Chapter 51: A Loose Tongue Will Get You Killed!

Inside the Secret Room, among those still alive, only Chen Ran and Zhang Jinhua had yet to make their promises.

"Hey, you there, do me a favor and wake Chen Ran up," the Middle-aged Uncle said, looking toward Qiu Yinong who stood not far from Chen Ran.

"Why should I?"

"Because you are..." The Middle-aged Uncle abruptly clamped his mouth shut just as the first syllable of the word teammates was about to slip out.

"Because you are teammates." The one who finished the sentence was He Lang, standing behind the Middle-aged Uncle.

...

Chen Ran was roused from his nap. He let out a yawn and lit a cigarette to refresh his mind.

Zhang Jinhua was also woken up. Perhaps due to her old age, it took her a long while to gather her bearings.

Once the two were caught up on what had happened, they cooperated perfectly, stating their promises to Liang Jing.

"One eye dead, two eyes alive."

Faced with just a handful of words, the group naturally assumed Chen Ran would reveal the answer. After all, Liang Jing had already been locked in as their candidate; it was best to cut the Gordian knot now to prevent any further complications.

However, Chen Ran just stood there with a cigarette dangling from his lips, his chin tilted up at a forty-five-degree angle, entirely ignoring everyone around him.

The Gold-Rimmed Glasses Captain glanced at the other two captains, only to see that they looked equally unwilling to help solve the riddle.

After a moment of thought, he spoke up, "If I remember correctly, Zhang Jinhua and I made a promise earlier. I show her the number on my palm, and she helps me solve the riddle."

Hearing this, everyone turned their eyes toward Zhang Jinhua.

Liang Jing frowned. She felt there was something wrong with what the Gold-Rimmed Glasses Captain had just said.

'He looked at Zhang Jinhua.'

'Logically, in a situation like this, one would normally use "you" when addressing someone, rather than calling them directly by their full name. Are they...'

'Still engaging in infighting?'

Zhang Jinhua cast a sideways glance at him, then shifted her gaze away, showing zero intention of solving the riddle.

The Secret Room fell completely silent.

Just as Qiu Yinong was about to speak, Chen Ran beat her to the punch. "Let me help you guys solve this. These are basic terms used in Go."

"In a game of Go, every solitary piece on the board has up to four adjacent empty intersections along the straight lines. These empty intersections are called liberties, or eyes."

"Within a group of pieces, if there is only one eye, it's a dead shape."

"If there are two or more eyes, then it's a living shape."

"However."

Chen Ran pointed at the Xuan Paper. "There are only terms written on this paper, but there's no actual board state. We have no way to determine whether it is one eye dead or two eyes alive."

"It's just like locking a cat inside a box with radioactive material. Until we open the box, we can't be certain whether the cat is dead or alive, meaning the cat exists in a state of both life and death."

"The answer to this riddle is something similar to a book about Schrödinger's cat. If there isn't one, then just pick a Buddhist sutra. Take the Tathagata, the 'Thus Come One'—did he actually come or not? Thus he comes."

For some reason, Chen Ran's words immediately slapped a mask of agony onto the faces of the three captains, their expressions turning exceptionally ugly, each worse than the last.

Liang Jing, on the other hand, didn't overthink it.

She stepped toward the bookshelves. Tossing aside any other thoughts, the three captains stared intently at her.

Pacing back and forth in front of the three bookshelves, Liang Jing eventually stopped and pulled out a Buddhist sutra.

"Shurangama Sutra"

The very moment she pulled it out, with a crisp clink, the Glass Bead labeled number 6 dropped inside the Hourglass.

Lost its number!

The three captains instantly widened their eyes, unable to contain their wild ecstasy.

'An even Dangerous Serial Number has appeared!'

'That means the ten numbers are:'

'3, 5, 6, 7, 9.'

'10, 11, 15, 17, 19.'

'As long as I avoid these numbers and let my teammates take the fall, it will be hard for me to die even if I wanted to!'

