Chapter 446: Human Nature (1)

Wang Bingquan led his teammates to hide in the dark.

Seeing no one blocking the way, he exchanged a glance with his teammates and frantically ran towards the Ancient Tower.

"No, I already let them pass, and you just run forward," Mei Zhixu, who had put on a mask at some unknown point, appeared without any warning behind the five, scaring them into a shiver.

Wang Bingquan swallowed a mouthful of saliva, pointing at the backs of Chen Ran and Qiu Yinong: "You let them pass, why won't you let us pass?"

"Hehe, they are my friends, are you?" Mei Zhixu's face darkened, and she pulled out her Liar-Slayer, pointing the gun at the sky.

Wang Bingquan: "..."

However, when he saw the bronze medal on Mei Zhixu's waist, his pupils instantly contracted.

Engraved on the bronze medal in Small Seal Script were two words:

【Order】

'Title: Order!'

…

Chen Ran's group of four had just stepped into the Ancient Tower when they heard a familiar voice. "My dear enemies, welcome to my home turf. I hope you have a good time."

No mistake about it!

This was the opening remark of an Instance BOSS.

This was a Secret Room.

There were 20 people in the Secret Room.

Three teams of five, one team of four, and one solo player remaining.

In the middle of the Secret Room, there was a long table. On the table were 21 goblets, and each goblet contained half a glass of... what should be wine.

At the same time, a screen of light appeared in front of the 20 people. The information on it was...

【One cup contains highly toxic poison.】

【Rule: After the first player chooses a wine glass, they must drink the wine in the glass within one minute before the second player can choose a wine glass, and so on.】

【You can clear the stage if not poisoned.】

【Time limit: 1 hour.】

【Hint: Guess a character riddle [Riddle surface].】

【Hint: Mid-to-late 21st century.】

After reading it, the light screen also disappeared.

Chen Ran silently lit a cigarette. Perhaps it was because of the Instance, or perhaps because he hadn't noticed while escaping earlier, but the rope on his and Qiu Yinong's wrists had disappeared at some point.

He took a deep drag of the cigarette to relieve the previous tension. The three looked at Lin Xuan, and Lin Xuan gave them an OK gesture.

The others, although thinking, kept moving forward, wanting to grab the first cup of wine.

The reason was simple.

Although it was all a 1/21 chance of being poisoned, starting from the actual situation, the players who deduced the hint would take a cup first. This way, the later a player took a cup, the higher the probability of being poisoned. Therefore, it was better to take a cup early when the probability of being poisoned was low.

But, this was a Secret Room after all; it couldn't possibly be a life-and-death situation based on probability.

Therefore, they still had to deduce the 【Hint】 to definitely clear the stage safely. There were many smart people among the players present, and they weren't worried that slow hand speed would lead to ultimately being poisoned to death.

Thus, there were also some players standing in place observing, as well as deducing the 【Hint】.

Very quickly.

A circle of people gathered around the long table. Those who ran slower were in the second circle, and those who weren't fighting for it, like Chen Ran's group of four, were in the third circle.

In the first circle, a Middle-aged Uncle thought for a moment and picked up the first cup of wine.

Under everyone's surprised gazes, he drank it.

The next moment.

On the wall opposite the Secret Room, an open door appeared, and the Middle-aged Uncle walked out.

Seeing this, some people also wanted to follow him out, but were bounced back, and the door disappeared.

The second person to pick up a wine glass was a skinny youth. The youth's eyes darted around. After picking up the second cup of wine in the sequence, he wasn't in a hurry to drink it. He also picked up the fifth cup and the seventh cup in the sequence, swapped the positions of these two cups, and only then did he drink...

The second cup of wine.

Immediately after, the door on the opposite wall appeared again, and the skinny youth walked out.

Eighteen people remained in the Secret Room.

Now some people hesitated.

But, while some players hesitated, some acted extremely fast. A Little Girl unexpectedly snatched the third cup of wine in the sequence.

After she got the third cup of wine, she also wasn't in a hurry to drink it, but instead...

Continuously swapped the positions of the fifth cup, the seventh cup, and the twenty-first cup in a dazzling flurry of movements.

'So young and already such a sneaky bastard!'

Chen Ran dangled his cigarette and stood on tiptoe to see clearly from the outer circle. She had swapped the seventh cup from earlier to the position of the 21st cup, swapped the 21st cup to the position of the fifth cup, and swapped the fifth cup to the position of the seventh cup.

After the swapping was finished, the Little Girl tilted her head back and drank the third cup of wine in her hand.

The door appeared again, and the Little Girl cleared the stage.

Three people had cleared the stage consecutively.

The remaining seventeen people had ugly expressions. Judging from the actions of those two, the poisoned wine was either the original fifth cup or the seventh cup.

But just now, the Little Girl's movements were simply too fast, many people didn't see clearly.

But, looking at it from another angle, one of the 5th, 7th, or 21st cups was poisoned.

Then the rest couldn't possibly be poisoned. But the problem was, they hadn't deduced the 【Hint】 and were still somewhat worried, afraid that those three had pulled a reverse-psychology trick.

At this time.

Lin Xuan straightened his hairstyle, which was messy from running just now: "Everyone, make way, make way."

Seeing everyone look over, Lin Xuan pretended to clear his throat: "Saying it out loud, you might not believe it, but I can predict the future."

"In the future I predicted, someone has already solved the hint."

Saying that, he rubbed his hands together. Seeing this, everyone understood; this guy wanted points.

"How about this, each of you gives me five points, and I can guarantee you won't be poisoned to death." He spoke a Future Lie.

Strangely, no one paid attention to him at all. The reason was simple: they had seen earlier that Lin Xuan was together with Chen Ran's trio.

【You】: If everyone else gave points, and Chen Ran's trio didn't, then this Future Lie wouldn't take effect.

Seeing this, Chen Ran's trio wished they could find a hole to crawl into, silently moving a bit further away from Lin Xuan.

Jiang Zhe looked suspiciously at Chen Ran, his gaze seemingly saying: What kind of thing is this?

Chen Ran spread his hands, indicating: I don't know what kind of thing it is either.

Lin Xuan perhaps also realized he had lost face, and dry-coughed twice: "Forget it, I'll show great mercy and tell you the answer."

"First is guessing the character riddle, the riddle surface, not seeking outward appearance, meaning inner heart (incenter)."

"This 【inner heart/incenter】 naturally can't be the inner hearts of us players."

"Since it's not the inner hearts of the players, it must be the incenter of these wine glasses."

"In a triangle, the center is also called the centroid, incenter, and orthocenter."

"Therefore, we need to arrange these 21 wine glasses into a triangle."

"That is, one in the first row, two in the second row, three in the third row..." (Arranged as an inverted triangle)

"Mid-to-late 21st century should be after the year 2050. But it's not yet 2050 now, so it's the future, meaning a forward sequence. That is to say, we are to arrange the triangle according to the initial sequence of the wine glasses."

"It can be arranged perfectly into six rows, forming a triangle pattern."

"Then the center is at the position between the third row and the fourth row."

"But the problem is, there is no wine glass between the third row and the fourth row."

"Here we still need to use the second hint: mid-to-late 21st century."

"Mid-to-late (中下), then it means the wine glass in the middle (中) of the third row (counting from bottom up/downwards? No, it's just 'mid-lower' / 'middle-bottom'). The wine glass in the middle of the third row is the fifth cup in the initial sequence."

"Therefore, the answer is, the fifth cup of wine is poisoned, and the rest are not poisoned."