Chapter 6: This Damn Matchmaking System |
Hearing Rabbit's words, everyone's expressions turned strange. After all, the person who had just been clamoring about having a foolproof strategy to win was now scattered in pieces across a fifty-meter radius.
Facing their doubts, Rabbit did not waver.
"First of all, I want everyone to know... that the narrator's story is completely meaningless. Even the act of asking a question itself has no meaning. Because whether I ask 'does one plus one equal two' or 'should spaghetti be mixed with number forty-two concrete'... everyone's vote will absolutely never be decided based on whether the answer to the question is
correct. "When everyone says 'one plus one does not equal two,' the person telling the truth will still be executed. Even if everyone gives the exact same answer, the narrator will die. Under normal circumstances, this is a game where at least half of the people will die... and even the smartest person..."
At this point, she subconsciously glanced at Ming Po.
"...might not be able to accurately guess what everyone is thinking. No matter how high the probability of winning is, in the end, it still comes down to a gamble."
Hearing this, Ming Po's eyes curved into a smile and he nodded repeatedly, seemingly agreeing completely with her words. However, the corners of his mouth curled up in a hint of mockery...
though Rabbit could not see the expression hidden beneath the mask.
"At least, that is how it should be according to common sense."
"But the situation is different now! "I really do have a foolproof method to let everyone survive!"
Seeing her so resolute, everyone raised their heads and looked seriously at the narrator of the second round. Looking at the animal masks splattered with fresh blood, Lin Ya felt a trace of fear in her heart.
Yet her thoughts only became clearer. Actually, we already had an optimal solution just a moment ago!
Because of Cat's unexpected death, there are only eleven of us left. Excluding Bear, who is the narrator, there are ten people remaining in total.
This means that we can actually force a tied vote!
"By doing this, we can trigger the game's third rule!"
"Rule 3: If the given answers are different, and the number of votes on both sides are equal (i.e., A equals B), then no one will be executed."
Reaching this point, Lin Ya gasped for breath heavily and glanced at Ming Po once more. She had just felt that Wolf's action of raising his head was incredibly strange.
Cat's accidental death might very well have been caused by Wolf's psychological induction. Previously, Lin Ya thought this might be because Wolf was testing the game's rules and bottom lines.
But looking at it now... It seemed Wolf had another objective!
As long as one person was killed first, the voters would have the foundation for a tied vote! As long as everyone maintained a five-to-five tie, they could even proceed without a single person dying!
He had done this so that the maximum number of people could survive! But why hadn't Mr.
Ai brought this up during the discussion phase... Thinking of this, Lin Ya decided to directly announce her discovery.
If the number of voters is an even number, then we divide the voters in half. The half on the left chooses blue, and the half on the right chooses red.
Then, when it is the next voter's turn, we continue to do the same. We cycle through this until the final round, and not a single person has to die!
"In that case, this game isn't a scenario where 'at least half the people must die.' A maximum of eleven people can survive!"
At this point, Lin Ya looked around, unable to stop her heart from surging with excitement. Everyone was listening to her words and agreeing with her viewpoint.
This feeling... was truly wonderful.
Lin Ya took a deep breath and put forth her boldest proposal.
"So the problem right now is... we need to make the total number of people an odd number again. "Of course, the method to let the most people survive would be to vote me out. I know this, but I do not recommend you make that choice..."
Stepping ahead, Lin Ya preemptively voiced the malicious suggestion others might propose.
"Because up to this point, even though there is blood on our faces, I believe that our hands are still 'clean.' We have only conducted one round of voting, and the purpose of that vote was self-preservation. It was not a deliberate act to banish someone or murder another among us. Dog, the only one who wanted to attack us, is now dead. But if you really vote me out, it means you have committed a betrayal. And you would be betraying the one who proposed 'peace'! "If that happens, how can we ensure that everyone else can still trust one another!" Saying this, Lin Ya coughed a few times.
Her emotions were slightly agitated, and she felt her breathing start to become painful. At this juncture, she deliberately hid the fact that Wolf had intentionally caused Cat's death.
This was not only because of her secret alliance with Wolf, but more so because she did not want to destroy the atmosphere of mutual trust. Lin Ya took a few deep breaths and immediately followed up.
