Chapter 2: The Five-Million-Yuan Prize (2)

Everyone stared. There was no doubt about it: this was one of the special spaces mentioned in the rules!

Caught between surprise and shock at landing on one for the first time, someone let out a startled “Ah!”

But before anyone could look toward the voice, the pointer attached to the traveler suddenly expanded, hovering over the map like an enormous ancient compass. Its needle spun.

A nameless fear finally tightened around everyone’s heart.

The Saint’s Game was about to begin.

What kind of game would it be?

What did the wolf mean?

For the ten or so seconds that the needle spun, the conference room was quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

At last, the needle stopped, pointing at the scarred man.

The next moment, Chi Wei watched the scene before her turn strange and kaleidoscopic.

Like a film played at fast-forward—or the flickering images of a life flashing by!

The lights overhead twisted. The scarred man’s whole body warped, his outline breaking into wavy lines and tiny particles that floated before Chi Wei’s eyes. The conference table, the walls, and the man’s colors all grew mottled, almost blending together.

Then the scarred man vanished from his chair and reappeared in another space that had opened up in the room.

The other players’ chairs turned by themselves, facing him.

He was alone behind a nearly transparent glass wall, seated at another chair. A table stood in front of him, but it was just a small one-person desk. The lights above the conference table went out, leaving everything beyond his little enclosure pitch-black. Only his corner remained lit. For a moment, he looked like a white ice cube floating in a glass of cola.

Or, to put it another way, Chi Wei now felt as if she’d walked into a movie theater, with the scarred man’s space turned into the movie on the screen.

It looked close, but every spectator knew they couldn’t reach him.

Good heavens… Chi Wei tapped her forehead. I have no idea what kind of creatures I’m supposed to beat to earn this five million.

The space finished splitting apart.

In the new scene, fresh rules appeared on the wall in front of the scarred man.

Of course, the players outside could see everything in his enclosure, just as if they were watching a movie.

Welcome to the Saint’s Game.

Difficulty levels: wolf < tiger < elephant

Current difficulty: wolf

Game name: The Runaway Mole

Game description: A mole stole the Saint’s gold coin. The traveler spotted it as it fled, so the mole hid in one of the five holes before you. The traveler has six wooden mallets. Each turn, you may attack one hole—and only one. Hitting the mole counts as a successful capture.

Please note: If you miss, the frightened mole will scurry into a hole next to the one where it was hiding.

This gold coin is very important to the Saint. You must help the traveler catch the mole.

Game start!

The difficulty was “wolf”—in other words, the easiest level.

And it did look easy.

Five holes were lined up on the table in front of the scarred man, numbered one through five. Beside them sat a bucket containing six wooden mallets.

He pulled out the chair and sat down without hurrying, looking as if he were thinking things over. Then he let out a breath.

There were five holes, so he had a 20 percent chance of hitting the mole with each swing.

He had six chances. Unless he was exceptionally unlucky, he was bound to hit it!

Chi Wei didn’t know what he was thinking, but she hoped he wouldn’t reason, “20 percent times six is 120 percent, and 120 percent is more than 100 percent, so I can’t lose.”

Keep your head, man.

Yes, this was a game of luck. If he was lucky enough, the scarred man might hit the mole on his first try with a 20 percent chance.

But Chi Wei kept thinking about the rule that the gold coin was very important to the Saint and that they must catch the mole. She still had no idea what losing would cost him.

So even when a game looked easy, she made a habit of thinking it through carefully first.

The Dyed-Haired Man lounged with one leg crossed over the other. “This is easy. Get lucky and you’ll nail it in one shot.”

The student chimed in too. “That scared me. I thought it was going to be something dangerous.”

They’d seen a wolf and assumed there would be an actual wolf. Apparently the animals were just a way of ranking difficulty.

The older woman offered her expert opinion. “If it were me, I’d hit the same hole all six times. I’d get it sooner or later.”

Most of the players chatted casually. Even the scarred man, sealed off in his separate space, didn’t seem all that tense.

Chi Wei hoped he’d already figured out how to guarantee a win.

But just as the scarred man was about to pick up the first mallet, two more messages appeared on the screen.

The Saint told the traveler: The mole is hiding in one of holes 2, 3, or 5.

The Saint does not lie. You can trust that this message is absolutely true.

After reading the two messages, the scarred man’s face lit up. He looked like someone who’d just learned half the winning lottery numbers in advance!

That expression was all Chi Wei needed to understand. He hadn’t thought about how to win the game for certain.

He was simply the sort of person who believed luck was on his side.

So he would definitely aim his first swing at hole 2, 3, or 5, where he had a 33 percent chance of winning.

What would Chi Wei do?

If I can win for certain, I’d never gamble.

