Chapter 410: Three Principals!

Chen Ran fixed his gaze.

On the wall of the landing between the first and second floors, he saw the rules for the Principal's home.

【Rule 1: In the school, there are two Principals. One is not a human, and the other is also not a human. Please carefully choose which Principal to handle it based on your purpose of visit.】

【Rule 2: Different choices will lead to different subsequent plots.】

【Rule 3: No matter who you choose, there will be no certain-death subsequent plots in this Instance.】

'These three rules...'

Chen Ran checked his watch and found that fifteen minutes had already passed since he arrived at the Principal's home.

Theoretically.

A class is 45 minutes, and the round trip takes about half an hour. So if he wants to evade English class, he can only stay at the Principal's home for 15 minutes.

If a plot related to the Instance appears in the next class, he must lead the Principal back within these ten minutes.

Thinking of this.

Chen Ran lifted his foot and walked up to the second floor. The reason he dared to do this was, first, his identity was correct, and second, the rules didn't explicitly forbid going to the second floor.

The second floor looked like a study room, decorated in the style of the 70s or 80s of the last century.

In Chen Ran's line of sight, three Principals were pacing back and forth, and on the desk was a countdown timer: 【9:50】.

He looked these three Principals up and down.

First were the shoes.

All three wore white leather shoes.

Next was the clothing.

They all wore the same style of suit, and the belts on their waists all had a large 【LV】 logo.

From their appearance, these three Principals could be described as exactly identical, like triplets.

Chen Ran: "..."

'There are two Principals, yet three Principals appeared here.'

'But judging from 【Rule 1】.'

'The school has two Principals. To satisfy this condition: out of the three Principals, one is a human, and two are robots.'

'So the question is, who is the human and who is the robot.'

'Should I ask the human, or...'

'Ask the robot?'

'However, according to known clues, these three Principals should respectively be: human, cyborg, and robot.'

'The human is not a Principal.'

'The math teacher who leaked the exam questions obtained human emotions, so she should belong to the cyborg category. If she made a mistake, it should be managed by the cyborg Principal.'

He carefully observed the three Principals: one was sorting documents, one was reading a book, and one was sitting on the sofa drinking tea.

He simply couldn't distinguish them.

'Since they can't be distinguished, it means there are still rules or clues that haven't been fully found.'

Chen Ran looked around. The three Principals treated him like air. Finally, his gaze fell on the desk. He approached to check, and sure enough...

There was a notice on the desk.

【Rule: The visitor may ask a single question to the three people, with only three chances. The three can only answer 1 or 2. Among them, the human can only tell the truth, the robot can only tell lies, and the cyborg's answer can be true or false.】

Chen Ran organized his words in his mind.

For the first question, he looked at the Principal who was sorting documents, pointed to the Principal drinking tea on the sofa, and asked: "If I ask you whether he is a cyborg, will you answer 1?"

"1."

'Between 1 and 2, which is correct and which is wrong cannot be judged here.'

'If I ask what is 2+2=4?'

'Assuming 1 is correct, and the human can only tell the truth, he would answer: 1.'

'The robot can only tell lies, so he would answer: 2.'

'However, I can design a question based on the logic that a positive and a positive make a positive, and a negative and a negative also make a positive.'

'Question: If I ask you whether he is a cyborg, will you answer 1?'

'According to the above assumption, 1 is correct.'

'There are two situations.'

'One: He is a cyborg.'

'Human: He is a cyborg, I would answer 1. Positive and positive make positive. Answer: 1.'

'Robot: Because a robot can only tell lies, the lie for him being a cyborg is: he is not a cyborg; if he is not a cyborg, then I should answer 2, but the lie for answering 2 is: answer 1!'

'If 1 is correct, then facing my question, both the human and the robot...'

'Would answer 1!'

'Summary: When he is a cyborg, both the human and the robot will answer 1!'

'Two: He is not a cyborg.'

'Assuming 1 is correct.'

'Human: He is not a cyborg, I would not answer 1, my answer is: 2!'

'Robot: The lie for him not being a cyborg is: he is a cyborg; since he is a cyborg, I should answer 1, but the lie for answering 1 is: answer 2!'

'Both would answer 2!'

'Conclusion: When he is not a cyborg, both the human and the robot will answer 2.'

'What if 2 is correct?'

'Question: If I ask you whether he is a cyborg, will you answer 1?'

'One: He is a cyborg.'

'Human: He is a cyborg, but the problem is, 1 is wrong, so I would answer 1!'

'Robot: The lie for him being a cyborg is: he is not a cyborg; if he is not a cyborg, I should answer 2. The lie for answering 2 is: answer 1!'

'Both would answer 1.'

'Similarly, if he is not a cyborg, both would answer 2.'

'Then, such a conclusion can be reached: when the Principal sorting documents faces my question.'

'Answering 1 means the tea-drinking Principal is a cyborg; answering 2 means the tea-drinking Principal is not a cyborg.'

'Of course, the premise is that the Principal sorting documents is not a cyborg.'

Now, when the Principal sorting documents faced Chen Ran's question.

He answered: 1.

If the Principal sorting documents was actually the cyborg, his words could be true or false, but it was certain that the other two Principals must not be cyborgs.

If the Principal sorting documents was not a cyborg and answered 1, according to the reasoning above, he would only answer 1 when the tea-drinking Principal on the sofa was a cyborg.

That meant there were two possibilities.

One: The Principal sorting documents was the cyborg.

Two: The Principal sitting on the sofa was the cyborg.

A conclusion could be drawn: The reading Principal was absolutely not a cyborg.

Therefore.

Chen Ran looked at the reading Principal and organized his wording in his mind.

He asked the second question: "If I ask you if you are a robot, will you answer 1?"

The reasoning for this question was exactly the same as before, which meant: when he is a robot, he will answer 1; when he is not a robot, he will answer 2.

Since the first question had already ruled out him being a cyborg, his answer would be the final answer.

The reading Principal didn't even raise his head.

"2."

'He is not a robot! He is a human!'

Next it was simple.

He is a human.

A human can only tell the truth, so Chen Ran pointed to the Principal sorting documents and asked the reading Principal: "If I ask you if he is a cyborg, will you answer 1?"

"1."

According to the previous reasoning, when he is a cyborg, he will answer 1; when he is not a cyborg, he will answer 2.

Then the answer was out.

Cyborg: The Principal sorting documents.

Human: The reading Principal.

Robot: The tea-drinking Principal.

Deducing the identities of the three was very easy for Chen Ran. He just felt...

He was a little unsure about Rules 2 and 3.

What did it mean that different choices would lead to different subsequent plots?

Why would it state that no matter what you choose, there is no certain-death plot?