"Therefore, I have a proposal. All of us will press the buttons on our left and right hands at the same time, and we will not tell anyone else what we voted for. Hand the decision of life and death over to luck. Those who die should not resent those who live, and those who live should not feel that they murdered the others. The only thing that caused their death is luck! We will randomly eliminate others in this way until an odd number of survivors remain! "At the same time, to prevent betrayal." Rabbit added,
"I hope everyone can understand that this is the best decision to allow everyone to survive... Once trust is broken even once, it is almost impossible to rebuild. So we only have this one chance. After we reach the 'peaceful number,' if someone changes their vote and turns against us, then the people who survive that round must collectively punish the traitor! I hope everyone will join together to banish anyone who betrays our trust and destroys our unity! With such a commitment, any potential traitor will not dare to act recklessly! At that point, we will follow my previous proposal and maintain peace until the very end, so we can all survive together! "My speech is over. Thank you, everyone!" Lin Ya finished explaining her plan just barely under the five-minute limit.
"The second round's narration phase has concluded. Entering the discussion phase."
The Host announced. As the Host's voice faded, permission to speak was once again granted.
"I call." Ming Po did not hesitate and spoke immediately.
Without a second thought, he reached out both hands and simultaneously slapped the armrests on his left and right, showing his support for Rabbit's proposal. After casting his vote, Ming Po removed his hands from the armrests without even looking.
He raised his hands as if surrendering, signaling that he was done voting. No one knew which ticket he had cast, so they could neither follow his vote nor vote against it.
Lin Ya's words truly made sense. If they voted according to her method, they could indeed force tied votes until the very end, allowing everyone to live.
However, the first half of her proposal was incredibly dangerous. The meaning of
"fairness"
also implied
"randomness."
All layers of psychological gamesmanship completely lost their meaning at this moment, transforming into a terrifyingly cruel game akin to Russian roulette.
"What is wrong, everyone?"
Seeing that everyone was hesitating to vote, Ming Po raised his voice.
"Are you not going to vote?"
At this moment, Ming Po's face was filled with an exceptionally joyful smile, and his voice had become cheerful and relaxed. But the others had no way of seeing this at all.
It was not the relief of thinking, 'I can finally survive.' It was more like the pleasure one got from watching fail videos.
It was the schadenfreude of watching someone unknowingly walk right into a prank trap. Ming Po knew that making this choice was purely a gamble with his life.
He would lose his advantage and compete equally with everyone else for the chance to survive. But...
so what? Ming Po did not even know how he had died.
He held no grudges or obsessions in his heart, let alone any compelling reason that he absolutely had to keep living. For some unknown reason, Ming Po never possessed a fear of death in his heart right from the very beginning.
Or to be more accurate... he barely felt any fear at all.
Compared to choosing a prudent strategy to 'survive,' the thrill of walking the razor's edge between life and death excited him far more.
"I also think this is a great idea! Let heaven decide who gets to live!" Breaking the silence, Raccoon quickly spoke up, immediately slapping down on her armrests at the same time.
She could not wait for a proposal like this. Whether it was Dog and Wolf, who looked inherently oppressive and aggressive, or Fox, who appeared at a glance to be a highly intelligent social elite; whether it was Bear, who lied right off the bat with murderous intent and might have actually killed someone in reality, or this Rabbit, who spoke with such clear logic and remained completely unfazed in a high-stakes situation like this... the sheer intensity of these people was leagues above that of a mere college sophomore like her.
This damn game, the matchmaking system was even more absurd than Honor of Kings. Raccoon muttered incessantly in her heart.
Why on earth was an ordinary person like her, who could not even pass advanced math despite trying her best, queued up with these literal gods! Raccoon was acutely aware that if everyone relied on their own abilities, it was absolutely impossible for her to win.
Moreover, she was currently number ten, the very last person... Even if Raccoon wasn't smart, she knew one simple truth: the further back you were in the speaking order of this game, the greater your disadvantage.
Under these circumstances, being able to skip the speeches and psychological warfare... and simply rely on luck just once to ensure a peaceful exit, actually increased her win rate quite a bit!
Ordinary people like us are nothing but mice scurrying in the corners.
'This little mouse doesn't want to play a game of life and death, this little mouse just wants to survive!'
If the chips hadn't already been forged into an animal mask, she would have even wanted to give all her chips to the others as a bribe for them to show mercy. Anyway, clearing the game would reward her with at least one chip.
As long as she got just one, she and her boyfriend could both be resurrected! When that time came...
She was absolutely going to sell that damn SRK600 motorcycle and never touch a motorcycle again for the rest of her life!
"Is this really a good idea?" But right at that moment, Fish, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up. "Do you people actually have brains?"