She’d already given the game a little thought and spotted the trick that made it easy to beat.

The mole’s starting position could be divided into two groups:

The first group was holes 2 and 4.

The second was holes 1, 3, and 5.

Suppose the mole started in the first group. That would be ideal.

She could hit hole 2 first. Even if she missed, she’d know the mole had started in hole 4, meaning it could only move to hole 3 or hole 5.

Then she could hit hole 3. Even if that missed too, she’d know the mole had moved to hole 5.

On its next move, the mole could only go from hole 5 to hole 4. If she hit hole 4 then, she’d be guaranteed to get it.

The same end-of-the-line strategy worked if she started by hitting hole 4. The two guaranteed winning sequences were 2, 3, 4 and 4, 3, 2.

Now suppose the mole started in the second group, at hole 1, 3, or 5.

Here, Chi Wei had to thank the game for providing six mallets.

After the first move, the mole would be in hole 2 or 4. After the second, it would be back in hole 1, 3, or 5. After the third, it would be in hole 2 or 4 again.

That meant if the sequences 2, 3, 4 or 4, 3, 2 missed during the first three swings, she could repeat either sequence after the mole had moved three times and still be guaranteed to hit it.

So the scarred man’s guaranteed winning options were right in front of him:

2, 3, 4, 2, 3, 4 or 4, 3, 2, 4, 3, 2. If he wanted to get fancy, he could try 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2 or 4, 3, 2, 2, 3, 4.

But his delighted grin made his thinking obvious. In his mind, the odds of hitting it had gone up from 20 percent to 33.33 percent!

The gambler might lose in the end… Still, it wasn’t as if Chi Wei had anything to lose. She wished him all the luck in the world.

The scarred man raised his mallet. With everyone watching, he brought it down on hole 3.

It was a reasonable choice. When people had to pick an answer, they tended to go for the middle one.

Some sort of inner “safety mechanism” made them feel that the middle answer was more likely than either end.

Unfortunately, the scarred man didn’t seem to be very lucky. His first swing at hole 3 missed.

Then he thought it over.

The mole hadn’t been in hole 3 at first, so it had to be in hole 2 or 5! After moving, it could only be in hole 1, 3, or 4!

He’d hit hole 3 again.

Damn it… He missed again.

That meant the mole was now in hole 2, 3, or 5… and hole 3 was one of the options. Surely he couldn’t miss hole 3 three times in a row?

Hell! He did.

After that, the mole could only be in hole 1, 3, or 4…

Chi Wei watched the scarred man hammer at hole 3 over and over. She couldn’t take it anymore and closed her eyes.

She could still hear the others.

The older woman encouraged him. “Keep hitting hole 3! You’re bound to get it. Don’t change now!”

“Bound to get it” isn’t the same as “should get it,” is it?

Little Fatty sounded worried. “He’s really unlucky…”

Chi Wei thought the real bad luck was that the scarred man had managed to miss the one strategy that could keep him from relying on luck.

The one-eyed man sounded more entertained than concerned. “That’s the Lucky Game for you. If he’d been a little luckier, he’d have won already.”

A heavy sigh came from the area around the conference table. The lights overhead flashed back on, bright enough to shine through Chi Wei’s closed eyelids.

Usually, that meant the movie was over.

No. The game was over.

Chi Wei opened her eyes. The screen in front of the unlucky scarred man now displayed four large red characters:

GAME FAILURE

The scarred man’s expression changed. Was he stunned by his awful luck, or frightened by what failure might mean? Chi Wei no longer cared to analyze him. There was no point.

She waited for the game’s next announcement.

What was the penalty for failure?

The screen in the main room changed. This time, the green light in the eyes of the giant black animal head drew everyone’s attention.

Player “Brother Qiang K” has failed the game. The other nine players will now vote to decide whether he returns or dies.

If all nine players choose “Rescue,” Brother Qiang K will return safely to the game table.

The Lord is merciful. No player who chooses “Rescue” will suffer any consequences.

The new rules had barely appeared when the one-eyed man hurriedly spoke up. “What are we waiting for? Let’s vote! If we all choose ‘Rescue,’ we can bring him back.”

The woman with dreadlocks stared at the screen and let out an incredulous “Oh.” “So it’s that easy?”

The student nodded along. “Yeah, let’s bring him back.”

So even if you failed a game, the others could vote to bring you back. In that case, as long as she got along with everyone…

The student’s thought had barely begun when the rest of the rules appeared.

If even one player chooses “Abandon,” the rescue will fail and Brother Qiang K will die.

If Brother Qiang K dies, every player who chose “Abandon” will split his personal prize.

Again, any player who chooses “Abandon” will suffer no consequences.

The nine players have ten minutes to discuss. Countdown begins: 09:59.