At this moment, the heavy burden weighing on the trio's hearts finally lifted. Although it was a bit ruthless, it all came back to the old saying: better them than me.

"You lied."

Seeing that everyone else was lost in thought, the Middle-aged Woman unceremoniously claimed Liang Jing's life.

Currently, four Dangerous Serial Numbers had been revealed, meaning six more people still had to die. But since the three captains had already figured out the ten numbers, they no longer dragged their feet. Now, it was the Middle-aged Uncle's turn to assign a teammate.

Seeing that the sixth piece of Xuan Paper had already dissolved into a large puddle of water, the Middle-aged Uncle ordered, "He Lang, go solve the riddle on the seventh piece of Xuan Paper."

Within their team, He Lang was the most knowledgeable Player next to the Middle-aged Uncle.

Hearing the command, he simply pondered for a brief moment.

'Even though I haven't deduced the corresponding number for each bout of amnesia...'

'With my skills, the captain definitely wouldn't send me to my death.'

'Therefore, number 7 must be safe.'

Holding his head high like a proud rooster, he strode confidently over to the desk.

"The contents of the seventh paper read: This piece of paper occupies an area of 0.000259875 mu, or roughly 0.173 square meters."

He Lang read the text aloud, his expression blanking for a second. What the hell was this?

And so, he turned his head to look at Chen Ran. Chen Ran thought for a moment before saying, "First, we need to know how the measurement of a mu was originally calculated."

"In ancient times, people didn't have very good measuring tools, so they had to use their footsteps as a substitute."

"For a plot of land, you count how many paces long and how many paces wide it is. Length multiplied by width gives you the total square paces of the land. Divide that by 240, and the final result is the area of that land in mu."

"The formula I just mentioned comes from the Rectangular Field chapter in 'The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art'."

He Lang gave Chen Ran a thumbs-up, wondering to himself how this guy seemed to know absolutely everything.

'No!'

'I need to find a chance to speak with the captain. We have to kill Chen Ran off in the second Secret Room. We absolutely cannot let him survive to the final one.'

'Otherwise, once the infighting really begins, we might actually be no match for him.'

Thinking this...

He Lang quickened his pace. Sweeping his gaze over the shelves, he spotted "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art" on the very top row of the first bookshelf.

He reached out and pulled the book from its place.

As he turned his head, he happened to see the number 7 Glass Bead drop inside the Hourglass.

However, the very next moment, he was scared half to death, because the number 7 Glass Bead...

Lost its number!

His memories felt as if they were suddenly drained away. Right before he completely lost his memory, he stared at the Middle-aged Uncle, his eyes brimming with absolute disbelief.

"Wh—why?"

After stuttering out that single word, He Lang froze in place, looking around in bewilderment.

"Who are you people?"

"And who am I?"

The few surviving members of the Middle-aged Uncle's team wore complicated expressions. They couldn't figure it out either—why He Lang?

In their team, whether in terms of deduction or reserves of knowledge, the Middle-aged Uncle was the strongest, followed closely by He Lang.

However, this complicated mood only lasted for a fleeting moment before smiles blossomed on everyone's faces.

With He Lang taking up one of the cannon fodder spots, they might actually have a chance to survive.

The Middle-aged Uncle's feelings were equally mixed. He Lang had been with him the longest, but...

He looked at He Lang and asked, "What words are written on the book in your hand?"

"I don't know them."

"You lied." Several Judgment Commands rang out almost simultaneously.

He Lang was instantly shot into a sieve.

Qiu Yinong furrowed her brows. Thankfully, these people had engaged in a Lie-Judgment before judging He Lang; otherwise, she would have started doubting if something had gone completely wrong.

'There shouldn't be any problem!'

'Those four might harbor some sort of suspicion in their hearts, but it's nothing more than suspicion.'

'Chen Ran stepping in so quickly to solve the riddle was highly likely an attempt to muddy the waters.'

Qiu Yinong scanned the group. She realized that the Players randomly matched into this One-Star Instance were of truly exceptional quality.