorpion can sting a person to death. This is a perfect cycle. And now, you can decide on the slips of paper provided by the mechanism whether to stay in your nest or go out to hunt."

"If you decide to go out to hunt, then do you want the mechanism to rotate clockwise or counter-clockwise? The mechanism will rotate in the direction voted for by the most hunters, and the number of spaces rotated will be voted on by us. If the hunting slip is thrown into your predator's room, and they happen to be home, you will be eaten; but if it is thrown into your prey's room, and it happens to be home, you can eat it."

"Those who are preyed upon need to provide a certain weight of 'food' to the trough on the wall. It can only be something from the human body; clothes, shoes, or jewelry and the like won't work. Only by providing food can the next round of the game be unlocked. Of course, you can also choose not to provide it, then the mechanism won't throw slips to you, but you can still have slips thrown into your room by others. This game will last for six rounds, and the group that is preyed upon the most times will not be able to leave the room and will be executed."

"The compartments you are in are completely soundproof. None of your discussions will be heard by other players. During the game, we will not communicate with you, but we can hear your voices. What we control is only the number of spaces the mechanism rotates. If you have any questions, you can ask now; if not, we will begin."

"You can always hear us talking, right?" Harley asked first, "You know everything we say."

"Yes." A voice came from the broadcast.

Pamela looked up at Harley, and Harley sighed and made an expression at her. For some reason, Pamela understood her meaning—"I know what the optimal solution is, but I can't say it, otherwise they will definitely find a way to mess things up."

Pamela began to think about what the optimal solution was. Just from the perspective of their group's interests, the timing of going out was very important. Because once out, it was actually very difficult to determine which compartment the slip would be thrown into. Because this entire cycle from large to small was arranged clockwise, their predecessor would naturally hope to rotate upwards, so they wouldn't have to go out and could wait for the delivered takeout; while they naturally hoped to rotate downwards, because the successor was smaller than them, and they could successfully hunt.

Actually, there was an even more idealized state, and that was for everyone not to go out. You don't go out, I don't go out, just idling for six rounds like this, and the mechanism wouldn't even move. This way, no one would successfully hunt, and no one would be preyed upon, all would be zero, and there wouldn't be any "most preyed upon" talk at all. According to the rules, they couldn't execute everyone either.

But this was obviously another psychological game. It was impossible for all six groups to choose not to go out, because not everyone didn't want to eliminate others. Most people thought about protecting themselves first, so they would definitely take action. So even if they knew what the ideal situation was, it was hard to remain motionless.

After all, having experienced the previous few levels, everyone knew how vicious these level designers were, and that execution must be very cruel. Under the pressure of such survival, if you could hold out for six rounds without moving, even Batman would have to call you Batman.

As long as one person moved, it was over; someone would definitely be eliminated, and there was no way to reach a draw. What if that unlucky person who was victimized was yourself? To prevent this situation, you could only move too, so this game could eventually be played.

"After jumping, will the next round reset and return home?" Charles asked a question.

"Animals that successfully hunt or are preyed upon will return home. Animals that do not trigger these two actions will stay where they are, and the people in the room will decide the action for the next round. But the count of hunting and being preyed upon still belongs to the original owner."

"Hiss..." A burst of discussion erupted in every room. This was obviously another layer of the game, and more complex than the previous one.

If you jump into an empty room with no one, you are neither preyed upon nor hunting, then you have to stay there, and then the person in that room decides whether you go out or not.

If they are larger than you, they can keep you there, wait for their own people to return, and swallow you in one bite; and if they are smaller than you, they can send you away, or even send you to an animal larger than you, letting you be eaten.

Then how to jump, in which direction to jump, the calculations required are too complex. You might have to calculate several rounds ahead to ensure that your number of times being preyed upon is not the highest.

First, consider whether there will be anyone in the compartment you want to send to. Secondly, if the hunt is unsuccessful and you are left behind, which compartment are you most likely to be sent to. Finally, whether there will be anyone in the compartment you are sent to...

