Chapter 133: Easily Deducing the Answer

Lin Xiuyuan walked up to the checkout counter and pointed at the two lines of text on the wall:

"In worldly affairs, one must keep a blade above the heart."

"In self-cultivation, remember the word 'and' beside 'inch'."

"A blade above the heart forms the character for 'endurance,' and 'and' beside 'inch' forms the character for 'patience'."

"These two lines are telling us to practice 'endurance and patience' in our worldly affairs and self-cultivation."

At this point, a person from the group of burly Tibetan men suddenly spoke up. "Wait, how can you be so certain? Aren't you afraid there's a flaw in your deduction?"

Lin Xiuyuan's expression turned odd. "No way, man. These two lines are a poem from the Wuzhuang Temple chapter in the original Journey to the West. Haven't you read it?"

Hearing this, the man's face turned pale and then flushed. He could hear someone stifling a laugh.

He turned his head in anger and saw a slender, handsome youth with a white Liar-Slayer holstered at his waist, desperately holding back laughter.

The youth quickly apologized. "Oh, my bad. In my last Instance, I ran into several puzzles related to Journey to the West. Seeing content from Journey to the West here again, I just thought, how could there be such a coincidence in the world?"

With the youth's interruption smoothing things over, the man's embarrassment eased a bit, and he stayed silent.

Lin Xiuyuan continued, "These two lines come from the Wuzhuang Temple chapter, and Wuzhuang Temple is home to the Ginseng Fruit. Eating the Ginseng Fruit extends one's lifespan. I think these words are highly likely reminding us that patience leads to a long life."

"Therefore, the true meaning of these two lines here is most likely this: Do not rush, deduce slowly. The superficial answer is not necessarily the correct one. Only by maintaining patience can we deduce the true answer and leave this place alive."

"Since there are two locks on the door, we need to find two Keys."

"Everyone has seen the clues. Let's tackle them one by one."

As he spoke, Lin Xiuyuan walked over to the shelves and picked up a children's book. "The Pirate Game. Five pirates splitting a hundred gold coins. There are a hundred shelves inside this Secret Room, but we have twenty people here. If I were the first pirate to propose a distribution plan, what would be my maximum profit?"

Quite a few people frowned.

Five pirates.

A, B, C, D, E.

If A proposes a plan, B will want to gain the right to distribute. No matter what A proposes, B will completely reject it so that the distribution rights fall into his own hands. Similarly, if B proposes a plan, C will absolutely reject it.

Therefore, if B creates the distribution plan, he definitely won't give C a single gold coin.

So.

A only needs to give C one gold coin to get C to agree to A's plan.

Let's continue deducing.

If B gains the right to propose, he won't give C any coins, and he wants to achieve agreement from more than half the people.

B's distribution plan would definitively be:

B: 98 coins.

C: 0 coins.

D: 1 coin.

E: 1 coin.

In other words, A only needs to win the support of D or E. Combined with C and A himself, three out of the five people will agree to his plan.

The plan passes!

Since D or E could both get one coin if B distributed them, A must give one of them two coins to win them over.

Ultimately:

A: 97 coins.

C: 1 coin.

D or E: 2 coins.

This is the logic of the Pirate Game.

However, there are only five pirates, yet we have twenty Players here. If we continue to deduce this one by one using this logic...

Our brains would fry.

Lin Xiuyuan looked around. Seeing everyone deep in thought, he coughed softly. "Don't tell me none of you are finance majors?"

"Actually, the real Pirate Game is an economic model. This is just a simplified version. If you look closely at the children's book, you will notice it says 'more than half of the people agree' instead of 'half or more of the people agree'."

"If it requires half or more to agree, then we have to consider whether Pirate B would give coins to Pirate D or E when he gains the distribution rights."

"Obviously, Pirate D would get a coin. Now let's talk about Pirate E. When it's just him and Pirate D left, D wouldn't give him any coins. After all, if it's just the two of them, D only needs to agree to his own plan; he doesn't need E's agreement."

"That is to say, in the real Pirate Game, A only needs to give E one gold coin to win him over."

"Leaving A with 98 gold coins."

A glimmer of realization flashed in everyone's eyes, quickly followed by confusion. They didn't understand why he was explaining all this.

"You must be wondering why I'm talking about the real Pirate Game."

He didn't answer his own question immediately, instead pointing at the words on the wall behind the checkout counter.

"As I said earlier, the words on the wall are likely reminding us that superficial deductions aren't necessarily correct."

"Therefore, I believe the true Pirate Game is the secret to finding the Key. After all..."

"The real Pirate Game has a ready-made formula in economic modeling!"

Hearing this, the crowd wanted to beat him to death. If there was a ready-made formula, he should have brought it up earlier! What was the point of yapping for so long? Was he just showing off?

...

Lin Xiuyuan continued, "Suppose there are X pirates and Y gold coins."

"When X < 2Y + 2."

"The first pirate's maximum profit is: Y + 1 - (X + 1) / 2."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Player from the Tibetan group immediately retorted, "If we apply your formula, it would be..."

"100 + 1 - (20 + 1) / 2."

"The result is 90.5. How did you end up with a point five?"

Lin Xiuyuan didn't reply. He walked over to the ninetieth shelf on his own, stepped to its middle, and forcefully tore it open. Clang...

A Key dropped to the ground.

"Logically speaking, the standard formula specifies rounding to the nearest whole number. But considering the words on the wall, the answer might not be so straightforward. So, I figured the Key would be in the middle of the ninetieth shelf."

The crowd watched him pick up the Key. They couldn't shake the feeling that his deduction was a bit of a stretch, like an answer cobbled together from random pieces, but with the Key right in front of them, they had no choice but to believe it.

They couldn't quite figure out where the flaw in his logic lay at the moment.

Moreover.

The process of finding the Key had gone far too smoothly. However, they also reasoned that this was a One-Star Instance. Lin Xiuyuan must be an outstanding Two-Star Player, so it was normal for him to solve the puzzle this easily.

Following the principle of prioritizing safety, when they saw Lin Xiuyuan move to open the first lock, the rest of them backed far away, terrified that he might trigger a trap and catch them in the crossfire.

Lin Xiuyuan inserted the Key and opened the lock with a gentle twist. He pulled the Iron Chains and the lock off the door, tossing them proudly in front of the crowd.

At the same time, he glanced at the team that had been tailing him, only to see...

Those five people hiding behind the crowd again!

'What a bunch of cowards!'

He retracted his gaze.

He looked at the crowd. "How about it? Not bad for a Two-Star Player, right?"

"But now, isn't it your turn to deduce the answer?"

Hearing this, the five people sneaking around behind the crowd took two steps back.

Li Zhitong stepped forward. He walked to the supermarket entrance and looked at the second lock. It was an Electronic Combination Lock.

Seeing this.

He smiled at everyone. "My name is Li Zhitong, and I will now begin my deduction!"