And this is mixed with guesses about the character of the other five groups. Some people act conservatively, some act aggressively, some hope for peaceful coexistence, and some wish for the world to be destroyed; all these will affect their actions.

"Professor." Bruce looked at Schiller with anticipation, never having hoped so much that Schiller's mind-reading was real. Because in this occasion, if he could know the other party's personality, he would know their behavioral patterns, and the chances of winning would greatly increase.

"Do you really want to win?" Schiller asked.

"It can't be said that I want to win," Bruce said, "If I have to choose a group to eliminate, I don't hope it's us. I have also considered the possibility of peaceful coexistence, but the hope is too slim."

"I actually want to eliminate the people who deserve it the most, but the problem is that the people who deserve it the most right now are us." Schiller sighed and said, "We should be the anti-social elements that other groups are committed to eliminating."

"In that case, are our teammates all righteous people?" Bruce keenly grasped the point in Schiller's words.

Schiller shook his head: "I'm just wondering, is this level really a bottom-tier elimination system? This seems a bit..."

"A bit what?"

"A bit not right." Batman said, "The intellectual difficulty of this game is acceptable, but the biggest problem is, why is there a link where they decide?"

"What do you mean?" Superman asked.

"I mean the people above," Batman explained, "Why is it them who decide the number of spaces to rotate?"

"Didn't you say it? They want to be the lawn, the football, and the goal at the same time."

"I said this is unfair. The previous levels were all fine, it wouldn't lower the standard here. The number of spaces is a very important factor, one could even say the only important one. If they operate a black box, we have no power to resist, this is not right."

"Then you think..."

"I mean, if they wanted to operate a black box, they wouldn't need to tell us that it's decided by them at all, just tell us it's random, and then secretly change the random number. But they told us, what does this represent?"

"Uh, does it represent that they won't operate a black box?"

Batman shook his head, and he didn't say the rest. Superman could only think for himself. Batman's words were a bit contradictory, one moment saying they wanted a black box, the next saying they wouldn't, one moment fairness, the next unfairness, making his head ache.

Superman could only change his line of thought. He was thinking about what Batman told him before, that judging by the plot, it was unlikely that these people would be united, otherwise it would be too unfair. Batman's conclusion was that there might be a mole among them.

Then combined with what Batman said, they announced that they were going to manipulate the rotation spaces, which sounded a bit like someone giving the players a hint—this is manipulated by us, but some of us will mess up and destroy the wealthy's plan.

But what is the purpose of this hint? Superman thought about it, but couldn't figure it out. He had to go to support Batman again, wanting Batman to write something to give him a hint. After understanding his confusion, Batman wrote a word on his hand—"No draw."

Superman still didn't react much, but Loki had already completely understood. This so-called space voting rule was probably formulated and announced by the mole. He just wanted to tell the players that I could mess with it.

And the purpose of doing this was to let the players move boldly. Because if the players really trusted each other completely and just lay in the nest without moving, then this game would really be a draw, and the mole didn't want a draw.

As for the mole's purpose in not wanting a draw, since he was already a mole, he definitely couldn't be in the same group as the wealthy to mess with the players; he mostly wanted to be in the same group as the players to mess with the wealthy, or more accurately, to use the players' hands to mess with the wealthy. In the case of a draw, the mechanism and people wouldn't move, and he wouldn't have a chance to mess with the wealthy. To keep the players from choosing a draw, he gave such a hint.

"How about we just don't move," Thor said, "My luck is so good, maybe I'll just lie at home and won't be eaten."

After thinking for a while, Loki said: "No, not only must we move, but we must move every round."

"Then what about voting? In which direction to vote?"

"Clockwise," Loki said, "All votes cast for clockwise."

Some compartments were discussing, others were silent, and it looked like a wonderful game was about to begin. But everyone in their hearts knew that this game was destined to have a completely different ending. ===== CHAPTER 4658 =====